I took this screenshot (CBC website) of the standings yesterday showing Germany in first place with 8 medals, Canada second with 10 medals and Norway in third place with 12 medals. Yes, that’s right, because only being the very best in the world (well best at that particular place at
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THE FIFTH COLUMN: Why Does Canada Participate in the Olympics Anyway
I took this screenshot (CBC website) of the standings yesterday showing Germany in first place with 8 medals, Canada second with 10 medals and Norway in third place with 12 medals. Yes, that’s right, because only being the very best in the world (well best at that particular place at
Continue readingeaves.ca: Open Data for Development Challenge on Jan 27-28
This just came across my email via Michael Roberts who has been doing great work in this space. Open Data for Development Challenge January 27–28, 2014 — Montreal, Canada Do you want to share your creative ideas and cutting-edge expertise, and make a difference in the world? Do you want
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Inertia #nlpoli
In a letter last May to his federal counterpart, economic development minister Keith Hutchings described minimum processing requirements as the “only only policy instrument within provincial jurisdiction that ensures fisheries resources adjacent to the province result in processing jobs in Newfoundland and Labrador.” For those who do not know what
Continue readingeaves.ca: The End of Canada Post and the Coming War for Your Mailbox
As pretty much everyone in Canada learned yesterday (and no one outside the country cares to know), Canada Post, the country’s national postal service will phase out home mail delivery by 2019. The reason? It’s obvious. The internet has hammered mail volumes. There was 20% less mail delivered in 2012 than
Continue readingThe HB-Log : What on earth does "fiscally conservative" mean?
Based on current political discourse in Canada, the best I can come up with is “Not the NDP.” Liberals, along with other purported moderates, love the political ideology of “socially progressive and fiscally conservative.” It (seemingly) epitomizes the balance they strive for. When first volunteering on political campaigns in high school, I
Continue readingeaves.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 readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Some inconvenient truths: goring some educational sacred cows #nlpoli
Friday turned out to be Post-Secondary Education Day with a post here on the impact of the freeze on tuition fees and a fascinating Telegram article on the Conservatives’ 2011 campaign pledge to replace student loans with needs-based grants. Tuition was a bit of an issue in the 2001 provincial
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: 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 readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Wanted: a good row #nlpoli
One of the unreserved joys that comes from writing these scribbles is the moment when a post sparks something. Like on Monday, when a simple post looking at change in the provincial gross domestic product prompted an exchange among a few of the provincial Twitterati (Twitteratini?) on the whole business.
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
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