Think City Electoral Reform Survey
Posted on February 5, 2010
Filed Under Politics, Web Culture & Links | Comments
I’m reprinting this from Think City’s last email message out. Please read and participate!
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Vancouver and many other BC municipalities suffer from declining voter turnout, the taint of big money influence on elections, a lack of neighbourhood accountability, and a host of other democratic challenges.
But the laws governing local elections are going to change.
Last fall, Premier Gordon Campbell announced a new local government election task force to consider sweeping legislative changes to how municipal elections are conducted in this province.
Fair Voting BC and Think City are gathering citizen views on reforms to submit to the provincial government, Vancouver city council, and the Vancouver parks board. Make sure you have your say!
- Should there be a ban on corporate and union donations?
- Should the city move to a neighbourhood-based or wards electoral system?
- Should landed immigrants get the vote?
- Should citizens directly elect representatives to regional boards (e.g., TransLink)?
The province’s task force will submit its recommendations on modernizing local government election rules to the legislature on May 30 for implementation prior to the fall 2011 civic elections.
Please go here right now to complete the 2010 Civic Electoral Reform survey by March 1, 2010.
- TAKE ACTION: Click here to complete the survey
Liam Reads me Bedtime Stories
Posted on February 1, 2010
Filed Under Books, Comics, Magazines | Comments
On a lighter note, last night Liam decided that he wanted to read me bedtime stories, rather than the other way around. I, of course, took an iPhone video of him “reading” to me:
Story 1: 10 Halloween Trick or Treaters
Story 2: Curious George at the Chocolate Factory
I had asked for “Curious George and the puppies”, but this is what I got:
He’s going to be so mad at me when he’s a teenager, isn’t he…
Fear of Random Public Death at the Olympics
Posted on February 1, 2010
Filed Under Events & Culture, Random Thoughts | Comments
I have many Gen X friends, those friends who are just a little older than me who became teenagers during the 1980’s. One of the defining characteristics of this set of friends is a lingering existential angst about the impending nuclear doom. For me, given that I was all of 11 in 1988, the threat of nuclear war has always been remote – a relic of a previous age. For me, despite absolutely zero personal experience, my existential angst has long revolved around being blown up, shot or poisoned in a public place – a victim of terrorism of some sort. When I was a teenager, I witnessed a drive-by shooting in Chinatown in Toronto. I was also much more conscious of the world at large (due, in no small part to my dad’s subscription to the Guardian Weekly), right around when there seemed to be an uptick in IRA-related bombings in the UK – the London Stock Exchange (1990), Manchester (1992, 1996) and so on, the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo Subway (1996). In the middle east, the early 90s were the core years of the First Intifada (1987-1993), which involved wave after wave of attacks on (what to me at the time seemed to be) primarily civilian targets.
This likely is a direct contributor to my intense dislike of crowds & fireworks in particular (huge crowds + explosions? No thank you!), and it has, from time to time, given me pause as I use transit. Particularly in Vancouver. I have taken transit in cities all over the world, many vastly larger and, at least in theory, more dangerous than in Vancouver. However, overall, I feel the least safe riding Translink than virtually anywhere else. Our system is so open, so understaffed, so automated, so spread out and so easy to infiltrate. I’ve watched several people jump down into the tunnels downtown, seen a woman wandering aimlessly along the tracks towards Joyce station. This should not happen.
And now we have the Olympics. For very good reason, the organizers are encouraging everyone to take transit. But that also means that everyone will take transit, and if you wanted to disrupt these games, there’d be no better way than to cause an incident on Translink. And here’s the thing: if there’s one thing that Israel has proved to the world, is that police & military are of no protection against a determined attack, so it wouldn’t matter if there were soldiers and police on every bus and train (for the record, that would also prevent me from wanting to use transit – violence’ only product is more violence, and soldiers and police embody violence). And so, I’ve had, in the back of my mind, this growing unease about taking transit as the Olympics draw nearer. I know, statistically, that its incredibly unlikely that anything would happen. But this is not a rational fear. It’s just a fear. And sadly, it’s growing stronger right now. I’m sure that our contemporary media-culture of fear-based reporting doesn’t help either. While I normally think of myself as fairly healthy, psychologically speaking, I’m realizing that this phobia is not, and is starting to affect how I live my life, so I should probably do something about it.
