One of my favourite elements of my job is the opportunity to meet Canadians doing innovative things to make our country a more vibrant and exciting place. A bunch of months ago I met two guys working to get an online news and opinion forum off the ground. Their project is called The Mark, and today, it launched in beta.
Their premise is that there are thousands of thoughtful Canadians, living here and abroad, with interesting experiences and ideas who lack a forum in which to publish their ideas. The Mark is hoping to do something about that, and become a "national movement to record Canadian ideas and propel the people behind them."
I'm having fun scrolling through the articles, many by people I don't know. I loved this one about the social media fatigue by a brilliant-sounding Canadian studying in San Francisco what sounds like a topic near and dear to my heart. I enjoyed learning a bit more about Obama's time in law school and I'm looking forward to following the indomitable Tzeporah Berman's posts on the environment. I also did my bit, and wrote about the game of mutual destruction underway between media and parliaments I've observed lately and how we're working to help.
The upside? It's a new, fresh media product emerging from the rubble of the old. They keen to hear from a wide range of people interested in contributing to their ideas and are willing to work with you to make that happen. In fact, they've already amassed an impressive and diverse list of contributors, few of whom I've ever seen in the mainstream media.
The downside? Well, you won't get paid which, given the challenges facing our dear old media industry, makes me further worry about how we sustain good public affairs journalism (more on that in future posts!). However, for those out there with a love of ideas (or who, like me, are wannabe journalists at heart), we can do worse than taking the time to participate by checking out the site regularly or if the inspiration strikes, consider contributing.
I'm curious what you think of this new site, and of course, I always welcome feedback on my own article.
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