Searching for Tao, 7573 Kilometres from Home

June 29, 2010 08:05 +0000 | Activism Anarchy Canada Police Politics Toronto Violence 2

I'd like you to take 30seconds to watch something for me:

Violence has its place, and that place is when words are no longer enough. Anyone paying attention to what's going on in the world can tell you that the gap between the rich and the poor is dangerously wide and that the priorities of the rich minority are not in the best interests of the poor majority. Ecological disasters like the BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico and the recent world-wide economic collapse are symptoms of a greater problem, one the "civil" protesters are campaigning for... if only someone were listening.

But no one is listening... at least no one with any measurable power. Instead, our leaders erect fences and spend billions dollars on making sure that the voices of the people aren't heard at these events. They take our money and construct elaborate indoor lakes to placate the media, while they conduct the business of governance behind closed doors. This is not democracy, and people insisting that standing in a street and waving a sign is the best response to such injustice just don't get it: we should be angry! Those are our streets, our spaces, and our leaders, talking about issues that relate directly to our lives and they shut us out with wire fences, concrete walls, and thousands of violent police? Where's the rage?

Martin Luther King had it right when he said that "a riot is the language of the unheard". The overwhelming majority of Canadians want action on things like the environment, peace, the economy, and poverty, but rather than moving on these issues, our leaders consistently work against our interests. Chants and sign-waving clearly aren't getting it done, and so a few among us have started smashing things. It's not intelligent, it's not tactical, it doesn't even have to make sense. It's rage, and it's not only justified in such a situation, but called for.

That video clip is about oppression:

Convince the majority that opposition isn't worthwhile.
Beat the remainder into submission.
Simultaneously encourage and incite violence from the reactionary minority, so that the press sides against them. This returns us to #1.

I'll be the first to concede that violence is not the answer here, but the time for chanting and sign-waving is through. I don't want to hear any more of this "if the violent people would just stop, then maybe they'd listen" business because sadly, that's just not true. Something has got to be done, or soon it might not just be a Starbucks and a few police cars that get smashed.

March 05, 2010 01:45 +0000 | Activism Homelessness Olympics Vancouver 0

Ask anyone in this town and most of them will tell you that the primary problems in Vancouver are homelessness, and the high cost of living. It's so bad that over the Olympics, the Pivot, an activist group based in the Lower East Side, held a sit-in protest in the form of a field of red tents surrounded by placards and signs with slogans like "homes not games" and "homes for everyone". (Flickr, Now Public) There were staged protests downtown and even a riot -- all for good reason: here in Vancouver, the disparity between the rich and poor is out of control.

So what do we do about this? Obviously the current tactics aren't working. The world came to Vancouver and no one cared to really do anything about our most desperate citizens. For the most part, that whole area was ignored and tourists were advised not to go there. What good is a protest if no one cares about what you're saying? A riot? That only fuels the opposition. No, what's needed is to move counter to the gentrifying forces in this city.

The problem is the location. Everyone in Vancouver knows that the poorest people live in the Lower East Side. We also know that that neighbourhood is something we want to avoid if we don't fancy the stench of human urine, or the sight of public drunkenness and dirty needles. The richest, most powerful people in Vancouver never go there. They don't even drive through Hastings if they can help it. What good is a protest if the only people who see it, are affected by it, are those who already support you? No, if you want action to be taken, you need to inconvenience people, you need to make people see what's going on and remind them that just because they've managed to ignore the problem, the problem hasn't solved itself.

The red tent protest was held near Abbot & Cordova in an empty lot opposite an Army & Navy frequented only by people who live in the neighbourhood. Given that fixing the homelessness problem will require action by a considerable number of people outside of this demographic, this is not a good choice for action. Instead, I think that the homeless population needs to get the held somewhere, anywhere that isn't the Lower East Side. Hold tent-city protests in David Lam Park (Yaletown has one of the highest per-capita incomes in Vancouver) or in any open (public) spaces south of 16th... you know, where all the rich folks who own most of this city live?

Sleeping in the street is an accepted norm at Hastings and Main, but about Granville and Broadway? Generally speaking, cities (especially Vancouver) like to corral their poorest citizens and then gradually push them from neighbourhood to neighbourhood through gentrification, never solving the problem. Therefore, the answer to newer, more expensive buildings moving into the Lower East Side shouldn't be to move East (as the powers that be are hoping), but instead to relocate to Kits and Point Grey so those responsible for the gentrification can experience the fruit of their labours.

The problem in Vancouver isn't homelessness and the high cost of living, it's not even that nobody cares about these issues, because thousands of people do. No, the problem in Vancouver is that the right people don't care about these issues because they don't have to. Fix that, and I'm sure something useful will be done.

September 18, 2009 19:34 +0000 | Activism Politics 6

I was walking to work one day when the headline from the cover of the Asian Pacific Post caught my eye: What do Hedy Fry and the Taliban have in common?. Mildly amused, I picked up the free rag and read it on the way to work.

