An Alternative to Facebook?

I'm giving some thought to an idea proposed by Adam Hunt, an Ottawa acquaintance from National Capital FreeNet: that there are alternatives to Facebook that might suit us all much better. Mr. Hunt suggests a service(?) called Diaspora in particular, by way of the essays linked below:

http://web.ncf.ca/adamandruth/ubuntu2.html#22Sep11
http://web.ncf.ca/adamandruth/ubuntu2.html#28Sep11

Interesting, that last bit about Facebook's alleged response to Mr. Hunt's attempts to keep his friendlist there "in the loop" about his plans and actions.

Meanwhile, if any of you reading this have tried Diaspora - or any other service of like intent - I'd be equally interested in your opinions of them.

A little more about Ottawa

So. I just read a comment on my own Livejournal from thebitterguy - whom I owe a proper birthday greeting to! - about this piece about how Ottawa the City as a whole sees itself on OpenFile Ottawa. Also, it's part of how the news columnists of our city's newspapers shape that perception and that argument.

Matthew Kupfer's article runs through a list of those complaints and ideas in point form, and some of them do sing to me in a number of keys.

I don't understand why the Kuwaiti and Saudi Embassies to Canada have the same placement as the American Embassy along Sussex Drive, although the paranoid cynic in me has one theory that might work. Something about the line of sight to the Centre Block on Parliament Hill...but again: that's my paranoid cynic's side talking.

As to the NorTel Campus decision of the federal government: I remember an issue of Sovereign Seven, Chris Claremont and Dwayne Turner's creator-co-ownership experiment with DC Comics that opened with a running firefight inside what could only have been the Westin Rideau Hotel. One of the supporting characters involved in the firefight made the joke that only Canada would put its military HQ right next to a major shopping mall.

I don't know how many Canadian generals or admirals were reading anyone's comic books back then, but Chris Claremont must have gotten the idea for that dialogue from somewhere here in Ottawa. And I'm wondering if that meme that reached our veteran comics writer didn't also sting a few soldiers and politicos along the way.

And in the end, "Ottawa the verbal shorthand name of the Federal Government" doesn't really have to care about the consequences of its decisions for Ottawa the City, despite the truth that the employees of the former are the citizens of the latter as well. If OC Transpo and the city's transportation department have to scramble over the next year or three to cope with the consequences of a DND decision, so be it.

The idea of unifying public transit in Ottawa and Gatineau is, in my personal opinion, a good one. I can see the reasons for getting it done, and the reasons why it will therefore be fought by Ville de Québec if not by Queen's Park as well.

I've already spoken to the idea of a new main branch for the city library.

I don't know what to think about reworking Metcalfe Street yet. The proposed enclosure of Sparks Street is intriguing but also requires additional thought.

I would love to see the Senators playing in a rink inside the Greenbelt if not in Centretown proper. But I've no idea where to put the rink that wouldn't gouge more than a few semi-sacred cows, some of them my own.

I do like Andrew Cohen's push for more public art across the city. St. Joseph Boulevard, to pick an example relatively close to home, could use some more of the same love that Wellington Street West and Preston Street have rightly been getting in the last couple of years on that score.

As for that last bit from Liam of the Unknown Surname from Toronto about self-loathing being one of Ottawa the City's biggest problems? There's some truth to it. It might even explain some of that "lack of outrage" complaint.

But.

I would argue that the culture of the nation as a whole has long been trained to encourage hatred of "Ottawa the nickname of the Federal Government" to the point where it's become as much a unifying force as Toronto-hatred, and about as toxic to Ottawa the City as to Toronto.

We have to cure that toxic meme too.

And now for a link to Terry Milewski

Milewski's been reporting for CBC an awful long time. Maybe not for as long as Peter Mansbridge or Joe Schlesinger, but he's an eminence in his own right. Anyway, he's in Davos, Helvetia/Suisse/Switzerland at the moment...

Occupy Davos? Leaders greeted by doubts about capitalism

'Capitalism, in its current form, no longer fits the world around us,' forum's founder says

So...I'd like to sit in on any debates between Prof. Klaus Schwab and our current Prime Minister. My suspicion is that they'd be both instructive and entertaining.