A rumour has started spreading online that a sex scandal involving a major US presidential candidate is being covered up by the DC press corp and the media elite in the US. Perhaps covered up is too strong a word, as the accusation is not so much that the story is being stopped, but rather those who are in the know are unsure as to how to handle the information.

A lawsuit has been filed in New York State that may clarify the connection between virtual worlds and this so-called real world. At issue is property, and money, and the ability for people to build a business online.

Earlier today I appeared on CBC Newsworld and spoke about this with host Nancy Wilson.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of participating in an Overlap session put on by my friends Michael Dila, and Robin Uchida, which was held at the MaRS Centre, largely focusing on MaRS itself, although there was also presentations on the One Laptop Per Child project as well as a company called Symtext.

This was my first Overlap event, and I was particularly excited about the range of perspectives that assembled in the circle.

Similarly the MaRS people had a great energy, and as I came to fully understand their mission and mandate, I was not only impressed, but outright inspired. Living in Toronto you always get the sense that this city has considerable greatness, MaRS is the type of institution that fosters this, cultivating greatness when it comes to innovation.

The effect for me however, in bringing together the MaRS team and the Overlap group, was the immediate identification of what I felt was a blind spot in the current approach that MaRS was taking.

I was reminded of a recent blog post by Robert Cringley in which he states that "the best start-ups are composed of symbiotic combinations of hippies and nerds. Hippies have the grand vision while nerds mind the details."

What MaRS needs is more hippies. And I suspect they know this and agree. The question is how do you cultivate the cultural side of innovation, foster a garden of visionaries in addition to buildings filled with laboratories and scientists.

One way would be to continue to host open events and allow for grassroots gatherings and initiatives. They have a great building, and I'm sure that if it was easier and cheaper to use it, there could be ample opportunities for the types of connections and networking that happen at community events. FacebookCamp Toronto happened at MaRS, and so too should other comparable events.

Another idea I had, was to look at how Nuit Blanche made the art world and cultural communities more accessible and public, towards organizing a similar event that could be used to make research and innovation equally accessible and public.

I also thought a bit about the role that fear plays in framing most people's experiences with technology, and couldn't help but extend this analysis of fear towards technology innovation in general. I suggested to the MaRS team that they engage in some market research to perhaps create a Technology Fear Index that measures the public's general anxiety about technology and the rate of technological change.

In general the MaRS folk were very open to my and other Overlap participants suggestions and feedback. This demonstrated to me in part the real power of the Overlap group in that such a multi/trans-disciplinary group is able to offer a perspective that is entirely unique and without equal.

I suspect the MaRS people understood this clearly as well. While their membership or community is currently biased towards things like advanced medical and pharmaceutical research, they expressed the desire to further diversify and have members from all sorts of industries and areas that are involved in innovation.

Eco-systems require diversity to survive and thrive, and MaRS has tried to foster this by attracting and seeking out Scientists, Engineers, Investors, Mangers, Bankers, Consultants, Business Experts, and other professionals able to help build and support a successful enterprise.

What they're still missing however are the hippies, or to be more accurate, the philosophers, the visionaries, the cultural artists who give body and meaning to the technology and science that make up the mission at MaRS.

Sometimes we take for granted the impact that Marshall McLuhan made on our city and the culture of innovation that thrives here. One lesson we cannot forgot is the intrinsic role of culture in technological innovation, and an easy way to apply this lesson would be to expand the cultural programming and pursuit of philosophy within the MaRS discovery district.

Update: I've since left the Overlap group concluding that they're a bunch of tossers. What a waste.

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.

The influence of the Internet in politics continues to expand, and the recent election here in Ontario was no exception. All the political parties had extensive Internet strategies, employing a diverse range of tactics, on various platforms, from blogs, to social networking sites like Facebook, and viral video platforms like YouTube.

I did a number of TV and Radio appearances during the election, analyzing some of the Internet activity going on as well as how effective the various parties strategies were.

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 done a number of CBC segments recently around computer security and information warfare. While trying not to be sensational, these are subject areas that I feel require more attention, certainly from the news media, but also from the public at large.

On the one hand they are fascinating unto themselves, and don't require any added emphasis to denote severity, yet at the same time, the phenomena generally flourishes due to the ignorance and fear of average computer users.

Over the past several weeks I've been working with my friend Danyon Reeves on the new Bob Rae website, running on the oh-so-lovely Drupal CMS.

The issue of drug use by athletes, whether professional or amateur, is steadily growing both in public attention and organizational concern. Explicitly the Tour de France is falling apart, and Barry Bonds is on the verge of breaking the all-time Home Run record.

Well, I'm getting kind of fed up with all the iPhone hype. Apple is not a company I've ever been fond of, because I see right through their marketing machine and understand just how bad and manipulative their message actually is. When the device was initially announced, I wrote a post pointing out that the actual cost of the device would be way higher than advertised, given that you have to sign up for a minimum 2 year contract with AT&T.