A blog post entitled “Why the ‘Open Data Movement‘ is a Joke” is making the rounds. There are already excellent rebuttals by David Eaves here and Socrata here and frankly, I don’t have much to add. One thing I will say is that Open Data does risk becoming a PR stunt by government authorities, so we [...]
Hello Mr. Gagnon, As a resident of your riding, I would like to raise my voice to say the Liberal government’s position on the tuition fees is causing far more trouble that it is solving. While the violence around the protests is unacceptable, so too is the government’s unbelievable inflexibility. The government seems to treat [...]
The New York Times just ran an essay competition about why it is ethical to eat meat. The essays are short, go read them, ok, good. I think the arguments are great. Personally, I am a failed vegetarian, or as I said in 2008: a quasi-vegetarian. I try to avoid eating meat whenever possible, but I [...]
As I write this, the Quebec student protests seem to be getting more and more violent. First, let me say I am incredibly impressed by the organisation, length and structure of the protests so far. Generally speaking, I am for free higher education, if many European countries and Mexico can offer it, why can’t we? [...]
Have you seen the latest Katy Perry music video “Part of Me”? Remarkable would be an understatement. It’s a poorly kept secret that mainstream pop stars, actors and news media promote the establishment’s vision of society and often glorify the military force, but Katy takes it to a whole new level. Many movies and videos use product [...]
My blog has been a bit quiet of late, due largely to the launch of a new citizen initiative for open data – Québec Ouvert. This effort follows a similar format and model to the successful effort in Montreal (Montreal Ouvert). One notable difference will be the strategy and the data sets we target for release. By [...]
Yesterday, Canadian parliament passed the omnibus C-10 Crime Bill, which includes 9 laws the Conservative party of Canada failed to pass as a minority government. This is possibly the worst thing to happen to Canada in a long time; we might not see the consequences soon, but they will be large, wide and deep. Tens of thousands [...]
Not too much time to blog lately. If you are interested in social inequality and its impacts on general society; take a bit of time to list to Chris Hedges talks about his recent book Empire of Illusion on CBC Ideas and this three part CBC Ideas series on the widening income gap in Canada. [...]
The C-10 Bill is sitting in Senate and poised to pass. It is a really, really, really stupid bill that goes agains tall empirical research on crime, prisons and rehabilitation of criminals. Nearly every major group of lawyers, judges, right advocates and anyone else involved in the penal system has come out against it. Of [...]
Just wrapped up some great books worth reading. Culture and Leisure by W.H. Auden My friend Matt Finn recommended this short essay on the meaning of work, play and labour and why we consume so darn much material goods. Getting to Yes by Fischer, Ury and Patton A classic how-to book on negotiation, should be [...]