www.ChrisLaBossiere.com

If you were on Twitter today in Alberta, there is a good chance you saw some tweets with the #stoptarsands hashtag in them. This was just another example of how real-time information is trumping the old way.

Greenpeace staged a protest at the Ft. McMurray Suncor plant, with protesters climbing and sitting on some conveyor belts which help run the plant. A prank like this is nothing new for the environmentalist group, and frankly in the old days would be met with little fan-fare until the evening news or tomorrow's newspaper was published.

What I found intriguing was the use of social media tools to deliver live streaming video, and tools like Twitter and the uStream platform to let everyone debate, discuss and participate in the event. All done with hand-held, consumer grade equipment and likely a mobile air card to upload to the internet.

Suddenly what would be tomorrow's news, was today's live, interactive event.

I look forward to more and more of this, and I am planning something similar for the Wildrose Alliance Party Leadership convention and the PC Annual General Meeting. The real cool thing is that these events are suddenly accessible to the general public, with no cost to attend, or no membership required.

Watching the video was one thing, but chatting with the protesters and other netizens on both sides of the issue, was even more interesting. We are witnessing the evolution of debate, and you can bet that this concept will extend into the council chambers, legislatures and private backrooms of every institution.

Here is a screen shot from earlier today: