Disqus - Latest Comments for ncharney

Re: On Halftime: Moving From Success to Significance ~ Professional and Non Partisan Thoughts on Renewing the Public Service

nickcharney — Fri, 12 Jan 2018 09:43:01 -0000

Thanks, and 100% agreed on the discourse with the kids. Definitely brings a perspective to things.

Re: Policy Shapers vs Policy Makers ~ Professional and Non Partisan Thoughts on Renewing the Public Service

nickcharney — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 10:41:30 -0000

testing

Re: CPSRENEWAL.CA Weekly: Development Programs and the Culture of Entitlement ~ Professional and Non Partisan Thoughts on Renewing the Public Service

nickcharney — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 20:58:49 -0000

Testing the new comment system on an old post ...

Re: the whole hearted bureaucrat: public service as reflective practice | HOOT AND HOWL

nickcharney — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 13:22:24 -0000

I know you already read this, put I wanted to drop a link here so that these articles are connected via the magic of the internet:

http://www.cpsrenewal.ca/20...

Re: Battling Fear – The Public Sector Call of Duty

nickcharney — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:53:54 -0000

Thanks for the tip of the hat Walter :)

Re: There is so much joy in what we do

nickcharney — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 14:57:15 -0000

Love you too brother :)

Re: The $1.3 Trillion Price Of Not Tweeting At Work

nickcharney — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 10:35:03 -0000

I'm calling shenanigans on this article. Bring some substance next time:
http://www.cpsrenewal.ca/20...

Re: Community Managers: Expectations, Experience and Culture Matter

nickcharney — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 10:19:44 -0000

Exact same thing happens in policy discussions and discussions about improving how we run our business lines.

Re: DisappoinTEDx Ottawa

nickcharney — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:33:53 -0000

Mark - thanks again for reflection. I appreciate everyone's comments about the difficulty of organizing an event, especially one that invokes the same awe inspiring talks that we've all come to know and love from TED proper.

Whenever I take the stage I do it with a nervous energy about it. I've done a lot of public speaking and I must say that the venue was a tough one to speak at. Couple of things worth noting from being on stage oat the event:

1 - I had never worn a headset mic before (opting usually for a lapel mic) and it felt ridiculously uncomfortable (especially with glasses). As soon as the mic went nuts with the feedback I knew it was game over for me. Any video evidence of the talk would be next to useless. The mic issue was actually really frustrating, on stage you could hear the loud constant hiss of the speakers and I literally spent the rest of the talk trying not to move because I didn't want to deafen the audience, nor did I want to block my visuals (the stage was quite small).

2 - The room was freezing in the morning, I'm not sure about the other speakers but a lot of my energy was spent keeping warm rather than keeping focused.

3 - Nothing undermines a speaker like a shaking intro, of which there were a couple.

On a personal note, I left disappointed not in the lack of stage presence of others but of my own, I felt locked into the physical space after the mic incident and couldn't find my flow, I felt as though I was on autopilot. Finally, I think there was quite a lot of meat on the bone I threw into the crowd, and I found presenting it in an accessible way (i.e. not wonkish) to be a challenge.

Thanks for opening the conversation, and providing the opportunity to comment.

Cheers

Re: It’s the icing, not the cake: key lesson on open data for governments

nickcharney — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 08:52:30 -0000

David - great point at the end there.

My sense given the inevitable belt tightening is that departments and agencies are going to have to work hard at establishing the proper governance and policy frameworks around their data because they simply won't be able to afford the costs of failed coordination anymore. Some departments, like my own, had the foresight to initiate the work already, giving us a distinct advantage over other agencies who are undoubtedly scrambling (or will be after their employees return from their vacations) to demonstrate that their organization is moving in the right direction.

That being said, the core challenge of that coordination will be the internal opposition, as you know, the people whose salaries are earned in the mysterious ether will undoubtedly claim that such coordination cannot be done because they know that that coordination undermines their power base. These people are ultimately in a position to slow the change by virtue of their positions on decision making pipelines.

This is where leadership becomes so important, if we truly want to achieve our goals in this area we need (at the risk of sounding cliché) leadership at all levels to combat those who have dug in their heels against the coming wave.

Cheers

Re: Canada launches data.gc.ca – what works and what is broken

nickcharney — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 22:25:31 -0000

correct - was simply pointing out that the app exists.

Re: Canada launches data.gc.ca – what works and what is broken

nickcharney — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:16:22 -0000

Canada Post has a post office finder app already also tracks packages (doesn't locate mailboxes tho).

Re: Canada launches data.gc.ca – what works and what is broken

nickcharney — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 10:28:02 -0000

Follow up: I did a preliminary search into the datasets provided by other departments and none of them have license agreements (with the exception of Geogratis) for the use of the data they provide.

This may be because most of the sets on Data.gc.ca are simply a downloadable version of a static html table.

I suppose that leads me to the question: is a license necessary at all given that there isn't one that governs the use of the data displayed on departmental websites.

(edit: AGR has one, linked to on Geist's blog you tweeted)

Re: Canada launches data.gc.ca – what works and what is broken

nickcharney — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 10:05:38 -0000

David - on the licenses...

Say I'm interested in the 1996 Population (Ecumene) Census Data, which is available on both the Geogratis and Data.gc.ca (as is much of the data)

If I get the data from Geogratis I use this license :
http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca...

If I get that same dataset from Data.gc.ca I use this one:
http://www.data.gc.ca/defau...

Re: How Egyptians Can Tweet Without the Internet

nickcharney — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:52:13 -0000

Not sure if it is the case in Egypt but you can tweet from any phone that allows you to send an SMS (at least in Canada)

Re: Stories are why we work in social media

nickcharney — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 09:42:47 -0000

Walter - just wanted to say that much of what you write above about being true and what drives you is very similar to myself. Looking forward to OGW my friend.

Cheers.

Re: Integration – The Future is Now!

nickcharney — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:02:16 -0000

Walter - I think you are bang on, John's comment is also on target ... It's why I sit down with books on change management whenever I can.

Re: Rethinking Freedom of Information Requests: from Bugzilla to AccessZilla

nickcharney — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:04:25 -0000

Justin - departments do have their own ATIP officers. But I don't see why this type of approach couldn't be implemented in a coordinated effort. Arguably citizens also don't care more about getting the information than they do about which department it came from.

I envision something where akin to a portal that aggregated the search functionality across all requests while allowing each department to submit their own data.

Re: From Public Servant to Public Insurgent

nickcharney — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:56:57 -0000

Thanks Mark!

The t-shirt fits nicer than the tie, that's for sure =)

Re: From Public Servant to Public Insurgent

nickcharney — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:34:10 -0000

I honestly wasn't trying to sidetrack the conversation, my gut reaction was that the title detracted from the message (as was clear by my comment). My fear is that if others - say those who are currently on the fence - react as I did, they may choose not to share their story. Not everyone may be ready to wear the moniker your post has given them.

Personally, it's been a rough few weeks, so maybe I am overreacting, lost the forest for the trees if you will. If it's any indication of my mind set, I've been told by about 2 dozen people that I've gone corporate (haircut, tie, etc). But I digress, thanks for the clarification David, I'm looking forward to reading some of the stories people share and doing our panel next week.

Cheers.

Re: From Public Servant to Public Insurgent

nickcharney — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 11:41:06 -0000

David - I am clearly one of those people, and to be honest derive a great deal of personal and professional satisfaction from being "counter-cultural" and pushing the limits of traditional thinking within the organization. That being said, I don't think that calling insurgents is going to help our cause.

Cheers.

Re: Getting Government Right Behind the Firewall

nickcharney — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 10:22:02 -0000

David - interesting timing on the article. I've been exploring the issue of the cultural dynamic of wikis within the public sector in a number of related ways over the past few weeks:

More specifically the changing relationship between accountability and responsibility (http://www.cpsrenewal.ca/20... motivation and incentives (http://www.cpsrenewal.ca/20... and licensing models for collaborative software (http://www.cpsrenewal.ca/20....

There are a whole slew of issues that are coming to a head around intranets and wikis right now in the public sector.

Re: Interviewing @ Google

nickcharney — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:04:07 -0000

Holy crap! I would have loved the opportunity to interview at Google! And yes it looks like you were uber-well prepared. Thanks for sharing the resources you used to prepare, they will no doubt prove helpful to others. Cheers.

Re: I’d rather be GovCamping!

nickcharney — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:24:31 -0000

Walter - if you have promo materials (online and off) I am happy to help put the rubber to the road on the web and IRL. Looking forward to it my friend.

Re: Canada GovCamp

nickcharney — Tue, 25 May 2010 17:22:07 -0000

Exciting news Walter! Great to have you involved in the event.