About a year and a half ago I blogged that the Government of Canada had posted on Merx a draft standing offer for communications services for industry to provide feedback on.

• We ranked 3^rd out of the 8 bidders that qualified

Public Relations Services (EN578-060191/026/CW)

• We ranked 2^nd out of the 3 bidders that qualified

• We ranked 3^rd out of the 10 bidders that qualified

Blogs, links, jumps, sidebars, comments and emails. Spend enough time on the Internet and you will come across hundreds of thousands of each one.

This one lead me to this.

Then I saw this and I encourage you to read it. It is important, it is Canadian, and it is good. I am even going to encourage you to forward the link to people you know.

Then I read this.

No matter what happens over the next few weeks the spirit of these discussions will not go away. Even the requirement that foreign journalists will need to apply for access to Tiananmen Square 24 hours in advance if they want to interview, broadcast or film in the plaza won’t turn this story off. (Intrepid journalists will, I believe, find people to interview, film, record and photograph at other venues. I’ve visited Tiananmen Square and it isn’t the only venue in Beijing where one can reasonably expect to find citizens milling about. It is, after all, a big city.)

It is just not possible, you see, to shut the Internet down. Nor can true public conversation be silenced. Shouts might become whispers but never silence.

I have been labouring under the misconception that people (youthful ones, usually) were “running the Internet” but it appears now that I have been wrong. All this time the ‘net has been under the control of the Chinese government.

If you don’t believe me click here.

Promising journalists one thing and then delivering another is never a wise move.

Quoted:

HE SAID:
Jacques Rogge, IOC President

“I’m not going to make an apology for something that the IOC is not responsible for,” Rogge said. “We are not running the internet in China. The Chinese authorities are running the internet.”

SHE SAID:
Giselle Davies, IOC Spokeswoman

IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies blamed Rogge’s use of the words “no censorship” on the fact that English is not the Belgian’s first language.

“There’s been no change in the IOC’s position,” she said. “Again, I think we are trying to hang on every single word often spoken by people whose mother tongue isn’t English. Let me be clear again: The IOC would like to see open access for the media to be able to do their job.”

HE CLARIFIED:
Kevan Gosper, IOC Press Commission

IOC press commission head Kevan Gosper has said that open reporting may not be possible with the Olympics in a “communist society.”

“I guess there will be some debate as we move toward the games if there are sites that may or may not be open,” Gosper said.

“And the line between what could be considered as a national-interest issue might be a bit blurred. But we’ll work on it and we will deal with any potential grievances.”

Is the Internet free?

Is the Internet private?

One news item about China and another about the United States of America.

As we draw closer to the start of the Beijing Olympics savvy media dwellers will start to tally the number of Beijing-Olympics-focused articles, features, editorials, op-ed pieces, essays, rants, opinions, diatribes, thoughts and so forth spreading through all forms of media.

Topics will be all over the map, of course, but look for some tried-and-true pieces that are already part of the public conversation.

Tibet will appear here and there, with all manner of references to the mechanisms put in place by the Chinese government to stifle any possible suggestion of even a whisper of discord. These stories will dovetail with references to “protest pens” and increased border security measures to make sure no one smuggles a “Free Tibet” lapel pin into China. If (and this is a big if) an athlete stands to accept a medal and–gasp–whips out a protest lapel pin the world media will take loud notice.

Look for a few heartwarming notes about athletes away from home, forging new friendships in the Olympic Village, and adjusting to training conditions in Beijing. Blogs home to hometown newspapers are a nice touch, but a cozy blogpost home to the neighbourhood might be difficult to see and hear amid the media clutter of the Olympics.

The pollution in Beijing will be given a great deal of coverage. I visited Beijing in late 1999 and while there was, indeed, a 30 storey building across the broad avenue from my hotel I couldn’t see it 5 mornings out of 7. Back in those dark days daylight could not penetrate the morning smog (cheerfully called “fog” by private and state tour guides) and the city planners devised an ingenious solution for lighting the murky streets.

Streetlights about 4 feet tall interspersed with their regular counterparts serve to illuminate the day, like taller versions of garden or pool lighting found here at home, because light does not sink to street level. Pedestrians would be hopelessly lost without these lamp posts in miniature and I used them as dim beacons leading me back to my hotel. The air quality truly is terrible.

The old adage taught to children, “Stop, look and listen before you cross the street” is a handy guide for any visitor to Beijing where crossing even the quietest backstreet is an exercise in both courage and luck. Passenger cars are being reduced from the local trafficsape (a word I hope I just coined) using a “day on/day off” plan while old beaters that are deemed to be embarrassingly high on the pollution inducing scale are made to disappear. Reducing vehicular traffic is a clever move–look for media features about how citizens are coping without their cars–and will have the pleasant side effect of making crosswalks safer. (Urgent Footnote: When in Beijing always cross the street in a crowd. There is safety in pedestrian numbers.)

Prominent Canadian military and defence reporter, David Pugliese, who writes for the Ottawa Citizen, has his articles published in other CanWest Global newspapers and is also the Canadian correspondent for Defense News has started a blog called Defence Watch on Canada.com.

