Thanks Steve
I still remember fondly the first computer ever to find its way into the family home. The Apple IIe was magic, allowing these clumsy finger to type badly, then delete…
technology
The Science of Community Management: DjangoCon Keynote
At OSCON this year, Jono Bacon, argued that we are entering a era of renaissance in open source community management - that increasingly we don't just have to share stories…
See Canada’s Environment in Google Earth
Tides Canada has teamed up with Google Earth to allow the world to see Canada’s precious environment using Google’s technology. Now you can visualize things like the boreal forest and…
The Economics of Open Data – Mini-Case, Transit Data & Translink
Translink, the company that runs public transit in the region where I live (Vancouver/Lower Mainland) is getting ready to launch a real time bus tracking app that will use GPS…
What Re-Releases of Star Wars can Teach Us About Art and Product Management
The other day I noticed this tweet fly by in the twittersphere Was this a complaint? In light of the fact the internet was rife with complaints…
Smarter Ways to Have School Boards Update Parents
Earlier this month the Vancouver School Board (VSB) released an iPhone app that - helpfully - will use push notifications to inform parents about school holidays, parent interviews, and scheduling…
Socialist Party Resolution: Open Source Software
Where as open source software shares the spirit of socialism because it is about openly and freely sharing software with all and stands on contrast to the secrecy and profit…
DataBC Hackathon this Saturday – inviting the public.
This Saturday, August 27, 2011 the Province of British Columbia is partnering with the Mozilla Foundation and OpenDataBC to host a open data hackathon. The hackathon will be taking place…
Patent That Becomes a Tool for Obstructing Innovation Needs to Go
Software patents have become an unnecessary obstruction to innovation. Company that used to oppose software patent are spending billions to acquire them (including Google). Small time developers (which could include…
Edmonton Heads for the Cloud
I'm confident that somewhere in Canada, some resource strapped innovative small town has abandoned desktop software and uses a cloud based service but so far no city of any real…
A Game That Protects Nature
A new FAcebook game has been launched that allows you to help the planet while you play. It’s called MyConservationPark and it’s made by Good World Games. MyConservationPark is a…
We have technology backwards
I’m not sure HOW we got this totally backwards, but we have. Technology should serve humanity, not the other way around. Alltop is an aggregator we all like to work…
News Roundup: Patent Circus; Android’s Security Flaw
In a demonstration of the ridiculousness of our current patent law, Apple is using patent to stifle competition and innovation. In Apple’s claim against one of Android tablet maker Motorola,…
Nymwars
I have deleted my Google+ account, as well as my Google profile — in protest and with extreme prejudice. Based on its real name only policy, I cannot in good…
Why Social Media behind the Government Firewall Matters
This comment, posted four months ago to my blog by Jesse G. in response to this post on GCPEDIA, remains one of the favorite comments posted to my blog ever.…
Shared IT Services across the Canadian Government – three opportunities
Earlier this week the Canadian Federal Government announced it will be creating Shared Services Canada which will absorb the resources and functions associated with the delivery of email, data centres…
Open Source Data Journalism – Happening now at Buzz Data
(there is a section on this topic focused on governments below) A hint of how social data could change journalism Anyone who’s heard me speak in the last 6 months…
How Dirty is Your Data? Greenpeace Wants the Cloud to be Greener
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…
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…
The Geopolitics of the Open Government Partnership: the beginning of Open vs. Closed
There hasn't been a ton of press about the Open Government Partnership (OGP). This is hardly surprising. The press likes to talk about corruption and bad government, people getting together…