Hamilton City Solicitor questions work of Ontario’s Ombudsman’s office
[box style=”box_gray” type=”download_box”]Download the electronic version of Mr. Barkwell’s report LS-12001 (Ontario Ombudsman) {1.75MB PDF} [/box] City Solicitor accuses Ombudman’s office of negligence and portraying Hamilton Council in an “unfairly negative light” Hamilton’s City Solicitor Peter Barkwell is taking issue with the Ontario Ombudsman’s office assessment that Hamilton…
Hamilton City Council for January 11, 2012 (12-001)
Apologies to my readers for the shortness and lateness of this post. Swamped with open data emails this week. Hamilton City Council is holding their first meeting of 2012 tonight. The Agenda is available on the City website here: AGENDAThe live video stream (and archive afterwards) of the…
Apples and Oranges: City Skating webpages vs. SkateHamilton
Which better serves Citizens looking for skating locations in Hamilton? These separate City of Hamilton webpages: [](http://blog.joeycoleman.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/City_Hamilton_Indoor_Skating.png)http://www.hamilton.ca/CultureandRecreation/Recreation/CentresPoolsArenas/arenaListing.htm [](http://blog.joeycoleman.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/City_Hamilton_Outdoor_Skating.png)http://www.hamilton.ca/CultureandRecreation/Recreation/CentresPoolsArenas/OutdoorRinks.htm OR this:…
Update on HSR labour negotiations: Strike vote Sunday
The negotiations between the City of Hamilton and its public transit operators represented by the Amalgamated Transit Unit Local 107 remain stalled – a stalemate. There is no substantive movement in the negotiations – bus drivers have been without a contract since the beginning of 2011 – as…
Getting the City of Hamilton to release expense spending of elected officials and senior management
Do citizen’s have a right to know how their elected officials are spending public funds? Should government provide citizens with that information? Should citizens have to pay to learn how their money is being spent? In the case of the City of Hamilton, the answers to those questions…
The CFS and SFSS settle: SFU vote to leave CFS recognized
The Canadian Federation of Students and the Simon Fraser Student Society have reached an out-of-court settlement to the CFS lawsuit against students at Simon Fraser University. The settlement, the terms of which are not disclosed, allows an overwhelming vote by SFU students to leave the CFS to stand…
Remember LiveJournal? Anyone?
It was a big deal back in the early phases of blogging. A pre-TheFacebook. I’m spending some time working on fixing my blog archives and there are a couple of posts about LiveJournal and my attempts (eventually successful) to script a cross-posting module in MovableType to share my…
TheSpec gets NYT: Is Torstar responding to possible competition from CBC Hamilton
In a welcome addition to The Hamilton Spectator, the print edition of Hamilton’s daily will include a The New York Times supplement on Saturdays. Since the announcement that CBC would be opening a digital bureau in Hamilton, we’ve seen some interesting changes in the local media landscape. *Torstar *is…
Listening to lectures for leisure
As I spend time coding, I always enjoy the distraction of some background noise. Normally, this means music. Recently, I’ve listened to lectures that are available as podcasts in “open course” packages. I browsed iTunesU and selected a wide selection of courses with my focuses – not surprisingly…
Hamilton Labs: A modest proposal for open data innovation at City Hall
The following is my column from the January 2012 print edition of Urbanicity in which I briefly propose the creation of a new city department – Hamilton Labs – to innovate while improving community assets and skills. It’s time for Hamilton Labs – a new department within the…