CitySondage - Montreal meeting results

[Tracey P. Lauriault-2]

Hi gang!

This city of Montreal has me so preoccupied with sensory input - sights, sounds, smells,
textures and heat that i have not had the chance to send you a brief about Monday night's
CivicAccess meeting.  Lucky! Today is a rainy Saturday afternoon at an Ile sans Fil
hotspot - Romolo - & I can now take a minute to send you some news! Alas! the paper with
my notes is with coco the cat! So i will share only the global view of a planned activity.

Bref -

A National city/county/municipality CivicAccess activity was proposed - and well
- dang it - it's a pretty good idea!

*CitySondage*

The objective:
Understand & communicate the availability & accessibility of civic data in useable formats
at the municipal/city/county scale across the country and effectively communicate
their/our degree of data civicness.

The Aim:
Collaboratively create a simple, intuitive & esthetically pleasing civic data
accessibility map of Canada's cities/municipalities/counties etc. and
communicate results to Canadians

General activities:
1. Contact a minimum of 15 city/municipal/county offices across the country
2. Request a series of data sets within a set of predetermined themes (e.g. environment,
council votes, boundary files, etc.).
3. Assess, based on a set of criteria, how accessible these data are.
4. Map accessibility results
5. Use the map to inform dialogue on the topic of data civicness in Canada

Conclusion
The activity is an easy short-term collective project for civicaccess.ca that yields an
artifact, which readily, easily and tangibly communicates the complex topic of civic data
accessibility in Canada to Canadians.

Hope you like it!
A small assignment follows this email, a wiki page was created for this activity -
http://civicaccess.ca/wiki/CitySondage, and when i get home i will post the outline for a
work plan & full meeting details.

ciao
tracey

PS-If you are new to montreal and need critically important data about the city - i highly
recommend this book - http://dosemagazine.blogsome.com/2006/06/05/buy-my-book-please/

[The Munroes]

Hello Traci,

Congratulations.  

Local level information is getting technically easier to do. The internet
and relational databases make moving across scale also more doable.

Political will may take some time. There is still a fear of "too much
knowledge" being a bad thing, especially from many modernists still in
gatekeeper positions. Perhaps cutting out the middle men might be
helpful...the straight goods please.

I remember going through Montreal with John Clarke's 3rd year historical
geography course class. The change in the architecture over time was
interesting to see.  The transition from a heirarchical vertically
integrated wholesale export society to a local network retail ortientation
can be seen to fluctuate over the last four hundred years.

Happy summer,


WWM

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Tracey P.
Lauriault
Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2006 12:18 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] CitySondage - Montreal meeting results


Hi gang!

This city of Montreal has me so preoccupied with sensory input - sights,
sounds, smells,
textures and heat that i have not had the chance to send you a brief about
Monday night's
CivicAccess meeting.  Lucky! Today is a rainy Saturday afternoon at an Ile
sans Fil
hotspot - Romolo - & I can now take a minute to send you some news! Alas!
the paper with
my notes is with coco the cat! So i will share only the global view of a
planned activity.

Bref -

A National city/county/municipality CivicAccess activity was proposed - and
well
- dang it - it's a pretty good idea!

*CitySondage*

The objective:
Understand & communicate the availability & accessibility of civic data in
useable formats
at the municipal/city/county scale across the country and effectively
communicate
their/our degree of data civicness.

The Aim:
Collaboratively create a simple, intuitive & esthetically pleasing civic
data
accessibility map of Canada's cities/municipalities/counties etc. and
communicate results to Canadians

General activities:
1. Contact a minimum of 15 city/municipal/county offices across the country
2. Request a series of data sets within a set of predetermined themes (e.g.
environment,
council votes, boundary files, etc.).
3. Assess, based on a set of criteria, how accessible these data are.
4. Map accessibility results
5. Use the map to inform dialogue on the topic of data civicness in Canada

Conclusion
The activity is an easy short-term collective project for civicaccess.ca
that yields an
artifact, which readily, easily and tangibly communicates the complex topic
of civic data
accessibility in Canada to Canadians.

