The City of Vancouver is continually looking for ways to improve the
accessibility and usability of its open data catalogue. One option
that has been considered is to provide access to the catalogue through
APIs based on open standards such as REST and web services.

The city currently provides data via bulk downloads of datasets
whereby developers download an entire dataset and create custom API’s
in order to interact with the data and display it in meaningful ways.

Having completed my move and gotten a little breathing room, I've decided to schedule the Batchbook intro / user group sharing session for Tuesday, June 15th, for 6pm at the Bootup Labs offices.

Batchbook is a social CRM tool useful for managing contacts, deal flow, sales leads, and many other things related to people and companies.

I'm a big fan of the tool, and will be explaining how *I* use it, and some of its major features. It's in a similar space as 37Signals' Highrise, and is probably a better choice for smaller / web based organizations than the big daddy Salesforce.

If you're an existing user of Batchbook, please come and share your experiences - for example, a particular way that it fits in your workflow, some of your custom SuperTags, etc.

See my previous post about Tungle and Batchbook for more info. Head over to RedRovr for the event entry and to let me know you're coming using your Twitter account.

I've been asked to replace a speaker for an upcoming Hollyhock training series on Social Media, presented in partnership with Octopus Strategies.

I'll be giving a "social media primer" this coming Thursday. Here's what it currently says on the box:

Wondering what, exactly, a 'Yelp' is? Curious whether Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter can help you move your mission forward? Join [Boris Mann] for an enlightening and entertaining look into the changing landscape of social media tools, techniques and practices. You'll leave with a clear understanding of all the opportunities social media presents, and insights into how to take advantage of this burgeoning medium.

There really is a lot of depth to cover here -- back in the day we only had to cover Blogs and RSS, and now I have to get all the way through microblogging, location based services and iPhone apps, with social networks in between.

I'll be at the press announcement tomorrow where the BC Apps for Climate Change contest is announced. From the invite:

Join Minister of State for Climate Action John Yap to see how the Province is challenging the software community to find new ways to tackle climate change using the world of online and mobile apps.

David Eaves has some more background information available.

Interestingly, Microsoft is also running an apps contest as part of their "For the Web" FTW coding competition. For that contest, the terms and conditions include requirements to host on some form of Windows or Azure hosting, but they are also trying to push some open government data.

I have hopes that the province contest uses some standard app contest platform (the one I've seen recently is ChallengePost), but somehow I doubt it.

I'll be posting updates as I get them. Not sure if I'll be able to ask questions, but leave comments if there is anything particular you're interested in and I'll see what info I can get.

The New Year is kicking off with a bang. Bootup Labs moved into our new offices on Sunday (Cambie at Hastings, the Flack Block - come visit!) On Monday morning Danny was in the Financial Post (actually, @trevoro from @layerboom has much longer quotes on page 2). Then on Tuesday (technically yesterday as I'm posting this), I got a call from @lalondetcbc and ended up with a short CBC TV segment talking about whether bloggers should be legally required to disclose payments and other bonuses they receive. I was "opposite" Rebecca / Miss 604. That is, it was supposed to be opposing view points. Rebecca is an excellent blogger. She is a professional blogger (i.e. makes her living from her blogging activities). It's great that she's decided to use CMP.ly to indicate her disclosures: it shows the kind of honesty and transparency that makes her a great blogger. Do we need a law for it? Well, the FTC in the US thinks it does, but the guidelines seem over broad - a $5 discount at a restaurant and a positive review could net you an $11K fine? Of course, they say it will be on a case by case basis. Hmmm ... a law that is hard to enforce and is applied inconsistently? Sounds like trouble to me! I like John Chow's disclosure policy -- everything he posts he's making money from. This is a pure case of media literacy - people need to learn about the sources they are consuming and make their own decisions. Of course, journalists aren't covered under these laws at all. Why not? Good question, and quotes like this one in a Reason Magazine article don't inspire confidence: "Yet I don't remember any reviewer in any print publication ever disclosing that the record, the movie, the meal or the vacation was free." Lastly, it seems like Rebecca and I were set up to have opposing viewpoints, since we seem to be on the same page. Oh well, at least they spelled my name right :P I have a few quotes bookmarked under the tag FTC Endorsement Guidelines for further reading.