In this month’s Mayday Magazine, we return in more detail to some of the issues that came up around our November issue. Whether or not you think development in downtown Hamilton is gentrification, it is important that we not become bogged down by the definition(s) of a word. Some of the specific trends and symptoms of this development are harming people and reducing the health of our communities. We cannot afford to ignore this, regardless of our thoughts on the G-word.

Advertising with Mayday is an effective form of marketing and outreach because our readers devour each issue, cover to cover. Our ever-expanding readership is a very loyal bunch who share their copies with co-workers, friends, and family.

Mayday’s ad rates are competitive and provide a significant impact without draining your budget.

By advertising in Mayday, you’re accessing dynamic local residents that will help shape our city today and in the near future. It shows that you care about the future of our community and our world.

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A sustainable city is a functional city.

In A Manifesto For Sustainable Cities, Gaines and Jager argue that for a metropolis to survive -let alone thrive -sustainable development is key. As the authors expand on the term, it becomes clear that a sustainable city must also be inclusive.

After the hype and hysteria subside and the high hopes hung on votes begin to sink, it becomes increasingly clear how voting, in and of itself, will not solve our city's problems.

In my high school, marks for projects were often grouped into two categories, “Content” and “Style”.  This reflected a powerful presupposition: content was a distinct entity separate from style. And since more marks were allotted to content, it was implied that  style was less important.

We're sorry to announce that Mayday has ceased publishing with its June 2011 issue.

Mayday Magazine is a publication of the Sky Dragon Community Development Cooperative. The opinions expressed in Mayday Magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the advertisers, sustainers, Sky Dragon staff, or Sky Dragon members.

SUBMISSIONS

Mayday thrives on your submissions. If you have an idea for an article you’d like to write for Mayday, please send us a pitch explaining your idea. Our goal is to have consistent, high quality content that fills gaps in the local media landscape. To that end, we seek content that is:

Critical: Analyze, explore, challenge. No simple cheer-leading of party lines or positions.
Current: Is it happening right now? Or could it run any time? We will also prioritize local or regional stories.
Visionary: New possibilities and viewpoints, presenting solutions and vivid writing.
Progressive: Content from a social justice, anti-oppressive, ecologically-minded, and anti-colonial perspective.

For an article to appear in the next issue, get it to us by the 15th of the month before. Expect some back and forth in the week following your submission as we work to edit and refine your piece. For more details about submissions, please see our style guide on maydaymagazine.ca

We are also always looking for cover artists, photographers, website help, distributors, and ad-sales people.
Mayday needs input from readers. All feedback is taken into consideration. If there’s anything you’d like to see, just speak up and let us know!

She presently does most of her work painting in acrylic. Her favorite form of expression leans stylistically toward the abstract.

During her three years at Sheridan Technical Institute’s Craft and Design program, Erica specialized in glass blowing and kiln casting. Her program also included training in Drawing, Craft and Art History, Business, and Design.

The danger of “any big idea” is it can distract you from the lives of individuals around you. In other words, big ideas have to be considered in a local context.

CartaNova means new map or new star. Fitting that they aspire to map out new relationships between businesses, individuals, and our planet. A client-centered firm in Hamilton with a collective aspiration for a greener, healthier planet, they bring together innovators and ‘wayfinders’ from the fields of business and design.

Mayday Magazine recently interviewed CartaNova business partners Andrew J. Holden and Robert Porter.

1.) What steps have you taken to ensure CartaNova stays “green”?

Andrew: We only take on “green” clients.  Most our work is with the Renewable Energy Industry and Environmental Not-for-Profit Organizations, although we’re flexible about helping more traditional organizations develop into more sustainable ones.

Andrew: We also recently launched CartaNova Wind-Powered Web Site Hosting, which involved a pretty serious search and commitment on our part.  Our servers run directly off wind turbine power at the Biglow Canyon Wind Farm outside of Portland, Oregon.  We’re working with a new company out there - Canvas Dreams - that’s also seriously committed to measuring their environmental impact.

Rob: Part of staying “green” is being very cautious and critical about any technologies with the labels “green” or “eco-friendly” marketed. Somewhat ironically, the best approach to truly keeping to an eco-ethical standard is to spend extra effort investigating claims of green-ness.

