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…
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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…
Open Data Day 2013 in Vancouver
Better late than never, I’m going to do a few posts this week recapping a number of ideas and thoughts from Open Data Day 2013. As is most appropriate, I’m…
Community Managers: Expectations, Experience and Culture Matter
Here’s an awesome link to grind home my point from my OSCON keynote on Community Management, particularly the part where I spoke about the importance of managing wait times –…
Beautiful Maps – Google Maps in Water Colours
You know, really never know what the web is going to throw at you next. The great people over at Stamen Design (if you’ve never heard of Stamen you are…
The Future of Academic Research
Yesterday, Nature – one of the worlds premier scientific journals recognized University of British Columbia scientist Rosie Redfield as one of the top 10 science newsmakers of 2011. The reason?…
Open Data Day 2011 – Recaps from Around the World
This last Saturday was International Open Data Day with hackathons taking place in cities around the world. How many you ask? We can’t know for certain, but organizers around the…
Statistics Canada Data to become OpenData – Background, Winners and Next Steps
As some of you learned last night, Embassy Magazine broke the story that all of Statistics Canada’s online data will not only be made free, but released under the Government…
As Canada Searches for its Open Government Partnership Commitments: A Proposal
Just before its launch in New York on September 20th, the Canadian Government agreed to be a signatory of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). Composed of over 40 countries the…
The State of Open Data 2011
What is the state of the open data movement? Yesterday, during my opening keynote at the Open Government Data Camp (held this year in Warsaw, Poland) I sought to follow…
International Open Data Hackathon 2011: Better Tools, More Data, Bigger Fun
Last year, with only a month of notice, a small group passionate people announced we'd like to do an international open data hackathon and invited the world to participate. We…
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…
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…
The End of the World and Journalism in the Era of Open
For those not in the United Kingdom a massive scandal has erupted around allegations that one of the country's tabloids - the News of the World ( a subsidiary of…
Motivating Anti-IP Activism in Canada
In the scheme of things, few people have the interest (or is it patience?) to delve deeply into the concept of “intellectual property” (IP). I think that is why IP…
Open Data Day: Lessons for Hacktivists
This piece is cross-posted on TechPresident where I post articles on the intersection of politics, technology and transparency and serve as an editor. Three years ago, after a chance encounter…