And while, I’ve been chatting non-stop about this little terrier(ist) that has been melting our hearts and depriving of us of sleep for the past week, I thought I’d blog about the back story of this little guy.

So years ago, when my wife and I decided to move in together, we weren’t allowed to get our own furry litte companion due to the rental restrictions in Calgary. See my wife has grown up with a couple of adorable Airedales and her parents current dog – Merlin Arthur – stole my heart early on in our relationship. So we agreed that when the time was right and when we moved to a larger home or got settled or got real jobs, the first thing we would do was acquire our own Airedale Terrier. To be honest, both of us figured it’d be about 6 months or maybe a year max. Well, then plans changed.

Obviously, a whirlwind tour through Washington and then up to Ottawa sort of derailed that initial timeframe, but earlier this year we found ourselves finally back in Canada and in stable position to follow through on that pledge.

As mentioned, TRH Mulroney is an adorably deceiving lakeland terrier, which for those who know, is sort of like a mini-Airedale. Alright, it’s not really a mini-Airedale, but it’s a somewhat obscure breed that we stumbled upon here in Ottawa. And after much searching we ended up finding a breeder out of Boston with a huge Ottawa community of Lakelands. It also helps that the Lakeland breed matches our needs perfectly. It’s the smallest of the terrier lineage and just as smart, conniving and playful. It’s size also makes it a great companion for apartment living. So for a couple who’s lifestyle pretty much ensures we won’t be purchasing a home within the next 10 years or so, it matches our urban living choices to a T.

So What’s With The Name?

Ah yes, his name. There are two parts to the story behind his mildly ironic name.

First, because we were living in the center for American patriotism for the past 2.5 years, we were always surrounded by the proud relationship Americans have with their past Presidents. Sure there are a couple of embarrassing presidents.. cough… nixon…cough… but for the most part, in every major city across the US there is a street, school, football stadium, turn pike or kid named after every American President. It’s not uncommon to see pretty much everything painted with America’s rich Presidential history. As Canadians, where it’s rare to find anyone who can even name 10 Prime Ministers let alone explain who the people are on our funny coloured money are, we always found this fascinating. One of the things I’ve always been impressed with America is that they are loud and proud of their history. (USA! USA! USA!) In Canada we rarely see that sort of pride. So as an homage to this entertaining American trait we decided early on in the process that we would apply a Prime Ministerial naming convention to our dogs.

Now the second part. Why Brian Mulroney?

First off Diefenbaker was pretty much out of the question due to the Due South reference. Trudeau would get us disowned by our respective families and friends and nobody would get the Clark reference. And naming the dog after John Turner, would just be a little too much like naming your kid Connor O’Connor. But Brian Mulroney, now that’s a different story.

With the exception of Chretien, Mulroney is probably the last real Prime Minister with an abundance of character and big ideas for Canada. Sure there’s a couple of scandals that have tarnished his legacy, but as far as Prime Ministers go, there’s no question that the Irishmen with the sultry blue eyes is easily one of Canada’s most famous and ambitious political leaders… Plus it also helps that my wife and the real Right Honourable Mulroney met two years ago in D.C.

See a couple of years ago, my wife met Mr. Mulroney at a reception at the Canadian Embassy in Washington. As one of the few Canadians in attendance, Mulroney instantly gravitated to my wife while doing the obligatory meet and greet rounds. During their ten minute conversation, He ended up regaling my wife with his charm, wit and elegant stories of Ronald Reagan, his time as Prime Minister and the future of canadian politics. During that conversation, Mr. Mulroney also gave some advise to my wife and pretty much demanded that she take her brilliant brain back to Canada. While not the deciding factor in our choice to move back to Canada, it did plant the seeds for our eventual decision to head back to the Great White North.

Oh, and it’s also amazing to see people’s awkward reaction in conservative Ottawa when you mention you’ve named your dog Mulroney. Some people laugh and some people walk away in disgust. It’s an entertaining side benefit of the whole exercise.

So there you have it, the latest member of the Turner clan – The Right Honourable Mulroney (Leo) Turner.

In the spectrum of birthdays thirty-three is probably one of the least significant birthdays out there, you’re two years from turning thirty-five and three years into the dirty thirties and trying to figure out how to be a grown-up. Now on previous birthdays I’ve tried to conjuror up sage like advice from my own experience on this little rock in space. And I really thought about compiling a list of thirty tid-bits of advice, but being realistic I’m just not that original anymore. But since my last full rotation around the sun, I’ve had a minor epiphany of sorts about two things that I wish I wouldn’t have ignored in my naive 20s. Elements of life that I’ve rediscovered over the past year or so. So what better way to celebrate my birthday, then to share that same advice.

The first is something I’ve touched upon before, but make sure to do what you love or makes you happy regardless of the cultural stereotypes. Earlier this year I stumbled across two comic book stores a couple of blocks away from our new abode in Ottawa. Now before this year it had been almost 12-15 years since I stumbled into a comic book store, but I made a resolution this year to take more time for myself and change up life a bit. It also helped that my interest in comic books, wait … graphic novels, was revitalized by The Walking Dead TV show . I walked by it at least 20 times before mustering up the courage to walk in … you know, because everyone knows that comic book nerds are frightening and all. But after walking in I was instantly reminded of why I loved reading comic books as a pre-teen and it instantly revitalized my interest in the genre. Now In all honesty, I’m reading much more mature series, like The League of Extraordinary Gentleman (LXG), DMZ, and the surprisingly smart new Hawkeye series, but I started to remember how much I adored the simpleness of a sitting down to flip through a good comic-book… err… graphic novel.

Now I mention this because in my 20s I wouldn’t have been caught dead in comic book store. For no other reason then the idea that comic books aren’t something a grown man reads and frankly girls apparently don’t think comic books are cool. But now that I’ve already lured tricked my wife into a life of blissful marriage, what’s really the harm. I kid of course, but to be honest it got me thinking about how ridiculous it was to ignore and suppress something I really enjoyed for a long period of time, solely because of a perception from my 20s. So my my first piece of sage like advice on my 33rd birthday, really isn’t that special, but if you love something, just embrace it — don’t hide it.

… Well except for magic cards and cheering for the oilers. Nobody plays magic cards or cheers for the oilers in their 30s…

Second, is the benefits of volunteering. Going back to my previous point, I’m no longer ashamed to admit that I was a boy scout for far too long. Up until my early 20s to be exact. But one of the things that being in the boy scouts for that amount of time ingrained in me was the concept of volunteering. Unfortunately, volunteering was something that I neglected for most of my 20s as I was chasing the next pitcher of beer or finding the latest band, or whatever it is you young whipper snappers do in your 20s nowadays… I think it’s duck face selfies… what ever that means.

But over the past two years, some of the most rewarding events, experiences and career milestones have come through volunteering my time with causes I adore. Whether it’s teaching high school kids Junior Achievement in DC, working the tables at WordPress Camp Ottawa, trying to build an iPhone App community through yycApps, helping out with the Green Party in Ottawa or just building a web site for Grow Calgary, Unrest Magazine, and 1CalgaryCentre. I’ve achieved more personal and professional growth and met some amazing people through volunteering my time and experiences than I have through anything else I’ve done in my career. And if you think about it, most of the world’s most successful people are the ones that constantly lend a hand to causes they believe in. For me not only has volunteering helped me grow as an individual, but it’s also allowed me to expand my network circle and experience different situations which have made every day life that much better. So in a nut shell, it’s one thing to do something, but it’s another thing to actually be apart of something.

And with those two tid bits to ponder form this old fossil, I leave you with Taylor Swift’s “Trouble” sung by a goat. Because it’s the world’s greatest thing.

Have a great day everyone.

That of course is the world of the dreadful Political Attack Web Site.

Yes, we are all familiar with the more polished older brother TV version and there is so much discussion revolving around the topic that I won’t get into too much detail rehashing those talking points. But to reinforce my point about the uselessness of Political Attack Web sites I do have to explain why the TV ads work so well.

The television attack ads mainly work because of two basic concepts. The first is pretty simple – TV ads in general are something that is forced upon a viewer rather than something one seeks out. As any hockey fan of the past couple of weeks can attest too, The Conservative Party of Canada have flooded the NHL Playoffs with the infamous Justin commercials. And yes, make no mistake that this is completely calculated and designed to hammer home a highly tested message to a captive audience of about a million plus Canadians every night. And if we’re being honest with ourselves, no matter how annoying or pathetic a political attack ad is, the average Canadian won’t bother changing the channel to ignore it. Truth be told most people would rather sit through the 30 second spot rather than chance missing one of Glenn Healy’s insane ramblings. So in regards to investment, they are about as effective as it gets for one’s political campaign dollars.

Second, as much as people hate the concept, attack ads do an effective job of laying down the ground work for a subconscious theme against one’s opponent. Mr. Ignatiff, Mr. Dion, Mr. Mulclair and more recently British Columbia’s Adrian Dix can attest to how much a theme, whether correct or not, repeated over and over again through TV ads can slowly degrade the casual voter’s viewpoint of a candidate. As a side note, I bet you within a year, Trudeau’s biggest misconception will be that he’s too young, regardless of the fact that by 2015 he’ll be the exact same age that Mr. Harper was when elected head of the Conservatives. But I digress.

So Why Are Political Attack Web Sites So Useless?

With those two key attributes in mind lets look at the main weaknesses of the political attack web site.

