Metaviews.ca is currently setting up a new project: The Academy of the Impossible, located at 231 Wallace Ave. in the Junction Triangle neighbourhood of Toronto’s downtown west end. It will partly serve as a location for our salons and seminars along with all facets of our daily operations.

The setup for the Academy is a relatively novel one. As an open source social enterprise, it will integrate both for-profit and non-profit enterprises, along with providing a physical touchpoint for our clients and broader community. This will include bringing to life many online ideas that often end up remaining hypothetical — we want to make them feel possible.

Since consumers are also taking on the role of producers, the Metaviews programming at the Academy will reflect that inevitability, with events designed to empower the human relationship with technology. During this era of disruption for business, media and politics, our infinite series of “Hacking Reality” events will explore all forms of self-expression, from mobile apps and videogames to improv comedy and public speaking.

The events for AOTI members and guests will be concurrent with our continued subscriber efforts throughout the week. Now, with a permanent space, we expect to exponentially expand the insights we can share with clients. But we covered a fair bit of ground on the way there:

• How gadgets are marketed during the holiday season even if they’re about to become replaced by new models

• Shopping apps designed to follow people around the mall, measure window shopping and offer a better deal via Amazon

• YouTube’s evolution from a cat video free-for-all to a more Hollywood-friendly platform based on subscription feeds

• Changes to Facebook, Twitter and Google in the race to build social media market share — possibly at the expense of user trust

• Compliments and criticism for Open Government initiatives in Ottawa including reaction to the official social media guidelines

• The hopes and hypes of 2011 including the evolution of Anonymous, theories of Gamification and digital currency alternatives

Also, on deck for 2012, our second year-long major research project will focus on “The Future of Health” — which will include recurring discussions in our seminars and salons.

Please see the Metaviews.ca website for more information on the subscription package. And follow The Academy of the Impossible for news about all its programming.

During the past year, I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with a great team of researchers, writers and practitioners to develop Metaviews.ca into an original think tank dedicated to the relationship between media, technology and society.

Some of our efforts have been open to the public: regular posts to the Metaviews.ca website and other social media outlets, a growing library of original videos, and live events like the Monday Night Seminar series in honour of Marshall McLuhan’s 100th birthday.

Subscribers have also been able to access our insights on a deeper level, through the Metaviews Weekly newsletter, the Metaviews Telseminar and private presentations related to our research project, “The Future of Authority.”

Discussion topics for fall 2011 have ranged from the analysis of mass media coverage on topics ranging from the future of gadgets in the post-Steve Jobs era, to the influence of the Occupy Wall Street movement, to how retail stores will be impacted by mobile marketing.

Developments in social media, the political scene and the economics of the internet have also been at the forefront of the Metaviews.ca agenda.

Other topics that will be high on our collective minds this fall and beyond include:

• Challenges faced by all levels of government to keep pace with a new communications era

• The ongoing transition of mass media to personalized forms of distribution and consumption

• Why some online communities are trusted more than geographical ones — and some are not

• Video games as a new cultural force and the hope and hype that surrounds “gamification”

• Social enterprise as a gateway for corporations to make a personal connection with customers

• How wider online access to health care information will result in a two-tier system for Canada

While some elements of our Metaviews.ca agenda will remain free to all on the web, subscribers receive access to the full scope of our collective efforts.

The email newsletter, distributed each Friday morning, is packed with ideas that will help sharpen reader perspectives for the week ahead.

Teleseminars also include participation from both industry experts and opinionated observers, in the effort to approach topics in a friendly, articulate, conversational format.

Subscribers also get priority access to the entire Metaviews.ca team, who provide research and opinion from backgrounds including academia, education, journalism, politics, business, and technology, along with expertise in executing special projects and in dynamic presentations.

Please see the Metaviews.ca website for more information on the subscription package.

On Thursday I considered calling up Bell and ordering their new "Fibe" fiber-optic internet and TV service. Then on Friday I heard that Bell and CTV were merging. My initial reaction was to dismiss the idea of signing up for Fibe as there was no way I wanted Internet access from CTV.

This of course flies in the face of how the merger is presented and how the media report it. They all say that BCE is the company that is buying CTV. That the telephone company is buying the television network. Obviously it's more complicated than that, only most look at the wrong side of the complication.

As a metaphor the internet affords all sorts of sensational and melodramatic language. I regular receive emails from public relations professionals representing clients who claim they are starting a revolution or changing the world forever.

Last week I got such a message regarding an announcement from Cisco, who are "the leading supplier of networking equipment and network management for the Internet." In this email, I was told that Cisco would make an announcement that would "forever change the Internet and its impact on consumers, business, and government" and that was all they could say.

Yesterday Cisco made their announcement, the introduction of their next generation router, the CRS-3, and the media seemed to walk right into the hype.

