tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29532607962135463932024-03-04T08:48:25.682+01:00Andy Nash NetworkAndrew Nash, Transport and City Planner
Transport and City Planning, European travel, restaurant reviews, European Railway trips, food, wine, beerAndy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.comBlogger390125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-27903278429738423422019-07-03T10:39:00.002+02:002019-07-03T10:39:50.809+02:00Now on wordpress at https://andynash.com<span style="font-family: "arial";"> </span><br />
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I've changed my home page to Word Press a few years ago, I now blog there ... here's the link:<br />
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<a href="https://andynash.com/">https://andynash.com</a><br />
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<br />Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-5912143507029112992012-03-31T20:38:00.001+02:002012-03-31T20:38:37.146+02:00Bus Lane Barcelona<div style="text-align: left; padding: 3px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6886375510/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7183/6886375510_14cebe70f9_m.jpg" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" alt="" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6886375510/">Bus Lane Barcelona - 2</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/">andynash</a>.</span></div><p>Very nice job integrating bus lanes into the waterfront street in Barcelona. High quality materials and design.</p>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-39647963427429464292012-03-20T23:08:00.000+01:002012-03-21T09:28:35.008+01:00Seattle<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6978886775/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Seattle Waterfront - 17 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Seattle Waterfront - 17" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7200/6978886775_6e3f3108f5.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Morning view from Lowell's in Pike Place Market</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">I visited Seattle last week to make a presentation about public transport in Zurich, Vienna and online (at <a href="http://www.greencitystreets.com/">GreenCityStreets.com</a>) at the city of Seattle transport department and at the University of Washington.<br />
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It was great to visit Seattle, especially since the weather was clear (although cold) so I had the chance to really enjoy walking around the city, especially the Pike Place Public Market and the downtown. I stayed at the Inn at the Market, a splurge, but worth it simply because you can walk a half-block to the Public Market.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6978816195/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Seattle Pike Place Fish Market - 2 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Seattle Pike Place Fish Market - 2" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7205/6978816195_16b2962fee.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It wasn't a rock! It was a rock lobster at the Pike Place Fish Market</span></b></td></tr>
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On Tuesday I made my presentation at the Seattle Planning Department (<a href="http://www.slideshare.net/andrewbnash/public-transport-efficiency-zurich-vienna-and-online" target="_blank">Improving public transport efficiency: Zurich, Vienna and Online</a>), I rode the monorail and took the ferry to Bainbridge Island ... a full day.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6832709162/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Seattle Monorail - 13 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Seattle Monorail - 13" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7184/6832709162_65ba8f7fe3.jpg" width="374" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Seattle Space Needle as seen through the Monorail roof window</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Seattle Monorail</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">No trip to Seattle would be complete without a trip on the <a href="http://www.seattlemonorail.com/" target="_blank">Seattle Monorail</a>! It was built as part of the 1962 Seattle Worlds Fair so it's celebrating its 50th birthday. The idea was to connect downtown Seattle with the World's Fair site. The Space Needle was also built for the World's Fair.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">The monorail is a short trip but lots of fun. At the end it goes through the <a href="http://www.empmuseum.org/" target="_blank">Experience Music Project</a>, a museum designed by architect Frank Gehry and paid for by Microsoft's Paul Allen. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">There was lots of construction going on to prepare the grounds for the upcoming 50th anniversary celebration so I walked around a bit and then headed back downtown by foot. My photos of the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/tags/monorail/" target="_blank">Seattle Monorail</a> and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/tags/spaceneedleseattle/" target="_blank">Space Needle</a> on Flickr.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Nice post on about <a href="http://thisbigcity.net/sydney-las-vegas-springfield-how-monorail-failed-in-our-cities-the-simpsons/" target="_blank">monorails in Springfield (SImpsons), Sydney and Las Vegas from This Big City</a>.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6832743642/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Seattle Ferry Boat - 18 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Seattle Ferry Boat - 18" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7194/6832743642_5e5121e39a.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Ferry boat docking in Seattle</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Ferry to Bainbridge Island</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">There's always something special about riding a ferry boat. Not only do they give you great views of the city but the water and light always seems different making the trip interesting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">The Bainbridge Island ferry is easy, about 35-minutes and it leaves frequently throughout the day ($7.50). The last time we were in Seattle we got off the ferry and walked around Bainbridge Island a little bit, a very pleasant little town with lots of shops and restaurants. They have bike and hiking trails that look great. This time I just got off the ferry and then right back on for the trip back to Seattle.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6832748978/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Seattle Tilikum Place Cafe - 3 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Seattle Tilikum Place Cafe - 3" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7055/6832748978_b4fa045e2f.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tilikum Place Cafe</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Tilikum Place Cafe</span><br />
</span><span style="font-family: arial;">On my walk from the Seattle Center to downtown I passed a small restaurant called the Tilikum Place Cafe. It looked nice so I went in and asked to see the menu. Since an important goal for my trip was to eat as much fish as possible, I asked what the fish of the day was. The chef came over and explained the fish of the day, sturgeon on a bed of carrots and king mushrooms, and we talked a little about sturgeon. I thanked her and decided I should come back for dinner.<br />
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The <a href="http://www.tilikumplacecafe.com/" target="_blank">Tilikim Place Cafe</a> is an extremely pleasant space, it just feels like a living room. I was not totally convinced by the chef's description of the evening's fish special, but since the room felt so good, I returned. My server then explained the special Appetizer: grilled baby romaine, with feta cheese, grapes and a champagne Vinaigrette. At first it didn't appeal to me, but when she explained it again - and said it was "yummy," I thought, why not? and ordered it along with the sturgeon.<br />
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Wow, the salad was fantastic, one of the best things I have had in a long time. The ingredients just really worked, a perfect combination. I'm definitively going to try this at home. To drink I had a local pale ale. Next came the sturgeon, also, absolutely fantastic. It was served with a parsley salad - heavily seasoned with vinegar or maybe some lemon, on top. The parsley salad itself was really great. I put some aside to eat at the end of my meal - my mother always told me to eat parsley last: it eliminates bad breath ... but I also thought it would be an excellent palate cleanser (the same thing?).</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6978873687/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Seattle Tilikum Place Cafe - 2 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Seattle Tilikum Place Cafe - 2" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7052/6978873687_70ee0d60e2.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The sturgeon .. with parsley salad.</b></span></td></tr>
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The sturgeon itself and its bed of carrots and king mushrooms was very tasty. Interestingly the dish seemed to generate its own broth as I ate it .. the individual components blended together to make a really yummy soup. By this point I had almost used all my (really excellent!) sourdough bread and so had to ask for more to sop-up all the broth. The buttery mushroom flavor matched perfectly with the sourdough.<br />
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I don't usually order dessert, but because the rest of the meal had been so good, I decided to go crazy and order something. They did not have the one I wanted a combination of chocolate and Meyer lemon, so I opted for a single scoop of Meyer lemon ice cream ... very very nice. Then, simply because the space was so nice, the people so friendly and the food so excellent, I asked if I could have a "half" beer to just relax into the atmosphere ... absolutely no problem.<br />
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So, in summary, one of the best restaurants I have eaten in, from fantastic food to wonderful service. It's one of those restaurants where you say, I want to go back to Seattle just to eat there. My <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/tags/tilikumplacecafe/" target="_blank">photos of Tilikum Place Cafe on Flickr</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6978807933/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Seattle Pike Place Market - 15 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Seattle Pike Place Market - 15" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7048/6978807933_7d7f30956b.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Lowell's in Pike Place Market - neon signs.</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Lowell's Restaurant</span><br />
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I also ate at Lowell's in the Pike Place Market. Unfortunately I arrived too late to have dinner the first night since they closed at 5 pm, but jet lag worked in my favor so I returned for breakfast at 7 am the next day. It was excellent.<br />
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House cured salmon with herbed cream cheese and a bagel, the perfect way to start the day. Oh, and did I mention the view? I had a nice window table looking over Elliott Bay. I stayed about an hour, just staring out the window watching the ferries with a view of the snow covered mountains in the background ... just incredible. It was so great that I decided to go back for my second day's breakfast too! Lots of my Seattle <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/tags/lowellsseattle/" target="_blank">photos on Flickr</a> were taken from the top floor dining room at Lowell's - including the one at the top of the page.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Back to Seattle?</span><br />
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I visited Seattle several times when I lived in the Bay Area, I always enjoyed it and this visit confirmed my impression that it's a really wonderful place. I hope to visit again soon. Here are my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157629213443078/" target="_blank">Seattle photos on Flickr</a>.</span>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-35878311950248852982012-03-15T09:18:00.000+01:002012-03-15T09:18:54.712+01:00Classic Jane Jacobs Article<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6774063466/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Via Carlo Cattaneo Brescia Italy - 16 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Via Carlo Cattaneo Brescia Italy - 16" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7191/6774063466_0455962c8c.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Via Carlo Cattaneo, <a href="http://andynashnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/03/brescia-italy.html">Brescia Italy</a>, from <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/" target="_blank">my flickr photos</a>.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Just finished reading an article from Fortune Magazine's archives: Downtown is for People (Fortune Classic, 1958) by Jane Jacobs. It's from before she wrote <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_and_Life_of_Great_American_Cities">The Death and Life of Great American Cities</a>. (HT: <a href="http://www.pps.org/">Project for Public Spaces</a> (PPS) Placemaking News)<br />
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<a href="http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2011/09/18/downtown-is-for-people-fortune-classic-1958/">Downtown is for People</a> is simply a wonderful article. It's shocking to read how clearly Jacobs describes what's good and bad about cities and planning. I was particularly impressed by the end of the article where she says citizens can and should play an active role in planning - how's that for contemporary thinking? Imagine how we could use today's information technology to help improve this process (for example, my <a href="http://www.greencitystreets.com/">GreenCityStreets.com</a> project)?<br />
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She also describes how planners often think in terms of blocks (because it's easier) when they should be thinking about streets ... what a simple, but powerful idea for making better places. Her description of Rockefeller Center and its streets is eye-opening.<br />
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Jacobs tells her readers to walk, walk, walk ... observing the city as they go. This is how you learn what works and doesn't work in a city. It's very much the philosophy of Allan Jacobs, one of my teachers at UC Berkeley - he told us look and measure, that's the way to understanding.<br />
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I'll close by quoting the last line in the article:<br />
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<i><b>Designing a dream city is easy; rebuilding a living one takes imagination.</b></i></span>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-22317665315161381212012-03-09T19:12:00.000+01:002012-03-09T19:12:12.035+01:00Gunter Dueck at e-Day Austria<span style="font-family: arial;">Professor Dr. Gunter Dueck gave a wonderful opening keynote at the Austrian Chamber of Commerce's annual <a href="http://portal.wko.at/wk/startseite_dst.wk?DstID=9335" target="_blank">e-Day</a> event last Thursday. Dueck on <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunter_Dueck" target="_blank">Wikipedia German</a>, his <a href="http://www.omnisophie.com/" target="_blank">homepage</a> also in German. Dueck worked for IBM and is the author of several books about information technology and society.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Dueck started by asking the question, what do we build first? Our house or the wall around it? It was meant to make you think, since the theme of the day was "security".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Slide 1: The sunrise of premium operating systems</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Dueck talked about a whole series of premium operating systems that are allowing us to forget the mechanics of generation one OS (mac, pc, etc.). They include: facebook, automobile control systems, applications of all kinds, medical apps ... in short the things we are using the internet to do today.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">He told many funny stories, as he said later, because it helps us deal with the speed of change. This reminded me of one of my favorite lectures at <a href="http://andynashnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/01/picnic-2011-in-amsterdam.html">PICNIC2011</a> by <a href="http://vimeo.com/29365916">Ben Hammersley</a> on how we need to warn our friends about the speed of technology change, in short if you can dream it, it will be here in the next 5-10 years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">For cars, the car itself is becoming less important, more important is the operating system. Soon we will be asking sales people: "Can I drive this car with my iPad?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">In medicine many problems, diabetes for example, can be better treated via computer than with a doctor via the normal process: travel to doctor's office, wait, blood test by doctor, discuss, send test out for analysis, get analysis, discuss analysis with doctor .... a long and winding process. A simple blood test machine at home attached to an internet database could give you more personalized information in seconds. Doctors are really needed for special cases, not routine care.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Slide 2: Internet makes everything a commodity</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Continuing on the theme, Dueck had a list of professions and asked us to think of how the internet could revolutionize each of them.</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Who needs publishers when you can self publish an e-book?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Who needs professors when you have the Khan Academy and elite universities broadcasting lectures from their best professors (not only do you get great lectures, but you can re-wind when you miss something)?</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Buying on-line: applications that let your customers compare prices means you need to offer something more or match the lower prices.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6920155343/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="St Giulia Museo della Citta Brescia Italy - 40 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="St Giulia Museo della Citta Brescia Italy - 40" height="478" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7195/6920155343_e536dd423d.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No Driverless Cars Allowed!</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Driverless cars: the only thing a car cannot do now is determine where you want to go (you need to tell it). When this is accepted there will be no need for us to own a car: our needs can be served by a fleet of automated taxis. This will have huge impacts on the automobile industry since we would only need about 10% of the cars we have today ... which may be one reason automated cars don't exist yet: industry won't let it happen. Consider how much better this could make the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Political parties are creatures of the previous age: in Europe Social Democrats (industrial workers) and Christian Democrats (farmers) ... similarly in the US, but these were formed when these groups made up large shares of the population. How many farmers are there today? How many industrial workers? How many will there be in 10-years?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Are today's political parties still relevant? (Note the Pirate Party success in Berlin.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Slide 3: <a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/" target="_blank">Khan Academy</a></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Only the best can be teachers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">By the way, if you can't find the answer on google, do you really think your teacher will know it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Slide 4: The 2nd revolution</b> in the 3rd business sector: industrialization (I probably got this slide title wrong ... )</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Everything that can be done automatically will be done automatically.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Today when you go to have your car repaired what do they do? Plug it into a computer, the computer tells them what's wrong, they replace the part. What skills are needed for this? How much would you pay for it? Master mechanics, like doctors, will only be needed for the most difficult cases.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">The trend towards a small number of elite jobs for highly skilled workers and low paying rather menial jobs will continue. ... and this will affect ALL professions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">(Aside: <a href="http://www.creativeclass.com/richard_florida" target="_blank">Richard Florida</a> believes that service workers could help build a middle class, but Dueck did not mention that.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Slide 5: Who will care for our aging society?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">It's too late for us to have enough children. We'll need to be as efficient as possible ... the internet will help.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Slide 6: Geoffrey Moore: Crossing the chasm</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Moore's theory is that there is a chasm between early adaptors of technology and the next stage ... crossing the chasm is very difficult.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Dueck described the four types of people:</span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Early </span><span style="font-family: arial;">adopters</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> (10%), smart phones are cool, I'm getting one.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Pragmatic adopters (40%), do I really need a smart phone?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Conservative adopters (40%), I'll get a smart phone when I have to.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Skeptics (10%), I'm going to start a ballot initiative against smart phones.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Dueck cautioned that things will never really be safe (a theme well covered by Bruce Schneider) and that this should not prevent us from trying new things. (Also remember that 2-3% of everything in stores is stolen!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Given the fear of change, often the hysterical side wins.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Podium Discussion</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Dueck participated in the podiums discussion, two points:</span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Social media - it's not so important to him that a company has a lot of facebook fans, but rather that the website provides the information he needs ... don't put I have xxxx facebook fans and that makes me great, but rather the information customers need: opening time, information on the strike at Frankfurt airport ....</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Infrastructure - the biggest problem for information technology is physical infrastructure (e.g. glass fiber, etc.). It takes too long to get these physical systems in place because no one can make a decision. Neal Peirce from <a href="http://citiwire.net/">citiwire.net</a> talks about the <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3267/" target="_blank">possibilities for cities that invest in digital infrastructure</a> in a recent column on Kansas City.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Finally, Dueck pointed out several times that just because he was saying these things were happening, he was not necessarily in favour of them ... he was just reporting what we are doing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Finally</b></span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">An aside: I completely agree with Dueck's view of social networking, it's not an end in itself. In other words it's not important how many fans you have, it's what your fans do for you. That's part of the idea behind my </span><a href="http://greencitystreets.com/" style="font-family: arial;">GreenCityStreets.com</a> <span style="font-family: arial;"> project. It's a game/social network designed to increase public participation in transport planning. The prototype is on line and now we're searching for a launch partner. Development was partly funded by</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><a href="http://www.zit.co.at/en.html" style="font-family: arial;" target="_blank">ZIT: The City of Vienna's Technology Agency</a><span style="font-family: arial;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Finally, this post is from my notes, sorry for any mistakes, add corrections in the comments. Here's a link to Dueck's slides (mostly in German): <a href="http://www.eday.at/2012/download/vortraege/dueck_eday2012.pdf" target="_blank">Dueck E-Day 2012 Keynote Speech</a></span><br />
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</span>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-31796491084106718442012-03-07T06:14:00.000+01:002012-03-07T06:14:50.581+01:00Brescia Italy<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6821636095/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Brescia Italy Piazza del Loggia - 8 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Brescia Italy Piazza del Loggia - 8" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7026/6821636095_b8c722d18b.jpg" width="374" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Piazza del Loggia Brescia, from Palazzo Loggia </b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">I recently visited Brescia Italy on a business trip. I had some extra time since <a href="http://andynashnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/02/night-train-to-italy.html">I travelled by night train</a> and so took the opportunity to explore the city. Brescia is a relatively small city in the northern part of Italy about an hour from Milan on the main railway route between Milan and Venice.<br />
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I stayed in the <a href="http://www.hotelvittoria.com/eng/index.php">Hotel Vittoria</a>, a classic hotel in the center of Brescia. It was my favorite type of hotel: old but very clean and well maintained. The breakfast was excellent with great coffee and a German style buffet (with Italian foods!).</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6920112651/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="St Giulia Museo della Citta Brescia Italy - 16 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="St Giulia Museo della Citta Brescia Italy - 16" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7180/6920112651_b59ba0520e.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fresco in Santa Maria in Solario Chapel, Santa Giulia Museum Brescia</span></b></td></tr>
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I decided to visit the <a href="http://www.santagiulia.info/museo_di_santa_giulia/index.htm">Santa Giulia museum</a> (home page in Italian only, odd for a tourist destination, but all the information in the museum is provided in English and Italian). This museum is built on the site of a former abby that was founded in the 700s. Brescia was an important Roman town and getting to the museum you pass the old forum and ruins of the Forum Temple and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6821568019/">Roman theater</a>. The Santa Giulia museum covers the city's history from pre-historic times until the present. The city brought items found throughout the city to the museum for viewing.</span><br />
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The museum is quite cool because it uses the old abby buildings to show the history. You walk through several eras of history in the different chapels that are on the site. Artwork from the appropriate age is displayed in the chapels and connecting structures. In between you can look out on the classic abby courtyard. The museum has some real treasures including a precious stone embedded cross (Cross of Desiderius, late 8th Century) and unbelievable medieval frescoes in the Santa Maria in Solario chapel. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6920128269/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="St Giulia Museo della Citta Brescia Italy - 28 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="St Giulia Museo della Citta Brescia Italy - 28" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7176/6920128269_b5387b778e.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Roman mosaic floor featuring Dionysus and panther, Santa Giulia Museum Brescia</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;"> <br />
Then, because the abby was built over part of the old Roman city they have a large indoor space where you an look down on several remarkably well preserved Roman houses. The frescos and mosaic floors are incredible to see. I took lots of photos, the better ones are on my Flickr photos of Santa Giulia Museum. There are also lots of examples of everyday objects from the Roman era. The transport planner in me liked the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6774001288/">milestone markers</a> and the sections of Roman roadways that they left intact for us to see.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">I would highly recommend the museum for those interested in seeing Roman city planning history and medieval art, two things I really enjoy. My <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/tags/museosantagiuliabrescia/">photos of the Santa Giulia Museum Brescia</a> on flickr.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6774047896/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Via Carlo Cattaneo Brescia Italy - 01 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Via Carlo Cattaneo Brescia Italy - 01" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7188/6774047896_946df8536b.jpg" width="374" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Torre D'ercole, Via Carlo Cattaneo, Brescia</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">After several hours in the museum I went walking through the city and found myself on Via Carlo Cattaneo. One of the buildings struck me and when I read the historic plaque I learned that it was the <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Torre_d'Ercole_(Brescia)">Torre D'ercole</a>, one of those tower structures that noble families used to build during the late middle ages as a fortress in the city. At a certain point whoever was ruler of the city required all these towers to be cut-off at a certain level to reduce the power of these other families. But the lower part of the structure still shows the tower architecture. (Also interesting, like many buildings in Brescia it was built partly out of stone from older Roman buildings, they recycled the building materials.)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6774062040/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Via Carlo Cattaneo Brescia Italy - 15 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Via Carlo Cattaneo Brescia Italy - 15" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7059/6774062040_6ce2113383.jpg" width="374" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Outside alcove table, Torre D'ercole</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">In the ground floor of this old tower is a charming cafe serving simple food and great drinks. Like most all Italian cafes they offer free snacks during happy hour. They have great beer including Belgo from Belgium and I even saw a bottle of Sierra Nevada (one of my favorite US beers) on a shelf. I visited twice, the first time I had a Campari soda (very Italian of me) and the second time a very tasty draft Brat beer. They have a few tables in a little square across the street, and even have an ingenious solution for smokers, a little table and chairs placed in an alcove in the street with windows into the cafe (see photo). They had music the second night I visited, this is the kind of cafe everyone needs nearby!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6774056954/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Via Carlo Cattaneo Brescia Italy - 11 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Via Carlo Cattaneo Brescia Italy - 11" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7039/6774056954_5473517a54.jpg" width="374" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tape measure display at architect's office, Via Carlo Cattaneo, Brescia</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">There were several very interesting shops nearby. A wonderful design and antiques store across the street, a "<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6920173545/">hat laboratory</a>" a little way down the street, a wonderful pasta store, a garage with a marble floor, an architectural office with a neat tape measure art piece in the window. A really fun street with lots of creative people around. See all my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/tags/viacarlocattaneobrescia/">photos of Via Carlo Cattaneo</a> on flickr.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">There are also lots of interesting buildings in the historic center including the Loggia (my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/tags/loggiabrescia/">photos of the Loggia</a> on flickr), the official city hall, which was designed by several famous architects including Pladdio, and the Cathederal. Also lots of nice squares, many of which have been turned into pedestrian areas.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Brescia is part of the EU funded <a href="http://www.civitas.eu/">CIVITAS</a> project and they are doing lots of interesting work on sustainable transport. <a href="http://www.civitas-initiative.eu/index.php?id=66&sel_menu=35&city_id=98">Brescia</a> has a very nice bicycle rental system, good public transport (they are building a tram line through the center of the city, partly underground) and a unified smart card for public transport, car sharing and bicycle rental. Very impressive for a relatively small city (about 250,000 in the city and a million in the region). All my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/tags/brescia/">photos of Brescia</a> on flickr.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">In summary, Brescia is a nice city to visit, especially so because it's off the main tourist path.</span>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-55302539346308260552012-03-06T04:07:00.000+01:002012-03-06T04:07:20.385+01:00Stadt der Zukunft - City of the Future: Vienna<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/3035582216/" title="Wiener Linien Tram 49 Scenes - Oct08 - 4 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Wiener Linien Tram 49 Scenes - Oct08 - 4" height="375" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3061/3035582216_73804be546.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">I attended a fascinating lecture and roundtable Wednesday night called <a href="http://www.bankaustria.at/de/31075.html" target="_blank">Stadt der Zukunft </a>(city of the future) organized by the city of Vienna and Erste Bank. The evening focused on urban mobility. The keynote speaker was Professor Andreas Knie from Berlin. His lecture was followed by four presentations from businesses working in the field of urban mobility, then a roundtable discussion with Knie, Vice Mayor <a href="http://www.wien.spoe.at/mag-renate-brauner" target="_blank">Renate Brauner</a>, Vice Mayor <a href="http://wien.gruene.at/mariavassilakou" target="_blank">Maria Vassilakou</a>, and Emeritus Professor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Knoflacher" target="_blank">Hermann Knoflacher</a> from the TU Vienna.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Urban Mobility in the 21st Century</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.innoz.de/geschaeftsfuehrung.html?&L=1" target="_blank">Professor Andreas Knie</a> is co-managing director of <a href="http://www.innoz.de/impressum.html?&L=1" target="_blank">INNOZ, Berlin</a>, Innovationszentrum für Mobilität und gesellschaftlichen Wandel, (English: Centre for Innovation in Mobility and </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Societal Change) and a professor at two universities in Berlin. His lecture was titled: "<a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bankaustria.at%2Finformationspdfs%2FPraesentation_Knie.pdf" target="_blank">Networked Mobility in Cities</a>" slides from the lecture (German).<br />
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Knie's main focus was the need for integrating all forms of transport into easy to use networks. This means, for example, a single smart card that can be used for public transport, city bike rental, car sharing, buying things in stores, etc. Knie reviewed some of the more famous examples (Hong Kong <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_card" target="_blank">Octopus</a>, London <a href="http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14825.aspx" target="_blank">Oyster</a>, Netherlands travel card, etc.), as well as some German experiments (Berlin Mobility Card).<br />
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One of the main reasons for developing these integrated cards is to create a networked transport system that can provide a similar degree of "automobility" as automobiles provide today. It's clear that we will be using automobiles totally differently in 25-years (or sooner!). There is simply no way that the auto will be able to provide transport in rapidly growing cities (congestion). It will be necessary to use the right mode of transport for each trip, without necessarily owning the vehicle.<br />
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We are seeing the beginnings of this revolution now, and it's no secret that automobile companies see the writing on the wall, that's why companies like Daimler are sponsoring car sharing companies like <a href="http://www.google.at/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=car%20to%20go&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CEAQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.car2go.com%2F&ei=vqlQT_DTBcf-4QTMh5nLDQ&usg=AFQjCNGP8cOZ9DHzW3bokNkBItXB5Bc39g" target="_blank">Car-to-go</a>.<br />
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So, we need to focus on developing these integrated smart card (or maybe mobile phone) systems. But, this will take time since people's transportation habits are quite ingrained (we like our routines). For example, the Berlin Mobility Card was a truly exceptional offer (full use of the city-region public transport system, free use of rental bikes, 50 Euro credit for car sharing, all for the price of 78 Euros per month, and despite a large marketing effort, they had about 135 people sign-up (of course it was only for a 3-month trial, but still ...). So change is hard.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6203961865/" title="MOMA NY - Talk to me - Sept 2011 - 6 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="MOMA NY - Talk to me - Sept 2011 - 6" height="500" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6162/6203961865_13f292b1af.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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Introducing smart cards for public transport systems only has also been hard. Early systems were introduced probably two decades ago, but they are only now becoming popular in the USA. I saw a great presentation by Renee Matthews at the US TRB Meeting this year on the introduction of smart cards at the Tri-Rail in Florida (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy_Card" target="_blank">South Florida Smart Card</a>). She gave lost of practical information in her presentation. As an aside, I've always thought it was sad that ski areas in Austria have better 'fare collection' systems and more information on their customers than most public transport agencies.<br />
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This leads to another of Knie's points, the private sector is much better organized to introduce these improvements than public agencies. And, as evidenced by, e.g. Car-to-Go, they are doing so. His point, to me, was not that public transport needs to be privatized, but rather that public agencies need to become more entrepreneurial.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Electric Cars</span><br />
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Knie talked a lot about the future for electric cars. He pointed out that they were expensive to buy and operate, and furthermore they would remain expensive. Electricity will not be free and developing renewable energy sources will be a big challenge. But, these conditions mean that electric cars are ideal for using in shared systems (e.g. Paris car sharing).<br />
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Electric cars could also be used as batteries to store electricity generated using renewable sources, since these sources are dependent on wind, sun, etc. and not always available. I'd heard this argument before, but Knie's version made more sense, since he linked it to the communal idea: thinking about the cars and electric grid as a shared system, not as individually owned vehicles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">The most interesting aspect of Knie's analysis of electric cars was the idea that using shared electric cars would start to bring about a change in the 'transport-space' concept we carry around in our heads. In other words, because these electric cars will be more expensive to operate and will have limited range, we will shift from a mindset that accepts long travel distances as a tradeoff for less expensive housing (in distant suburbs), to a mindset that looks for proximity and short trips. And, naturally, short trips are ideal for more environmentally friendly modes like walking, biking and public transport.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Projections are that cities will grow significantly in the coming decades, it will clearly be impossible for everyone to have a car and live in the suburbs, so this change in mindset will be very important for future prosperity.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/3034569987/" title="Vienna Austria Wahringerstrasse u6 -02 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Vienna Austria Wahringerstrasse u6 -02" height="324" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3067/3034569987_3f0014184b.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Where will sustainable transport systems be developed?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">A particularly interesting point for me as an American was Knie's discussion of where these new sustainable transport systems will be developed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Knie pointed out that the ongoing "</span><span style="font-family: arial;">renaissance</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> of European cities" (for example in the sustainable transport sector), seems to be impossible in the United States </span><span style="font-family: arial;">because the society is politically not willing to invest in infrastructure. Many US cities seem almost to be imploding, especially when long-term maintenance of physical infrastructure is considered.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">In contrast, Europe still has a tradition of building large infrastructure projects in cities. This will be helpful to the economy as it's </span><span style="font-family: arial;">a great opportunity for cities to become leaders in new sustainable transport technology. Cities that invest in new infrastructure and ideas will be able to sell these technologies elsewhere.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">(Interesting article on <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/72985.html" target="_blank">Re-imagining American infrastructure</a> on Politico via Planetizen.) </span><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6633899159/" title="Rote Bar Jetz Geöffnet - Vienna Volkstheater by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Rote Bar Jetz Geöffnet - Vienna Volkstheater" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7005/6633899159_be85c2453b.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Best Practice Examples</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Following Knie's keynote lecture, four Vienna-based best practice examples were described (links to presentations, in German):</span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">IBM: <a href="http://www.bankaustria.at/informationspdfs/IBM_Smarter_Cities_-_Michael_Schramm_-_BA_Mobility_Event_Feb_2012.pdf" target="_blank">Smart Mobility</a> - two examples from IBM's Smarter Cities program: Singapore's fare collection card (important not only for simplifying fare collection, but also gives planners a very important set of data for improving service) and Carbo-Traf (EU research project) designed to reduce emissions by predicting congestion and informing drivers in time to make changes in travel patterns.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Siemens - Described a new <a href="http://www.bankaustria.at/informationspdfs/Siemens__Proksch_Womit_faehrt_der_Oeffentliche_Verkehr.pdf" target="_blank">zero-emissions bus</a> they have developed and are testing in Vienna.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.bankaustria.at/informationspdfs/KTM_Schmid.pdf" target="_blank">KTM Bikes</a> - Austrian bicycle manufacturer has seen huge increase in demand for electric bikes, described the design for a new electro bike that can be used for shopping (can carry 150 kg, "That's seven and a half cases of beer." ... and it looks pretty cool too).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.bankaustria.at/informationspdfs/Wiener_Stadtwerke_Stockinger.pdf" target="_blank">Vienna Stadtwerk</a> - This is the city of Vienna's holding company for the WienerLinien (public transport agency), power company and other services provided in the city of Vienna. Ilse Stockinger described the comprehensive e-mobility on demand project. The project idea is based on: more variety, more flexibility, more interconnectivity and more space for people. Vienna believes that the ideal coordinating agency for this type of a transport future are public transport operators and are looking at how to evolve to become this kind of agency. Neat idea.</span></li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/5526816621/" title="U-6 at night Vienna by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="U-6 at night Vienna" height="374" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5258/5526816621_aa633e9a79.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Podium Discussion</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">The last part of the evening was a podium discussion where Knie was joined by Vienna city government officials Vice Mayor Renate Brauner and Vice Mayor Maria Vassilakou, and emeritus professor Hermann Knoflacher (TU Vienna) to discuss how Vienna was doing in terms of sustainable mobility. Here are some of the points that made an impression on me, the Stadt der Zunkunft has an excellent summary of the discussion too (<a href="http://www.bankaustria.at/de/31075.html" target="_blank">Stadt der Zunkunft</a> German).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Vice Mayor Vassilakou started the discussion by highlighting Vienna's excellent mode share for sustainable transport and the fact that this mode share has been increasing. She told a funny story by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Lerner" target="_blank">Jaime Lerner</a> (former mayor of Curitiba and pioneer in innovative sustainable transport), that "your relationship with your car should be like your relationship with your mother-in-law: it's OK to love her, but you can't let her dominate your life."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Vice Mayor Brauner mentioned that not only is Vienna's excellent public transport highly appreciated by residents, but, the availability of safe, convient and affordable public transport is the number 2 quality mentioned by tourists in what they like about Vienna (imagine this in your city!). She also reminded the audience that according to FastCompany, </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679127/the-top-10-smart-cities-on-the-planet" target="_blank">Vienna is the world's #1 smart city</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Professor Knoflacher emphasized the importance of not forgetting about pedestrians. Good places to walk are needed for all the networked transport ideas described by Knie.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Vice Mayor Vassilakou said a big problem in Vienna is that over 350,000 people drive into the city from the suburbs every day. Parking control and better regional public transport is needed (e.g. S-Bahn regional rail service).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Professor Knie at this point played the devil's advocate and suggested that while Vienna was doing very well, if the city really wanted to make a major change, then Vienna needs to completely re-invent public transport. Public transport operators must really know their customers, make their services attractive to people who don't now use PT, and change the way people think about public transport.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">In response to Knie, Vice Mayor Brauner said that the WienerLinien was, through programs like the e-mobility on demand, QANDO real time mobile phone application, new lines and new tram vehicles, continually re-thinking public transport. She pointed out that the WienerLinien has over 350,000 customers who buy annual passes and they certainly know these people.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">(Aside: Part of Vice Mayor Brauner's portfolio is <a href="http://www.zit.co.at/en.html" target="_blank">ZIT: The City of Vienna's Technology Agency</a>. Last year ZIT gave me a grant to help develop <a href="http://greencitystreets.com/">GreenCityStreets.com</a>, my game/social network designed to increase public participation in transport planning. The prototype is on line and now we're searching for a launch partner. IMHO, I think it's another good example of Vienna's support for innovative new ideas.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Vice Mayor Vassilakou pointed out that everyone is now allowed to take their bikes on WienerLinien U-Bahn lines for free now (previously those without a yearly pass had to pay an extra fee). This is just the type of interconnected network that Knie was advocating.</span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Professor Knie then suggested that Vienna could learn from other cities in the introduction of a single mobility card that could be used for all forms of transport. Another important point is that cities need to consider how they can get their residents to support the complex and controversial activities needed to create truly sustainable transport systems. It's possible that government-run public transport agencies are not up to this task, the private sector should be more involved.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Vice Mayor Brauner strongly objected to private control over services like public transport which are needed to make cities function for everyone. She pointed out that the WienerLinien is owned by Wiener Stadtwerk, a private company, but controlled by the city. This means it can be innovative (as evidenced by the innovations described above), but remains focused on providing the best for city residents. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">All four speakers were asked to describe their wish for Vienna in 20-years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Professor Knie: Public transport is the hub of an interconnected sustainable urban transport system.</span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Professor Knoflacher: No more infrastructure would be built for automobiles, the only ones using cars would be disabled persons and deliveries. There would be more people living in Vienna and many fewer cars.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Vice Mayors Vassilakou and Brauner both agreed that Vienna would reach and surpass the goal of 75% sustainable transport mode share by 2020 in the city's Transport Master Plan. Vienna would also continue to develop and implement innovative new transport ideas and remain the world's most livable, and smartest city.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/3778500464/" title="Westbahnstr-Track-Renewal-Aug09-15 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Westbahnstr-Track-Renewal-Aug09-15" height="500" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2659/3778500464_4653066735.jpg" width="375" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Finally</span></div>
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</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: arial;">Sorry for any errors or misattributions in my text above. I was writing fast and the presentations were all in German. Feel free to add corrections below or to contact me. Check also the excellent <a href="http://www.bankaustria.at/de/31075.html" target="_blank">website</a> (in German) from the event.</span></div>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-82528136873777620652012-03-02T10:43:00.000+01:002012-03-02T10:43:22.650+01:00John Friedmann in Vienna<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6941292193/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="John Friedmann TU Vienna - 2 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="John Friedmann TU Vienna - 2" height="420" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7037/6941292193_18e1269ed6.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friedmann responding to a question.</span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a great honor to hear Professor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Friedmann" target="_blank">John Friedmann</a> speak at the <a href="http://www.tuwien.ac.at/aktuelles/news_detail/article/7403/" target="_blank">Technical University of Vienna</a> last week. The lecture was fascinating. Here are some of my notes, they are incomplete and the lecture was so full of information that I am sure I got some of it wrong. You can get a copy of the full lecture from the <a href="http://www.tuwien.ac.at/aktuelles/news_detail/article/7403/" target="_blank">lecture organizer</a>.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.tuwien.ac.at/aktuelles/news_detail/article/7403/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Austria-in-the-World: Conversations and Debates about Planning and Development</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friedmann's lecture was structured around nine Austrian "cultural emissaries" who left Vienna for the outside world and directly influenced his thoughts about planning.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The nine are: e</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">conomists Bertram Hoselitz, Friedrich Hayek, and Joseph Schumpeter; the sociologist Karl Mannheim; Martin Buber, a philosopher and Judaic scholar; Ludwig Wittgenstein, a philosopher of language; Karl Popper, a philosopher of science; Paul Feyerabend, also a philosopher of science and a critic of </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Popper; and Karl Polanyi, an economic historian and social anthropologist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although Friedmann did not agree with all these thinkers, they all influenced his work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Studies at the University of Chicago</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friedmann studied planning at the University of Chicago between 1949 and 1955. Four Austrians who influenced him there were:</span></div>
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Mannheim" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Karl Mannheim</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Planning could be thought of as an intellectual pursuit, not just a profession.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Democratic planning could be a 3rd path between totalitarian fascism and soviet communism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Planning is a condition for democratic life, the national state could and should intervene in the market for the benefit of society as a whole.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Belief in the possibilites of a constructive democratic planning by the state.</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6941287685/" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Succession Vienna - 2 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Succession Vienna - 2" height="320" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7037/6941287685_5f32209650.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Succession Vienna, walking to the lecture.</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek" target="_blank">Friedrich Hayek</a> (The Road to Serfdom)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Social state management is a recipe for disaster.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Strongly opposed to all forms of planning and state intervention.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Planning is a socialist plot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hayek's thinking became a model for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher" target="_blank">Margaret Thatcher</a>, his book "a bible she wielded like a battle ax".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bertram Hoselitz (Economic historian at University of Chicago)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Initiated the multi-disciplinary study of socio-economic development in the US. Founding</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">editor of the Journal of Economic Development</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and Cultural Change (1952).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Focused on the role of cities in economic development: growth pole, world city, urban centered regions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His work in development studies and the role of cities strongly influenced Friedmann.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Schumpeter" target="_blank">Joseph Schumpeter</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism,_Socialism_and_Democracy" target="_blank">Capitalism, Socialism, Democracy</a> 1942)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Earlier work had been on the theory of economic development.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Innovation in economic production and the idea of entrepreneurship took off from his work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friedmann linked this concept to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Arendt" target="_blank">Hannah Arendt</a>'s idea of "action" (handeln in German) by which she meant "setting something new into the world." For Friedmann planning is pragmatic or institutional innovation ... not regulation and control (which is simply administration).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another of Schumpeter's famous ideas is creative destruction, where the old is destroyed to make room for the new. In this sense innovation is a form of insurgency against the status quo. Friedmann links this idea to entropy and negative entropy (dissipation and articulated growth). According to Friedmann, our nerves have, to date, been calmed by the illusion of universal progress (bought about by innovation), but he pointed out that "'development' in most of the world usually comes with a negative sign."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The idea of negative entropy comes from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Schr%C3%B6dinger" target="_blank">Erwin Schroedinger</a>: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_is_Life%3F" target="_blank">What is life?</a> (1944) another Viennese.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Wanderjahre and UCLA</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After graduating from the University of Chicago in 1955, Friedmann worked as a development specialist in South America, South Korea and Japan (Ford Foundation, USAID, etc.). He also taught at MIT and in 1969 started teaching planning at UCLA where he remained until 1996. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friedmann's book "Retracking America" was published in 1973. It grew out of his experience working on development in South America, it caused him to re-think the idea of planning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friedmann's idea: planning is a relationship between knowledge and action, it requires dialog.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A form of utopian planning based on local citizen participation.</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6795175262/" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Karlskirche Vienna Night - 2 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Karlskirche Vienna Night - 2" height="400" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7061/6795175262_5a78be75b9.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Karlskirche, walking to the lecture.</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Buber" target="_blank">Martin Buber</a> (Ich und du, 1923)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friedmann's idea of transactive planning was influenced by the idea of dialogue and mutuality in Buber's book.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He was also influenced by Buber's idea of utopia, but Friedmann believes that utopias need to remain small.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To Friedmann, innovative planning is inconceivable without a utopia in your imagination.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper" target="_blank">Karl Popper</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Critical connection between knowledge and action.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ultimate certainty (truth) is attainable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To Friedmann planning = a science but also means being actively engaged in making change, so: ... </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What knowledge is sufficiently reliable for the <b><i>practice</i></b> of planning? How do we get it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Feyerabend" target="_blank">Paul Feyerabend</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Started as a student of Popper, but rejected Popper's idea of certain truth.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anarchist theory of knowledge.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Methods cannot be prescribed, results are what ultimately matters = pragmatism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Multiplicity of knowledges, no single objective knowledge.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Idea of social or mutual learning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein" target="_blank">Ludwig Wittgenstein</a> (multi-talented rebel without a cause)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friedmann's book "The Good Society" was directly influenced in content and form by Wittgenstein's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractatus_Logico-Philosophicus" target="_blank">Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus</a> book.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A foundation of thinking about a form of planning not organized by the state.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moral basis of social practice, ethics.</span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Polanyi" target="_blank">Karl Polanyi</a> (The Livelihood of Man 1977, <a href="http://www.jstor.org/pss/2778506" target="_blank">link to review</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friedmann had returned to the more manageable idea of development planning, particularly in the developing world. During the 1980s the idea of large government intervention in development was being replaced (partly as a result of Thatcherism) by the idea of small NGO-based programs. But NGOs cannot deal with the huge structural problems in many developing countries. It was during this period that development planning lost its scheen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Polanyi's book described development freed from the language of classical economics, ... "Disposable labor is allocated between the production of use values in the moral economy and exchange values in the capitalist economy." Focused on the household as a social institution rather than a utility maximizing individual. Led Friedmann to the concept of social empowerment and a view of poverty defined as a lack of access to the bases of social power (Empowerment: The politics of alternative development).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some closing thoughts</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">National boundaries no longer explain much.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Planning is an innovative activity following Hannah Arendt's definition ... innovation is sending something new into the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Planning = the relationship between knowing and acting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Acceleration of human and social change = the acceleration of local history.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Planning is a dynamic pattern of interacting forces, but it's almost impossible to see these forces.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In China planning is more of a ritual activity rather than a guiding force, change is happening too fast for the existing planning structure to keep up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Planning theory = part of a theory of socio-spatial change ... planning is normative, but history just goes on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Questions and Answers</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Organized civil society = Friedmann's hope for the future.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A tacit knowing is needed, but how do we get it? To Popper knowledge was 'free floating' somewhere above us, if only we could find it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But, when we do find it, is it true? We know much knowledge today is generated with a point of view (cigarette company funded health research) ... so, what's the truth?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our interest as planners is to change the world, not to look for the ultimate truth (where ever this ultimate truth is, we can be sure we won't find it).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Knowledge is related to where we stand, knowledge and belief are closely inter-tied.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is more than one kind of knowledge, who can dismiss knowledge that is based on experience, or religion?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We need to embrace a plurality of knowledges (note plural) to start a conversation on how to change the world for the better.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Principle of dialog won't go by the wayside.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We need to analyze information to understand its meaning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To gain knowledge we need to work through the differences.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a city with many differences we can either give up on the idea of common good and everyone can be out for themselves (pure capitalism) or work through our differences (through dialog with planners acting as facilitators). Note that this is a very different role for planning than Master Planning from on high. Example of Vancouver BC waterfront planning process = extensive resident dialog, it was not a plan dropped on the city from heaven.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Planning must be communications-based - why? It's transactive particularly if you want to add other groups to the dialog beyond the state.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Civil society is key. Friedmann hopes for innovation based on ideas coming from civil society. An analysis of needs with a democratic ethos.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hope for a better world is to learn to live with in our means (Greece is a good example when we don't live within our means) ... this will mean substantial change in the next 50 years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cities will always be unjust. Rapid change always generates inequality ... fighting for the ultimately just city is a losing battle. (For example, the UN Millennial goals: only relevant for a static world, but the world is changing too rapidly for these goals, however good they are today. There will always be new inequalities.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patsy_Healey" target="_blank">Patsy Healy</a>, (<a href="http://www.ncl.ac.uk/guru/staff/profile/patsy.healey" target="_blank">Newcastle University profile</a>) The pragmatist tradition in planning thought (2009) (<a href="http://www.ncl.ac.uk/guru/publications/publication/152896" target="_blank">abstract</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We need to change the question we ask about cities ... in planning we never have enough knowledge, we are always taking risks because we don't know the future ... we need to act on assumptions and then act again after seeing the results.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We need to be practical and we need to PRACTICE</span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Social learning is a step by step process, taken by different actors.</span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then, suddenly, two hours had gone by ... As you can see there were so many interesting ideas it was hard to record them all accurately. I did the best I could but am sure I got some of it wrong. Feel free to add corrections or thoughts in the comments.</span></div>
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<br /></div>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-65435560374172666812012-02-29T17:59:00.001+01:002012-02-29T17:59:50.937+01:00Dome of Cheese<div style="text-align: left; padding: 3px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6795211294/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7061/6795211294_eaa02f862d_m.jpg" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" alt="" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6795211294/">St Martin's Therme Burgenland Austria - 4</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/">andynash</a>.</span></div><p>This dome reminded me of the "Dome of Slience" on the 1970s sit-com Get Smart. Just thinking about it makes me laugh!</p>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-21081103663414938252012-02-28T07:39:00.000+01:002012-02-28T07:39:31.945+01:00Night Train to Italy<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6821532537/" title="Night Train Vienna to Brescia Italy 2012 - 18 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Night Train Vienna to Brescia Italy 2012 - 18" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7153/6821532537_edc032e794.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6821497551/" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Night Train Vienna to Brescia Italy 2012 - 03 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Night Train Vienna to Brescia Italy 2012 - 03" height="239" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7019/6821497551_594c7abb06.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Italian sleeping car (couchette)</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">I recently travelled to Brescia Italy on a business trip. I decided to take the night train since Brescia is right on the route between Vienna and Milan. My wife and I used to take the night train often between Zurich and Graz or Vienna, but it's been a while since my last trip.<br />
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There's lots of variation between night train services. The Italian night trains seem to be pretty spartan. On the trains between Zurich and Graz/Vienna you get breakfast and often a welcome drink, on the Italian train I just took, nothing. So be sure to bring your own snacks, water or other drinks - always good advice when traveling by train!<br />
<br />My trip was during the long cold spell we had at the end of January, and, unfortunately, after about an hour the sleeping car attendant realized that the heating in our car was not going to be working. So he moved us all into one of the other wagons. I had booked a single in the sleeping car and unfortunately there was only one sleeping car on the train. So I was moved into a couchette car.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6821504581/" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Night Train Vienna to Brescia Italy 2012 - 06 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Night Train Vienna to Brescia Italy 2012 - 06" height="200" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7019/6821504581_05b672cdeb.jpg" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sleeping car single</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">There are two types of sleeping cars: a real sleeping car that has 1-3 fairly nice bunk beds and a sink in the compartment (Schlafwagen in German) or a couchette car that has 4-6 narrower bunks (with less nice bed linens: one of those sheet sacks with a blanket as opposed to a covered duvet) and no sink. There's quite a difference in cost, but not as much as you might think. Also, note that you can usually get a couchette in a 4-person compartment or a 6-person compartment, always choose the 4-person, it's only a little more expensive.<br />
<br />It was no fun to be in the couchette since the bed was only barely wide enough the lie flat and I hate the blankets/ sleeping sack arrangement, but at least it was warm. It was lucky that the train was fairly empty (a Monday night in January), so I still had a single.<br />
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We arrived on time in Brescia and I walked to my hotel where I had a wonderful breakfast and they let me check-in early, a real treat. An aside about breakfast, on the Zurich-Graz/Vienna night trains they used to give you a choice between having breakfast on the train or taking it with you (Austrian arrivals) or getting a voucher for breakfast in a restaurant in the Zurich train station. My recommendation: always get the breakfast to take with you or the voucher ... you will get about a half-hour more sleep.<br />
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One more thing: in Austria when you have a sleeping car ticket you can go into the "Business Lounge" which they have in many stations. You can have a glass of wine or beer before your trip begins or breakfast (real coffee and a roll) in the morning. It's another nice feature of traveling by sleeping car.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6821536885/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Night Train Vienna to Brescia Italy 2012 - 21 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Night Train Vienna to Brescia Italy 2012 - 21" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7157/6821536885_b6f939c52c.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Vicenza station from my sleeping car bed.</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">I stayed one night in Brescia, and two days. The night train arrived at 7:30 am on Tuesday and I returned on the night train that left Brescia about 10:00 pm on Wednesday. The return train was nicer since the heating was working so I was able to have my single. Unfortunately, the train was delayed quite a bit (there was a snow storm), so we reached Vienna about 45-minutes late (9:20 am on Thursday).<br />
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I was inspired to write this by a nice article about <a href="http://www.lonelyplanet.com/norway/travel-tips-and-articles/18130">Europe's 8 best night trains</a> on the Lonely Planet website.<br />
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More photos of my trip on the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/tags/nighttrain/">Italian night train on Flickr</a>.</span>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-66713698386743916502012-02-21T08:00:00.000+01:002012-02-22T20:29:08.856+01:00Jordaan Amsterdam Cafes and Cheese<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6896555563/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Amsterdam Bikes - 1 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Amsterdam Bikes - 1" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7060/6896555563_2d2df6e035.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bikes on bridge: Runstraat Amsterdam</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Jordaan is one of my favorite neighborhoods in Amsterdam and I spent a recent Thursday afternoon walking around there enjoying the city. I started by walking down Runstraat.<br />
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I was looking for a simple lunch so I stopped in at <a href="http://kaaskamer.nl/?l=en">De Kaaskamer</a>, which was offering a daily baguette for 5 Euros, why not? It was a local ham and soft goat cheese served on half a dark baguette. De Kaaskamer is one of those really great cheese shops where they sell hundreds of cheeses and the staff know everything about the different cheeses so they can point you in the right direction. The sandwich was great.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6896573223/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="De Kaaskamer Amsterdam - 2 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="De Kaaskamer Amsterdam - 2" height="340" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7181/6896573223_bfaa12dee8.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At De Kaaskamer cheese shop Amsterdam</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;"> <br />
I returned to the shop later in the afternoon to buy cheese to bring home. Then I realized you really need their expertise to help choose. After tasting several I decided on two. Here's how they are described on their labels: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: arial;">"'Brokkel de Brokkel' so do break off a piece of this very, very old cheese - impossible to cut with a cheese slicer. Invite some friends, open a bottle full bodied wine and enjoy this strong but sweet speciality. Break-a-breaker!"</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">"Deurninger Speciaal van het landgoed Kaamps - Special Dutch cheese made by farmer Herbert Nijland on his farm in the village of Deurningen near Hengelo. the cheese is treated with an Austrian mountain fungus. Special flavour!"</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: arial;"> I'm looking forward to a Dutch cheese-tasting evening at home!<br />
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Then on to the Cafe de Pels just down the street, a cafe we visited before. Very nice coffee, newspapers, darkish interior, and totally comfortable.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6896540133/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Bistro t'Stuivertje Amsterdam - 2 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Bistro t'Stuivertje Amsterdam - 2" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7036/6896540133_fdc2a3c90e.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Restaurant 't Stuivertje in Jordaan District Amsterdam</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">More walking, I was happy to find the great restaurant called t' Stuivertje on Hazenstraat 56 that we enjoyed so much last time we visited Amsterdam. I was glad to see it was still in business. Here's my <a href="http://andynashnetwork.blogspot.com/2008/03/amsterdam-bistro-t-stuivertje.html">review of Bistro 't Stuivertje</a> from last time. I also found a very nice looking pizza place called pazzi (<a href="http://andynashnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/02/beer-and-pizza-in-amsterdam.html">see my review</a>) and a cool looking cafe, but to be honest, there seem like a million cool looking cafes in Amsterdam and especially in the Jordaan (maybe that's why I like it?).</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6896548689/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Amsterdam Canals - 2 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Amsterdam Canals - 2" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7191/6896548689_358601d5a1.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amsterdam canal in winter</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;"> <br />