First, regardless of what social media experts and middle aged entrepreneurs want you to believe, a web site is something that you can’t force people to see. No matter how many times a site is retweeted, posted to Facebook or you print out a QR Code, a web site will only draw interest from a user who wants to read that information. So attracting a non-partisan viewer is going to be nearly impossible, well, unless you pretend it’s a cute cat site. Don’t get me wrong these site do get hits, but if we’re being honest with ourselves they usually come from partisan party faithful or the opposition looking to see what’s being said about their candidate or party. The average casual voter isn’t going to be interested in seeking out this information unless it is of interest to their daily lives.

Second and this is a key one, the average person does not enjoy reading negative web sites. I know, a shocking concept. But ask yourself this: when was the last time you bookmarked a negative political attack web site or subscribed to the RSS feed? Think about it for a second. Probably never. And why would you? How does a negative political web site benefit the average viewer’s daily routine? If we were to look at the return rate of a Political Attack web site, I’m confident the return visitor rates would be embarrassingly low. These sites are not developed to foster an active community or even contain dynamic content, most are built as one off standalone sites to either compliment or initiate a conversation… and most can’t even achieve these simple goals.

Lastly, most of the sites are so crudely designed and developed that they probably do more harm than good. As viewers, it’s well known that our opinions are largely based on first impressions. So imagine taking a negative theme and spin it into a positive experience in the three to four seconds that a viewer takes to lay judgement on a web site. It is an impossible task. Take this classic shadow cabinet NDP website or better yet the accompanying “In over his head” web site. With their big scary fonts and over the top photoshop skillz are you convinced of the evil nature of their targets or are you turned off by how much time and effort was put into such a negative campaign? If you were already a partisan hardliner you’ll probably agree with the content and are already lovin’ it like McDonalds, but for anyone the effects are minimum at best. In fact if you’ve ever voted for the liberals or NDP you probably have a visceral reaction to the concept and the childish nature of the sites.

Well, Are There Redeeming Qualities in a Political Micro Site

Okay, now that I’ve spent a good chunk of time ripping into the uselessness of these sites, the question becomes can Political Attack web sites serve a better purpose? Better yet, is there an effective variation that is actually a positive and engaging experience? The answer to that is yes.

A micro site for a Political Party or Candidate which focuses on a positive concept or is able to tell an engaging story is really an effective campaign tool, but the key element is that it has to be a positive experience rather than a negative one. I’ve used this example numerous times in blog posts, but the Kathleen Wynne Way Forward micro site from the 2013 Ontario Leadership campaign is a great example of this. (It has since transitioned into a full web site)

The amount of work involved in creating a site similar to the handful that Wynne’s team have produced, are about equal to or less than the previously mentioned web sites, but the viewer experiences are literally night and day. One bombards you with the dirt and negativity of politics, while the other instills a sense of excitement, progressiveness and change. And of the two sets of examples, Wynne’s collection of sites are far more likely to leave a positive sentiment with the user.

So you may be asking, why even bring this up?

Simple. With the advent of robust and easy to use tools such as WordPress, Tumblr or even NationBuilder, it has become incredibly easy for anyone to build a web site – especially a political one. We know this as a fact, but just because it’s easy to build a gaudy attack site doesn’t mean that you should.

Yes, politics is a dirty game, but there becomes a point when the minor benefits of negativity outweigh the positives. With the upcoming civic elections in Alberta just around the corner the temptation to draw attention to a candidate by investing in one of these feeble sites is there, but hopefully I’ve shown that there are better ways. If recent events prove anything it’s that the general patience for negativity in politics is diminishing within Canada. Voters are looking to see the positive side of our political leaders. So in a round about way, my advise to aspiring candidates and campaigns is to ignore the Political Attack web sites and do something different, unique and creative.

Anyways, I digress. Where was I? Oh yes, discovering comedy again.

I was first introduced to the The Sklarbro Country sports podcast and then eventually discovered Welsh comic Rhod Gilbert podcast. From there I discovered Patton Oswalt’s full-length albums and then discovered that buried deep within the depths of Rdio is a treasure trove of comedy albums.

And over the past few months, for whatever god foresaken reason, I started listening to the calming sounds of stand-up comedy before falling a sleep. Don’t ask me why, but for a few stressful weeks in January the only thing that would keep my mind off of the toils of life was the sounds of Lewis Black, The Sklars and other hilarious comedians. I may never know why this happened, but it worked like a charm and thus my new found love of comedy was born.

So after a few months of trolling comedy albums, I thought I’d share my favourite comedians with people. Now as a caveat this is by no means a professional top ten list, in honesty these are just the comedians I really dig – so you won’t find Louis C.K. or Daniel Tosh on the list. Frankly I’m just not a fan of their stuff.

But I do hope you enjoy the list and if you’re new to stand-up, like I am, I hope it kick starts an interest in the genre.

