The McLuhan Legacy Network

THE MCLUHAN LEGACY NETWORK: A Research and Education Non-Profit Organization and Community

This document serves as a description of the McLuhan Legacy Network (see Inaugural Celebration flyer) formed on Sept. 21, 2010 by a group that had been meeting since the Spring of 2010 under the name of the McLuhan Centenary Celebration Committee. We are a group committed to the restoration of the McLuhan legacy and the celebration of the centenary of his birth on July 21, 1911 in Edmonton, Alberta. We are no longer an uncommittee of a few dedicated individuals but we are now the McLuhan Legacy Network with more than 130 members primarily in Toronto but with many folks across the globe. We have applied for the status of a non-profit organization in the Province of Ontario. We are charged with the responsibility for organizing a year-long celebration of the McLuhan Centenary in 2011 and with supporting and co-ordinating other celebrations around the world including the McLuhan Program at the iSchool of the University of Toronto. If you are interested in joining this group please email Prof Robert K. Logan at logan@physics.utoronto.ca, a former collaborator and co-author of McLuhan’s. Interested parties are welcome. Please indicate the nature of your interest so we can best know how to organize your participation or if you are already planning a celebration of your own how we might collaborate.

Preface

We are proposing that we focus for now on the Centenary and afterwards explore how we might commercialize the McLuhan brand in partnership with and permission from the McLuhan family. We believe that the Centenary will raise the profile of the McLuhan brand so that it is better to put the branding initiative on the back burner. We certainly have enough on our hands with the Centenary. The reason that we are going to move from the uncommittee structure, which served us well, to a non-profit organization is that we need a formal structure to raise money from government and the private sector to organize the Centenary. (agreed at Committee meeting on Tuesday Sept. 21)

The objectives of the non-profit organization are as follows (agreed at Committee meeting on Tuesday Sept. 21):

Celebrate Marshall McLuhan’s Centenary in Toronto in 2011 with events throughout 2011 but with a concentration of celebrations or events the week of July 18-24 and follow up with an annual McLuhan celebration around the date of his birthday on July 21 starting in 2012.
Restore the community of McLuhan Scholars in Toronto.
Support other McLuhan legacy projects such as other McLuhan centenary celebrations, events and projects in 2011 including the International McLuhan Conference being organized by Seamus Ross, Dean of the iSchool at the U of T for October of 2011, the restoration of the Coach House, the McLuhan Program at U of T, and the Media Ecology Association or any other organization promoting the McLuhan legacy.
Develop a McLuhan Museum both online and in a structure associated with the Coach House.
Develop the Centenary Central Communication and Project Management capability with a Web site containing a calendar of all McLuhan Centenary projects and document the Centenary Celebrations in Toronto and across the world through a documentary film.
Conduct research through the McLuhan Design and Media Ecology Research Project:

5. Centenary Central Communication and Project Management Capability (agreed at Committee meeting on Tuesday Sept. 21)

We need to confirm some of the assignments below not already confirmed:

Marie Nazar will be the Communications Lead (confirmed with assistance from Agnes Kuchio and Marnie Landon) and with graphic design assistance from Greg van Alstyne (confirmed).

Web lead is yet to be determined but Joel Alleyne and Gisella MacKay volunteered to help get this activity going (confirmed).

Documentary film lead will be Nadia Sandhu and Johnathan Hlibka (confirmed).

Johnathan Hlibka will be the Manager of the Project Portfolio (the set of all projects) making sure each project lead is on track. Each project lead will be responsible for recruiting their team and managing them so that we have a decentralized structure just as Marshall McLuhan advised was the way to organize in the Electric Era (agreed to at Committee meeting on Tuesday Sept. 21 and confirmed by Hlibka).

Here is a list of projects and putative leads:

The McLuhan Media Installation Project Lead – Saul Greco (confirmed).

Gallery 1313 Lead – Robin Styba (confirmed).

McLuhan and Education Lead – Alex Kuskis (confirmed).

Liss Jeffrey Memorial Lead needs to be recruited (Joel and Gale said they would help and we need to involve Fraser obviously and we also need a Lead)

McLuhsn snd Acoustics – Robert Scott (confirmed).