After walking around a little more it was happy hour, as my mother likes to say, and so I stopped in at a nice cafe at the corner of Elandsgracht and Prinsengracht overlooking the canal. I had a nice Heinekein beer and enjoyed the sun setting in the windows across the canal.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6896594355/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Cafe in Jordaan Amsterdam by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Cafe in Jordaan Amsterdam" height="400" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7207/6896594355_830857d77f.jpg" width="299" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Looking out from Jordaan cafe</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">All my <a href="http://www.flickr.com//search/show/?q=Jordaan&w=94611718%40N00">Jordaan photos on Flickr</a>.<br />
</span>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-77184574454974093572012-02-19T16:52:00.003+01:002012-02-20T18:10:08.063+01:00Social Cities of Tomorrow 2012 - Project Showcase<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6896548689/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Amsterdam Canals - 2 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Amsterdam Canals - 2" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7191/6896548689_358601d5a1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Canals in winter, Jordaan District in Amsterdam from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157623468881803/" target="_blank">flickr photos</a>.</b></td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.themobilecity.nl/" style="font-family: arial;">The Mobile City</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> and </span><a href="http://virtueelplatform.nl/english/" style="font-family: arial;">Virtueel Platform</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> organized a workshop and conference titled </span><a href="http://www.socialcitiesoftomorrow.nl/" style="font-family: arial;">Social Cities of Tomorrow</a><span style="font-family: arial;">. The program took place during the week of February 13-17. It was a great event in every way from organization to the keynote speakers to presentations of different social media projects from throughout the world. Not only that, but it was fun and there were lots of great people doing great work to meet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">This post describes the projects described at the conference. I describe the <a href="http://andynashnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/02/social-cities-of-tomorrow-conference.html" target="">Social Cities of Tomorrow Keynotes</a> and <a href="http://andynashnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/02/social-cities-of-tomorrow-2012.html">Social Cities of Tomorrow Workshops</a> on other posts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Showcase Projects</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/4423282650/" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="cafe 't Smalle Amsterdam Mar08 - 7 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="cafe 't Smalle Amsterdam Mar08 - 7" height="320" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2718/4423282650_240023c199.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cafe 't Smalle from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157623468881803/" target="_blank">flickr photos</a>.</b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">One of the very nice things about the Social Cities of Tomorrow conference was that there were three blocks of about 20-minutes each for a series of presentations on ideas for using new technology to create communities to solve complex issues (the conference theme). These blocks gave us time to see a wide variety of innovative ideas. It was hard to keep the schedule, but the organizers and presenters did a very nice job with this too. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">The projects were chosen from a large number of submissions (I wish I had known about this earlier because I would have submitted my <a href="http://greencitystreets.com/">GreenCityStreets.com</a> project!). This post presents my summary of the projects presented. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Sorry for not mentioning all the names of developers, many of these projects were developed by several groups, my goal is to simply give a quick overview (and my opinions!), all developer information is available on the </span><a href="http://www.socialcitiesoftomorrow.nl/showcases" style="font-family: arial;" target="_blank">Social Cities of Tomorrow Workshops</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> page). Also feel free to send me corrections or add details in the comments. So, here goes:</span><br />
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<ul><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/4423088192/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Amsterdam Aerial Mar08-3 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Amsterdam Aerial Mar08-3" height="375" src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4030/4423088192_98022ac981.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amsterdam aerial from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157623468881803/" target="_blank">flickr photos</a>.</b></td></tr>
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<li><b style="font-family: arial;">Apps for Amsterdam, </b><span style="font-family: arial;">a program similar to those organized in many cities that encourage independent application developers to create applications to help improve the city. Like <a href="http://www.contentaward.at/auszeichnungen/337" target="_blank">Vienna (German)</a> one of the most popular applications was designed to help people find the nearest public toilet. The program faces many of the same issues as other cities, such as how to keep these applications updated. More at <a href="http://appsforamsterdam.nl/" target="_blank">appsforamsterdam</a>.</span></li>
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<li><b style="font-family: arial;">Instant Master Planning</b><span style="font-family: arial;">, Vollsmose Denmark - A very large social housing area built during the 1950s needs to involve their community in planning for the future. The area's population is very young and diverse (over 80 countries represented), and it seemed to be less affluent than the neighboring city. The project consisted of using GPS tracking of activities to identify activity patterns (voluntary) and using SMS to send ideas for improving the area planning. Both ideas were designed to increase participation by people not normally involved in the planning process. It's a work in progress but lots of interesting results and it seems to have succeeded in increasing social participation.</span></li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6155196017/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="NDSM Wharf Crane Amsterdam - 14 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="NDSM Wharf Crane Amsterdam - 14" height="374" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6075/6155196017_528f7abb1a.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">NDSM area during PICNIC 2011 in Amsterdam from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157623468881803/" target="_blank">flickr photos</a>.</b></td></tr>
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<li><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Network Lab</b>, a combination of several partners including TU Delft (which must have an exceptional program in social media given the number of excellent projects and staff attending the conference), ARCHIS and Smart in Public. The project they described was to help increase participation in developing ideas for the NDSM area of Amsterdam (where the <a href="http://andynashnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/01/picnic-2011-in-amsterdam.html">2011 PICNIC conference</a> was held!). They have developed a system for tagging all types of objects (physical, human, environmental, etc.) to help organize information in the planning process. Another work in progress, but seems to have real potential.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>URBANIso</b>, a really interesting idea developed by </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://thefactoryfactory.com/" target="_blank">Joshua Noble</a> and <a href="http://www.emeasee.com/" target="_blank">Mac Oosthuizen</a> that is designed to help explain what data urban sensors are collecting and where the sensors are. These are little signs that are placed on the sensors or nearby (with indication of where the sensor is in relation to the sign) that tell people what data is being collected and a barcode that takes you to a website with the sensor data feed and/or more information. This is a great idea for increasing the amount of sensor data available to developers and making the city more legible for everyone. More on <a href="http://www.emeasee.com/portfolio/urban-sensor-iso/" target="_blank">URBANIso</a>. </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Amsterdam Wastelands</b>, there is a surprisingly large amount of vacant land in and around Amsterdam (partly delayed redevelopment due to the economic crisis) and Amsterdam Wastelands wants to encourage temporary use of this land in a very crowded city. They sponsored one of the workshop efforts (Team 1 project). One idea is to use social media applications to identify and implement temporary uses for currently vacant space. They have developed a common database of this information and geocoded it on a google map. Others can add information and ideas. Here's the <a href="http://www.gisdro.nl/braakliggende_terreinen/" target="_blank">website</a>, it's in Dutch but you can get the idea.</span></li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/4422522325/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Amsterdam March 2008-06 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Amsterdam March 2008-06" height="375" src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4032/4422522325_d4162289cc.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cafe de Pels in Amsterdam from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157623468881803/" target="_blank">flickr photos</a>.</b></td></tr>
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<li><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Give me back my broken night</b>, the title is from text in the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D97OxHZzBeQ" target="_blank">Leonard Cohen song Future</a>, this "thing" was an interactive theater performance (in London), where the audience assembled in a theater, were given a small video projector to hang around their neck and a blank piece of paper, they left the theater and then each received a phone call on their handy (cell phone) from one of the "actors" who told them where to walk giving them information as they went, and then images of the future were projected on the blank piece of paper they held in front of them. At one point audience members described their ideas for the future and an artist in the theater drew this on a tablet and this image was also displayed via the projector to the audience member. Everyone returned back to the theater and compared ideas and drawings. Really, really cool use of technology and art. My description does not do justice to it, check the video: <a href="http://duncanspeakman.net/?p=1351" target="_blank">Give me back my broken night 2010 video</a>. Here's more information from <a href="http://productofcircumstance.com/portfoliocpt/give-me-back-my-broken-night/" target="_blank">product of circumstance</a>.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>HomelessSMS</b>, another project with multiple developers including Ohyoon Kwon (TU Delft) and Will Brayne. Quite a neat idea: use SMS to try to help homeless people. It surprised me to learn that 70% of homeless people in London have cell phones (at least that's what this team found in a quick survey). The team worked with social services agencies in London and a small group of homeless people to test several ideas for using SMS to help homeless get help and information. They used twitter to broadcast information four times a day to everyone in the program and then responded to SMS posts from the homeless persons. I talked with Ohyoon after the conference and as we talked I just began to see more and more potential for the idea: perhaps a way to connect homeless people with those who would like to help, but have trouble connecting physically due to being turned-off by hygiene etc., use the system to send vouchers for services (e.g. like money transfer via SMS in Kenya), etc. There are several similar projects underway in one of them a homeless person was able to re-connect with a child they had lost contact with. I think that this idea really has potential and plan on sending it to colleagues in San Francisco where it might be really useful. (By the way Ohyoon told me he will need a visa to stay in the EU after graduating from TU Delft, he's exactly the type of innovative guy we should be encouraging to stay!) More on the <a href="http://www.homelesssms.com/" target="_blank">HomelessSMS</a> website.</span></li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/4423268194/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Amsterdam Tulip Museum Mar08-6 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Amsterdam Tulip Museum Mar08-6" height="240" src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4052/4423268194_9ef2a5221f.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Looking out of the Amsterdam Tulip Museum from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157623468881803/" target="_blank">flickr photos</a>.</b></td></tr>
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<li><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Urban Revitalization with Social Capital</b>, Karli Scott, a student at Cornell University, presented results of several projects she worked on in upstate New York, a region hard hit by economic problems over the last 50-years (especially interesting for me since I grew up in another Rustbelt city Buffalo NY). Karli talked about the techniques she used to identify problem and opportunities in Utica and Rochester NY. The quite awful economic conditions in these Rustbelt cities were starkly illustrated when Karli described a natural waterfall (!!!) on a relatively large river in an underutilized area near the center of Rochester which was being considered for redevelopment: how many cities and developers in other places would jump on such an opportunity?</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Koppelklek</b>, Kars Alfrink from <a href="http://whatsthehubbub.nl/" target="_blank">Hubbub</a> presented this urban game. The project consisted of asking people in this economically depressed neighborhood of Utrecht to participate in a game where they needed to take photos (with their mobile phones) with another person. Points were give for the number of different people they had photos with, and extra points were given for photos in different situations (e.g. photo with a number in it). The game ran for three weeks and was designed to get people in the neighborhood to socialize with each other. Photos were shown on line and displayed in vacant shop windows. The project had an office in a vacant space in the neighborhood and held a series of real events too. It sounds like a neat way to generate some activity in a neighborhood. Kars presented some lessons learned including: (1) finish the game design before you start marketing it, and (2) they marketed the game generally, it might be better to have targeted a special group and then used them to market it more generally. More details on <a href="http://whatsthehubbub.nl/projects/koppelkiek/" target="_blank">Koppelklek</a>. </span></li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/4423200390/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Amsterdam March 2008-17 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Amsterdam March 2008-17" height="300" src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4009/4423200390_a8e62718c1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Playing with water in Amsterdam from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157623468881803/" target="_blank">flickr photos</a>.</b></td></tr>
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<li><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Screens in the wild</b>, Ava Fatah from The Bartlett School (UCL) described this project which consists of working with a London neighborhood about programming for a series of large display screens which are being installed for the Olympics and will be a legacy of the games. It's a work in progress and she described the problems of working with people like shopkeepers who think the screens should just be for advertising, others who think they should be just like large iPads, and she described the various ways people passing by interact with the screens (most pay no attention!). More details on the <a href="http://www.screensinthewild.org/" target="_blank">Screens in the wild</a> project.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Urbanflow and City Tickets</b>, Mayo Nissen from <a href="http://urbanscale.org/" target="_blank">Urbanscale</a> presented these two projects via a video that made him look like big brother from 1984 ... but it really looked cool. <a href="http://urbanscale.org/projects/urbanflow/" target="_blank">Urbanflow</a> is a project for using large screens in cities to provide information, again the idea is that the applications and display information is designed specifically for the large screens in the urban environment, rather than a generic large iPad experience. It's been implemented in Helsinki and Urbanscale continues to work on the idea. <a href="http://urbanscale.org/projects/citytickets/" target="_blank">City Tickets</a> is a project designed to use the infrastructure provided by on street parking ticket printers to print other types of information, e.g. information about the area, or suggestion forms for people to identify problems in the area (which they fill out in writing and mail to the city). <a href="http://urbanscale.org/" target="_blank">Urbanscale</a> is a really innovative design studio doing great work, it was really nice to learn more about these two useful projects.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: arial;">Again, apologies for what I got wrong, it was a long (but fascinating) day. Add corrections in the comments and/or e-mail me.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">My take on the <a href="http://andynashnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/02/social-cities-of-tomorrow-conference.html" target="">Social CIties of Tomorrow Keynotes</a> and <a href="http://andynashnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/02/social-cities-of-tomorrow-2012.html">Social Cities of Tomorrow Workshops</a> are also available on this blog.</span>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-76194112870263594622012-02-19T16:51:00.004+01:002012-02-20T18:10:08.059+01:00Social Cities of Tomorrow 2012 - Workshops<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/4423085986/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Amsterdam Aerial Mar08-2 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Amsterdam Aerial Mar08-2" height="375" src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4016/4423085986_dbdc40cd24.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Amsterdam aerial from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157623468881803/" target="_blank">flickr photos</a>.</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.themobilecity.nl/">The Mobile City</a> and <a href="http://virtueelplatform.nl/english/">Virtueel Platform</a> organized a workshop and conference titled <a href="http://www.socialcitiesoftomorrow.nl/">Social Cities of Tomorrow</a>. The program took place during the week of February 13-17. It was a great event in every way from organization to the keynote speakers to presentations of different social media projects from throughout the world. Not only that, but it was fun and there were lots of great people doing great work to meet.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">This post describes the workshop results. I describe the <a href="http://andynashnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/02/social-cities-of-tomorrow-conference.html" target="_blank">Social Cities of Tomorrow Keynotes</a> and <a href="http://andynashnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/02/social-cities-of-tomorrow-2012-project.html" target="_blank">Social Cities of Tomorrow Project Showcase</a> on other posts. Sorry for any errors or misrepresentations, feel free to add corrections or more information to the comments!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Workshops</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">The workshops consisted of four groups of people from throughout Europe trying to apply social media techniques to real world planning problems. The format of placing 5-7 people from different backgrounds, who don't know one another beforehand, together to solve real problems can lead to some interesting ideas and this was also true here. The teams presented their projects at a special presentation on February 16 (and also an abbreviated version at the conference).</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6896555563/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Amsterdam Bikes - 1 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Amsterdam Bikes - 1" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7060/6896555563_2d2df6e035.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amsterdam Runstraat canal bridge from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157623468881803/" target="_blank">flickr photos</a>.</b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Three of the four projects were essentially redevelopment projects that needed help in one way or another. The workshops are described in detail at <a href="http://www.socialcitiesoftomorrow.nl/workshop" target="_blank">Social Cities of Tomorrow Workshops</a>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Team 1: TEMPLot took up the challenge of what to do with land that was scheduled for redevelopment but the redevelopment was delayed due to the economic crisis. The city of Amsterdam owns the land and the "client" wanted to find a way to do something with the empty land temporarily (5 - 10 years) while they wait for the economy to bounce back. Team 1 developed ideas for a series of applications that the client could use to auction off land parcels and create a community out of the temporary settlement (bulletin board, messaging, land auction, etc.).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Team 1 also developed several interesting on the ground planning ideas such as the idea that 25% of the rented land must be devoted to some sort of "community" purpose. For example four parcel renters could pool their community land shares and create a common swimming pool area. This idea was designed to foster a sense of community, a key goal of the entire social cities of tomorrow project.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Team 2 had the challenge of involving the public in redevelopment planning of an old industrial area in The Hague. Many redevelopment plans have been prepared for this area, but the economic crisis has prevented them from being built. But also, most of these plans simply bulldoze the area although it current houses lots of small businesses. Of course the people living and working in the area don't trust the planners anymore and there is little dialogue. Team 2 developed a series of ideas for building trust and improving communications. Importantly they came up with ideas for real as well as virtual platforms for discussion (quite important here since many of the people are not into high tech social networking, some don't even have internet service).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">One quite cool idea developed by Team 2 was the "Lunch Bus". This would be a bus that served lunch and allowed people to discuss plans for the area in a real and non-formal way. For example the latest plans could be drawn on table cloths, people could mark them up etc. The information would later be placed on line for everyone to see. Local government planners would also attend these lunches to answer questions and provide assistance. Since I am a big lunch fan, this idea really appealed to me!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">More details for teams 1 & 2 from the <a href="http://www.socialcitiesoftomorrow.nl/workshop-presentations-mediamatic-part-1" target="_blank">Social Cities of Tomorrow workshop reports part 1</a>.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6155839564/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Amsterdam Harbor September 2011 - 01 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Amsterdam Harbor September 2011 - 01" height="374" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6073/6155839564_53c3c8161b.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amsterdam harbour ferry from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157623468881803/" target="_blank">flickr photos</a>.</b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Team 3 had the challenge of a redevelopment area in Endhoven which was a former Phillips Electronics plant. The area is being redeveloped into a mixed-use area for creative types, but they want to increase the amount of social activity in the area to make it more attractive and interesting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Team 3's idea was to make the area a "play space" (my word) using games to encourage social engagement. They developed ideas for an application that would allow people to:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">propose ideas for projects in the area</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">negotiate with others about the projects</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">get support from others about the projects</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">assist in implementing the projects</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">The basic idea was to apply gamification techniques to the process of holding events and projects in the space. The idea needs development, but the client is interested in working with the team to explore the option further - a real success I would say!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Team 4 had the least concrete challenge: how to help the Amsterdam Civic Innovative Network increase participation by residents in suggestion innovative ideas for improving the city. The team explored many ideas and identified many problems with the current structure. For example the difficult in sustaining programs that provide feedback to project participants and updating of applications developed through things like hack-a-thons.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6155316161/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Amsterdam Harbor September 2011 - 13 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Amsterdam Harbor September 2011 - 13" height="374" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6209/6155316161_730d3d2258.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amsterdam harbour ferry after PICNIC 2011 from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157623468881803/" target="_blank">flickr photos</a>.</b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Team 4's products were less developed than the other teams, but they succeeded in raising the important issues and I think that their work will be helpful to the city of Amsterdam as they work to improve their social media and involvement process. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">By the way, it seems to me that Amsterdam has an excellent program already, and just the fact that this type of conference and work is being done in Amsterdam says a great deal about the city's openness to new ideas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">More details for teams 3 & 4 from the <a href="http://www.socialcitiesoftomorrow.nl/workshop-presentations-mediamatic-part-2" target="_blank">Social Cities of Tomorrow workshop reports part 2</a>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">See also my take on the <a href="http://andynashnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/02/social-cities-of-tomorrow-conference.html" target="_blank">Social Cities of Tomorrow Keynotes</a> and <a href="http://andynashnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/02/social-cities-of-tomorrow-2012-project.html" target="_blank">Social Cities of Tomorrow Project Showcase</a> by clicking the links.</span>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-41674716869821917172012-02-19T16:48:00.003+01:002012-02-23T14:32:57.408+01:00Social Cities of Tomorrow Conference 2012<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6896545279/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Cafe Rooie Nelis Jordaan Amsterdam by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Cafe Rooie Nelis Jordaan Amsterdam" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7065/6896545279_7a9860e653.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Cafe Rooie Nelis in Jordaan District in Amsterdam from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157623468881803/" target="_blank">flickr photos</a>.</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
</span><br />
<a href="http://www.themobilecity.nl/" style="font-family: arial;">The Mobile City</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> and </span><a href="http://virtueelplatform.nl/english/" style="font-family: arial;">Virtueel Platform</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> organized a workshop and conference titled </span><a href="http://www.socialcitiesoftomorrow.nl/" style="font-family: arial;">Social Cities of Tomorrow</a><span style="font-family: arial;">. The program took place during the week of February 13-17. It was a great event in every way from organization to the keynote speakers to presentations of different social media projects from throughout the world. Not only that, but it was fun and there were lots of great people doing great work to meet.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">This post describes the conference keynote presentations. I describe the <a href="http://andynashnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/02/social-cities-of-tomorrow-2012-project.html" target="">Social Cities of Tomorrow Showcase Project Showcase</a> and <a href="http://andynashnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/02/social-cities-of-tomorrow-2012.html" target="">Social Cities of Tomorrow Workshops</a> on other posts.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Keynote Presentations</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Keynote presentations at the conference were given by <a href="http://www.themobilecity.nl/contact/" target="_blank">Martijn de Waal</a> from The Mobile City, one of the conference sponsors, Usman Haque developer among other things of Pachube, Natalie Jeremijenko, an engineer and artist, and Daniel Hill, an interactions designer from SITRA (Finish Innovation Fund). More details on the keynote speakers is available at the <a href="http://www.socialcitiesoftomorrow.nl/keynotes" target="_blank">Social Cities of Tomorrow Keynote Speakers</a> page.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">As with my other blog posts about this conference I apologize for any errors I make below, I was writing as fast as I could but the speakers' ideas were flowing faster ... opinions are, of course, my own. Feel free to add corrections or thoughts in the comments.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Introduction - Martijn de Waal</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Martin's presentation was an introduction to the idea of the conference and overall project. I am pretty sure he worked on it closely with <a href="http://www.themobilecity.nl/contact/" target="_blank">Michiel de Lange</a>, his colleague at The Mobile City, who did an excellent job as moderator of the conference.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Starting with the title, it's a take on Ebenezer Howard's book "Garden Cities of Tomorrow" which was designed to address the problems of turn of the century (1900) industrial cities through improved physical design. The idea now is to use new technologies to create communities that can solve today's complex issues.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">The goal is to have highly technical cities, but focused not on technology, but on people. People living in cities should feel an ownership, meaning not that they exclude other people, but rather that they feel responsible for improving their cities.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">How do we create these cities:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;"><u>engage</u> and empower</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;"><u>publics</u> (groups of people)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">to <u>act</u> on</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">community <u>shared</u> issues</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">These are, of course, key aspects of all community-based planning efforts, but what's important is that new media and technologies are changing how we can perform these activities. Some examples:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Open data and data analysis tools can be used to bring out new </span><span style="font-family: arial;">communal</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> issues and to inform the public (e.g. SensibleCity visualizations like </span><a href="http://senseable.mit.edu/trashtrack/" style="font-family: arial;" target="_blank">TrashTrack</a><span style="font-family: arial;">);</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Applications designed to help users provide planning input or even develop their own plans (e.g. </span><a href="http://biketastic.com/" style="font-family: arial;" target="_blank">Biketastic</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> at UCLA, </span><a href="http://openplans.org/projects/nyc-bike-share/" style="font-family: arial;" target="_blank">OpenPlans NYC Bike Sharing map</a><span style="font-family: arial;">, etc.)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">New media allows us to organize people in new ways, e.g. collaborative consumption (e.g. carsharing, airBnB).</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Lots more ideas from Martijn's presentation available at <a href="http://www.socialcitiesoftomorrow.nl/background" target="_blank">Social Cities of Tomorrow Background </a>and his presentation is on line at: placeholder.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6896563651/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Cafe de Pels Amsterdam by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Cafe de Pels Amsterdam" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7050/6896563651_bec7da00d8.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cafe de Pels in Amsterdam from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157623468881803/" target="_blank">flickr photos</a>.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Usman Haque</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Usman started by reminding us that cities are a place for encountering things you don't understand, and this is a very good thing.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://pachube.com/" target="_blank">Pachube</a>, the website started by Haque, is an organized list of data feeds from throughout the world. Anyone can add a data feed. The goal is to be a broker for the data from the internet of things. The site serves to promote discovery of data feeds and to begin conversations about what the data means.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">The growing number of sensors and feeds means that we are flooded with data, <b><i>but how does this lead to action?</i></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">The first step is to <b><i>enable people to make sense of the data</i></b>. Two ideas: (1) we need to have/encourage people to have conversations about the data; and (2) we need to develop applications to make sense of the data.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Haque also described a project where architecture students in Barcelona collected air quality data by wiping kleenex on the sides of buildings and recording the amount of grime they found. Pretty inexact, but quite effective in making the students aware of what they were breathing. Once they saw what was going into their lungs they were ready to take action (they developed a new air circulation plan for their workspace).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">The main point is that taking action requires more than technical data, it is a function of culture and politics.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
Haque ended by suggesting that perhaps we shouldn't always be trying to simplify things, maybe it's better to demonstrate complexity and develop tools to deal with that complexity by connecting with people and taking action together, shouldn't we embrace complexity?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">(My comments: Don't tools to deal with complexity </span><span style="font-family: arial;">necessarily</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> mean simplifying it? On the other hand, the business of politicians is simplifying issues, and look where they have taken us!)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.haque.co.uk/" target="_blank">Haque's website</a> describes many of his extremely interesting projects.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;">Natalie Jeremijenko</span></span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Natalie Jeremijenko had the difficult task of talking with us after lunch, but succeeded in keeping us wide awake as she described many of her projects. I'll just mention a few.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6896542391/" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Amsterdam Signs - 2 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Amsterdam Signs - 2" height="320" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7197/6896542391_241e5d7be8.jpg" width="247" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sign in Amsterdam from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157623468881803/" target="_blank">flickr photos</a>.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: arial;">The goal is using new media to create a better future. Generating, analyzing and acting-on data needs to be opened up. An example from transport, a traffic signal gives power away to the machine, a traffic circle makes everyone use data to make decisions.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">(In this example Natalie mentioned that traffic engineers don't like traffic circles, but in fact most of my colleagues do like traffic circles, they are more efficient in many situations!)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.environmentalhealthclinic.net/projects/nopark/" target="_blank">No Parks</a> are small parts of the street where plants replace pavement (cars can no longer park there). The goal is to reduce the surface runoff that is a very significant problem for water quality (it's easier to deal with point sources and regulations have reduced point source pollution). She described an effort in NYC that included individuals taking ownership for these little "No Parks" by selling pieces of the plot and using the proceeds to pay for the project. Many cities are doing projects to open up the pavement in this way, but I have not seen any that use this level of social engagement before.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.environmentalhealthclinic.net/projects/bike-messenger/" target="_blank">Bike Messager</a> - LEDs on bike wheels connected to a wireless communications. When bikes reach a certain speed the LEDs light-up and display information communicated by roadside senders, for example the number of pedestrian fatalities at the intersection. Good information for everyone and helps make the bikes more visible at night.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.haque.co.uk/flightpath.php" target="_blank">Fightpath Toronto</a>, a really wild project where Jeremijenko and Haque set up aerial platforms in front of the Toronto City Hall and let people fly through the open space (connected to cables, although they wore wings). As the people "flew" laser lights were projected that changed based on the sound of the audience. When's the next installation? I'm going!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Elevator Project, Long Island City for Otis Elevators (?). Jeremijenko looked at how by extending the elevator shaft 30-feet above the building roof, the shaft could help provide better air circulation and help power the building. It also gave the opportunity for installing flightpath take-off areas (platforms for installing the cables) which might even be used for goods delivery (why does an organic artisanal bakery need to use diesel belching trucks to deliver its products?).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Other projects she mentioned: <a href="http://www.nyu.edu/projects/xdesign/ooz/" target="_blank">floating lights in NY's East River</a> that light when fish swim by (<a href="http://vimeo.com/408474" target="_blank">video</a>) (along with <a href="http://www.environmentalhealthclinic.net/xooz/projects/xspecies-adventure-club/" target="_blank">healthy food for observers to give the fish</a>), AgBags small gardens made from tevek bags (FedEX envelopes) that hang on the side of buildings (together called <a href="http://environmentalhealthclinic.net/farmacy/" target="_blank">farmacy</a>), clear skys mask, one trees project planting 6000 genetically identical trees in pairs throughout the Bay Area to observe different growing patterns, and more ...</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Here's a couple sites with information on Natalie <a href="http://www.environmentalhealthclinic.net/" target="_blank">environmental health clinic</a> and <a href="http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/view/Natalie_Jeremijenko" target="_blank">NYU</a> faculty bio.<br />
