David Eaves

An expert in collaboration, technology and public policy David is a citizen entrepreneur who works on projects that advance the public good. In addition to this work he works with two spin-offs of the Harvard Negotiation Project, published regularly in the Globe and Mail, is an adjunct professor at the Centre for Digital Media and advises the Mayor of Vancouver and a number of other governments on open data and open government.
David is frequently invited to speak on these issues to students, academics, policymakers and executives. In addition to his writing, public speaking and consulting David sits on the executive of Vision Vancouver (a municipal political party), was on the advisory board of Canada’s World, the Steering Committee of the Environics Institute’s Urban Aboriginal People’s Survey and the Australian Government's Government 2.0 Taskforce.
He is also a proud alumnus of Canada25. Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia David once again resides in his hometown after a decade hiatus. He completed a Bachelor of Arts in history at Queen’s University and a Master’s of International Relations at Oxford.
In 2005-06 he served as a Sauvé Scholar at McGill University and an Action Canada Fellow.

What music are you listening to / art are you checking out these days?

Well, my friends know that I've a weak spot for uplifting trance and so am basically always listening to that. I love running to it, and working to it, I find it keeps me upbeat and productive. In addition, and this is maybe a fudge on the answer, but I also listen to a lot of audiobooks... I love going for a run and listening to some great non-fiction.

Why should people, especially youth, vote?

I've been listening to the audiobook "Connected" by Robert Fowler about social networks and one of the more interesting things their research points out is that voting is a social behaviour. If you vote, your friends and, interestingly, your friends friends, are more likely to vote. If you think your peers are likely to vote the same way as you, your vote can actually be worth more than one - it will actually prompt others to vote and so can begin to help shape the election. It turns out we don't just have one vote each, we have the ability to affect many, many other votes. Yes, we only have one vote, but we can shape elections by influence a huge network of people.
Also, I believe young people need to vote even if they think their preferred candidate can't win. Parties are attune to voting patterns and if they see more and more young people voting - even say an uptick of 5% - they'll begin to try to craft policies and messages that appeal to this demographic... something I think we could do a lot more with these days.

For you, is there a connection between art and democracy? What is it?

Actually, I think there is a little bit of a tragic connection between art and democracy at the moment. Both art and democracy are activities that, for many people, are things we do in a spare time or see as divorced from our day to day life or worse, are things people assume they don't understand or can't do well, so don't engage in them.
Art and democracy have become siloed in our lives, divorced from everything else we do... but it needn't be this way. Art and democracy should be more a part of everything we do. For example, a well crafted, accessible, profoundly thought through policy document is, in my mind, like a piece of art.

Why do you care about your community, when it is so easy not to?

We live in a amazing era... a renaissance "do-it-yourself" era. I look around and I see all these tools, especially online, that allow people to self-organize, to tackle problems independtly, to learn, to innovate and to improve their lives. It really is incredible. So what I care about above all is ensuring that people have access to the tools - be it the internet, a legal structure, a support network, or skills - that will enable them to do whatever it is that they want to do.

How do we help people do whatever it they want to do? I do this because I want people in my own community to feel more enabled to be creative, healthier, happier or wealthier... what ever it is that they want from life. And what makes it hard is when people simply don't try.
When they give up on trying... it makes it harder to engage, to care or want to help.

What do you look for in a politician? What do you expect from your Member of Parliament?

More than anything else? A share mind and independence of thought. I'll confess, I think parliament is an institution that is really struggling at the moment. It is hard to be inspired by our politics. What I really wish - and this will upset some of my friends - is that Canada's parliament was more like the US Congress. Congress has its problems (particularly in campaign finance) but its members have real offices with real research budgets and the ability to be independent from their political parties, in addition their committees have real independence and influence.
So what I'd like to see more politicians that want to take parliament back. This is not an easy task and I suspect it won't happen quickly, but it is what I expect of my Member of Parliament.

What causes do you actively support? 

Obviously I've been a big advocate for Open Government and Open Data, so this is a cause that is close to me. People interested in this might want to see my blog, the Federal Open Data portal I created as well as some other experiments in the space like Michael Mulley's Openparliament website. Of course there is Vancouver's open data portal which I played a role in helping initiate.

I'm also a bug believer in an open internet and so encourage people to take a look at the Mozilla Foundation's Drumbeat project. I've also been a supporter of Insite - Vancouver's Injection Site - and in Harm Reduction strategies generally. In this regard I sit on the board of Keeping the Door Open.

Finally, I've done some work on the environmental front, I did a small bit advising environmental NGO's during the negotiation of the recently announced agreement between Environmentalists and FPAC over logging in the Boreal forest.

What are one or two simple actions you recommend youth take to make a difference?

Tackle a problem you can solve. Often people look at a problem and see the whole thing and either a) try to begin solving it right away or b) get discouraged and walk away. One of the things I've found great success with is tackling small problems. I've noticed a few things that come out of this. First is that it gives you a track record of success - so people ask for advice and help.

Second, small solutions often scale, and indeed can scale quite quickly.

Finally, these successes serve as a model for others. So take the work around open government...

We could have targeted the federal government, or tried to get all the cities on board. But by getting a win in Vancouver suddenly other jurisdictions became interested. Now there are 5 cities with open data initiatives (and more coming) and other layers of government are taking notice. It's created a snowball that is proving to have some interesting momentum. It is important to remember that it all began with some pretty humble beginnings...