Head Tale - Yet Another Librarian's Blog

Does anyone else see this recent post on my blog as the first result in the Turkish version of Google when you search for "fucks"?

Man, that widget down there...

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...on the lower part of the right hand column that tracks what countries people are hitting my blog from and also occasionally what search terms brought them here is an endless source of fascination!

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Sunday, June 14

The Role of Blogs in the 2009 Saskatchewan NDP Leadership Race

by Jason on Sun 14 Jun 2009 02:04 PM CST

If you asked what role the blogosphere played in the 2009 NDP Leadership Race, the quick answer would be "not enough."

Even though three of the four bloggers who were writing regularly about the leadership race endorsed Ryan Meili (myself, Accidental Deliberations, Louis Riel Trail) and the fourth (Buckdog) didn't endorse anyone, the reality is that Ryan lost in the end.

But that's perhaps too quick of an answer. Because Ryan has also acknowledged repeatedly, including in his concession speech, that he went from being "that other one - the doctor from Saskatoon" in a field of well-known, well-connected people within the NDP party to a strong second place finish which many would've thought impossible when he first entered the race back in February.

Blogs aren't solely responsible for this result of course - not by a long shot. Ryan's well-run campaign with its positive message and dedicated team, his amazing personal biography, the desire for renewal within the party - all of those things played a big part. But the blogs definitely had an impact too, I think.

I can only speak to my own experience but the first clue is that I saw my number of unique visitors more than double from January of this year when my blog was doing it's usual mix of library, technology, and cute kid-related posts to May when I was writing almost exclusively about the leadership race.

I was told by a variety of party insiders - from convention committee members to MLA's - that they read this blog. Others have also mentioned to me that it often seemed as if an issue would come up on the blogs then a day or three later, they'd see it worked into a story in the mainstream media - whether it was the Leader Post, CBC, NewsTalk Radio or some other outlet. (I know for sure the mainstream media was checking in because I even got a name check from well-known Saskatchewan talk radio host, John Gormley's show - fast forward to 15:40).

Of course, he was passing along my report of the altercation between Dwain Lingenfelter and an NDP member on the Sunday of the convention so I'm sure there are some - especially in the NDP - who are mad that I would even report this. But as I've said all along, we all need to wake up to the changes that technology has made in our world - not just that camera phones and Blackberries are ubiquitous - but that there's been a shift in how society operates. Today, we live in a world where it's not about control, it's about openness. Like it or not, privacy and our notion of it is shifting as well.

This might be a good place for a tangent of another kind - I know there are many who saw me as a mouthpiece for the Meili campaign and some even accused me of running a smear campaign on Ryan's behalf against Link!

Here are the facts - at least as I see them:

I got involved in Ryan's campaign relatively early and because of the non-hierarchical nature of Ryan's operation, it's true that I was given access to information that a new volunteer to a traditionally structured campaign likely wouldn't have been. Still, I never saw myself as one of the true "insiders" of the campaign team who were making the high-level decisions and steering the ship. But on the flip side, the openness that Ryan allowed meant that it was harder for them to distance themselves from me when I wrote things that they might not have agreed with or which weren't official campaign positions. That misunderstanding is why so many people saw me as a Meili mouthpiece - a misunderstanding which I think comes from the same type of people who prefer their volunteers to be at the bottom of the pyramid so they can be more easily dis-engaged should they become "over-zealous".

Whenever it came up, Ryan acknowledged that I was an independent blogger who chose what to write and how I would approach my topics. He only questioned me once - when I was writing about the membership scandal - and mainly in defense of the First Nations people who he felt were being needlessly embarrassed by the whole incident - not out of concern from any political implications (again, yet another testament to his character to add to the long list - whether it's choosing not to run in Riversdale or being the only campaign to take out a thank-you ad in the NDP convention program.) I explained why I felt it was important for me to write about the membership scandal and he didn't push further where some politicians would've demanded their volunteer stop or maybe even freeze them out completely.

Ryan's campaign never told me what to write either. Of course, I would pick up little things in conversations with Ryan and others in his campaign - some I would work into my posts and some I'd let slide but I never ever received a direct message from Ryan or anyone else involved in the campaign: "You have to post this!!!" (And frankly, I think if I would've posted some of the things I heard behind the scenes, we may have had a different result at the convention!)

