Self-described ‘new media oldtimer’ Geo Perdis (@geoperdis on Twitter) of Toronto was looking for a better way to search for Toronto news on Twitter when he found a group of people in Charleston, SC, who’d created a set of hash tags to make it easier to share and find news about Charleston. It made a lot of sense to Geo and he began using Twitter and pbwiki to consider a new hash tag approach to local news in Toronto and across Canada.

Geo calls the final result The CanTags (Canada Tags) Project and the concept is remarkably simple; the first three letters of a hashtag indicate a locale while the final few describe the topic.Looking for the latest on Winnipeg and the arts? Pop over to #winarts for the lowdown. Sports fanatics in Vancouver will find the latest in #vanspor. Other contributors to CanTags include new media journalism pioneer Wayner MacPhail (@wmacphail) and author/journalist Craig Silverman (@craigsilverman).

CanTags will launch on May 1, 2009 in conjunction with LocalDay, a global Twitter event organized by E-Democracy.Org

For more info on CanTags visit http://cantags.pbwiki.com/

Guest post by: @BrianMcInnis, a Toronto-based flack and recovering political junkie who on May 1st can be found at #TORpol