Why UserFriendly went private again - For many in the computer industry, the UserFriendly comic strip is the first Web page they open in the morning. However, only its most loyal readers are aware that, over the past five years, the company behind the cartoon has wandered into the public equity market, only to return to the status of a private company. Recently, I talked about this journey with JD Frazer, the creator of the strip, and David Barton, vice president of UserFriendly.org. Their account is a practical lesson in the difficulties involved in such business maneuvers -- to say nothing of a testimony to their collective ability to keep their business, ethics, and audience intact. [Newsforge]

Signatures to the Petition for Users' Rights still needed... - Today I received 8 signatures for the Petition for Users' Rights from Waterloo, Ontario. It is important that we continue to collect signatures and have them tabled in the new parliament. Some of the people will be new, and we need to ensure that they are aware that, contrary to the misinformation in press releases, that Canadians (including Canadian creators) are not behind the extreme views of the Canadian branch plants of foreign intermediaries like CIRA and CAAST.