Anyhow, that's a bit of a tangent but it ultimately comes back to the point of what the role of the bloggers were in this race. I think both Jurist (even though he endorsed Ryan in the end) and BuckDog who set-up a separate blog just to cover the race were more like traditional journalists - for the most part, objective and fair throughout. I was more like a newspaper columnist - you knew where I stood from day one and I would always come at things from a very partisan perspective. That's fine too - as long as you acknowledge your bias and don't try to play neutral when you're not. (I also admitted things like my name, my occupation, where I live and so on - hell, my number's 306-924-1205 - call me if you want to discuss further!) So I always thought it funny when commenters on this and other blogs would accuse me of smearing Link - while using pseudonyms and hiding behind anonymous accounts to make these charges against me.

This will sound like a pretty extreme example but I think there are parallels in the NDP leadership race to what's happening in Iran right now. Technology - in the form of blogs, social media, YouTube videos, Twitter and other methods - were a big part of why Ryan's campaign was able to do an end rush around the better-known names (at least within the party) of Deb Higgins and Yens Pedersen to reach young people, activists, new party members and others in a unique, direct way. It's similar to how those techologies are allowing Iranian protesters to get the word out directly to the rest of the world in a many-to-many approach that circumvents traditional media and communications (if they're even paying attention - which doesn't seem to be the case in either Iran or the earlier days of the NDP Leadership race until the membership scandal broke.)

From the Andrew Sullivan link (which I think I first saw on Jurist or possibly posted by someone on Facebook):

"That a new information technology could be improvised for this purpose so swiftly is a sign of the times. It reveals in Iran what the Obama campaign revealed in the United States. You cannot stop people any longer. You cannot control them any longer. They can bypass your established media; they can broadcast to one another; they can organize as never before.

It's increasingly clear that Ahmadinejad and the old guard mullahs were caught off-guard by this technology and how it helped galvanize the opposition movement in the last few weeks."

But whether it's Tehran or ToonTown, the reality of our world today is the same. Blogs and other cutting-edge technologies play a big role in politics right now and will only play a bigger role in the future. People connect with each other via many-to-many methods and no longer are thoughts and opinions solely filtered or controlled by a single campaign or a few select media outlets. I have no doubt that the political leaders who grasp this best will have the most success. Ryan didn't quite pull it off but he came close. And I, for one, can't wait to see what happens next!

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Saturday, January 3

Ottawa Public Library - Some Thoughts of a Non-Librarian

by Jason on Sat 03 Jan 2009 10:35 PM CST

Here's another one of those weird follow-the-leader stories where one thing leads to another which leads to another which brings it all back home. Or something like that.

I recently had an old college friend find me on Facebook. I knew he'd graduated as a computer engineer from U of R and had gone to Ottawa but had lost touch with him since then. (More irony - he was from a small town in southeast Saskatchewan so of course, when I went out there to do work with the library, it turns out that he'd taught the local library board chair's kids to play the piano!) Anyhow, his Facebook profile confirmed what I'd heard about him and added a few other details I didn't know (recently married, no kids, some current pics.)

He had a link to his own blog so I clicked through to that to get a bit more background on what he's been up to lately and saw that he'd done an entry about adapting a Greasemonkey script, originally developed for the Seattle Public Library, to link Amazon pages with the Ottawa Public Library's OPAC.

He also wrote a bit about how he uses the Ottawa Public Library in general which I found very interesting.
Frequently, in libraryland I think we tend to think like librarians (duh!) when we assess what patrons want. So reading the thoughts of a very intelligent computer engineer on how he uses and views the library provided perhaps a different view than the one I normally get when I think of these questions.

Another related topic I hear sometimes is "Can/should the library be all things to all people?" The easy answer is "no" simply because that is impossible - you can't serve everybody in your community as fully and completely as you would like simply because you don't have the time and budget and other resources needed. But as one of the few venues in society that serves all types of people at all levels, I also wonder how close can we get? And don't we have an obligation to try?

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Wednesday, December 31

2008 End of the Year Memes

by Jason on Wed 31 Dec 2008 10:01 PM CST

I did this in 2006 and again in 2007 so once again, here's a quick summary of my 2008 in meme form:

What did you do this year that you’d never done before?
This is a bad start but nothing jumps to mind - I mean, I know there were professional things like teaching computers & Internet for three months in a row at a bunch of rural Saskatchewan libraries and personal things like "holding a first birthday party" or "carving a turkey at Christmas". But in terms of out-of-the-ordinary stuff? It's been a pretty straight-forward, boring year I guess.