</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6896640141/" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Old Signs used for Tables Amsterdam - 1 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Old Signs used for Tables Amsterdam - 1" height="400" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7191/6896640141_5214d29140.jpg" width="299" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Old traffic sign used as a table from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157623468881803/" target="_blank">flickr photos</a>.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Daniel Hill</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Daniel also had a tough job, it was getting quite late on a Friday afternoon, but his talk was also mile-a-minute speed through a series of ideas and lessons learned.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">The main point of Hill's talk was that designers normally only deal with a small portion of what's going on with project implementation. There's a great deal of "dark matter" that isn't normally dealt with by designers which impact what gets done and what doesn't much more than actual designs.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">He started with a description of five failed projects he's been involved with and related these examples to the various aspects of dark matter, which incudes all things that make things hard to do including cost, legacy, inertia, scale ... there's no one department to go to for permission to implement these projects. Hill believes we need to redesign the context for decision-making as well as project "content". The context:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Complexity of problems is out of kilter with decision-making process;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Interdependent problems;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">No client for many problems (e.g. global climate change);</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Huge gap between people making policy and people operating the services (doing the work);</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">More data and further analysis isn't automatically helping;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Diminishing public faith in capacity (of, e.g. government) to deliver;</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">But someone created this context (in the 18th Century for 18th Century problems), and so it can be recreated. But how?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Hill believes we need to create a new vocabulary to explain what needs to be done and how to do it, he mentioned eight words, some of his words:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Design studio approach to problem solving (book:</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Stewardship - staying in touch with projects over time;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Trojan horse - using a project to change the process, don't just seek exceptions to allow projects to be done, seek to change the laws that prevent others from doing the same;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Macguffin - plot device named by Hitchcock to signify something that drives the movie but the audience does not care about (think "government secrets" in North by Northwest), here's where the focus on changing the context comes in, we the designers don't care enough about the context (regulations, government processes) that impact our ability to do things;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Dark Matter - the 83% of the universe that no one has ever seen, but must be there, in our case the institutions in a city, many things produce a culture but you don't see them;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Decision-making Platforms - I started to lose the 8 words about here, but the point here is closely related to dark matter, decisions matter ... social media is great for organizing, but hasn't been so helpful yet helping identify and lead-to what comes next (e.g. Occupy movements);</span></li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6896522663/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Amsterdam Signs - 1 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Amsterdam Signs - 1" height="382" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7068/6896522663_591bff0d10.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Speed bump sign in Amsterdam from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157623468881803/" target="_blank">flickr photos</a>.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Government 2.0 is not Government 1.0 with a web 2.0 front end, there needs to be more.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Hill mentioned </span><span style="color: #0000ee; font-family: arial;"><u>Ravintolapäivä</u></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> (the link takes you to site called restaurantday.com). It's a day held in Helsinki where anyone can open a restaurant and serve food to the public. It's totally illegal, but the government was powerless to stop it. Now it happens twice a year, organized on Facebook. The next one is May 19, 2012. This was an example of how the "Nordic Model" (of providing the same for everyone) could be meshed with the "Anglo Model" (wide variation and diversity) to provide the high overall quality of the Nordic model with the creativity and innovation in the Anglo model.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">A possible project is for the city to create an place where people who want to start restaurants can learn the skills needed to do so successfully, hopefully without squashing out the creativity these people bring to the project. Turning this from an intervention to a systematic approach for supporting creativity and innovation.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Five thoughts to end the presentation (because he used to work at Monocle and they always have lists like this):</span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">The world is mutable - although policy makers often don't think things can change: they can.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Prototype in the political world, the cost of assessing the risk of doing something new is often higher than the cost of just trying it and failing.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Hinge policy to delivery;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Design for scaling up;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: arial;">Dark matter matters.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">For more on Dan Hill see his blog <a href="http://www.cityofsound.com/" target="_blank">city of sound</a>, well worth a read.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0PuK5xHM6Cg2Ue1w1yxj6xSbfOhWRkLMaDTluSivfu8IIy7m9dHiMFlZfbOAztdQu_ttwB3VbXq4ogvhEAoXVmMuYh53bOqtlleUdCWH_2POcxjebIBb5l6GkVzx7emysZMXuTYmEHSY/s1600/SCoT+hill_haque_jeremijenko.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0PuK5xHM6Cg2Ue1w1yxj6xSbfOhWRkLMaDTluSivfu8IIy7m9dHiMFlZfbOAztdQu_ttwB3VbXq4ogvhEAoXVmMuYh53bOqtlleUdCWH_2POcxjebIBb5l6GkVzx7emysZMXuTYmEHSY/s320/SCoT+hill_haque_jeremijenko.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The keynote speakers at the panel discussion: left to right: Jeremijenko, Haque and Hill, source: Virtueel Platform.</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6896658483/" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="'t Arendsnest Amsterdam - 4 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="'t Arendsnest Amsterdam - 4" height="400" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7067/6896658483_899e80f1d1.jpg" width="299" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'t Arendsnest in Amsterdam from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157623468881803/" target="_blank">flickr photos</a>.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Panel Discussion</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">The three keynote speakers took the stage to take a few questions from the audience. Some of the discussion:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Everyone agreed that dealing with the dark matter was a fundamental part of getting projects done. Jeremijenko reported that there was no precedent for her AgBags project, so she had to print things on the bags so they would be considered "signs" and could therefore fall under the city's regulatory structure. Seven agencies needed to give approval for her fish lights project, and unfortunately, none of them really helped implement the project, they just gave approvals.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Someone made the point that designers are lucky in the sense that they usually have a client who gives them instructions (design a building for me) so lots of the dark matter is dealt with by someone else (the lawyers), but it's really these things outside the traditional "client-designer relationship" that really need changing ... in that sense design-think is dead.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Technology enables, it does not drive change. There's a tactical benefit to new technology: often institutions don't have a standard way of dealing with it, so there's an opportunity to really change things.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Artists have a great capacity to fail in public, no one trusts them to do anything ...</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">... and with that we adjourned to drinks and conversations.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Again, sorry for errors and misunderstandings, the speakers were fantastic and it was hard to keep up with the good ideas. Add corrections to the comments.</span>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-56188147109284698082012-02-18T18:16:00.001+01:002012-02-18T18:16:26.151+01:00Beer and Pizza in Amsterdam<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6896650399/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="'t Arendsnest Amsterdam - 2 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="'t Arendsnest Amsterdam - 2" height="340" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7066/6896650399_91bca223a5.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Partial list of the Dutch draft beer available at 't Arendsnest</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Beer and pizza are two of my favorite things. After a full day attending the <a href="http://www.socialcitiesoftomorrow.nl/">Social Cities of Tomorrow</a> conference in Amsterdam, I took a leisurely walk back to my hotel through the Jordaan district of the city.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6896658483/" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="'t Arendsnest Amsterdam - 4 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="'t Arendsnest Amsterdam - 4" height="320" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7067/6896658483_899e80f1d1.jpg" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">IPA type beer at 't Arendsnest</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
I was lucky to find the <a href="http://www.arendsnest.nl/">'t Arendsnest beer bar</a> which serves "Dutch beer only!" from seemingly most of the beer brewers in The Netherlands (although I did not notice any Heineken there?). They have 30 or so beers on tap and over 100 in bottles including a selection of Dutch abbey beers. I didn't realize that The Netherlands also had abby breweries (they are not all in Belgium).<br />
<br />
I tasted two pilsner type beers and an India Pale Ale, all three were draft. All three were really good, very hoppy and clean tasting. They have a beer sampler for 7.50 Euros for three 12cl tastes, but I ordered normal size 25cl glasses and wound up paying 10 Euros with tip. Both bar tenders were fluent in English and happy to guide me to the right beers. They have some 'bar food' and many of the locals shared cheese plates, but the food did not seem to be the main point here! They also have tastings and things so it would be worth checking he website to learn if something interesting is going on when you visit.<br />
<br />
After my beer I remembered walking by what looked like a great pizza place the day before: it had a wood burning oven, only served pizza and advertised "Italian slow food". So I decided to try and find it again. I retraced my steps, found the right canal (Prinsengracht), turned down the Elandsgracht (Jordaan Park), left on 1ste Looiersdwarsstraat walked to number 4 and <a href="http://www.pazzislowfood.nl/">Pazzi</a> was open with room at the bench they have for people who want to eat their pizza in the shop.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6896672775/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Pazzi Amsterdam - 2 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Pazzi Amsterdam - 2" height="319" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7070/6896672775_43cd85375d.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blackboard menu at Pazzi Italian slow food Amsterdam</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: arial;">I ordered a Margarita, the pizza I use to compare pizzerias, and sat down to wait. About 3 minutes later I was served a great pizza: crisp thin crust, tart sauce, good amount of buffalo milk mozzarella cheese. By this time I was sharing the bench with a couple women who were splitting a quatro formaggio (served here with rucola) and two guys on my right who had both ordered Piccante pizzas. Apparently the Piccante pizzas were not spicy enough for the guys and they asked me to pass the hot pepper olive oil (that's when I asked them what kind of pizza they had since it was not entirely clear by looking).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6896677759/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Pazzi Amsterdam - 3 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Pazzi Amsterdam - 3" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7178/6896677759_f8685a704a.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Piccante pizza at Pazzi Italian slow food Amsterdam</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: arial;">
I finished my Margarita and decided to order one of the Piccante pizzas too. After all, when's the next time I will be in Amsterdam. As the guys were leaving they gave me back the hot pepper oil, but told me to be sure to taste the pizza first because it might be spicy enough for me without the oil. The Piccante pizza was also great. It had smoked mozzarella cheese, lots of hot pepper (no need for the hot pepper oil) and herbs. Really fine. (I brought half the pizza home.)<br />
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So, a fabulous gourmet evening for me in Amsterdam! All my photos from <a href="http://www.flickr.com//search/show/?q=%27t+Arendsnest&w=94611718%40N00">'t Arendsnest</a> and <a href="http://www.flickr.com//search/show/?q=Pazzi&w=94611718%40N00">Pazzi on Flickr</a>. My Amsterdam photos on Flickr.</span>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-74124433211533096252012-02-16T23:19:00.000+01:002012-02-20T18:06:49.497+01:00Cities aren't smart<div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6204531590/" title="NY High Line - Sept 2011 - 09 by andynash, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6169/6204531590_9881a9b081.jpg" width="500" height="374" alt="NY High Line - Sept 2011 - 09"></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cities aren't smart, people are.</span><br />
<div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think this is a simple point, but important to remember amidst all the Smart City hype.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Smart cities are cities where people produce and use information to make cities more livable, economically successful, socially equitable, sustainable and fun.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, who are these people producing and using information?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is key: they are <u>both</u> the traditional city leaders and everyone else.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today, city administrations have unprecedented access to data that enables them to both improve city services and make them more efficient. An often overlooked source of this data are city residents and visitors. Many cities do not use modern IT tools to collect, analyze and use input from the public. This is a shame because people could provide very high quality information for improving the way cities operate.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In some cases city administrations are not interested in public opinion, but in many cases good IT tools to help the public communicate information to cities and for cities to automatically analyze this information have not been developed. Often cities cannot even imagine that public involvement could be done more efficiently using new media and information technology tools.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What are these tools? One important set of tools are educational media since city planning and administration are complicated. Cities can get better information and ideas if the public knows something about how the city works before providing input. (This is the main idea behind my <a href="http://www.greencitystreets.com/">GreenCityStreets</a> project: teach people about public transport with the BusMeister game and provide a social network for them to submit ideas to the city government.)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another set of tools are programs to analyze and organize the data that comes in to cities through new media channels. This means designing the public input channels so that the information can be easily summarized and described. These tools could also help improve the existing public input process (e.g. public transport complaint telephone operators). The growing use of on-line 311 systems in the USA is a good example.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No doubt there are great challenges ahead as city governments involve the public more fully in the city planning and administrative process, but change is coming. New mobile communications and information technologies are making it just a question of time. Truly smart cities will embrace this change and develop the tools needed to fully engage the public in making their cities better.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What do you think?</span></div><div><br />
