Toronto, Ontario
Centennial Park Conservatory: Carp in pool inside greenhouse enjoy a peaceful existence, while the winter temperature outside is colder than seasonal average. The flora and fauna are available 365 days per year to the citizens of the city. This venue is physically smaller than the location downtown, but the scent of flowers is noticed here. (Centennial Park Conservatory, Elmcrest Road, Etobicoke, Ontario) 20190101Atlantic Avenue: Bent guard rail is ugly, cars won’t pass. There’s a set of stairs for pedestrians eastbound down into the ravine, behind the backyards on houses on Hertle Avenue. This height differential is probably associated with the lost Ashbridges Creek, that became buried as the Midway Sewer circa 1913-1915. This residential street runs just 1-½ short blocks east of Greenwood Avenue before the big drop. (Atlantic Avenue, Greenwood-Coxwell neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20190105Dumpling House: Long overdue lunch to catch up on news of family and friends, both positive and negative. Discussed wellbeing, responsibilities, and current priorities on personal projects. Good variety of choices on the menu, a challenge sharing across vegan, keto and low-carb diets. (Dumpling House, Gerrard Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20190107Systems Thinking Ontario: Wrapped up meeting @OCADsLab on chartering a #SystemsChanges program with multi-year horizons, as a change from previous #SystemsThinking Ontario meetings that were episodic. General agreement towards moving forward, lots of details to be worked out. (OCADU Strategic Innovation Lab, 205 Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20190114Rotman School: It’s always about the apps, more than better architecture or technology, says @JohnChen with @KelleherJc @PubPolicy_Munk @RotmanEvents on the success of turnaround at Sybase. Four part interview, on moving from Hong Kong to American universities, rise in Silicon Valley, coming into Blackberry, and the technology industry today. (Rotman School of Management, St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20190115Bahen Centre: Graduate seminar by Adrian K. Yee on The Rise of Nazi Mathematics 1893-1945. A guest at the Department of Mathematics, visiting cross-campus from the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology. Disclaimer on critical perspective of Germans espousing theories as superior to Jewish and French thought, well-documented by credible researchers. First indications with Felix Klein 1893 lecture at Northwestern University in USA, through to influence over journal Deutsche Mathematik that now may be in university libraries only in censored form. (Department of Mathematics, Bahen Centre, St. George Street, University of Toronto) 20190117Onsite Gallery: Panel @LisaDeanneSmith #DaveandJenn @hermeticferns @maryannecasasanta @rouzbeh92 #FelixKalmenson on Collaboration as Process @ONSITEatOCADU for winter How to Breathe Forever exhibition. Reflections on listening to each other and world in today’s Internet noise, working with material. Learning to slow down, getting away from production driven by commerce or grants. Symbiogenesis in shifting landsacpes of socio-political contexts. Allowing conscious attention, laughing at the irony of disruptions. (Onsite Gallery, OCADU, Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20190119Onsite Gallery: Polymer clay pieces @ONSITEatOCADU #DaveandJenn @hermeticferns (2017) The Wellspring, (2017) No Horizons, (2017) For Actaeon The Flower, (2017) The House Guest. Dimmed interior feels warm, in contrast to the severe cold temperature warning outside. (Onsite Gallery, OCADU, Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20190119World Sew Centre: Had zipper heads replaced while I watched, as my winter coat was opening up on walks during the severe cold temperature warning. Previously had brought in wife’s coat to buy an exact match for a broken zipper, and was advised by the clerk that the teeth were fine, so just the zipper heads would be a cheaper and immediate fix. Trust the judgement of the shopkeeper. (World Sew Centre, Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20190119Xpace Cultural Centre: In solo show @arezustudio (2019) Fortune Flavors the Bold @xpacecc, artist fills room with good luck symbols inspired by growing up with a mother who immigrated from Hong Kong. Second generation children typically lose their heritage language, so the appreciation of the distant culture comes only indirectly. Sign at the door welcomes visitors in, provided shoes are removed, which mirrors a custom in Chinese homes. (Xpace Cultural Centre, Lansdowne Avenue, Brockton Village, Toronto, Ontario) 20190126CSI 192: In era of big data, semantic web gives meaning @andrewiliadis @DecimalUOIT @UOITCDMS speaker series. From seminal work of #JohnSowa and #DougLenat, semantics solves many varieties of data described in heterogeneous ways, with controlled vocabularies of preferred tags. Schemas, graphs, ontologies now in the age of social media and search engines. (Centre for Social Innovation, Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20190128CSI 192: Despite campaigns to disconnect from Facebook, @karppi @DecimalUOIT @UOITCDMS speaker series says that most people are still online. Facebook is still the most popular social platform, and continues to grow in less developed countries. Community now framed in terms of engagement, continuing to encourage bonds that dissuade users from leaving. (Centre for Social Innovation, Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20190128Bissell Building: Vision by @smgrimes for prior @SemaphoreTO research cluster launched in 2012, amalgamating into @kmdi established 1996 @UofTInfoFaculty. Renewed energy for design-oriented research and research-oriented design with more public discussion on people’s issues with technology, including the marginalized. This generation of researchers share philosophical roots in critical theory. (Bissell Building, Faculty of Information, St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20190129
