Dr G.E. Young a pioneer in cable television in Canada

If someone asked you who the pioneers of cable television were in Canada, immediately you may be inclined to say Rogers or Shaw, the giants of the industry in English Canada today. And to a great extent, you are right.

But although most Canadians have likely never heard of him, Dr G.E, Young who practised medicine in the small isolated northern Ontario community of Chapleau for more than 50 years, deserves a place right up there among the giants of the cable industry. In the 1960s Dr Young placed microwave towers on the top of a hill, originally called "Slaughterhouse Hill" and later "Dr Young's Hill" and started his "clothesline" cable system with poles and wire in all the back lanes of the town, with dishes atop his medical and apartment complex in downtown Chapleau.

In the early years reception was limited and snowy, and the stations few, but Dr Young's efforts brought cable television to a community that would otherwise have likely been limited to the CBC affiliate station in Timmins for many years.

Dr Young also waged many battles with the CRTC, the regulatory agency, as he had little patience for the bureaucracy. However, in 1982, when his licence was up for renewal, once again Dr Young made history. He comvinced the CRTC that the people of Chapleau had a right to be heard live at the hearing, but as the hearing was in Toronto, very few would be able to attend.

So, an audio link was established over phone lines from Dr Young's office in Chapleau to the CRTC hearing in Toronto, and Chapleau citizens were able to make their case live. And I was so privileged to host the Chapleau end of the hearing and broadcast it live with video over the system's community channel. It was the first time in Canadian history that the CRTC had permitted a hearing of this kind where everyone was not physically present in the room

Graham Bertrand assumed responsibility for all the technical aspects of the production. Dr Young and Tony Byvank were in Toronto.

When I visited Dr Young in 2001 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the incorporation of Chapleau, he had recently sold the cable system, bringing to an end about 40 years of his involvement in providing television to the community.

Dr G.E "Ted" Young, born and raised in Chapleau, graduated from Queen's University in medicine and never planned to return home. He interned at Columbia University in New York and went home to replace a doctor for six months and he stayed making Chapleau a better place for being a true visionary who despite many challenges worked for his people.

At 94 years of age, Dr Young lives in retirement in Chapleau.




NOTE: I am aware that A.J, Grout the president of Smith and Chapple Ltd, also started a cable system in Chapleau in the 1950s. In fact, I had a weekly program on CHAP TV in 1958, but the system was closed down in the early 1960s and it was Dr Young who carried on to bring us television.

Internet now provides 24/7 fix for news junkie

Peter Bernier gave us this link to article on Huffington Post blog dated April 9, 2009 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/the-debate-over-online-ne_b_185309.html Thanks Peter.

Less than 10 years ago I wrote a piece declaring that in my view the National Post was "a great daily read." I added it to my daily newspaper fix which at the time consisted of The Globe and Mail. Today, it is very seldom that I buy either newspaper but check their online editions daily along with the Toronto Star, http://realpolitics.com/ and http://cnn.com/. If a major story breaks that interests me I go the local newspaper's web site or CTV or CBC sites for details. However, for a lifelong news junkie like me, I can get all the news, features, sports, gossip, editorials, entertainment to fix my addiction daily with a click of the mouse on the internet. And it is updated 24/7.

BREAKING NEWS: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is closing down its print version on Thursday, it was reported today. Details at http://www.thestar.com/business/article/603111

I started my newspaper career when I was in high school writing for the long gone Mid North news in Chapleau, Ontario and continued at Wilfrid Laurier University (then Waterloo Lutheran University) as editor of the student paper The Cord for two years. After university I worked as a reporter and editor at several dailies across Canada before becoming a teacher.

Anyone who knows me well will confirm that newspapering is in my blood, and always will be, but it seems to me that the days for us to sit back with our local paper are coming to an end. In recent weeks I have seen several articles expressing concern about the situation facing print dailies in North America -- for example, the San Francisco Chronicle may close and others may not be far behind. There are many reasons and in later piece I will address some of them.