If you're not interested in reading it, I'll save you the time. The editorial is outrageous. Even as a bigtime non-fan of the Liberal party as well as Hedy Fry, I found the article to be offencive in the extreme and said as much on their site:

I don't usually read your paper, but with a headline like that, I couldn't resist. Now after reading it, I'm reminded why I usually pass it by on the street.

Granted, this is an editorial, but could you possibly have conjured up more biased, inflammatory, and unsubstantiated propaganda? I don't even like the Liberals and I found this to be surprisingly offencive.

Of course the Liberals haven't done much better in recent years, but to compare Ms. Fry to a group of terrorists? Have you no shame? No integrity? You quote these people out of context and then proceed to put words in their mouths finishing it all off with claims that Ignatieff is "unpatriotic". Are you aspiring to the journalistic integrity of Fox "News", or just pursuing a new career as a Conservative Party speech writer?

The fact is that Harper *has* embarrassed this country on the international stage, most notoriously by abandoning our legal obligations to Kyoto, and continuously subverting the democratic process. Our reputation around the world has been diminished as a direct result of his actions and there's nothing wrong with the Official Opposition pointing that out.

Your actions on this issue however cross the line between editorial opinion and propaganda. They serve only to solidify your place as a fringe paper that no one with a modicum of intelligence would take seriously.

Anyway, I'm feeling vengeful. Mostly because I really don't think that this kind of thing should pass as "journalism" in any shape or form. I'm considering contacting all of their advertisers and including a copy of the editorial along with some comments regarding how this paper might reflect poorly on their brand in an effort to get them to pressure the paper to clean up its act.

The question I post to you though, is that immoral? legal? Right?

July 25, 2009 18:09 +0000 | Activism Copyright Environment Net Neutrality Politics 0

I haven't posted in here for a while, but now that I have a few minutes I've been inspired by Melanie and Karen who are blogging 24hrs today for charity to do a little PSA and share some info about three topics I think everyone should be thinking about.

Copenhagen 2009

In December of this year, 192 countries will gather at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to essentially determine the future of the planet. It's going to be a mix of climate activists, scientists, politicians and very powerful special interests and there's a lot on the line. Potentially, this conference could mean massive change to help save us from ourselves, both environmentally and economically, or it could be more posturing and inaction. We need to pressure our leaders to Do the Right Thing on this front and let them know that we are willing to support them in doing so.

Think of the potential for both the economy and environment. International agreements to raise tariffs on unsustainably harvested primary resources, subsidy programs for R&D into new energy production, or an accord to phase out coal fired plants by 2050. It's possible, the potential is there. Here's some links to get you started:

Copyright Reform

Humanity is changing and at the root of it is how we communicate. What rights we have to control our own culture and what it means to foster creativity and innovation is finally becoming a discussion worth having because for the first time ever, the average person has the potential to become their own printing press.

Technology has given us the tools, but the old guard of copyright owners is actively pushing back to retain their hold on our culture while simultaneously eroding our own privacy rights. Canada has great potential here to stand on its own and do the right thing, thereby becoming a centre for innovation and creativity on the world stage -- we just need the will.

Michael Geist, a copyright lawyer and activist for years on this issue has created a site called Speak Out on Copyright, a compilation of resources covering what you can do to affect change in this area. Talk to your MP, write letters to the editor for your local paper, do whatever you need to help people understand that what the Conservatives want to do right now is more dangerous than the damage Bush did to digital rights in his 8 years as a wrecking ball.

Net Neutrality

The Internet is gradually being eroded into a consumer tool from the powerful equalising force it was from the beginning. The key issue (for me anyway) is that the Internet is moving from a telephone-style system where all traffic moves at the same rate regardless of who's using it or what it's being used for, to a consumer service where people can pay more for better service or access to different content.

This can sound appealing at first until you realise that this means that your ISP (Shaw, Telus, Bell, Rogers, etc) is trying to make it so that you can't use our Internet the way you want. If they don't want to let you see certain sites, they won't, if they don't want you using a particular technology regardless of how you're using it, they'll throttle it or block it altogether. Moves like this impede innovation and turn the power of the Internet over to a conglomerate of 4 companies in Canada... companies we know that from considerable past experience, can't be trusted.

A number of sites have sprung up on this issue:

June 15, 2009 19:07 +0000 | Activism Drupal Free Software Linux PHP Software Technology Work [at] Play 0

I attended my first ever OpenWeb conference yesterday and as per company policy, I have to report on and share what I learnt, so what better way to do so then to make a blog post for all to read?

General

OpenWeb is awesome. It's a conference where people from all over the world come to talk about Open design and communication and hopefully, learn to build a better web in the process. Attendees include programmers, entrepreneurs, designers, activists and politicians all with shared goals and differing skillsets. I shook hands with Evan Prodromou, the founder of identi.ca and WikiTravel, heard talks from the guys who write Firefox and Thunderbird as well as the newly-elected representative for the Pirate Party in the European Parliament, Rickard Falkvinge. All kinds of awesome I tell you.

