Two posts rolled into one! The time constraints demand it.

Vancouver ChangeCamp

Vancouver ChangeCamp happened last Saturday, and I was extremely delighted to have the privilege of describing  (at the very high-level due to similar time constraints) the ChangeCamp “lineage”, from BarCamp, DemoCamp, TransitCamp, OpenCities to the events in Toronto and Ottawa.

So what happened? The same thing that happens at most camps: lots of connecting and unexpected things.  Lots of ideas being flung around, scribbled furiously, in sessions, in hallways, between mouthfuls of lunch. Individuals were asked to bring the full force of their learning, experience, and wisdom to the two questions of how citizens can collaborate for better outcomes, and governments can become more open and responsive

This also qualified as simultaneously the most enjoyable and convoluted experience I’ve had organizing a camp. I don’t mean that to be dismissive of the incredible dedication of the co-organizers or any reflection on the participants either — it is more a symptom of the idea and scope of ChangeCamp itself, which is that it invites so many different perspectives and speaks to so many existing threads and stories. It made our organizing meetings lively and diverse, and I wouldn’t trade an iota of that diversity — in experience with BarCamp, in comfort with technology, in background and training — for anything coming “easier”. In the middle of a meeting, I tried to conjure the phrase, “I salute you with a filet mignon on a flaming sword!” but it didn’t quite happen, but to the organizers and participants, you all really stepped up and I was amazed by your focus, your curiosity, your passion for making tings happen, and your enthusiasm at the event itself.

Everyone goes to a different event at these things. Even now, after nearly a week, I’m still processing the sessions I attended. I’m unfortunately also falling victim to failing to follow my own advice, where I asked people during the closing circle to “keep broadcasting.”

I do have some observations on the event more generally that I’m still in the process of articulating properly. One thing — my overarching impression is that we were very effective at engaging the non-blogging, not hyper-connected community. While that is definitely a strength of the event and definitely no accident given the makeup of the organizing team, I’ve also found that it’s really in the precise mix that these things take off, and for the next ChangeCamp, I’d definitely throw myself more wholeheartedly at the task of getting bloggers out. That said, I really must salute Vancouver liveblogger extraordinaire Raul for his incredible CoverItLive streams of the sessions he attended.

My task right now is the seemingly impossible task of getting my videos uploaded to YouTube! So far I’ve got the last 6 minutes of my first video of David Hume’s presentation…here’s hoping the preceding 20 minutes are not far behind.

ParticipationCamp

I’ve registered to participate in (ha) ParticipationCamp, an unconference around governance that is really raising the bar in a couple of really interesting ways. They’ve been holding Skype pre-event group chats to start seeding the ideas and interest ahead of the event. As I’m vacationing in New York, I haven’t had much of a chance to dive into much of this pre-event material (but I’d like to think Vancouver ChangeCamp was more than adequate a primer in this respect). The event is taking place at NYU tomorrow and I hope I will be able to meet some awesome people. I’ll also hope to propose a session with an overview of the essential ingredients of a successful Camp event, drawing on my experience now pitching in in various capacities with four events, having attended a significant number of them on a variety of different topics, and having studied them as part of my Bachelor Honour’s thesis. I’ll also bring in some newer aspects of it and see how it plays with the audience.

The last couple weeks have been so full of activity helping to organize Vancouver ChangeCamp, that I’ve sadly neglected my very own proposed session on mapping and public engagement! That said, the goal was always for me to convene the conversation rather than show my (non-existent) expertise, so I’m feeling the pressure lift slightly on that angle.

All the same, there are certainly some themes I’m really enthusiastic about, adding on top of what I’ve already proposed previously for this session:

• open mapping data — what could we do with open data if we had it? What’s already done in places where this has already happened (like in the District of North Vancouver)?
• citizens organizing themselves to create relevant datasets — I’m hearing great examples all over the place, most recently in the collaboration with SFU students and the Vancouver Public Space Network in mapping cameras in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. How might we share these further and wider, perhaps alongside whatever data is made available by the City?
• amenity mapping — Smart Growth and the Vancouver City Planning commission had a really neat project called YouMap Vancouver. I think there’s great potential here around new methods of citizen engagement through collaborative data collection and knowledge-making; how did it go when they did it, and where can their community festival model intersect with some of the projects we see online?
• how do the availability of this data and social media tools for sharing affect literacy and thinking on various civic issues, like EcoDensity, transportation planning and land-use? Maged Senbel shared some of the results of his urban design studio class’ participatory design projects at Architecture for Humanity’s Living Density exhibition, where people in the Marpole neighbourhood expressed their feelings about the neighbourhood as well as their fears with the construction and operation of the Canada Line.
• how do we in the neighbourhood who are interested and concerned about these issues find technology-savvy allies to collaborate on projects like these? I’d love to hear from organizations like the Vancouver Public Space Network and Free Geek on this point.
• what are the challenges around making this data available that exist within organizations? I’ve been somewhat privy to the stories of TransLink’s challenges with these issues before — are they the sorts of things that others could overcome with the help of someone like David Hume (at the provincial level)? Are there methods internally for organizations to share their experiences of having made data open in the least painful methods possible?