McLuhan and Dialogics Lead – Peter Jones (confirmed).

McLuhan and Future Studies Lead – Walter Derzko (confirmed).

McLuhan Film Festival Lead is Helga Halberfehlner (confirmed).

McLuhan Program Events Lead – Dominique Scheffel-Dunand (confirmed).

McLuhan and Advertising Lead – Bev Atkinson (confirmed and she will also work on the McLuhan font) Greg Van Alstyne to provide graphic design input and logo development.

McLuhan and Music Lead – Phil Rose (confirmed).

McLuhan and Social Media Lead – Dave McNabb (confirmed).

Fund raising Lead is Nadian Sandhu (confirmed) – (Zan Chandler has agreed to advise).

McLuhan Mass Lead – Eric McLuhan (confirmed).

The McLuhan Design and Media Ecology Research Project: Applying Media Ecology to the Design of Educational, Business, Social and Government Organizations (agreed at Committee meeting on Tuesday Sept. 21)

Co – Principal Investigators Eric McLuhan and Robert K. Logan

Potential Institutional Affiliations: sLab at OCAD U. (Bob Logan (confirmed), Greg Van Alstyne (confirmed) and Peter Jones (confirmed)), McLuhan Program at U of T (Dominique Scheffel-Dunand (confirmed), Derrick de Kerckhove(confirmed)), KMDI at U of T (Joel Alleyne (confirmed)) and other academic institutions that wish to participate including a number of international institutions such as Citilab Barcelona (Ramon Sanguesa), Pompeu Fabra U. in Barcelona (Carlos Scolari), U. of Copenhagen (Mogens Olesen (confirmed)), Free University of Brussels (Yoni van den Ede (confirmed)), Guelph U. (to be confirmed with Mark Lipton), Ryerson University (Sal Greco, Don Gilles, Robert Scott all (confirmed)), York U (to be confirmed with Bruce Powe and/or Janine Marchessault), Rochester U (to be confirmed with Tim Madigan), Basque Country U (Cristina Miranda (confirmed)), Federal University of São João Del Rei (Filomena Bomfim), Gonzaga U (Alex Kuskis (confirmed)), Fordham U {Lance Strate (confirmed) and Paul Levinson) (confirmed)}, Polytechnic U of Milan (Matteo Ciastellardi) (confirmed).

Slate of candidates for the governing board (agreed at Committee meeting on Tuesday Sept. 21)

Michael McLuhan (confirmed).

Eric McLuhan (confirmed).

Robert K. Logan (confirmed).

Dominique Schefffel-Dunand (confirmed).

Joel Alleyne (confirmed).

Jothnathan Hlibka (confirmed).

Marie Nazar (confirmed).

Nadia Sandhu (confirmed).

Bev Atkinson (confirmed).

Agnes Kuchio (confirmed).

Marnie Landon (confirmed).

Alex Kuskis (confirmed).

Phil Rose (confirmed).

Sal Greco (confirmed).

Robin Styba (confirmed).

Two Councils

In addition to a governing board that will take on the responsibility of handling funds on behalf of the non-profit we also want to put into play a Council of Academic, Teachers and Students composed of members from GTA, the rest of Canada, and from abroad. The Council would co-ordinate research and education activities and organize collaborations. The following is a list of academics teachers and students to be invited (feel free to add more names especially your own if I have overlooked you). We also wish to form a Creative Media Council that would organize exhibitions, film festivals and production, art shows, theatre, music and any and all creative arts including fine arts, design and advertising.

Council of Academics, Teachers and Students

Dean Seamus Ross, iSchool, U of T

Dominique Scheffel-Dunand, York U. & Dir. McLuhan Program U of T (confirmed).

Principal Mark McGowan, St. Mike’s, U of T

Sal Greco, Ryerson (confirmed).

Eric McLuhan

Robert K. Logan, Physics U of T and Chief Scientist sLab at OCAD U. (confirmed).

Greg Van Alstyne, Dir of Research, sLab at OCAD U. (confirmed).

Peter Jones Senior Fellow and Sessional Instructor, sLab at OCAD U. (confirmed).

Mark Lipton, Dir Communications Guelph U.

Bruce Powe, York U.

Matteo Ciastellardi