I don’t know yet whether I’ll take transit during the games. I would like to enjoy many of the LiveSite events going on, but I’m breaking out in a nervous sweat just thinking about all those people that’ll be there during the Olympics. So maybe not. We’ll see.
Don’t turf my grass! Please sign these petitions against Park Board staff recommendations
Posted on January 28, 2010
Filed Under Games, Politics | Comments
As some of you know, I sit on the board of the VUL. We are currently looking at an issue that certainly affects the ultimate players in the city, but also, virtually all players of field sports. The issue at hand is a proposal to put turf fields in at both Memorial & Jericho Parks at the upcoming meeting this Monday, February 1st. This development proposal goes against the recommendations of the Vancouver Field Sports Federation (VFSF), an association of various sports leagues that utilize fields in the city. The VFSF has been working for the past 6 months with the city to develop alternate locations, but, as a result of Federal Stimulus money, the Park Board staff has seen fit to throw out all that community involvement and press ahead with these poor options.
NB: I’m writing this as a matter of personal opinion, not the official stance of the board of the VUL.
I ask you all to please view & sign the following petitions AGAINST putting turf on these fields:
The reasons for not wanting turf on these fields a numerous. Here are my major reasons for not wanting this to go ahead:
- This proposal flies in the face of 6 months of community consultation and goes directly against the recommendation of the primary users of these fields, the VFSF. It makes a mockery of the very idea of community consultation by the Park Board.
- These 2 fields constitute some of the nicest, smoothest sports-grass in the entire city. There are literally dozens of other parks we play in which would be more suitable to replace poorly-draining grass with turf, not to mention potentially upgrading school grounds with turf.
- The decision process on this development is being artificially rushed by the presence of federal stimulus money that requires that these “shovel-ready” projects be completed this calendar year. It is not a good idea to rush a decision that will have this large an impact just because of funding. In many ways, I’d rather see no new turf fields than see these 2 fields developed.
Thoughts on the iPad
Posted on January 28, 2010
Filed Under Events & Culture, Random Thoughts, Web Culture & Links | Comments
Like a huge number of people, I was highly anticipating the release of the Apple iPad. After watching the announcement, my initial response was ambivalent. It didn’t hit all the notes I was expecting it to. But a few hours later (and, it should be noted, I still have not seen it in person, only watched videos) I have some additional thoughts on it:
- Given how much I enjoyed using my iPhone as an eBook reader on my last trip, I can only imagine how awesome it will be to use that screen to read books. That being said, the page-turning animation is horrible, and should go away now.
- Where is the multimedia magazine-reader app? Can I buy a subscription to National Geographic or Harper’s or the Walrus or anything that’s been formatted & optimized for digital reading yet?
- The form-factor strikes me as all wrong for watching TVs and movies. As several people have noted, it’s 4:3, when virtually all visual media is in widescreen now. Why not make it skinnier and longer to accommodate that?
- I really hope I can tether it to the iPhone for internet access. I haven’t seen anything saying I can or can’t. But I can’t afford another data plan – so I certainly hope so.
- I’m not a big mobile gamer, or mobile video-watcher, outside of travel. And I don’t travel much. The idea of watching movies on a tiny screen, in less-than-optimal resolution, with less-than-optimal sound does NOT sound appealing. Except on an airplane, where this screen kicks-ass over the in-seat screens.
- The idea of loading up iWork and taking that with me whenever I do a presentation is *really* appealing, and I could legitimately see many small offices buying a communal one for that reason. Plus for note-taking during meetings.
- Why no over-the-air sync of files/music/etc with my main computer? (I ask this about the iPhone too, but with iWork, it becomes a more serious issue)
- The lack of forward-facing camera is actually something of a deal-breaker for me – because now, when travelling, I’d still need to take my laptop with me for chatting with Leah & Liam at home. So then it just becomes another device to tote, not a replacement.
- Overall, this seems like a pretty awesome version 1.0. I’m excited to see what apps people develop over the next year. If, say, there was a Coda for iPad, some sort of remote-desktops app & and something like Lightroom (along with some sortof dongle connector so I could upload photos from my camera to my iPad), I would suddenly become very interested in owning one of these.
Your thoughts?
FCKeditor & Firefox 3.6
Posted on January 22, 2010
Filed Under Web Development | Comments
With the release of Firefox 3.6, those of you who interact with FCKeditor will note that it ceases to work, giving you instead a textarea. This is because in the browser sniffer, FCK ignores all browsers made in 2010 or later – such as Firefox 3.6. I can’t speak for any other versions, but in the Cold Fusion version, there’s a really simple fix:
- Locate fckutils.cfm, located in the root folder in the install.
- On line 47, edit the line that reads
stResult = reFind( “gecko/(200[3-9][0-1][0-9][0-3][0-9])”, sAgent, 1, true ); - Edit the reFind to read:
stResult = reFind( “gecko/(20[0-9][0-9][0-1][0-9][0-3][0-9])”, sAgent, 1, true );
This will give you another 90 years. Which should be plenty of time to find a replacement, particularly as the new CKeditor is now out, and doesn’t have this issue.
Translink (Canada Line) & the Olympics
Posted on January 13, 2010
Filed Under Random Thoughts, Travel | Comments
Quite rightly, VANOC is suggesting that people use transit during the Olympics to get around. This is a good & Noble goal. However, I have some concerns, particularly around use of the Canada Line. At the best of times, my experience is that tourists find our lack of transit gates to be confusing. It’s not terribly clear how to buy tickets, how to “activate” (or whatever the proper term is) them, and how long they’re useful for. This all seems clear enough to residents (although due to the supposed level of fare evasion, maybe it isn’t), however I’ve on at least a dozen of occasions helped tourists figure out how to use the Skytrain (buses are not an issue, due to there being a driver to manage this).
About once a week, at Oakridge Skytrain station, there is a Canada Line attendant who stops and asks to see people’s tickets. This inevitably causes a slow down in getting on the train, and clearly, by the look on people’s faces, is annoying. Given how incredibly packed the Canada Line is already, I can just imagine the confusion & anger if Translink tries to do this during the Olympics. And, as I imagine Translink is looking at the Olympics as a golden opportunity to make some much-needed revenue, I’m expecting to see a veritable army of green-jacketed people checking for tickets. As a result, I’m imagining an even larger army of angry, confused & frustrated people trying to get on over-crowded trains to get downtown to venues, hotels, events and the whole thing just ending up with Translink having a black eye.
I hope that this doesn’t turn out to be the case, but given how poorly thought out the Canada Line constructions appears to have been, I am quite worried that it will end up being a fiasco. Does anyone remember the insanity of the opening day of Canada Line? Imagine that for 2 weeks now. Only it’s tourists stuck in the huge lines, who are perfectly willing to complain to all the media who I’m sure will rush to cover it, rather than us locals, who are more likely to put up with it.
It may be easier for all involved to either a) simply allow free travel on the Canada Line (or all skytrain lines) during the Olympics (highly unlikely at this point) b) provide each and every visitor who has an even ticket a commemorative transit pass (also unlikely) or c) have the Canada Line staff at the stations to help buy tickets, etc, but don’t sweat any accidental (or on-purpose) fare evasion during the Olympics to make using the service as nice as possible for all involved (also unlikely, but seems to be the lease unlikely).
Snowy england by train
Posted on January 8, 2010
Filed Under Random Thoughts, Travel | Comments
I wrote this yesterday while on the train from Paddington to Cardiff Central. Written on my iPhone, and now, posted from my iPhone. I feel like I’m entering a bold, dangerous new world of mobile-blogging. None the less, here’s my thoughts as I travelled yesterday:
England is impossibly lovley in the snow – the hedge-lined country lanes, the church spires spinkled with white, the near-invisible sheep & cows dotting the hillside as I rush past on the train. Even the nuclear power plant, curiously sandwiched between a cow pasture and what appeared to be and abandoned quarry appeared almost mythical. I could easily imagine Jack Frost and little sprites, or perhaps even Puck dancing along the rim of the towers kicking off little swirls of snow, laughing in the sunshine.
I wish the train were slower and the windows cleaner so I could take photos, but the experimental shots I took resulted in a blurred white smudge covered in brown dust.
Also, so much for the much-ballyhooed weather delays in England due to snow. The train from Cambridge to London arrived early, the circle line ran on schedule and here I am on a train to Cardiff, admittedly not my originally scheduled train as it was cancelled, but we are ahead on schedule, shortly approaching the Severn tunnel.
Newsletter Stats from the Pencilneck CMS
Posted on December 23, 2009
Filed Under Web Development | Comments
So our CMS, the Pencilneck CMS includes a email newsletter management system. With a little time between finishing one project & starting the next, I took some time to analyze the data we generate – in part out of self-interest, but also as part of a new project to provide additional analytics tools for our clients. Having spent the better part of a morning generating data, I thought I’d share this information with the general public. I’d love to know how this corresponds to the data from other newsletter delivery systems.
All times report are Pacific Time. All hours cited include the entirety of the hour. For instnace, 8AM means all time between 8:00:00 and 8:59:59, inclusive. For time-of-day reporting, I divided up the hours into 4 blocks – unequal in length but useful for business hours:
- Midnight-7AM: the Pre-work period
- 8AM – 11AM: the morning at work.
- Noon-4PM: the afternoon at work.
- 5pm-11PMt: the evening at home
Number of Newsletter Recipients: 7,956,301
These first few numbers are based on the number of sends, so when our clients decided to send a newsletter.
Most Popular Day to Send a Newsletter: Tuesday (34%), Monday (28%).
Least Popular Day to Send a Newsletter: Saturday(1%), Friday (5%).
Most Popular Time of Day to Send a Newsletter: 8AM-11AM (40%), Midnight-7AM (25%)
Least Popular Time of Day to Send a Newsletter: 5PM-11PM (2%),Noon-4PM(10%)
Most Popular Day & Time to Send: Tuesday Midnight-7AM (34%), Monday 8AM-11AM (30%)
Least Popular Day & Time to Send: Friday 5PM-11PM(1%), Saturday 5PM-11PM (3%)
These next set of numbers are the “best” results based on open rate. The Open rate was calculated by dividing the number of newsletters that were opened vs the number of newsletters received. A newsletter is considered received if our system did not receive any bounce notifications regarding the delivery.
Best Day to Send a newsletter: Sunday (35%), Monday (33%)
Worst Day to Send a newsletter: Saturday (2%), Friday (8%)
Best Time of Day to send a newsletter: Midnight-7AM (40%), 5PM-11PM(35%)
Worst Time of Day to send a newsletter: 8AM-11AM (5%), Noon-4PM (8%)
Best Day & Time to send a newsletter: Monday Midnight-7AM (65%), Sunday 5PM-11PM(45%)
Worst Day & Time to send a newsletter: Saturday Midnight-7AM(1%),Friday Noon-4PM(3%). And worth mention is Wednesday Noon-4PM (4%).
We also, by way of Geolocation via IP address, can track where a recipient opens a Newsletter. For our clients, we group this by Province & State for Canada, US, Mexico & Australia, and the rest of the world simply by Country. I discounted all geo-data with less than 100 total recipients, to single out places like Ghana & its 100% open rate based on 4 recipients. Actually, the same recipient, 4 times.
Best open rate, by Recipient location: Ontario (65%), British Columbia (45%)
Worst open rate, by recipient location: Alberta (4%), Minnesota (5%)
Finally, I looked at links, and where they appear within the source code. To do this, I stripped all the header & styling information from the HTML source, leaving just the body, and divided that into quarters to see which links were the most clicked on. These results are probably not that surprising, but nevertheless. I determined the click rate by calculating the total number of recipients who clicked on a link vs the total number of opened newsletters. I then split that up based on which portion of the newsletter the click was in.
Overall clickthrough rate: 11%.
Average number of links per newsletter: 6
Most links in a newsletter: 104
Clickthrough rate for links in the third quarter of content: 9%
Clickthrough rate for links in the first quarter of content: 19%.
Clickthrough rate for links in the second quarter of content: 8%
Clickthrough rate for links in the third quarter of content: 4%
Clickthrough rate for links in the last quarter of content: 15%
Given these numbers, I then calculated the overall percentage of links per quarter of content:
Links found in the first quarter of content: 14%
Links found in the second quarter of content: 46%
Links found in the third quarter of content: 28%
Links found in the last quarter of content: 12%
I’m not entirely sure what to make of all this. Some other random notes:
- In general, Ontario & BC have a vastly higher open rate than anywhere else in Canada.
- For the US, the 2 coasts open a rate about twice as much as middle America.
- Germans are the most diligent European newsletter recipients.
- It seems fairly clear that the best way to get someone to read your newsletter is to have it arrive before they get to their desk, but not so early as to have a lot of mail arrive between it arriving and the recipient checking their mail. Monday mornings are definitely the best for this.
- Wednesday shows a general dipping in all stats. It really is hump day.
- People skim newsletters: That’s why the top & bottom of your newsletter have the best click-through rates. This is likely partially explained by “Click here to view online” & Logos at the top & Unsubscribe links at the bottom of newsletters.
- I’d love to do some signal-vs-noise analysis of newsletter – that, the clickthrough rates based on % of content that IS as link vs % of content that is NOT a link. My belief is that briefer newsletters do better.
I’ve stored all this data, along with the queries used to generate it all so I can now do this semi-regularly. Ideally, I’ll find some time to craft a simple API on this so that anyone could pull this anonymous, aggregate data to use, but I suspect that will be a long-term back-burner sort of project.
Vancouver Foodbank Tweetup Fundraiser – Dec 2 @ Library Square Public House
Posted on November 20, 2009
Filed Under Events & Culture, Web Culture & Links | Comments
Let’s raise some money for the Vancouver Food Bank! This year, more than ever, the Food Bank needs our help – more people need their services, and donations are down.
So, Wednesday, December 2nd, I’m organizing a Tweetup at Library Square Public House. Please bring donations, either cash or food to donate to the foodbank. We’ll then give the donations on behalf of Vancouver Twitterers during the CBC’s foodbank drive on December 4th. Thank you to Donelly Hospitality for providing a location!
Details:
Vancouver Foodbank Fundraiser Tweetup
Dcember 2nd, 2009 5:00pm
Location: Library Square Public House, 300 W. Georgia Street
Bring: Cash to donate to the Foodbank!
When donating to the foodback, cash is best – your every $1 will buy $3 worth of food. However, we’re going to stretch that! I’m please to announce that my company, Pencilneck Software, will match the first $500 in donations, so your $1 will buy $6 worth of food. If you or your company would like to match also, please let me know and I’ll add you to the list below:
Companies/Groups matching donations (in alphabetical order):
- Pencilneck Software: $500
- Raised Eyebrow Web Studio: $200
- Red Square Salon: $100
- Yoyomama: $100
TOTAL MATCHING DONATIONS: $900
So, are you in?
UPDATE: Can’t make the event? Donate online! My sincerest thank you to PincGiving who are awesome and have donated a “donate now” button to this event, so that we can maximize our contributions to the Foodbank. All donations made between now & December 4th through this button will be counted towards matching donations, so please give! This button will live hear and to the right of my site:
If you’d like to add this button to your site, simply copy & paste the following code below:
keep looking »<a href=”https://VancouverFoodbankTweetUpFundraiser.pincgiving.com”><img style=”border:none;” src=”https://www.pincgiving.com/images/gateway/buttons-3.png” alt=”Donate Now” /></a>


This is the blog of Steven Tannock entrepreneur, coder, parent. 