Patton Oswalt

Overal the past couple of years Patton Oswalt has been quietly establishing himself as The King of the Nerds. Whether it’s live tweeting Downton Abbe, the GOP Debates or even acting as Dr. Octopus to his kid’s Spider-girl, this man is a nation treasure. And while many people have heard of Patton Oswalt because of his infamous breakdown of the KFC bowls, this skit had me in tears the first time I heard.

If you’re looking for a sole reason for why I got into stand-up comedy, this man is it.

Lewis Black

If you’re a fan of The Daily Show, you’ll know of Lewis Black. He is that grumpy political assoholic uncle we all wish we had. If you thought he was over the top, then check out his stand-up work. He has an impeccable delivery and political observations are dead on.

Oddly enough, the more I think about it, the more I’m probably going end up being Lewis Black in 20 years.

The Sklar Brothers

Goes without saying, but The Sklars are pretty epic. Two identical twin brothers from St. Louis who are all over the pop-culture spectrum, but have still managed to lay the ground work for the perfect fusion between comedy and sports reporting on their legendary podcast Sklarbro Country. Whether it’s their irrational hatred for Saskatoon, their great taste in indie music or anything involving Jessie The Body Ventura or Kris Jenner The Sklarbro Country podcast is a pure comedy-avalanche.

Also… HEEEEENDERSON!

Aziz Ansari

Aziz Ansari is probably best known for a role on NBC’s Parks and Rec, but his stand up is pretty amazing. It takes a while to really get into it, but they guy is classically funny. Anything where he makes fun of his cousin is just pure gold.

Hannibal Burris

Hannibal Buress is probably one of the more popular comics on the circuit at the moment… or that is what the Internt tells me at least. And for that reason alone, I would typically skip over him on a list like this (it’s why Daniel Tosh isn’t on this list), but the man can deliver a punchline. So give him a couple of spins.

Donald Glover

Not only does he rap and star in NBC’s Community, but he’s also a stand-up comic. This guy’s a beast

Now, this list isn’t not nearly as complete as it should be. If you have recommendations, unleash it in the comments.

With a slate of municipal elections scheduled for late October, upstart candidates and sitting council members across Alberta are gearing up for an intense fall campaign season. With that comes the task of putting together a campaign team, beginning the process of raising funds and also crafting a campaign brand and marketing material. But one of the most critical elements of a strong campaign is establishing an online presence with a fully functional web site.

If you’re an active voter like I am, you’ve probably come across a spectrum of political campaign web sites over the past four years. You have also probably noticed that only about a handful of these site are clearly well done – majority are just absolute disasters doing more harm than good. In a previous blog post, I outlined my opinions on the state of political web design in Canada. But now with an election six months away, I thought I’d put my money where my mouth is by detailing a handful of key elements for building a great campaign web site.

Before we get into the meat of these elements, it’s important to understand the role of the candidate’s web site in the modern campaign era. Unless you understand how the typical voter will interact with your site, it’ll be impossible to grasp what characteristics are key in the process.

The Role of a Campaign Web Site

Before 2010, a candidate’s web site typically acted as the single online activity hub of a campaign. Since then we’ve obviously seen a shift in user interaction patterns, where there is now an even balance between social media activity and the campaign web site. A candidate’s web site is no longer the only element online, it’s now a key cog in three or four active and moving pieces.

Think of it this way, a candidates social media activity and print material acts as a first introduction to the average voter. The entire goal should be to get the candidate’s name in the mind’s of the voter. If a voter’s attention is caught by a tweet about a candidate, notices a friends shared Facebook post, stumbles across a Pinterest photo or drives past a yard sign, that will be their first introduction to the candidate. At which point, if the first introduction is a successful one, the voter will most likely go to the candidate’s official web site to learn more. At which point the candidate will be making their first and most lasting impression on a potential voter and you better hope that their web site hits all the right spots.

Now here is the most important change in the average user activity cycle with a campaign web site. In years past, the average user if impressed by the candidate would probably sign-up for an RSS feed, or bookmark the web site to revisit in a week or a couple weeks. But with the rise of social media, smart phones and our collective diminishing attention spans for visiting web sites on a regular basis, the average voter is going to look over the candidates site once, get the information they need and make a decision to either commit to subscribing to the candidate’s social media activities or to disregard the candidate. From there the social media elements of the campaign will take over and either continue to impress the average voter — potentially bringing them back to the web site for more information as the campaign rolls on or it’ll start to turn the voter away.

In this aspect a candidate’s web site may have lost a bit of its long term importance, but has also increased its value as the biggest element in making a lasting impression on the average voter.

So how does one create a great first impression with a strong campaign web site? Here are some key points.