Rob: For example, with web servers there are countless companies marketing themselves as a “green web host” running on “renewable energy”, but 99% of them are actually using normal energy from the grid, and just offsetting with carbon credits or "renewable energy certificates". The great thing about our servers is that their datacentres are really powered directly from a wind farm.

2.) What sets CartaNova apart from other Web Designers?

Andrew: We maintain very intimate long-term client relationships.  Everything we do is aimed towards helping our clients develop in the long-term - business advice, software recommendations, etc.  The end result is that we have an informal ‘community’ of green organizations that we promote and advise in person and on our blog.

Andrew: We also have a point of view.  Too many businesses don’t.

Rob: It was a very liberating realization when we determined that what we’re really building is more of a community than a client-base. We know that there are countless other web design companies and freelancers out there, and some will charge so low they struggle to pay the bills and not be able to afford to keep meaningful relationships with their clients when they commit to too many.

Rob: We’re standing apart from others by maintaining relationships after a site launches, and not disappearing or scaling back communication like many companies or freelancers will. Because of this we don’t really need to advertise, word of mouth from our clients has worked quite well for us.

3.) How are you adapting to recent technological advances, such as the iPhone, smart phone, iPad, etc.?

Andrew: At the moment, we’re helping a Solar Thermal company to introduce iPhone-based remote monitoring of solar heating systems - which is pretty exciting.  And we’re talking to our friends at the LUNA Project eco-learning center (just outside of Hamilton) about letting schoolchildren remotely view the renewable energy use there.  But we’re careful about mobile web development.  Without clear standards for the mobile web, we want to ensure that ‘mini-sites’ aren’t only viable in the short term.

Rob: Technology advances today are a bit different to follow than they once were. Being able to estimate what’s just a trendy one-hit wonder and what will be with us 10 years from now requires some understanding of both the history of technology, and of culture. Certainly for a web designer the most important thing is to see your websites not only function properly, but look good on as many devices as possible.

Rob: Thankfully now most device manufacturers have clued in that they need to support current and emerging web standards (like HTML5), so that customers are going to be able to browse any web site they want from the first day the device launches. If we keep our web sites coded with current and future standards in mind, this allows us to keep them looking good on whatever the next-best-device is.

4.) Why did you get into this business?
 
Andrew: Before I came to Canada, I worked in Central and rural Virginia as a human-rights organizer.  I worked with some very nasty situations of environmental racism - dealing with polluted water tables, botched clean-ups and that sort of thing.  I’m also the son of a humane businessman and master-level naturalist.

Andrew: When I came to Canada I wanted to job that reflected those values and I took an eighty-percent pay-cut in order to get on with no real web design experience with an environmentally-oriented web design business in Toronto - Co2 Creative.  When they folded, I started a sole proprietorship ‘Holden Creative’ and all of their clients came on.  After a few years, we were able to form CartaNova.

Andrew: I never thought that I would be a businessperson at any level, but I’m now very glad I am.  Ultimately, I see the most potential for positive social and environmental change by engaging with commerce and helping green businesses to thrive.

Rob: I grew up in Bruce County, living at a farmhouse my family rented. In the early 90s I found myself passing time in the long winters learning to program. Around 1997 we got an internet connection and I started learning web sites and started doing some local sites there.

Rob: When I moved to Hamilton to go to McMaster I had always maintained my skills, as it was a good way of getting part-time work during my studies and in the summer. As my interests emerged I ended up creating a lot of web sites for non-profits and arts organizations, and I found it meaningful to help those kinds of groups get good exposure online. When Andrew and myself started working together in 2007 I was excited to work with green industry, as I saw it as meaningful work.

Rob: There’s also an art to it. I’ve worked in music, dance, writing, and theatre and see programming and web design as just as artistic. Over the years of numerous clients I’ve developed a codebase I use for some sites that is just as long as a lengthy novel, but far more complicated. Unlike most arts, few will ever see its inner-workings, much less understand it, but that’s okay with me.

Link: CartaNova operates a Green Community Blog at http://cartanova.ca/community-blog