Most readers will know I’m an avowed new urbanist. This means that I care about growing up (literally) and not outwards as a city (towards and into the greenbelt). I want our city council to be leaders in sustainability, mixed use venues, and social responsibility. I want more bike lanes and garbage cans downtown and I want others to want this too.

I’ll be contributing twice a month to the Spacing Ottawa election coverage, sharing the stage with one of Ottawa’s most outspoken new urbanists, Vicky Smallman. Some have right pointed out that Vicky and I are both pretty proud New Democrats. While this is true, the municipal election is decidedly a non-partisan affair. So too will be our column--our bias will be towards forward thinking and innovation.

Click here to read my first take on the politics of change in Ottawa.

I’m extremely excited to announce a project I’ll be working on with Mountain Road Productions--one of Ottawa’s most up-and-coming television production companies. I recently worked with Tim Alp and his crew promoting the community celebration at Zen Kitchen for the Restaurant Adventures of Caroline and Dave.

I’ll be handling “digital casting” for their newest show in development. I’ll be collaborating over on their Facebook and Twitter accounts for a little while, developing some custom classes for their staff and reaching out to Ottawa based real estate, event, and niche blogs.

If you are even thinking about selling your home you are going to want to learn more about what Mountain Road is up to. More details to come in another blog post later this week!

A couple weeks ago I stood up in front of a whole bunch of people and explained that I was a failure. I told the story of how one of my online projects had been a complete, total, and epic failure. Is it counterintuitive to expose your mistakes? To be certain.

People like to be celebrated--and I’m no different--so the very idea of “outing” yourself as a failure all seems, at first glance, to be crazy. But think about how all successful communities feature some element of sharing success and failure.

Unlike religious communities, we don’t have high holy days to gather around. Unlike cultural communities, we don’t have a common food, dance, or art to flock to. Unlike geographic communities, we don’t have a physical space we commonly use.

Online people communicate in many spaces. I use my Wordpress blog here, my Twitter, and my Facebook as my three main digital rooms. Others prefer more gated and adaptable communities like Ning or stick-with-what-they-know-music-loving-MySpace.

In the physical space the so-called “social media community” has serialized events or one-off fundraisers. DemoCamp, BarCamp, ChangeCamp, Ignite, Social Media Breakfast, Third Tuesday, Social Media Book Club, TEDx, PodCamp, Twestival, and a whole host of others.

None of these spaces lend themselves to the natural airing of failures at the “actual” level rather than the theoretical or “ideas” level. Which is to say,  a group of action-oriented individuals saw a gap in the Ottawa event-market. A place for informal, serious, yet lighthearted examinations of online communications case studies.

Case Study Jam is the creation of a group of core “doers” in Ottawa, as they call themselves. These are people you see online everyday and attending  tech and “social media community” events.

I was pleased to be able to have a venue to get my personal online communications failure on the table.

The DailyBlogPost account came about as a "free idea" from Julien Smith, the Montreal-based podcaster and co-author of Trust Agents. So, I thought - great idea! I'll register the account. Everything after that went awry. It became a chore, there was no feedback from people, community didn't gather around this one-tweet-a-day account. In short, the idea had a kernel of good, my execution was what was wrong.

Here is how I heralded its arrival on my blog.

The short take on my personal FAIL:

• DailyBlogPost was a very bad attempt at a Twitter account.
• Being inspired by Internet superstar Julien Smith didn’t mean guaranteed success.
• I broke every rule I had learned with my personal Twitter account.
• I gave up. Thirty tweets in; I plum didn’t care anymore. Bad attitude.

You can listen to my whole presentation here (I think I was channeling @Julien that night; my presentations are usually more PG) and read the recap of the whole night lovingly crafted by the team at Case Study Jam.

Also, @DailyBlogPost is up for free again. Want to take it on? Fix my mistakes? Comment below (or just comment to add ridicule and scorn).

Friends of mine of online and off know my love of cupcakes. I started really turning them out after leaving Parliament Hill--Twitter and baking helped pass the time. Perhaps it was inevitable that I would find the San Francisco and Toronto versions of Cupcake Camp and help bring the unconference to Ottawa on March 29 last year. Over 3000 cupcakes arrived at Jack Purcell Centre that rainy spring afternoon and a bunch of money was raised for a great charity.

So, to answer the many tweets and emails: Yes, Capital Cupcake Camp is coming back!

Last year, @Sobbee, @RantingNRaving, and @Snobiwan (Tanya, Nicole, and Andrew...) and I met week-after-week in coffee shops to pull this event together.

A quick Capital Cupcake Camp primer:

• It’s an open source event
• It’s about cupcakes. No more. No less.
• You can bake them, or just eat them.
• It’s a bit chaotic.
• Milk is served.

Click here for the MediaStyle.ca event round up from last years event.

The biggest lesson I learned from organizing an (un)conference experience was: you can never be too ready. This is where you come in. If you aren't planning on baking cupcakes this year and have 10 hours or so to spare: our first organizing meeting for version 2.0 will be next Thursday night in Centertown Ottawa--please email me ian [at] mediastyle.ca for all the details.

Last year we raised just over $3000 for Women Alive--And, in 2010 with the cupcake-scene in the Capital just heating up, I’m pretty sure Ottawa is ready to bake harder than ever.

I’m teaching a much-requested session at the Code Factory called Strategies & Tactics for Implementing Social Media - a lot of NGOs and unions ask me to teach them how to take online communications to the next level. The class is this Friday at 1pm.

This session is great for organizations with small communications offices where only one or two people need to be trained up. Already cost effective at $99.00 - MediaStyle.ca readers can take $10 off with discount code “MediaStyle”.

Not the class for you? Let me know in the comments if there is a low-cost group training experience you would like MediaStyle to offer.

Rebbeca Flemming wrote a fantastic article for The Globe and Mail about how she wasn’t the start of the Gordon Lightfoot death hoax. You can find it here. She deals with the situation with a fine wit and a literary flare. Although, one portion has slightly too much artistic license for my taste.

Specifically, I feel compelled to respond to this:

“By the time I went back online, Gordon Lightfoot was officially undead (phew!) and the witch hunt was on (uh-oh!). Media guru and sleuth Ian Capstick was hot on my trail, and even had my picture and the dreaded tweet in question on his blog. Commenters were gleefully posting personal information about me: my full name, where I lived, whom I worked for. So I did what anybody in my situation would do. I opened a bottle of wine, and began to drink.”

First, it’s not a “witch hunt” when you are trying to explain, analyze, and investigate the start of a hoax.

And, let me be very clear: While I had all of Flemming’s personal information moments after I sorted out she was the first online to declare Lightfoot dead; I only posted her then-deleted Twitter account handle. I also did not allow the posting of her name, GEDS information, or other personal data that was not connected to the @fleminski Twitter account (two commenters referenced the Google cache of @fleminski that revealed her full name). The photo mentioned was her Twitter avatar snapped via the Twitter search.

I received over 10 comments that I didn’t post that day because of their personal nature. Until today, I hadn’t had Flemming’s full name on my blog. Just wanted that to be clear that it’s never my intention to drive people to drink--unless in celebration.

So, about a year ago the New York Times pissed off an ugly little fish in New Zealand.

The venerable newspaper published an article on September 10th on A1 of the New York edition titled “From Deep Pacific, Ugly and Tasty, With a Catch”. It suggested that Hoki--also known as the main McFish meat at McDonald’s--was potentially being overfished. The New Zealand Seafood Industry Council, the industry association tasked with keeping exports of the fish alive and well, understandably chafed a little when the paper used their copyrighted image of the ugly creature to illustrate this screed.

This is where things got interesting. At the same time the New York Times was apologizing for the appropriation of the image, the association was hiring a defensive New York PR firm called CounterPoint to begin an online war against one of America’s largest newspapers. Hoki is a $151 million dollar part of the New Zealand fisheries industry, so it’s little wonder the New Zealand Seafood Industry Council found a firm that advertised itself as able to  “...help clients confront volatile media circumstances. We shield clients and counter attacks. We hold press accountable and challenge adversaries. With unique solutions and proven tactics, we safeguard clients through a hostile public affairs marketplace.”

In short, these folks at CounterPoint have no qualms about placing ads targeted at journalists, on sites journalists visit, and intended to inflict maximum pressure.

Campaign Elements

Elements to the campaign as reported in the widely cited interview with CounterPoint principal Jim McCarthy on the Nieman Journalism Lab:

1) Google Ads targeted at reporters, featuring their names and “misdeeds”

“When you include their name in the search, it draws attention to it and lets the reporter know that you mean business and you’re going to hold them responsible,” McCarthy told me over the phone.