Use The Right Tools

First and foremost, a campaign has to use the right tools to create an impressionable web site. From my experience building a candidate web site with Drupal or Joomla is overall kill. While very functional tools for larger sites, a Drupal and Joomla site is going to be far too complex for the average campaign team to maintain and it’s going to show in the design aesthetic or with stale content. So while this isn’t real news to anyone, my advice is to go with WordPress or Nationbuilder. Most designers and developers won’t be familiar with Nationbuilder (as a caveat I have been working to become a Nationbuilder architect and it is a great up and coming tool) so WordPress will probably be the default tool for most this cycle.

Now just because you have a WordPress web site it doesn’t mean you’ve completed your work. The biggest benefit of WordPress from a campaign perspective is it’s a very easy to use and universal tool with so many great plug-ins. WordPress is a tool that everyone and their dog can claim to build a Wordpress site, but a badly crafted WordPress theme will stick out like a sore thumb. Any site that is a ‘hack’ of an already popular theme will show fairly quickly. It’ll look cheap and inexpensive and that will reflect poorly on the candidate. In my experience, this is probably the most common mistake that a campaign team will make concerning their web site.

So use WordPress, but invest in a proper design. Create something that’s clean, intuitive, unique and memorable.

Make Your Candidate Approachable

This is going to sound incredibly obvious, but a candidate’s face has to be front and centre on their web site.

You’d be shocked at how many campaigns are already committing this sin for the upcoming election. As I mentioned before, a campaign web site acts as the biggest first impression for the average voter, so put your candidate front and centre on the landing page. Make them the focal point of the user’s eye when they arrive.

Now before everyone goes running off to purchase fancy head shots, there is a caveat with this piece of advise — the candidates photo has to be personable.

Don’t photoshop their face and super impose it on a stock image of a robotic skyline. That is so 2009 that it hurts. Do something unique with your candidate. Be creative. Show the personality and charm of your candidate. It could be as simple as showcasing them in the area, ward they represent or in front of a well known landmark of the district they are running in. But overall the images of the candidate have to be personable to people.

Look at it this way, who would you rather vote for? A candidate in a buttoned up shirt and tie sprawled across the perfect backdrop or the candidate that looks like you could run into them on your way to the grocery store or coffee shop of your local neighbourhood?

Nine times out of ten, the average voter is going to take the candidate that looks like they could have a coffee with.

Make It Really Easy To Connect

As mentioned in this post, the role of the campaign web site has evolved. While it is still the most critical element for a first impression, it’s also not necessarily where all the online interaction of your candidate with citizens will occur — that area is regulated to the battle fields of Twitter and the timelines of Facebook.

So with that in mind, it is wise to make your candidate’s social media accounts easy to find. Make them stand out on the site. Make them super easy for voters to follow or like. Now like my previous tips of advice there is a caveat to this, don’t just go plug-in crazy with the social media accounts. They have to be easy to find, but it also doesn’t have to look as though the candidate’s web site is a dogs breakfast of the latest tools. Like everything in a campaign it has to be well thought out and intuitive, so invest in good design and simple aesthetic for the web site. Incorporate the various social media tools, but do it in a manner that isn’t an eye sore.

Invest In Your Web Site

The points I’ve outlined above are fairly straight forward and are based on common sense. Before embarking on a campaign, make sure you understand the role of your web site in the campaign, understand the proper tools for your web site, create a relatable design and aesthetic that represents your candidate and create an online presence that is easy for the average voter to connect with. But what all these points boil down to is ensuring that there is proper investment in a campaign web site.

From my experience, the biggest mistake a candidate can make is to not to properly invest in all elements of their campaign. I have been lucky to work on a handful of great campaigns, with teams that have understood the importance of this concept, but in my research and general observations, many campaign teams in Alberta are already forgetting this simple concept. It’s almost humorous as to how many campaigns will invest large portions of their budget in printed material and online advertising to redirect potential voters to a sub-par web site for more information. With the advent of open source technology and the growing industry of web design, in my opinion there really is no excuse for candidates to have a poorly designed web site in this day and age.

Image number two is taken from Charlie Clark’s Saskatoon Campaign site and Image number three is taken from The James Maxim Campaign Web Site .

And while my days of stumbling along the streets in a haze of Irish stout are long past me, it’s still always good to think about Ireland and home. So to celebrate yet another St. Patrick’s Day in the book, I figured I’d post a couple of videos and links to get you in the mood.

As always there is the must read of proper guidelines for celebrating the day, with this fantastic site – Paddy, not Patty. Also while it’s not the most famous clip from the Simpsons, it’s still a gooder.

… and since some horrible euro-rapper butcher the Cranberries’ classic Zombie with a horrible sample here’s the heart wrenching original.

And it wouldn’t be a day to celebrate Ireland without honouring the Emerald Isle’s Charelton Heston … Liam Neeson.

Enjoy kids.

Alright, so for those of you not familiar with the concept, Open Data is a pretty simple idea:

Open data is the idea that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control. (via. Wikipedia)

Essentially, what Open Data boils down to is that every level of government (Federal, Provincial, and Municipal) collects vast amounts of data on a yearly basis. This data, while useful to different elements of government for various strategic reasons, for the most part has been kept away from citizens. But in recent years, as society have started to shift towards the new paradigm of open technology and open source collaboration there has been a massive push from citizens to have governments release this data to the general public.

The goal of the Open Data movement is to work with and push governments at all levels to make this immense amount of information available to the public in various data sets. The idea being that with this data available to the public it can be leveraged by hobbyists, entrepreneurs or tech innovators to create unique tools or solution to help better the lives of everyday citizens – something that most governments don’t have the resources to do. If you want one to picture it in simpler terms, it’s sort of a data nerd’s Field of Dreams philosophy – a mantra of if you release it, they will come concept.

Now The Open Data movement really gained attention in early 2010s, but it first came to my attention from the writings and conversations I had with local Calgary blogger DJ Kelly. In 2009 and 2010, Kelly was one of the first people in Calgary to push for Open Data to be embraced by city council. At the time Open Data experiments in Washington D.C., Vancouver and New York were just breaking ground and starting to open up the world to the possibilities.

Open Data Today

Since learning about the concept of Open Data, I’ve had the opportunity to see the diverse levels of acceptance in two Canadian cities, one American city and to also witness the growth of the concept from the periphery. It’s something I’ve been increasingly more interested in different elements of concept start to mature.

From what I can see the Open Data movement in my old hometown has slowly begun to pick-up steam over the past few months. There is a strong and vibrant push from city hall to get a better understanding of the demands of the public for these data sets. And while it doesn’t have as much of a history in Calgary, it does appear to be worming it’s way into the underbelly of the start-up development community. In recent months (and years), start-ups like Fastcab, iHunter App, MediumRare (+!5 mapping Data) and RandomType (Parking Data) leverage a variety of different publicly available data sets to help create unique tools for citizens, but also improve their every day lives. And with the city putting more resources into the concept, I’m pretty confident that community will continue to grow.

My new home of Ottawa actually has a pretty diverse, impressive and thriving open data community. Upon arriving in the city this past fall I came across the uber active Open Data Ottawa collective – a fantastic group of passionate developers working with the city of Ottawa to encourage open data in the city and region. But the beauty of the community is that it has a strong buy-in from the local municipal government. The City of Ottawa itself is openly active in the community, which just launched it’s second annual Apps4Ottawa contest and has actively supported Open Data Ottawa with their annual Open data hackathon this past December. I don’t want to get into comparisons, but it’s fascinating to see the level of commitment and passion from the city (and citizens). It’s an exciting community and I’m looking forward to lending a hand in the future.

So I know I’m sort of rambling, but the open data movement is slowly growing in Canada. It seams as though each region of the country is in different stages of infancy and because of which some strong communities are popping up. Some regions are clearly ahead of others (such as Ottawa and Vancouver), while some are slowly catching up (Calgary and Saskatoon as examples). But in most of the cases, the Open Data movement is slowly growing. In my opinion, the more that governments start to work with citizens and communities, the more likely we’re all going to start reaping the rewards of the Open Data movement.

And if you’re curious as to why I’m interest in this community. It’s actually pretty simple. For me, my interest in the Open Data movement is less about development of specific citizen tools, but the amazing side effect benefits of this movement. For me Open Data is all about the growth of community driven collaboration and the opportunity it opens up for entrepreneurs and hobbyists – it’s that element that gets me excited about Open Data.

Getting Involved With Open Data In Canada

So if you’re curious about the Open Data Movement, feel free to get involved – find your local organization, play around with data sets or help organize a local Open Data group. I’ve include a few informative links below to get you exploring:

• The Government of Canada Open Data Web Site
• The City of Ottawa Open Data Catalog
• The City of Calgary Open Data Catalog
• Open Data Ottawa & HackFest Canada
• Apps4Good
• DataLibre – A Full list of all the Open Data Resources in Canada

Out of that conversation the always resourceful Mr. Jason Dorn beautifully handcrafted the site iHeartyyc.com as a catchall to showcase all of the great designs. Since then the little challenge has grown from a handful of designers to a nice cross-section of the design community in Calgary. It’s even garner the attention for other designers in different cities and some local media.

Anyways, I just wanted to write a quick post to give a massive shout out to Jason, Cam, Kevin, Russ and all the other designers who have been taking part and spreading the word. It’s been really interesting to find out about other designers in Calgary and to see the various takes on the concept. If you want to partake, just follow the instructions on iHeartyyc.com

p.s. If I forgot anyone else associated with the project my apologizes.

