Great Hacks from the Open Data in Vancouver
Last weekend I helped host an Open Data Day in Vancouver. With the generous support of Domain7, who gave us a place to host talks and hack, over 30 Vancouverites…
technology
How We Keep the Tarsands in the Ground
NOT actually science-fiction. In your science-fiction news today: Imagine a power system that could harness the energy of 2,000 suns and provide fresh water and air conditioning in remote locations.…
Tech on the Side: Business Models vs Capabilities
One of the most fascinating aspect of following technology is not just the speed at which the technologies themselves change. It is that the shifts are so large and so…
Google Launches Deforestation Watch
Global Forest Watch is a new project from Google to highlight the deforestation that has been happening around the planet since the year 2000. Google is working with a lot…
Questions for robots
Eighty years ago, Keynes famously predicted that within a century people would need to work no more than three hours per day. High living standards aided by technological breakthroughs would…
The dangerous mystique of the “open data” business
I’m frequently asked by people about how they can start an “open data business.” Let me first say that I love that the question gets asked. I love that people…
Open Data Advice for Librarian Coders
For the purposes of this post we will ignore how remarkably badass sounding the word librarian becomes when “coder” is added to the end of it. I recently had a…
The more things change… Amazon’s “anticipatory shipping” and the village square
Media outlets recently publicized Amazon’s patent for what it calls “anticipatory shipping.” The premise is as simple as it is creepy: Amazon will charge and ship items before customers have…
New Technique For Restoring Historic Videos
USC Shoah Foundation has a large collection of interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides. Old physical media formats are susceptible to damage from fires to…
Open Data Day Google+ Hang Out
With just about a month to go until Open Data Day things are going well. There are quite a few cities that have been added to the open data day…
Using Drones For Studying Ecologies
Drones are popularly associated with American air strikes on civilians and thus have a negative reputation. The technology underlying the drones can be used for good though. One example of…
More Clever Climate Change Awareness Actions!
…Burning oil caused the melting in the first place… A week ago two climate change activists pulled a Yes Men on our greatest employee, Mr. Stephen Harper. But last summer,…
A Key Union Priority for 2014
Naomi Klein urges unions to join climate change fight Many groups are calling for significant and sufficient action to address climate change, which is fantastic. But unions have not been…
Simon Norfolk – Forensic Traces of War
A controlled explosion of an American fuel convoy in Iraq being filmed on the set of ?Over There?, a Fox TV production about the life of a US Army platoon…
Enbridge: What Now? We Escalate Our Fight
Some breaking news occurred yesterday, the Joint Review Panel of the National Energy Board approved the Enbridge pipeline, but with 209 conditions. To quote a teenager from 1994: “Big whoop.”…
Tech on the Side: Lessons from HDDVD vs Blu-ray
My first real foray into the world of following tech news came with the epic HDDVD vs Blu-ray fight. This was more than a little odd. At the time, I…
Open Data Day 2014 is Coming Feb 22 – Time to Join the Fun!
So, with much help from various community members (who reminded me that we need to get this rolling – looking at you Heather Leson), I pleased to say we are…
Technology Is Opening A New Era Of Ethics
Whether it is the accumulation of data about your life on Facebook, your online professional profile on LinkedIn, or the location tracking features of your cellphone, there has never been…
Tech on the Side: Apple’s tablet upgrade cycle problem
On this blog I like to cover the big issue facing our planet, issues dramatically affecting millions or billions of people: war, conflict, global warming, poverty, economics, rights and freedoms,…
Video Games to Help the World
A game based on the story Half the Sky puts players into a perspective usually different than their own: a young girl in the developing world. It teaches young gamers…