This song is new in the last month or two.  After figuring out at least one way to end it tonight I decided to record it as fast as I could (4 takes) then combine it with whatever pictures I could pull together.  In other words, I got excited and made something.  Now I can make room for something else in the creative section of my grey matter!

Wow.

I could end this blog post right there and be satisfied that I'd gotten my point across.  Beyond expectations, and yet perhaps not surprisingly, we had over 3,500 people turn out at the Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament Rally in Ottawa.  Having such a great turn out and so much great energy at the rally has put a fantastic cap on two weeks of effort to bring this together.

My task during the rally was to stream live video and audio to www.noprorogue.ca.  That was largely successful except that I parked myself too far away thinking I could plug into the sound board.  In the end I was just using a microphone and desperately wanted to move closer ($10 webcams don't have zoom!).  Eventually I did.  Sound quality was OK except for one part when the Nortel employee was speaking.  Apologies for that - this was a first try!  If you're so disposed you can catch the full broadcast on my UStream video feed - in it's 2 hours of unedited glory.   As soon as I finish posting this I'm going to edit down a more interesting version :).

In the mean time here's a great clip of "The Proroger" to tide you over, courtesy of someone else at the rally.  How's that for grassroots!

The short story is this was an absolutely great experience - and topping it off by singing O Canada (at volume!) along with the other organizers to wrap the show is something I'll remember forevermore.  Does anyone have a pic or video of that?  I would like to put it in my digital memory box. :)

Speaking of which - here's one for you Jesse!

So.  What now? :)

I'm involved with the Ottawa rally and we've launched a real-time text-messaging system that will also work across Canada for all of the CAPP rallies.

The idea is to have rally participants (and even those at home) take out their cellphones and text their thoughts about prorogation to 347-614-2765.  The software I've written will immediately publish the incoming text-messages to Twitter (@noproroguewall) and will also reply to them with a website URL so they can "keep in touch" after they get home.

Go ahead and try it now - send any text message to 347-614-2765.  You'll get a response and see your message show up on Twitter (with City name assigned). http://twitter.com/noproroguewall

This is a way to give participants a way to express themselves (above and beyond showing up).  Since this works across Canada it's a great "commons" building exercise.  haha.

Here's what you can do to participate in this "virtual rally"

• Have your MC repeat this (or something similiar):
  "We are all here to express our concern that Parliament has been prorogued. Being here is a strong message - but you can make it stronger by using your cell phone to send a text message to (347) 614-2765.  Tell the PM what you think about Parliament being Prorogued!"
  
  
• Include the following text in any media releases your sending to promote your local rally (with your local media).  It would be great to have participants "attend" the rally even if they can't make it physically, either because their city doesn't have a rally or because they're too busy (family, work, etc, etc).
  
  CAPP is inviting all Canadians to participate in a live petition by sending their comments on prorogation via text-message to 347-614-2765.  All messages will be published in realtime to the "noproroguewall" Twitter account (http://twitter.com/noproroguewall) enabling all Canadians to participate, as one, in this pro-democracy action.
  
  
• If you have hand-outs include the instructions there as well - that way the MC doesn't have to repeat the number (but do that too anyway).

If successful this endeavor will complete the call-to-action circle of life: it started on Facebook, hit the real world with physical rallies, and returned to the digital realm as a real-time proactive petition.

This is a bilingual program.  The response message will be bilingual, and the website they are directed to will be bilingual as well.