HICK Tech 2008

April 10, 2008

Following great success in 2007, HICK Tech returns in April 2008 for another year of enlightenment, inspiration, and networking. HICK Tech is a one-day conference in Owen Sound. In 2008 it will feature a keynote presentation by Heather Champ (Community Manager for Flickr) wrap-up session moderated by CBC personality Nora Young and twenty sessions under the topics of Business, Community, Food & Agriculture and Technology.

The event will take place, April 30, 2008 at the Bayshore community Centre in Owen Sound from 8AM-5PM.

For all the details be sure to drop by HickTech.com

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Written by Ryan · Filed Under Tech + Life, Web Tools, Community, theOwen Features, Internet

Lawrence Lessig lectures on Free Culture

February 26, 2008

The following video is both lengthy (you will likely want to watch it full screen if you can!) and of great importance to our collective future. Definitely worth the watch in my opinion as it outlines a couple of different future scenarios as to how creative works will be protected (but more importantly be freed for many to build on…).

I first stumbled across this video on www.lessig08.org/, a site which it appears was created to potentially support an attempt to be elected to American Congress. You can read the whole story on the site but in the meantime free your mind and learn a little about free culture.

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Written by Ryan · Filed Under Innovation, theOwen Features, Video, Internet

Getting Connected: the Business of the Internet in Grey-Bruce

February 18, 2008

February 19, 2008
12:00 am	to	9:00 pm

Getting Connected is a series of free two hour “How To” Workshops on the basics of the Internet as a business tool. Topics will include: Surfing, Searching and Social Media. Email, Online Banking, Bills and E-commerce and no doubt more.

I am excited to see such an effort being taken locally and I encourage all business owners and entrepreneurial types to take advantage of this opportunity. For one thing it will bring a lot of what we are trying to do here at theOwen into perspective. To register for the event call 519-371-3232 or email businesshelp@e-owensound.com.

Event dates and locations.

Tuesday February 19th, 7-9 p.m.
Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library, 824 1st Avenue West, Owen Sound

Wednesday February 20th, 7-9 p.m.
West Grey Council Chambers, Grey Road 4, Durham

Thursday February 21st, 7-9 p.m.
Grey County Agriculture Services (located at the back of Grey Gables), 206 Toronto Street South, Markdale

Wednesday March 5th, 7-9 p.m.
Terrace Room, Meaford Hall, 12 Nelson Street East, Meaford

Getting Connected is a presentation of the province of Ontario, The Saugeen Community Futures Development Corporation, Grey County and the Owen Sound Business Enterprise Centre.

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Written by Ryan · Filed Under Business, Events, Internet

Net Neutrality

January 7, 2008

On a daily basis I follow a near ridiculous number of conversations on line. It’s only near ridiculous and not actually ridiculous of course as a result of the systems I have in place to track these many conversations across numerous websites, blogs, and a variety of other social media platforms(like Facebook and Twitter as examples).

I have written a little about this system in the past and I will offer some more insight in the coming weeks as well as I continue working towards building an effective means by which we can carry out an ongoing, time shifted discussion of all things Grey and Bruce.

One of the topics that has been increasing in prevalence over the past few weeks is the idea of Net Neutrality. The basic idea being the net should be neutral, that was the original idea and we should stick with it. The fundamental reason the debate is heating up has to do with the wishes of telecom providers (who do own most of the Internet infrastructure) to create a two tiered Internet, with the different characteristics of each tier effectively determined by ones ability to pay to have their information available on line. The following video clips and links will provide anyone interested with the varied details of this debate.

Obviously I am following the issue with great interest. It is the neutral nature of the Internet that allows myself as an independent content producer to easily distribute information and ideas to you, the reader/listener/viewer. Easily might be a bit of an understatement considering the time and money associated with my efforts thus far here at theOwen.com but in principal it is.

As a follow up to this post I will draft up a locally pertinent “future scenario” of how a two tiered Internet might impact your access to local information. In the meantime here’s your homework on the issue.

Do some reading about Net Neutrality. A good place to start would be www.neutrality.ca. Otherwise a quick google search will link you to numerous thoughts on the issue. If you happen to find something you think might be valuable to this discussion please send me a link.

You can also watch the following videos…

CityNews International - Amber MacArthur