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After moving to Montréal from Toronto in December 2007, I've managed to take some French instruction, complete [http://scpa-eapc.concordia.ca/en/graduate-diploma-in-ced/ Concordia's one-year Graduate Diploma in Community Economic Development], and participate in a few local, national and international projects. Transitioning to Montréal hasn't been easy, without strong French it's like living in a small town with a big city's bureaucracy. I'll take full blame for not learning French better, but I need to find a way to study it full time for an extended period without sacrificing all I'm developing, and even then it will take years of dedication to become fluent. (And, I have to admit I still enjoy feeling like I'm living in a foreign city, but I know I'm missing out on a lot in this wonderful place.) | After moving to Montréal from Toronto in December 2007, I've managed to take some French instruction, complete [http://scpa-eapc.concordia.ca/en/graduate-diploma-in-ced/ Concordia's one-year Graduate Diploma in Community Economic Development], and participate in a few local, national and international projects. Transitioning to Montréal hasn't been easy, without strong French it's like living in a small town with a big city's bureaucracy. I'll take full blame for not learning French better, but I need to find a way to study it full time for an extended period without sacrificing all I'm developing, and even then it will take years of dedication to become fluent. (And, I have to admit I still enjoy feeling like I'm living in a foreign city, but I know I'm missing out on a lot in this wonderful place.) | ||
My work and interests from [http://zooid.org/~vid/io/short_history_of_io.html way back] have revolved around developing participatory systems. I'm a strong believer in government, but today's service oriented bureaucracy, with many gatekeepers and alpha-leaders, is just wrong. I want to help get people involved any way they can. So I focus on digital systems and literacy, trying to make Web based systems that are read-write, not brochures. Digital literacy goes well beyond filling in forms, people should be learning about hypertext, content policies, what's happening behind the scenes. | |||
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Wikis have been a key tool; I used to develop low-level custom software (source code and database stuff) but now I find [http://semantic-mediawiki.org/ Semantic Mediawiki] has ways to do most of the things groups need, while preserving the ideals of wiki. Wiki is Hawaiian for quick, while wiki systems can be used for restricted Web publishing, their best application is to allow anyone to quickly edit, as well as follow the low level development of a site, and make activity and content transparent. It does get complicated, but a good wiki will have ways for anyone to quickly participate, supporting diverse roles and interests. Semantic Mediawiki adds in database features, which makes managing structured data easier, so a wiki can contain both free-form pages and reusable data like tables, events, map data, and so on. (see more thoughts [[SMW as Lego blocks|here]].) Add in a [http://www.creativecommons.org clear and fair content license] and it's a pretty good model for shared public data. | |||
I expect the long term results to be significant. As data becomes more linked, quality will increase, and like a puzzle, missing pieces will become evident. With the ability to easily find out answers, useful participation will become something like playing video games, using Facebook, or stamp collecting; creating fun visualizations, adding data, asking simple questions, fulfilling our natural desires to organize in commonly useful ways, making our systems better organized and linked. It will include young and old people. The only thing holding this revolution back is cynicism. | I expect the long term results to be significant. As data becomes more linked, quality will increase, and like a puzzle, missing pieces will become evident. With the ability to easily find out answers, useful participation will become something like playing video games, using Facebook, or stamp collecting; creating fun visualizations, adding data, asking simple questions, fulfilling our natural desires to organize in commonly useful ways, making our systems better organized and linked. It will include young and old people. The only thing holding this revolution back is cynicism. | ||