When Industries Get Disrupted: Toronto Real Estate Boards Sad Campaign
As some of my readers know I’ve been engaged by the real estate industry at various points over the last year to share thoughts about how they might be impacted…
technology
lawTechCamp 2012 is Looking for Students
Are you interested in the intersection between law and technology? Here’s a message from the sponsors: After the great success we had last year with lawTechCamp,we are back again this…
Why Everyone Should Read Cat’s Cradle
“Now I will destroy the whole world.” – What Bokonists say when they commit suicide, Cat’s Cradle, Chapter 106 You’d think a story about the end of the world –…
Want to Find Government Innovation? US Military is often leading the way.
When it comes to see what trends will impact government in 20-30 years I’m a big fan of watching the US military. They may do lot of things wrong but,…
Access to Information, Open Data and the Problem with Convergence
In response to my post yesterday one reader sent me a very thoughtful commentary that included this line at the end: “Rather than compare FOI legislation and Open Gov Data…
The achingly slow pace of iOS software development
The big news in the tech world yesterday was the launch of Apple’s latest iteration of the iPad. For those of us suffering the quintessential first world problem of being…
Calculating the Value of Canada’s Open Data Portal: A Mini-Case Study
Okay, let’s geek out on some open data portal stats from data.gc.ca. I’ve got three parts to this review: First, an assessment on how to assess the value of data.gc.ca.…
Can Geeks Defeat Lies? Thoughts on a Fresh New Approach to Dealing With Online Errors, Misrepresentations, and Quackery
fact check universe.png This afternoon, I’ll be at MIT for this conference, sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard and the MIT Center for Civic Media…
Attack of the Drones – How Surveillance May Change our Culture
I’ve been following the rise of do it yourself (DIY) drones for a few years now, ever since Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired magazine, introduced me to the topic…
Obama goes ahead with a privacy…
…Bill of Rights in the States while here in Canada? Well, Vic wants to see it all! This is all about the consumer’s rights to privacy. The American legislation proposes…
I like this new app…
Instagram. Easy sharing. Doesn’t crash as often on my “old” 3s. And has some neat effect options. Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario
Want to Improve Science Communication? Start with Bad PowerPoint Habits
bad powerpoint.jpg In the past three months, I’ve spoken on panels at two scientific mega-conferences—the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting in San Francisco, which draws tens of thousands of scientists,…
The Reality of the Paperless Office
A PDF- making company (no idea these eve existed) recently sent me something that caught my eye about a survey they conducted: In this survey, three out of every four…
More on Google Transit and how it is Reshaping a Public Service
Some of you know I’ve written a fair bit on Google transit and how it is reshaping public transit – this blog post in particular comes to mind. For more…
The Surveillance State – No Warrant Required
Yesterday a number of police organizations came out in support of bill C-30 – the online online surveillance bill proposed by Minister Vic Toews. You can read the Vancouver Police…
If you are going to have on-line registration…
… for a summer camp, PLEASE ensure that your servers are up to the task! Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario
Hot Invention Cools Down Environment
A seemingly banal industrial component is a heat exchanger and they can be ridiculously inefficient. What a heat exchanger does is regulate the temperature of machines that have to be…
Data Wars: A mini-case study of Southwest Airlines vs. TripIt and Orbitz
As a regular flyer, I’m an enormous fan of TripIt. It’s a simple service in which you forward almost any reservation – airline, hotel, car rental, etc… to plans@tripit.com and…
Goodbye to the VCR…
… it was a long ride. I remember my parents buying our first VCR. A big, hulking and noisy machine it was! And back in ’77 or so it likely…
Next Generation Open Data: Personal Data Access
This post matters. If you’re involved in the healthcare sector or a energy utility, please read. Background This Monday I had the pleasure of being in Mexico City for the…