I feel like I’m only really scratching the surface of these themes, and I’m open too to the idea that I’ve cast the net a bit too wide — for instance, I’m sure there’s a ton of overlap with Shari Wallace and David Eaves’ session. I’ve floated the ideas behind my session to a lot of people who may or may not actually show up on the day, so there’s little here that’s concretely tangible in terms of directions for the discussion on Saturday.

Which part of the potential crossover between community organizing and technology is most interesting, fascinating and rich to you (whether you’re coming or not)? What questions do you think I have missed? Here’s hoping that if you hatch any new questions, that the people who come to this session will have clear ways of working toward some answers!

Unexpectedly but delightfully, I’ll be attending Open Web Vancouver at the brand new Vancouver Convention Centre tomorrow, Thursday and Friday. Open Web Vancouver are gracious sponsors of ChangeCamp, and though it is a big last minute, I am stoked to be able to learn more about the tech behind realizing the dream of the open Internet.

I’ll be shooting video and taking pictures. I’m also tickled pink at two particular sessions:

• Friday just before lunch, David Eaves and Andrea Reimer will be talking about the City’s open standards, open data and open source initiative. It will be the first time I’ve heard Andrea speak on the topic outside of council chambers, so I’m looking forward to hearing her ideas.
• Shari Wallace, the Head of IT at the City of Vancouver, will be leading a session on Friday afternoon to learn from other organizations on making their data available through their existing IT infrastructure.

I’m also happy to see a multitude of other friendlies around town presenting, such as Momentum Magazine, Irwin Oostindie from W2 Woodwards, and Luke Closs.

I’ll be darting in and out throughout the day to media geek, but come say hi if you see me!

Last week, I met with Jackie Wong from the West Ender to talk a bit about my thinking on open data, open standards and City Staff. We touched on a wide variety of topics — the impact of the motion and technology in general on non-profits, my thoughts on how well City Staff would glom to the motion, and some thoughts on what might happen next.

I’m pretty happy with the resulting article., which also had quotes from David Eaves and local Freebase guru Jim Pick. This is the part with my quotes:

“If we bring this idea of open standards and open data to [City] staff, and this is the first time they’ve ever heard about it, they can take a very confrontational approach to it,” says Fung, who is also a master’s student at the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning. “If they have a chance to think about it systemically and really get a sense of why it’s a good thing to do… then they’ll be much more ready to be on board.”

Bridging the gap between early and late adopters to new technologies, Fung says, will be key to the success or failure of Vancouver’s open-data efforts, and, as with anything, the best learning will happen through experience. In response to the “To Twitter or Not to Twitter” question, Fung recalls an article she read that likened the microblogging service to sex. “You can talk about it, but you really just don’t understand it until you’ve actually done it,” she says.

As for skeptics — or “conscientious objectors,” as Fung calls them — to new ways of using technology, she maintains that times, and people, will change. “When we make those projections of the worst… we’re assuming that what we’re proposing is going to come to fruition in a world that looks exactly like ours,” she says.

Here’s the much less concise but slightly more nuanced version of what I think about open data, as Jackie and I discussed it:

• My thinking is very much informed by my internship at a large organization. Based on that experience, I expressed concern the impact on staff of a top-down directive for opening up through a motion like this, versus a bottom-up dispersion of the idea of being more open, and the precise mix of these factors being key to how well staff take to the idea. (This is pretty hard to get across in an article.) I’m also not in any position to gauge this, however, but that’s where things could possibly get dicey.
• As with the general population, there will be a range of attitudes towards the merits of the motion. There will be some city staff who will be more technological adept or who immediately see the potential of weaving principles of openness into their work, and some others for whom those benefits aren’t obvious, or who have reservations about what the impact on their daily work will be. With that, generalizing the impact across teams and departments will be troublesome at best.
• Especially with technologies like Twitter, individuals come to their own understanding of the enhancements, drawbacks and oddities of a tool, even as friends or media may draw attention to some features over others. Staff will be the same with having their data open, just as they undoubtedly currently are about e-mail.
• That said, none of these factors are commentary on the spirit of the motion of itself — which is that as citizens, we’ve paid for the collection of this data and the services that are delivered using it; and if we are able and willing to innovate alongside staff in improving the quality and impact (GHG-speaking) of these services, data should not be the obstacle to that (where it does not violate the rights of citizens, such as those to privacy).

