Park(ing) Day 2012 | About PARK(ing) Day Providing temporary public open space . . . one parking spot at at time. PARK(ing) Day is a annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public places. The project began in 2005 when Rebar, a San Francisco art and design studio, converted a single metered parking space into a temporary public park in downtown San Francisco. Since 2005, PARK(ing) Day has evolved into a global movement, with organizations and individuals (operating independently of Rebar but following an established set of guidelines) creating new forms of temporary public space in urban contexts around the world. The mission of PARK(ing) Day is to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat … at least until the meter runs out! A brief history of PARK(ing) Day
Library 2.0 Debased Kate Sheehan makes some interesting observations about the cultural awareness of librarians. She also touches on an unfortunate truth about Library 2.0: It’s easy to become enamored of social networking sites and Web 2.0 toys to the point where they seem like a panacea for everything that’s wrong with your library or your job. Slap a wiki on it and call me in the morning. The most successful uses of the newest tech tools have recognized that they’re just that: tools. I’ve been feeling, for awhile now, that the term Library 2.0 has been co-opted by a growing group of libraries, librarians, and particularly vendors to push an agenda of “change” that deflects attention from some very real issues and concerns without really changing anything. Ignoring the information ecology Perhaps the most significant area of neglect is our failure to recognize that Library 2.0 is a delicate ecology. Luckily, Web 2.0 as a whole exists in a large, rather well-insulated economy that will adjust over time.
Inside the Marketers Studio - David Berkowitz's Marketing Blog: How to Twitter an Event There's a lot of discussion now around how Twitter can be used at events. It gets even more interesting when the people on stage try to use it to monitor the reactions to what they're saying. Jeremiah Owyang discussed his own experience as a moderator at Web 2.0 where Twitter helped him gauge audience feedback, leading to a quicker shift to audience Q&A. I used Twitter last week at the SMX Social Media event when I was a speaker on a panel. I'm more intrigued by the idea of monitoring Twitter while moderating. People are more honest on Twitter, saying how they really feel, both good and bad. It still can be tough to monitor Twitter even if you're on a panel. I do want to try out new ways of using Twitter to be a better moderator and panelist though.
Visible Alternatives, Part 2 | by Christian L. Frock By Christian L. Frock February 24, 2010 Invisible Venue(s): Alternatives to the Institution Image: Jonn Herschend. This essay was originally presented as a paper with the same title on the occasion of the College Art Association 98th Annual Conference in Chicago, an academic conference for artists, art historians, scholars, curators and critics.[1] It was read by the author in a session titled “Site Variations: The Shifting Ground of Public Art,” chaired by Dr. Invisible Venue, an independent curatorial enterprise I founded in 2005 to collaborate with artists to present art in unexpected settings, has produced projects that include temporary site-specific installations, street projections, telephone-based audio work, guerilla billboard interventions, and web-based exhibitions, among other locative media. Often in speaking about Invisible Venue my language switches back and forth between “I” and “we.” Michael Damm. incidental films for an accidental audience, 2008; installation view.
Library Innovation Requires Regularizing the Irregular To move towards a move innovative organization requires experimentation, trial and error, doing new things, and breaking rules. Libraries looking to become more innovative are confronted with reality: it takes 100 crazy ideas to find 10 worth funding experimentally in order to identify 1 project worth pursuing. As it has been said, it takes a lot of acorns to grow an oak tree. The challenge is that most library organizations are structured and managed to continue current practices rather for than for innovation. Both strategy and resource alignment are focused on supporting short term missions and goals. Gary Hamel notes that that the bottleneck within an organization that ultimately throttles innovation is almost always located at the top. Other interesting quotes from Hamel: “To a large extent, managers play the role of parents, school principles, crossing guards and hall monitors. Sphere: Related Content
What is twitter in 140 seconds, video contest, twitter, tweets, video contest Empty Lot Syndrome Cities don't like vacant lots. While some are turned into parking lots, others, trash-strewn and surrounded by chain-link fences, look like scars on the landscape. At their worst, they accentuate the perception of urban blight. In boom times, vacant lots are mostly a short-term issue that disappears when developers arrive. But with the sagging economy, the vacant city lot problem has grown considerably, affecting even the most robust urban environments, including New York City; Washington, D.C.; San Francisco; and Boston. The problem's particularly bad for cities that have struggled even in the best of times; they're now covered with vacant lots as development stalls and commercial and residential foreclosures make a bad situation even worse. But the days when a lot stood empty until a developer moved in are ending. For some, the goal is to fill an empty space with something attractive, inexpensive and clearly temporary.
The Cult of Twopointopia Earnest, humorless librarians should never read the AL. I only say this to save the time of the reader, which supposedly I'm obliged to do, since it's a "law" of library "science" (perhaps I put the quotes in the wrong places; repunctuate to suit yourself). The earnest humorless folks just don't get it. Wait. No, the earnest and humorless librarians should read, because then they comment and give me something humorous to read while occasionally providing me with blog fodder. Earnest, humorless librarians, read on! My favorite responses to the AL are from those librarians who just can't seem to believe anyone would write this stuff. But the twopointopians definitely do. [Note: I should state for the record that not everyone who advocates "user-centered" services or the use of social software is a twopointopian. Take one comment from last week, for example. Hmmm. But should I leave the profession? But the commenter goes on:"'What if my users are complete idiots?' Oh, okay. Ouch!
twitterpage2_slice Students design projects for vacant Phoenix lots Posted: November 30, 2009 ASU sustainability students Carissa Taylor (left), Truman Kiyaani and Braden Kay with a planter box nearing completion. (John Harlow photo) Low cost ideas, such as the construction of planter boxes, to transform vacant lots in downtown Phoenix for temporary use will be presented Dec. 8 on the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus. The multimedia presentation of research models was developed by university students in an urban design practice class taught by Nan Ellin, an associate professor and director of the planning program in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning in ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "In 2000, the Phoenix metropolitan area contained 42.6 percent vacant land, significantly higher than most American cities," said Pei Zhai, a doctoral student in sustainability. "To address this vexing challenge, the mayor's office requested that ASU students develop a model for the temporary use of publicly owned vacant lots," Ellin said.
Generating Ideas and Inspiration From Social Media | LifeDev Photo by dhammza. Sites like Digg, Reddit and Delicious are great for generating ideas. There is no shortage of creative ideas and ways to frame information than what makes to the front page of these sites. Most people think that social media sites are only useful for finding what the latest news is. What’s Popular People don’t want to talk, argue, or debate about a boring topic. What’s popular isn’t necessarily news. So how do we find the inspiration? View it as a filter The key difference between social media sites and search engines is that humans are making the recommendations. Instead of letting a piece of software or an algorithm decide what I’m looking for, I can use a friend (or group of friends) to filter the information for me. You can even customize your filter at many social sites like Friendfeed to ensure that you’re only seeing the information that’s relevant to you. Frequently popular sites are usually places of inspiration an awesome writerusing creative, interesting titles