Tiger Woods has always made a concerted effort to protect his privacy. He even owns a massive yacht named "Privacy". While Tiger makes his living based more on his public profile than his ability to swing a golf club, there will now be many who might argue that his desire for privacy was directly associated with his guilt. That he had something to hide all along.

I agree there's a certain responsibility that people like Tiger should have when it comes to their relationship with the public. While Tiger's fame may be based on his golfing prowess, his income is a direct result of his popularity, and the support of millions of fans and consumers.

However I also recognize that Tiger has a right to privacy, the same as any person, even if his wealth and power allow him to exert that right better than others.

I love to be inspired by change, even the potential for change, and this is why the fall is tied with spring for my favourite season. Watching the world around me decay, knowing it will rise again, reminds me how important it is for the old to make way for the new.

This is why I rarely lament the decline of the journalism business, or any content-related industry, for that matter. Everywhere I look I see phoenixes ready to rise from the ashes.

For example, two of my favourite media outlets, both creations of internet culture, and also relatively new, are stumbling towards rather successful business models for online journalism. I say "stumbling" only because neither are waiting for permission or the perfect formula. They're embracing the embedded ethos of the online environment which is to "just do it."

Privacy is dead, and social media holds the smoking gun, at least that was the sentiment expressed on CNN.com by one of silicon valley's hottest pundits, Pete Cashmore. It's a sensationalist statement, but one that speaks to many people's feelings, both positive and negative, about how personal information gets caught up in the world wide web.

Is privacy really dead? No, not yet. However, there's a growing chorus of people empowered by social media who are eager to declare that it is. This is partly because of the power of networks, and their ability to leverage your private information for personal gain and/or amusement.

Social media is also regarded as a popularity tool that allows people to emulate the celebrity culture we are immersed in. We can all become micro-celebrities who capture attention and influence, albeit on a much smaller scale.

The fear is that as this starts to become more and more prevalent, discarding privacy will become compulsory, expected behaviour necessary for graduating from school, getting that job, buying the home, and succeeding in life.

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of participating in the Brave News World Summit hosted and organized by The Centre for Creative Communications at Centennial College in Toronto's east end.

It was a great day spent with interesting people who work in the local and regional media industry. The keynote was Jeff Jarvis, who was unable to attend, so he presented his "What Would Google Do" rap via skype.

I participated in an afternoon workshop around the concept of a journalist toolbox, or what any aspiring hack needs to know to make it in this cut throat business. The picture above is from that session, which was organized by Ellin Bessner who wrote her own blog post about the event.

There was also a blog compiled by Centennial students during the day, as well as a blog post from Melissa Feeney.

When I think of the relationship between television and the internet my mind races to metaphors of historical proportions. The issue is one of orthodoxy and dissent, of opportunity and denial.

If you were alive during the Reformation would you only listen to or obey the Pope? If you were in St Petersburg during the first world war would you continue to believe in the infallibility of the Tsar? If you were a student in Paris in 1968 would you stick to your studies?

The world of technology is one in which great opportunities emerge for those who are willing to be critical and capable of understanding what is possible rather than just what is promoted. A clear example of this comes from the effort to unite our love affair with television with the empowerment that comes with online interactivity.

The start of each calendar year is marked in the technology world by the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and the unveilling of all sorts of new technology. This year was no exception, and one of the items that caught my critical eye was the latest generation of HD television sets which feature internet capabilities.

One of the things I'm committed to doing in 2008 is organizing more public events. Last year, I ran a number of private interactive and intellectual discussions, which nurtured a desire to develop a larger and more public configuration for them.

To use a software development metaphor, my first public event was an alpha test, in that it was a raw and open exploration of a few concepts I've been developing or have seen in the wild and wanted to try myself.

Recently, there has been considerable innovation when it comes to event organizing, with the emergence of the BarCamp phenomenon as well as the Open Space movement. I am inspired by both, but still see room to incorporate my own sensibilities and experiences.

I've spent the last few years working in television and really studying the direction that industry is going, while also absorbing everything I can about production, both behind the scenes and on-camera. My approach to organizing events has been deeply impacted by this exploration of the television aesthetic and, conversely, my approach to television is heavily influenced by my love of live, interactive events.

The context to all this is, of course, the Internet, where I spend most of my time, and I'm always thinking how to bring the culture and properties of the Internet to live events and broadcast television. Often it has been the focus and/or subject matter. However, in the future, my intention is to run events in which the Internet is so ubiquitous as to no longer require explicit attention.

That is why I chose politics as the focus of my first event. I hoped to capture the zeitgeist of our time (with Obama inspiring a new generation) and tackle a subject that everyone should be able to relate to, one that lends itself to debate and disagreement.