Communicopia

It appears that a tide of change is washing not only across the US this fall, but in my home city on the Pacific as well. On Saturday night, Gregor Robertson became the city's resounding choice as mayor, and his party, Vision Vancouver, "thumped" the long ruling, right leaning NPA party resoundingly, gaining 90% of city council and big majorities on both other elected boards.

This is a sweet victory for me personally and professionally in a number of ways.

Firstly, because I've known Gregor Robertson for almost 10 years, and he is one of the most authentic, thoughtful, passionate, and truly fun people in my world. I decided many years ago that I would serve this man, and help him do what he needs done in this world, I trusted him that deeply.

Besides giving those of us under 40 our first positive "do you remember where you were when..." moments, US President Barack Obama has given me, and everyone in my field, the most powerful case study possible of how web values translate into big success, not just online but in the real world.

I've recently written about how Obama's campaign was winning not just because they had fancy web tools, but because he and his campaign leadership team are deeply grounded in web values like openness, participation, listening, and collaboration. 

And to those who think he was just doing that to win a campaign, they may be wrong: check out the new site his team launched today (how in the world did they have time for this?) called Change.gov.

The whole continent has election fever right now. Canada's going to elect a new federal government in a few short weeks, the US election is close behind... and here in Vancouver, we're electing a mayor and city council this November. While this municipal election won't receive the same media attention as the national ones, it's actually a really important one for Vancouver.