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"Governments at all levels in Canada should embrace open government principles to enhance transparency and accountability," states the commissioners in a call released at the annual meeting of Canada's Access to Information and Privacy Commissioners in Whitehorse, Yukon.
The [[xref:http://www.ipc.on.ca/images/Resources/FPT_Whitehorse_-_Resolution_Final_EN.pdf]], issued by all federal, provincial and territorial commissioners in Canada, outlines basic tenets of a sound open government strategy and lists five points of resolve.
The commissioners "are advocates for open government and promote the paradigm shift from reactive to proactive disclosure, and ultimately to open government," states the document.
The resolution is the result of the work of all the commissioners across Canada, said Suzanne Legault, [[xref:http://www.oic-ci.gc.ca/eng/]]. And while commissioners themselves don't have the power to implement in government, they do have the power to persuade and influence government in these types of matters, she said.
"The resolution is important because we think that governments all across Canada should really take on open government and instill a culture shift in terms of how they deal with people's information and how they disclose this information on a pro-active basis," said Legault.
The Information Commissioner's office is adapting to open government standards with its own information holdings, she said. The initiative, which started this year, aims to proactively disclose the information that stakeholders are most interested in, she said.
And one type of information that people are very interested in is performance statistics, said Legault. "We used to publish them only once a year. We now publish them every month and they are now going to be in a format that is going to be reusable," she said.
One of the best ways to preserve freedom in a democratic society is to ensure there is openness and transparency in the activities of government, said Ann Cavoukian, information and privacy commissioner of Ontario.
The "twist" to the commissioners' call, she said, is the paradigm shift. "We are calling for proactive disclosure on the part of the government in terms of entire classes of information," she said.
Freedom of Information (FOI) laws currently exist in Ontario and other jurisdictions, she said, but they are reactive in nature. "They are predicated on a citizen applying for information, making what's called an FOI request," she said.
"What we are trying to do is change it to a push model where the government pushes out information that it has available," said Cavoukian.
But one of the biggest challenges for governments and organizations is translating the conceptual framework of open government into concrete steps, she said.
Governments seeking guidance on how to implement open government ideals can turn to [[xref:http://ipc.on.ca/english/annual%2Dreport/access%2Dby%2Ddesign/]] (AbD), a pragmatic model on accessible and accountable government developed by Cavoukian's office that outlines seven fundamental principals.
Access by Design, referenced in the Ontario privacy commissioner's last annual report, will be launched formally during [[xref:http://www.righttoknow.ca/|Right To Know - Droit a l'information]] (RTK) week later this month.
"You want to make the information accessible," said Cavoukian. Information should be easy to find, indexed properly and supplied in user-friendly formats, she said.
Open government activist [[xref:http://eaves.ca/|eaves.ca]], who hosted a panel discussion on open data and access to information at last year's RTK event, said the issue wasn't even on the radar at the time. "I can't think of a single person on the spectrum who shouldn't be excited about this," he said.
What's significant about the announcement is that the information and privacy commissioners recognize the importance of digital, he said. Paper-based communication does not suffice anymore for disclosure, he said.
"It is significant because it shows that the bodies that are designed to ensure citizens have access to information now understand that it's not just having access to the information that matters -- it's how you have access to that information," said Eaves.
And even "just being digital" isn't enough, he pointed out. "An image or a PDF that is not searchable is not disclosure, and if they are not saying that, they are definitely moving in that direction," he said.
Legault's office hosts RTK, an international event, in Canada every year. Scheduled to run from 27 September to 1 October, the week promotes gatherings in cities across the country to raise awareness about open government.
Archivists from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration are among the speakers scheduled to talk this year on open government initiatives they are putting forward in the U.S., such as the de-classification of documents, she said.
The Open Government Resolution, available on both the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada's Web site and the [[xref:http://www.priv.gc.ca/media/nr-c/2010/res_100901_e.cfm|Open Government - Resolution of Canada’s Access to Information and Privacy Commissioners, September 1, 2010, Whitehorse, Yukon]], includes the following recommendations for government:
Anchoring principles in laws and policies that provide "clear objectives, assign responsibility and accountability and prescribe specific timeframes."
Building access mechanisms "into the design and implementation stages of all new programs and services."
Conducting "ongoing, broad-based public consultations" to determine what information should become available
Implementing policies that give "due consideration to privacy, confidentiality, security, Crown copyright and all relevant laws."
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The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction really liked it 4.0 · Rating details · 8,691 Ratings · 1,694 Reviews
An inquisitive observer, thoughtful commentator, and assiduous craftsman, Neil Gaiman has long been celebrated for the sharp intellect and startling imagination that informs his bestsellin An enthralling collection of nonfiction essays on a myriad of topics—from art and artists to dreams, myths, and memories—observed in Neil Gaiman’s probing, amusing, and distinctive style.
Hugo Award Nominee for Best Related Work (2017), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Nonfiction (2016)
Cassandra I listened to the audiobook so it was like being at each event. I also own the hardback just because it was Neil Gaiman and I love all things Neil…moreI listened to the audiobook so it was like being at each event. I also own the hardback just because it was Neil Gaiman and I love all things Neil Gaiman. If you are picking just one format, get the audiobook. You can hear the emotions in his voice. (less)
Once upon a time a writer sat in a large room and looked around. The words and papers that he had dreamed into existence had begun to clog the space. To get from his magic writing place to the world outside he had to push his way past words on stacks of paper that had grown so high that he was no longer able to see over the top to the door. Sometimes the lanes they had formed led him not to a door, but into a wall and he had to find his way back to the desk where he made the words, and start ove Once upon a time a writer sat in a large room and looked around. The words and papers that he had dreamed into existence had begun to clog the space. To get from his magic writing place to the world outside he had to push his way past words on stacks of paper that had grown so high that he was no longer able to see over the top to the door. Sometimes the lanes they had formed led him not to a door, but into a wall and he had to find his way back to the desk where he made the words, and start over. He began to wonder if the words had started shifting their locations while his back was turned, if they intended to keep him in his writing place, making more and more words and stories to keep them all company. One day a doll with button eyes that he kept on his desk stood up and told him that he really should do something about the growing menace if he wanted to be able to leave the room ever again. The writer was suitably terrified, and vowed to get right on it, concerned about the possibility that he was losing his shit.
I know nothing of Neil Gaiman’s living situation, of course. He may be the neatest person alive, a place for everything and everything in its place. Black shirt here, black pants there, black jacket over there. Another black shirt here, another black shirt here...While it is likely that his words are all nicely tucked away on hard drives, in clouds, on servers and disks of various ages and sorts, I envision stacks of paper hither and yon festooned with buzzing colonies of paper mites. Maybe his wife gives him the stink-eye about the piles, urging him to take some time and deal with the mess. So he bites the bullet one Saturday morning when the creative urge is at low ebb. He gathers a stack from here, a sheaf from there, and as I imagine anyone who writes might do, he reads some of the things he has written, some of them decades old. Not half bad, he might think, and he would be right. But in gathering all the material together, and now admiring the still dusty but paper free sections of floor that have become newly visible, and considering tying up all the paper for inclusion in the recycling bin, it occurs that they might be worthy of another form of recycling. Thus, newly energized, he begins to pore through the materials a second time, and in this pass, he makes three piles, keeper, on the fence, and toss, ties up the toss pile, and off to the bin it goes. Somehow the keeper and on–the-fence piles seem to magically move closer to each other until they are indistinguishable. The result is The View From the Cheap Seats, a compendium of mostly small bits from Gaiman’s large body of small non-fiction writings.
They are divided into ten sections, but the fences bordering each are easily and frequently scaled. The largest element in the collection consists of introductions Gaiman has written for other writer’s books. They are all heartfelt, sometimes moving, and are infused with his personal experience of those writers, whether purely through their work, or, in many cases, through his relationships with them in the real world. I was reminded of Bill Clinton’s memoir, My Life, in which it seemed as if everyone he met had a huge and lasting impact on him. I am sure Gaiman means all the glowing things he says about the people he writes of here, but it does seem a bit much at times. Who didn’t impact your life?
There are many speeches he has delivered, at commencements, at professional conferences, at award ceremonies. A fair bit of autobiography is tucked into the works, not enough to fill out a true version but enough to whet your appetite for more. He includes considerable advice on writing, both doing the actual writing, and coping with the external realities of writing professionally.
I quite enjoy Neil Gaiman’s work (see linked reviews at bottom). He is a bright, articulate, thoughtful and creative sort. He has things to say and says them persuasively. But I have to concede that I enjoy Neil Gaiman the writer of fiction a fair bit more than I do Neil Gaiman, the writer of book intros, album liner notes, deliverer of commencement addresses and speechifier at sundry professional events. It is not that particular items included in this considerable compilation (I counted 84 individual pieces, but I could be off by a few) are not good. Most were at least somewhat interesting and a bunch were very interesting. Ok. A few were boring. There seems a redundancy to much of the material. I got the feeling one has on occasion after having listened to a song you really like about twenty times too many. The collection seemed too large, and would have been improved by some intelligent culling, down from over 500 to maybe 400 or even 350 pages. Gaiman is a prolific producer of product, very much like Stephen King (there is a nice interview with King in here) or Isaac Asimov (although he has nothing like Asimov’s range, not that anyone else does either). So even with such a large volume, odds are that there is material lying about to fill several more.
So what are the upsides? Ok, you already know the guy is a pretty solid writer, so the quality of the writing is fine. Even though he is out of his power genre, he was a journalist and can crank out non-fic, no problem. He shares plenty of insights, particularly when making the case for the value of fantasy, although they sometimes sounded a bit emo:
He writes about works that and writers who have influenced him, whether those influences were TV Programs (Dr Who), writers of comics (Will Eisner), or of books (Harlan Ellison, and many others), of children’s or adult fiction. I enjoyed his observations of the writing experience. There are details in this collection that will definitely enhance your appreciation for how some of his well-known creations came to be, the what-ifs that sparked the process.
I write to find out what I think about something. I wrote American Gods because I had lived in America for almost a decade and felt it was time that I learned what I thought about it. I wrote Coraline because, when I was a child, I used to wonder what would happen if I went home and my parents had moved away without telling me.
He offers insights into some other works of his, for instance Sandman and The Ocean of the End of the Lane.
I quite enjoyed his tale of attending the Oscars when Coraline was nominated, and had exactly no chance of winning. Gaiman, a pretty well-known sort, was relegated to the relatively cheap seats, even though Coraline had received a nomination. Another tale, of his work on the film Mirrormask and then attending the opening at the Sundance festival, had a lovely stranger-in-a-strange-land feel. He includes some interaction with musicians, notably Lou Reed. And one of the two pieces about his now wife Amanda Palmer was quite interesting for it’s look at the strains of coping with the together-all-the-time relationships inherent in going on the road. I enjoyed his straight-up autobio pieces, including his childhood reading experiences and fondness for comics.
You will come away from Cheap Seats with a nice list of authors you may want to check out, the product of the laudatory intros Gaiman wrote for books by or about them. I guarantee that, despite the considerable stack of household names, some of the writers he notes here will be new to you. There is enough good and very good material in the collection to justify checking it out. Even if you find yourself in a piece that might dull the senses, the next piece is only a couple of pages away and could be quite good.
Neil Gaiman has done pretty well for himself and deservedly so. So one must take with a grain of salt a view from such a successful guy that purports to be from the cheap seats. Gaiman is a top notch author and if he is looking at the world from the cheap seats any place but at the Oscars he is probably slumming. You will definitely enjoy much of what is included in this large collection. But there is enough that seems duplicative, in tone if not always in content, that it keeps the collection from being quite first class.
“Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you've never been. Once you've visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. Discontent is a good thing: discontented people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different."