I’ve obviously been hanging around the Master of Nuance too long. Next time, more snappy!

I’ve started posting about transit over at TransLinked.com. It seems to be working a bit better than my attempts to write commentary and analysis on transit to this blog, for some hazy ill-defined reasons regarding the association of this blog with my online self-identity, and — perhaps more plausibly — the small size of the Tumblr text entry box provoking me to be catchy rather than long-winded.

More than likely, it’s a poor marketing segmentation strategy, but I’m going to go with what works when it comes to wringing content out of the old knocker. I’m quite happy with what I’ve put out so far, the sort of balance between awesome-celebratory and kicking conceptual ass that really speaks to me. It’s also a mix of Vancouver inward-looking and worldly outside-looking. I’ll look to implementing some proper openID comments on it – Tumblr’s are typically about the wham and less the dialogic follow-up. (I just wish I could use something besides Disqus, I want to bask in the spam-free glow for a little while longer.)

Drop by, take a look, and tell me what you think! TransLinked does have an RSS feed as well, so subscribe if you’re not down with the skinny layout. My first big piece is a closer look at the net impact of TransLink’s decision to replace paper bus schedules at bus stops with instructions on using HandiMobility’s text messaging service.

Thanks to Richard Smith, I unexpectedly got to attend Pecha Kucha Night 6 at its usual spot at The Park Theatre not 4 blocks from my home. I arrived late (as usual) and panicking about locking up my bike as the clock inched past 7:05.

But I needn’t have worried; the presentations got to rolling around 7:12.

I dare say that this might have been the best night of the 3 Pecha Kucha’s I’ve attended thus far. Granted, I may be biased, because I knew a whole bunch of the people who were presenting (or were mentioned by the people presenting). A couple of themes I found especially resonant:

• Bikes. Especially Momentum Magazine. Loved Toby Barratt’s look at all the bike cultures representin’ in the 604. The project is called Velo-City and it’s going to be an exhibit at the Vancouver Museum.
• Democracy. Hurrah! Fresh from spending six hours at Vancouver City Council presenting and watching the Open Data, Open Standards and Open Source motion go through, Julie Gendron’s work (notably, Serious Culture, an interactive drawing installation) and comparably understated general approach made me so giddy in my seat, I rushed out of the theatre to tell her how much I loved her presentation as she and her husband were tending to their very new baby. Smooth, I know. I was also ecstatic that she put up a screenshot of Twitter and to see an Interaction Designer in the mix.

  Jonathan Kassian, a friend from the VEDC, also had a presentation of the economics of making Vancouver amenable to creatives and green and sustainable at the same time. While I thought his presentation and delivery were excellent, the content of it came across just a smidge too Richard Florida to me — I think talent can be nurtured in not just the young, urban, design set, and that focusing purely on turning a city into what attracts them can be an iffy proposition if it marginalizes, say, the sorts of people who were in everybody else’s presentations.

• Childlike sense of joy and wonder. Erin Boniferro (working with Western Front and Jeff Hamada stick out in my memory, although I’d be remiss to not mention the whimsy of local fillmmaker Julia Kwan on growing up in East Vancouver. (As I often bemoan, there are so few people I run across who actually grew up here, it’s always worth noting.) I’m amazed by people who combine this feeling with their work, even as my inner cynic wags a responsible finger.

I’m always so terrified to talk to the people at Pecha Kucha. I can never quite overcome the nervousness that those designers and architects are just slightly too cool for me to interact with in this venue, even though I have no qualms with doing so at BarCamps or even at architecture niche gallery openings. I’m very aware that I’m a bit of a design groupie (*ahem* advocate) more than an actual proper artist or designer, and I’m generally OK with that. Knowing some of the presenters this time around helped, although I had to duck-out from post-presentation festivities because (wagging finger again) I’m recovering from being sick.

