Publisher's Platform

Former president Bush warned that the war on terror would go on for many years.  However long that war endures, the battle for resources promises to be longer.  If BP CEO Tony Hayward gives us any clues, it's that the war for resources will be even more insidious than the war on terror.  Its targets will move like phantoms, protected by vast wealth and the governments they undermine.  The enemies in this war, like Hayward, will be brutal as they manage their own interests.  They will be our worse criminals and utterly untouchable.

As oil continued to gush into the Gulf of Mexico at a newly estimated rate of 100,000 barrels a day, Hayward testified at a U.S. Congressional Hearing. 

It was billed as a chance to mix and mingle with the mayor and Vision Vancouver elected officials. Last night, at a Vision Vancouver fundraiser at Coast Plaza Hotel on Comox Street, Gregor Robertson made good on his party's promise.

Robertson entered the room to the sound of Indo-Canadian drummers and after his speech there was a dance to bring good luck to the proceedings.  The title of the evening was "Vision Celebrates Vancouver."

Following this, the mayor hung out for hours in the convention room with more than 400 people. He sampled food from a buffet which included sushi and samosas and talked with students, business leaders, developers, union representatives, activists, other politicians, constituents and media types.

Michael Tippett started NowPublic in his garage.  NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world. Tippett came to talk to the Writing for the Web symposium at Hollyhock this weekend. He spoke for two hours about search engine optimization, great news sites, new software, making mistakes and how to get intimate with Google. Google is the largest media company in the world, he pointed out, and if you're not intimate with them yet (the algorithm, the robotic crawler), it's time to get to know them much better.  That is,  if you hope to push your blog, your news site, your business site, or your message out to the world.  

For starters, he suggested reading about how to write headlines for tips on how to get noticed on searches.

"Get a Facebook page, get a Twitter page, get a blog and get set-up to publish on all of these things,” he said.