“Philanthropy has always been a factor in journalism in the US,” says professor Jeffrey Dvorkin of Ryerson University, “the question for Canadians is whether there are enough people who are willing to contribute in this economic climate.”

Newspapers are reeling to cover the costs of running their presses as their main sources of revenue, advertisements and classifieds, make a mass exodus from print to online media, where the cost of purchasing space is a fraction of its print counterpart.

And so the search for a way of paying for journalism continues. Philanthropy is a viable option when coupled with public funding, says Dvorkin.

The system “would need a very aggressive development department that is as imbued with the best values of the enterprise as the journalists themselves,” says Dvorkin.

There is a final balance that need must be met for a publicly and philanthropically funded organization, one that keeps the government at arm’s length and the interests of the benefactor out of the news room.

Dvorkin offers the possibilities of a “public ombudsman to act as a guarantor of that journalistic independence and integrity,” for the institution or an ethics guide by which the public may judge it,” Dvorkin says. 


Governments stingy with raw data

Governments are suspicious of raw data requests, Jim Rankin of the Star, said Monday.

It is one thing to request a document from public departments and agencies by way of Canada's freedom of information (FOI) laws, but the uses of electronic data are ambiguous and potentially volatile, as far as governments are concerned, said Rankin.

Governments in Canada don't believe data should be disseminated or analyzed, Rankin continued, a practice common in the United States of America where statistics are analyzed to identify trends and to determine the success of social projects.

Obliged by the federal and provincial Access to information Act (ATI) bureaucrats acquiesce to FOI requests of raw data only to create difficulties for inquirers by supplying time-consuming hard-copies or PDF files rather than electronic files easily transferabel to data input programs, said Rankin.

To avoid the difficulties of FOI requests, seven-year waits, Rankin and his co-worker, Andy Bailey, have begun to "scrape" institutional websites for information. The sites allow single question queries into their databases, Rankin said. To speed-up the process, Bailey creates a "bot" to systematically siphon through the entire database in the span of a night, said Rankin.

Gone Phishing

The word fishing, which connotes a mellow activity involving lapping waves, fruitful conversation and fish entrails, has been usurped in popular vernacular by its malicious homophone, and internet pandemic, phishing.

Phishing is the act of surreptitiously acquiring sensitive personal information from consumers via email, pop-ups, in person or over-the-phone for the purpose of identity theft or other exploitative measures. Phishers may pose as a legitimate web-entity, such as a bank, asking for previously relayed information often with an urgent imperative. Examples of the information sought in phishing are credit card numbers, ID's and passwords, and social insurance numbers.

In 2008, the University of Toronto email system, UTORmail, was attacked. Two thousand users were sent an email by what appeared to be the university help desk, asking for their user ID and password. Some users did respond and comply with the request. The university's network services supervisor, Alex Nishri, suggested the information was being sold to those interested in gaining access to online library and reference materials.

On a broader scale, in 2006, PhoneBusters, the Royal Canadian Mounted Polices's anti-fraud hotline, recorded 7,778 complaints from Canadians, with a loss in assets of $16.3 million; a figure the police believe represents only five percent of incidents.

According to the Ontario government, to avoid being hooked by a phisher you must be suspicious of any emails or phonecalls asking for your personal information. Most businesses of repute will not ask in such an informal manner. If you believe you have been phished, make the appropriate arrangements to change account information, cancel creditcards or execute any other applicable defense measures.