</div></div>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-77364453780614080702012-02-10T10:16:00.000+01:002012-02-20T18:07:30.749+01:00Rose Kennedy Greenway Boston<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6203712125/" title="Boston Rose Kennedy Greenway - 02 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Boston Rose Kennedy Greenway - 02" height="374" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6176/6203712125_a1cf974bc5.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">I lived in Boston's North End while attending Northeastern University in 1983. Everyday I walked under the Central Artery, a huge freeway built through the center of the city that separated the North End from the downtown. While I was there the decision was made to place the freeway underground. Much has been written about all the problems with the "Big Dig" project, but it seems to me this is a lot nicer then my daily walk about 30-years ago. Time flies!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6203761003/" title="Boston Rose Kennedy Greenway - 09 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Boston Rose Kennedy Greenway - 09" height="374" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6152/6203761003_81d0ae1428.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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In San Francisco I worked with several groups arguing to remove the Embarcadero Freeway after the 1989 Earthquake. It was a huge battle, but when the freeway finally came down I think everyone was convinced that it was the right decision. Today it's hard to imagine the freeway ever existed.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/5155558314/" title="San Francisco Ferry Building 30oct10-2 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="San Francisco Ferry Building 30oct10-2" height="428" src="http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1311/5155558314_3d07fc7740.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Later, as Executive Director of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, I suggested <a href="http://www.andynash.com/sfo-pages/sfo-docs/SFCTA-CWTP-Dec-2000-ExecSum.pdf">studying placing some of San Francisco's very heavily travelled arterials underground</a> (e.g. Oak/Fell in the Western Addition and 19th Street in the Sunset). The idea was to remove the traffic from the street and give the space back for pedestrians, transit and limited auto access. The underground roads would be funded by congestion-based tolls. The idea - even studying it - was heavily opposed by many in the environmental community, and nothing came of it.<br />
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I still like the idea of placing cars underground and making the drivers pay for the privilege. It always makes me mad that public transport is forced underground in most cities. It may be faster there, but access by passengers is complicated, it's way more expensive than surface based transit (leading free marketers to say public transport is too expensive!) and public transport passengers (people doing something good for the environment!) are forced to sit in dark tunnels, while car drivers enjoy the sunshine.<br />
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More photos of the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/tags/rosekennedygreenway/">Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston</a> on my Flickr account.<br />
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</span>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-12913529985088787612012-01-28T15:24:00.000+01:002012-02-20T18:07:30.744+01:00Boston Public Garden<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6203812113/" title="Boston Public Garden Sept 11 - 05 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Boston Public Garden Sept 11 - 05" height="374" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6158/6203812113_4a650fca55.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">In September I visited Boston to talk with people in the city and at MIT about <a href="http://www.greencitystreets.com/">GreenCityStreets</a>. Lots of interesting discussion and ideas to follow up on in 2012. I had some time to go down memory lane, and walked through the Public Garden on a beautiful fall day.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6203845099/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" title="Boston Public Garden Sept 11 - 15 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Boston Public Garden Sept 11 - 15" height="240" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6028/6203845099_c9815f81f4.jpg" width="179" /></a><br />
When the weather was good I used to walk home from Northeastern through the Public Garden to my apartment in the North End. It was a great way to unwind from my Masters Thesis research. My route took me through the Fenway, people watching on Newbury Street in the Back Bay, then through the Public Garden, crossing the street into The Commons, then past the Park Street MBTA station, through Government Center, by Haymarket, then under the Central Artery to Salem Street.<br />
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The Public Garden was always a highlight in early spring and summer. Green lawns with lots of flowers, generally the Swan Boats were stowed away for the night, and a cool breeze. All my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/tags/bostonpublicgarden/">Boston Public Garden photos</a> on Flickr. </span>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-21592073297871991312012-01-22T23:52:00.000+01:002012-02-20T18:06:49.491+01:00PICNIC 2011 in Amsterdam<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6155743316/" title="NDSM Wharf Crane Amsterdam - 05 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="NDSM Wharf Crane Amsterdam - 05" height="374" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6062/6155743316_88a4820331.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">In September I travelled to Amsterdam for the <a href="http://www.picnicnetwork.org/picnic-festival-2011-the-numbers">PICNIC 2011 Festival</a>. The event is like a big fair and this year it was held at the old shipbuilding area called NDSM Wharf, a ten-minute ferry ride from Amsterdam's Central Railway Station. A variety of different structures including temporary buildings, old containers, tents, an old ferry boat, were used for the sessions and presentations.<br />
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PICNIC was a great opportunity to meet people thinking about the intersection between design, city planning, internet, history, art ... lots of energy and very creative ideas. Among my favorite presentations were those by <a href="http://vimeo.com/29771846">Adam Greenfield</a>, <a href="http://vimeo.com/29365916">Ben Hammersley</a>, and <a href="http://vimeo.com/30733079">Charles Landry</a> (links are to videos of the presentations).<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6155191209/" title="NDSM Wharf Crane Amsterdam - 01 by andynash, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6163/6155191209_f5c7e350fe.jpg" width="500" height="374" alt="NDSM Wharf Crane Amsterdam - 01"></a><br />
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On Friday I attended a session sponsored by the <a href="http://ecbnetwork.eu/">European Creative Business Network</a>. We split up into teams and developed ideas for venture capital funding. Our team of four developed the concept for an on-line game that would be played via mobile devices ... and we won the first prize: 5,000 Euro to develop the idea in more detail! We're working on it.<br />
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The photo below is of us taking the ferry back to Central Station after dinner one night, note that it's a roll-on/roll-off ferry for bicycles and mopeds ... extremely convenient and easy to use.<br />
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I'm already looking forward to PICNIC 2012! All my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/tags/picnic11/">PICNIC 2011 Festival photos</a> (many of which are of the Amsterdam Harbour) on flickr.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6155316161/" title="Amsterdam Harbor September 2011 - 13 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Amsterdam Harbor September 2011 - 13" height="374" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6209/6155316161_730d3d2258.jpg" width="500" /></a>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-59981102382613925562012-01-20T21:32:00.000+01:002012-02-20T18:09:35.494+01:00New York City Transit Museum<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6203915241/" title="NYC Subway Museum Historic Ads - Sept 2011 - 8 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="NYC Subway Museum Historic Ads - Sept 2011 - 8" height="374" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6155/6203915241_cb39b0deac.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">I always try to find time to visit the NY City Transit museum when I visit New York. One of the things I love are the historic advertisements that are in the old subway cars parked in the museum. This is a particularly fun one I think. The accompanying text says "Bet you do better in a hat!" and states that "84 out of 100 women prefer men who wear hats."<br />
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While at the museum I bought the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Helvetica-York-City-Subway-System/dp/026201548X">Helvetica and the New York Subway System: The True (Maybe) Story</a> by Paul Shaw. I finished reading it before Christmas and it's really interesting - you'll never look at a NYC Subway sign the same way again! (Here's a link to a similar article he wrote on the internet - <a href="http://www.aiga.org/the-mostly-true-story-of-helvetica-and-the-new-york-city-subway/">Paul Shaw, The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the NY City Subway</a>).<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6204439288/" title="NYC Subway Museum Cars Sept 2011 - 7 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="NYC Subway Museum Cars Sept 2011 - 7" height="374" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6169/6204439288_5590208595.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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And, one final photo of a mosaic from the Cortlandt Street IRT Subway Station (also in the Transit Museum collection). All <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/tags/nyctransitmuseum/">my photos of the NYC Transit Museum</a> on Flickr. </span>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-3742529955963733292012-01-15T18:14:00.000+01:002012-02-20T18:11:55.134+01:00Steam Train Wedding - Music Video<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6135652561/" title="Swiss Steam Train Wedding 7 by andynash, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6154/6135652561_837c382707.jpg" width="500" height="374" alt="Swiss Steam Train Wedding 7"></a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">As we were driving by a railway station in the Berner Oberland (Switzerland) we saw a steam engine being prepared for a trip. I screamed that we had to stop and go back. We got to the station in time to see a wedding party boarding the steam train for an excursion.<br />
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I just had to write a song about the experience. It's on YouTube: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-Am9kfyb1w">Steam Train Wedding</a>.</span><br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/D-Am9kfyb1w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-20000661139031716472012-01-10T08:17:00.000+01:002012-01-10T08:17:47.295+01:00Vienna Tram Day 2011<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6136410346/" title="WienerLinien Tram Day Vienna 2011 - 03 by andynash, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6160/6136410346_c230aa4829.jpg" width="500" height="374" alt="WienerLinien Tram Day Vienna 2011 - 03"></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Vienna's annual Tram Day celebration was held at the Tram Museum this past September. It's always a great party with lots to see and do. This year was great because the Tram Museum was open for free! Lots of historic vehicles and exhibits on some of the new things Vienna's public transport company (Wiener Linien) is doing to improve service.<br />
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There was information on everything from the Wiener Linien's social networking strategy to rebuilding track. With entertainment for the whole family - on at least two different stages! - and lots to eat and drink it was a great day.<br />
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I especially liked the historic advertisement about why the conductor cannot open the door once it has been closed (below) - it even rhymes! All my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157627644794718/">Vienna Tram Day photos</a> (2009 and 2011) on flickr. </span><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6135869293/" title="WienerLinien Tram Day Vienna 2011 - 10 by andynash, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6206/6135869293_21f82f4db7.jpg" width="452" height="500" alt="WienerLinien Tram Day Vienna 2011 - 10"></a>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-74452494107433371122012-01-01T13:27:00.002+01:002012-02-20T18:08:17.219+01:00New York High Line<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6204531590/" title="NY High Line - Sept 2011 - 09 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="NY High Line - Sept 2011 - 09" height="374" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6169/6204531590_9881a9b081.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;">I visited New York in September for a series of meetings with <a href="http://openplans.org/">OpenPlans</a> about organizing a <a href="http://openplans.org/events/transportation-camp-dc/">Transportation Camp in Washington DC</a> during the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in January 2012. While there I was able to visit the <a href="http://www.thehighline.org/">High Line</a>, an old aerial railway line that ran along the west side of Manhattan. The rail line has been converted to a walkway and is probably one of the most successful urban design projects from the last decade.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6203998949/" title="NY High Line - Sept 2011 - 03 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="NY High Line - Sept 2011 - 03" height="374" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6157/6203998949_361644565d.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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New York Magazine asked to use one of my photos in an article they were doing about tourist photos of New York, but unfortunately, I could not name all the people in the photo (there were about a hundred) so they didn't use it.<br />
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If you go to New York be sure to take a walk on the High Line. All my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/tags/highlineny/">NY High Line photos</a> on Flickr.<br />
</span>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-83160074512568498282012-01-01T13:16:00.001+01:002012-01-01T13:16:40.085+01:00Zollamtssteg Bridge Vienna<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6466542191/" title="Vienna Zollamtssteg Brücke - 02 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Vienna Zollamtssteg Brücke - 02" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7171/6466542191_34844825c1.jpg" width="500" /></a>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">I finally walked over the <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zollamtssteg">Vienna Zollamtssteg Bridge</a>. I've taken the U-Bahn </span><span style="font-family: arial;">that goes under the bridge many times </span><span style="font-family: arial;">- you can see the U-Bahn train in the photo - but never walked over the bridge.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">The bridges go over the Vienna River, a small river that runs through much of the city although it's covered in many places.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">The bridge is famous in the movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112471/">Before Sunrise</a>. The two main characters Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> meet two actors on the bridge who make fun of their American-ness (although, of course, she is French) and invite them to a performance later that night. (As I recall!) It's one of the many great scenes in the movie.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">The bridge uses some of the common design elements in many Vienna public works such as the railing along the river.
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">All my </span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/tags/zollamtsstegbridge" style="font-family: arial;">photos of the Zollamtssteg Bridge</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> on Flickr.</span>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2953260796213546393.post-15112085489493406862011-12-31T16:45:00.001+01:002011-12-31T16:45:16.585+01:00Funchal, Madera<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6466811985/" title="Funchal Public Market - 06 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Funchal Public Market - 06" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7034/6466811985_479034f96b.jpg" width="500" /></a>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">I spoke about <a href="http://www.andynash.com/nash-publications/2011-Nash-Social-Media-Trans13oct2011.pdf">social networking and transportation</a> at the CIVITAS Forum 2011 held in October in Funchal, Madera Portugal. Madera is an island in the Atlantic Ocean about an hour-and-a-half flying time to the south west of Lisbon. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">The conference was great and it was lots of fun to visit Funchal.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6466807153/" title="Funchal Public Market - 05 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Funchal Public Market - 05" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7164/6466807153_e55a2719af.jpg" width="500" /></a>
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</span><span style="font-family: arial;">Highlights were the public market. The photo above is of a fruit stand that had about ten different kinds of passion fruit! </span><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6466754459/" title="Funchal Restaurante Dos Combatentes - 2 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Funchal Restaurante Dos Combatentes - 2" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7006/6466754459_32fc5a6dec.jpg" width="500" /></a>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">I ate at a wonderful restaurant called Restaurante dos Combatentes twice, once for lunch and then later in the week for dinner. Very attentive service and great food.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">I took a tour of the <a href="http://www.theoldblandywinelodge.com/winelodge_home.htm">Old Blandy Wine Lodge</a> which includes a museum and tasting rooms in addition to being used to store and age the wine. Madera wine violates lots of the rules: it's aged in hot attics and the bottles should be stored upright. It's a fortified wine so quite high alcohol content. It was fun being able to taste several types and vintages of Madera. Here's a photo of one of the museum's tasting rooms.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6466772125/" title="Blandy's Madera Museum Funchal - 4 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Blandy's Madera Museum Funchal - 4" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7014/6466772125_c3b8ef4c0a.jpg" width="500" /></a>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">The Funchal Airport was great, one of the few that still has an outdoor viewing platform. Here's a photo of our plane from the viewing area.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/6466698623/" title="Funchal Madera Airport - 05 by andynash, on Flickr"><img alt="Funchal Madera Airport - 05" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7168/6466698623_0f4e4a075a.jpg" width="500" /></a>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">All my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynash/sets/72157628650543889/">photos of Funchal</a> on Flickr.
</span>Andy Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14858846952283968963noreply@blogger.com0