2) Blog Ads:

"Targeting reporters where they hang out online is McCarthy’s grating specialty. He went after ABC News, on behalf of the Formaldehyde Council, with ads on Mediabistro’s TVNewser. 'It was virtually a guarantee that they and all their competitors were going to see it,' McCarthy told me with more than a little relish."

3) Convert existing established landing pages with better content to rebut and include proactive messaging

“...the Times had linked to it in the third paragraph of the article (at right), and 78,000 people clicked though, according to Sarah Crysell, a spokeswoman for the council. Taking advantage of that incoming traffic, the group transformed its hoki page into a rebuttal of the Times story.” The ads also pointed to this same landing page.

4) Pressure

Remember that apology for using the picture of the Hoki without permission? CounterPoint used this as the main hook for their Google Ads and targeted MediaBistro presence: “NYT Apologizes for story - Fisherman hold NYT to account”.

5) Tactician with gumption to apply pressure

Channel V Media Blog spent some time with McCarthy and described him like this:

“... he has a little bit different approach from the rest of us. While most of us publicists are busy pandering to the press in our efforts to get coverage for our clients, Jim is all about taking reporters on and holding them accountable for what they write. Sort of a one man Media Accountability Office. Okay, so it's not exactly like he does this out of the goodness of his heart-he gets hired by companies to monitor media and journalists for biases, inaccuracies or less-than-whole-truth reporting about them. (Thus the name, CounterPoint. Get it?)”

Who is using “Hoki-tactics”?

The Sharp Agency in Chicago talks about how they used similar “Hoki-style” ads in their political work. They aren’t the only ones.

“We’ve used similar tactics for a recent political campaign here in Illinois, working with a local political consulting group to blitz all of the keywords surrounding the candidates for a key state election on the day of a candidacy announcement. When you searched for the candidate’s opponent’s name on the announcement day, the first thing you saw was an ad for OUR candidate, with a message designed to counter-program. When you looked up the current office holder’s name, the first thing you saw was an ad for the new candidate for office, with a link to a site for donations with a nice video commercial. The campaign had the effect of blanketing the digital landscape during a crucial period in the media cycle.”

But is this SEO style AdWords war really going to work? Is this how applying political micro pressure works? I think this is one way, but it’s basic and crass. Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and targeted placement work to get attention--this is true. You can easily watch clicks turn to converts and converts to donors.

But the value is decreasing as a younger generation grows up. Gen Y are digital savvy realists with a finely tuned bull shit detector. Allowing for more nuanced ways of creating the kind of links online that Google loves makes long-term sense. As does fostering a community of supporters and advocates online before you need them--or before you resort to tactics like the ones our ugly little fish friend uses.

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to the preview of the decor and food for the fast approaching Black and White Opera Soiree at the National Arts Centre. The Black & White night at the NAC has become a political must-be-seen-at-affair of the fundraising season, and it now rivals to the Venetian Ball in total dollars raised.

Official Ottawa is in for a treat this year. As we reported here some months ago, Chef Michael Blackie has moved from his previous four-star kitchen at the Brookstreet Hotels Perspectives Restaurant and is now comfortably ensconced at the fifth artisitic director at the NAC--Culinary Arts. The video recaps the meal created for the February 27th event and the stunning decor created by Avant-Garde Designs.

Food & Decor preview for the NAC Black & White Opera Soiree from Ian Capstick on Vimeo.

From the interview here are some ways you can bring the Black & White experience into your next client dinner, birthday party, or romantic evening:

Advice for chef-style food at home:

• Warm plates make for warm meals--wrap them in a damp towel and put them in a warm oven (not too hot!)
• Chef Blackie suggests that your next stove have a lower warming drawer if you are planning to entertain regularly
• Get your guests helping with serving or stirring; no chef works without a little help

Advice for professional level decor

• Symmetry: line everything up, match all the elements and
• Levels: use mirrors (get them at Ikea), glass blocks, ice slabs, or even inverted glasses to provide pillars, heights, and depth to your table
• Simple colour palette: this year's Black & White Opera Soiree is based on the purple, black, and white invite. Ottawa’s Avant Guard Designs created the purple table scape for the fundraiser based on the invite produced at the NAC

The real story of who is behind the Gordon Lightfoot is sort of like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle. Each media outlet has a little bit of the puzzle, but there is still a bit of a mystery.

First, Facebook played an unseen role in this drama. The social networking site has become the go-to place for public grief, so it’s no surprise that it helped set off the first alarm bells about the “death.”  The source of the first digital mention? Ronnie Hawkins' wife, Wanda.

