I really enjoy appearing on the TV Ontario show The Agenda, in part because the conversation led by host Steve Paikin is always top notch, taking the guests and audience into new territory. Steve has this way of simultaneously understanding where the conversation is going while also keeping it grounded in language and concepts that are as accessible as possible. This type of intellectual populism is precisely what I think enables engaging television.

Last night's panel was on the subject of "Socializing Online", it was produced by celebrity TVO producer Mike Miner, and my fellow guests were Nancy Baym from the AoIR, Maggie Fox of the Social Media Group, and Will Pate, community evangelist and host of commandN. While there wasn't as much debate or disagreement compared to past shows, we were able to really build off of each other's comments and insights to reach a high level of discourse.

Earlier today I testified as a Facebook expert witness at a trial up in Newmarket Ontario, in which the accused was charged with uttering a death threat via his use of status updates, and the group facility on the popular social networking site. Ironically when I got home and tried to login, I was denied access, and was told by friends that my profile was no longer available.

The past two weeks have seen a number of announcements by Microsoft, Google, and Facebook that have set the stage for an incredible clash of the titans when it comes to the future of the Internet.

On one side, reigning champion Microsoft, monopolist of the personal computer era, backing young upstart Facebook, the early leader in the emerging social computing era.

On the other side, reigning search engine and online advertising king Google, and instead of backing a single emerging player, they've taken the longer tail and have embraced the concept of Open, which while including open source, also includes a broader philosophical approach to open internet development and initiatives.

Today's my birthday, I was born 3.3 decades ago, at around 6:10 in the morning. I've always enjoyed my birthdays. I tend to take the time to reflect on this day, remembering where I came from, while thinking about where I'm going.

On some levels identity is fluid, always changing, yet on the other hand there are constants that go through our lives as threads that bend but remain relatively the same.

Facebook continues to grow, in Canada, and around the world. I've been researching this phenomenon on a number of levels, as a consultant, broadcaster, writer, and speaker.

I wrote a feature article for cbc.ca that explores what will happen now that Facebook is crossing over into the mainstream.

I've always loved politics. Since an early age I've been fascinated by all levels, and for that matter all jurisdictions. I suppose this is what fuels my news consumption, and relatedly what attracts me to innovative uses of technology. The upcoming US Presidential election, which is arguably already underway, promises to be quite a battlefield when it comes to the use of technology, explicitly social media, such as facebook, youtube, etc. It was with this in mind that Nancy Wilson and I had a chat about the election, and just how nasty it may turn out to be, thanks to the fog of war the Internet fosters when it comes to campaigns and electioneering.

I've been doing a number of panels, seminars, and appearances discussing facebook. Here in Toronto and generally in Canada, facebook use has exploded, so much so that the municipal and provincial governments have banned employees of the civil service from using it while at work.

In this panel, host Andrew Nichols interviews Nora Young and myself (Jesse Hirsh) regarding the appeal and general implications of the facebook phenomena.

Facebook is a social networking platform that has been around for some time, originating in select universities then spreading across all schools and now into society at large. However it has been in the past month that it has rapidly expanded into broader demographics and gobbled up circles of friends from all walks of life. Explicitly I've noticed that as a federal election looms, many of those running have embraced facebook as a means of reaching out to younger voters. I spoke about this, and other aspects that are behind the infectious spread of the facebook meme on CBC News Today with Nancy Wilson: