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Recovery.gov uses an Open Source CMS

February 19, 2009

The US government’s Recovery.gov (an accountability site tracking the use of stimulus dollars) is built on Drupal – a popular, free, open source content management system (software for running websites). Its innovative. It saves tax payer dollars. It allowed for quicker execution. Good to see that Canada is maybe one day possibly perhaps considering investigating [...]

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Does productivity need to come out of the hide of the working people?

February 19, 2009

Quite the conversation with the mayor of Lansing, Michigan on Fox News. He’s vitriolic, and bombastic and sounds like he’s stumping for a presidential nomination. That being said, do you think competitive pressure puts us into a “race to the bottom?” Is there a difference between “fair” trade and “free” trade?

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Study: Widening sidewalks, adding bike lanes at expense of parking benefits all

February 19, 2009

A 2006 study of a Manhattan street (PDF) showed that, in fact, local businesses would benefit if parking was removed so that sidewalks could be widened. [Spacing.ca] I’ve often thought about this for Corydon, here in Winnipeg – its the area where I live, and one of the city’s gastro-vino-sushi-chic districts. In the summer, the [...]

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Crafting Policy that Works: Exploiting Laziness

February 6, 2009

This little tidbit stood out on a Macleans article titles “why smart people do stupid things:” …the difference between committed organ donors in Sweden (86 per cent) and America (28 per cent), where 45,000 people have died waiting for transplants since 1995. Why? In Sweden, unlike the U.S., consent is presumed; those who don’t want [...]

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Cautiously Testing the Waters for Preliminary Cautious Investigation of Maybe Considering the Use of Open Source Software, Cautiously

February 5, 2009

Just a side note on this humorous RFI that tech blogger Glen Moody stumbled across, from the Federal Gov’t to the FOSS (Free Open Source Software) community: Canada has a Request for Information (RFI) related to No-Charge Licensed Software (typically referred to as Free and Open Source Software or FOSS and also applicable to freeware). [...]

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Dana Larsen back at it with the NDP

February 4, 2009

A BC’er in Toronto points out that famous LSD-dropping, DMT-gobbling, pot-smoking former NDP candidate Dana Larsen is still active within the party, working his agenda for drug reform. In case you’ve forgotten, here’s the CBC coverage of the “Weedy Wednesday” video that got him canned from the NDP… As an aside, I agree with BC’er [...]

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Widdowson and Howard’s “Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry”

February 2, 2009

Note: this is a comment I left on the Galloping Beaver’s post on the same topic, reprinted here as I’m short on time today. I attended the Frontier Center for Progressive Policy lunch hour series last Friday in which Widdowson presented her work, with a protest drum circle in the background. Much of the controversy [...]

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