Reduced exercise outside with a cold and snowy February, with excursions out of the house to warm places with family, friends and colleagues.
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
With the distinction made between pattern language and form language, a broader vision of the "life" sought by Christopher Alexander has led me through General Systems Theory into R-theory.
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.
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 ›
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 ›
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).
Saying “it doesn’t matter” or “it matters” is a common expression in everyday English. For scholarly work, I want to “keep using that word“, while ensuring it means what I want it to mean. The Oxford English Dictionary (third edition, March 2001) has three entries for “matter”. The first two entries for a noun. The […]
It's been challenging to find sources that specifically define two-word phrases -- i.e. "systemic change", "systematic change", "systems change" -- as opposed to loosely inferring reductively from one-word definitions in recombination. MartinReynolds @OpenUniversity clarifies uses of the phrases, with a critical eye into motives for choosing a specific label, as well as associated risks and […]
The term "environmental" can be mixed up with "ecological", when the meanings are different. We can look at the encyclopedia definitions (François 2004), and then compare the two in terms of applied science (i.e. engineering with (#TimothyFHAllen @MarioGiampietro and #AmandaMLittle, 2003).
While many outside of the field of architecture like the #ChristopherAlexander #PatternLanguage approach, it's not so well accepted by his peers. A summary of criticisms by #MichaelJDawes and #MichaelJOstwald @UNSWBuiltEnv is helpful in appreciating when the use of pattern language might be appropriate or not appropriate.
Systems thinking should include not only thinking about the system, but also its environment. Using the term "field" as the system of interest plus its influences leaves a lot of the world uncovered. From the multiple definitions in the International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics , there is variety of ways of understanding "field".
