Harnessing the ellusive story

So I needed a second story for my online cycle at The Toronto Observer Saturday night I was at Cathy Perry's 50th birthday party, when random dude mentioned myttc.ca. It's a trip planning website, unaffiliated with the TTC. Could it be a story? So I started telling people about it, and excitement was building, until Vanessa burst my bubble by asking if it was like TTC's Trip Planner Crap. I never knew TTC had a trip planner. I'm from the days when you would call a hotline, and a surly operator would tell you where to go. And where to stick it. So I played with the sites. Starting point: home. Destination: work. A simple route, and one that I've taken numerous times. myttc.ca gave me my tried and true route, timing was pretty accurate and allowed for walking time. Perfect. But what did the TTC have to say? 5 minutes. Same route as myttc.ca (which would take 25 minutes total), however, I would only need 5 minutes according to the TTC. I usually drive to work. And it has NEVER taken me 5 minutes. Maybe 7 minutes if I hit all the green lights, whiz 70 km/hr up Birchmount in a 50 zone, and had absolutely no traffic on the road...(ah...sweet Sunday mornings...) If I can't do it in 5 minutes in my car, how does the TTC expect a rumbling bus to do it, and make the necessary stops in between? OK. Let's try another experiment. Let's not get excited yet. Starting point: home. Destination: school. Typed the exact same info into both planners. myttc.ca provided a logical route. TTC trip planner, on the other hand, told me that my school did not exist near any transit routes. Uhh... TTC Directions to the Centre for Creative Communications: From Broadview station, take the 62 Mortimer bus right to the campus (Carlaw/Mortimer). From Pape station, take the 25 Don Mills or the 81 Thorncliffe Park bus to Mortimer and walk one block west to Carlaw Ave. Otherwise, the campus is a 10 minute walk north from Pape station NOW, I had a story. Stay tuned to part deux... passive aggressive emails and technology malfunctions!

CBC embraces multiplatform journalism

Cathy Perry (right) poses at the Finch Bailey Bridge with my mother, Penny Blake, circa 1977.

When Cathy Perry was asked to speak to journalism students at Centennial College about multiplatfrom journalism, she was afraid she'd bore them to tears. Cathy Perry went to high school with my mother. But more importantly, she works as the planning desk editor at the CBC's hub. "It's the centre of intelligence for CBC news," Perry said. The hub consists of 3 desks: for planning, live now, and daily news. This gives journalists a single point of contact. Multiplatform journalism is where the industry seems to be going. The hub speeds up communication, which is necessary in a profession with shrinking deadlines. Perry showed us a video about the hub, spoke for a few minutes, and then opened up the floor to our questions. Perry used the example of the disaster in Haiti to illustrate how the hub works. I finally feel like I know what multiplatform journalism looks like in action. And am reassured that the CBC won't expect me to grow a third arm in order to file a story for online, radio and TV all in the same day. And none of us were bored. At least not to tears.

I'm allready envisioning my future office

For our February 5th issue of the East Toronto Observer I was a production editor. Our faculty coordinator, Lindy gave me a colour printout of the front page. My immediate thought: Yay! I'll have something to hang in my office...one day. Second thought: Shit. I'm going to have to frame this. Third thought: What a wonderful new project to procrastinate on. We put out a pretty damn good issue, if I do say so myself... I'll figure out a way to post it on the blog... after much procrastination. Am also teaching a production workshop to some TDCB kiddies over my reading week. Because I really have too much free time on my hands, I need to throw another ball into the air! Oh, and just an FYI, loyal readers (haha). I will be posting a homework assignment tonight. For my multiplatform journalism class, Cathy Perry from the CBC gave a presentation to my class. Incidentally, she went to high school with my mother, and crazier still, I went to Cathy's 50th birthday party the next day.