Brad Clark running for Conservatives in 2011 federal election
Ward 9 city councillor Brad Clark is the newly minted candidate for the Conservative Party in Hamilton East Stoney Creek. The news came late Saturday night when the Hamilton East Stoney Creek Conservative riding association changed the name of their campaign to the Brad Clark campaign. Clark’s personal…
Scraperwiki and UK's Channel 4 – media embracing the web
ScraperWiki is a new website I discovered this weekend that collects code used and teaches how to scrape data from websites. I’m thrilled by this site – my nerd skills are not what they were prior to becoming a journalist and I need to get better at scraping…
Beasley residents demand better on toxic sites
I attended a unique public meeting Saturday, those in power were responding frankly to public questions regarding abandoned toxic waste in Hamilton. (The Spectator covered the meeting and can be read here) In a tiny old community centre, a dozen residents of Hamilton’s Beasley neighbourhood gathered to speak…
Open Data makes for happy citizens: no surprise
A survey by the Pew Research Center finds that citizens who believe their local government is forthcoming with information are more engaged and satisfied with their government. The survey also finds people who are able to access government information are more likely to feel they can have an…
Word Cloud: Hamilton Mayor Bratina's State of the City breakfast speech
Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina delivered his annual “State of the City” speech on Monday, you can view the entire speech on the Cable 14 YouTube page. *The Hamilton Spectator *listed a word frequency count in their print edition. This inspired me to create a “word cloud” of the…
Invitation to TheSpec – join citizens in live streaming Council
I contacted The Hamilton Spectator Tuesday after they used a live video stream I was providing with other volunteers of Hamilton City Council meetings on their website Monday. Myself and the others providing the stream have requested The Spectator join us in providing the stream instead of using…
In case you’re wondering, he dances for Hamilton
The following article was originally published on OpenFile.ca He says he does it because he’s a born-again Christian who is moved by the gospel music he listens to on his MP3 player. And because he brings smiles to the faces of those he passes. Jed “The Dancing Guy”…
Personalities getting in the way at City Hall
**Update: **Mayor Bratina was at GIC on Monday. Ms. Peggy Chapman, his chief of staff, informed me Sunday at 9pm of this change in his schedule. Mayor Bob Bratina will be missing Monday’s special General Issues Committee meeting as he’s scheduled to be in Regina for the Big City…
Cleaning up my Google Reader
I’m cleaning up my Google Reader as I prioritize my feeds to reflect the topics and beats I presently cover. One of my folders held a large list of “student blogs” which collected the feeds of various post-secondary student bloggers. Looking at the list, I realized that as…
Hamilton Tiger-Cats to make announcement at Chamber of Commerce
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats will be speaking at Hamilton’s Chamber of Commerce later this morning. The Tiger-Cats comments today will be the first time they’ve publicly spoke about the stadium since the City Council meeting of October 12. It is unknown what the Tiger-Cats will say at this point.…