I've got to say that I'm really torn about this new direction. Ultimately, I do think that encouraging the use of SU for marketing purposes does open the door to a whole lot of abuse. I am worried that the quality of content within the SU database will degrade even further. Doesn't this violate the terms of service that were being defended so vehemently over the past few years? I really like the idea of a traffic building URL shortening service... and I love the stats it includes... but sacrificing the quality of SU results to do it makes me a little sad...
A nice write-up of Changecamp, an Ottawa-based "un-conference". I absolutely loved the format of this event... it was an informal meeting of citizens, government (municipal, provincial and federal), academics, private sector consultants, public organizations with the common goal of using new technology to encourage better dialogue and collaboration between people and the governments that support them.