Toronto, Ontario; Vancouver, BC; Corvallis, Oregon
Massey-Harris Building: Well-restored 5-storey office building constructed in 1883, last surviving structure of the manufacturing complex for agricultural machinery. Next to a park, converted in 2003 into soft and hard lofts. Plaque on the side dedicates “to the memory of those members of the staffs of the offices and factories of Massey-Harris Company Limited and of their subsidiary companies, who gave their lives on the active service in His Majesty’s Forces or in the Allied Armies, in the Great War 1914-1918”. (Massey-Harris Building, King Street West, Liberty Village, Toronto, Ontario) 20190603Dundas West Fest: From eastern end of @DundasWestFest, walked west through crowds on closed thoroughfare for almost an hour, by kiosks of local breweries, food specialities, kids play areas and live music. Summer in Toronto has really arrived, lots of people in shorts and sandals. Universities are out, but primary and secondary schools are not yet finished for the year. A reminder of a Toronto neighbourhood for residents more than tourists, biked there and biked back. (Dundas Street West of Ossington Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20190609Elgin Theatre: Bows @ComeFromAwayTO performance, I enjoyed but had unexpected anxieties from 9/11 memories of being across the Hudson River from the Twin Towers, at Palisades NY in 2001. My #4 son would have been 8 years old then, it’s hard to relate how the USA changed that day, and hasn’t been the same since. On the Tuesday morning we were teaching a class; on the Thursday, I drove to Albany, rode a train to Buffalo, and picked up a rental car to Toronto. I remember the ordinariness of the restaurant lunch with my spouse on that bright Friday afternoon. (Elgin Theatre, Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20190611Best Buy Bay-Dundas: More than satisfied @BestBuyCanada with staff Darren and Mark assessing our wants, then offering a deal that was irresistible. Coming off a disappointment with a delivery from an online retailer, we received professional opinions on merits and demerits of alternative brands, and then inventory availability across the chain. Serious shopping in person, with knowledgeable staff in retail stores, can still be rewarding. We had biked over, and enlisted another son to drive over with the microvan for a pickup. (Best Buy, Bay and Dundas, Toronto, Ontario) 20190614Perfect Chinese Restaurant: Weekend busy, so dim sum on a Saturday to convene for Father’s Day. For a change, the grandfather is staying in town, and everyone else is in-and-out. Sons added guest from the Lowkong clan, there’s is another generation in the neighbourhood that meets more frequently than the regular formal events. (Perfect Chinese Restaurant, Sheppard Avenue East, Scarborough, Ontario) 20190615Lalibela: Hosting @mikewittenstein in the multicultural Toronto experience with Ethiopian dinner, eating with our hands. Restaurant reservation was miscommunicated, manager graciously asked other customers to shift to accommodate our group. Our sons might not remember the time we visited Mike in Atlanta, as they were children en route to Disney World. (Lalibela Cuisine, Danforth Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20190615MPI WEC: Experience design the main thrust of @mikewittenstein presentation @MPI WEC. Leaders want strategy execution, but attendees (customers) expect full-on experiences. Agenda tailored to Getting Better Meeting Outcomes, hands-on table breakouts applying methods with team observers, and then journey mapping. The last time I saw this friend formally present is pushing 2 decades. (Meeting Professionals International, World Education Conference, Metro Toronto Convention Centre South, Bremner Blvd., Toronto, Ontario) 20190616Heartland neighbourhood: Backyard celebration of #FrancescaSing bachelor’s degree in sociology from Carleton University. Our family has known her family before she was conceived. Strong ties with friends endure. (Heartland neighbourhood, Mississauga, Ontario) 20190616Paramount Front Street: Convening long time friends, one flying 950 miles, the other driving 50 miles, to sync up on ideas over Middle Eastern small dishes. Discussed the progression from Adaptive Enterprise thinking on Reason-for-Being as shifting towards stories as easier for people to express. Timing coincided with Raptors celebration parade, but getting to selected venue still required creative routing around the crowds. (Paramount Middle Eastern Kitchen, Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20190619Toronto Jazz Festival: Sax solo @LesterMcLean @TorontoJazzFest @Occhipintimusic @louis_simao @themarkmclean in mid-afternoon gig with Bloor Street closed for pedestrians. Crowd-pleasing set, later walked out with wireless mic to move barricades and allow audience closer to dance. Biking cross town encountered Pride Toronto parade, many blocks through crowds, dismounted. (Toronto Jazz Festival, TD Side Stage, Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20190623Simon KY Lee Home: Short visit for DY with mother on fly-though loose connection at YVR. Shared dim sum, strawberries and peach. Short walk around the courtyard to enjoy the bright summer day on the west coast. Then Canada Line back to the airport, and we’re continuing our journey southbound. (Simon KY Lee Senior Care Home, Carrall Street, Vancouver, BC) 20190626Howland Plaza: Stuart Jacobson (2002) The Heart of the Valley basalt and marble sculpture, on a park green strip, high on the west bank of the Willamette River. Low energy day, recovering after a 23-hour day of travel leading to insufficient sleep. Arrived wearing shorts on the previous year, unpacked long pants and umbrella for today. (Howland Plaza, Riverside Park, First Street, Corvallis, Oregon) 20190627CH2M Alumni Centre: Welcome desk @ISSSMeeting @OSUAlumniCenter on first day, registration packages ready for attendees. Bright, open venue evokes the spirit of optimism in the American Pacific Northwest. Seeing many familiar faces, plus some earlier in their systems thinking experiences. (CH2M Hill Alumni Centre, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon) 20190628CH2M Alumni Centre: Poster @ISSSMeeting @OSUAlumniCenter @MarcoCataffo @snousala @daviding Data Standards for Computational Ecology: Constraining soft sub-systems to increase internal complexity for community resilience. http://creativesystemic.com/posters/ Research in progress, not the final publication. Third author is the courier to the conference. (CH2M Hill Alumni Centre, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon) 20190629CH2M Alumni Centre: Workshop @ISSSMeeting @OSUAlumniCenter with @bortseb on Open Learning Commons and Digital Life Collective @tech_we_trust. Team of stewards convened for official launch of open source tools for collaboration, towards the promise of learning journeys for which artifacts endure. Relaxed pace through http://isss2019.daviding.wiki.openlearning.cc/view/introduction-to-the-open-learning-commons-and-the-digital-life-collective (CH2M Hill Alumni Center, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon) 20190630
CH2M Alumni Centre: Workshop @ISSSMeeting @OSUAlumniCenter with @wardcunningham @michaelwmehaffy on Federated Wiki and Pattern Language. A few attendees claimed personal sites on wiki.openlearning.cc . From start.fed.wiki , readers got comfortable with cursor keys and moving around #FederatedWiki. Then, from mehaffy.fed.wiki.org , recent history on advancing #PatternLanguage. Loose agenda at http://isss2019.daviding.wiki.openlearning.cc/view/introduction-to-federated-wiki-and-pattern-language . (CH2M Hill Alumni Center, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon) 20190630
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 […]
