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<title>blogTO Recent Comments: Best of ChangeCamp</title>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/feed/recentcomments/?12136</link>
<description>Comments recently made in this post on blogTO</description>
<copyright>Copyright 2009</copyright>
<lastBuildDate>Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:52:36 PST</lastBuildDate>
<item>
<title>j_king</title>
<description><![CDATA[
i also meant to say that you and I have a lot more power than you let on. the government isn't a walled garden with a sword over our heads. it's there to serve us and our interests as citizens. if you want to help out, by all means help out.]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c442789</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c442789</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:47:16 PST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>j_king</title>
<description><![CDATA[
Rohan, if I had cared to get the support of the city I'd much rather have evidence (as in a prototype implementation and usage statistics) than face a committee. I tried to get money so I could pursue the development of said prototype, but failed after the first attempt and lost interest... so not a good example. My bad.

But my point is that "talking" about doing things to change the city is a lot different than "doing" things to change the city. If I was a city councillor, I wouldn't be gushing to hand out city money to a group of geeks sitting around a table with a bunch of mac book pros telling me that they need database access to city financial records and GPS units installed on buses. The majority of my constituents are going to be people from all walks of life and a very small percentage of them are going to be happy knowing that their tax dollars were spent on a neat techno-gadget. However, if you came to me with a pilot project that proves I'm wrong -- you might have a chance. Otherwise, it's just snake oil.

Change isn't going to happen by talking about it. You got to get out there, get your hands dirty, and then talk about your experiences. Otherwise there's no credibility and that's what I think a meeting like this is lacking (unless of course the participants involved do have credibility that this post forgot to mention: anyone out there spear-heading affordable housing projects? Redistributing technology to the less fortunate? Volunteer programs to teach computer programming to kids at the library? Invent a neat doo-dad that has helped shape the way people are interacting with their neighbourhood?).

(also, you don't need permission to help improve your neighbourhood. think the city would be better off storing their records in a database? build it, donate it, see if anyone uses it, guage reactions, adjust and improve, etc)]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c442785</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c442785</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:43:24 PST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Rohan Jayasekera</title>
<description><![CDATA[
j_king, what if the city assisted what you're doing by posting meeting minutes in some kind of structured text form, not just PDF?  That's the kind of action you can get if the city gets involved, as it did at ChangeCamp.

Also, there weren't many politicians at the event.  There were lots of municipal and provincial government employees, a very different group.  They were looking to better serve the public, to take ideas generated at the event and translate them into government action.  Some of them will "just do it", using powers that you and I don't have.]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c442672</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c442672</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:42:58 PST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>j_king</title>
<description><![CDATA[
Wow... another meeting of the minds. Maybe this one will change the world.

Ideas are worthless. Everyone has them. If you think technology will revolutionize the city, then show us how. Build it and stop waving your hands. You look like a crazy chicken.

To me this meeting looks like a bunch of privelaged people sitting around a table squawking. Think politicians make it official and important? Feh. I question your sense of importance.

I've written a script to scrape the meeting minutes the city posts on their website. It could use some help in parsing out the interesting data (pdf->text loses a lot of structural integrity). I haven't really pursued it farther than trying to get a Knight News Foundation grant which didn't succeed (but got to the finals!). I've all but abandoned the project because I figure most people would hardly care. If someone's interested, send me an email. If it turns out to be useful maybe it will convince the city to put this stuff in a publicly accessible database. Certainly more so than all this useless band-standing.

Just do it.]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c442573</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c442573</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:27:26 PST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Justin Kozuch</title>
<description><![CDATA[
@Sandra A number of these events are thrown out onto Twitter - some of them are just discussed over lunch, some of them start as a blog post. The trick is to get on Twitter, start following people that have the same interests as you... you never know who you'll run into. (Figuratively speaking, of course!)]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c441843</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c441843</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:54:40 PST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Sandra</title>
<description><![CDATA[
Maybe it's because I'm from the GTA and occasionally check the site but how to people hear about things like Change Camp? I would have attended it had I known much earlier. ]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c441285</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c441285</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:07:16 PST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Ryan L.</title>
<description><![CDATA[
Well, that's really just putting words into her mouth.  She said she thinks the lack of participation is a hindrance to this 'forward thinking' camps and you somehow extrapolated that to mean that she thinks anything with limited participation is bad, (and therefore she's a hypocrite because of her support of Indy music).

Despite the 'six degrees of Kevin Bacon'-esque accusation, I really don't think indy music, an artform people enjoy in their spare time and think tanks devoted to solving a variety of urban problems have ANYTHING to do with one another.  You're not even comparing Apples to Oranges.  This is more along the lines of comparing Apples to Mark Wahlberg and claiming that since apples that best when crispy, red in colour and free of pesticides, therefore Mark Wahlberg is also best when crispy, red in colour and free of pesticides.]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c440231</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c440231</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:32:05 PST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>matthew</title>
<description><![CDATA[
Corina: the great thing about ChangeCamp was that it put people with shared interests in the same room. You seem to be criticizing ChangeCamp for starting small?

Andre: Giant robots have been out ever since <a href="http://dieselsweeties.com/archive.php?s=1520">Voltron died</a>!]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c440164</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c440164</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:18:45 PST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>justine</title>
<description><![CDATA[
who's the megahottie in the first pic on the left - wearing red/black bracelets??]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c440064</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c440064</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:03:04 PST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Greg J. Smith</title>
<description><![CDATA[
Oops.. that links = broken. <a href="http://drupalcamptoronto.org">Try this</a>]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c439865</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c439865</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:35:56 PST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Greg J. Smith</title>
<description><![CDATA[
@Corina You don't like events with limited participation? Aren't half of your posts on this blog about indy music events? You obviously don't have that much of an issue with exclusivity. 

I think this event was relatively successful as a think-tank. The city was there, some prominent politicians showed up, ditto for community organizers. What more do you want? I eavesdropped on the entire proceedings via twitter and it seemed like the event brought attention to some great projects and initiatives. If you have have a few government representatives there that means these ideas are being heard and considered. More importantly you bring like-minded folks together and they can collaborate independent of any municipal sanction and develop projects that might inspire a civic response or get purchased, adopted or funded by the city. 

I have my own reservations about the "camp" and "unconference" movements but they have more to do with my weariness about the self-importance of the technology sector. Regardless, I'm happy that not everyone is as cynical as I am. Maybe I'll put my foot in my mouth after <a href="drupalcamptoronto.org/">Drupalcamp</a> this year.

]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c439863</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c439863</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:33:57 PST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Corina</title>
<description><![CDATA[
Problem with most of these "forward thinking" camps is indeed the limited participation - same people, similar ideas - not to say the ideas aren't good, but until this gets out into a wider sphere, I fear it won't garner much specific interest or appreciation (aka funding towards realizing these ideas)

p.s. Gabriel took these photos? Cool :)]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c439587</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c439587</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:14:10 PST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Andre Gaulin</title>
<description><![CDATA[
What no references made to the <a href="http://wiki.changecamp.ca/Change_Projects/Giant_Robot">GIANT ROBOT</a> solution?

]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c439514</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c439514</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:15:40 PST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Andrae Griffith</title>
<description><![CDATA[
Sorry Gloria.

I did that too. I also have a blackberry and not an iphone. Double faux pas...]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c439203</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c439203</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:56:34 PST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Greg J. Smith</title>
<description><![CDATA[
@Gloria

Where the old iBooks were decidedly "uncool", the new MacBooks are "cool". Did you not get the memo? ]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c439133</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c439133</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:48:22 PST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Joseph Mills</title>
<description><![CDATA[
Maybe what we really need is a SarcasmCamp.]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c439130</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c439130</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:47:51 PST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Gloria</title>
<description><![CDATA[
Hey, who brought the black Mac laptop instead of the required brushed metal Mac laptop? ]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c439082</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c439082</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:36:38 PST</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>chris</title>
<description><![CDATA[
nice laptops]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c438927</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c438927</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:13:44 PST</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>James</title>
<description><![CDATA[
Just going by the pictures, but there sure are a lot of, ahem, diverse faces at this unconference. ]]>
</description>
<link>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c438917</link>
<guid>http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/02/best_of_changecamp/#c438917</guid>
<category>Toronto, City</category>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST</pubDate>
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