Hope you like it!
A small assignment follows this email, a wiki page was created for this
activity -
http://civicaccess.ca/wiki/CitySondage, and when i get home i will post the
outline for a
work plan & full meeting details.

ciao
tracey

PS-If you are new to montreal and need critically important data about the
city - i highly
recommend this book -
http://dosemagazine.blogsome.com/2006/06/05/buy-my-book-please/

_______________________________________________
CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
[hidden email]
http://civicaccess.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss_civicaccess.ca

[Tracey P. Lauriault-2]

welcome to the list warren!  woohoooo!
a girl could get lost just haging out here!  Amazing what a combination of cheap rent and
good food and bylaw officials who seem to not mind looking the other way will do to
inspire a creative city!

Do go to the wiki if you get a chance put a little bio of yourself there!  Others will
benefit from that!

For the rest of you warren is an ole gis class made, urban agriculturist statistician
among other things.

ciao
t

Tracey P. Lauriault
 (Home) [phone]
[hidden email] or [hidden email]

On Jul 15, The Munroes <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
> Hello Traci,
>
> Congratulations.  
>
> Local level information is getting technically easier to do. The internet
> and relational databases make moving across scale also more doable.
>
> Political will may take some time. There is still a fear of "too much
> knowledge" being a bad thing, especially from many modernists still in
> gatekeeper positions. Perhaps cutting out the middle men might be
> helpful...the straight goods please.
>
> I remember going through Montreal with John Clarke's 3rd year historical
> geography course class. The change in the architecture over time was
> interesting to see.  The transition from a heirarchical vertically
> integrated wholesale export society to a local network retail ortientation
> can be seen to fluctuate over the last four hundred years.
>
> Happy summer,
>
>
> WWM
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [hidden email]
> [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Tracey P.
> Lauriault
> Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2006 12:18 PM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] CitySondage - Montreal meeting results
>
>
> Hi gang!
>
> This city of Montreal has me so preoccupied with sensory input - sights,
> sounds, smells,
> textures and heat that i have not had the chance to send you a brief about
> Monday night's
> CivicAccess meeting.  Lucky! Today is a rainy Saturday afternoon at an Ile
> sans Fil
> hotspot - Romolo - & I can now take a minute to send you some news! Alas!
> the paper with
> my notes is with coco the cat! So i will share only the global view of a
> planned activity.
>
> Bref -
>
> A National city/county/municipality CivicAccess activity was proposed - and
> well
> - dang it - it's a pretty good idea!
>
> *CitySondage*
>
> The objective:
> Understand & communicate the availability & accessibility of civic data in
> useable formats
> at the municipal/city/county scale across the country and effectively
> communicate
> their/our degree of data civicness.
>
> The Aim:
> Collaboratively create a simple, intuitive & esthetically pleasing civic
> data
> accessibility map of Canada's cities/municipalities/counties etc. and
> communicate results to Canadians
>
> General activities:
> 1. Contact a minimum of 15 city/municipal/county offices across the country
> 2. Request a series of data sets within a set of predetermined themes (e.g.
> environment,
> council votes, boundary files, etc.).
> 3. Assess, based on a set of criteria, how accessible these data are.
> 4. Map accessibility results
> 5. Use the map to inform dialogue on the topic of data civicness in Canada
>
> Conclusion
> The activity is an easy short-term collective project for civicaccess.ca
> that yields an
> artifact, which readily, easily and tangibly communicates the complex topic
> of civic data
> accessibility in Canada to Canadians.
>
> Hope you like it!
> A small assignment follows this email, a wiki page was created for this
> activity -
> <a

href='http://civicaccess.ca/wiki/CitySondage,'>http://civicaccess.ca/wiki/CitySondage,</a>
and when i get home i will post the

> outline for a
> work plan & full meeting details.
>
> ciao
> tracey
>
> PS-If you are new to montreal and need critically important data about the
> city - i highly
> recommend this book -
> <a

href='http://dosemagazine.blogsome.com/2006/06/05/buy-my-book-please/'>http://dosemagazine.blogsome.com/2006/06/05/buy-my-book-please/</a>
>
> _______________________________________________
> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> <a
href='http://civicaccess.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss_civicaccess.ca'>http://civicaccess.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss_civicaccess.ca</a>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> <a
href='http://civicaccess.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss_civicaccess.ca'>http://civicaccess.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss_civicaccess.ca</a>
>