Rickard Falkvinge: Keynote - On the Pirate Party

Founder of the Pirate Party in Sweden and now a representative in the European Parliament (thanks to proportional representation), Falkvinge was a passionate and eloquent speaker who covered the history of copyright, the present fight for greater control of so-called intellectual property and more importantly the far-reaching and very misunderstood effects of some of the legislation being passed to "protect" copyright holders while eliminating privacy rights for the public.

The talk was very in depth and difficult to cover in a single post so I encourage you to ask me about it in person some time. For the impatient though, I'll try to summarise:

The copyright debate isn't about downloading music, that's just a byproduct of the evolution of technology. As the printing press gave the public greater access to information, so has the Internet managed to disperse that information further. The problem is now that the changing landscape has rendered certain business models ineffective, these business are fighting to change our laws to preserve said model rather than change with the times. Ranging from the frustratingly shortsighted attempts to ban technologies that further file sharing (legal or otherwise) to the instant wire tapping on every Internet connection (and by extension phone call) of every free citizen without a warrant, many of these changes are very, very scary.

"All of this has happened before, and it will happen again" he said. Every time a technological advancement creates serious change for citizen empowerment in society, the dominant forces in that society mobilise to crush it. The Catholic church, gatekeepers of the lion's share of human knowledge at the time actively worked to ban the printing press. They succeeded (if you can believe it) in France in 1535. This time, it's the media companies and they're willing to do anything, including associating file sharing with child pornography and terrorism to do it. Falkvinge's Pirate party is becoming the beachhead in the fight for copyright reform. Now the party with the largest youth delegation (30%!) in Sweden, they are working to get the crucial 4% of the seats in Parliament they need to hold the balance of power and they need your help. He'd like you to send the party 5€ or 10€ per month and I'm already on board.

Angie Byron: Keynote - Women in Open Source

Those of you who know me, know that I can get pretty hostile when it comes to treating women like a special class of people (be the light positive or negative) so I was somewhat skeptical about this one. Thankfully, I was happy to hear Byron cover a number of issues with the Free software community ranging from blatant sexism (CouchDB guys... seriously?) to basic barriers to entry for anyone new to a project. There were a lot of really helpful recommendations to people wanting to engage 100% of the community rather than just one half or the other.

Blake Mizerany: Sinatra

Sinatra is a Ruby framework that went in the opposite direction of things like my beloved Django or Ruby's Rails. Rather than hide the nuts and bolts of HTTP from the developer, Sinatra puts it right out there for you. Where traditional frameworks tend to muddle GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE into one input stream, this framework structures your whole program into blocks a lot like this:

  require 'rubygems'
  require 'sinatra'
  get '/hi' do
    "Hello World!"
  end

That little snipped up there handles the routing and display for a simple Hello World program. Sinatra's strength is that it's simple and elegant. It lets you get at the real power at the heart of HTTP which is really handy, but from what I could tell in the presentation, there's not a lot available outside of that. Database management is done separately, no ORM layer etc. etc. It's very good for what it does, but not at everything, which (at least in my book) makes it awesome.

Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer: Mozilla Labs

These are the guys who make the Cool New Stuff that comes out of Mozilla. You know those guys, they write a nifty web browser called "Firefox", I'm sure you've heard of them.

Mozilla Labs is where the smart nerds get together to build and experiment with toys that will (hopefully) eventually make it into a finished product. Sometimes that product is an add-on or plug-in, other times it's an entirely new project. It's all about how useful something is to the public. And as always, the code is Free. You may have even heard of Ubiquity, an extension to Firefox that promises to reshape how we use a web browser... they're working on that.

This time through, they were demoing Bespin, a code editor in your web browser. Imagine opening a web browser, going to a page and doing your development there: no need for a local environment, but without the usual disadvantages of aggravating lag or difficult, text-only interface. Now imagine that you can share that development space with someone else in real time and that you can be doing this from your mobile device on a beach somewhere. Yeah, it's that awesome.

We watched as they demoed the crazy power that is the <canvas /> tag by creating a simple text editor, in Javascript right there in front of us... with about 15 lines of code. Really, really impressive.

David Ascher: Open Messaging on the Open Internet

Ascher's talk on Open Messaging was something I was really interested in since I've been actively searching for information on federated social networking for a while now. The presentation was divided into two parts: half covering the history of email and it's slow deprecation in favour of a number of different technologies as well as how people are using it in ways never intended for the architecture. Major problems with the protocol itself were touched on, as well as an explanation about how some of the alternatives out there are also flawed.

He then went on to talk about Mozilla Thunderbird 3 and the variety of cool stuff that's happening with it. "Your mail client knows a lot about you" he says "but until now, we haven't really done a lot with it". Some of the new features for Thunderbird 3 include conversation tracking (like you see in Gmail), helping you keep track of what kinds of email you spend the most time on, who you communicate with most etc. and even statistical charts about what time of day you use mail, what kind of mail you send and to whom how often. It's very neat stuff. Add to this the fact that they've completely rewritten the plug-in support, so new extensions to Thunderbird mean that your mail client will be as useful as you want it to be.

Evan Prodromou: Open Source Microblogging with Laconica

Up until this talk (and with the exception of Falkvinge's keynote), I'd been interested, but not excited about OpenWeb. Prodromou's coverage of Laconica changed all of that.

Founder of WikiTravel and one of the developers on WikiMedia (the software behind Wikipedia), Prodromou has built a federated microblogging platform called Laconica. Think Twitter, but with the ability for an individual to retain ownership of his/her posts and even handle distribution -- with little or no need for technical knowledge required. Here, I made you a diagram to explain:

Federated Laconica vs. Monolithic Twitter

Here's how it is: whereas Twitter is a single central source of information, controlled by a single entity (in this case, a corporation), Laconica distributes the load to any number of separate servers owned by different people that all know how to communicate. Where you might be on a server in Toronto, hosted by NetFirms, I could be using a Laconica service hosted by Dreamhost in Honolulu. My posts go to my server, yours go to yours, and when my Twitter client wants to fetch your posts, it talks to NetFirms and vice versa.

The advantages are clear:

Infinite scalability: Twitter's monolithic model necessitates the need for crazy amounts of funding and they still don't have a profit model to account for those costs. Laconica on the other hand means that the load is distributed across potentially millions of hosts (much like the rest of the web).
You control your identity, not a private corporation.

The future is where it gets really exciting though. By retaining ownership of your identity and data, you can start to attach a variety of other data types to the protocol. For the moment, Laconica only supports twitter-like messages, but they're already expanding into file-sharing as well. You'll be able to attach images, video and music files, upload them to your server and share them with whomever is following you. After that, I expect that they'll expand further to include Flickr-like photo streams, Facebook-like friendships and LiveJournal-like blog posts. These old, expensive monolithic systems are going away. In the future we'll have one identity, in one place, that we control that manages all of the data we want to share with others.

Really, really cool stuff.

I went home that night and signed up as a developer on Laconica. I've downloaded the source and will experiment with it this week before I take on anything on the "to do " list. I intend on focusing on expanding the feature set to include stuff that will deprecate the monolithic models mentioned above... should be fun :-)

Drupal Oops

I closed out the evening with some socialising in the hallway and some ranting about how-very-awesome Laconica was to my coworker Ronn, who showed up late in the day. He wandered off in search of my other colleagues and I followed after finishing a recap with Karen Quinn Fung a fellow transit fan and Free software fan. Unfortunately though, I wasn't really paying attention to where Ronn was going, I just followed out of curiosity. It turns that out I had stumbled into a Drupal social where I was almost immediately asked: "so, how do you use Drupal and how much do you love it?" by the social organiser. James gave me a horrified "what the hell are you doing here" look and searching for words, I said something to the effect of "Um, well, I was pretty much just dropping in here looking for my co-workers... oh here they are! -- I like Drupal because it makes it easy for people to make websites, but I don't really use it because it gets in my way. I prefer simple, elegant solutions and working around something just to get it to work is too aggravating." Considering the company, my response was pretty well received. I backed out quietly at the earliest opportunity :-)

So that was OpenWeb, well half of it anyway. I only got a pass for the Thursday. I can't recommend it enough though. Really interesting talks and really interesting people all over the place. I'll have to make sure that I go again next year.

June 14, 2009 18:40 +0000 | Activism Public Space Vancouver Vancouver Public Space Network 0

The VPSN is holding a fundraiser / movie night this thursday that promises to be both interesting and fun. I'm going to go, and if you'd like to come along, let me know eh?

City Shorts: A Public Space Film Festival â€“ Thursday June 18, 2009

Mark your calendars and join us for our first annual VPSN Film Festival and Fundraiser.

We've assembled an excellent set of short films that look at public space issues, Vancouver's urban scene and city life. Included in this diverse package are movies on urban greening, public art, urban exploring, parkour, billboards and corporate presence, graffiti, and more!

This is the VPSNâ€™s first film fest and fundraiser and we hope you can all make it. Itâ€™s part of our strategy to use this excellent series of shorts to remind everyone that great city-making still lies within the hands of its citizens. Not only will you be getting an evening jam-packed with films on the public realm, but you'll also be helping the VPSN too. Silver screen action with an added benefit!

Thursday June 18, 2009. Doors open at 7:00pm, show starts at 7:30pm. Tickets: $10 / $8 Students and Seniors. VanCity Theatre, 1181 Seymour Street

Liquid refreshments will be available for purchase. And there will be some lively post-film entertainment to take in as well.

June 13, 2009 00:50 +0000 | Activism Environment Politics Transit Translink 2

I thought that I might post a brief note on this whole Be Part of the Plan business from Translink.

For those of you not living in Vancouver, Translink is the Lower Mainland transit authority. Created just before the demise of the NDP over a decade ago as a way to offload the responsibility of transit from the province, Translink is an unelected body charged with support of all methods of transportation from Vancouver out to just past Langley. They handle SkyTrain, the road system, the West Coast Express, the Seabus and even the cycling infrastructure and they're notorious for tending to do so with very little input from the public.

So you can imagine what a remarkable thing it is to see posters and ads all over the place for this be part of the plan program they're pushing. They're trying to give everyone the impression that they're interested in public input regarding their responsibilities and to do just that, they've built a website, a blog, a Twitter account and set up a number of "consultations" with the public over the next few weeks.

It all sounds really great: public engagement on one of the most important civil issues in this generation is a pretty big deal, but unfortunately there's nothing engaging about the whole process. Instead, all of this, the website, the Twitter, the "consultations", are all targeted at one purpose: they want more money and they want you to agree with them on their plans for transit going toward 2040.

Every element of this outreach has the same message:

You have three choices: more service, the same service, abysmal service
You should pick the first one
You should give them more money so they can do the first one.

Of course it's all framed like they're giving you all this really detailed information about the process of making hard choices about transit, but that's also bookended with statements like "we have a vision" on the one side and the usual "end of the world" rhetoric you hear if you don't make the "right" choice. What kills me though, and what should bother the hell out of everyone "involved" in this circus is that they entire process is framed with their own goals in mind. In other words, they've already made the decision and they're telling us that we have only one option for better transportation in this city and it's their plan. If you don't like it, that's it -- transit is doomed.

It's all quite dishonest and manipulative really. We know Translink's track record: over a decade of service with the transit adoption rate holding steady at an embarrassing 13%. They want more funding for their plans which we now know are just plain ineffective and we're being told that there is no alternative but to accept their position or give up. It's maddening.

I'd suggest that you attend one of these events and give them a piece of your mind (as I did) but I don't like encouraging people to partake in an exercise of futility. I would instead suggest that we come up with Better Ideas for transit in the Lower Mainland and work to pressure our elected officials to reject the Translink plan in favour of something more effective because this kind of manipulative behaviour should never be permitted to fly.

March 26, 2009 01:52 +0000 | Activism Energy Environment Public Space Toronto Vancouver 9

I'm going to participate. I'm not really concerned about the effectiveness of that single hour's darkness on energy consumption as a whole, rather I'm more interested in taking a moment (or in this case, an hour) to reflect on our habits and maybe even convince others to slow down a bit. Besides, who doesn't love a party in the dark?

As always, Toronto is having a party in Nathan Phillip's Square while Vancouver still lacks any real public space capable of such an event. If you know of anything that Vancouver is doing that's interesting please let me know.

December 06, 2008 00:55 +0000 | Activism Bloc Québécois Canada Coalition Conservatives Liberals NDP Politics 2

It was brought to my attention today that one of the really useful things you can do to support the Coalition is to encourage those in the coalition to keep going. Every one of the MPs is taking a risk here and they need to know that they have your support in participating in this Coalition.

Below I've attached a copy of my letter to Coalition MPs which you can reuse if you like, but I encourage you to write your own. The letter is followed by two sets of email addresses, to make it easy to copy & paste into your mail client. As there are so many MPs (a House majority in fact!), the list must be broken into two parts to make sure that your message doesn't get bounced as spam. To send this, or a more personal letter on your behalf, simply open your mail client, copy & paste the a group of addresses into the To: field and hit send.

I'm sure that you're receiving a great many of these so I'll try to keep mine brief. As a member of the 62% who elected a progressive majority in this country, I'm writing you to let you know that I support you, and that we need you to keep going.

You're probably getting all kinds of letters talking about how terribly important this young coalition is and how dangerous and autocratic Harper will be if permitted to continue his government. Some of these letters are undoubtedly exaggerated. Many however, are not.

Harper has gone out of his way to prove that he is not worthy of the Prime Minister's office. He's lied to the House, he's lied to the people and now he's decided to subvert our Democracy and shut everything down. If you let this go, he will only continue his actions and in the end he will bury the opposition in a mountain of propaganda and fear-mongering.

I know it's tough. The Liberal party has been decimated by a constant erosion of its base support on the Left, while the NDP is struggling with its own losses to the Liberals and the Greens. You're tired, you're broke, and Harper is holding all the money and power he needs to win. But you have my support, and that of millions upon millions of others in this country -- a majority, in fact, that wants this man gone and a progressive agenda in the House. We are willing to fight with you, but you must be willing to win.

Do what you can to hold it together for the next six weeks. Know that you have the support of the majority and use that when you put Harper's Conservatives back where they belong: in the Opposition.

Thank you for representing us.

Daniel Quinn
Vancouver Centre

And here's the list of email addresses. Just copy & paste each set into a separate email:

Group 1

<bellea@parl.gc.ca>, <bigrab@parl.gc.ca>, <freemc@parl.gc.ca>, <lavalc@parl.gc.ca>, <ouellc@parl.gc.ca>, <gagnoc@parl.gc.ca>, <bachac@parl.gc.ca>, <debelc@parl.gc.ca>, <guimoc@parl.gc.ca>, <bourgd@parl.gc.ca>, <thilae@parl.gc.ca>, <bonsaf@parl.gc.ca>, <lalonf@parl.gc.ca>, <asselg@parl.gc.ca>, <ducepg@parl.gc.ca>, <andreg@parl.gc.ca>, <dorioj@parl.gc.ca>, <laforj@parl.gc.ca>, <royj@parl.gc.ca>, <deschj@parl.gc.ca>, <beaudj@parl.gc.ca>, <plamol@parl.gc.ca>, <desnol@parl.gc.ca>, <malol@parl.gc.ca>, <lemaym@parl.gc.ca>, <mouram@parl.gc.ca>, <lafram@parl.gc.ca>, <faillm@parl.gc.ca>, <guimom@parl.gc.ca>, <guaym@parl.gc.ca>, <dufoun@parl.gc.ca>, <demern@parl.gc.ca>, <paillp@parl.gc.ca>, <cretep@parl.gc.ca>, <brunep@parl.gc.ca>, <paquep@parl.gc.ca>, <blaisr@parl.gc.ca>, <menarr@parl.gc.ca>, <nadear@parl.gc.ca>, <bouchr@parl.gc.ca>, <carrir@parl.gc.ca>, <vincer@parl.gc.ca>, <gauder@parl.gc.ca>, <pomerr@parl.gc.ca>, <cardis@parl.gc.ca>, <menars@parl.gc.ca>, <stcyrt@parl.gc.ca>, <lessay@parl.gc.ca>, <levesy@parl.gc.ca>, <mendea@parl.gc.ca>, <tonksa@parl.gc.ca>, <guarna@parl.gc.ca>, <kaniaa@parl.gc.ca>, <nevila@parl.gc.ca>, <rotaa@parl.gc.ca>, <patryb@parl.gc.ca>, <raeb@parl.gc.ca>, <crombb@parl.gc.ca>, <wrzesb@parl.gc.ca>, <murphb@parl.gc.ca>, <wilfeb@parl.gc.ca>, <bennec@parl.gc.ca>, <mctead@parl.gc.ca>, <mcguid@parl.gc.ca>, <coderd@parl.gc.ca>, <leed@parl.gc.ca>, <leblad@parl.gc.ca>, <scarpf@parl.gc.ca>, <valerf@parl.gc.ca>, <regang@parl.gc.ca>, <kenneg@parl.gc.ca>, <byrneg@parl.gc.ca>, <pearsg@parl.gc.ca>, <mahlig@parl.gc.ca>, <fryh@parl.gc.ca>, <cotlei@parl.gc.ca>, <damouj@parl.gc.ca>, <karygj@parl.gc.ca>, <volpej@parl.gc.ca>, <cannij@parl.gc.ca>, <mccalj@parl.gc.ca>

Group 2

<mckayj@parl.gc.ca>, <murraj@parl.gc.ca>, <footej@parl.gc.ca>, <sgroj@parl.gc.ca>, <trudej@parl.gc.ca>, <martik@parl.gc.ca>, <drydek@parl.gc.ca>, <duncak@parl.gc.ca>, <bagnel@parl.gc.ca>, <macaul@parl.gc.ca>, <zaracl@parl.gc.ca>, <garnem@parl.gc.ca>, <proulm@parl.gc.ca>, <minnam@parl.gc.ca>, <silvam@parl.gc.ca>, <eykinm@parl.gc.ca>, <hollam@parl.gc.ca>, <jennim@parl.gc.ca>, <hallfm@parl.gc.ca>, <pacetm@parl.gc.ca>, <belanm@parl.gc.ca>, <bevilm@parl.gc.ca>, <ignatm@parl.gc.ca>, <savagm@parl.gc.ca>, <simsom@parl.gc.ca>, <bainsn@parl.gc.ca>, <rodrip@parl.gc.ca>, <szabop@parl.gc.ca>, <millip@parl.gc.ca>, <goodar@parl.gc.ca>, <folcor@parl.gc.ca>, <oliphr@parl.gc.ca>, <cuzner@parl.gc.ca>, <dhallr@parl.gc.ca>, <andres@parl.gc.ca>, <brisos@parl.gc.ca>, <simmssc@parl.gc.ca>, <murphs@parl.gc.ca>, <coadys@parl.gc.ca>, <dions@parl.gc.ca>, <dhalis@parl.gc.ca>, <russet@parl.gc.ca>, <dosanu@parl.gc.ca>, <eastew@parl.gc.ca>, <ratany@parl.gc.ca>, <atamea@parl.gc.ca>, <siksab@parl.gc.ca>, <masseb@parl.gc.ca>, <hyerb@parl.gc.ca>, <hughec@parl.gc.ca>, <angusc@parl.gc.ca>, <charlc@parl.gc.ca>, <gravec@parl.gc.ca>, <chrisd@parl.gc.ca>, <blackd@parl.gc.ca>, <savoid@parl.gc.ca>, <bevind@parl.gc.ca>, <davied@parl.gc.ca>, <thibeg@parl.gc.ca>, <mathyi@parl.gc.ca>, <harrij@parl.gc.ca>, <laytoj@parl.gc.ca>, <crowdj@parl.gc.ca>, <malowj@parl.gc.ca>, <comarj@parl.gc.ca>, <raffej@parl.gc.ca>, <wasylj@parl.gc.ca>, <daviel@parl.gc.ca>, <duncal@parl.gc.ca>, <allenm@parl.gc.ca>, <leslim@parl.gc.ca>, <cullen@parl.gc.ca>, <ashton@parl.gc.ca>, <chowo@parl.gc.ca>, <martip@parl.gc.ca>, <dewarp@parl.gc.ca>, <juliap@parl.gc.ca>, <stoffp@parl.gc.ca>, <mulcat@parl.gc.ca>, <martit@parl.gc.ca>, <marstw@parl.gc.ca>, <godiny@parl.gc.ca>

If you're really feeling daring, you might even want to send a letter to the Conservatives, encouraging them to cross the floor and join the coalition. Here's my letter, followed by another list of emails:

I'm sure that you're likely getting a barrage of emails lately, what with your party closing up Parliament, so I'll try to keep this short.

I'm writing you to ask you to do something crazy; something daring: I'm asking you to reconsider your seat in the House.

I know, it's crazy, you're probably a big fan of free markets and tax cuts and I can't blame you. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and you, an elected representative, won your seat based on those opinions. I would never attempt to prevent you from fulfilling your duty as a representative of the people.

But your boss would.

Stephen Harper has continually gone out of his way to muzzle your fellow party members. He's redirected blame and fired ministers for his own incompetence and he's made a mockery of our political process by continually bullying the opposition rather than trying to work with them in a minority government. He's fired people for doing their job, lied to the House of Commons, and now he's committed the greatest of sins: he's closed down Parliament in a time when we clearly need leadership.

I know that you're a loyal party member. I know that it may be political suicide for you to not support Stephen Harper at a time like this, but I ask you to take a moment to think about the country. How might Canada be better served? By a coalition, or by an autocrat?

You don't have to like the Bloc, or the NDP, or the Liberals. I don't like them much either. But I see in them something I've never seen in Harper: a willingness to make the country work. For that alone, I would submit that as a loyal Canadian citizen, your own political position requires reflection.

Thanks for your time.

Daniel Quinn
Vancouver Centre

Conservative Party Emails (Group 1)

<goldring.p@parl.gc.ca>, <warawa.m@parl.gc.ca>, <yelich.l@parl.gc.ca>, <weston.r@parl.gc.ca>, <holder.e@parl.gc.ca>, <verner.j@parl.gc.ca>, <paradis.c@parl.gc.ca>, <oconnor.g@parl.gc.ca>, <preston.j@parl.gc.ca>, <petit.d@parl.gc.ca>, <richardson.l@parl.gc.ca>, <brown.l@parl.gc.ca>, <schellenberger.g@parl.gc.ca>, <cadman.d@parl.gc.ca>, <poilip@parl.gc.ca>, <vanloan.p@parl.gc.ca>, <finley.d@parl.gc.ca>, <cannon.l@parl.gc.ca>, <wallace.m@parl.gc.ca>, <kent.p@parl.gc.ca>, <lake.m@parl.gc.ca>, <rathgeber.b@parl.gc.ca>, <brown.g@parl.gc.ca>, <chong.m@parl.gc.ca>, <gallant.c@parl.gc.ca>, <delmastro.d@parl.gc.ca>, <oda.b@parl.gc.ca>, <carrie.c@parl.gc.ca>, <blaney.s@parl.gc.ca>, <hawn.l@parl.gc.ca>, <rajotte.j@parl.gc.ca>, <woodworth.s@parl.gc.ca>, <obhrai.d@parl.gc.ca>, <uppal.t@parl.gc.ca>, <devolin.b@parl.gc.ca>, <gourde.j@parl.gc.ca>, <bernim@parl.gc.ca>, <boucher.s@parl.gc.ca>, <fletcher.s@parl.gc.ca>, <lobb.b@parl.gc.ca>, <wong.a@parl.gc.ca>, <block.k@parl.gc.ca>, <young.t@parl.gc.ca>, <nicholson.r@parl.gc.ca>, <vankesteren.d@parl.gc.ca>, <cannan.r@parl.gc.ca>, <lauzon.g@parl.gc.ca>, <reid.s@parl.gc.ca>, <kramp.d@parl.gc.ca>, <baird.j@parl.gc.ca>, <blackburn.j@parl.gc.ca>, <mayes.c@parl.gc.ca>, <dykstra.r@parl.gc.ca>, <smith.j@parl.gc.ca>, <fast.e@parl.gc.ca>, <dreeshen.e@parl.gc.ca>, <trost.b@parl.gc.ca>, <goodyear.g@parl.gc.ca>, <galipeau.r@parl.gc.ca>, <ambrose.r@parl.gc.ca>, <toews.v@parl.gc.ca>, <glover.s@parl.gc.ca>, <mccoleman.p@parl.gc.ca>, <flaherty.j@parl.gc.ca>, <menzies.t@parl.gc.ca>, <anders.r@parl.gc.ca>, <benoit.l@parl.gc.ca>, <raitt.l@parl.gc.ca>, <tilson.d@parl.gc.ca>, <bruinooge.r@parl.gc.ca>, <lunney.j@parl.gc.ca>, <dechert.b@parl.gc.ca>, <lunn.g@parl.gc.ca>, <watson.j@parl.gc.ca>, <mackenzie.d@parl.gc.ca>, <tweed.m@parl.gc.ca>

