Moving: Thus Prate the Pundit blog
Hello, if you follow(ed) this blog, I’m in the process of resurrecting it. The new location for the tech, CI, content management types of content is http://www.knowfore.com/blog/ and the RSS…
Joshua Chalifour
“Strategic” Voting Weakens Democracy
“Strategic” voting is a bad idea. Organized “strategic” voting improves nothing. Worse, “strategic” voting creates an illusion of trust where there are no possible checks and balances. It’s a scheme…
Timeline of Conservatives’ Deeds Against Science
In the Confessions of a Science Librarian blog, John Dupuy writes about the Harper Conservatives’ war against science. He’s logged and linked activities from 2006 to 2013 that show how…
Compilation of ConMem.ca Politics Past
I logged a timeline of public news information about the deeds and direction of those leading our Canadian federal government from 16 October 2008 through 2012. That log was on…
Should the NDP Renew Itself with a Shoot of Green?
Before our last federal election in 2010, I’d proposed a rationale for the NDP and Green Party to merge (from an NDP perspective). With the NDP leadership convention operating at…
Time to Establish a Green Social Democratic Party (GSDP)
Why is there both a New Democratic Party (NDP) and a Green Party? Examine them, really read their positions and philosophies. The two parties are essentially the same and where…
Conservatives to Ignore the Canadian Copyright Consultation in Favour of DMCA?
The Conservatives still appear to be steering Canada toward a DMCA-like future: one that enslaves our culture to a few controlling (mostly foreign) companies, stifles science and freedom of expression,…
First Take on the Public Domain Manifesto
Communia published its Public Domain Manifesto. The manifesto identifies the public domain concept with respect to historical development and more urgently, its relevance to culture today. I think it makes…
Angus Asks for Answers to ACTA Secrets
Charlie Angus (NDP) penned an open letter1 (.doc) (26 January 2010) to Peter Van Loan (Conservative Minister of International Trade) regarding the ongoing secretive ACTA negotiations and Canadian copyright issues.…
Secret Copyright Negotiations Disregard Canadian Consultation
Because of recent leaks, the public has learned that the minority Conservative government is engaged in at least two sets of secret negotiations to bring forward new copyright and “intellectual…
Response to Canadian Copyright Consultation
The government set up public consultations and a web site for discussion and formal submissions of responses to questions concerning copyright reform. The web site posed five questions, which I…
Rip Movie
Just saw the film, Rip, last weekend. The movie explores most of the present day struggles with copyright and notions of ownership of “intellectual property.” I thought it was interesting…
Ephemera and the National Memory
I continue to be concerned with what I once called digital cultural amnesia. Though in reflecting on the word “amnesia” I no longer think it’s the best way to express…
Coalition! I Was Wrong about Being Wrong
In my last post, I said that I was wrong about Dion’s political strategy in the last election. It turns out that while I wasn’t exactly right, I also wasn’t…
Polishing Up the Political Remains
Looks like I was wrong about Dion’s political strategy. Even if I was right, it didn’t turn out as I thought. I waited until today to proclaim my wrongness because…
Vote Swapping Breaks Democracy
I’ve always thought the concept of vote-swapping was problematic. Not only is it flawed in its own right but treating it as an acceptable strategy is like snuggling up to…
Unravelling Dion’s Political Strategy
Though my attention is tuned to our federal election, this post doesn’t continue the IP political issues I wrote detailing a stance against certain sorts of “intellectual property” regulation (NDP…
What Would Happen if You De-occupy the Cognitive Surplus?
The “West” is known for its consumers. Much of the rest of the world is trying its best to head in that direction too. Reading Clay Shirky’s recent blog post,…
Copyright Reform and the StatsCan Report
Michael Geist posted about the politics in the debate on copyright reform. The point stems from dissonance between the recent Statistics Canada report and a reform-oriented bill expected to introduce…
Some Notes on the Canadian Digital Information Strategy Draft
I’ve been reading the draft consultation version of the Canadian Digital Information Strategy. The strategy proposes strengthening content, ensuring its preservation, and maximizing its access and use. These are important…