Blogerati

Bloggers Vs. The Nation on CBC Test the Nation

20080117_TestTheNationBloggers.jpgFor viewers of CBC's Test the Nation show, you'll be pleased to know that blogTO's prayers have been answered for a bloggers team on an upcoming show.

This game show will pit a group of 36 bloggers against five other identifiable groups in a trivia contest with a 21st Century theme. You can follow along at home or online, as teams battle it out in the CBC studio for bragging rights.

Regular blogTO contributors Adam Schwabe, Ryan Couldrey and Graeme Stewart will join a team of bloggers who are up against other themed teams, including: Cab Drivers, Chefs, Flight Crew, Backpackers and Celebrity Look-alikes.

With Rannie Turingan of Photojunkie, and Amber MacArthur formerly of Webnation, we're sure to outsmart the competition. We've even got David Topping of Torontoist on our team.

The Blogerati Files: The Client Side

Over the past two years The Blogerati Files has featured many great interviews with local blogging favourites. It's time to shake up the format and spread the spotlight. Until then, this will be the last interview-style Blogerati Files post...

blogerati_07242007.jpgThis week in the Blogerati Files, The Client Side's Michael Seaton, Director of Digital Marketing at Scotiabank..

Describe your blog in 10 words or less.
A client-based view of marketing, advertising, communications and digital media.

Why did you start blogging?
It started as an experiment. There were so many great advertising and PR agency people blogging from their world-view, but there was a dearth of client voices being heard. I wanted to balance things out and keep all those agency hacks on their toes! ;-)

I celebrated my first anniversary last May and am coming up on the first anniversary of my podcast shortly, which is also called The Client Side. I began blogging when I helped launch the Canadian Marketing Association's Blog. I figured why not start up my own blog too.

How long have you lived in Toronto?
I lived in Toronto all of my life. Toronto is an awesome city. It has a great soul.

What's the funniest/strangest thing that has happened to you in Toronto?
When I was fourteen, I was in a line at McDonald's (which used to be across from the Eaton Centre) right next to Leonard Cohen. He had just played a concert at Massey Hall around the corner. We chatted for a little while over some french fries. He was very cool and a really nice guy. I was too young at the time to realize how influential an artist he was.

The Blogerati Files: Bookninja

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This week in the Blogerati Files, George Murray, poet and an editor of Bookninja .

Describe your blog in 10 words or less.
The internet's deadliest book site.

Why did you start blogging?
I started blogging with a friend, but now continue on my own, because our group of young writers and editors that hung out at a particular pub in Toronto were starting to move away from the city to parts unknown and blogging was a good way of keeping the conversations going over vast distances. People could check in when they liked, but didn't feel obligated to respond as they would have with email. I had admired MobyLives, an American book blog for years before I started Bookninja in August of 2003. August 11, was our first post, I think. Since then we've added a magazine component with essays, reviews, interviews, and discussion pieces, as well as a section of crappy, but funny, comics I drew. We're really enjoying audio interviews right now, but are working on all kinds of print pieces too. The editor of the Magazine section is my good friend, the novelist Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, who lives in High Park.

How long have you lived in Toronto?
I have mostly lived in Toronto off and on for about 15 years. Between my stints there, I've lived in Italy and Manhattan. I just moved to St. John's, Newfoundland. Moving for me is now just a matter of plugging my wires into different walls. My spiritual home is still Toronto.

The Blogerati Files: Feminist Toronto

blogerati_05252007.jpgThis week in the Blogerati Files, Feminist Toronto .

Describe your blog in 10 words or less.
An outlet and meeting place for feminists in Toronto.

How long have you lived in Toronto?
Two years.

What's the funniest/strangest thing that has happened to you in Toronto? Did you blog about it?
Probably your "typical" Zanta encounter on the subway. Since I try to blog mostly about feminist issues, Zanta didn't really fit in. So, no, I didn't blog about it, though it would be pretty funny.

What era, day or event in Toronto's history would you like to re-live and why?
I'd like to be able to see Queen Street West before the artist crowd started moving in. I'd like to see it pre-Drake and pre-Gladstone. There are still pieces of the old Queen Street holding on, but its getting high-end really quickly. I'd like to be able to stroll the streets before the trendiness, just to see what it is that's being pushed out now.

The Blogerati Files: Pony

blogerati_05112007.jpgThis week in the Blogerati Files, Pony .

Describe your blog in 10 words or less.
Observations, articulations, dedications and celebrations.

Why did you start blogging? What's your blog's birthday?
My blog's birthday is March 29, 2001.

While researching online communities at the tailend of the dot com era, I came across happyrobot.net. I started a really fun email exchange with the webmaster, Rich*. Eventually he built a little web-based submitter to post my ramblings. I hadn't ever heard the term blog before, but I was tickled that a handful of folks were reading my stories.

(*Rich hates the word blog, so this article will totally make him cringe.)

I have kept writing this for six years because unlike keeping a notebook, you have an audience, and something about posting it online gives it weight and makes it content.

How long have you lived in Toronto?
On and off since 1986.

The Blogerati Files: Dave on a Cruise

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This week in the Blogerati Files, Dave on a Cruise .

Describe your blog in 10 words or less.
One man's adventures aboard a cruise ship for 8 months.

Why did you start blogging? What's your blog's birthday?
I started blogging November 5, 2006, when I first boarded the Norwegian Jewel. I wanted to document the specific adventures, concerns and problems that a cruise ship performer from Toronto would have spending most of a year aboard a big floating mall.

How long have you lived in Toronto?
Since August, 1985.

What's the funniest/strangest thing that has happened to you in Toronto? Did you blog about it?
My improv troupe was scheduled to headline the Toronto Improv Fest, and were profiled on the cover of NOW Magazine. I had the flu, and was so sick I was considering skipping the show, but fortunately the big blackout of 2003 happened that day, so I was off the hook. I'd like to thank the merchants of Toronto who blast their air conditioning and leave their doors open for that one. You saved my butt.

I would have blogged about it, but my computer didn't work for a couple days...some kind of power issue. Oh, and I didn't blog then.
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