DavidM/20100614
I don't like talking about myself, but after I was chastised for simply describing myself as a "big nerd," I decided to try to summarize some current interests for people I've met recently. If you just want to see what I'm up to, skip to #Current work.
After moving to Montréal from Toronto in December 2007, I've managed to take some French instruction, complete 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 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.
Wikis have been a key tool; I used to develop low-level custom software (source code and database stuff) but now I find 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 here.) Add in a 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.
Among the many examples of participatory culture, http://www.openfile.ca is a standout. It's a geographically focused "newspaper" that follows up on community submitted stories, and encourages full community participation in their development. They don't wiki, but they use a Creative Commons license. The UK, led by Tim Berners-Lee (a truly great man), also appears to be sincerely attacking publishing their data in re-usable formats in an open way. Along with many other government initiatives, open inquiry individual and citizen group efforts. Unfortunately, many businesses and non profits still take an opaque, silo approach.
Current work
On to my current work, where I try to balance ideals with realities. To pay the bills, refine technical skills and spread wiki, I work part-time at Concordia's Fungal Genomics lab. That's right, the programme in CED led to supporting scientists working on things like "directed evolution." The goal of the group is to find more efficient enzymes for biofuels. Today's ethanol solutions hardly make sense from an environmental perspective, but growing cellulosic material — trees — is beneficial in the carbon cycle. Fungi are pervasive in nature as part of the cycle of breaking things down, necessary to create efficient biofuels. So our group analyzes tens of thousands of digital genomic samples, and when a likely candidate is found — they grow it. It's pretty cool stuff, and a breakthrough would be huge. Wiki is successfully used for internal communications and for the project's websites.
I am called a Fellow at the Health Innovation Cell in Toronto. The group analyzes technology and social innovation to make recommendations and implement interventions to make the health system more responsive and efficient. I'm quite happy with the web site, from it's Wikipedia-inspired front page (great inspiration, Carlos), to use of wiki to manage content, to its potential as a linked data participant. Good projects are under development, and Innovation Cell has also been a strong promoter, in the health field, of unconference, participant led conferences.
Speaking of Unconference, I'm participating in Rococo 2010, a wiki and Open Spaces (very similar to unconference, with simple rules to help things stay on track and have deliverables) event in Montréal June 25 - 27. Judging from a recent Open Spaces event, it should be great.
I'm also an associate of Equalit.ie, a technical human rights support group, supporting the technical platform and helping to develop a wiki based publishing system.
I'm also helping bootstrap Asian Canadian Wiki, today it looks basic but has some good content and eventually I expect a vital resource.
In June I also had a chance to speak at the Spring 2010 Semantic Mediawiki conference at MIT, and participated in a focused roundtable at Harvard about independent media and human rights groups dealing with hack attacks.
Well, now I'm really tired of talking about myself. I'm working on several other good, formative projects, but always welcome "on the ground" projects with common factors. Getting experience on an "away from keyboard" project is something I'd like to do someday, but in the meantime I always find capacity for good projects with committed partners. I especially welcome opportunities to visit Toronto and other places.
Toronto 43° 39' 12.53" N, 79° 23' 2.16" W Arts Dance Person Asian Origin
Lata Pada is a Canadian choreographer and Bharatanatyam dancer of Indian descent. Pada is the Founder and Artistic Director of Sampradaya Dance Creations, a dance Company that performs South Asian dance. She is also the Founder and Director of Sampradaya Dance Academy, a leading professional dance training institution that is the only South Asian dance school in North America affiliated with the prestigious, UK-based Imperial Society for Teachers of Dancing.Pada founded the dance company in 1990 because she wanted to showcase Bharatantyam dance as an art form throughout the world.
Pada, who attended Elphinstone College in Mumbai, trained under the gurus Kalaimamani Kalyanasundaram and Padmabhushan Kalanidhi Narayanan.Pada lives in Mississauga, near Toronto. Pada married geologist Vishnu Pada when she was 17 years old.
In 1985 Lata Pada and her family decided to take an extended vacation to India. On June 23 of that year Vishnu Pada and daughters Arti and Brinda died in the bombing of Air India Flight 182. Lata Pada was not aboard since she left on an earlier date to tour India for Bharatanatyam recitals in Bangalore and across India; Lata was in Mumbai rehearsing for her tour, while her husband and daughters stayed behind in Sudbury, Ontario because Brinda was graduating from high school; afterwards the three flew on Air India 182. Lata Pada became a spokesperson for the families of the victims. After the crash she created the dance piece "Revealed By Fire" in remembrance of the incident. Pada received a master's degree in fine arts from York University in 1997.
Pada married Hari Venkatacharya in September, 2000. Venkatacharya is an entrepreneur and was Managing Director of Nytric Business Partners and is the Immediate Past President of TiE Toronto. He also serves on the Boards of the Ontario Science Centre and Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences. They both met while founding the South Asian advisory committee at the Royal Ontario Museum in 1995, where they raised over $3 million Canadian dollars for Canada's first permanent South Asian Gallery.
In December 2008, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada for her contributions to the development of Bharatanatyam as a choreographer, teacher, dancer and artistic director, as well as for her commitment and support of the Indian community in Canada. Lata was also recently appointed as Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Faculty of Dance, York University, Toronto.
Mushroom image from http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/27344 , Vinn diagram from http://www.xkcd.com