I have so much respect for Neil Gaiman. I don’t like everything he writes, though I do believe he is one of the most talented writers alive today. Gai “Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you've never been. Once you've visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. Discontent is a good thing: discontented people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different."
I have so much respect for Neil Gaiman. I don’t like everything he writes, though I do believe he is one of the most talented writers alive today. Gaiman is funny and smart. Gaiman is wise and creative, but most importantly he is multi-talented.
His books appeal directly to children, though he is far from being just a children’s author. He writes fantasy, though I would not call him a fantasy novelist. Gaiman is Gaiman. I think his real success resides in his mastery of tone and his ability to switch between the serious and the silly, sometimes using both at the same time. For me though, I absolutely love the way his books appeal to young people and have the ability to get people seriously into reading; yet, none of their literary merit is sacrificed in the process. He is undeniably a master of the craft.
This book has a huge selection of non-fiction pieces in. One of my favourites was his energetic and highly compelling lecture on libraries and why they are so important for society. Before Gaiman was a writer, he was a reader. Not just your standard type of reader, those who just read in one genre or a few books a year, but the kind that reads everything and anything. By the sounds of things, he spent most of his childhood reading in his local libraries. Clearly this has given him enough knowledge to tackle huge themes within his writing. Start young folks!
“You don’t discourage children from reading because you feel they are reading the wrong thing. Fiction you do not like is the gateway drug to other books you may prefer them to read. And not everyone has the same taste as you.”
He offers musing on art and films, including many previously published pieces. And this is the only issue I have to raise about this book: nothing is new. Gaiman has brought together essays, introductions written for other books, articles and other previously published pieces all in one collection. Some of it will be familiar for his readers, and some bits they will have missed. I’ve read a few of the bits and pieces over the years, but there was enough in here that I hadn’t read to make the collection feel worth the purchase.
The View Behind the Cheap Seats is also very personal; it reveals much about Gaiman as a man and as an artist. If you read enough of the bits in here, you will see some of his creative process and hear the advice he has to share for other writers. You will also see whom he owes debts to, to which writers inspired him and influenced him artistically. Most touching of all was his comments on his friendship with the late great Sir Terry Pratchett; it was worth reading the book for these bits alone.
Whilst I wouldn’t recommend this to new readers, I do really think that lovers of his fiction will also love this. I certainly had fun reading it. ...more
Oh, and we get a lot of great book reviews from Gaiman, himself, a lot of which I've got skewered on my To-Read list. I mean, who does that These are basically a collection of previously published essays and ideas ranging to his love of art, people, and the more basic of life's requirements like books and love, but more than that, it's basically an affirmation and a solid grounding in what should be quite evident from anyone who has read his work:
This is pretty much a must read for anyone who likes to read about why their favorite authors like to write, too. So lap it up, you dogs. :) Enjoy. ...more
I picked up A View From the Cheap Seats, selected non-fiction, Neil Gaiman’s 2016 collection of essays, sketches, introductions, speeches, etc. simply because it was Gaiman’s latest publication. I was compelled, I must read it.
I began and realized what it was, not fiction but non-fiction essays, and saw the thickness of it (522 pages) and decided that I would give it a try, but I was more in the mood for a fiction just now and though I like Neil and his opinions, I would likely try this again la I picked up A View From the Cheap Seats, selected non-fiction, Neil Gaiman’s 2016 collection of essays, sketches, introductions, speeches, etc. simply because it was Gaiman’s latest publication. I was compelled, I must read it.
I began and realized what it was, not fiction but non-fiction essays, and saw the thickness of it (522 pages) and decided that I would give it a try, but I was more in the mood for a fiction just now and though I like Neil and his opinions, I would likely try this again later.
Then I read about some authors he knows and some books he likes and then some music and musicians, and before I know it, I am breezing through this book of thoughts and musings tied up in the ideas of a speech or book report, or words on a jacket cover, or couched in terms of a tribute to someone and I like this book for the same reason I like my book club and why I like Goodreads: it is a discussion about books, and writing and reading.
