Fitty grand for freedom
CKUW celebrates hugely successful FUNdrive with Volunteer Awards
Anthony Augustine


1st Annual CKUW Volunteer Awards — www.ckuw.ca — After a successful FUNdrive campaign that saw the nearly 40-year-old station raise over $50,000 in seven days, CKUW has launched its first annual volunteer awards. Operating 24/7 on 95.9 FM since 1999, CKUW is a community-driven station that heavily relies on over 160 volunteers to deliver high-quality homegrown programming, catalogue CDs, produce ads and basically help keep the station running. It’s hard to believe that 10 years ago Winnipeggers didn’t have CKUW, UMFM and KICK to choose from. Exercise your democratic right and vote for your favourite host, show, special performance and spoken-word program by phone or online, or drop by the station to vote. Act fast — voting ends April 20.

Webby Awards—www.webbyawards.com — Already in their 11th year, the Webby Awards recognize the crème de la crème of cyberspace. With categories ranging from the mundane (associations, bill paying) to the obvious (best blog, best podcast), the Webby’s are always a good place to discover what sites you’ve been missing while spending all your time tweaking your MySpace profile and endlessly Twittering your friends about what new CD you’re listening to.

10 Pipes for Your Tubes— tinyurl.com/2ah8jx — The Internet may not be a series of tubes, as Sen. Ted Stevens described it in 2006 at hearings related to net neutrality, but Yahoo is is hoping people will use its new “pipes” technology to customize information feeds and cut through the clutter on the web. If you are like me and can’t be bothered to try and figure out Yahoo’s system but still want to see what all the fuss is about, you can see what pipes have been set up by users. Here are 10 popular feeds, including pipes that will match videos to the tracks from your Last.fm playlist or perform searches that pull files from nearly every major torrent site.

10 Most Hated Things on the Web— tinyurl.com/2xxgsu — If you thought Microsoft products, Don Imus and overpriced CDs were going to be on this list, you’re wrong. Somehow cilantro, clowns and emo kids are more annoying than bloated software, a sexist/racist TV personality and paying too much for music.

Projection Bombing— tinyurl.com/y48z4h — The latest trend in urban activism is projection bombing. Taking elements of adbusting and guerrilla marketing and using mobile technology that allows customized messages to be broadcast in normally unaccessible locations, projection bombing marries the impact of installation art with the effectiveness of graffiti. This form of art activism requires a bit more start-up cash than it would to just buy some stencils and spray paint, but it’s appealing to people because it doesn’t permanently damage any surfaces and can be quickly moved.

Anthony Augustine is a freelance music, technology and pop culture writer. He can be heard every Tuesday morning at 9:00am on Hot 103 discussing the web. Got a site you think he should see? E-mail him at anthony.alloneword@gmail.com.