Did anyone close to you give birth?
Tons of people and I can't help wondering if there's a mini-baby boom going on (I read somewhere that there were more births in 2007 than anytime since the end of WWII) or if I'm just more plugged into hearing about it since I'm part of it? Probably a bit of both.

Did anyone close to you die?
Again, I'm going to feel like a tool if I'm wrong on this but nothing's jumping out at me - last year saw the loss of my last living grandparent, Shea's grandparents are all gone so there's a feeling that the next ones to go will be aunts and uncles (my dad's from a family of 10 so some of his eldest siblings are up in their 70's and 80's.) [2009-01-06 - come to think of it, there was a death of someone who wasn't close to me but which hit me pretty hard anyhow.]

What countries places did you visit?
Last year, we got to the States a couple times but again, continuing the "boring" theme, we didn't get out of country at all - not even to Minot North Dakota which is the destination of choice for Saskies looking for cheap American deals. I think I'm going to change this question from "countries" to "places" as we did get to Calgary for a very enjoyable week this summer, I got invited to an HR Summit for Canadian Libraries in Ottawa for four days this fall and as unexciting as it probably sounds to most people, I did really enjoy all the traveling I got to do with my job at Southeast Regional Library to rural branches across the SE corner of our province.

What would you like to have in the next year that you lacked this year?
With Shea being back at work (still part-time rather than full-time to try to maintain a nice work-life balance), our finances will be a lot less tight and I'm looking forward to that.

What date from this year will remain etched upon your memory?
Aug 30 - finish my contract with Southeast Regional Library
Sept 9 - start a position as Organization Development Specialist with Regina Public Library (and could've started immediately after SRL one but asked for a week off to help get re-settled in Regina)

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Very indirectly, I played a small part in helping secure five million dollars in funding for a single integrated library system for the province by managing an advocacy campaign for our library region. Word from the grapevine was that it was the support from rural areas that pushed the government over-the-top in support of this project (though it shifted slightly in our most recent election, our current government still gets most of its support from rural areas) so to be a part of that push was cool. More directly, I set-up a staff photo directory on the RPL intranet that has been very well received (including one staff member dancing a jig when I told her about it!)

What was your biggest failure?
There's probably a long list of things I wish I could've accomplished at Southeast Regional Library that I didn't get to which I regret (to the point that I was contemplating going on their board of directors to continue working with them!)

What was your biggest surprise?
I was genuinely surprised to get the RPL job offer as the interview was a hard one to read - I wasn't sure if I'd done well or not. And let's just say "Organizational Development" wasn't a course I took in library school!

Did you suffer illness or injury?
I'm suffering right now, thank-you for asking. Managed to get through Christmas even though we held it late on the 27th. But then on the 28th, I woke up with a brutal sore throat which my doctor informed me yesterday may be just a sore throat, may be strep throat or may be mono. At any rate, it hurts like hell and my current position is: "any treatment/remedy/strategy that someone suggests, I'm trying it, whether it's Tylenol/Advil/throat spray/lozenges/steroids/Oil of Oregano extract/hot tea/cold water/honey/lemon/Vicks vapo-rub/etc."

What was the best thing you bought?
Finally took the leap and bought a MacBook Pro when my beloved Acer laptop died for the final time. The transition wasn't as smooth as I hoped (sure, having a bunch of password-protected WordPerfect 8 files on your old computer will do that to a guy but I mean, no ability to cut & paste files on a Mac? Really?) but overall, I think it's been a good move.

Whose behaviour merited celebration?
The whole Obama phenomena was amazing to watch at all levels and as it progressed from "long shot minority candidate with a Muslim name" to "wow - American just elected its first African American President - pass the hankies please!"

Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Stephen Harper. "No! I'm not going. I don't care what the rules are. I'm changing them!" Lots of gall, even by the standards of a high-level politician.

Where did most of your money go?
We have an absolute lemon of a second car that always seems to especially delight in breaking down right before Christmas. This year, it was a nearly thousand dollar touch in early December that semi-kaboshed our plans to join the ranks of the HDTV owning world (probably not a bad thing in the grand scheme really.) And I guess deciding to buy a MacBook Pro meant we spent 2-3x more than we would've had we gone with another PC laptop.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
US politics in the big picture and the entire Obama campaign in general. Pace's continuing milestones on the more local level - his communication abilities and the connections he's making just blow me away. A small one - this computer defaults to a slideshow of our pictures when it's not in use and there was a picture of an empty lake that came up recently. Seeing that, Pace goes: "Boat!" even though there wasn't a boat in the photo. Or he knows what a dog is and what a dog says. But the other day, I go "What does Snoopy (Shea's parents' dog) say?" and he knew the answer was "Woooof!"

What song/album will always remind you of this year?
Not listening to or buying a lot of new music and was disappointed with new releases by two of my usual favourites - "Between the Beautifuls" by Hawksley Workman and "Tinderbox" by Fred Eaglesmith. I guess the songs I'm singing to Pace most nights at bedtime will remind me of this year more than anything.

Compared to this time last year, are you:

Happier or sadder? Definitely happier now that we feel fairly settled in terms of our home, our careers and our life in general.

Thinner or fatter? Fatter, unfortunately although I did start playing rec hockey again this year after a seven year layoff so that's a small step in the right direction.

Richer or poorer? Richer since it was a pretty big jump in salary from SRL to RPL and also with Shea being back at work after taking an extended maternity leave of 18 months (but only receiving EI benefits for 12 months meaning we lived off savings for six months to cover the difference.)

What do you wish you’d done more of?
We took lots of pictures of Pace but I'm starting to realise that we should've been taking more video as well.

What do you wish you’d done less of?
Being on the road for three and a half months to start the year probably didn't help my case in terms of health/diet/weight as I would frequently grab fast food so I could eat on the drive home rather than stop and eat a (slightly) healthier meal.

How ~~will you be spending~~ did you spend Christmas?
We hosted Christmas for Shea's and my parents plus an aunt from BC. I carved a turkey for the first time in my life and where's that list of "50 Things Every Man Should Know" - that's another one to check off the list.

Who did you spend the most time on the phone communicating with?
As I said last year, we literally do not use the phone anymore. So this question gets a tweak as well to focus more on communication in general. I guess one big shift was starting at RPL and after working for organizations with staffs of between 3-15 people my entire life (SRL had ~100 staff in total but they were dispersed geographically and mostly part-time so I always thought of the core 12-15 people at HQ as the "staff"), it was (and is) an adjustment to try to get to know the 200+ people who work for RPL (which is a big part of the reason why I pushed to get a staff photo directory up and running!)

What was your favourite TV program?
Especially with the US election, "The Daily Show" and "Colbert Report" were even more vital. Luckily, we bought a PVR so I never miss an episode now (PVR could probably be a runner-up in the "What did you buy that was worth it?" question above.)

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
This question is pretty dumb. I can't think of a way to tweak it but maintain the gist like I have for a couple others so I might just drop it next year.

What was the best book(s) you read?
Another Mac to PC issue means that I have my list of books read this year in an Access database on my desktop PC in Regina. So I'll have to fill this one in later. [Edit: "Under Pressure: Rescuing Childhood from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting" by Carl Honore was the perfect book for me to read at the moment I read it.]

What was your greatest musical discovery?
I listen to a lot of streaming Britpop on Accuradio and "She and Him" is one of many bands that caught my ear this year. [Edit: except that She & Him aren't British and I probably heard them on the new releases-based "Listening Post" station which is also where I frequently end up.]

What did you want and get?
A job after my SRL contract ended without too much delay or disruption in my life. It was a big gamble to even take the SRL contract over a FT permanent offer nearly two years ago. But in the end, the timing for getting hired by RPL couldn't have been any better. I actually had a conversation with a senior manager at RPL the other day and she asked if I was glad to be at RPL and I said "yes, and more glad about the path I took to get here. I think I'd have been a totally different, lesser librarian if I came to RPL immediately after library school." Last year, I mentioned a mini-van in the next question as something we wanted and did not get - guess what? We got one - and based on our experiences with that lemon of a car, this one having EXTREMELY low mileage (it's a 2006 model but we doubled it in six months!) and an extended warranty until 2013 brings great piece of mind.

What did you want and not get?
Okay, with the knowledge that what I listed last year came true, let's put "new patio made of rubber paving", "new backyard fence" and (possibly) new big screen TV as things I wanted this year to varying degrees but didn't get.

What were your favourite films of this year?
We're finally getting out a few more movies here and there and also still renting/downloading lots. I'd say, even with all the hype, going to "The Dark Knight" on opening night didn't disappoint at all.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
See last answer. That the movie happened to open on my birthday and became this year's birthday movie just added to the fun factor. I turned 35 this year and as I said to a classmate who I met up with over the holidays, it's not so much that we're 35 that kills me, it's hearing that your "little" brothers are 27, 29 and 33 that freaks me out more!

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
It was a pretty good year overall. More time off/more time at home is something I'm always looking for. It'll help once I get some holidays built up again since I've only been at RPL for a few months right now.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept this year?
"I really love Eddie Bauer clothes." (Especially when I hit upon a sale of deeply discounted wrinkle-resistant shirts which means I get $350 worth of shirts for $100.") I should probably also mention that I got, not one but two cardigans for Christmas. Live the stereotype I say!

What kept you sane?
I had a real debate about going back to riding the bus after a year away from it but once I got in the swing of it, have grown to enjoy that twenty minutes of reading/relaxing/waking up time each morning and reading/unwinding time at the end of the day on the reverse route home.

What political issue stirred you the most?
I keep coming back to the US election but it took up so much of my time and attention throughout the whole year - from the first primaries to the final vote on November 4. (I love the joke about who gets to be the brave person to tell GW Bush: "Your Presidency was so bad that they elected a black guy with a Muslim name to be President. Good job, sir!")

Who did you miss?
Finding a couple long lost friends from my 1995 semester exchange to England brought back a lot of good memories and made me miss people I hadn't thought a lot about in a long time.

Who was the best new person you met?
It's been great getting to know the staff at RPL (and having a job where doing this is a big part of my role.)

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned this year.
"Much of what seems important now won't matter in a year. Much of what doesn't, will."

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year?
"Hello everybody and how are you?
How are you?
How are you?
Hello everybody and how are you?
How are you today?"

(This song was our welcome song at baby story hour this year. We would sing it at the start of every week, including the name of every baby in the circle. Needless to say, this song will NEVER leave my brain.)

What do you hope the next year brings?
As always, continued health, happiness and fulfillment for myself and my family, both immediate and extended.

First lines of my blog posts for each month of the past year...

January
From the people who brought you the endlessly fascinating, Baby Name Wizard's "Name Voyageur" web site which shows the popularity of various names during the past 100 years, a new web site called Nymbler - Your Personal Baby Name Assistant which provides baby name recommendations.

February
Gives new meaning to the phrase "cook book".

March
Author Nicholson Baker takes a look at Wikipedia and includes a critique of the number of articles being deleted for less-than-solid reasons.

April
Amy Buckland (who was recently named a 2008 Library Journal "Mover and Shaker") has passed along the following notice which is also a great opportunity to highlight some of the emerging leaders in the library community.

May
I'm sure you've heard that JK Rowling is suing an encylopedic fan site dedicated to her novels for daring to publish a 10 000 print run book based on the site's original-but-based-on-the-novels content

June
I wrote about this when it was first announced.

July
A few years back, Canada ranked #1 in a UN survey of the best countries in the world to live in.

August
Author offers IPO to raise funds to help him write his second novel with 60% of royalties as the reward.

September
Holy shit.

October
Five Things That Will Probably Happen When I Play With My Old Rec Hockey Team For The First Time in Seven Years Tonight

November
[Photo of Pace at Halloween]

December
One of Canada's unofficial national anthems (although probably not the one that immediately comes to mind when I say that) got a recent plug on MetaFilter which led to a very interesting line-by-line analysis of the song and a great video clip as well...

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Sunday, December 14

I have no idea why my blog is being cited five times...

by Jason on Sun 14 Dec 2008 09:11 PM CST

...but I'll probably order a copy to find out.

As someone in the comments points out, it's a great marketing strategy for a new book on library blogs - mention as many library-related blogs as possible in your book then list them in your index. Put a sample of that index online making it likely that people will find out about your book and have their curiosity piqued.

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Tuesday, November 11

Remembering Last Remembrance Day

by Jason on Tue 11 Nov 2008 02:12 AM CST

It's hard to believe that I've been writing this blog on a nearly daily basis for what, two and a half years now? It's even become another resource tool in my arsenal - I often search my own blog for items and ideas that I know I've written about in the past so that I can re-visit them, now, with the benefit of hindsight or to remember a fact or whatever.

