The map emerged from perceiving coworking spaces are next-generation telecentres; seeing connections between telecentres, coworking spaces, hackerspaces, and libraries; and being somewhat exasperated at how libraries are often overlooked as key actors in community development — despite the fact that they’ve always been places where people convene, learn, and create. (More on this note: Wayan Vota, Chris Coward, Meaghan O’Connor, Patrick Tanguay, and Christine… I’m sure you could send us more examples!).

The map is supposed to articulate how public-access venues (libraries, telecentres, cybercafes) and co-location/working/production spaces are connected. We were trying to go beyond access to technology while acknowledging its role and ubiquitousness, and to highlight the importance of access to people in innovation and development.

We’re hoping that this framework can help us think about both the theoretical and practical aspects of innovation grounds (design, support, research, policy, etc.).

Development agencies and practitioners should take a closer look at innovation grounds. Figure out how you can make them work for you — and how you can build on existing efforts. Similarly, national and local governments should seek out and leverage innovation grounds: libraries, coworking spaces, hackerspaces, community wireless groups. They’re out there. Start connecting. (And remember there are resources out there. One example is the US IMPACT Study — based on their research they prepared a wonderful toolkit to help libraries document successes and build understanding and support.)

Tell us what you think. Does this framework spark anything for you?

— Christine Prefontaine & Silvia Caicedo

(Shout outs: The term innovation grounds was inspired by Karen Fisher’s concept of “information grounds“. The term “commonspace” comes from Mark Surman. And writing this included a mental walkthrough of the facilities and approach of Toronto’s Centre for Social Innovation, Montreal’s Station C and Foulab, various libraries we love, and all of the wonderful people and places that we came into contact with while working at IDRC on telecentre.org.)

Their latest production is called Sexy Beton — a play about the tragic collapse of a highway overpass. Five people died. The conclusion? The collapse was “nobody’s” fault. The survivors went on to be further victimized by evasion and bureaucracy. Here’s the video:

Pretty amazing, huh? Sexy Beton is playing next week — from November 24 though to December 1st. I’ll likely go on the 28th. Here’s the ticket info.

Why is Porte Parole so important? Because much of our public discourse is what I lovingly call polarized and paranoid. People ferociously hold on to their weird little theories about how the world works and talk at each other instead of l-i-s-t-e-n-i-n-g. Yeah, I know, listening is hard work. I suck at it most of the time. But it’s important. Another reason: The most critical social issues are complex and overwhelming. Enough to make you run in the other direction. Or go shopping. Shoes or the healthcare system… Hmmm….

Porte Parole humanizes controversial social conflicts. They do a ton of research: conducting interviews and combing through legal documents, transcripts, and newspapers. They use all of this to create great theatre. Theatre that becomes the spokesperson — the porte parole — for the issue. Theater that brings you the people and stories and voices (literally!) from all sides. The actors embody the people within the conflict, animating and defending them in a public space. You’re compelled to listen. Dialogue becomes possible. And as you sit at the edge of your seat — laughing, feeling angry, frustrated, touched, wanting to jump in — something has just happened: you’ve become engaged. You’ve taken on step into participating in democracy and in your public life. It’s a gift.

Kudos to Laurence Miall and Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet for putting together the Porte Parole Pecha Kucha presentation. You guys rock.

Dear Bluehost,

I understand from Ethan Zuckerman that you recently disabled Kubatana’s blog, despite the fact that they explained to you who they are and provided supporting documentation, including a letter from the US Embassy in Zimbabwe.

I’m a longtime Bluehost customer and have been, up until now, very pleased with your service. I am terribly dissapointed that you did not step up and support human rights and free speech. We consumers have choices, and in these difficult economic times your values matter more than ever. Please re-consider your decision and take a stand. Apologize. Support human rights and free speech. This affects all of us.

I look forward to your reply — and to remaining a loyal Bluehost customer.

Sincerely,

Christine Prefontaine
Montreal, Canada

If you have a Bluehost-hosted website feel free to copy my letter and send it on.

Ushahidi (“testimony” in Swahili) is an experimental web platform that crowdsources crisis information. People can submit reports via text messaging using a mobile phone, email, or the web. Looks like it can be deployed (sorry, geek speak) for a specific crisis. It was most recently use to track events in Gaza and was also used in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Users can submit or track by category: riot, looting, sexual assault… (reads like humanity’s list of shame). The results are aggregated onto a map. They can also upload photos and post links to videos and news stories.

The project is free and open source, with developers from Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Malawi, Netherlands, and the United States. If you’re a developer and would like to participate you can join here.

And on top of everything, the design of their site rocks ;)

Related: Blogging for Good Governance

Picking tomatoes in Immokalee, Florida, December 2007

Want to do some hands-on organizing? Dig Paolo Freire‘s philosophy? Then you will love the way these folks operate. Interns will work alongside farmworkers and allies organizing around the Coalition of Immokalee Workers‘ Campaign for Fair Food.  Applications are due December 15th. More information on the Student-Farmworker Alliance website.

This is a great opportunity for a designer who wants to build their portfolio and work with a creative team, as well as support urban ecology, the reclamation of the commons, and local history. Main contributors to the project (designer, artist, publisher) will invest time in developing the book and then split the profits from the book and related merchandise. The project will contribute to the commons — all outputs will be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license, allowing subsequent creators to remix and build on it.

Interested? Visit Emily’s site for more details.

I’m (through Artefatica) helping Montreal artist Emily Rose Michaud, the force behind the Mile End’s Roerich Garden, to produce a book that will document community happenings and uses of the lovely and (for the time being) wild field that lies between the east end of St-Viateur street and the Carmelite nun’s residence. The book will be published in the spring of 2009.

To contribute content, contact Emily before the end of November. If you’d like to help produce the book we’re also looking for a designer. See Emily’s blog for more details.

I noticed two things:

Andrew Graham, the NDP candidate from New Brunswick Southwest, does not support reforms allowing free access to scientific and survey data gathered by government institutions. First, kudos to Mr Graham for signing the pledge — that’s the kind of leader we want. Now onto his comment, which explains his reasoning: “My main worry is those who would take tax-funded research and use it for private corporate profit.” Although it does not entirely address Mr Graham’s concern, my understanding is that if you licensed the data under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license then anything that was built on the dataset would have to be shared in the same way, thereby allowing anyone — government, civil society groups, or nonprofits — to benefit from the value added by the private company. But I’m no copyright lawyer, so let me know if I have this wrong. Then, of course, the argument can be made that companies pay taxes too. So why shouldn’t they have access to the data? But that’s a whole other discussion.

The other thing I noticed is that none of the MP candidates from Outremont have signed the pledge. They are: Marcela Valdivia (Bloc), François Pilon (Green), Thomas Mulcair (NDP), Lulzim Laloshi (Conservative), and Sébastien Dhavernas (Liberal). C’mon folks! Let us know where you stand. Sign the pledge, or at least tell us why you disagree.

We’ve just launched our first project — ibelieveinopen.ca — a site that collects pledges from Member of Parliament (MP) candidates to commit to making five improvements to government transparency. The site also collects signups from voters to show that we care about transparency and that we’re paying attention.

Check out the results to see if your MP has made the pledge. If they’re not, you may want to ask them why, because the commitments are basic to good governance:

1. Support reforms that increase government transparency and accountability.
2. Make campaign promises specific and measurable, and report progress on promises and their metrics at least semi-annually.
3. Publish the content of his or her daily schedule, including meetings with lobbyists and special interest groups.
4. Support reforms allowing free access to scientific and survey data gathered by government institutions.
5. Support reforms that make it easier for Canadians to obtain government information they have a right to know.

Once you sign the pledge, you’ll be sent an email that you can forward to others to promote this great project. Easy way to get involved!