“Facebook has devolved from a social networking platform to an operating system for third-party applications.” I cringe at the mention of it. It’s more contemptible than “free”, with all that’s been done to make that word utterly meaningless—if not borderline fraudulent—mostly from the lips and keyboards of marketers. It’s more despicable than “f*ck”, which despite [...]
Wayne Wouters recently announced the launch of the new Clerk of the Privy Council website. That by itself strikes me as extraordinarily cool. Actually delivering your own first-person message communicates genuine engagement with a new initiative and the people it touches in a way that a generic press release style announcement just can’t. But Mr. [...]
Note: This post contains links only accessible within the Government of Canada network. On my administrative rounds this morning I was pleased to read a familiar name in GCPEDIA’s recent changes log: Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet. I was already aware of Mr. Wouter’s support of GCPEDIA, having [...]
I love free. I blog about it; I tweet about it; I consume it; I produce it. Free Culture is a difficult concept for some to understand, primarily because we have been born and raised in a capitalist society where few things in life are truly free, both in terms of their monetary cost and [...]
Last month I attended the O’Reilly Gov 2.0 Conference from the comfort of my desk. It brought together attendees from around the world using WebEx, a web conferencing technology that includes audio and video conferencing, desktop sharing, and other valuable communication and collaboration features. Later this week, I’ll be attending a meeting with colleagues in [...]
The Government of Canada is currently reliant on proprietary file formats and proprietary software applications, which lock it into a licensing bind with a single software manufacturer — Microsoft. There is not only a question of cost — as we pay a monopoly corporation for per-seat licenses to run software that already dominates the market [...]
In government, where change is recurring and often stressful to the employees affected, Web 2.0 can be a tough sell. One of the biggest hurdles in implementing technology in the workplace is not resistance to technology per se, but the cultural shift that the new software represents. But when a technology is introduced which replicates [...]
In privacy management, it’s the major data breaches that grab the big headlines. In personal brand management, it’s the high profile embarrassments resulting from carelessness, ignorance and poor judgment that capture public attention. Janine Krieber, Nathalie Blanchard, Stephen Fry, Tiger Woods… who’ll be next? Not you, certainly. For most of us, risks to our privacy and reputation [...]
Note: This post contains links only accessible within the Government of Canada network. In my last GCconnex update about the recent user survey, I encouraged everyone to contribute their opinions about the look, feel, and usability of the Government of Canada’s internal professional networking platform via the GCconnex Professional Network Pilot Working Group forum. I’m [...]
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4Arguments Against Universality It is often argued that socialized medicine in the US would introduce a wealth of problems, worse than those currently faced. Government is often regarded as wasteful, rigid and out of touch with the real needs of its citizens. In comparison, private [...]
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