In the future, elections will be won on the Internet via competing SNL digital shorts... or something like that. However, while Canadian politicians aren't (yet) ridiculous enough to fall on to the US radar, even our politicians recognize the value of weighing in on the Internet as well as traditional media streams.

Each party has a fairly decent website (if you're interested, Conservative, Green Party, Liberals, and NDP) but this is hardly where to go for critical, unbiased, or generally entertaining political content. Instead I'm trying some of these more clever sites to help me decide where to place my vote.

As a technologist (wow, that term sounds dated) the start-uppity, trend-setting culture of Silicon Valley has always been alluring to me. Lord knows I have the thick-rimmed glasses, the MacBook, the (potentially long) sideburns, and have been in enough Starbucks to qualify to move across the continent. In the end though, I chose to stay put in Toronto because of my friends and family.

Fortunately for me, Toronto has a unique, burgeoning tech scene of its very own.

Case in point, WordCamp Toronto: A two-day conference about blogging and the tools to make it happen -- in this case, WordPress. Those two days, I should point out, were this past Saturday and Sunday, so I had to ask myself: Was I ready to spend $25 and give up my weekend at Centennial College's Student Centre @ Progress Campus, to listen to people potentially go on and on about blogs and technology? You bet your bippy, I was!

I drive often enough on highways in Toronto to know that sitting in bumper-to-bumper situations (on the eastbound Gardiner Expressway, at the Humber, at 6pm on a Tuesday evening) can get the better of you.

I distract myself from the fact that the illuminated road sign ahead says "GARDINER MOVING VERY SLOW SOUTH KINGSWAY TO BEYOND DUFFERIN" (on a good day the word VERY is not included in the message). I ask myself questions that I never remember to follow through on, like "how does that sign know where and when there's congestion?"

Upon doing a little digging, I discovered that it's not just helicopters observing from overhead, and cameras scanning the road from utility poles. We also have sensors buried beneath the pavement that detect vehicle movement patterns and automatically report conditions back to the City and the public via road signs and the web and, if you feel that ten buckaroos is worth it, to your iPhone.

Ruckus Magazine, an online publication aimed at student artists in the GTA, launched last week at CineCycle.

Created by grads and current students at York University, the web site is still a work in progress but ultimately plans to feature local artist profiles, info about grants and art focused events, news, reviews and event previews in all arts disciplines from poetry to dance.

Earlier today I connected with Senior Editor Carl Hiehn who filled me in on the Ruckus story and plans for the future. Our Q&A is below.

Students from the Canadian Film Centre's Media Lab have created a Facebook application that allows users to send green challenges to their friends. Dubbed Greenwave, the app is still under wraps (ie. not available to the public - but photo of the app is above) but was previewed last night at Lennox Contemporary to launch this weekend's And then s/he turned to me and said exhibit.

WordCamp Toronto is this weekend, and while the conference is billed as a gathering of Wordpress users it's really much more than that.

For one, I'll be there on Sunday talking a bit about this site and we don't use Wordpress. We use Movable Type. And the conversations promise to be about much more than plug-ins, development or software related discussions, but as well big topics like, say, the future of media, the web and the emergence of social networks.

The full schedule is here. It all takes place this Saturday and Sunday (October 4th and 5th) in the Student Centre at Centennial College.

Photos by michaelcummings and Doncha on Flickr