Editor's Note: Ms. Communicate will be writing twice a month columns on various and sundry issues related to advice, guidance and suggestions for living as happily as possible as citizens of various identities in the 21st century.

Ms. Communicate's column will be appearing on the second and fourth Thursday of the month. Please send in any topics that you would like her to cover, as well as any letters seeking advice, which she'd love to answer. Her email is mscommunicate(at)rabble.ca.

Today I'm writing about a problem that plagues many of my friends and loved ones. Reading online comments, especially mainstream media sites such as CBC.ca and the Globe and Mail.

The Internet played an important role in electing Barack Obama: it can play a major role in defeating Stephen Harper and his Conservatives. Recently two Facebook groups have shown how quickly negative opinion can be mobilized, and expressed. The playful "Can this Onion Ring get more fans than Stephen Harper" page resulted in a nearly six to one victory over the 30,000 Harper fans. The "Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament" page grew quickly to over 225,000 members, attracting mainstream media comment.

We're not even half way through January and we've already seen more tablets than at a Hunter S. Thompson house party. It seems like every major (and a lot of minor) computer manufacturers whipped up a tablet computer for the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. A tablet computer? Imagine a netbook with the keyboard torn off. Or, an iPod the size of a trivet. Or, just watch a Star Trek rerun.

We saw tablets that popped off the top of regular laptops, tablets with double screens like an open book, tablets with e-ink screens. Tablets with colour screens. Tablets with both. Frankentablets. It was like looking at a swarm of tablet lifeforms before natural selection culled the herd.

At Fresh Hot Type, the after party for the Fresh Media Festival on Oct. 24, local media arts group W2 provided a letterpress with which partygoers could experiment. The idea was that as the DJs spin in the background, participants could creatively express themselves by using the letterpress, ink and paper. Not satisfied with what seemed like the natural limits of the medium, participants soon began writing words and expressions on both their own and each other's bodies and acting out the words on the dance floor.

Unbeknownst to most Canadians, cable companies and local community groups have been wrestling for control over community channel assets: the community groups want space on the TV dial and production resources; the cable companies want to call the shots, control the programming, and move their community channels in the direction of commercial television. Approximately $80 million collected annually from Canadians and earmarked for community programming, is at stake.

Meanwhile, the digital revolution is transforming citizens into media producers and every home computer into a virtual television station. In such a radically altered media environment, the question remains: what will community TV be in the 21st century?

Community media 2.0