Readers know that we are an odd lot. There is more than a fair share of introspection, lots of lovers of quiet and more than a sampling of … unusual folks. But what we all share is a love of all things literary, regardless of genre. Here on GR a fan of westerns can share some thoughts with a SF reader and a great lover of romance can also learn about some heady 60s pulp. And we can all expand our reading lists like trying something new at a buffet.
In A View From the Cheap Seats, Gaiman reveals what he loves about fantasy writing, what he looks for in books, his passions, his interests and that thread of the written word and the ideas and imaginations that pulls it all together. Some of my favorite sections are about his friendships with Terry Pratchett, Gene Wolfe and Tori Amos. We learn of his fascination with Lovecraft and Tolkien. As he was also a journalist before he became a bestselling author, we also read about his interviews with such diverse luminaries as Ray Bradbury and Lou Reed.
For those of you who care about ratings I can tell you honestly that this had a three-star rating until the last 10 pages of the book. A 3-star rating for me is a good rating and means I like the book and enjoyed it. The last essay in the book was of Neil Gaiman’s eulogy of his friend Sir Terry Pratchett.
I'm a 47 year old American male who strives for an old-school brand of tough guy and I am writing these words unabashedly admitting that tears were rolling down my cheeks as I read Gaiman’s sincere, heartfelt and touching statements about how he simply missed his friend. This essay above all others is what I will take with me from this work and that alone earned this book my fourth star.
Maybe just for Gaiman fans, but also for READERS of all shapes and sizes – he too is a reader, and belongs to this great population of thinkers, wordsmiths, daydreamers and escape artists.
If you identify as any sort of geek, then you've probably dabbled in some of Neil Gaiman's evocative, fantastical fiction. If you're anything like me, you've found yourself caught in a YouTube vortex of Neil Gaiman interviews, speeches, and discussions. Gaiman's a fantastic speaker: he's charismatic, he's kind, he's notoriously modest, and he speaks and writes with palpable enthusiasm. If you've ever sat back and heard/watched Gaiman speak and thought, This guy's really got a handle on it all, h If you identify as any sort of geek, then you've probably dabbled in some of Neil Gaiman's evocative, fantastical fiction. If you're anything like me, you've found yourself caught in a YouTube vortex of Neil Gaiman interviews, speeches, and discussions. Gaiman's a fantastic speaker: he's charismatic, he's kind, he's notoriously modest, and he speaks and writes with palpable enthusiasm. If you've ever sat back and heard/watched Gaiman speak and thought, This guy's really got a handle on it all, hasn't he?, then The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction is exactly the book for you.
More specifically, it is the audiobook for you, as after listening to Gaiman for 16+ hours, it's hard to imagine reading this book. Gaiman's voice was a soothing balm on the internet-scorched skin of my mind. Where much of the news is doom, gloom, and humans doing terrible things to one another, Gaiman reminds the reader of wonder, enthusiasm, and the importance of stories. Gaiman spurs into motion the act of hunting a *ahem* good read and is able to capture the feeling of being wrapped up in a novel.
For the most part, that's what this audiobook is about: why it's important to read and discuss good stories. Why stories are more than diversions from our day-to-day, and how all different genres satisfy those needs in different ways. This is an assortment of essays, speeches, commentaries, reviews, obituaries, and articles for magazines that have few commonalities other than an author and being about stories. Though I can't say I enjoyed everything (I don't know if I've heard a Tori Amos song, but I certainly wasn't familiar enough to love that piece), there was nothing that I hated.
If there's a complaint to lodge against the book its that it repeats itself. You'll find Gaiman recycle personal stories between speeches, and this can make for a bit of frustration as you wait out something you've already heard before. It's rather like the experience of listening to a familial story that your uncle just can't seem to give up: you may have heard it before, and it's a bit tedious, but it's a bit comforting too.