But I’m even starting to think maybe I could do one of these presentations. It would definitely be along the lines of FailCamp though. In public seems to be the best way to exorcise these sorts of things…though it’s never a guarantee.

Yesterday, in polls all across British Columbia, roughly 45% of the population entered a voting booth and cast two ballots: one asking whether to change the political system, and the other for the choice of a candidate to represent their interests in the BC legislature.

“There were no men with machine guns, no security searches and no suicide bombers at today’s voting center. We’re lucky people.” — Travis Smith

I worked one of said voting places yesterday – so when they say that every vote counts, and is counted, and is counted again, I know because I did the counting, with (at times) four pairs of watchful eyes getting my back. I was not harassed, threatened, or offered bribes. Instead, I was just really tired at the end of (what turned out for me to be) a 14-hour day, and glad I did a good job. (I may also have left with a cold, but that’s just my own fault for not working the hand sanitizer more diligently.)

I’m only now starting, after a good night’s sleep, not to have momentary flashbacks of sitting at the voting station, but these are some of my takeaways. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, Richard and I were fortunate enough to get a sneak-peek at the new Mark II SkyTrains – Mark II version 2.0, if you will, where Mark II version 1.0 are those curvy white trains that made their debut with the Millenium Line. The new ones have similar colouring both on the inside and the outside to the new buses, as well as a number of new nifty features, like the lights to indicate when the doors are closing, the lit transit system maps that help orient you to where the train is and where it’s going; and, of particular interest to me having been exposed to issues of safety and security, the in-train surveillance cameras.

Flickr: Bus Shots

As I learned on my last tour of the Edmonds SkyTrain depot, these trains will allow SkyTrain to run trains more often – but surprisingly, still bring it to something like only half of SkyTrain’s full capacity.

I decided to give video a try while checking out the new train. Check out my video report (embedded below or on YouTube).

For something a little more rigorous, Jhenifer’s got a blog post up on the Buzzer about the trains as well.

A few months back, I commandeered Richard’s iPod mini so I could improve my podcast-listening experience away from my computer (podcasts and the iPod Shuffle…makes for a little too much indirection), and I thought I’d give a bit of love to ones I’ve been enjoying:

1. Whisper House by Duncan Sheik. This is a three-part podcast describing the making of Duncan Sheik’s latest album that flows between snippets of the songs, to descriptions of the play, and the process of creating both the album and the production. Don’t be scared off by the fact that the albu is attached to Whisper House the play — the songs contribute to it without relying entirely on the listener to know what’s happening for the songs to be enjoyable, something I really liked in contrast to his previous work for Spring Awakening. This podcast is a great introduction to the music as well as the story if you’re not able to hear Duncan fill in the gaps for you in person, as I did. (I had to special order Whisper House with my local record store to get it as a CD, so the podcast also helped me get my fix as I waited the week and a half for it to arrive at the store.)
2. Spacing Radio. Continuing in the tradition of Spacing the print magazine and the Spacing blogs in Toronto and Montréal, Spacing Radio covers urban issues in a roughly 20-minute podcast format. So far, I like their catchy use of local Toronto music (which, let’s face it, I would never otherwise hear because I have absolutely no dedication to curating my musical diet), as well as their interesting and insightful interviews with players major and minor alike, such as Mayor David Miller and City of Toronto staff. They manage to keep the tone constructive and focused, while skillfully asking good questions about the policy direction and political will. Not critical enough for some who are closest to the issues, perhaps, but I think I prefer that over something that would make me grumpy or too disheartened. They’ve also done a great job merging the local interest with the international context, interviewing the London mayor responsible for their congestion tax in their first episode and, more recently, featuring a presentation of Janette Sadik-Khan talking about the awesome work New York’s Department of Transportation has been doing to promote cycling and walking in New York.
3. Of Public Interest. Friend Sameer Vasta and his co-host Darren Chartier take a laid-back but thoughtful approach to the question of how the public service can and is adapting its thinking and culture as a result of “the age of participation” as enabled by the Internet, its various tools, and the broader social context shift. The format is super-casual, consisting mostly of back-and-forths between the two in a very conversational way. Occasionally they’ve brought on guest speakers; and thanks to them (by way of Marc Drapeau), I sometimes use the word ‘goverati’. The podcast is self-effacingly low-tech with the occasional flourish. (My only (small) gripe is that Darren and Sameer have very different mic setups and in some episodes, the volume difference in their voices can grate a little.) As someone super-interested in government, I appreciate the perspective they bring by sharing their conversations. Makes for good listening leading up to Vancouver ChangeCamp!

