Please read background below for more info. Here’s the skinny. What A one day mini-conference, held (tentatively) in Vancouver on January 14th San Francisco on January 21st and 22nd, 2014 (remote participating possible) for Mozillians about community metrics and dashboards. Update: Apologies for the change of date and location, this event
Continue readingAuthor: David Eaves
eaves.ca: OGP Rules of the Game – Tactical Mistake or Strategic Necessity?
The other week Martin Tisne, the UK Policy Director at the Omidyar Network, as well as one of the key architects of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), posted a blog post expressing concern that Civil Society participants have misunderstood the OGP. Specifically Tisne is concerned that by focusing on entrance
Continue readingeaves.ca: The Uncertain Future of Open Data in the Government of Canada
It is possible to state that presently, open data is at its high water mark in the Government of Canada. Data.gc.ca has been refreshed, more importantly, the government has signed the Open Data Charter committing it to making data “open” by default, and a rash of new data sets have
Continue readingeaves.ca: Some thoughts on the relaunched data.gc.ca
Yesterday, I talked about what I thought was the real story that got missed in the fanfare surrounding the relaunch of data.gc.ca. Today I’ll talk about the new data.gc.ca itself. Before I begin, there is an important disclaimer to share (to be open!). Earlier this year Treasury Board asked me
Continue readingeaves.ca: The Real News Story about the Relaunch of data.gc.ca
As many of my open data friends know, yesterday the government launched its new open data portal to great fanfare. While there is much to talk about there – something I will dive into tomorrow – that was not the only thing that happened yesterday. Indeed, I did a lot
Continue readingeaves.ca: Policy-Making in a Big Data World
For those interested I appeared on The Agenda with Steve Paikin the other week talking about Big Data and policy making. There was a good discussion with a cast of character that included (not counting myself): Kenneth Cukier, the Data Editor for The Economist and author of “Big Data: A Revolution That Will
Continue readingeaves.ca: What Traffic Lights Say About the Future of Regulation
I have a piece up on TechPresident about some crazy regulations that took place in Florida that put citizens at greater risk all so the state and local governments can make more money. Here’s a chunk: In effect, what the state of Florida is saying is that a $20 million
Continue readingeaves.ca: The Past, Present and Future of Sensor Journalism
This weekend I had the pleasure of being invited to the Tow Centre for Digital Journalism at the Columbia Journalism School for a workshop on sensor journalism. The workshop (hashtag #towsenses) brought together a “community of journalists, hackers, makers, academics and researchers to explore the use of sensors in journalism;
Continue readingeaves.ca: Some Nice Journalistic Data Visualization – Global’s Crude Awakening
Over at Global, David Skok and his team have created a very nice visualization of the over 28,666 crude oil spills that have happened on Alberta pipelines over the last 37 years (that’s about two a day). Indeed, for good measure they’ve also visualized the additional 31,453 spills of “other” substance
Continue readingeaves.ca: Awesome Simple Open Data use case – Welcome Wagon for New Community Businesses
A few weeks ago I was at an event in Victoria, British Columbia at event where people were discussing the possibilities, challenges and risk of open data. During the conversation, one of the participants talked about how they wanted an API for business license applications from the city. This is
Continue readingeaves.ca: Duffy, the Government and the problem with “no-notes” meetings
So, for my non-canadian readers, there is a significant scandal brewing up here in Canadaland, regarding a senator, who claimed certain expenses he was not allowed to (to the tune of $90,000) and then had that debt paid for by the Prime Minister’s chief of staff (who has now resigned).
Continue readingeaves.ca: Thoughts on the White House Executive Order on Open Data
As those steeped in the policy wonk geekery of open data are likely already aware, last Thursday the President of the United States issued an Executive Order Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information. This is, quite frankly, a big deal. Further down in the post
Continue readingeaves.ca: LinkedIn is as confused about what I do as everyone else
Often when I meet people, they ask me what I do. The challenge is, there is no easy answer to that question. I advise companies and non-profits on strategy, I do advocacy work and serve as an expert on open-innovation, open government and open data, I also work a negotiation
Continue readingeaves.ca: The Value of Open Data – Don’t Measure Growth, Measure Destruction
Alexander Howard – who, in my mind, is the best guy covering the Gov 2.0 space – pinged me the other night to ask “What’s the best evidence of open data leading to economic outcomes that you’ve seen?” I’d like to hack the question because – I suspect – for
Continue readingeaves.ca: Canada Post and the War on Open Data, Innovation & Common Sense (continued, sadly)
Almost exactly a year ago I wrote a blog post on Canada Post’s War on the 21st Century, Innovation & Productivity. In it I highlighted how Canada Post launched a lawsuit against a company – Geocoder.ca – that recreates the postal code database via crowdsourcing. Canada Posts case was never
Continue readingeaves.ca: How not to sell the Oil Sands
If you haven’t read Tzeporah Berman’s Daily Kos piece – My Government Doesn’t Believe in Climate Change – go check it out. It’s amazing to see how out of sync, and behind the ball, the government has gotten on this issue. Indeed, the current government really is becoming the best
Continue readingeaves.ca: How not to sell the Oil Sands
If you haven’t read Tzeporah Berman’s Daily Kos piece – My Government Doesn’t Believe in Climate Change – go check it out. It’s amazing to see how out of sync, and behind the ball, the government has gotten on this issue. Indeed, the current government really is becoming the best
Continue readingeaves.ca: You Have No Rights – Because you are Breaking the Law Right Now
For those who missed it, which I suspect is most people, there is a fantastic Op-Ed in the New York Times by Peter Ludlow of Northwestern University. Titled Hacktivists as Gadflies it is a scary look at how much legal power the US government has over people who use the web (e.g.
Continue readingeaves.ca: Toronto Star Op-Ed: Muzzled Scientists, Open Government and the Limits of Rules
I’ve a piece in today’s Toronto Star ”Rules are no substitute for cultivating a culture of open government“ about the Information Commissioners decision to investigate the muzzling of Canadian scientists. Some choice paragraphs: The actions of the information commissioner are to be applauded; what is less encouraging are the limits of her
Continue readingeaves.ca: How Car2Go ruins Car2Go
So let me start by saying, in theory, I LOVE Car2Go. The service has helped prevent me from buying a car and has been indispensable in opening up more of Vancouver to me. For those not familiar with Car2Go, it is a car sharing service where the cars can be parked virtually
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