Last week, The Globe and Mail ran an unscientific online poll asking readers if it is important to have a local newspaper. The results certainly did not reflect my view that the days of the print daily may end. Forty six percent said yes, it was important as a way to keep people informed, while 26% said they keep government accountabale and only 18% agreed with my view that online content fills the gap.

I would be very interested in hearing your views on this one. For me, over the past nine years it has been a gradual shift from the traditional print newspaper to internet news junkie, and I realized it had happened during the American presidential election in 2008. And let me be clear, the newspaper has been an integral part of my life, and my experience as a reporter and editor led to employment and enjoyment, and provided the opportunity for me to meet some of the best hard working people I know. However, the change is here.

Comment here or email me at mj.morris@live.ca

Tim Berners Lee wove World Wide Web creating mass medium for 21st Century

Tim Berners Lee 'invented' the World Wide Web 23 years ago on March 13, but chances are you have never heard of him. Two years ago, I wrote a piece about him for my blog and decided to update it a bit.

In 1999, Time magazine named Berners Lee as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, saying, "He wove the World Wide Web and created a mass medium for the 21st century. The World Wide Web is Berners-Lee's alone. He designed it. He loosed it on the world. And he more than anyone else has fought to keep it open, nonproprietary and free."

In my earlier article I noted that Berners Lee had commented on the forward slash in URLS being unnecessary. I was delighted to see on Wikepedia that he confirmed it years later after I heard him speak at the University of Toronto. In a Times article in October 2009, Berners-Lee admitted that the forward slashes ("//") in a web address were actually "unnecessary". He told the newspaper that he could easily have designed URLs not to have the forward slashes. "There you go, it seemed like a good idea at the time," he said in his lighthearted apology`.


Most recently in November 2009, Berners-Lee launched the World Wide Web Foundation in order to "Advance the Web to empower humanity by launching transformative programs that build local capacity to leverage the Web as a medium for positive change."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee



HERE IS MY ARTICLE POSTED ON MARCH 13, 2009.

The 20th anniversary of the World Wide Web didn't get much media attention today. In fact I just noticed a short article on MSN marking the occasion, and its inventor Tim Berners-Lee is not well known outside academia.

But Berners-Lee may be the single most important person since Guttenberg in changing the way we communicate. I was so privileged to spend an afternoon listening to him in 1996 while attending a conference "The Internet Beyond the Year 2000" at the University of Toronto. To be honest, even though I had developed one of the first graduate programs in New Media Communications in Canada at College of the Rockies, I had no idea who Tim Berners-Lee was before that afternoon.

Perhaps most striking about him was his great modesty Here was one of the great thinkers and scientists of our time, and he had no need to be 'the sage on the stage.' After giving his talk, Berners-Lee sat on the edge of the stage to take questions.

The first question was from Dr Somebody from Some University, who started with "Dr Berners-Lee.." and before he got any further, he was cut off by Berners-Lee who said, "Tim will do." The professor didn't get it and again said, "Dr Berners-Lee.." only to be cut off with "Tim" and a shake of his head. The room broke up.

He was asked many questions but one that stuck in my mind was, "What would you do differently now." Berners-Lee replied after a moment, "I realized I didn't need the forward slash." Again the room broke up.

He was also asked about the process involved in inventing the web and how long it took. He said that he had been "thinking" about it for a long time and then one day simply decided to get it done.

Perhaps the single most impressive moment I saw of Berners-Lee was at a showcase of technology and industry. Students from Confederation High School in Nepean had created a web page, and Berners-Lee, hands behind his back, went up to them and asked some questions. At no time did he identify himself as the inventor of the web.

After he left I went over and asked the students if they knew who their visitor was. They didn't and when I told them, like students everywhere, they were afraid they had made mistakes. I assured them Berners-Lee was likely delighted to see their work.

For those who don't know exactly what he did, Berners Lee wrote the first Web clients and server and defined the URL, HTTP, and HTML specifications on which the Web depends. He was then working at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory.

Knighted in 2003, Sir Tim Berners Lee is now the director of the W3 Consortium and is a principal research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

To have been able to spend time listening to him has to count as one of the most truly memorable moments of my entire teaching career.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee