nickull's Journal: Vancouver city to be "Open Source/Open Standards" based!

Vancouver City Council has put forth a motion (PDF format) on "Open Data, Open Standards and Open Source" as written by Councillor Andrea Reimer. According to the motion, the City of Vancouver endorses the principles of:

• Open and Accessible Data - the City of Vancouver will freely share with citizens, businesses and other jurisdictions the greatest amount of data possible while respecting privacy and security concerns;
• Open Standards - the City of Vancouver will move as quickly as possible to adopt prevailing open standards for data, documents, maps, and other formats of media;
• Open Source Software - the City of Vancouver, when replacing existing software or considering new applications, will place open source software on an equal footing with commercial systems during procurement cycles;

You're making me jealous

[damn_registrars]

I don't think I needed another reason to want to move to Vancouver. I just need to finish my PhD down here in New York and line up the post-doc I've been eying up there, and my wife and I will be ready to go.

I think my list of why I want to move there grows every month:

• Excellent Universities
• Excellent skiing so very, very close by
• A climate both my wife and I find acceptable
• Ability to grow things outside that would die in NY winters
• Mind-bogglingly clean city, in comparison to US cities
• Excellent health car

Re:

[unlametheweak]

Don't forget the rain, the earth quakes and the easy access to heroin; all of which have their own unique amusement value. Not sure about now, but Vancouver was noted as having some of the highest housing prices in the country (with rich Chinese [foreign investors and immigrants] driving up the market). On second glance; "Average house price in Greater Vancouver nearing $1-million mark" ( 2008 prices, though things are dropping [canada.com], by about ~12% actually). You can half that figure for the suburbs (BTW, I don't

Re:

[damn_registrars]

Don't forget the rain

Rain really doesn't bother me. It saves money in comparison to watering the wife's garden, anyways...

the earth quakes

My life could use some shaking up anyways. Things are awfully dull where I am.

the easy access to heroin

Well, I'm not looking to shake things up that much...

Vancouver was noted as having some of the highest housing prices in the country

We'll see how the housing prices look by the time my wife and I are ready to move. I have to finish my PhD first; and right now that feels like it is about another 20-30 years away.

On second glance; "Average house price in Greater Vancouver nearing $1-million mark" (2008 prices, though things are dropping, by about ~12% actually)

So it sounds like they may have hit a housing bubble that my wife and I were fortunate enou