And since the end of November those of us who are engaged in this niche market have been lapping up the revealing blog posts from core members of Obama’s 2012 election team. Whether it’s discussing the lean start-up techniques implemented by the tech team or the advanced User data and A/B testing utilized to improve conversion rates or even reminiscing about the design philosophy behind the Obama brand through 2008’s quintessential Designing Obama there is a wealth of valuable information available at our finger tips. (Side note: Designing Obama is a must read for anyone looking to get in the game) So after digesting many of these posts and articles, I keep coming back to this question, why is Canadian political campaign web design and development so far behind our southern counterparts?

Now, I understand that there are some glaring differences between our two systems and one can’t start questioning this industry without acknowledging this. Yes, the American standardized election dates makes it easier for long term planning and budgeting in comparison to the fluid nature of our Parliamentary System – which sometimes needs to react to election calls on a moment’s notice. And one cannot discount the massive difference in population base and the unlimited fundraising advantages with American Campaigns in comparison to our system. But those elements alone do not explain why good design and good development is not front and center in a Canadian Political Team’s mind.

All the tools for Canadian campaigns to build a strong intuitive online presence for their candidates are there. Inexpensive content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress, BuddyPress and even for larger campaigns – Drupal – have been around for years and are widely utilized by many professionals. There are also dozens of very sharp campaign examples from our southern counterparts for us to pluck ideas from and they’re all quite well known – many of them have turned into purchasable templates that can be easily customized. In addition, Canada has a wealth of design, development and user experience talent in each major city. So really at this point there is no excuse for why Canadian political campaigns sites are still so horrible in 2013. If you want an example of what’s going on in this industry, one only has to look at some of the candidate sites for the Ontario Liberal Leadership race. A good majority of these sites are either unappealing or “bland”:http://www.votesousa.ca/. Many of them almost seams like an after thought to the campaign and add little excitement to their candidate’s profile. Now compare them to the stunning and fluid design of Kathleen Wynne’s campaign site www.kathleenwynne.ca, which just shines in comparison to her competition.

Now, in defense of the some of these campaigns, they’re not the only ones out there. I could have easily used other campaign examples over the past two years (Alberta’s 2012 Provincial Election, The Recent Federal By-Elections or municipal elections in Saskatoon and Ottawa over the past year), but the stark difference between a strong majority of Ontario Liberal Leadership candidates and Kathleen’s team shows a massive disparity in the industry. On the one hand you have a collection of sites that look and feel as though they have been hammered together in haste, while Wynne’s site acts and feels like a well throughout focal point of campaign information and activity. And I’m not even considering the parallax microsite The Way Forward which is just miles ahead of anything the other candidates are bringing to the table. Wynne’s site engages users from the get go, gives off the aura of a modern and forward thinking candidate and draws users to get involved. While the other campaign sites rarely invoke an emotion or instill confidence in the candidate, most end up taking away from the candidate’s true attributes and qualifications with small but glaring errors.

Again, I don’t mean to harp on these hard working teams, as there are dozens of examples across many recent Canadian campaigns that could easily prove my point. But what is the issue in Canadian campaign design? If we understand that money and campaign finances are a hindrance, but at the same time understand that there are many free tools out there and a wealth of available talent, what is the problem? Why are the majority of these sites so bad?

I’ll throw this out there and I’m open to counter points, but in my opinion, the problem with the state of web design in Canadian politics actually ties back to the recent success of Obama’s team. Whenever Obama’s success is discussed on a higher level the conversation ultimately focuses on the social media myth of that team’s success. While there is no question that Obama broke major ground with his use of social media, what is easily forgotten, even with the wealth of information out there, is that Obama’s online presence included the entire package. The iconic Obama imagery and the campaign slogans created a symmetry across all the campaigns networks. The web site was designed with users in mind and interwoven with an aura of modernization. All these elements were designed together to form Obama’s online presence. Yes, social media was a factor, but social media was only a tool to reach out to voters and supporters, ultimately it drove them back toward the main Obama web site to donate, interact, organize and learn about Obama. In most Canadian campaigns, I’m not seeing that sort of full package concept or planning, which is what I believe is wrong with the industry. There needs to be less focus on the myth of social media and more on the overall online package – ideas that Obama’s team have written about since the 2012 campaign ended.

With the closing of 2012 around the corner we have another year in the bag and I have more grey hairs from father time. And with all traditions, it’s time for the seventh edition of The Adventures Post!

As with the past seven years, The Adventures Post is where I lists the cities I’ve spent one or more nights in over the past year. The idea is completely stolen borrowed from kottke.org and has been a constant staple on the old c.t.overdrive. Think of it as an outside of the box year in review post.

2012 was without question one of the oddest years in many ways. It was a bittersweet year with more downs than up. We left another city and group of friends that meant so much to us, for a new adventure in a different part of the continent. We also had a massive scare this summer with my father, which makes me thankful that he’s still kicking around to share in our future success. Overall the closing of 2012 couldn’t come sooner and things in 2013 are already starting to look-up.

