Edmonton Sun violates the EPS Crime Map Terms of Use

By Mack D. Male · December 30, 2009 at 5:54pm

Back in July, the Edmonton Police Service launched its Neighbourhood Crime Mapping site. Like most people I was quite enthusiastic about the site, until I read the terms of use and realized how restrictive they were. Basically you can look at the numbers, but you can’t do anything with them (such as publish them on a blog). The Crime Mapping site is not open data. I emailed back and forth with the EPS, and was told that they wouldn’t be changing the terms of use. And, they haven’t.

That didn’t stop the Edmonton Sun, however. They apparently ignored the terms of use altogether, and published an article on December 20th summarizing a number of statistics from the website:

Some of Edmonton’s roughest neighbourhoods faced markedly fewer crimes in 2009, according to police statistics.

The statistics came through a new crime mapping system launched by Edmonton police last summer.

I had asked for permission to do something similar and was turned down. After reading the Sun article, I emailed the EPS to find out if the terms of use had been changed (despite the text on the website staying the same). Here’s what Acting S/Sgt. John Warden wrote back:

The Edmonton Sun did not have the EPS’ permission to use the information from the Crime Mapping website and the EPS is dealing directly with the Edmonton Sun in relation to this.

I emailed back a couple of follow-up questions, but have not yet received a response. The Edmonton Sun article is still active on the website, so I’m not exactly sure what “dealing directly with the Edmonton Sun” means.

I’m annoyed by this, obviously. Was it an honest mistake? Maybe. Is it a case of a large media organization getting off the hook? Maybe. Will it happen again? Probably. No one reads the fine print, we all know that.

I don’t think the current terms of use is appropriate, and I strongly urge the Edmonton Police Service to change it.

Dog sledding in Yellowknife

By Mack D. Male · December 28, 2009 at 11:19pm

Today I went dog sledding with Sharon, Kim, and Shane in Yellowknife! My parents thought it would be a fun northern experience for us, and they were right, it was awesome! Both Kim and I had been dog sledding when we were younger and still living in Inuvik, but I don’t really remember it too well.

Beck’s Kennels, run by Grant Beck, currently has over 130 sled dogs and offers a variety of tours. Grant himself is an accomplished dog musher who has won a number of races and other competitions over the years, in North America, the French, Swiss, and Italian Alps, and the Pyrenees in Spain. The dogs are Alaskan Huskies, which look a bit different than the Siberian Huskies you’re probably thinking of. We learned that Siberian Huskies, due to breeding patterns over the years, don’t make the best racing dogs though they are good for hauling things!

We went on the Northern Outdoor tour, which lasted roughly two hours:

Head out to our traditional Trapper’s tent next to a secluded lake where you will enjoy hot drinks and cookies around a crackling woodstove. Drive your own sled team there or just sit back and relax. Experience the thrill of driving a snow machine, and zip around the lake before heading back.

The first step was to dress appropriately! We wore our warmest clothes to the kennels, but ended up changing or putting on more clothes inside. They had parkas, boots, mittens, and all sorts of winter gear for guests to wear. All of us put on a pair of ski pants, and somehow, Shane and I ended up with pink mittens. We were warm though!

On the way out to the Trapper’s tent, Shane and I drove while Sharon and Kim sat. We swapped positions on the way back, so each of us got to drive the sled. Though “drive” isn’t really accurate – the dogs knew exactly where to go and didn’t really need any direction from us! Our only job was to step on the brake when instructed to do so by the tour guides who drove snowmobiles.

When we got to the Trapper’s tent, we were pretty cold, and were glad to find a wood-burning stove inside. We also had cookies, hot chocolate, and signed the guest book! The cabin had a couple of bunk beds, for overnight guests. After getting warmed up, we headed back outside to drive back to the kennels. Our route back seemed a little less sheltered, and thus much windier and colder!

Thanks Mom and Dad for a great gift! I had a ton of fun today! You can see more photos here.

Notes for 12/27/2009

By Mack D. Male · December 27, 2009 at 9:50pm

Here are my weekly notes:

Sharon and I arrived in Yellowknife today! We’re visiting my family for a week. And yes, we got stuck in major travel delays at the airport. Tomorrow should be fun – we’re going dog sledding!
If you haven’t already checked it out, don’t miss the 2009 List of Lists. See also: the best of the decade lists.
Another great post from Dave: premier stelmach’s problems are bigger than a cabinet shuffle.
The Supreme Court of Canada: There are no journalists, only citizens.
Interesting, hopeful piece on the state of the media industry from David Carr.
Here’s why we should call the new year twenty-ten, not two-thousand-ten.

