Over the past year or so the blogging community here in Yellowknife has gotten bigger. Many of us actually meet on a semi regular monthly basis. That is why when one of us gets recognition in the local paper, it is always nice to see.
Jason is one if Yellowknife’s best bloggers, but I have yet to get a blogger profile from him, which is my fault. He has been recently writing a lot about the Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” Bill. To read the article in Wednesday’s Yellowknifer featuring his blog follow this link.
No doubt you read the article in the Yellowknifer or heard about it on the radio. Yellowknife’s playgrounds have limited access for those individuals in wheel chairs and other disabilities. To have NJ’s playground become accessible for everyone would be a first for Yellowknife and a great start.
Here is the information found on the AVIVA Community Fund Website:
To create a fun park that is accessible to children with disabilities, especially children in wheelchairs. We would like this playground to be a playground that does not segregate but includes all children regardless of their physical abilities. What it would offer each child is opportunity, opportunity to play,opportunity to swing, opportunity to rotate. This playground would be an extension and addition to the current playground facilities at the school.
We believe that every child should have equal access to good play opportunities. We would purchase equipment that would allow children with disabilities to play side-by-side with the able bodied. It would be a park for all children to have fun.
We would like to install new equipment that would be such as accessible Fun Hoop, or a Jenn swing, or speedy racer, bell panel, drag ramps, accessible seats, accessible tables, wide tread stair, rounded slides, a music centre, but most especially a ground cover that wheelchairs can move on.
This park would be open to the children attending our school but also to the community. Everyone in Yellowknife would benefit from it.
So here is what you need to do. Go to the AVIVA Community Website and register and then to the Fun Park page to vote. Remember to vote as there is only 2 days left. A note to Union of Northern Worker/PSAC Members: AVIVA is the PSAC insurance company. Please support this project to put your insurance dollars to work locally in Yellowknife. Also please forward the link to as many people as you know, an easy way to do so is by pressing the “Share/Save” button below!
It is the day before municipal election and I hope you know what you need to do. Vote! Tomorrow make sure you take the time and get out to your polling station and vote. If you didn’t get a chance to register for the voting list, make sure you bring your I.D. with you when you go to vote. For all the details on voting and where it can be done go to the City Voting Website Page.
If you want to a little more background information on the candidates you can also check out the Yellowknifer’s Yellowknife Votes Website.
If you didn’t notice yet or you are reading this in a RSS reader, YkOnline now has a calendar page. The hope is that this calendar will display special/current events happening in Yellowknife. Fundraisers, music, festivals, etc. I will need your help though. If you scroll over the calendar tab at the top of the site, you will see a drop down menu with “Submit Event”. That is where you come in, if you know of an event or are hosting one, go to that page (Submit Event) and fill out the form. Once you fill it out and submit it, it will be sent to me and I will publish it to the calendar. Simple as that.
The idea is to create a central site for Yellowknifers and those visiting to find out what is happening, current issues, reviews & featured places/people and so much more.
NNSL (Northern News Service Ltd.) released their 2009 Yellowknife Votes Web Forum on their site. It is very well done I might add.
This section of their site includes everything you, the voter, will want to know of the candidates and voting. So far they have questionnaires and video interviews with all the candidates for both Council and Mayor. You will also find out information about the who, what, where, when, why and how for voting. In true NNSL fashion they also have several poll going on, on this page for you to take part in.
You can also check out NNSL Managing Editor Bruce Valpy introduce when they are doing on the site and give you some more information about the municipal election.
Make sure you head on over there and take part in some of the polls and find out more about the candidates running. Also make sure you submit any questions you’d like answered by the candidates on the bottom of the page. That is something I was going to try and do but it seem they are better connected for it.
A lot of people, myself included, have decided to pay to get the Yellowknifer and other NNSL papers online and recently they have also started sending out mass e-mails with the headlines in tomorrows issue. Now I don’t have a problem with this; I get so many e-mails a day it really makes no difference. But I am just one person out of the 600 people who receive it. NNSL didn’t, as far as I’m aware, announce they were going to do this until after people received the first e-mail.
The one thing that worries me and possibly others is how they send out the mass e-mail. Of the 600 people who receive it, again myself included, they can all see everyone elses e-mail address. So for example if a person were to click “reply all” they would be sending their message to not only NNSL but to everyone else who also received the e-mail. Funnily enough this has already happened twice; two people have chosen to unsubscribe from the e-mail and accidentally clicked “reply all”. So everyone on the list received the message, OPPS.
This could also be a bad idea in many other ways. One for example would be if I decided to send an e-mail to all those NNSL recipients marketing YkOnline, which I would NEVER do, but you can see the effect it would have. People would not be happy.
I am not trying to take a stab at NNSL, am only pointing out something that businesses should be aware of. I will also e-mail them (and make sure not to click reply all) about the issue. Yellowknifers, what is your take on mass e-mails for businesses? Do you disregard them and opt out? Do you know of any solutions to fix this issue? Let everyone know below.
I came across this page on the City of Yellowknife website today and it is about being prepared for emergencies. Now I am not entirely sure if this page was on the site before the dump fire or not (been told it was) but none the less it brings up an important question. Would the City be able to alert its residents if there were a city wide emergency. The short answer is unfortunately no, but they want to change that. In one of last weeks Yellowknifers, councilor David McCann did state that they should look into a City Twitter account and Facebook page.
If you didn’t know when the dump fire broke out, Facebook and Twitter lit up with updates about the fire. RT’s, Photos and News flooded these new media sites with information about what was happening as it was happening as well as the Mayor’s Message he released. The City on the other hand had no real way of getting the message out, except for radio, which is only one medium. Now I am sure there are many issues The City would have to work out to get a Twitter account and Facebook page up, like the fact they would actually have to allow an employee to use these social networking sites to update them.
I am going to go ahead and assume no one would be against an official Twitter account and Facebook page so my questions for you are. How do you think the City can manage these accounts if they were to set them up and would you follow them. Will this be an election topic?
We could also continue this conversation by adding all the other things the City could do with these accounts besides just emergency purposes. Such as the Mayor Message, Council Minutes, New ByLaws, etc.
Javaroma, the coffee shop that is located in the Northwestel Building, has finally sold. Adrian Bell the former owner had it for sale for some time and finally managed to sell it. As of September 1, 2009 Rami Kassem and Fadil Memedi, a former driver and owner of City Cabs, took over the store. They say they do not plan on changing much, only adding a few personal touches. Such as new food items as well as sprucing the place up a bit. Both men should have no problem running this hot spot as both have background in business operations and running restaurants.
From what I can tell this means only good things for the customers. New food menu, cleaner store and better atmosphere. What I am hoping for is that they bring back the WiFi whether it is free or not. Yellowknife is in desperate need of more WiFi Hot Spots and Javaroma is a prime location.
What are you thoughts, Yellowknife. What do you want to see change, or not change? What new things would you like to see at the store? Share for all to see.
You can read a full article on the sale in the Sept, 9th Yellowknifer.
I’m sure by now everyone who reads this is aware of the upgrade Northwestel has just done to their Internet Packages. I know I was excited even though I am unable to use it where I currently am. They are now offering faster speeds and high bandwidth caps the same as their old packages, which for a heavy user such as myself wonderful news. No longer will I need to continuously check my usage, always in fear of going over.
So that brings us to today and to the article in the Yellowknifer about how SSi considers what NWTel is doing unfair towards them. You see NWTel owns all the cable transporting Internet in to the Northwest Territories and so what SSi does is purchases bandwidth (Internet) as a wholesaler. Now you would think if your are purchasing it in bulk they would be getting the better deal or a more discounted price so that they can afford to resell it to the public. Well that does not seem to be the case SSi says. They believe they are paying 5 times more than what NWTel is offering their Internet Packages for to the public and small businesses. NWTel stated in their advertisements that the rates for small businesses will be going down by 40% and also says that over the last year they lowered wholesaler rates by 35%.
Now personally I have always used NWTel because of a couple reasons. One being it is easy to bundle with cable and second being they offer higher limits and faster speeds. The one thing I do like about SSi though is that portability of their modems. I would also like to point out that the average user does not need more than what SSi offers therefore still making it a semi level playing field. A suggestion would be if you can not match NWTel’s prices would be to focus strongly on something like customer service.
Now as everyone who reads this most likely uses one or the other I would love to get your take on the matter and which provider you use. I can see pros and cons with both and that is the case with most things, how do they affect you?
Tomorrow is the Birthday of our fine country so get out there and celebrate. Okay I know that is what we all have been doing for the last 2 weeks for the YK75 but the parties will continue!
First Up.
Rotary Parade
Starting at 11:00am in the Community Arena parking lot.
The parade will go right through Downtown Yellowknife on Franklin Avenue and finish at the Sir John High School. make sure to come out early to get a good seat.
When & Where: Downtown Yellowknife, 4900 Block of 53rd Street 1:00 – 3:00 pm
Show & Shine for all vehicles! Come out and show your pride. From semis to scooters, there will be lots to see. A fun family event. CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) will be on site with a unique interactive display for all to try. Free event, donations to the CNIB welcome. Register your vehicle early for an extra chance to win a Canadian North ticket.
Buffalo Airways Tour, Flight & YOU on Reality TV
When & Where: Buffalo Airways Hangar, 108 Berry St 11 am to 3 pm
Want to be part of a reality TV show?? Buffalo Airways will be airing their footage on the History channel in Sept of 2009! Come take a tour of the hanger and airplanes, tour Yellowknife on a DC-3 with a film crew!! History in the making and you could be part of it. Cost $50.
Min passengers for flight 20, max. 27 so register early. All ages welcome. Contact Mikey McBryan at 873-6112 or buffalo@buffaloairways.com.
YK Guild of Arts & Crafts – Summer Fireweed Sales
When & Where: 11 am to 4 pm Fireweed Studio in the Civic Plaza next to City Hall
Purchase locally made pottery and fibre arts made by members of one of Yellowknife’s longest running organizations. Open to all ages.
Monkey Tree – Corn Roast….?
Veteran’s Luncheon
When & Where: Noon – Legion Hall 4709 Franklin Ave
Vet’s free luncheon. All others $7.50 & open to the entire family.
I know what your thinking: What former President Bush on Twitter, I thought it would never happen. I didn’t even think that guy knew how to use a cell phone.
Well that is wrong. He is not. I was reading today’s paper and turned to our own Bush’s weekly cartoon. What was it about, twitter of course.
I like this cartoon. It makes me laugh because to some extent it is very true. The one thing I think is slightly wrong about it that I want to get out of the way first is. There are not many youth in Yellowknife actually using Twitter, it is mainly people over the age of 20.
That aside, the meaning of the picture is exactly what is going on right now. The majority of people do not understand Twitter (and other social networking sites) and choose not too. Which is unfortunate because that is the way things are going. Soon the internet will be used in every form of business and these social networking sites with be a very useful tool. The one thing I would like to try and encourage businesses and governments to do is not be the last one to join the revolution. Why not try to incorporate it now, why not try and be one of the front runners in this new revolution. Think of the recognition our small northern city could get if we started to use these sites to our advantage before others.
For example: Google Wave, which Google just announced 2 weeks ago will change (REALLY CHANGE) the way e-mail sharing and collaboration is done within a workforce. I encourage you to watch Google’s video on the Wave
Yellowknife, what are you thoughts on these Social Networking sites? Do you understand them?
A lot of people, myself included, have decided to pay to get the Yellowknifer and other NNSL papers online and recently they have also started sending out mass e-mails with the headlines in tomorrows issue. Now I don’t have a problem with this; I get so many e-mails a day it really makes no difference. But I am just one person out of the 600 people who receive it. NNSL didn’t, as far as I’m aware, announce they were going to do this until after people received the first e-mail.
I like this cartoon. It makes me laugh because to some extent it is very true. The one thing I think is slightly wrong about it that I want to get out of the way first is. There are not many youth in Yellowknife actually using Twitter, it is mainly people over the age of 20.