Having lived for a little bit of time in Toronto as an adult, and more time in Vancouver (but an equal amount as an assertive, aware, reflecting adult), I’ve noticed some key differences in the way things get done in each place. I have shared my observations with some others who have spent time in both places, and it has been fairly well-received as capturing the essence of the difference. (And it is all strongly infused with the particulars of my own experience, which is slightly skewed towards the corporate and tech-focused portions of both cities. I’m confident that I’m comparing apples to apples in that sense at least. The mileage of other scenes in Vancouver and Toronto may vary – such as, say, in the public space advocacy realm.)

It makes total sense to me – in that Richard Florida way that people go to and stay in the city that “feels” right, that fits both the way they already do things, and the way they want to keep doing them.

Toronto

The way I see it, Toronto makes no apologies for its hard edges. The work atmosphere is very competitive, and, while the culture of individual organizations may vary, the general atmosphere strikes me as very pressure-driven – on a broad scale, it seems to me that people take their responsibilities quite seriously, are quite hard-working and committed to seeing things done right.

Most people perceived this negatively; and indeed, these stresses can manifest themselves in various ways or are reflected in everyday experiences. But under this enormous pressure – which I interpret as being both external, from without the individual, as well as internal, originating with individuals putting pressures on themselves – come diamonds. Incredible end products that can cut through steel, that have withstood all the rigor, scrutiny and obsession of passionate professionals. This stuff is made to last, and people run both themselves and the things they make through their own wringers to break it and make it better, long before anything else will get the chance to. People seek out, and get, feedback in all its constructive and or downright ugly forms, all in the name of failing faster and improving.

Vancouver

Vancouver prides itself on very different qualities. There’s a depth of sensing and intuitiveness in the air and the people. Here, we would prefer to grow things – and things grow by being nurtured, by having an environment that supports things flourishing. And boy, do we ever want things to happen organically. The image in my mind for this, naturally, is that of a tree. We imagine things growing large, subtly immovable.

For me, this has manifested itself in the incredible difficulty that I have experience in getting good feedback. People here don’t want to cut things down through taking the wind out of people’s sails with bitingly honest feedback – and that is often how being critical can feel like. We think that nurturing something or someone to be strong, observant, to anticipate the dangers, and to become resilient, are the ways to build something that lasts. Guiding people gently – a form of pruning, perhaps – is perceived as being more worthwhile than the kind of cutthroatness that is much more often associated with Toronto.

Now for qualifying statements

Of course, for everything I’ve written in the above two sections, all manners of counterexamples exist: there are, I’m sure, managers pulling no punches in Vancouver, and cultures that avoid giving good feedback that stifle employees and their potential in Toronto. And workaholics who can stand to stay in Vancouver probably do really well here, because it probably looks like they do even more compared to everyone else than if they were in Toronto. And I’m certainly not trying to slam anyone on either coast – coming to this theory has helped me articulate what and how I appreciate each place better than I did before.

What I’m more interested in is how these qualities can reverse themselves, taken to the limit; as well as how the makeup of the particular industries I’ve observed in Vancouver and Toronto contribute to my perception. For instance, I heard someone from the Vancouver Economic Development Corporation describe Vancouver as “post-corporate” – something like 90% of our business activity comes from companies with less than 500 employees (SME’s, although sizing may vary) – certainly a contrast from Toronto, one of the (if not flat out the) oldest settled and commercial areas of Canada. In Vancouver, events like DemoCamp probably compete with the weather and outdoor activities, as well as people’s sense of wanting to take care of themselves if they are feeling out of balance. That’s the Lotusland stereotype – but the generalization has to come from somewhere.

This is not a new observation – Montreal and Toronto have been having their spitting match for years. I certainly do not have enough experience with any of the other cities in between Vancouver and Toronto or northeastabouts to extend this any further.

But as I’ve been saying to the people that ask, I find a combination of both these aspects rounds things out nicely. I’ll take my ass kicked in Toronto any day, as happily and easily as I will remembering the joy of breathing easy in Vancouver. The key is to be proactive in observing the dynamics of one’s own individual personality are shaped by the surrounding culture, and communicating what’s needed – whether that’s breathing room in Toronto, or more rigorous feedback in Vancouver. I need to kick my own ass when I’m in Vancouver, and I need to take things less personallly when in Toronto.