My friends over at Greenpeace recently published an interesting report entitled “How dirty is your data? A Look at the Energy Choices That Power Cloud Computing.” For those who think that cloud computing is an environmentally friendly business, let’s just say… it’s not without its problems. What’s most interesting is the huge opportunity the cloud […]
Continue readingTag: technology
eaves.ca: Lessons for Open Source Communities: Making Bug Tracking More Efficient
This post is a discussion about making bug tracking in Bugzilla for the Mozilla project more efficient. However, I believe it is applicable to any open source project or even companies or governments running service desks (think 311). Almost exactly a year ago I wrote a blog post titled: Some thoughts on improving Bugzilla in […]
Continue readingThings Are Good: Heat Your Home By Hosting the Internet
As the internet continues its growth it consumes more and more electricity because larger server and data centres are required. Microsoft has come up with a brilliant idea to allow ‘the backbone’ of the internet to continue to grow while helping heat houses and providing a faster internet.
Microsoft has released a research paper that […]
eaves.ca: Why I’m Struggling with Google+
So now I’ve been a couple of weeks with Google+ and I’ll be honest, I’m really struggling with the service. I wanted to give it a few weeks before writing anything, which has been helpful in letting my thinking mature. First, before my Google friends get upset, I want to acknowledge the reason I’m struggling […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: The State of Open Data Licenses in Canada and where to go from here
(for readers less interested in Open Data – I promise something different tomorrow) In February I wrote how 2011 would be the year of the license for Canada’s open data community. This has indeed been the case. For public servants and politicians overseeing the various open data projects happening in Canada and around the world, […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: Province of BC launches Open Data Catalog: What works
As revealed yesterday, the province of British Columbia became the first provincial government in Canada to launch a open data portal. It’s still early but here are some things that I think they’ve gotten right. 1. License: Getting it Right (part 1) Before anything else happens, this is probably the single biggest good news story […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: Using Data to Make Firefox Better: A mini-case study for your organization
I love Mozilla. Any reader of this blog knows it. I believe in its mission, I find the organization totally fascinating and its processes engrossing. So much so I spend a lot of time thinking about it – and hopefully, finding ways to contribute. I’m also a big believer in data. I believe in the […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: The Audacity of Shaw: How Canada’s Internet just got Worse
It is really, really, really hard to believe. But as bad as internet access is in Canada, it just got worse. Yesterday, Shaw Communications, a Canadian telecommunications company and internet service provider (ISP) that works mostly in Western Canada announced they are launching Movie Club, a new service to compete with Netflix. On the surface […]
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
Filmmaker Adam Curtis returns with a brilliant new documentary series that explores the ways in which many of our modern ideas and conventionally held beliefs have been perversely shaped by the machines we’ve created. In this episode, Curtis tracks the … Continue reading →
Things Are Good: Mobiles Without Borders
International Institute of Mobile Technologies and Engineers Without Borders Toronto have joined forces to create Mobiles without Borders to encourage the use of mobiles in development.
To start things off there’s a networking event happening in Toronto tomorrow Thursday July 7th:
With over 5 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide, mobile technology is becoming more than a form […]
eaves.ca: Why not create an Open311 add-on for Ushahidi?
This is not a complicated post. Just a simple idea: Why not create an Open311 add-on for Ushahidi? So what do I mean by that, and why should we care? Many readers will be familiar with Ushahidi, non-profit that develops open source mapping software that enables users to collect and visualize data in interactive maps. […]
Continue readingThe last of Nortel’s legacy sold off
Nortel’s patents sold for 4.5 billion dollars–a true indictment of the many dollars and years of R&D investment. Some of Canada’s top scientists worked there–it truly was an innovative company (unfortunately with bad management). It is also very sad that Nortel’s leadership, including Mike Zafirovski, did not know the true value of what they had […]
eaves.ca: Mind. Prepare to be blown away. Big Data, Wikipedia and Government.
Okay, super psyched about this. Back at the Strata Conference in Feb (in San Diego) I introduced my long time uber-quant friend and now Wikimedia Foundation data scientist Diederik Van Liere to fellow Gov2.0 thinker Nicholas Gruen (Chairman) and Anthony Goldbloom (Founder and CEO) of an awesome new company called Kaggle. As usually happens when […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: Links on Social Media & Politics: Notes from “We Want Your Thoughts #4″
Last night I had a great time taking the stage with Alexandra Samuel in Vancouver for “We Want Your Thoughts” at the Khafka coffee house on Main St. The night’s discussion was focused on Social Media – from chit chat to election winner – what next?” (with a little on the social media driven response […]
Continue readingThe Skwib: When Roombas Attack: The Singularity
My next novel has a comedic take on the Technological Singularity, so I thought I’d start to do some more posts about the topic here on The Skwib. The following video is a kind-of companion piece for a Time article that came out earlier this year about the Singularity and one of its main proponents, […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: The next Open Data battle: Advancing Policy & Innovation through Standards
With the possible exception of weather data, the most successful open data set out there at the moment is transit data. It remains the data with which developers have experimented and innovated the most. Why is this? Because it’s been standardized. Ever since Google and the City of Portland creating the General Transit Feed Specification […]
Continue reading350 or bust: It’s Time To Stop Spinning Our Wheels On Climate Change
Much of the UN climate negotiations that went on in Copenhagen in December, 2009 was just so much hot air and spinning of wheels without any movement towards a liveable planet and a sustainable future for our children. But maybe things are changing. …
Continue readingThe Importance of a Technology “Anchor”
Not a long post from me today, but just a link to an article in the Globe and Mail that explains what RIM’s misfortunes could mean for the city of Kitchener-Waterloo. I doubt that they will become the next Nortel, but hopefully they won’t…
Continue readingdjkelly.ca: CBC Radio column: RIM stock dives, what’s next for the BlackBerry maker?
It looks like my predictions about Blockbuster and RIM are coming true. In this alberta@noon column on CBC Radio One with host Donna McElligott I discuss what options are available to Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, in the shadow of a massive stock price drop. We talk about
Continue readingOttawa Tech Sector / RIM
A while ago I was going to post a quick something that I saw about the Ottawa Tech Sector from the Ottawa Citizen, but didn’t post it. Unfortunately things didn’t seem to be going well in Ottawa high-tech despite some encouraging signs from some companies. Article below: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/thinning+ranks+Ottawa+tech+sector/4564755/story.html?cid=megadrop_story But now it seems we could have […]