Conservative Party Emails (Group 2)

<ablonczy.d@parl.gc.ca>, <albrecht.h@parl.gc.ca>, <kamp.r@parl.gc.ca>, <brownpa@parl.gc.ca>, <lemieux.p@parl.gc.ca>, <o'neill-gordon.t@parl.gc.ca>, <lukiwski.t@parl.gc.ca>, <cummins.j@parl.gc.ca>, <boughen.r@parl.gc.ca>, <calandra.p@parl.gc.ca>, <allison.d@parl.gc.ca>, <davidson.p@parl.gc.ca>, <shipley.b@parl.gc.ca>, <norlock.r@parl.gc.ca>, <ashfield.k@parl.gc.ca>, <hoeppner.c@parl.gc.ca>, <saxton.a@parl.gc.ca>, <day.s@parl.gc.ca>, <keddy.g@parl.gc.ca>, <hoback.r@parl.gc.ca>, <stanton.b@parl.gc.ca>, <grewal.n@parl.gc.ca>, <ritz.g@parl.gc.ca>, <merrifield.r@parl.gc.ca>, <breitkreuz.g@parl.gc.ca>, <allen.m@parl.gc.ca>, <mackay.p@parl.gc.ca>, <clement.t@parl.gc.ca>, <payne.l@parl.gc.ca>, <moore.r@parl.gc.ca>, <strahl.c@parl.gc.ca>, <vellacott.m@parl.gc.ca>, <scheer.a@parl.gc.ca>, <shory.d@parl.gc.ca>, <sweet.d@parl.gc.ca>, <richards.b@parl.gc.ca>, <hiebert.r@parl.gc.ca>, <komarnicki.e@parl.gc.ca>, <shea.g@parl.gc.ca>, <moore.j@parl.gc.ca>, <harris.r@parl.gc.ca>, <abbott.j@parl.gc.ca>, <miller.l@parl.gc.ca>, <kerr.g@parl.gc.ca>, <thompson.g@parl.gc.ca>, <prentice.j@parl.gc.ca>, <weston.j@parl.gc.ca>, <sorenson.k@parl.gc.ca>, <storseth.b@parl.gc.ca>, <jean.b@parl.gc.ca>, <mark.i@parl.gc.ca>, <clarke.r@parl.gc.ca>, <bezan.j@parl.gc.ca>, <casson.r@parl.gc.ca>, <rickford.g@parl.gc.ca>, <warkentin.c@parl.gc.ca>, <hill.j@parl.gc.ca>, <mcleod.c@parl.gc.ca>, <duncan.j@parl.gc.ca>, <braid.p@parl.gc.ca>, <aglukkaq.l@parl.gc.ca>, <kenney.j@parl.gc.ca>, <guergis.h@parl.gc.ca>, <calkins.b@parl.gc.ca>, <anderson.da@parl.gc.ca>

September 28, 2008 05:48 +0000 | Activism Technology Vancouver 2

I spent most of my day today at Barcamp Vancouver 2008, the third incarnation of its kind in this city. For some of you, the name might ring a bell since I blogged about going to the Toronto Barcamp back in 2006. The ideas behind the Vancouver version were similar, though the experience was quite different. For the sake of brevity though, I'm going to do the rest of this post in point form... in part because the sentence structure of this paragraph is painful to me:

The Good Stuff

Lots of people using Twitter, Flickr, blogs and wikis to their full potential. It's so nice to see technology being implemented the way their creators (and pushers) hoped.
Really smart people who like talking about stuff. I sat through a lot of really interesting presentations regarding the mobile web (and how it doesn't exist), django-bloom (REALLY fucking cool), and cloud computing (it may not be as cool as you heard, but it's still really cool).
Had some really great conversation outside of the presentations. I met Karen Quinn Fung, an activist and organiser for the upcoming Skytrain Security UnConference. She's a striking young woman with a solid understanding of social media and community activism and with a few others in a small group we all tackled the touchy subject of activist infighting and community outreach.
Granville Island doughnuts. Best I've found in this city. Seriously. Go there. Now. ...and bring me back a few ;-)

The DoublePlusUnGood Stuff

Really short presentation times. Seriously, who holds an unconference in three separate buildings, offers no time to move to different venues between talks and then makes each session only a ½ hour? There was no time to actually flesh out any ideas in any session.
Presentations, not conversations. The Barcamp I went to in Toronto was all about multi-way communication. You didn't attend a presentation, you joined a conversation. All parties contributed to the greater whole that was Barcamp. This was much more in the form of a unidirectional dialogue and therefore far less interesting.
No mixing space. They got three buildings, and four rooms to hold presentations, and barely a hallway for space for people to talk about stuff. Barcamp is supposed to be about people talking to each other, not just listening to speakers... If I just wanted to hear one person's opinion, I'd read a blog.

So yeah, good things and bad about Barcamp this year. I hope that they're not all like this and that some of these things will be remedied in future incarnations. Until then, I'll probably be hitting other unconferences around town as I hear about them. It seems that they're becoming pretty popular lately.