Stuart Macdonald, the marketing wizard behind the mesh conference, has been named chairman of CIRA's first nominating committe, which is charged to find board members for Canada's.ca registrar. If you're interested, check out CIRA's Web site.

So Scott McNealy is finally handing over the reigns reins to Sun Microsystems after 24 years. I've only had the privilege to interview him once but can't say it was the best conversation I've ever had with a high-profile CEO. In contrast to the peppy, funny, irreverant person who puts on a laugh-a-minute show at high-tech conferences, McNealy was unenthusiastic, grumpy and far from newsworthy. It could have just been a bad day or it could have been he was less than thrilled about talking to a journalist from a newspaper he never knew existed. I guess part of being a CEO is you have a role to play - sometimes you're on, sometimes you're just not into it. McNealy must give dozens of interviews a year so it's not like each one will sizzle. Like a professional athlete, I'm sure he gets up for the "big games" when the Wall St. Journal or New York Times comes calling. For the rest of us, we have to hope he's having a good day. It should be pointed out McNealy is a bit of an anachronism these days given the disclosure restrictions that CEOs of publicly-traded companies face every time they're out and about. These rules do little to encourage a CEO to candid or straightforward. While McNealy will no longer be Sun's CEO,  I'm willing to be bet  he'll be as active and outspoken.

As blogs become more mainstream and increasingly seen as credible sources of information, more people are asking questions such as: "Are bloggers journalists?" or "How can newspapers thrive/survive amid community journalism and blogging?". Dave Winer, who has played a leading role in the development of RSS, OMPL and podcasting, waded into the fray recently during an interview with Rocketboom.com's Amanda Congdon. I haven't seen the clip but he seemed to suggest the difference between a journalist and a blogger is journalists write for money, while amateurs do it for love. He also said amateurs have "less conflict of interest and less reason not to tell [the] truth than if you have to pay the bills and please somebody else" (hat tip to Poynter On line). It's certainly a different viewpoint but Winer has never been one for taking the easy way out. But he does raise an excellent point about how traditional media such as newspapers and magazines survive within Journalism 2.0. Obviously, they need to embrace blogging and podcasts as additional tools to distribute information - much like they have adopted Web sites. Fundamentally, however, traditional media have to leverage their biggest and best assets: their brands, credibility and resources.Over the past 50 to 100 years, newspapers have developed strong brands that resonate with consumers. Whether it's the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall St. Journal or Peterborough Examiner, newspapers have a solid, well-entrenched presences within their communities. And for the most part, I think people trust newspapers or at least see them as credible sources of information (even if surveys suggest many people don't trust journalists) at a time when there are more doubts about what's accurate on the Web if anyone can publish something. So rather than dismiss the blogs, podcasts and video blogs and/or worry about their business models, traditional media must leverage the technology and have their reporters embrace these new tools. For those who choose to ignore the new tools, it's been nice knowing you.
Addendum: The future of media/journalism is one of the four streams being explored at the mesh conference in Toronto on May 15/16.