Markham, Ontario; Scarborough, Ontario; Toronto, Ontario; Istanbul, Turkey; Athens, Greece; Sounion, Greece; London, England; Hull, England; Cambridge, England; Madison Heights, Michigan; Fairfield, Iowa.
Cascon Day 1 plenary: Resilience engineering and antifragility, says @Kocolosk @IBMCAS #CASCON, is a research interest in his role as DE & CTO, Cloud Data Services, IBM Analytics. Plenary presentation on “Data Services in the Cloud: Past, Present and Future” included history on open source projects with Cloudant, new enthusiasm for Apache Spark. (IBM Centre for Advanced Studies, CASCON, Markham, Ontario) 20151102CASCON 2015 best paper: Game design characteristics by Mazz Nasir @prof_lyons @IBMCAS #CASCON presentation of paper, awarded as 2015 best a few hours earlier. “Operation Sting: A Collaborative Heist” designed as 20 to 30 minutes of icebreaking, good for teams who have not previously met together face-to-face. Measures included speech turns and floor holding, laughter and pauses in subsequent meetings, compared with control groups. (IBM Centre for Advanced Studies, CASCON, Markham) 20151102CASCON Day 2 plenary: Plenary @IBMCAS #CASCON describes @SilverHookPower as @ibmiotf exemplar, by Jim Caldwell, in building and managing an IoT solution. The race team gets real-time intelligence, the fans get a better viewer experience, and officials can rapidly ensure the leading competitor has won within rules. James Caldwell presented in his role as Director, IBM Internet of Things, Continuous Engineering Solutions Development. (IBM Centre for Advanced Studies, Cascon, Markham, Ontario) 20151103CASCON Day 3 plenary: Bayesian analysis, says @EliotSiegel @IBMCAS #CASCON is better by machines than typical human judgement. Imaging provides more data than just the specific question that a doctor is hypothesising. Imaging and clinical data is high dimensional information. Regression methods are insufficient. (IBM Centre for Advanced Sides Studies, CASCON, Markham, Ontario) 20151104Brick oven: Custom-made pizza in only a few minutes, when the fire is already hot. Friday afternoon at 3:30, bakery wasn’t busy, so a good destination for a casual business meeting. Strudel and cookies for dessert, could have brought fresh bread home. Chose location so that friend could beat traffic from city centre to the east end, he dropped me off for the westbound subway. (Calabria Bakery, Midland Avenue, Scarborough, Ontario) 20151106
Hämeenlinna, Finland; Helsinki, Finland; Lahti, Finland; Espoo, Finland; Suomenlinna; Copenhagen, Denmark; Toronto, Ontario
Sibelius Akatemia Harmonikka: Recital in Hameenlinna, leading up to the Coupe Mondiale (World) Accordion Competition in Turku, Finland. Noora Nyyssönen, Viivi Tigerstedt, MinnaRistamäki (Verkatehdas, Hämeenlinna, Finland) 20151001
Bulevardi 31, P317: Master’s students @metropolia taking a stretch after the first hour of lecture on Service Systems Thinking. Combined classes from Industrial Management and Logistics programs, for a special two hour presentation. From the instructor’s view, there was a lot of content to cover, maybe we can structure a better paced program next time. It’s the 10th year anniversary since we cofounded the Master’s program in Industrial Management. This building housed the Helsinki University of Technology until 1966. (Metropolia Ammattikorkeakoulu / Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Bulevardi 31, Helsinki, Finland) 20151002Linna Bike Cafe: Celebration by Kata and Emmi @LinnaBikeShop Cafe, new business partnership. Family and friends came to wish well, enjoy in cameraderie. Mud cake a big hit in chocolate richness. A few days ago, observed much activity in preparing the space and scrubbing the kitchen. Now ready for customers. (Linnan Pyöräverstaan Kahvila, Verkatehdas, Hämeenlinna, Finland) 20151003Kariniemi Park: Pikku-Vesijärvi pond is famous for largest musical fountains in the Nordics, but after dark, not on a fall Sunday afternoon. Friend has moved to small town Lahti, commuting 3 days a week to Helsinki, enjoying the quiet after 5 years in busy London. Re-establishing previous university ties to share intelligence on how times have changed (Kariniemi Park, Lahti, Finland) 20151004Arabiakeskus: Red berries on trees, approaching the Hämeentie Factory Block of the Arabia district, known for its long history in design. Are those rowan (mountain ash) trees? Attended the “Creating the Mindset of Sustainable Societies” class, one of the core courses in the Master’s Programme in Creative Sustainability at Aalto University. Caught afternoon student presentations on final day of class. Challenged to be critical when prior context of assignments wasn’t fully explained. Will see the students two more days this week. (Arabiakeskus, Helsinki, Finland) 20151006
