A Local Venture

Before I get into the meat of this post, I wanted to alert Canadian Doctor Who fans that the final episode of the fourth season, Journey’s End, will debut tonight on the CBC. Unfortunately, early reports indicate that, rather than make room for the 63 minute long version of the episode, the CBC (or whoever they bought the episode from) will be butchering it down to the standard 44 minute length. I would have to think that the task of cutting out a full third of the episode while maintaining its coherency would be… challenging, to say the least.

But, take heart: the CBC will be posting the full 63 minute version of Journey’s End to the its Doctor Who website later on.

Given how the CBC’s support for the program appears to have degraded (giving every indication that the show was bought by a group of CBC management in the first year who have since moved on, unfortunately), and given that next year offers only specials for North American affiliates to pick up, I strongly suspect that this may be the last year that we’ll see Doctor Who on the CBC. Possibly, if the rights revert, Space will pick up the pieces.

A Call to Blog: The New Waterloo Wellington Bloggers Association

I’ve started a new blogging venture. As some of you know, I run two aggregators: the Blogging Alliance of Non-Partisan Canadians and the local Waterloo-Wellington Bloggers Association. Recently, inspired by the work of local bloggers in communities larger and smaller than the Region of Waterloo, and noting that no such blog appeared to exist for the region, I decided to expand the WWBA into a genuine local group blog.

My hope is that this blog will become a vibrant little online community, celebrating the diversity of voices in Waterloo Region, the City of Guelph and County Wellington. To this end, I’ve started recruiting writers, including Greg Staples, Greg Bester and my parents. These people and others who will join them will blog about whatever local issue takes their fancy. Eat at a new area restaurant? Let’s review it here. Wish to promote an upcoming event? Find an audience here. Want to talk politics? That’s fine too, as long as it’s about local politics, be it local or regional councils, or area MPs and MPPs. Anything goes as long as it’s polite and in the spirit of the community. And the website will continue to highlight and link to the blogs of this community, and their recent posts.

Now I can’t do this by myself, and I’m grateful for the help I’ve already received, but I’d like to make a call to aspiring writers and photographers out there. If you’re interested in having your work showcased before an audience, I’d like to hear from you. If you’d like to promote your community, your event, or whathaveyou, please contact me. If you have a blog, you live in the Region of Waterloo, the City of Guelph or County Welington and you’d like to be added to the blogroll, let me know. And if you’d like to stay on top of the discussion happening in your area, click on over to the blog.

I’d like to take steps to make sure that this blog isn’t too Kitchener-centric or Waterloo-centric. I’m pleased to have correspondents in Cambridge and a blogroll of blogs including bloggers from Guelph. I’m especially interested in hearing from bloggers writing from Wellington County. There has to be a blogger or two in Mount Forest, Fergus, Arthur or Mapleton. If you’re one of those bloggers, I believe your voice needs to be heard too.

This area boasts a diverse economy, a diverse culture and a diverse social fabric, and yet we’ve instinctively drawn ourselves together, under such monikers as K-W, the Tech Triangle, the Golden Triangle, et cetera. And in a region that boasts one of the most intelligent cities of the world, it’s past time that this diverse presence be reflected in the blogosphere.