Robert Ouellette from Reading Toronto has openly challenged Adam Giambrone, chair of the TTC, to redesign their web site with the help of Toronto's active blogging community. "Toronto bloggers are more than willing to offer their insights into how the TTC site might be designed Why not give us a call and ask for our input," Ouellette writes at RT.

The current TTC web site is terrible. Using drop-down menus for the most important information and ad-like banners for less important announcements and links, the TTC web site throws the study of human-computer interaction on its head. Information that could save you 15 minutes in transit might take 30 minutes to find online.

Giambrone responded to Ouellette's challenge and is interested in the project. This could mark a huge change in the TTC's attitude towards some of its biggest supporters, between the TTC and the large community of people who love and use it.

We need blogTO's readers to give suggestions of how the TTC can make a state-of-the-art web site. What features does it need? What should it look like? The idea is to come together with these suggestions at a "blogger symposium", find the 10 most insightful reader suggestions and present these to the TTC. Then the blogging community can track how the organization responds to the suggestions.

Spacing Wire and Torontoist are reporting that Ian Stevens has combined the TTC's Ride Guide PDF with Google Maps and Sean Lerner's TTC Subway Rider's Efficiency Guide.

It's loading a little slow for me on my stolen wireless, but it looks to be extremely useful. You can click on any station (or select it from a pull down menu) and it gives you the address of the station and links to the platform maps. All surface transit is highly visible, address search is working great, and you can link to any location on the map.

With any luck, someone at the TTC will finally realize how important this kind of fan generated content is. Until then I'll have to wait for my TTC Anagram Map, Google Maps mashup.

Spending this past weekend in Ottawa I was happy to see how many bars were stocking Steam Whistle. I hadn't given our local beer enough credit, thinking it was primarily a Toronto thing. It makes sense though, Ottawa, the capital of our nation, is only a few hours away. And just when I thought that Steam Whistle couldn't get any more patriotic, I hear that they are shipping beer to the Canadian Forces stationed in Afghanistan.

I can't think of a better way to show support for our troops. Whether or not I agree with Canada's role in Afghanistan is not important. The fact is: those are Canadians out there, and they deserve some beer!

"I credit the staff for undertaking this worthy initiative. The staff suggested we try to help the troops enjoy a taste of home for their Christmas party. Every staff member donated one week's worth of their staff beer for the Armed Forces Christmas Party," explained Cam Heaps, President of Steam Whistle. It was nice seeing the Toronto beer only as far away as Ottawa; I can only imagine what it would be like for a Torontonian on duty to open the signature green case.

photo: Zach Slootsky

The show was completely packed and I kept running into people I knew who I hadn't seen in ages. Getting to and from the stage was mayhem and when Prince Paul started his DJ set, things just got more insane; people were losing their minds when Stetsasonic dropped.

I had been asked to come down and take some photos in exchange for some guest list abuse(for my friends), and some drink tickets (for me to abuse). At first, people were not as eager to give up their photos as they had been the night before at Club Filth, but hey, this was a hip-hop show after all.

After Prince Paul's set of old-school crowd-pleasers, people loosened up a bit. And so did I, thanks to those drink tickets. I'm posting some photos "after the jump" or you can see more on flickr or at Take More Photos. Expect more hip-hop shows like this from Never Forgive Action, and New Kicks.

Format Magazine launched in mid-october and is already making a name for itself. The online venture, founded by U of T student Daniel Eckler, has already been linked to by some very prominent blogs in the urban art and fashion worlds. Format tries to "maintain a broad scope" and takes notice of "elements from every corner of the art world, including, but not limited to: fashion, street art, traditional fine art, graffiti, sneaker culture, designer toys, film, photography, design, music, books, and magazines," says Eckler.

Publishing issues at a feverish bi-weekly pace (with lots of new content showing up in between), Format Magazine is becoming a leading online destination for those interested with urban art and fashion. With about a quarter of the staff from Toronto there is naturally a Hogtown vibe happening but doesn't limit itself to only local events and news. "Each issue has had at least one piece with a Toronto focus. We'll continue to represent the city, but Format is an international publication, with an international staff, and so our scope will continue to be international."

Talking to Eckler you first notice his enthusiasm about the project. It started with $1500 of his own money and he really believes in the concept. So do others apparently. His staff is now up to 30 people and the ads have started showing up. Daniel is a self motivated culture journalist, and would probably fit in pretty well at blogTO, if he didn't try to take it over that is. Read on for the full interview.

The people at Who Runs This Town have created a video advertisement that aims to get more people out to vote on November 13th. Dave Meslin of WRTT writes:

We've just posted a 60-second video about the Toronto election on our website. The City hasn't done any television ads promoting the election, so we thought we'd do it ourselves!

If there was any doubt of whether to vote, this should clear it up. WWRT is probably the best resource we have for all things related to the upcoming election.