Fall 2011 has been a fun time developing of Metaviews. While keeping tabs on the disruption of fields from advertising to academia, we have continued to develop our own projects, which has included extending our presence beyond Toronto.

A pair of salon events in Ottawa have focused on the challenges involved in the transformation to Open Government, which drew interest from all areas of the bureaucracy, as developing a more citizen-friendly approach has been pledged by the federal government.

Similar challenges are being faced by the non-profit sector as it attempts to retool its messaging for the social media age. The conversational research style of Metaviews.ca will increasingly be applied in this direction, too.

With the technological stakes increasingly being raised, though, we have continued to focus our attention on the business of the Internet. Recently, our subscriber newsletters, teleseminars and social media conversation has focused in areas that include:

• The state of the relationship between producers and consumers — and whether they can ever really be one and the same

• Whether or not self-styled internet intellectuals can be taken seriously in the age where everyone has their own online experience

• The increasingly blurred relationship between online communities and the way that we interact in physical spaces

• Marketing efforts that reach beyond online coupons or viral videos to target customers based on where they are standing

• New currency alternatives that stand to subvert the banking system and interest rates of credit card companies

• How hardware producers are constantly challenged by the marketplace to emphasize similarities more than differences

• What needs to be done in Canada to keep pace with the global evolution of online access and the distribution of content

As the year draws to a close, Metaviews.ca will conclude its year of specific research into “The Future of Authority,” and launch a similar project on how the internet stands to transform health care.

"Those not busy being born are busy dying" Bobby Dylan

On the weekend of June 26th, Toronto underwent a transformation. A new generation of activists were politicized, and in many cases radicalized. Also, a new generation of journalists were born, products of a long-awaited fusion of traditional and new media. For me, it was a return to days of old, going back a decade to when I was young and radical.

So I was there, on the streets, providing coverage and witnessing history. I'm still processing the insights and emotions triggered by the events, and I finally have time to put down some thoughts. Rather than focus purely on what happened, I'd rather share my story in the form of advice for how to move forward.

Surveillance technology may be the most corrupting and also the most intoxicating media proliferating in these rapidly changing times. Its use is a slippery slope sliding further into the surveillance society.

For example, a school district in Philadelphia has recently been caught spying on its students via cameras installed on laptops. The school board was able to do this through several thousand Apple Mac Books with spyware installed that they distributed to students. School administrators could access and activate the laptop camera whenever they wished.

The justification for including this spyware was that it would be used only if the laptops were stolen. The users of the device would not be monitored, but if they were to report it stolen, authorities would have access to this capability to find out where the device was and who had possession of it.

However, all of this came to the public's attention because, in a totally separate incident, school authorities provided as evidence a photograph they took of a student via a laptop, demonstrating that they had used this capability to spy on the boy. As they started to defend themselves, they also revealed that they had done this on other occasions, to investigate particular students.

This is a great example of the seductive power of surveillance, and the way technology can corrupt authorities. They are approved to use it in one way, but end up using it in others that weren't approved.

Once again Canadian democracy is in crisis, as our government has prorogued parliament to avoid a scandal concerning the torture of detainees in Afghanistan. Public opposition has found a home on social media like Facebook and Twitter, which pose a challenge and opportunity for creative leaders to emerge and possibly even rescue our democracy from death's door.

The nature of a minority government like ours is that no single party controls the lower house of Parliament, and as a result gory details about the use of torture in Afghanistan were about to be revealed due to the diligent work of the opposition parties. In proroguing Parliament, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is able to prevent (or more likely just delay) the public from learning more and thus ensure the survival of his government for at least another two months.

A crisis like this presents an opportunity to expand the democratic process and include more people in politics as a whole. However, it's hard not to snicker at the fact that joining a Facebook group to show opposition to something has become the ultimate cliche. While such a group does raise awareness and cross over into mainstream media with front page headlines, I am not alone in wondering whether it actually accomplishes anything.

