Toronto, Ontario; Portland, Oregon; Markham, Ontario
CSI 192: At Climate Ventures space @csiTO for afternoon meeting. Discussed programs, research, potential peer circle topics. Open to new ideas for the new cohort. I’m thinking that starting small may work better for emerging methods. (Centre for Social Innovation, 192 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20181004Harbourfront Centre: Finnish style in Mervi Haapakoski (2018) Untitled hot-sculpted glass and driftwood stands out in Nordic Glass displays. Reminds me that this is the first calendar year in more than a decade when I haven’t been in Helsinki. Exhibit reminisces on Orrefors, Iitala and Kosta Boda mid-20th century. Poignant that the glass artist originally at Taik moved to Canada, and recently to Cape Breton. (Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Ontario) 20181005 Thanksgiving dinner: Opening home to extended family and friends, for a non-turkey menu. Main course of Chinese beef stew, plus vegan mushrooms with beancurd sticks (foo jook), gai lan (broccoli), fuzzy melon (dit gwa) soup, beet-carrot salad. Vegan pumpkin pie and coconut milk ice cream to accommodate dietary restrictions. Of all attendees, I was the one who liked turkey most, before I gave up meat. (Riverside neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20181007Old Vic: Thanksgiving Day @VicCollege_UofT with some graduate students of History and Philosophy for Science and Technology in the office, late afternoon. Front door to building was locked. Scooped nephew up to bike downtown for jazz and turkey dinner. (Victoria College, University of Toronto, Charles Street, Toronto, Ontario 20181008Design with Dialogue: Journeys to Systems Change session led by @redesign, sketched by @playthink@dwdTO. Prereading based on report on @si_exchange meeting at Wasan Island in June. (Lambert Lounge, OCADU, McCaul Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20181010Matty Eckler Rec Centre: Cast ballot in advance poll for municipal election. Second of four days, before official voting day in 11 days. Convinced I’m not going to change my mind, no line-up and three marks on a long sheet of paper took 2 minutes. (Matty Eckler Recreation Centre, Gerrard Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20181011University College: Not usual West Hall for @UCBookSale, as major renovation blocks the way to many rooms. Selected a few systems books that are hard to find. Slightly disconcerted to find an edition inscribed from one researcher to another, both whom I’ve known and are no longer with us. (Laidlaw Library, University College, University of Toronto, Ontario) 20181012HackLabTO: Remote @HackLabTO celebration of @longnow 50th anniversary of Whole Earth Catalog, @MrEricBoyd served homemade chocolate cake. Comparing August 1972 edition of The Last Whole Earth Catalog with the 1986 Ten Years of Coevolution Quarterly, with 2013 Cool Tools, and with 2006 World Changing. (HackLabTO, Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20181013Sony Centre: Internet of Drones camera hovering over model field #IBMInnovate, displayed on large screen. Catching up on evolving technologies, found a few familiar faces I haven’t seen in a while. (Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, Front Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20181018 Seeley Hall: Second day alumni book sale @Trinity_College busy at midday, line up to check out. Recognized some of the books from the five boxes donated earlier in the year. Picked up some volumes not readily available from the library, trying to not fill up our basement. (Seeley Hall, Trinity College, Hoskin Avenue, University of Toronto, Ontario) 20181019CSI 192: First Climate Ventures peer circle on Systems Thinking @csiTO. Sketching on flipchart sheet as a reference artifact to keep track of conversation on the complex versus the complicated. Informal meeting was scheduled on short notice, we’ll try to meet Monday afternoons every three weeks. (Centre for Social Innovation, 192 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20181022Portland International Airport: MAX light rail train to Portland city center from airport is a low-stress 30-minute ride through industrial parks and along freeway. Fare is economical, and staff is friendly. Major turning loop at Gateway NE 99th Transit Center has a theme park feel. (Portland International Airport, Portland, Oregon) 20181024PUARL – University of Oregon: Gamemaster @chrisimweb@PLoPcon leads participants in a chair-switching exercise. Most of the first full day has been focused in four parallel writing groups, thinking together in smaller circles. Conference is intimate and relaxed. (Portland Urban Architecture Research Lab, University or Oregon, NW Couch Street, Portland, Oregon) 20181024 PLoP 2018: Morning team-building exercise @PLoPCon of balancing a tennis ball with each only lending a fingertip, to move together without dropping, towards the door. in-person experiences with colleagues enable learning more than the purely rational review of pattern languages in writer’s circles later. (Pattern Languages of Programs, University of Oregon, Couch Street NW, Portland, Oregon). 20181025PLoP 2018: Afternoon energizing dance led by @MaryLynnManns@PLoPCon to wake up attendees expending mental energy. Catering of snacks has been excellent, so opportunities to physically burn calories are welcomes. (Pattern Languages of Programs, University of Oregon, Couch Street NW, Portland, Oregon) 20181025PLoP 2018: Focus group @PLoPCon on A Pattern Language Canvas for Real Time Innovation led by Wolfgang Stark from U. Duisburg-Essen. Seeking feedback on pattern language in cards in beta, translated into English from German. (Pattern Languages of Programs, University of Oregon, NW Couch Street, Portland, Oregon) 20181025PLoP 2018: Traditional closing ceremony @PLoPCon, tossing ball of yarn to connect to other attendees remembered in the meeting. After the threads have fully unravelled, the web is tossed in the parachute. (Pattern Languages of Programs conference, University of Oregon, NW Couch Street, Portland, Oregon) 20181026PUARL 2018: Plenary @wardcunningham, Yodan Rofe and @michaelwmehaffy on “A Pattern Language for Rapid Urbanization: Launching a Digital Pattern Language Repository”. After taking turns at podium, received questions from the audience. (Portland Urban Architecture Research Lab International Conference, NW Couch Street, Portland, Oregon) 20181026PUARL 2018: Fishbowl panel on The Future of Pattern Language moderated by Wolfgang Stark, initially with Hajo Neis, Yohan Rode, Susan Ingham and Richard Sickinger. (Portland Urban Architecture Research Lab International Conference, NW Couch Street, Portland, Oregon) 20181027Suwannaphum Thai: Dinner meeting with @takashiiba, Wolfgang Stark and Richard Sickinger to discuss Purplsoc 2019, one year away. We’re all attending PUARL, that alternates pattern language meetings in years and continents. None of us getting to see much of the town, with the day packed with plenaries and workshops. (Suwannaphum Thai, SW Pine Street, Portland, Oregon) 20181027PUARL 2018: Closing fishbowl review of conference, starting with the youngest at the meeting. Generally positive response, some disappointment at small crossover to PUARL from PLoP attendees. Finishing up near 5pm on a Sunday afternoon, those departing for earlier flights were forgiven. (Portland Urban Architecture Research Lab International Conference, NW Couch Street, Portland, Oregon) 20181028 Pioneer Courthouse Square: Signpost citing distances includes some destinations en route home via air flights. Rainy Sunday dusk walk from U. Oregon on the north, into the city center at south revealed wide streets with light traffic and few pedestrians. (Pioneer Courtyard Square, SW 6th Avenue, Portland, Oregon) 20181028YVR: Direct shuttle buses from U.S. arrivals immigration to domestic Canadian gates removes prior anxieties of racing across the YVR terminal, and having to go through x-ray security a second time. A human guide giving directions is welcomed, but an exterior route outside the terminal could be chilly in winter. This expediting suggests the terminal layout might not have been as well done as originally thought. (Vancouver International Airport, British Columbia) 20181029CASCON: Qubits #casconquantum by @jessicapointing explained with two-sided donuts that flip. Applications of exponential complexity that are computationally hard in binary von Neumann architecture may be tractably linear with quantum computing. Today’s quantum hardware is still at the state where vacuum tubes were in the 1950s, we might expect coevolving knowledge development in coming decades. (CASCON, 28th Annual International Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering, Hilton Suites, Markham) 20181030 CASCON: iCity workshop #cascon with Jesse Coleman @TO_Transport + Judy Farvolden @UofTTRI, with @CodeZebra moderating. Analytics and visualization in progress with the King Street Transit Pilot, towards end of collecting data to enable evidence-based decision-making at City Hall. (CASCON, 28th Annual International Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering, Hilton Suites, Markham) 20181031
Highland Farms: Ontario-grown Flemish Beauty pears in abundance, later in October than I expected. Local grocery chain is an autumn destination for a Proustian memory of the tree at my grandfather’s house in the 1960s, at the southeast corner of Beverley Street and Cecil Street. I picked pears of this variety in the late 1970s when I was an undergraduate student at UToronto, but the City removed the tree in the early 1980s. (Highland Farms, Ellesmere Road, Scarborough, Ontario) 20181031
The February 2019 Systems Thinking Ontario meeting was an opportunity to bring those unfamiliar with the work of Christopher Alexander on methods revealed in the Eishin School and Multi-Service Centers projects.