Edmonton Notes for 12/26/2009

By Mack D. Male · December 26, 2009 at 11:27pm

Merry Christmas Edmonton! Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

It’s unfortunate this news came out during the holidays, when many people are taking a break, but I’m positive we’ll hear much more about it in the new year – a report from the City auditor found that $92 million was spent on consultants in 2008. Just incredible. City Administration will elaborate, but said most of the increase is due to increased construction.
If you’re heading out for New Year’s Eve, don’t forget that that ETS is free (as is St. Albert Transit and Strathcona Country Transit). The rest of the holiday service details can be found here.
As I mentioned this week, the holidays are always rough for local charities, but this year they’ve been hit especially hard.
Local chocolatier Kerstin’s Chocolates held its first ever Name That Origin competition this week, which Sharon wrote about here. Such a great way for a small local business to build interest and spread the word.
In a bid to cut costs, the University of Alberta is offering early retirement packages to all employees 55 and older who have worked for the institution ten years or more.
We’ve had a lot of snow lately, but apparently the City is on track to come in slightly under budget for snow removal this year.
More proof that the anti-idling issue is a silly one – the City is investing just $10,000 into the campaign.
Good post from Brittney this week on Edmonton’s Twitter community.
The Oilers lost their sixth straight game tonight. On the plus side, prospect Jordan Eberle scored twice today as Canada destroyed Latvia by a score of 16-0.
For details on Edmonton’s New Year’s Eve bash, click here.

Tough times for Edmonton charities

By Mack D. Male · December 23, 2009 at 2:15pm

Times are tough right now if you’re a charitable organization. Here in Edmonton, the outlook is pretty grim for a number of organizations:

The Edmonton Food Bank is short 161,000 kilograms of food and nearly $550,000.
The Salvation Army is about $195,000 behind the goal for its Christmas Kettle campaign.
The Christmas Bureau is only half way to its goal of $1.6 million (which is actually pretty impressive).
The Youth Emergency Shelter Society is more than $750,000 behind its fundraising goal for the year.
The Mustard Seed is roughly $459,000 behind its fundraising goal.
Meals on Wheels is about $45,000 behind its fundraising goal.
The Edmonton Sun Adopt-A-Teen program is $200,000 behind with only a day or so left.

Add up the above numbers, and Edmonton charities are short about $3 million. That’s a lot of money. The scary part is that I’m sure there are more than I haven’t been able to find yet.

The two bright spots I’ve seen are Santas Anonymous, which said it would meet the demand this year, and Stuff-A-Bus, which exceeded its goal.

While the news is terrible, it’s not that surprising. Last year donations across Canada dropped 5.3% from 2007 to $8.19 billion, the lowest figure since 2005. I’m sure we’ll see a similar or perhaps larger drop for overall giving in 2009. The fact is, philanthropy is a lagging indicator. This data is from the US but I think it applies to us too:

During the last 40 years, according to data provided by Giving USA, charitable giving fell in real terms (i.e., adjusted for inflation) in years in which the economy was in recession, or in years in which there was a significant stock market dislocation. Giving fell in 1980, 1987, and 1990. The last time the economy contracted was in 2001. That year, according to Giving USA, charitable giving fell 2.3 percent in real terms, after having boomed along with the stock markets and the economy at large in the late 1990s. But while the economy resumed its growth in late 2001, charitable giving slumped in real terms in both 2001 (down 1.4 percent) and 2003 (down 0.2 percent).

It’s a lagging indicator because charitable donations are seen as a luxury. You pay your bills first, then you make a donation. Not everyone sees it that way, of course, but on the whole, that’s the reality.

Hopefully that means local charities will have a better year in 2010.

There’s still time to help this holiday season! Here’s how:

State of the Calgary Twittersphere – November 2009

By Mack D. Male · December 22, 2009 at 11:47am

Welcome to the ninth State of the Calgary Twittersphere, my look at the intersection of Twitter and Calgary. You can see last month’s stats here.

The source of the data this month is the same as last, primarily Twitter Search but also from Twitter directly. If a user has his or her location set to Calgary, Airdrie, Okotoks, Cochrane, Strathmore, or matching lat/long coordinates, they are considered a Calgarian.

For November 2009:

# of local users: 7468 (an increase of 185 from October)

To clarify, that means there were 7468 users who posted at least one tweet in November 2009 with their location set to something that makes them an Calgarian as described above. This number should be treated as a minimum – there are probably many more Calgary users without their location set or that were not captured for some other reason.

Here are the rest of the stats for November 2009:

# of tweets by local users: 314583
# of tweets by local users containing #yyc: 8078 (2.6%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 101430 (32.2%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 83106 (26.4%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 19614 (6.2%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 10867 (3.5%)

I think the retweet number might be a little off, due to the new retweet functionality on Twitter.com, but it’s close. Here are the numbers above in graphic form:

Here are the top clients used by local users for posting updates:

Some other interesting stats for the month:

Here are the ten users who posted the most locally tagged tweets (#yyc, #yyctraffic, #Calgary, etc.; most tweets first): WeatherCalgary, C_DIG, a_picazo, stuartrcrawford, ThankASoldier, studiotodorovic, cityofcalgary, aldjohnmar, alexflint, donnamct
The ten most active local users (most tweets first): izzynobre, ProtruckR, SalBarguil, gengenw, alex_ruiz, Kristinnuendo, a_picazo, that_angela, CalgaryCP, workmanrw
The ten most replied to local users (most replied to first): that_angela, alex_ruiz, alexflint, ang_J, carmenincalgary, C_DIG, gotkube, jonincalgary, myownbiggestfan, calgaryfitness
Just under 51% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
Local users posted roughly 7.3 tweets per minute in November, compared with 6.7 per minute in October.
The day with the most local tweets posted was November 27th at 12799. On average, 10486 local tweets were posted each day (compared to 9630 in October).
Of the 101430 replies posted by local users this month, 24933 or 24.6% were to other local users.
A total of 1296 users posted 50 times or more in November. In comparison, 1123 users posted just once.

Final Thoughts

Edmonton is catching up, but Calgary broke the 300,000 tweets in a single month barrier first! There were just 9 days in November with less than 10,000 local tweets posted. This is the second straight month that user growth in Edmonton has been larger too, though not by very much.

Since March, I have identified just over 17,600 local users. The number above, 7468, is how many of them were active in November.

December and 2009 year in review stats are coming soon!

State of the Edmonton Twittersphere – November 2009

By Mack D. Male · December 21, 2009 at 1:08pm

Welcome to the eleventh State of the Edmonton Twittersphere, my look at the intersection of Twitter and Edmonton. You can see last month’s stats here.

The source of the data this month is the same as last, primarily Twitter Search but also from Twitter directly. If a user has his or her location set to Edmonton, St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Leduc, Nisku, Stony Plain, Fort Saskatchewan, Beaumont, Spruce Grove, or matching lat/long coordinates, they are considered an Edmontonian.

For November 2009:

# of local users: 5850 (an increase of 219 from October)

To clarify, that means there were 5850 users who posted at least one tweet in November 2009 with their location set to something that makes them an Edmontonian as described above. This number should be treated as a minimum – there are probably many more Edmonton users without their location set.

Here are the rest of the stats for November 2009:

# of tweets by local users: 290542
# of tweets by local users containing #yeg: 17282 (5.9%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 106992 (36.8%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 63595 (21.9%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 17756 (6.1%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 10054 (3.5%)

I think the retweet number might be a little off, due to the new retweet functionality on Twitter.com, but it’s close. Here are the numbers above in graphic form:

Here are the top clients used by local users for posting updates:

Here are the number of local users by community (besides Edmonton itself) for November:

Keep in mind that is based entirely on the text inside the location field of the user’s profile, and is definitely a minimum. Still, gives you an idea of the breakdown.

Some other interesting stats for the month:

Here are the ten users who posted the most locally tagged tweets (#yeg, #yegtraffic, etc.; most tweets first): edmontonjournal, iNews880, rootnl2k, CBCEdmonton, yegtraffic, mastermaq, ZoomJer, Sirthinks, DebraWard, livingsanctuary
The ten most active local users (most tweets first): Gen22, rootnl2k, bevurlee, SkydivingWizard, etownmelly, GeneralTekno, stygldpnyby, FWEE4U, steenyweeny, britl
The ten most replied to local users (most replied to first): bevurlee, britl, akomuzikera, stygldpnyby, ZoomJer, bingofuel, grempel, ink_slinger, angelzilla, lessthanfive
Just under 52% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
Local users posted roughly 6.7 tweets per minute in November, compared with 6.0 per minute in October.
The day with the most local tweets posted was November 27 at 12248. On average, 9685 tweets were posted each day (compared with 8711 in October).
Of the 106992 replies posted by local users this month, 37675 or 35.2% were to other local users.
A total of 1161 local users posted 50 times or more this month. In comparison, 869 local users posted just once this month.

Final Thoughts

User growth is still increasing, albeit rather slowly. There were only 9 days with less than 9000 tweets this month, and we broke the 12,000 per day mark for the first time.

Since January, I have identified just over 13,500 local users. The number above, 5850, is how many of them were active in November.

Calgary stats are up next, followed by December stats, then 2009 year-in-review stats. Stay tuned!

Notes for 12/20/2009

By Mack D. Male · December 20, 2009 at 11:57pm

Here are my weekly notes:

Had a great time at the Tweetup on Friday night! I’ve got to write about it this week. Also had a great time today at Tamara’s mini tweetup – thanks for having us!
This movie is going to be awesome – Iron Man 2! Also check out the Valentine’s Day trailer.
Also on the subject of movies – Avatar has been getting great reviews from critics and fans alike. I’m looking forward to checking it out.
Interesting post from Darren on Project Honey Pot.
The top Twitter Trends of 2009. As someone pointed out to me on Twitter, #followfriday is mysteriously missing from the top hashtags.
From Michael Geist: Canada Dragging Its Feet on Open Data Initiatives.
Is there anything as great as Wikipedia for documenting current events like the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference that wrapped up last week in Copenhagen?
Twitter’s new “Contributors” feature is going to be great. And it’s another step toward revenue.
Facebook Connect is now a year old! I love it, and can’t wait to see how it grows and changes in 2010.

Edmonton Notes for 12/19/2009

By Mack D. Male · December 19, 2009 at 7:18pm

Less than a week until Christmas! Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Finally, our LRT expansion is moving ahead. City Council passed west, southeast, and NAIT routes on Tuesday!
City Council also voted to permanently close 102A Avenue, between 99 Street and 100 Street (between City Hall and Churchill Square). Long overdue!
Last weekend was the coldest Edmonton has been in quite a while! We came close but didn’t beat the coldest day ever recorded in Edmonton.
The City is planning a $100,000 pilot program next year to increase the number of solar panels on Edmonton homes.
Edmonton was recognized with a Climate Leadership in Canada award at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit this week.
Here’s the latest E-Link from Mayor Mandel, wishing you Happy Holidays!
EEDC announced the results of a new economic analysis that found building a downtown arena and surrounding development would produce 30,000 person-years of work and generate $1.25 billion in wages.
Interesting post on Edmonton’s Twitter community from a journalist in San Francisco.
The Youth Emergency Shelter had hoped to raise $1 million this year, but they haven’t even hit $250,000 yet with only a few weeks to go.
The new Art Gallery of Alberta’s opening events have been announced! They’ll launch with two admission-free days on Sunday, January 31 and Monday, February 1.
Here is the latest Edmonton Next Gen weekly newsletter. They’re still looking for presenters for Pecha Kucha Night 6!
The Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market is closed next Saturday, so they’re open on Wednesday, December 23 instead!
Looking to check out some festive lights? The Legislature is lit up, as is Candy Cane Lane (between 100 Avenue and 92 Avenue along 148 Street).

Recent media links & thoughts

By Mack D. Male · December 18, 2009 at 2:42pm

I read a lot about new media, journalism, publishing, news, etc. I always try to think about the things I read from both a global and a local perspective. Here are some thoughts on the things I’ve read recently.

From Jeff Jarvis:

I’m not so sure journalism is storytelling anymore.

Jeff points out that saying “journalism = storytelling” is limiting. Journalism is about more than the story, it’s a process. I agree completely. Data, algorithms, aggregators – all are aspects of journalism. They always have been, of course, but their importance/visibility has been heightened lately, thanks to new tools and technologies.

From paidContent.org:

Time Warner’s CNN is taking a stake in hyperlocal aggregator Outside.in—the latest example of a big media organization making a play in the hyperlocal space.

Smart move, just like MSNBC’s purchase of EveryBlock. And the news today that Google is in talks to buy Yelp. The dollars are starting to flow toward local/hyperlocal news companies. You know how the saying goes: follow the money.

From TechCrunch:

So what really scares me? It’s the rise of cheap, disposable content on a mass scale, force fed to us by the portals and search engines.

From ReadWriteWeb:

In my view both writers and readers of content will need to work harder to get quality content. Right now ‘quantity’ still rules on the Web, ‘quality’ is hard to find.

Lots of others have already discussed the “content farm” issue that made the rounds in the blogosphere last week. My view on it is pretty simple: readers need to become more active. There’s so much information so easily available that you can’t afford to passively consume the news. You have to seek out sources and recommendations. Certainly we’ll get better tools (aggregators, filters, search engines) but I think readers need to make more of an effort. See also: Content farms v. curating farmers.

From Clay Shirky:

…one of the things up for grabs in the current news environment is the nature of authority. In particular, I noted that people trust new classes of aggregators and filters, whether Google or Twitter or Wikipedia (in its ‘breaking news’ mode.)

I called this tendency algorithmic authority.

Fascinating. I think there’s incredible opportunity, both globally and locally, to take advantage of this. Who do you trust for your news? Is it the same people/organizations that you trusted five years ago?

From Unlikely Words:

Ken Auletta from the New Yorker wrote a book about Google, “Googled: The End of the World as We Know It” and before he published it, he cut the last chapter of 25 media maxims.

Now you can read them online. A few of my favorites: