Wow, for a town of 13,000 it’s impressive that 2,000 people showed up to protest.

The Prince Rupert police estimate that 2,000 people protested against the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline in Prince Rupert yesterday, in a rally that took over the city.

via Two thousand protest Enbridge oilsands pipeline in Prince Rupert | The Vancouver Observer.

Thanks to The Mayor for supporting the Made in Vancouver initiative.  Ayoudo is working with the city and others to make this happen.  Here’s part of the release from City Hall:

“The battle for cities to become digital start-up centres is competitive, and Vancouver is competing with international talent in the US, Europe, Asia, and around the world,” said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. “‘Made in Vancouver’ is all about fostering a stronger digital community in Vancouver, providing connections and resources for budding entrepreneurs and building tomorrow’s tech leaders.”

via Mayor of Vancouver » Blog Archive » ‘Made in Vancouver’ start-up list launches to promote local tech innovators.

The Province wrote about Ayoudo and our support for Made in Vancouver:

If Internet startup companies are the new band, and entrepreneurs the new rock stars — as Vancouver digital impresario Michael Tippett believes — the Made in Vancouver startup directory he and others unveiled Thursday will be the tour bus, the venue and the groupies all rolled into one localized website.

The new site — www.vanmade.ca — is supported by the City of Vancouver and aims to be the go-to place for Vancouverites to find out what’s new and what’s happening in the city’s burgeoning online business scene, Tippett said.

via A new home for Vancouver’s online talent.

Today in Vancouver we’re launching Ayoudo. It’s a project I’ve been working on with a great team for the last 6 months. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Yes! you can upload a photo of your snow covered driveway to flickr …

but social media won’t shovel it.

Yes! You can put videos of your wedding on Facebook …

but social media won’t organize your wedding.

Yes. You can tweet about the flood …

but social media won’t help you sandbag your property.

Social media has allowed you to share your experiences but has never allowed you to tap the collective help of those around you.  But Ayoudo has changed all that.

via Ayoudo is Social Media in Action.

Great to see another Canadian accelerator get some cash:

Not to be outdone by its southern neighbor, Canada has been hard at work on its own fleet of tech startup accelerators. Back in June, Montreal became the home to FounderFuel, Vancouver has GrowLab, and Toronto had Extreme University. Well, let’s clarify that: Back in November, Extreme Venture Partners announced the launch of a new-and-improved version of its accelerator program, ExtremeU.

via Extreme Startups Launches Accelerator With $7 Million In Funding From Top Canadian VCs | TechCrunch.

The brilliant Jeremy Bailey who will be at The Western Front this week.

Hey You With the Totoally Awesome Face (short edit) – YouTube.

Stephen Harper has been trying to paint opponents of his prized pipeline as radical Americans who shouldn’t be meddling in Canadian business.   But in reality much of the opposition to the development is coming from the indigenous tribes that still control the land.

But is Harper developing a new narrative that he can use as a way to show that Americans are the enemies of Canada’s First Nations too?  According to The Globe, at a recent meeting Harper:

… also talked about the role of first nation leaders and warriors in the War of 1812 – an anniversary that the Conservative government intends to mark this year with much fanfare.

via Harper rules out total repeal of Indian Act, vows ‘aggressive’ action – The Globe and Mail.

History can be a powerful weapon in defining the future.

Unanimous Indigenous opposition to the Enbridge Pipeline make a total mockery of the government’s claims that the plans are being opposed by radical ‘foreigners’.

This from Adam Gagnon in describing his opposition to the Enbridge pipeline:

The representatives of Enbridge here have asked for the last eight years. I’ve sat with them in meetings. We’ve told them no. It’s not respectful to keep asking. What part of no do they not understand? They try to sell dreams to people who are poor, that this wealth will make their life better. Give poor people money and their life doesn’t get better it gets worse. We’ve seen that time and time again.

via No oil pipeline here: Enbridge Northern Gateway Joint Review Panel in Smithers finds 100% opposition | The Vancouver Observer – Page 1.

 

“Land prices are high, it is said, higher than anything would warrant. ’Why, the workingmen cannot afford to pay at the rate demanded for these tiny outside lots,’ asserted one man recently. The same thing was said here twenty years ago, answer the pioneers; others of us know that it was repeated ten years ago and five years ago, and our children and our children’s children will hear the same tale of woe decades hence.”

- RJ McDougal, BC Real Estate, 1911

via Land Of Destiny: A History of Vancouver Real Estate – The Dependent Magazine | Vancouver.

Anonymous Says Theyll Attack Facebook Next.

Facebook.

It was nearly a decade ago that I started thinking about how camera phones and blogs were going to change the news business.  Those thoughts eventually turned into NowPublic and we built – before there was youtube, twitter or facebook – the world’s largest citizen journalism network.  A year earlier Flickr was changing the world by letting people share photos and helping define the way Web 2.0 worked.  Their pioneering work resulted in some of the first reports of news events like the Tsunami in Thailand and other global news events.

Both companies were born in Vancouver and both played a significant role in the development of what is now called social news.   But a whole new generation of social news companies are popping up that can take advantage of your social graph and our collective reading and viewing practices.

Two of the hottest companies in this space are also from Vancouver and both have been bought in the last 6 months.  In August Vancouver startup Zite was bought by CNN and just  yesterday another social news company in the city was snapped up, this time by twitter:

Vancouver’s Summify announced this morning on their blog that they have been acquired by Twitter.

via Vancouver’s Summify acquired by Twitter – Techvibes.com.

Is Vancouver becoming a hub for social news innovation?

The city has one f the most technically savvy J-Schools in North America with people like Alf Hermida (the guy who founded BBCNews.com) and Vancouverites are quick to adopt new technology particularly.   Recently Vancouver’s Startup Weekend brought together some of Vancouver’s newest startup enthusiasts.  The weekend’s winning team went on to take top honors for the nation in an international competition that pitted them against 30 other counties.   And last year GrowLab brought in 5 startups from across the globe to participate in the accelerator’s first cohort.

All this is good new for the news business, startups and Vancouver.  Let’s keep it going.

This puts that whole ‘foreign radical’ category into perspective.

A controversial deal signed by a B.C. First Nation official with Enbridge on the Northern Gateway pipeline project has been rejected in a vote by aboriginal leaders.A meeting of 36 Gitxsan hereditary chiefs Tuesday officially rejected the agreement signed by Gitxsan Treaty Society negotiator Elmer Derrick in December.

via B.C. native chiefs overturn deal with Enbridge on Gateway pipeline – The Globe and Mail.

Image(810) | Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

Vancouver Police Homicide Detectives have been called in to investigate after a man was shot dead at about 7:45 p.m. inside a restaurant in the Wall Centre in the 1000 block Burrard Street.