The wholeness generated through pattern language may be influenced by stronger foundations from advances in the systems sciences, not just in built environments, but also in other domains.
An invitation to give a talk at IBM Research Almaden presented an opportunity to trace the history of science of pattern language, as it developed inside the company, and with the external community.
An invitation as a keynote presenter at the 2018 International Conference on Smart Cities and Urban Design (SCUD) was initiated on a recommendation by Susu Nousala to the program chair WU Jing. Blending the conference theme with my recent doctoral research, I proposed the topic “Innovation Learning for Sustainability: What’s smarter for urban systems”? For […]
The March 2018 lecture on Architecting for Wicked Messes for the OCAD SFI Understanding Systems and Systemic Design course was influenced having just taught Systems Methods at UToronto, and launching the Open Innovation Learning book.
The idea of managers being proactive only dates back to 1964, as classes of functions described by Abraham Zaleznik: homeostatic, mediative, and proactive. Predispositions may or may not be altered through educational development.
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 ›
Before judging democratic systems over authoritarian, examine the functioning of governments through its diplomats, where plutocracy has an alternative in meritocracy, says @mahbubani_k @longnow @asiasocietysfx. [1:19:30] … when people compare the American government with the Chinese government, they say: “This…Read more ›
The story of #JosephNeedham by @simonwwriter, about the scholar behind the 27-volume Science and Civilisation in China starting in 1954 and continuing after his death in 1995. Arriving in China in 1942, Needham discovered gunpowder, printing and the magnetic compass…Read more ›
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).
If we don’t first know “what is system is”, how do we approach an intervention? #MichaelCJackson OBE and Dr. #LuisGSambo appreciate the difference between “systems thinking” (plural) and “system dynamics” (singular), and suggest expanding theory with Critical #SystemThinking in Health Systems Research. An ignorance of history is, if anything, even more pronounced among those authors […]
In deciphering Yin-Yang and Five Elements (Five Phases) thinking, #Kaptchuk (1983) has a footnote and then an appendix that clarifies the way forward for appreciating foundations of Chinese medicine favouring the former.
The field theory in psychology by #KurtLewin 1943 derives from classical field theory (viz. electromagnetism and gravitation), predating quantum field theory (viz. subatomic particles). For psychology, Lewin wrote in 1943 how history (and a subjective view of the future) matters. It is correct that field theory emphasizes the importance of the fact that any event […]
Many who cite #KurtLewin haven't read the original 1947/1951 writings, say @strategybuild @ToddBridgman @kgbphd with the "refreezing" part of "unfreezing → changing → refreezing" emerging in a subsequent career of an idea that can be traced genealogically and archaeologically.
Human organizations may learn from wolves, with groups of 2 to 6 taking down elk, and cooperative expert groups of 9 to 13+ taking down larger bison. #DanielMacNulty, #AimeeTallian #DanielRStahler #DouglasWSmith (2014).
