Rob Cottingham's blog | Social Signal

Usually, when an online community shuts down, it's an admission of failure: not enough time or staff to keep the trolls at bay; people drifting away after an initial surge of interest gives way to a lack of a compelling reason to participate; a divisive internal conflict or catastrophic technical collapse. (And sometimes the community's hosts - or their financial backers - just plain lose interest.)

Exciting news: the wonderful Kate Trgovac has invited me to cartoon at One Degree, the premier gathering place for Canadian online marketing types. Their contributors are some of the smartest people I've met in this field, and I'm delighted to join their ranks.

So head on over, subscribe to their feed, and you can get a sneak peek at a selected Noise to Signal cartoon every week! (The first one's right here.)

If you follow this stuff, then chances are you've at least heard about danah boyd's blog essay looking at youth participation in online social networks through the prism of class. It's an excellent read with some valuable insights, but I don't think it's the best piece on her site.

Dig a little deeper, and you'll find a remarkable perspective on online participation by young people, one that cuts past the paranoia and panic that too often color public discussion on that topic. She starts from the radical premise that kids are people worthy of respect and dignity; her posts regularly take on political and commercial hucksterism with a rare combination of passion and rigour.

Her interests and insights range beyond youth as well. If you'd like to check out her blog, have a look at some of her greatest hits – and then let me know what you think.

A few weeks ago, I blogged about Skitch, the Mac-only screen-capture-and-annotation tool from Plasq, the people who brought you Comic Life.

Now I've been given a handful of invitations to their beta... and the first has already been spoken for. (Hello, Alex.) Whoever'd like theirs, just leave a comment below...

Update: And be sure to include your email address, either in the comment or via our contact page.