From Sean Michaels' article in the Guardian (emphasis mine):

This will have come as a relief to Ronnie Hawkins, the musician whose backing band became the Band. A friend of Lightfoot's, he was quoted in the early Canwest story, confirming the news. Hawkins said he had received a call from his management in Minneapolis, who had in turn received a call from Lightfoot's grandson, telling them the singer had died. "I don't know Gordon's grandson," Hawkins later told the Globe and Mail. "I didn't even know if Gordon has a grandson. I called my wife in Florida and told her, and I guess she faxed some of her friends and now, all of a sudden, it's all over the world. It's terrible. I can't even get hold of Gordon. Holy smoke, it's unbelievable." ... Hawkins suggested they trace the phone call to Minneapolis. "I think they can trace that phone call, maybe, and see who did that," he said. "I'm glad it is a sick joke, but it's bad."

Several sources have now confirmed that the prank call to Hawkins' management set the ball in motion, and this is when Wanda Hawkins took to the phone, fax machine, and Facebook.

This is where our Ottawa tweeter, @fleminksi, comes in. She knows a close friend of Wanda Hawkins. Our Ottawa tweeter's friend shared her grief on Facebook. The Ottawa tweeter in turn expresses her grief on Twitter and concurrently (and unrelated) CanWest is on the phone with Ronnie Hawkins--who no doubt believes his wife--and expresses his grief to the newspaper.

Meanwhile, this confirmation triggers an “alert” to go out across the CanWest newswire and CanWest reporters across Canada start tweeting it.

David Akin has some reflective and characteristically classy words about all of this on his blog.

And as Media Memo’s Peter Kafka says: Twitter didn't kill Gordon Lightfoot, Big Media did.

But say it is true. Twitter still didn’t force Canwest, the big Canadian media conglomerate, to publish a wire report that said the singer was dead. As best I can tell, it was that story, which was picked up by various Canwest newspaper sites, that convinced people that Lightfoot had croaked.

As Kafka says, this doesn’t suggest that CanWest is off the hook for not double or triple sourcing their facts. And, had an editor at CanWest News Service jumped onto the Twitter search, they too could have found--in well less than 30 minutes--that Lightfoot was alive.

Here is the point I think people should be very clear on: while the tweet from @fleminski came first, it certainly wasn’t what set off the nearly 3,000+ tweets in two hours. That is most certainly the fault of whoever pressed the “go” button on the CanWest wire alert.

All in all, only one person should be very happy about all of this: Gordon Lightfoot. His radio play hasn’t been this big in decades and he just successfully introduced himself to a generation of Canucks who thought he was already dead.

Update:  Some added information from a friend of the "Ottawa tweeter" at ThreeSeven.ca

However, it appears that the mainstream media jumped on it. Within half an hour of tweeting, Fleminski received a phone call from a reporter from CanWest (1. holy sleuth work, and 2. boundaries much, media?) asking for the source. She replied honestly: Ronnie Hawkins. The media then called Hawkins who confirmed the story. Believing they had a confirmed story, the media then ran with it.

So who is to blame for the so-called “Twitter hoax” about Gordon Lightfoot death?

CanWest is reporting a Twitter hoax is to blame:

“Bernie Fiedler, Mr. Lightfoot's concert promoter, told the National Post that a rumour about the singer's death was started by "someone in Ottawa" and posted on Twitter.”

Yet, Toronto news channel CP24 claims CanWest’s David Akin was at fault. And, anyone watching on Twitter saw CanWest publish and retract the story all within an hour.

As the first word of Lightfoot’ “passing” came it was all going down it seemed fishy. So, I jumped onto Twitter search and called up the earliest reference to Lightfoot’s passing.

It looks as if Lightfoot’s manager could be right. A single tweet came before all the others - and might have set off this mess. I tracked down the tweet in question. And, it wasn’t David Akin or CanWest. But, it was repeated very quickly by them. Here is the image above of the tweet is from an account @fleminski - an account which no longer exists (the time stamp in the image says 1hour ago, as the tweet was one hour old when I captured the image). A well-known Ottawa tweeter @zchamu called it out very, very quickly. And the folks at Roots Music Canada tried valiantly to stop the impending carnage:

(see: http://twitter.com/rootsmusicanada/status/9297134904)

Now, somehow Ronnie Hawkin’s got mixed up into all of this. Perhaps he is even the real "very start" of this whole mess. CanWest's Akin quickly outed him has the source of the rumor. More to come as no doubt Akin will blog about this.