We're back in Calgary and off the foggy roads. Well, at least until the furniture arrives... Next month.

And let me just say that while I love Chicago, the State of Illinois Department of Highway Robbery is quite another matter. The rebuilding of I94/80? Oh yeah that's going really well. And thanks for making it even harder for out-of-state folks to pay for your tollways. Beauty. Illinois is managed kinda' like Canada. One party, for far too long.

Which leads me to my opener of the new blogging year; the Great Canadian Election of Winter 2006. People are starting to stir to the fact that they may elect a Conservative government but I'm going to doubt right here that it will be a majority. I am indeed filled with wonder and respect yet again for the people of Quebec. Not only have they moved the Conservatives from 8% to 20% in the Quebec polls; but also, they are definitely on to something in the likes of Gilles Duceppe.

Duceppe, destroyed the last vestige of Paul Minister Prime Martin's credibility over 2 nights of debate earlier this week. Duceppe is no master of the English language but, like Chretien, he is much better than he lets on. Drawing Martin into recognizing the "Nation" of Quebec on Monday was a great moment in Canadian politic debate. For me, the best I've heard since Mulroney's famous "You had a choice, Sir!" outburst in the '80's.

Harper's, 'aw shucks, I'm not a charismatic spin-doctor' routine was just what the spin doctor ordered. Now the race is his to lose.

Liberals had it all with Jean Chretien. They had the House, the Senate, the Privy Council. They built on the legacy of their enemy Mulroney - who began the process of great national transformation - and they let the economy throb to life. They had the trust of a majority of Canadians and they were embued with a heritage of entitlement that was firmly rooted in the legacy of the Trudeau and Pearson years.

Over the past 3 years -- for no good reason -- the Party has rusted and wrenched itself apart. We are witnessing no less than all out civil war in this election as Liberals fight Liberals for the crumbs of the legacy.

Into the breach steps an untested Conservative party. An amalgam of reformers, populists and progressives. The next stage of national greatness will once again be initiated by a Conservative government. Will Harper be a Mulroney or a Clark? A Macdonald or a Meighen? Will we define ourselves by the visions of a leader or the narrowness of a man?

Some have suggested that blogging represents a new marketing opportunity for business. Blogging is really the same thing the web has promised and delivered to many businesses over the past decade. It's just an easier way to get your web site updated in a timely manner. With timeliness come better search results and more traffic.


A principle of marketing theory is that you know your target group. Does your product appeal to 30-something mothers, bow hunters or gay car owners? You may think that such specificity is just not possible -- or for that matter relevant -- with many product and service offerings. What if you have customers that cover all of those aforementioned profiles and more? Then you're just not looking at the right differentiators.


Enter blogging. What is written about in a blog can act as both a filter and a magnet. "A-list" bloggers are expected to have certain opinions, biases, strengths and weaknesses. With the weight of time, experience, exposure and contribution one learns to filter portions of a blogger's spiel because it's just not germane to why you like reading (and -- increasingly -- like listening to) them. Dave Winer has an annoying presence on the microphone. His wandering cadence, repeated use of "um" and "you know", along with his annoying habit of snorting into the mic, make his "Morning Coffee Notes" abysmally amateurish. His repeated attempts at sophmoric "Bush" bashing also seem wildly out of context. But Dave's not a broadcaster. I filter that stuff out and listen for content related to past and future insights regarding software and the internet. I like "Morning Coffee Notes". It's a damn site better than seeing some "deer-in-the-headlights" CEO -- reading from a teleprompter -- being "interviewed" by the Morning Call crew on CNBC. That's not marketing; that's just propaganda.


What about lower tier bloggers like me? Can we get away with being annoying, can we stray off-message and still be heard and read? I never, ever put anything up on the blog without thinking twice about it. I don't want to post something that would have to be pulled down later. I do edit blog posts; mainly because I mangle and mis-spell with the best of them, but I know I have posted items that many people -- perhaps potential customers -- don't agree with. Well, let it be known, there is something of a method in that. I don't advocate anything radical, non-sensical or harmful, so if you find yourself so totally at odds with something you have read here that you would never visit again or work with me, that's okay; I don't want you as a customer. In sales we call that "qualification" and it's also a key principle of market differentiation. Filter and magnet.

This posting is a community experiment that tests how a meme, represented by this blog posting, spreads across blogspace, physical space and time. It will help to show how ideas travel across blogs in space and time and how blogs are connected. It may also help to show which blogs are most influential in the propagation of memes. The dataset from this experiment will be public, and can be located via Google (or Technorati) by doing a search for the GUID for this meme (below).

The original posting for this experiment is located at: Minding the Planet (Permalink: http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2004/08/a_sonar_ping_of.html)

Of course the spin will be "we're just getting it right". Let's start a pool... when does Nortel get de-listed?