Tag Archives: cool links

Gordon Foundation Global Youth Fellowship

An annual tradition I’ve come to enjoy is putting up this post. The people at the Gordon foundation are wonderful and those I’ve talked to about this program have had very positive things to say. While our government may be running a shoddy foreign policy there are no shortage of interesting discussions or opportunities for Canadians. The new CIC fellowships, the dialogue over at Canada’s World, are but two of the numerous new ways to write, think, talk or act on international issues…

Anyway, back to the Gordon Foundation:

The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation has put out its call for applications for the 2008 Global Youth Fellowship program. The Fellowships are targeted towards emerging Canadian leaders who demonstrate potential to enhance Canada’s role on the world stage. The Fellowships will provide successful candidates with a cash award of $20,000 as well as other forms of support.

To be eligible for consideration, applicants must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents between 24 – 35 years of age with previous international experience – paid or volunteer. They also need to demonstrate a sustained commitment to international issues through studies, career choices and volunteer activities.

Application Deadline: Thursday, April 10, 2008 by 5:00 p.m. EST

More information about the Fellowship programme, including application forms, guidelines and information on current and past Fellows, can be found on their website.

R2D2 – in the right place at the right time for a reason.

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After reading this amazing piece (thank you David N.) about how R2D2 and Chewie are the real heroes of the Star Wars movies my entire understanding of that galaxy far, far away has been completely transformed.

Star Wars geeks everywhere, prepare to have your universe rocked.

[While I never need an excuse to watch episodes IV, V and VI again, I’m trying to figure out if testing the article’s theory is worth a painful revisit to episodes I, II and II. No one should ever have to hear or see Jar-Jar Binks more than once in a lifetime.]

a fashion link on eaves.ca?

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Yes, it shocked even me – I have a post on fashion. And women’s fashion to boot!

The other week I was in Banff conducting a negotiation workshop and one of the client representatives who (literally) made the event possible had this hand bag (pictured to the right). I thought it to be quite cool. Not only was it fashionable but it was both environmentally friendly and the art work was done by her husband.

The bag is manufactured by a company called Little Earth Productions. All the materials used are recycled from other products. For example, the strap on the bag pictured to the right is made from old tires.

For guys looking to give that ultimate purse/bag to their women, they also have a line of bags with NHL or NFL logos on them. It’s a special kind of women who’ll be looking for one of those…

As a cool aside, the photo of this bag was taken with an iPhone… not one owned by me mind you.

Declaration on the Future of Open Education

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My friend Mark Surman, all round nice guy and Open Philanthropy Fellow with the Shuttleworth Foundation, recently sent out an email asking people to take note of, and if possible sign, the Cape Town Declaration on the future of open education.

The Declaration is the brainchild of the Shuttleworth Foundation, Wikimedia and several other organizations, as is set to be released shortly.

What is it? This extract will give you a clue:

Educators worldwide are developing a vast pool of educational resources on the Internet, open and free for all to use. These educators are creating a world where each and every person on earth can access and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge. They are also planting the seeds of a new pedagogy where educators and learners create, shape and evolve knowledge together, deepening their skills and understanding as they go.

This emerging open education movement combines the established tradition of sharing good ideas with fellow educators and the collaborative, interactive culture of the Internet. It is built on the belief that everyone should have the freedom to use, customize, improve and redistribute educational resources without constraint. Educators, learners and others who share this belief are gathering together as part of a worldwide effort to make education both more accessible and more effective.

These are exciting times, and it is critical that the legal and network infrastructure that enables them to be exciting is preserved so that more people can use these newly emerging educational tools to grow and learn.

If you are interested in this movement, please be sure to check out there webpage and, sign their petition.

Online Community and Public Policy

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For those interested in public policy, online communities and technology an potentially very interesting role has opened up at CIGI.

The position is located in Waterloo Ontario and the deadline for applying is January 14 2008

If you are interested, check out the official posting.

Community Project Manager

The Community Project Manager (CPM) is responsible for leading and coordinating all aspects of project management with respect to one or more IGLOO online communities. The CPM collaborates with all internal IGLOO teams and relevant CIGI departments to ensure efficient, effective and successful projects. The CPM is the key manager of the community development process with external partners.

Key Responsibilities:

Build online communities – facilitate the development of online communities according to the partner needs; coordinate internal resources to facilitate partner community development
Manage community relationships – build and maintain productive relationships with stakeholders
Grow online communities – strategic planning with partners to ensure community sustainability, as well as continually matching partner community needs with IGLOO resources

Additional Responsibilities:

Establish and communicate project work plans, budgets, schedule, controls and reporting
Collaboratively develop strategic plans with online community clients that include project conceptualization, definition and outcomes, project infrastructure and project implementation plans
Provide effective direction to multi-disciplinary teams to accomplish project tasks & goals
Communicate with partners regularly (email, telephone & face-to-face meetings) to ensure healthy working relationships
Research, evaluate and develop resources for community building
Ensure partner needs are met through the development of new tools, features or services for online communities
Manage project schedule, budgets and resources
Monitor project performance and quality control to ensure partner expectations and goals are met
Document project contracts, necessary records and files, planning documents and estimates
Coordinate partner contracts, agreements, invoicing and storage of all documentation

Knowledge, skills and abilities required:

Understanding of knowledge networks, online knowledge sharing and social networking technologies
Excellent organizational and time management skills
Exceptional written and verbal communication in English with sound presentation and public speaking skills; other languages are a significant asset
Strong networking capabilities with all levels of staff
Ability to manage both process and task project requirements
Sound judgment and decision making skills
Creative analytical and strategic thinking capacities
Working knowledge of marketing and communications
Must be comfortable using MS Office and internet computer applications

Qualifications:

A university degree in political science, economics, history, communications, social sciences or international development is required
2 – 5 years recent, related or practical experience in project management is required
Formal project management training is an asset
Experience with government funded projects is a significant asset

My “top 10″ 2007 blogging moments: #1

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This is, quite possibly, my best moment of 2007. I’ve been promising some friends that I’d blog about it for quite some time – so here we go.

PART 1:

Back in January, Lawrence Lessig – a man whose speeches and books: changed the way I see the world; got me excited about and engaged in open source; inspired me to start fighting for the internet; helped instigate my blog; pulls me (at times) towards law school; and regularly makes me want to move to San Francisco a be part of what is one of the most exciting community in the world – wrote this post.

The post essentially discusses two things. The first half reviews and assesses the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (or the Ninth Circuit for those who know their courts) decision on a copyright case called Kahle vs. Gonzales (broadly themed around the issue of Free Culture that Lessig has championed). The court ruled against Lessig and his team so he dissects their response. In the post’s second part Lessig diagnoses that his argument might have been better expressed visually. He then outlines a model, and a graph, he developed to do just this. Most importantly, he posts the basic spreadsheet on his blog and states:

Again, this is a beta model. I’d be very grateful for any errors identified, or for a better specification of the same. After a review by a couple friends, I will post any corrections to this. At that time, I’ll also include any corrections noted in the comments.

I would do virtually anything to help Lessig and the important work he, and others like him, are doing. Sadly, lacking a legal background I’m not sure how much help I would be in drafting an improved Supreme Court petition (I would probably just waste his time and actually do the cause more damage than good). Designing a better graph however, that is something I can do.

Consequently, I posted a comment on Lessig’s blog where I re-graphed his results but displayed them in a visual manner that I thought made it easier to convey his argument. You can see my comment, along with the reasoning and the new model, here. I of course also shared the model so that others could improve on it.

The best part was Lessig wrote me an email me and thanked me for the help. Words can’t convey how much I’ve wanted to help with this movement/cause. So getting a thank you email meant the world to me. In this space (and virtually every space) I’m a nobody – some guy on the other end of a wire – but I love living in a world where even I can spend a few hours (a lot of hours actually) working on something and do well enough that I can help an expert and leader of a movement I feel so much passion for. I still feel ill-equipped to help out, but that thank you email made me feel like that my small contribution was genuinely helpful. For both those who know me, and those who don’t, it may sound pathetic, but I really couldn’t stop smiling for days.

And then it got better.

Part 2:

One of the nicest people in the world – Virginia Law School professor Chris Sprigman emailed me out of the blue with a note that said:

Hello David. Larry sent me the message you sent to him, and I’ve been puzzling through your graph. I’m drafting a petition for rehearing in Kahle, and I’d like to speak with you and understand your methodology, in the hope that we might use your graph in the brief. Do you have any time to speak later today?

We chatted and I went through a couple of iterations of my graph. And then at some point he asked: Would you be willing to do all the graphs for our Supreme Court petition?

Obviously, I agreed.

So you can see the petition here. Sadly, my original graph that got me involved didn’t make the cut. I don’t make any claims that my work was at all intellectual – I was making graphs. But I’m not sure I’ve ever been happier then the hours I spent tweaking things here and there to see if there was something – anything – I could do to help make this small part of a Supreme Court petition better.

So there it is, number one – for the simple reason that blogs and the internet can allow anyone, anywhere, to contribute to something they believe in. I’ve never met Chris or Larry and they didn’t know me from anyone, but the internet’s meritocratic culture meant that if they thought I could contribute – it didn’t matter – they’d bring me on. And for that I’m eternally gratefully, and will also be eternally willing to work my butt off for them and for the cause of free culture.

My “top 10″ 2007 blogging moments: #2

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My #2 moment has everything to do with the highs and lows of blogging…

Back on May 11th I wrote this post about a major anti-abortion rally where the rally organizers main banners had the Government of Canada trademark logo on them. My post was fairly apolitical – I considered it merely interesting that the banners were using the logo (which requires Treasury Board’s consent) and so wondering if the Government was either directly funding or endorsing the march (5 Conservative Ministers did participate in the rally).

Several anti-abortion sites started linking to my site and numerous comments were posted outlining the legality of the logo’s use (thank you Tina P.) As a result of the growing online debate the Canadian Press wrote a story about it which the Globe and Mail picked up on and published. This in turn caused Treasury Board to launch an investigation into the use of the logo which has so far resulted in the Campaign Life Coalition having to put the banners in the closet.

So the cool part about this story is that a humble blog post can end up being picked up the blogosphere, and then by a newswire, which can then land the story in the national newspaper. Hardly a new event, but cool when you are the instigator.

But here is the frustrating part. The Canadian Press story and the Globe and Mail story (now hidden by the G&M’s silly firewall) both reference anonymous “bloggers” in their stories. The Globe and Mail ran this version:

A photo of the banner has been circulating on the Internet since last week, with bloggers using it to suggest that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Tories appeared to be funding anti-abortion groups when they’ve cut funding for women’s equality programs.

In this version bloggers are made to be part of the story, not its source. While some bloggers were part of the story it was a blogger who picked up the story. If what I’d written had been on the Vancouver Sun’s webpage then journalism etiquette would have dictated that the Globe reference the source. Somehow however, when a blogger is the source, this etiquette goes out the window. One can’t help but infer that this choice springs from traditional media’s contempt for new media in general and bloggers in particular.

So the cool part – the post generated some interesting press.

The uncool part – Canada’s traditional media still doesn’t understand the internet. While they accuse bloggers of being leechers of their content – they do the reverse as well, leeching ideas and discoveries of those who blog without referencing the source. At least (good) bloggers hyperlink to the articles and sources in their posts.

However, for both reasons it was a cool moment for me in blogging – a window into the problems and opportunities of new media in an old media world – which is why it makes number 2 on the list.

My "top 10" 2007 blogging moments: #3

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I’m invited to the June 2007 Executive Summit conference in Montebello to give a keynote on Gen X, Gen Y, Web 2.0 and the challenges of public service sector renewal. This is where Treasury Board gathers the CIO’s and other key IT people from across government.

After my presentation I end up in discussions with various friendly and engaging public servants. During one conversation a senior public servant challenges the notion that any government service – especially critical ones – could ever adopt the principles or ideas used by open source, or even Web 2.0 technologies. After all, he notes, we can’t rely on people, that’s why they pay taxes, so they can rely on government. This subject being a passion of mine we end up in a mini-debate during which he demands an example of an open system presently being used by government.

I ask him for a few hours and promise to blog my response.

Turns out one of the the most critical systems of our infrastructure – one that citizens expect to protect and save them from a variety of problems on a daily basis – is almost entirely dependent on a open system to deploy and allocate its resources with pinpoint accuracy. Is the entire system open source? No. But a critical component is. (Hint, it’s probably the one phone number we all know).

My “top 10″ 2007 blogging moments: #4

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July of 2007 – the 10th anniversary of blogging comes and goes and no one in the Canadian media notices. Of course given that the traditional media spent as much of 1994 to mid-2007 as they could ignoring the internet, this should surprise no one.

So Taylor and I take matters into our own hands and publish this opinion piece in the Toronto Star where we try to reign in technophiles’ overhyped promise of a coming blogosphere instigated social media utopia while at the same time hammering at the Andrew Keen like technophobes who see only doom and gloom.

My “top 10″ 2007 blogging moments: #5

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I commit in the autumn to write posts 4 out of every 5 business days and succeed more weeks than not.

So why make this a top 10 blogging moment?

Well, I made the commitment in part because I was (re)inspired by this great story told by Brad Isaac about his brief encounter with Jerry Seinfeld. While I encourage everyone to check out the link the most relevant part is this:

I (Brad) had to ask Seinfeld if he had any tips for a young comic. What he told me was something that would benefit me a lifetime…

He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. But his advice was better than that. He had a gem of a leverage technique he used on himself and you can use it to motivate yourself—even when you don’t feel like it.

Anyone reading this blog will know that the most humourous things found in my posts tend to be my gaffs and typos. However, the Seinfeld story resonates with me and, from time to time, it is important I remember why I started this forum: to improve my writing and encourage a community of peers to push me on my thinking. It’s why, long before I’d read the Seinfeld, I subtitled this blog – “If writing is a muscle, this is my gym.”

The simple fact is, I find writing hard. But this blog – and its readers – give me motivation to write something almost every day. Often this may mean it’s 2am before I’m finally logging into wordpress to bang out a post – but the internal drive and the external expectations (real or imagined) I suspect some loyal readers have is, I believe, making me a better writer.

So, with that said, I’m a) saying thank you to anyone who’s ever emailed me or commented on my blog; and b) I’m getting back to my roots. I’m resurrecting my blog’s old tag line.

Writing is a muscle. And this is my gym.