Intelligence Among Us

Tim O’Reilly is interviewing her right now.  There is far too much politics interwoven in this conversation but there are some interesting insights on new media versus old media.  Thoughts about how the internet is self-correcting in the sense that if a blogger makes an error it will be pointed out in moments versus traditional media who may issue a small correction the following day.

Having said that it’s clear to me that I am in the heartland of liberalism in the U.S.  Lots of McCain, Palin and Bush bashing, Obama worshipping and global warming regurgitation.  I won’t bother with adding my commentary but I’m sure why this conference is being used as a bully pulpit.  Regardless is always interesting to hear the opinions of others

Day 2 of the Expo has wrapped up.  Honestly I’m finding the content a bit light and I think it would be more effective if the sessions were longer that 50 minutes.

Dion Hinchliffe gave an outstanding presentation on day 1 about building the next generation of web applications.  It was an excellent Web 2.0 primer and really made clear that there is a bold new world out there. Read it here:  Building Next Gen Web 2. Applications

I’ll be doing a full summary at the conclusion of the expo tomorrow.  In the meantime you can follow my tweets,

(yawn)

I arrived in New York yesterday. As I’ve mentionedt this is my first time here.  I’ve been walking around most of the day and took in the sights.  I visited the World Trade Center site which was a very humbling experience.  It’s so interesting to see the sights that I’ve seen on TV and get understanding of how they are related to each other. 

Conference starts tomorrow.  I’ll be blogging daily and Tweeting throughout the day as well.

I’ll be heading to NYC for the Web 2.0 Expo on Sunday.  To say I’m excited about this opportunity is an understatement.  Check my Twitter RSS feed for updates throughout the week.

Parliament has been dissolved and Canadian’s are going to the polls on October 14.  This has all the earmarks of the single most politically unimportant event since Confederation.  Here’s what you need to know in a nutshell about the party leaders:

Stephen Harper:  Our current prime minister – a mannequin masquerading as a human being.  He has led a realitively successful minority government for approaching 3 years.  

Liberal’s take: far-right, libertarian whose goal is to put homosexuals back in the closet, put guns in the hand of every citizen, act as George W. Bush’s lap dog and remove a woman’s right to abortion.

Reality: wants a majority government, has increased spending and the size of government faster than the Liberal’s before him, is engaging in targeted “aid” of specific industry sectors despite railing against that in the previous election, massive reversal on Income Trusts.  Has lowered some taxes (GST) and created some targeted tax credits (see previous posts).

My take: he’s the least bad option

Stephane Dion:  The “leader” of the opposition.  Won the leadership in a come from behind victory which basically means that through circumstance the man that the least amount of people wanted to be the leader won.  He looks and talks like a nerd and his mangling of the English language is always good for a laugh (then a good cry).  His major schtick is promoting himself as the champion of the environment.

Conservatives take: he’s weak and his Green Shift will kill the Canadian economy – they are painting it as the phoenix of the National Energy Program rising from the ashes.  He’s a Quebec academic who is totally out of touch with the rest of the country.

Reality: his biggest enemy are the ambitious wanna-be’s in his own party.  If he loses this election he’s done – the knives are already out. He’s already back pedalling on his Green Shift and I’ve discussed my thoughts on Governments and “revenue neutral” ideas.  He’s probably loathed in Quebec more than anywhere else.  He has impotently sat on his hands for many votes on issues he previously deemed non-negotiable because his party is broke, their election machine is disorganized and he was afraid to go to the polls.

My take: he’s a dead man walking however honest and principled he may be.

Jack Layton: the leader of the NDP – Canada’s resident socialist, I mean truly progressive,  party.  The NDP may play kingmaker in this election more so than in previous elections by bleeding support from the left wing of the Liberal party. Ironically a recent poll indicated that Canadian’s view Layton more commited to the environment than Dion – which is a huge problem for Dion.  He’s well spoken and his ideas resonate with a relatively small number, typically younger Canadians.

My take:  The NDP, despite their protestations is a fringe party whose support is concentrated primarily in cities.  Their seat count and rises and falls within a narrow window but their level of popular support remains fairly static.  Jack is probably toast should the NDP fail to make a breakthrough.

Gilles Duceppe: Leader of the Bloc Quebecois our Quebect separatist party.  They have never won a seat outside of Quebec and nor do they run candidates outside.  Their primary raison-d’etre is a sovereign Quebec – what a dumb idea.  As a huge recipient of federal largesse in the form of transfer payments and vote buying they’d do well to stay in Canada.  Support for separation is at a low point and its hardly on the radar of the average Canadian.  What a change from 1995 when we almost lost the country.

