Toronto, Ontario; Hämeenlinna, Finland; Helsinki, Finland
Booth Avenue: Lightning struck tree, three fire trucks for house south of us. Hose filled briefly to extinguish for in tall tree. Electrical power to the block is off, wondering if transformer is impacted. Heavy rain is subsiding. (Booth Avenue, Riverside district, Toronto, Ontario) 20170804Copenhagen Airport: Enjoying the wood floors at the Copenhagen Airport, en route to Helsinki. I prefer the Danish style on the short connections, I should come for a real visit sometime. (Copenhagen Airport, Denmark) 20170809Tikkurila:. Suburban hub where airport rail ring connects to main northbound intercity line towards Tampere. Large station connects with buses, many shops inside. Half hour wait was made longer by train 30 minutes behind schedule. Might have hopped on commuter train instead, but tickets are specific to times. .(Tikkurila, Finland) 20170809Visamaki: First workshop for Open Häme project since its official funding, discussing plans for open data activities in the region. Meeting conducted mostly in Finnish, my presentation a theoretical break in English. (HAMK UAS Visamäki C-Building, Hämeenlinna, Finland) 20170810Verkatehdas: Elomessut weekend fair for Kanta-Häme region, at the civic centre. Live performances, and kiosk tents from local associations and businesses. Wide cross section of local residents in a small town by the river. (Verkatehdas, Hämeenlinna, Finland) 20170812Kotkankatu: Fusion cooking with Finnish homemade vintage apple cider added to Korean sweet potato noodles in vegan japchae. Bean curd sticks with shitake mushrooms and oyster sauce are classic Chinese monk food. Last time I made mapo tofu for MT and PT, it included the ground pork that they now prefer to avoid. Cooking in this household is always a team sport. (Kotkankatu, Hameenlinna, Finland) 20170812Verkkokauppa: Sunday shopping in busy store, slow moves from waiting for salesperson, to roaming store with pager until merchandise brought upstairs, to long check out line. Friend amused as I squeezed in some extra questions of clerk out of order, as a rudeness excusable to foreigners but not locals. Computer parts to prepare laptop for another year behind the Chinese firewall. (Verkkokauppa, Tyynenmerenkatu, Helsinki, Finland) 20170813Harald Herlin Learning Centre: University library was been remodelled as more of a central gathering place for students. Coffee stand at entry level overlooks two-story atrium into work spaces below, with cloud-like light fixtures suspended from the ceiling. The streets outside are still under construction, with a new building at the hub. (Harald Harlin Learning Centre, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland) 20170814Metropolia Arabianranta: Building ties across institutions, regions, nations. Localized funding can still support global projects. Meeting in previous Media Factory, temporary space for one year as the university reconfigures prior spaces. (Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Arabianranta, Helsinki, Finland) 20170816Vantaa Gate 22: Mobile installation of white sheets above an airport gate moves slowly with the air flows higher in the terminal. Walked from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 in hopes of viewing the advertised art installations at Gate 31, but aborted that plan when the long linear nature of the terminal emperiled catching my departure from Gate 15. There used to be an art installation in Terminal 1, now since replaced by a boring row of carrals for working. (Helsinki Airport, Vantaa, Finland) 201708173600 Steeles Ave. E.: IBM Master Clock built circa 1945 in Endicott, NY, on display in the corridor outside IBM Canada HQ module A2. Noticed artifact on a “take your father to work day” informally with my son, as I had a lunch meeting with a friend. (IBM Canada Ltd., 3600 Steeles Avenue East, Markham, Ontario) 20170823 Edward Gardens: Renewal of vows for the 32nd time. Fountain was drained of water. Temperature was coolest that we remember. Park was full with concert listeners for jazz group. (Edward Gardens, Don Mills, Ontario) 20170824Edward Gardens: Ducks flocking to creek bank for snacks. Most paths from gardens at higher level closed, blocked for maintenance. Some bridges closed due to recovery from high waters. (Edward Gardens, Don Mills, Ontario) 20170824 Yorkville Park: Strolling south on Bellair Avenue, the urban park is lit up by green mist-emitting light columns between rows of trees. We usually don’t frequent this high-end neighbourhood. Unusually, we went for a movie on a Saturday night, with a one-week promotion of Tuesday night pricing. (Yorkville Park, Bellair Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20170826
Carroll Street: Public art launch with hoop dancer Nimkii Osawamick, celebrating Tkaranto Past / Tkaranto Future mural. West and south walls of The Edwin building had painting concept led by artist Odinamaad, in partnership with Chief Lady Bird and Dave Monday Oguorie, collaborating with Traditional Wisdom Keeper Philip Cote and youth participants from Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre. Support by Riverside BIA with City of Toronto StreetARToronto program. (Carroll Street, Riverside District, Toronto, Ontario) 20170827
The fourth of four lectures for the Systemic Design course at OCADU SFI focused on (a) situated practice + history-making (reframing disclosing new worlds), and on (b) commitments and the language-action perspective (applying conversations for action).
