Last week the Minister Clement issued a press release announcing some of the progress the government has made on its Open Government Initiatives. Three things caught my eye. First, it appears the government continues to revise its open data license with things continuing to trend in the right direction. As
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Akaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism: TVO’s The Agenda: Liberalism of Conviction and of Convenience – Akaash Maharaj Videocast
The 20th century began as the age of the dictator. It ended with liberalism having come of age as the ascendant political philosophy across the world. Yet liberal parties everywhere are in crisis. Can they grow with the success of liberalism, or have they been outgrown by the success of
Continue readingAkaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism: TVO’s The Agenda: Liberalism of Conviction and of Convenience – Akaash Maharaj Videocast
The 20th century began as the age of the dictator. It ended with liberalism having come of age as the ascendant political philosophy across the world. Yet liberal parties everywhere are in crisis. Can they grow with the success of liberalism, or have they been outgrown by the success of
Continue readingeaves.ca: Weaving Foreign Ministries into the Digital Era: Three ideas
Last week I was in Ottawa giving a talk at the Department of Foreign Affairs talking about how technology, new media and open innovation will impact the department’s it work internally, across Ottawa and around the world. While there is lots to share, here are three ideas I’ve been stewing on: Keep more citizens safe […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: Gov 2.0: Network Analysis for Income Inequality?
I’ve been thinking a lot about these two types of graphs at the moment. This first is a single chart that shows income growth for various segements of the US population broken down by wealth. This second is a group of graphs that talk about pageviews and visits to various websites on the internet. What […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: Using Open Data to drive good policy outcomes – Vancouver’s Rental Database
One of the best signs for open data is when governments are starting to grasp its potential to achieve policy objectives. Rather than just being about compliance, it is seen as a tool that can support the growth and management of a jurisdiction. This why I was excited to see Vision Vancouver (in which I’m […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: As Canada Searches for its Open Government Partnership Commitments: A Proposal
Just before its launch in New York on September 20th, the Canadian Government agreed to be a signatory of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). Composed of over 40 countries the OGP signatories are required to create a list of commitments they promise to implement. Because Canada signed on just before the deadline it has not […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: The State of Open Data 2011
What is the state of the open data movement? Yesterday, during my opening keynote at the Open Government Data Camp (held this year in Warsaw, Poland) I sought to follow up on my talk from last year’s conference. Here’s my take of where we are today (I’ll post/link to a video of the talk as […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: Insite: Evidence, compassion and effectiveness overcome fear and reactiveness
I’m so deeply pleased to hear that the Supreme Court has ordered the federal government to allow Insite, Vancouver’s supervised injection site, to stay open. While on one level the case was about a battle of powers between the provincial and federal government – does health policy trump criminal law – at a deeper level […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: The Geopolitics of the Open Government Partnership: the beginning of Open vs. Closed
There hasn’t been a ton of press about the Open Government Partnership (OGP). This is hardly surprising. The press likes to talk about corruption and bad government, people getting together to talk about actually address these things in far less sexy. But even where good coverage exists analysts and journalists are, I think, misunderstanding the […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: Canada Joins the Open Government Partnership
I’m in New York today for the launch of the Open Government Partnership and it looks as the Canada is now a signatory (or at least has signed a letter of intent). No commitments are outlined, but I will link to them when they are posted. The Open Government Partnership was launched by the White […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: Interview with Charles Leadbeater – Monday September 19th
I’m excited to share that I’ll be interviewing British public policy and open innovation expert Charles Leadbeater on September 19th as part of a SIG’s webinar series. For readers not familiar with Charles Leadbeater, he is the author of We-Think and numerous other chapters, pamphlets and articles, ranging in focus from social innovation, to entrepreneurship […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: The Economics of Open Data – Mini-Case, Transit Data & Translink
Translink, the company that runs public transit in the region where I live (Vancouver/Lower Mainland) is getting ready to launch a real time bus tracking app that will use GPS data to figure out how far away the next the bus you are waiting for really is. This is great news for everyone. Of course […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: Smarter Ways to Have School Boards Update Parents
Earlier this month the Vancouver School Board (VSB) released an iPhone app that – helpfully – will use push notifications to inform parents about school holidays, parent interviews, and scheduling disruptions such as snow days. The app is okay, it’s a little clunky to use, and a lot of the data – such as professional […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: Open Data and New Public Management
This morning I got an email thread pointing to an article by Justin Longo on #Opendata: Digital-Era Governance Thoroughbred or New Public Management Trojan Horse? I’m still digesting it all but wanted to share some initial thoughts. The article begins with talking about he benefit of open data but its real goal is to argue […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: Edmonton Heads for the Cloud
I’m confident that somewhere in Canada, some resource strapped innovative small town has abandoned desktop software and uses a cloud based service but so far no city of any real size has even publicly said they were considering the possibility. That is, until today. Looks like Edmonton’s IT group – which is not just one […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: Why Social Media behind the Government Firewall Matters
This comment, posted four months ago to my blog by Jesse G. in response to this post on GCPEDIA, remains one of the favorite comments posted to my blog ever. This is a public servant who understands the future and is trying to live it. I’ve literally had this comment sitting in my inbox because […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: Shared IT Services across the Canadian Government – three opportunities
Earlier this week the Canadian Federal Government announced it will be creating Shared Services Canada which will absorb the resources and functions associated with the delivery of email, data centres and network services from 44 departments. These types of shared services projects are always fraught with danger. While they sometimes are successfully, they are often […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: Open Source Data Journalism – Happening now at Buzz Data
(there is a section on this topic focused on governments below) A hint of how social data could change journalism Anyone who’s heard me speak in the last 6 months knows I’m excited about BuzzData. This week, while still in limited access beta, the site is showing hints its potential – and it still has […]
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Dumping Shit in The Ottawa River
This blog post contains graphic language because there is no way to pretty up dumping shit in the city’s drinking water source.If I were to walk into the Ottawa River and take a crap I would probably be arrested, and not just for indecent exposure but …
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