Toronto, Ontario
Heartland: Annual Superbowl party, a tradition running back decades to years when our children were toddlers. Some familiar faces, and we’re drawing in new friends every year. Arrived in time to watch the backyard barbeque operating in above-freezing temperatures. (Heartland, Mississauga, Ontario) 20190203Mozilla: Kickoff meeting for #P2P #DWeb Toronto, hosted by @dcwalk_, group comfortable in the couches @mocotoOH. Presentations on #FederatedWiki #FriefunkLeverkusen #Fediverse drew conversations on building smaller communities of interest, with privileges and responsibilities of conscious governance. (Peer-to-peer and Decentralized Web Toronto, Mozilla, Adelaide Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20190207Royal Myanmar: Dinner with @StallmanRM @FSF inviting the activists @CivicTechTO to gain some insight into discussions on privacy concerns @QuaysideToronto, We outlined but didn’t delve into the complexity of three levels of government involved in @WaterfrontTO. #RichardStallman enjoys diverse cuisines in the variety of cities he visits, with commutes to obscure locations a minor inconvenience. (Royal Myanmar, Horner Avenue, Etobicoke, Ontario) 20190208 CC-BY David Ing 2019Lalibela: Ethiopian lunch means eating without cutlery, and using fingers. Relaxed Saturday family gathering, relaxing and catching up on everyone’s work week. The grilled tibs are always memorable. Breaking up whole grilled fish with bare hands gives a caveman feel. (Lalibela, Danforth Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20190209Riverside neighbourhood: A single candle on a cake is sufficient. The family consumed third and then fourth servings of a wonderful homemade vegan banana cake, with frosting less sweet than commercial offerings. A little later, the house was quiet with everyone taking naps to recover from hectic work lives. (Riverside neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20190209OCADU sLab: Formal welcome #SystemsThinking Ontario @redesign. #PatternLanguage legacy via former 1970s-era Berkeley students of #ChristopherAlexander, deeper reading of 1967 Systems Generating Systems http://coevolving.com/commons/20190211-systems-changes-learning-alexander-legacy sparked thinking of attendees. (Systems Thinking Ontario, Strategic Innovation Lab, Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20190211The Rex: Displaced #DesignWithDialogue on What Matters led by @redesign turned into #DineWithDialogue with live jazz channelling attendees to listen more intently in small groups. University building was unexpectedly locked down completely for statutory holiday. We can handle the unexpected, moving one block north. (The Rex, Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20180218CSI Annex: Pitch night #AgentsOfChange @ClimateCSI @csiTO winners @BIOPolynet $10000, @spentgoods $6000, @app_feedback $4000, selected by judges based on 5-minutes presentations over finalists @FreeGeekToronto and @freshrents. Thirteen 90-second standup speeches were voted on by the audience of 300 attendees. Event attracted many non-CSI members, as a great way to generate interest. (Centre for Social Innovation Annex, Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20190222
SystemsThinkingTO: Frustrations in law firms @KarenSkinner @DavidFSkinner @GimbalCanada leading to lean improvement. Exercise in drawing a pig, first try is free form, second try following a long page of text specifications, third try following a sketch. Instead of words, easier to follow a map or modify a standard template. Not everything needs to be a specialized art. (Systems Thinking TO, Loyalty One, King Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20190225
The book Ecological Limits to Development: Living with the Sustainable Development Goals, published in 2002 by Routledge, was released as open access in 2023 by Taylor-Francis for readers who don’t have access to a university library. For the March edition of Systems Thinking Ontario, we were honoured to celebrate the release with editor-coauthors Kaitlin Kish […]
A special issue on “Sustainable, Smart and Systemic Design Post-Anthropocene: Through a Transdisciplinary Lens” in the Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics edited by Marie Davidová, Susu Nousala, and Thomas J. Marlowe has been released. In that issue, the journey of the Systems Changes Learning Circle from 2019 through 2022 is reviewed. The editorial team, […]
In the ISSS 2022 Plenary talk, the first 25 minutes were a blast through (a) the rising interest in system(s) change(s); (b) appreciative systems (Vickers); (c1) the philosophy of architectural design; (c2) the philosophy of ecological anthropology; (c3) the philosophy of Classical Chinese Medicine; (c4) the philosophy of rhythms; and (d) methods of multiparadigm inquiry, […]
The theme for the February online meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario was sparked from the discussion from the January session on Root Metaphor and World Hypotheses. What does it mean to have a theory? How does sensemaking contribute to this? Gary Metcalf volunteered to guide a conversation on these topics. Two prereadings were to serve […]
Philosophy underlies the distinction in the three volumes of the Tavistock Anthology: founded on the World Hypotheses of Stephen C. Pepper, the Socio-Psychological Systems Perspective and the Socio-Technical Systems Perspectives are based on Organicism, while the Socio-Ecological Systems Perspective is based on Contextualism. This thread on contextualism can be traced from the association between E.C. […]
Researching the philosophical foundations of systems theory to understand the meanings of “causal texture, contextualism, contextural” from the Tavistock legacy led to philosopher Stephen C. Pepper. The philosophical lineage and contributions of Pepper were the focus for the January online meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario. A deep reading of Pepper’s work (over a month!) was […]
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 ›
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 […]
An online version of a special issue of Paunch (1980) on "Root Metaphor: The Live Thought of Stephen C. Pepper" has been preserved on the internet Archive