The third of four lectures for the Systemic Design course at OCADU covered value(s), the science of service systems, and the socio-technical systems perspective.
A lecture on ecological systems for the OCADU SFI master's program opened up opportunities to discuss wei and wuwei, and get beyond an anthropocentric perspective the Canadian beaver in its habitat.
The second session of the Systemic Design course in the OCADU SFI master's program was an opportunity to share the current state of knowledge on Systems Change, in light of recent interest in Systems Change and Theory of Change.
A workshop with David L. Hawk at the CANSEE meeting in May 2019 led to an invitation to publish an article, "Ecology and Economy: Systems Changes Ahead?" in WEI Magazine.
Questions about governance of online social communities led to launching on the Open Learning Commons and the Digital Life Collective, while issues of content moderation on a Facebook Group has reignited.
Complementing the idea of a @longnow , @nfergus provokes the challenge of a #shortthen as the online social media platforms distract the larger perspectives on history.Read more ›
Social ecology and environmental psychology described @dstokols @Social_Ecology , interviewed by @katiepatrick . References #WilliamsJames on attention. Book on Social Ecology in the Digital Age released in 2018.Read more ›
Concerns on #personaldata should be reframed as interpersonal, says @sheldrake , less the nodes and more the edge connections. “I want to take back control” superficial, @hartzog says control doesn’t scale. Agency is about negotiation in the world, more rhizomatic…Read more ›
Doing science should be wayfinding (pathfinding), says #TimIngold , gaining grounding in the art of paying attention, towards research as the pursuit of truth. Truth is more than objective facts, where science and art are embraced with materials, so that we can see the quality inside the natural world as it forms, rather than as […]
We should be more vigourous, says @MazzucatoM , in debating differences between value extraction and value creation, and between profits and rents. Lecture at Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford U., January 2019Read more ›
Most destructive analogy last 100 years @DavidGelernter @econtalker : Post-Turing thinkers decided that brains were organic computers, that computation was a perfect model of what minds do ... and that mind relates to brain as software relates to computer Read more ›
Two ways of thinking about practice put (i) “plans as determinants of action”, and (ii) “plans as resources for action”. The latter has become a convention, particularly through research into Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW). While the more durable explanation appears the Suchman (1987) book (specifically section “8.2 Plans as […]
Does “the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago and the second best time is now” date back further than 1988? It is time to look long and hard at the value of the urban forest and create the broad-based efforts — in research, funding and citizen participation — needed to improve […]
Workshop led by @RohanAlexander and @prof_lyons at #CASCONxEvoke on "Barriers to Data Science Adoption: Why Existing Frameworks Aren't Working". For discussion purposes the challenges are grouped within three themes: regulatory; investment; and workforce.
“You are entitled to your own opinions, but not to your own facts” by #DanielPatrickMoynihan is predated on @Freakonomics by #BernardMBaruch 1950 “Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts”. Source: “There Are Opinions, And Then There Are Facts” | Fred Shapiro […]
Satire can be an antidote, says Prof. #PaulBabbitt @muleriders , to #bullshit (c.f. rhetoric; hypocrisy; crocodile tears; propaganda; intellectual dishonesty; politeness, etiquette and civility; commonsense and conventional wisdom; symbolic votes; platitudes and valence issues).