David’s first post was on December 10th and to date he’s posted 11 times, more than once a day. Given I have a few defence industry clients at Thornley Fallis, I’ve subscribed to and will be following David’s blog intently.

… as much as it worries other experts whose opinions I care about.

I had a good chat with the new national editor of Maclean’s about this issue when I was at an event in Toronto to celebrate new linkages between TO and Atlantic Canada last week (might have been two weeks ago — October and November have been flying by!)  I suggested to him, in essence, that I think the notion of people saying they are disengaging from citizenship, i.e. abandoning the political process because “it’s not for them,” is OK with me as long as I know that I, and most of the people I know on a daily basis, still participate.

Citizenship is active, and requires work.  It also, however, gives you a chance to voice your concerns about the approximately 1/3 of your salary that levels of government take off your weekly earnings, and if that doesn’t motivate someone to participate, then unfortunately I don’t think anything will.

I teach part-time at a local community college, and the problem isn’t young people.  It’s that people have decided it’s too hard, it’s too removed from their daily lives, and that it doesn’t matter.  Asking people to care about things they don’t care about is an uphill battle, and I — for one – am skeptical that it’s as important to change their behaviour as people say.

That’s why I like people who have engaged in a partisan way, no matter what their affiliation — I respect that they care, and I respect that their commitment has led them to public service in that way.

Not caring, to my mind, is the easy way, so instead of proportional representation, or some other solution, let me propose this concept: we should offer voters a tax credit for voting, a receipt for a $100 tax credit for the next year’s income tax.  We could promote similar initiatves at the provincial and municipal level.  That way, there’s a further financial incentive to get people out to the polls when they get the chance.

Some don’t need the incentive, of course, because they think the opportunity to cast a ballot is simply too valuable to pass up.  But if we don’t go this route, all the tallking about reengaging people will not lead to increases in voter turnout on election day.

My two cents (or 2.1 cents US) …

I was struck recently by the lack of coverage given the 2006 census when it was released July 17th.  What struck me, in particular, was the fact that:

1. During the slowest news period of the year, the story about the aging of Canada’s population (across the board) received one day of coverage, with very little follow-on coverage anywhere, and
2. There was little national discussion about the various regional stories associated with the census and the ongoing impact that will have from coast to coast to coast in this country.

I confess, I’m a bit of a demographic buff — have been since I helped out a bit on New Brunswick at the Dawn of a New Century in 1996 and read Boom, Bust and Echo by David Foot the same year.

So, while I’ve been waiting, let’s reflect on some of the larger things the census tells us:

1. Newfoundland may shrink its way into have-province status, as young people are an ever-rarer sight in that province;
2. All of Atlantic Canada faces significant population challenges, as does Saskatchewan and Quebec outside of Montreal;
3. Alberta, BC and Ontario remain the bright lights, demographically, meaning their economies will continue to shine as well.

My fear is that the census, and indeed demographics, is becoming a story that is too big to cover, much like the challenges we face from an energy perspective or the challenges faced in reforming and reshaping government operations.

But much as the lack of coverage makes me a little crazy, what really irks me is the challenge I have talking with people who refuse to consider the impacts demographics will have on them personally. 

For example, where are pension funds investing their money, and what impact is the flight of head offices from Canada going to have on their investments?

There are literally thousands of questions that could be asked of government, of citizens, and of the corporate sector out of the census.  I guess that means I better go back to the source document itself and get reading — waiting for a national discussion on it seems like it might be too much to ask.

I remain skeptical about my ability to cheer for the Indianapolis Colts, but if ever there was a coach who lived the very core of the word, it’s Tony Dungy.

Rick Reilly’s piece from Sports Illustrated is a marvel of efficient writing, but most important is the notion of community it represents.

To quote:

“And this is only one stranger whom Tony Dungy has befriended. There’s the former high school coach in Wisconsin whose son committed suicide. There’s the young kid in Indianapolis who lost his mother and brother in a car wreck. Heartbroken people all over are suddenly getting a hand up from a man who himself should be a puddle but is instead a river of strength.

Yet Dungy refuses to talk to the media about these good deeds, which only makes them better.”

“Tony Dungy stands as a reminder to every parent who’s grieving right now that there is a way through the pain. And that way is through each other.”

Dundy lost his own son in 2005, just before Christmas, and he has been reaching out to others ever since.  I can only hope I would be one-tenth as strong, in similar circumstances, but I can promise two boys will get a big hug tonight from their dad. 

Back in January, I did a post about FPinfomart adding blogs to their media monitoring service.

In it, I also commented that FPinfomart and Canwest papers should get with the program and begin offering RSS, which was long overdue.

I am pleased to report that both are now with the RSS program.

FPinfomart subscribers are now able to receive their personal profiles, current events and industry news via RSS.

And several (if not all, I haven’t checked) Canwest papers, including the National Post, Ottawa Citizen and Montreal Gazette, have added RSS feeds to their websites.

This will make my life and the lives of many others in the Canadian PR sector much easier.  Props where props are due.