Toronto, Ontario; Mississauga, Ontario; London, Ontario
The Rex: Not yet CD for @mikedownesmusic @TedQuinlan @Larnell_Lewis @robibotos, still working towards release with original compositions. Audience rather full for a Thursday night, as jazz lovers anticipate some of the top players in town. (The Rex, Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20170202Avonwick: Superbowl big screen, switched to U.S. tv station to watch commercials from original broadcast instead of Canadian simulcast. Annual event has most of us spending more time on visiting with friends, we’re not really football spectators. (Avonwick, Mississauga, Ontario) 20170205Luen Hop: Passport photo studio at back of dry goods store in Chinatown East, getting recent shot for visa for Shanghai visit in April. Studio no longer does photo processing, and only takes portraits three times per week. Weather was clear today for a quick bike ride over. (Luen Hop, Broadview Avenue, Riverdale district, Toronto, Ontario) 20170206China Visa: Drop-off visa application only 20 minutes with appointment. Fewer customers than last year, almost all Asian faces. Turnaround in 3 days as non-express, maybe a post-Chinese New Year trough. Freezing rain outside, slid on sidewalk to bang left knee. (China Visa Application Service, University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20170207The Grad Club: Leisurely roast beef with Yorkshire pudding lunch in university pub. Snowy walk across campus, weather is more wintery in this region than back home. (The Grad Pub, Middlesex Center, Western University, London, Ontario) 20170210Anestis Taverna: Attracted to resto by friendly wave from the grill at the front window. Impromptu dinner scheduled in a newer resto in Greektown, good moussaka and souvlaki Winter storm redirected driving route away from crossing 401, through to downtown and then uptown again. (Anestis Taverna, Danforth Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20170210Willcocks Street: Temperature swing up over 10 degrees C in mid February a new record for Toronto. Wore sunglasses on bike ride to U. Toronto and Chinatown. Campus may be quieter than usual, at start of reading week. (Willcocks Street, University of Toronto) 20160218Seor Ak San: Family Day leisure for Korean cuisine. Decided on Chinatown district, first restaurant choice was queued up, went to strong alternative for a change of pace. Sons assessed quality as better than equivalents in Beijing, where they ate a lot of food in this style. (Seor Ak San, Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20160120Ted Rogers School: Intro to R Programming @BigDataU with @polonglin lecturing. welcome by @regionomics. Free meetup for beginners to data science, most attendees in room are novices. Attending to see how class is taught, will discuss variants for different target audiences afterwards. (Ted Rogers School of Management, Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20170222Betty’s: After @DrupalTO meetup, social @BettysOnKing. Large group accommodated on a Monday night, casual time discussing common technical experiences. Some familiar faces from previous events. (Betty’s, King Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20170227
Dundas Street W at St. Patrick Street: Eastbound slight jog south formerly called Anderson Street in the 1910s was rerouted with alignments for the Toronto Railway Company before 1921, west of University Avenue. Further west from McCaul Street, the previously named St. Patrick Street became Dundas Street, leaving the label for north-south Dummer Street to became the new St. Patrick Street. Older cities pieced together throughways in modernity. (Dundas Street West at St. Patrick Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20160228
For the November 2023 Systems Thinking Ontario session, historian and policy advisor Dr. Michael Bonner was invited for an interview by Zaid Khan. In organizing the sessions, we’re trying to avoid the trap of systems thinking becoming a discipline, through learning with a sweeping-in process. The session opened on a map of The Sassanid Empire […]
It the systems sciences are an open system, then learning more and more about systems of interest are foundational. This was called a sweep-in process by C. West Churchman, in the heritage of Edgar A. Singer. Jr. A concise definition is found in the entry on “Experimentalism” in the International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics: […]
For the Relating Systems and Design RSD12 symposium on October 14, 2023, members of the Explainers subgroup of the Systems Changes Learning Circle conducted an in-person workshop on “Explaining Systems Changes Learning: Metaphors and translations” at OCADU in Toronto. RSD12 included both in-person sessions and online sessions. In the planning phase for the symposium, our […]
Judith Rosen agreed to give an online presentation for the Systems Thinking Ontario meeting in October 2023, after we converted her in-person meeting at OCADU in August into a discussion circle. Channelling the anticipatory systems approach of her father, mathematical biologist Robert Rosen, Judith has been extended those ideas in her own continuing observation of […]
An article related to the ISSS plenary talk of July 2022 has now passed the peer review process, and is published in early view for Systems Research and Behavioral Science. It should shortly be printed in the November issue of SRBS that serves as the General Systems Yearbook. Update on Nov. 22, 2023: A full-text, […]
In a return to original Systems Thinking Ontario format, we reviewed an (old) systems thinking paper from 1998. Mohammed Badrah served as reviewer. Kelly Okamura was the discussant. The author, David Hawk, was available during the discussion period for extended knowledge. As compared to prior Systems Thinking Ontario sessions with the word “entropy” in the […]
Following the first day lecture on Philosophy of Chinese Medicine 1 for the Global University for Sustainability, Keekok Lee continued on a second day on some topics: * Anatomy as structure; physiology as function (and process); * Process ontology, and thing ontology; * Qi ju as qi-in-concentrating mode, and qi san as qi-in-dissipsating mode; and […]
The philosophy of science underlying Classical Chinese Medicine, in this lecture by Keekok Lee, provides insights into ways in which systems change may be approached, in a process ontology in contrast to the thing ontology underlying Western BioMedicine. Read more ›
In conversation, @zeynep with @ezraklein reveal authentic #SystemsThinking in (i) appreciating that “science” is constructed by human collectives, (ii) the west orients towards individual outcomes rather than population levels; and (iii) there’s an over-emphasis on problems of the moment, and…Read more ›
In the question-answer period after the lecture, #TimIngold proposes art as a discipline of inquiry, rather than ethnography. This refers to his thinking On Human Correspondence. — begin paste — [75m26s question] I am curious to know what art, or…Read more ›
How might our society show value for the long term, over the short term? Could we think about taxation over time, asks @carlotaprzperez in an interview: 92% for 1 day; 80% within 1 month; 50%-60% tax for 1 year; zero tax for 10 years.Read more ›
For the @ArchFoundation, #TimIngold distinguishes outcome-oriented making from process-oriented growing, revisiting #MartinHeidegger “Building Dwelling Thinking”. Organisms are made; artefacts grow. The distinction seems obvious, until you stop to ask what assumptions it contains, about the inside and outside of things…Read more ›
The selection of readings in the “Introduction” to Systems Thinking: Selected Readings, volume 2, Penguin (1981), edited by Fred E. Emery, reflects a turn from 1969 when a general systems theory was more fully entertained, towards an urgency towards changes in the world that were present in 1981. Systems thinking was again emphasized in contrast […]
In reviewing the original introduction for Systems Thinking: Selected Readings in the 1969 Penguin paperback, there’s a few threads that I only recognize, many years later. The tables of contents (disambiguating various editions) were previously listed as 1969, 1981 Emery, System Thinking: Selected Readings. — begin paste — Introduction In the selection of papers for this […]
In a recording of the debate between Michael Quinn Patton and Michael C. Jackson on “Systems Concepts in Evaluation”, Patton referenced four concepts published in the “Principles for effective use of systems thinking in evaluation” (2018) by the Systems in Evaluation Topical Interest Group (SETIG) of the American Evaluation Society. The four concepts are: (i) […]
How might the quality of an action research initiative be evaluated? — begin paste — We have linked our five validity criteria (outcome, process, democratic, catalytic, and dialogic) to the goals of action research. Most traditions of action research agree on the following goals: (a) the generation of new knowledge, (b) the achievement of action-oriented […]
After 90 minutes on phone and online chat with WesternUnion, the existence of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland is denied, so I can’t send money from Canada. TicinoTurismo should be unhappy. The IT developers at Western Union should be dissatisfied that customer support agents aren’t sending them legitimate bug reports I initially tried the […]