Toronto, Ontario; Trudeau Airport, Montreal; Brussels, Belgium; Antwerp, Belgium; Bruges, Belgium; Stockholm Arlanda; Vantaa, Finland
AGO, Before and After the Horizon: Bonnie Devine, 2014-2015 “Battle for the Woodlands”, part of the Anishinaabe Artists of the Great Lakes exhibition. Reproduction of pre-Confederation (1867) map of Canada. New sculptural element 2015 “Anishinaabitude” in foreground. (Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto) 20150902Late 30th anniversary portrait: With AHI visiting in town for the holiday weekend, DY requested an official family picture with everyone together, wearing matching ties. Occasions for all of our sons to be at home at the same time are getting rarer. (Don River at Lakeshore Blvd., Toronto) 20150906Yonge-Dundas Square: Labour Day early evening, no formal events, but buskers draw their own audience. Crowds dissipated a few minutes later, with another performer announcing the next show. Stores mostly closed, many restaurants dark in celebration of labour. (Yonge-Dundas Square, Toronto) 20150907Don Landing: Bike path route though underpass gives credit to PanAm Games funding. Event was last month, maybe the signs will come down when the Athlete’s Village becomes a residential district. Short cut from Lakeshore Blvd around Corktown Commons towards Front Street still underdeveloped. (West Don Lands, Toronto) 20150909Greek hot table: Old style casual dining has moved north up Pape Avenue. Cooks on open kitchen behind warming trays including specials of the day, in continual Greek conversation. Sunday lunch away from the crowds, and so much food that we took half of it home. Must be a neighbourhood institution, as guests are asked whether they’ll be dining in our taking out. (The Greek Grill, East York, Toronto) 20150913Sacks of rice: In awe of varieties of basmati rice and flour at Iqbal Foods. Definitely a South Asian superstore, did find patna but not milagrosa/jasmine that appeals to East Asians. Butcher counter had large supply of lamb, so a potential alternative source to Greektown on the Danforth. Unfamiliar foods and brands may call for a serious adventure shopping trip. Store has long hours. (Iqbal Foods, Thorncliffe Park, Toronto) 20150914
Toronto, Ontario (including Panamania Arts and Culture Celebration, PanAm and ParaPan Games)
Basketball court mural: Solo player shoots hoops in front of @JamiiEsplanade mural led by Elisa (Shalak Attack) Monreal and Julian Periquet, supported by StreetARToronto. Project was unveiled last month before PanAmGames, colours enduring even on a rainy day. Jamii is Swahili for “community”; the Esplanade was a product of the urban reform movement of the early 1970s, with influences by Jane Jacobs. (David Crombie Park, St. Lawrence neighbourhood, Toronto) 20150804Astro Stage: Greek dancing by @LevendiaX Hellenic Folklore Assoc @Taste_Danforth, near Jones Ave. Pedestrian traffic seems denser at the east end of the street festival, with kiddie rides and more community tents. Since we live within biking distance, the neighbourhood, we can visit when the crowds aren’t there. (Taste of the Danforth, Greektown, Toronto) 20150808Landlocked green space: Discovered Cairns Avenue Parkette, a filled-in ravine where Cairns Creek used to flow south into Small’s Pond before 1935. Surrounded by back yards of houses, it’s a ditch with higher grassy areas enjoyed by dogs and their walkers. Entrance on the west side, no exit any other direction. Historical research explains the strange routing of roads in east end Toronto. (Highcroft Road, Upper Beaches, East Toronto) 20150809. “A brief history of Small’s Pond, used then abused” | Chris Bateman | April 21, 2014 | BlogTO at http://www.blogto.com/city/2012/04/a_brief_history_of_smalls_pond_used_then_abused/Summer at 10pm: Thousands hear @jannarden claim @allisoncornell playing with her favourite musician @npstoronto on stage at #panamania. Relaxing songs and good humour have audience enjoying the time together on a cool August evening. Big screen on main stage has fans across the pond spacing out the crowd. (Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto) 20150811Electronic music: Synthpop @AustraTalks@npsToronto@to2015#panamania pumping bass feels like inside a club, yet the band started on the plaza before the sunset. Haven’t heard so much sequencing live since my university days. Entertaining to watch for times when none of three keyboards had hands on keys. Even most drums were electronic. My greying hair was not representative of the audience. Austra is Ryan Wonsiak (keyboards), Maya Potestski (drums), Katie Stelmanis (vocals and keys), Dorian Wolf (bass and keys). (Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto) 20150812Escorted transport: Ontario Provincial Police motorcycle brigade clears way for buses with ParaPan athletes. Must be on their way to closing ceremonies. Uniformed police at Front Street intersections holding back pedestrians. Buses looked empty, so spectators probably went downtown early to get good seats. (Front Street, east of Jarvis Avenue, Toronto). 20150815
Beaches Jazz Festival, Toronto; Panamania Arts and Culture Celebration, Toronto; Battle for the North, Toronto; Clawson, Michigan; Washington, Iowa; Fairfield, Iowa; Port of Dubuque, Iowa; Oregon, Wisconsin; Chicago, Illinois; Warren, Michigan.
Woodbine Park Main Stage jazz: @ParcXTrio from Montreal @BeachesJazz playing intensely. Audience seeking shade on a bright summer day, a few chairs with canopies on a large field of grass. Park ringed by food trucks offering a variety of cuisines. (Woodbine Park Main Stage, Toronto) 20150718 Photo album at http://www.flickr.com/photos/daviding/sets/72157653719486144Taddle Creek Park. Ilan Sandler (2009) “The Vessel”, 4 kilometres (the length of Taddle Creek now buried under urban Toronto) of stainless steel rod bent into shape. Water flows into an underground cistern for reuse to irrigate the park. Installation was commemorated in June 2011, commissioned by the City of Toronto. (Taddle Creek Park, 40 Bedford Road, Toronto) 20150720Beaches Jazz Festival: Workshop by @occhipintimusic and @pilar_tw for @beachesjazz on “Turning Pop and World Roots Music into Jazz”. Intimate audience in church basement. Michael Occhipinti started with recordings of original pop songs (Broadway, Beatles), compared to jazz interpretations. Pilar joined for duos with selections from the Sicilian Jazz Project repertoire. (Mennonite New Life Centre, Queen Street East, Toronto) 20150721 Photo album at http://www.flickr.com/photos/daviding/sets/72157655775030139
Panamania: Outdoor stage @youareStars @NPStoronto @TO2015 Games #Panamania Arts and Culture Program, with Pat McGee on drums, Torquil Campbell vocals, Amy Millan vocals. Plaza filled with fans, girls singing along. (Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto) 20150722 Photo album at http://www.flickr.com/photos/daviding/sets/72157656240622815B-Boy competition: Battle for the North #BFTN2015 @TO2015 #Panamania Arts & Culture Program, The FAM as hometown favourite. Sold out community event, children in the front row, international judges will run workshops over next few days. (Young Centre for the Performing Arts, Distillery District, Toronto) 20150723Sushi in Clawson Michigan. Adam ordered 50 piece party platter for three of us, just before kitchen closed. Noble Fish is reputed to be the best sushi around Detroit, and we agree it was great. There’s a few tables and a sushi bar at the back of a Japanese grocery store, so a lot of clients prefer takeout. This is walking distance from Adam’s place. (Noble Fish, 14 Mile Road, Clawson, Michigan) 20150724
Vienna, Austria; Danube University Krems; Krems, Austria; University of Surrey; Guildford, UK; London, England; Toronto, Ontario.
Austrian Airlines Toronto to Vienna. Just realised that I’m breaking my personal rule to fly across oceans on a carrier with a Canadian flag. Direct flight for short trip trumped brand preference. Fortunately, the Austrians aren’t known as an aggressive culture. I expect to nap, and wake up in Vienna. (OS 72, still boarding at Pearson International Airport YYZ) 20150702Danube University Krems. Small university campus just one street by two blocks up hill from small town. Attending pattern language conference, PURPLSOC is third within a year. Would have meet practically all Christopher Alexander scholars by now, may focus down in future events with some interested in collaborating. Shortest lead time ever, 8 hours on plane, 3 hours on train, 1 hour to find campus, barely time for lunch, check-in and shower before first speaker started at 2:30 pm. (Danube University Krems, Austria) 20150703Wellenspiel, Krems. Conference dinner by the Danube River in Austria. Weather has been warm, around 30 degrees C and sunny. Mountain altitude, air is clean. Some familiar faces from prior pattern language conferences. (Krems, Austria) 20150704Closing ceremony at PURPLSOC. Network of yarn symbolises colleagues meet over a few short days of intense interaction. Tangle is tossed in parachute to create a knotty mess. First learned this at PLoP 2014 in Illinois. (Danube University Krems, Austria) 20150705S7 platform, Praterstern. Morning commute to airport from Vienna city centre hotel on suburban line S7. Started journey a little earlier than originally planned, discovering that I would be sitting nearly 30 minutes, as trains don’t run more frequently. Austrian efficiency means trains run on time, so the best surprise is no surprise. Flights to London Heathrow will be connecting, lowering airfare and adding miles. (Praterstern, Vienna, Austria) 20150706Glass overhead walkways. From Frank Whittle at south to Alan Turing at north, buildings connected to encourage random interactions between researchers walking and thinking. Design of campus with buildings below 4 stores an antithesis of skyscraper thinking. Statue of Turing on plaza a little further north may be overearnest recognition, as he was never part of this university, and would only come home to Guildford on weekends while a teenager at boarding school. (University of Surrey, Stag Hill campus, Guildford, UK) 20150707
As the book on Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0 was taking shape in March 2023, I was invited not only to serve as an editor, but also to contribute as an author. The edited volume is the final deliverable for the In4act project centered at the KTU School of Economics and Business in Kaunas, Lithuania […]
Beyond city-building as urban planning is the idea of a Music City. This sees development of cultural life across a wide variety of arts, alongside economic benefits brought to the region. At the 119th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario in March 2024, socio-cultural designer Adam Hogan and musician-designer Ziyan Hossain joined moderator Zaid Khan in conversation. […]
Having reached year 6 of an espoused 10-year journey, the Systems Changes Learning Circle is (again) convening monthly Dialogues on Social Innovation at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto. Starting up in 2019, the Circle was convening regularly in the Climate Ventures space at 192 Spadina Avenue. The pandemic interrupted in-person meetings, and the […]
EQ Lab runs Dialogic Drinks, “the kind of philosophical discussion you have in a coffee shop or bar”, twice per week. Wtih this group interested loosely in questions on leadership, I was invited to host an online session on March 12 (evening in Hong Kong and Singapore, really early in Toronto) and on March 14-15 […]
At the 118th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario in February 2024, behavioral scientist Cameron D. Norman and design strategist Tara Campbell were invitied for a conversation guided by Zaid Khan. The panelists are both alumni of the Strategic Foresight and Innovation program at OCADU. Some time ago, they had conducted a research project on evaluation […]
An article on “sciencing and philosophizing”, coauthored by Gary S. Metcalf and myself, has been published in the Journal of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, following the ISSS 2023 Kruger Park conference in South Africa, last July. There’s a version cacned on the Coevolving Commons. This article started in a series of conversations […]
David L. Hawk (American management theorist, architect, and systems scientist) has been hosting a weekly television show broadcast on Bold Brave Tv from the New York area on Wednesdays 6pm ET, remotely from his home in Iowa. Live, callers can join…Read more ›
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 ›
Finding proper words to express system(s) change(s) can be a challenge. One alternative could be diachrony. The Oxford English dictionary provides two definitions for diachronic, the first one most generally related to time. (The second is linguistic method) diachronic ADJECTIVE Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “diachronic (adj.), sense 1,” July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/3691792233. For completeness, prochronic relates “to […]
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 […]