SystemsThinkingTO: New Year, New Direction, after two years with looser agenda, @DerailleurAgile seeking more defined path. Reviewing quantitative statistics for SystemssThinkingTO meetup over past year, didn’t give much insight. Facilitated attendees, building up responses first by individuals, then in pairs, and then fours. Responses mapped out with a dialogue map generated discussion towards converging a program for the rest of the year. (SystemsThinkingTO, LoyaltyOne, King Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20190130
While the term “theory of change” is often used by funders expecting an outcome of systems change for their investment, is there really a theory there? The November 2020 Systems Thinking Ontario session was an opportunity for Peter H. Jones (OCADU) and Ryan J. A. Murphy (Memorial U. of Newfoundland) to extend talks that they […]
For the third of three workshops by the Systems Changes Learning Circle in October 2020, Kelly Okamura, Dan Eng and Joanne Dong led a Beacon Event for Global Change Days. This session was one in a series for global changemakers. Our expectation was that they would be hands-on practitioners, with relatively low familiarity with systems […]
For the second of three workshops by the Systems Changes Learning Circle in October 2020, we convened a session for the monthly Systems Thinking Ontario meeting. The focus of this workshop was a review of progress to date on methods by the scholarly team, informed by the adoption and use by the field team. The […]
For the first of three workshops by the Systems Changes Learning Circle in October 2020, Zaid Khan led a session for the Relating Systems Thinking and Design RSD9 Symposium. Our team had developed a set of reference slides for the three workshops, from which content that would most resonate with the audience could be selected. […]
Two Major Research Projects (MRPs) — they might be called master’s theses elsewhere — by Zaid Khan and David Akermanis reflect the Systemic Design agenda within the OCADU program on Strategic Foresight and Innovation (SFI). To graduate, all SFI students complete an MRP. With many subjects and techniques covered during SFI studies, only a […]
While it’s important to appreciate the systems thinking foundations laid down by the Tavistock Institute and U. Pennsylvania Social Systems Science (S3, called S-cubed) program, practically all of the original researchers are no longer with us. Luminaries who have passed include Eric L. Trist (-1993), Fred E. Emery (-1997), and Russell L. Ackoff (-2009). This […]
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 ›
In web conference, #HermanDaly says #EcologicalEconomics used to get attacked from the right, now it's from the left. Panel @revkin @jon_d_erickson @ktkish @sophiesanniti #TimCrowshaw #KatieHorner livestreamed #sustainwhat .Read more ›
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 ›
Understanding Process-Function Ecology by Ashwani Vasishth leads to luminaries in the systems sciences, including C. West Churchman, Eugene P. Odum and Timothy F.H. Allen.
As an irony, the 2020 book, The Innovation Delusion by #LeeVinsel @STS_News + #AndrewLRussell @RussellProf shouldn’t be seen as an innovation, but an encouragement to join @The_Maintainers where an ongoing thought network can continue. The subtitle “How Our Obsession with the New has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most” recognizes actual innovation, as distinct from […]
An online social network reproduces content partially based on algorithms, and partially based on the judgements made by human beings. Either may be viewed as positive or negative. > The trade-offs came into focus this month [November 2020], when Facebook engineers and data scientists posted the results of a series of experiments called “P(Bad for […]
Social Systems Science graduate students in 1970s-1980s with #RussellAckoff, #EricTrist + #HasanOzbehkhan at U. Pennsylvania Wharton School were assigned the Penguin paperback #SystemsThinking reader edited by #FredEEmery, with updated editions evolving contents.
Resurfacing 1968 Buckley, “Modern Systems Research for the Behavioral Scientist: A Sourcebook” for interests in #SystemsThinking #SocioCybernetics #GeneralSystemsTheory #OrganizationScience . Republication in 2017 hardcopy may be more complete.
Proponents of #SystemsThinking often espouse holism to counter over-emphasis on reductionism. Reading some definitions from an encyclopedia positions one in the context of the other (François 2004).