Even worse, why is the alternative to this kind of virtual action doing absolutely nothing? It's as if it has already become such strong orthodoxy that if you don't join, or even worse complain, you're regarded as a nay-sayer and are also responsible for providing alternatives.

The justification for this staid strategy is that it helps to raise awareness and provides an outlet for new initiates to the political process. However I don't believe that awareness alone makes a difference, but rather it is the larger process of mobilizing to action, and evading marginalization.

Privacy is dead, and social media holds the smoking gun, at least that was the sentiment expressed on CNN.com by one of silicon valley's hottest pundits, Pete Cashmore. It's a sensationalist statement, but one that speaks to many people's feelings, both positive and negative, about how personal information gets caught up in the world wide web.

Is privacy really dead? No, not yet. However, there's a growing chorus of people empowered by social media who are eager to declare that it is. This is partly because of the power of networks, and their ability to leverage your private information for personal gain and/or amusement.

Social media is also regarded as a popularity tool that allows people to emulate the celebrity culture we are immersed in. We can all become micro-celebrities who capture attention and influence, albeit on a much smaller scale.

The fear is that as this starts to become more and more prevalent, discarding privacy will become compulsory, expected behaviour necessary for graduating from school, getting that job, buying the home, and succeeding in life.

I've been super busy with work and not able to find room to write, although part of the problem is what I want to write tends to be complex, requiring time I don't have, to really play with the ideas. In the meantime I'll post some Flying Solo vids Wodek Szemberg put together based on a session we filmed last summer.

This is a beta test of a new Internet show I've been developing. I've learned a lot since shooting and editing this first bit. The lighting and sound was poor, and the second interview I shot improved on this dramatically. However I wanted to release this as a beta test and get it out there in hopes of getting feedback.

I also wanted to get it out in time to help promote the STV campaign in BC. If you're in BC, or have friends/family there, please get them to help reform our electoral system.

Also a big special thanks to Brownman Ali for allowing me to use the spectacular song "Yesteryear" which was composed and performed by the Brownman Electryc Trio.

There are two fascinating developments in the world of online security that are so sensational as to seem right out of a cyberpunk thriller.

The first, which I've spoken about on CBC recently, is the resilience of the Conficker worm, which culminates in some kind of action on April 1st 2009.

The second is an incredible espionage initiative called GhostNet, which friends of mine at the Citizen Lab here in Toronto have helped unearth and expose to the public.

Combined these two stories depict something I've been describing as an open arms race, in which proxy forces develop new types of information based weapons and test them live on the internet. While it's never clear who the players are behind this perpetual information war, researchers are able to dissect the tools and compromised systems to portray a fascinating tale of computer-based cloak and dagger.

Video from a recent appearance of mine on CBC News Morning to discuss the potential regulation of the Internet by the CRTC. Also features behind the scenes footage!

It's been a really long week for me, and the country as a whole. I've been working really hard, on a ton of exciting projects. So, too, have the political parties in this country. All of them are coming closer than ever to achieving their agenda and creating a new type of government for Canadians.

On the one hand you have the Conservative party, about whose now-successful efforts at consolidating their hold on power I've been writing quite a bit.

On the other hand, you have a newly formed coalition that evokes strong emotion on all sides, and for the first time in a while genuinely threatens the otherwise arrogant Stephen Harper.

Now that parliament has been prorogued, the campaign for power moves into uncharted waters. While we're not in an election (yet), the airwaves are full of political ads, the media is talking about polls, and the internet is alive with the buzz of politics.

To some extent, the government has home field advantage, in that they can still govern, and appear to be hard at work navigating Canadians out of an economic maelstrom.

The coalition parties have their work cut out for them. Their challenge will be to stay in the news while the government bunkers down and hopes Canadians grow tired of the drama.

The key to the coalition's success is unity. But that doesn't mean there can't be dissent. Part of their strength lies in their diversity, and this diversity originates in the cities of Canada.