My take: Gilles is always the most entertaining in the debates because he can say whatever he wants without fear of repercussions- his base is focused and supportive.  Gilles probably wants out and into provincial politics and the Bloc is bleeding support to the Conservatives in Quebec.  If the Conservatives want a majority they need to take a chunk out of the Bloc’s hide.

One practice that politicians have engaged in from time immemorial is bribing taxpayers with their own money.  The unfortunate reality is that it seems to work.  Instead of an across the board tax cut for everyone, or an actual reduction in the size of government, they offer us the “targeted tax credits”.  The “target” is not based on a strategic vision for the country.  The target is based on political expediency and which particular demographic or region the pollsters have concluded will benefit the government in the next election.  It’s crass and transparent yet it actually seems to work.

One of my personal favourites is the Conservative’s much lauded Child Care Benefit.  This was developed in response to the previous Liberal governments national child care program.   The Conservative’s solution was to:

1. Take my money from me in the form of taxation
2. Launder it through the bureaucracy of government with a not insignificant percentage used to feed the inefficiency of that very bureaucracy
3. Cut a cheque for 200 dollars for each child under 6 and mail it to me.
4. Which I then must declare as revenue and lose close to 50% again in taxes

My solution

1. Don’t take it from me in the first place and allow me to decide how to spend my own money

I believe strongly in the potential of the individual over the power of government.  Government obvioulsy has a role to play in our lives but I can see our freedoms eroding over time in the name of progress.

Let me close with stating my firm belief that Canada is one of the best countries in the world in which to live.

I think it’s about time I took a minute to give props to the people that have created and continue to evolve the WordPress platform.  For those of you that aren’t aware, WordPress is an open-source blogging application that makes it dead simple for anyone to contribute to the read/write web.

It allows the easy development and changing of themes so you can give your web site a completely different look in a matter of moments.  It’s adminstration tools are straightforward and allow the writing and mangement of posts, tags, categories, comments, media etc.   You can also easily customize the design of your pages using widgets (tag cloud, rss feeds, archives, recent posts etc).  Some themes support multiple side bars (sections you can add widgets to) and some contain none.  It’s usually specified with the theme when you download it.

It not only supports consuming RSS feeds but with any good Web 2.0 platform it also creates an RSS feed that anyone interesting in your rantings can consume and syndicate with an RSS reader.

There are also a lot of different web hosts available – I use DreamHost and man do they have a slick interface their users.  I can’t believe how far they have come since I last had a web site in 2002. 

Granted I work in IT and have a technical background but here’s the summary.  I thought about this site on a Monday.  Registered my domain name the next day, created an account with DreamHost that day and installed and had my first post up on the web in the afternoon.  I read almost none of the documentation on WordPress – it’s that straightforward.

If you want to know more about this tool I’d be happy to share what I’ve learned.

Looks like we’re heading for an October election here in Canada.  I suppose it was inevitable but its a disappointment nonetheless.  The approximate cost to the taxpayer is 300 million CDN and the odds are the result will within a few seats either way, pretty much the same as they are now – a Conservative minority government.

Strategically I’m not sure what Stephen Harper is planning.  The leader of the opposition, Stephen Dion, is perceived as extremely weak and his much vaunted Green Shift has the makings of round 2 of Trudeau’s National Energy Program is going to be impossible to sell in my view.  When a leader of any party sells a program as “revenue-neutral” look out.  The size and scope of government only gets bigger over time.  Having said all that, the knives in the Liberal party are drawn and ready should Dion fail to win even a minority government this time around so Harper risks his current best asset being replaced by a stronger leader.

I voted Conservative in the last election but I have been gravely disappointed with the direction Harper’s taking our country.  The spending increases have been massive, larger even than under Paul Martin’s disastrous, thankfully short-lived stewardship.  The conduct in commitees of the Conservative MPs has been deplorable.  In my view Harper, while a shrewd politician, is petty and cynical.  His finding a “loophole” in his own government’s fixed election date legistlation smacks of opportunism. 

I’m losing hope my dream – a fiscally Conservative but moderately socially liberal party that will focus on cutting red tape for business, lowering corporate and personal taxes, funding R&D, simplifying the tax code, getting rid of social engineering programs and “targeted tax breaks”, having the courage to stand up to our entrenched Native leadership and work on fixing the horrific situation of our First Nations people, eliminating political patronage and the gun registry.  All this while not focusing on abortion, gay marriage, mandatory minimum sentencing, misguided attempts at nation building etc.

We’ll see.  I’ll be following this election intently.  The funny thing is most Canadian’s will be transfixed with the American election which promises to the most exciting one in a long time.