About David

A public policy entrepreneur, open government activist and negotiation expert David advises the Mayor of Vancouver on open government, works with two spin-offs of the Harvard Negotiation Project and serves as a fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Queen's University.

Public Policy Entrepreneur

As a fellow, David writes on politics, foreign policy, public service sector renewal, as well as open source and network systems. He posts four times a week on his blog, publishes regularly in newspapers and has a chapter in the upcoming O'Reilly Media book on Open Government. He is also frequently invited to speak on these issues to executive, policymakers, and students. You can find a list of David's keynotes and speeches here.

In addition to his writing and advocacy, David serves on the International Reference Group of Australia’s Web 2.0 Taskforce and the Steering Committee of the Environics Institute Urban Aboriginal People's Survey. He also sits on the executive of Vision Vancouver (a municipal political party), the board of Keeping the Door Open and the advisory board of Canada's World.

Open Activist

David advises the Mayor of Vancouver on Open Government and Open Data and helped draft the Open Motion. In addition to working with politicians and government officials, he engages programmers and citizens at the local and national to make use of, and advocate for, more open and transparent government. He frequently writes and is invited to speak on how open source methodologies and open data can help make government more effective and efficient.

Negotiator

As a negotiation consultant David advises companies, non-profits and advocacy groups on critical negotiations they are engaged in. He has developed and helped implement collaborative strategies for open source communities and Fortune 500 companies as they seek to maximize the value they generate with community members, partners, alliance members, customers, and suppliers. His work has taken him across North America and around the world in a range of industries including financial services, health-care, information technology, and the energy sector.

Citizen

David lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. He completed a Bachelor of Arts in history at Queen’s University and a Master’s of International Relations at Oxford. In 2005-06 he served as a Sauvé Scholar at McGill University and an Action Canada Fellow.

David can reach me by email here.

Below is a map of what I work on and think about - a number of friends and colleagues have found it helpful. (you can see a larger version here)