Congratulations on your election wins from our team at goCapeBreton.com

The purpose of our letter is to invite collaboration and offer you our free services for the good of Cape Breton Island.  Close elections, like the one we just had in CBRM, can be difficult for everyone to process, and risk dividing the community for years to come.  Let’s not let that happen.

We created goCapeBreton.com to build and unlock the social capital inherent in our community. A key method for making this possible is to enable everyone in the community to easily share and discover information that helps us live, work, and play. This is our mission and we are committed to continuing to build on the tremendous momentum and goodwill the citizens of Cape Breton have given us.

I’m sure you will succeed in your objectives, just as we will with ours, but it will be to everyone’s benefit if we work together.  So, I’m writing this open letter to invite you to join us.  It’s good for you.  It’s good for us.  It’s good for the people of Cape Breton Island.

goCapeBreton.com gives you and our community a significant advantage that others do not have. Other communities must rely on the conventional news media or social media channels to share their messages.  Both of these options pose challenges. The conventional news media (newspapers, radio, etc.) picks and chooses the information we are to see or hear, thereby controlling and limiting the messages that reach us (some might consider this to be a form of bias or censorship).  On the other hand, modern social media is an unbridled free-for-all that lacks the structure needed for easy discovery (for example, a shared community calendar is not possible on Facebook or Twitter, but it is here on goCapeBreton.com).

goCapeBreton.com sits between these options and can amplify the voices of the community, whether it be the individual citizen, a nonprofit organization, business, or government agency. To find out more about our community-building approach, we invite you to watch these videos.

We encourage all Mayors, Chiefs, and Councillors to use goCapeBreton.com to share with their constituents whatever information is important to help us collectively succeed as a shared community.  There is no cost to you or our citizens for doing so, and the ability for goCapeBreton.com to reach Cape Bretoners living at home and away is unprecedented, and growing every day.

Many people are already using goCapeBreton.com to its fullest potential. It was also great to see so many candidates use the website as part of their campaigns. But, we do understand that some may be cautious or even reluctant to do so, because of uncertainty or misinformation about our mission.  Allow me to clarify by outlining some facts and myths about goCapeBreton.com:

FACT 1

goCapeBreton.com was created and is managed by people living and working in Cape Breton.  It uses a highly-sophisticated technology platform built by local people and which is being exported to communities around the world to help bring more jobs and wealth to Cape Breton.

MYTH 1

goCapeBreton.com is similar to Facebook, so no need to do both. False. goCapeBreton.com does have some similarities with Facebook, but it is very different. goCapeBreton.com aggregates content relevant to Cape Breton Island in one place, unlike Facebook that has it scattered throughout thousands of pages, groups, and timelines and intertwined with everything from international news to what people are having for dinner. Content on goCapeBreton.com is well organized, archived, and search-optimized to make it easy to find today and in the future, unlike Facebook where content in the timeline disappears within hours.  And, goCapeBreton.com enables you to reach many more Cape Bretoners at home and away with local news and information.

FACT 2

Content on goCapeBreton.com can be contributed by anyone. True! Much like anyone can post on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media website, goCapeBreton.com allows anyone to share anything … but, unlike other websites, all content on goCapeBreton.com MUST be related to Cape Breton Island.  There is no national news, regional news, or other non-local information.

MYTH 2

goCapeBreton.com has too much negative or controversial content. False! There are over 8,000 contributions on goCapeBreton.com and the vast majority of the content is about positive news stories, events, jobs, success stories, and more. A quick browse of the most viewed content shows this to be true.  Further, all content on goCapeBreton.com has the name of the person or organization that posted it, thereby avoiding anonymous contributions.

FACT 3

goCapeBreton.com does not censor user content. True!  Our team does monitor content to make sure nothing inappropriate, unlawful, or harmful is posted, but we do not censor people.  On the rare occasion where we may have to take action on problem content, like a “bad” word, we will replace the offending content with a message to indicate that it was removed by administrators so that our readers are aware of the modification, while still allowing the users’ content to be seen. We will never reword or rewrite user content, as we believe that would be deceptive and undemocratic (we won't even fix your typos :-) On VERY rare occasions, if a post fully violates our Terms of Use, we will remove it completely (this only happens about once every 1,000 contributions).

MYTH 3

goCapeBreton.com is politically biased.  False!  goCapeBreton.com is neutral on all issues. The people of Cape Breton post their own views, and while it may appear as though one view is supported more than another, that is simply because of what the people of Cape Breton have chosen to share (or what an individual may have chosen to read).  goCapeBreton.com does not pick and choose which content to show.  All content is shown immediately when a user publishes it.  Anyone that has an opposing view can easily share their own post or comment on goCapeBreton.com.  

While using goCapeBreton.com is free, it is also true that anyone can purchase advertising services from goCapeBreton.com that will increase the visibility of their post. Increasing visibility may include being listed in the FEATURED stream, and wider promotion through our social media channels. Such paid advertisements may make it appear as though goCapeBreton.com is favouring some content over others, but such content is always posted under the name of the person or organization that is sharing their views, not under the name of goCapeBreton.com

FACT 4

The people who work at goCapeBreton.com have their own views about living and working in Cape Breton.  True!  As noted above, goCapeBreton.com is neutral on all issues.  But, the people who work at goCapeBreton.com certainly have their own views and may choose to share their views on goCapeBreton.com or other websites or media.  We fully encourage all of our team members to be active and engaged citizens for the good of our community.  But, when we personally share our views, you will find our names attached to those views (and not goCapeBreton.com). This helps our readers know where the content is coming from. We do not hide behind editorial boards and other screens.

Our focus at goCapeBreton.com is to facilitate the democratization of information, to encourage transparency in our community, and to bring people together to make good things happen. We created goCapeBreton.com and hosted the GET ‘ER DONE! event to accomplish this mission.  It’s already working as more and more citizens are joining this movement.

Our loyalty is to the success of our community, and we hope you will join us in making this happen.  We are extending an open invitation to any Mayor, Chief, or Councillor on Cape Breton Island to contact us so that we can help you help your constituents and our shared community.