So without further adieu my year in cities.

1. Calgary, AB *
2. Washington, DC *
3. Somewhere near Morgonstown, West Virginia *
4. Washington, DC *
5. Calgary, AB *
6. Washington, DC *
7. Calgary, AB *
8. Washington, DC *
9. Baltimore, MD *
10. Washington, DC *
11. Wilkes-Barrie, PA
12. Stittsville, ON *
13. Calgary, AB *
14. Ottawa, ON *

As you can see there was a lot of travel in 2012. Unfortunately most of it revolved around ferrying back between Calgary, Washington and Ottawa for work, my wife’s schooling and of course moving. But alas 2012 is in the record books so upward and onward.

Now, the problem with trying to rank your top five favorite records of the year is that you inevitably can’t find a spot for a record you really adore or you discover something that blows your mind after the fact. So since I’m taking a bit of recharge time this holiday season, I thought I’d whip up a full post to discuss my top five choices and also some also-rans that didn’t seam to make the cut. (Again here’s the full post for reference)

1. The Deftones – Koi No Yokan

It’s no secret that I’m a massive, massive fan of The Deftones. Yes, who can’t love a bunch of old metal heads from Sacramento who adore Weezer, The Smiths, Joni Mitchell, The Cure and Duran Duran? But it’s also no secret that the Saturday Night Wrists album turned me off them for a while. It was such an offensive trainwreck that I couldn’t get over it. So I was incredibly weary of Koi No Yokan, but it turned out to be absolutely perfect. I know The Deftones are not everyone’s cup of tea, but do give it a couple of spins and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the depth.

2. fun. – Some Nights

fun. isn’t something that I’d typically sandwich in to a top five spot, except for the fact that Some Nights is probably the one record that my wife and I have been listening to constantly throughout 2012. It’s not just the lead single that’s really sharp, but the rest of the album is filled with great catchy anthems. Pardon the pun, but it really is a fun record and one that grows on you more and more with every listen.

3. Japandroids – Celebration Rock

To be honest, I totally forgot there was a new record from Japandroids in 2012. If I’m being frank, because of the similarity between the cover art of Celebration Rock and their earlier Post-Nothing, I totally spaced and thought Celebration Rock was just a special side EP or some collection of cheap B-Sides. It took me until November to realize it was a whole new album. Which is a total shame because 2012 was a pretty crummy year and if I had known about this before hand, I probably would have enjoyed the year a teeny bit better.

4. Passion Pit – Grossnar/5. The xx – Coexist

I’d like to thank Lou for getting me hooked on both Passion Pit and The xx in 2012. Yeah, I was familiar with both bands because of earlier remixes and best of lists, but I hadn’t actually listened to them like I did with both Grossnar and Coexist this year. Both bands broke through the typical one hit wonder status from previous years with their latest releases. Coexist is a great headphone record, while also a great record to play in the background while working away. And Grossnar is just a pretty darn awesome CD.

The also rans…

Lana Del Ray – Born To Die

This record was ever so close to bumping Coexist from my list, but I couldn’t get over a handful of nit-picky things. First, Born To Die was hyped to the nines and plastered all over every single Starbucks in North America … and as an elitiest super snobb I couldn’t swallow my pride to add it to the list. And then of course there were the distracting controversies – her background, her history, the scenester backlash and of course her lackluster performances on SNL. But at the end of the day Born To Die is a pretty standout record. I’m still on the fence of how if I’ll appreciate the record as much in six or seven years, but for the time being it was very close to cracking my list.

Sleigh Bells – Reign Of Terror

Another close but no cigar record. Don’t get me wrong, I still adore Sleigh Bells, but Reign of Terror while fantastic, wasn’t as jaw-dropping or as addictive as Treats. I’ll blame it on familiarity and the lack of surprise, but it could have been a tiny bit better. Comeback Kid is still a fantastic track and far better than a majority of what was released this year.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – The Heist

Last but definitely not least, is Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ The Heist. I completely missed this album when it came out and wish it didn’t take syphoning off of other friends lists to catch it. Catchy and reminiscent of older Kanye Wesst & A Tribe Called Quest, The Heist really is one of those CDs that you know will stand the test of time. It also helps that it contains two tracks of the year with Thrift Store (which is fucking awesome) and of course Same Love (which really is one of the best songs in the past few years).

So with another year in the bag and a few more grey hairs on my head, I just wanted to take the time to wish everyone – friends, family, acquaintances, random people of the internet – a very Happy Christmas to you and your family … and like clockwork, there is now better way to celebrate Christmas than with The Pogue’s Fairytale of New York.

And for those looking for something a bit different, The Guardian has a fascinating read into one of the world’s most treasured Christmas anthems. A great read to get the Holidays started.