High Road Communications

I had an epiphany last year while I was on maternity leave with my second child. When I read that we really had only ten years to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions or face dismal consequences, it suddenly became very clear to me. I realized that if we don’t make this happen - instead of dealing with common preteen calamities like making the soccer team and noticing boys - my children would be contemplating catastrophic climate change.

Putting my family into the equation was enough to finally awaken my environmental consciousness. I’m lucky that I work for a company where I can apply my passion to my core competence. High Road has committed to being carbon neutral by the end of 2008. We’re already well on our way with the company setting a target to reduce paper usage by at least 30 per cent, purchasing carbon credits to offset flight travel and implementing a Green IT Makeover.

High Road is also helping burgeoning clean technology companies get the word out about new ways to provide renewable energy. This fledgling industry will only grow when clean technology companies are supported by government at all levels. There are strong footholds being established with agencies like Sustainable Development Technology Canada doling out a billion dollars in cash and repayable loans to companies who develop viable pollution-reducing technologies and bio-fuels. It’s a good step in the right direction because the US and Canada rank first and third with the highest carbon emissions per person on the globe. I think that living on our beautiful planet is a privilege and we have an obligation to give back.

Help North America clean up its act. Be the change.

Few relationships are under such scrutiny as those between bloggers and PR folks.

We’ve seen lots of posts + stories about potential conflicts of interest when PR people approach bloggers with free product for review or pay for bloggers to attend company events. The anti-corp-marketing people raise cautionary flags that companies are bribing bloggers into writing something they wouldn’t have otherwise written. PR teams will quickly shoot back, “we are getting in front of bloggers who naturally have an interest in said product/story and we are simply asking for their honest opinion, nothing more, nothing less.”

This is all very similar to how deal we with traditional media. The twist comes when you consider the impact of programs like this which pay bloggers “bonus” money for number of times their stories are read. This type of program is becoming more common and I include the Gawker example because it is such a complete description of the business model.

A popular PR tool is the “negotiated exclusive” which attempts to barter more favorable placement of stories in exchange for giving the reporter the story first. The blogging for dollars bonus money programs ratchet the concept up even further by bringing PR people + bloggers together with a mutual goal: more eyeballs reading the content. An exclusive on a hot new product or breaking news story has always been able to bring the writer fame but in the Web 2.0 world it brings dollars. PR people who get this model working for them also stand to win.

What do you think ?

There has been some interesting experimentation with mobile applications in Canada thanks to the Mobile Experience Lab. Started in 2005 at the Ontario College of Art (OCAD), the Lab aims “to pursue research projects that bring together art practice, design and research methodology with software and hardware engineering capabilities.” They focus on the areas of user interface, locative experiences, collaborative games and augmented reality narratives.

One of their coolest applications has been a “Your News” newspaper box to which people could text in their own headlines. The project was just one example of how mobile technology could be used to create an interactive cultural statement in the urban core.

Compared to other countries, Canada has been a bit slower to adopt mobile applications, so it’s great to see OCAD students embracing Bluetooth, WiFi and other technologies to engage Torontonians in creative, and amusing ways. A full video of all their mobile experiments can be found on YouTube (check out the bicycle wheel that spins with human movement).

(Cross-posted to Next Great Thing)

Today you can check out The Branham 300, a listing from Backbone Magazine of Canada’s highest performing technology companies. Scanning the list shows that it is dominated by players in the software category and the IT prof services category. ‘Software as a service’ and ‘unified messaging and communications’ are definitely trends to watch from last year and it will be interesting to see how clean/green tech will impact the list for 2008.

Nominations for the CATAAlliance Innovation and Leadership Awards are open, and can be submitted until April 8. An overview of all the awards categories and the nomination guide can be found here.

High Road is again sponsoring the High Road Communications Award for Excellence in Science and Technology Reporting. The award is presented to a journalist or writer raising the public profile of science and technology and contributing to the building of a science and technology culture in Canada. Last year’s winner was the Globe and Mail’s Mathew Ingram (blog), and Shane Schick (blog), now editor of ComputerWorld Canada, won in 2006.

The Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance and High Road have been strategic partners for many years. High Road president Mia Wedgbury and senior vice president Sarah Burns are CATA board members.