Use Your Smartphone to Advance Science
Smartphones aren’t just for games and checking your email anymore! Today, these mobile devices can be used to better the world around us by helping scientists understand more about it.…
technology
This year, Ramadan has a serious Google twist
Today, over a billion Muslims around the world begin to observe the holy month of Ramadan, fasting from dawn to sunset. This year, Google is in on the action. In…
OSCON Community Management Keynote Video, Slides and some Bonus Material
Want to thank everyone who came to my session and who sent me wonderful feedback from both the keynote and the session. I was thrilled to see ZDnet wrote a…
Office 15 fails at innovation, no match for Google Docs
If we could all remember when Google Docs came out and revolutionized the way we create, store and edit our work on the internet, we would all be living in…
What does ‘sustainable’ really mean?
Enbridge has provided an interesting response to Christy Clark’s concerns over the Enbridge pipeline. “We have a struggle here in B.C. and we know that,” said Janet Holder, the Enbridge…
Alberta, Canada’s ‘Energy Capital’, implements rolling blackouts
Yep, another Alberta post. Welcome to the reality of the two-tiered Alberta energy system. What do I mean by two tiered? Well let me explain. Over a year ago I…
If you are away from your cell phone… Awesome South African Online Ad
Was doing some research for a story I am writing over at TechPresident which had me visiting the site of Mxit, a social network built largely for mobile phones and…
Declaration of Internet Freedom
Around the world governments are trying to restrain the ability of people to freely share information across the internet. Bills like SOPA in the USA and Bill C-30 in Canada…
Unstructured Thinking on Open Data: A response to Tom Slee
apologies for any typos, I’d like to look this over more, but I’ve got to get to other work. Tom Slee has a very well written blog post with a…
Help OpenNorth Raise 10K to Improve Democracy and Engagement thru Tech
Some of you may know that I sit on the board of directors for OpenNorth – a cool little non-profit that is building tools for citizens, governments and journalists to…
Should we Start a Government as Platform Business Association
I have an idea. I want to suggest starting a community of disruptive software companies that are trying to sell products to local and regional governments. I know we can…
Investing in Our Future – Kids in the Tech Era – Movie Monday
So, all those weeks ago when our esteemed videographer William Matthews from Digital Footprint and I started out on this crazy journey to make a movie every monday, I said…
Will Microsoft’s Surface be the Tablet for Lawyers?
Though I’m a long-time Windows user, I’ve certainly done my best over the last couple of years to warm up to Apple’s clearly superior mobile and tablet products. To be…
One big idea: Banking Oversight? Please.
Emerging from their resort world leaders have come up with one idea that just might work. Banking Oversight. No seriously, this is what they are spending money coming up with.…
Etsy Encouraging More Women to Hack
The online craft marketplace Etsy has started funding a school that teaches people how to hack and use technology. That’s fine in itself, but what makes it good news noteworthy…
The End of the World: The State vs. the Internet
Last weekend at FooCamp, I co-hosted a session titled “The End of the World: Will the Internet Destroy the State, or Will the State Destroy the Internet?” What follows are…
Start-ups Founded by Women on the Rise
The tech industry is filled with men and a near-machismo culture that can be intimidating to both men and women. Fortunately inroads have been made by women into the tech…
Open Postal Codes: A Public Response to Canada Post on how they undermine the public good
Earlier this week the Ottawa Citizen ran a story in which I’m quoted about a fight between Treasury Board and Canada Post officials over making postal code data open. Treasury…
SmartGlass, the universal app that keeps giving
SmartGlass is a new Microsoft technology that allows users of multiple devices tv, Xbox, smartphones etc. to link them together for a universal experience in entertainment. It’s a sophisticated application…