I've also grown to have some posts that are particular favourites for one reason or another. I summarized some of them in a post called "Best Tales" (which badly need updated!) and today, I would like to highlight a post that will go on that "Best of..." list when I do get around to updating it - the post I did last Remembrance Day, a few months after my grandfather passed away.

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Thursday, July 31

"Family Reunion"- Corb Lund

by Jason on Thu 31 Jul 2008 10:11 PM CST

Okay, I'm back up. Almost made it to the end of the month for the bandwidth reset but once again, my massive popularity is my downfall (er, also my crappy host.)

Anyhow, I'll perhaps type a more detailed post about my thoughts on blogs, ISP's, web hosting and the like someday. But for now, I'm back in my hometown for...

...so posts may be few and far between this weekend. (Who am I kidding? I'll probably live blog the whole thing.)

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Tuesday, July 29

This Blog Post Is Titled "Jason Wishes He Had Time To Convert To A Different Provider" - Bandwidth Overages Suck!

by Jason on Tue 29 Jul 2008 10:40 PM CST

Nothing to see here - move along!

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Monday, June 30

Link to Another Blog That Allows Its Users To Post Libelous Comments - Get Sued Yourself!

by Jason on Mon 30 Jun 2008 11:42 PM CST

When Jessamyn West was here for SLA, this topic came up at the after-event gathering. I meant to post something about it at that time when the story was still somewhat fresh but never got to it, being as busy as I was with much more important matters like cute baby pictures and Flash-based Friday Fun Links.

A recent invite to the annual Sask Blogs summer picnic reminded me of the fact that the Sask Blogs Aggregator, a site which creates a rolling summary of posts from various Saskatchewan-based and Saskatchewan-themed blogs, is still down.

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

In mid-April, a right-wing, Sask-based blog named "Small Dead Animals" posted a link to another conservative site named FreeDominion that had posted a story about Canadian civil rights lawyer, Richard Warman. As with most blogs, FreeDominion accepts comments. Warman saw these and made the claim that the comments were defamatory. He sued but in a unique twist, he didn't just name FreeDominion (which allowed the comments) but also sites that linked to the FreeDominion story such as Small Dead Animals (and therefore, were re-publishing these comments indirectly in his view.)

Although the case was still in the works and linking to a third-party site that may contain libelous or defamatory material hadn't yet been defined as legal or illegal by a court, the Sask Blogs aggregator shut down their service completely out of concern that a similar charge could be leveled against them - either for linking to Small Dead Animals or to any of the other dozens of blogs that who were part of their feed and which may contain similar borderline comments which could be actionable.

Here's a summary from the Regina Leader-Post of the whole situation.

I gotta say, I'm with the right winger on this and think that the civil rights lawyer is stretching too way far. If FreeDominion libeled you or allowed you to be libeled, that's one thing. But suing every single site that links to the story (or links to a site that links to the story - hey, I just realised, because of all the links I've thrown out to the various sites involved in this case, I'm implicated now too! In fact, because of the interconnected nature of the Internet, every possible site that includes links to other sites is guilty as well! Oh-oh - do you know what that means? That's it - shut down the Internet - it's over. Links are no longer allowed!

)

Okay, kidding aside, does anyone see the irony in a civil rights lawyer being responsible for an action that's stifled freedom of speech and sharing of information, not only in the original offending site but for numerous harmless bystanders? To me, this is sort of like the copyright issue where someone is trying to apply old-world views of how things work now to a new world. In the old days, yeah, if someone else repeated a libelous statement, they were responsible. But in the Internet age, where a link is a click away, a statement can go out to a million people as easily as to a dozen, the old paradigms simply don't work anymore. "The genie is out of the bottle" is a phrase I think of all the time in situations like this. Warman is trying to corral the spread of whatever libelous statements were made but somewhere, someone is going to be able to access them. That's the new world and we all have to accept that.

At any rate, the Sask Blogs aggregator was a great, volunteer service that I miss a lot. I tend to read blogs that are in my narrow areas of interest or written by people I know so Sask Blogs was a simple way for me to get an overview of what people were writing about across the province - from all viewpoints, all writing styles, all geographic locations, all manner of topics from personal to political and everything in between.

Hopefully this case will be resolved and Sask Blogs will be back soon.

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Wednesday, June 25

My Wordle

by Jason on Wed 25 Jun 2008 11:24 PM CST

This is my Wordle of the most common words I used on this blog in May 2008...

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