An unexpected boon from this book was a slew of new additions to the TBR pile. If you take a look back on the last 10 or 20 books I've added, they were likely recommended in some way by this book. Gaiman discusses novels that have influenced him, important novels of various genres, and obscure texts from which many of our stories are drawn. As I seem to be on quite the sci-fi kick right now, this was a welcome introduction to many classics of the genre that I would have missed or overlooked otherwise. There are few enough books that beget more books, but this is one of them.
I'm not sure that everyone would enjoy this entire audiobook, but I guarantee that there's something for everybody in this collection. Though I listened to the entire thing, you could do a bit of skipping around to the parts you think you'd like. There's bits about the importance of libraries, dead authors, living authors, books Gaiman wrote, TV shows Gaiman liked as a child, a long-form on Stephen King (that makes me want to give up whatever sort of pretense was keeping me from reading King), the Syrian refugee crisis, making movies, attending conventions, dreaming, loving, listening, reading, writing, and, of course, some book reviews. Definitely worth checking out! ...more
I would highly recommend the first ninety pages of this collection. Here, Gaiman discusses his love of literature, libraries, and librarians, including some of his childhood favorites and influences.
As to the remaining pages, your enjoyment will depend upon your interest in each partic Literature does not occur in a vacuum. It cannot be a monologue. It has to be a conversation, and new people, new readers, need to be brought into the conversation too.
As to the remaining pages, your enjoyment will depend upon your interest in each particular author or recording artist being scrutinized. If you can't get enough of Diana Wynne Jones, Harlan Ellison, or Tori Amos, you should be a happy camper.
Neil Gaiman is a gold nugget. A fragment of volcanic rock. A drop of mercury. Nibiru. A bit dark, very elusive, way too amorphous. He will tell you what it’s like to attend the Oscars, tucked away in the first mezzanine, and to win nothing, he may also relate what it’s like to be at the concert of his wife’s apocryphal punk cabaret band and feel like a winner.
‘The View from the Cheap Seats’ is the story of an eternal flirt and one great love. Okay, maybe several great loves. Do not be mistaken that it’s a collection of non-fiction, as the title says. The flirt is with life and death and everything in between. Or as Gaiman himself would tell you, the only subjects of art are sex and death. And love... it’s for books, for words that are sprinkled on pages and hide in their corners, for ideas that light a match and ignite the gunpowder trail to the imagination and especially to strangeness. Neil Gaiman would willingly give you an ode to oddity to hang it above your bed.
I met Gaiman for the first time long ago with his lovely and macabre children’s poem ‘The Dangerous Alphabet’ illustrated by Gris Grimly. Needless to say, I fell in love with them both and will be true to them unto death. Gaiman is a multifaceted author – he will take you for a walk from comics through children’s novels to mythology (and back I suppose) and will pull at least one thread in your soul. I haven’t read many of his stuff yet. Somehow instinctively, I wanted to get to know the man behind the writer’s mask because I felt there were things I could learn. I listened in the dark how he told me about his passion for comics, how he had saved money through a whole term at school to go and spend it all on comics, and how he almost got mugged on his way to the store. I drank in his admiration for other authors, for various eccentric artists with whom he had worked. I peeked behind the exquisite screen of his friendship with Tori Amos, who ‘sings like an angel and rocks like a red-haired demon.’ Like Neil, I also hope the pumpkin ice cream doesn’t melt before they find each other. I briefly shared his admiration for Lou Reed, ‘a real rock star,’ because he tells his fans to shut up while trying to tune his guitar. I even followed Neil to a refugee camp in Syria. Because stories stride all over the world and feel cozy in places where they’re least expected to be.
Neil Gaiman is one of those humane writers who gently cup your heart and slowly squeeze valuable drops of blood out of it. He makes you smile or smear the ink on the page with a tear, then blot it quickly and guiltily. He makes you ponder how big the world is and how much you don’t know. Sometimes, the view from the cheap seats in life is not so bad.
‘I suspect that the next generation to come along will puzzle over our agonies, much as I puzzled over the death of the Victorian music halls as a child, and much as I felt sorry for the performers who had only needed thirteen minutes of material in their whole life, and who did their thirteen minutes in town after town until the day that television came along and killed it all.’