The US State Department has set up a Digital Outreach Team. They engage with people online, answer questions and set the record straight – while always being honest about who they are. So far they seem to be a small team that focuses on Arabic, Persian and Urdu websites.

It’s a small but important step forward in governments learning how to be transparent and human online. Imagine if this program grew to have teams for every country and language. Imagine if every country had digital diplomats.

If the team reads this, kudos to you. I’ve been engaging people online in the technology industry for a few years now, it’s not an easy job. But you can change hearts and minds. I’d love to hear more about your experiences.

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Amber and Will chat about the FITC Awards, digg API, and WhyYouShould. techTIPS: Jeff discusses traveling with tech toys. spotLIGHT: Brian interviews Craig Tullett from XBOX Canada about the XBOX 360 Elite.

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headLINES
FITC Awards
Fuel Industries
Digg API
Couple uses MySpace in adoption search
Mark Burnett launches Independent on MySpace
Neutrality.ca shuts down
Yahoo!, Slate, and Huffington Post Pres Debate
Social networking more popular than porn

spotLIGHT
XBOX 360 Elite
XBOX Faceplates
BAMCAT

webPICKS
Why You Should
Model Mayhem

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1. Talk about it: write a blog post, put a video on YouTube, send a letter to the editor; whatever works for you. The point is that our collective audience is large and influential.
2. Send an email in support of Network Neutrality to your MP (search by postal code), cc Industry Minister Maxime Bernier (Minister.Industry@ic.gc.ca), Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Harper.S@parl.gc.ca), Leader of the Opposition Stephan Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca) and Leader of the New Democratic Party Jack Layton (Layton.J@parl.gc.ca). If anyone wants to volunteer to write a standard letter, be my guest.
3. File a complaint with the CRTC

And before anyone calls me out on it, no – I haven’t had a chance to do all of these myself yet. I’m just sharing my first steps with you as I figure them out

We’ve watched our brothers to the south in America fight the telco industry for net neutrality, and now the fight is on to keep net neutrality in Canada. Michael Geist has brought to the public’s attention what the current thinking on net neutrality is in front of the Industry Minister, and we’re in trouble. It might as well be straight from one of the telco’s PR flaks themselves. And get this: Rogers and Bell won’t even answer my colleague Amber MacArthur when asked about it!

Over the next while you’re going to hear me, and other bloggers in Canada banging the drum of this issue loudly. We will not roll over while major corporations ruin the most democratizing force, the biggest channel of personal expression and the most powerful enabler of innovation in human history. We cannot count on these major corporations to keep the citizens interests above their own quest for profit. Enron, Worldcom and actions of these very companies in Canada (I will be talking about them soon) have shown us that we must hold their feet to the fire.

I hereby call on my most respected Canadian blogging colleagues to speak up and blog immediately on this issue, we need to hear your voices: Boris Mann, Caterina Fake, Darren Barefoot, Derek K. Miller, Kris Krug, Richard Eriksson, Roland Tanglao, Austin Hill, Rannie Turnigan, Robert Paterson, Michael Fergusson, Tara Hunt, Tod Maffin, Jeremy Wright, Megan Cole, Rob Cottingham, Sarah Pullman, Travis Smith, Troy Angrinon, Brian Lamb, Alexandra Samuel, Robert Scales,