Exploration and curiosity has always played some sort of role in life.  Within the context of growing up, I explored the neighbourhood to no end — meaning I took my bike and rode it through every path or winding road that I could find … on the sidewalk that is.  As I got older, I always found myself fascinated by the stories we could find within the boundaries of the sidewalk — so many tales ranging from the simple walk in the park to a daily struggle in life to survive.

These days while spending so much time in lines and on subways each day, I find myself pondering about how we walk, and more specifically, on the sidewalk and the peculiar patterns that surface when we identify how we use the sidewalk and what they are for.

A city sidewalk by itself is nothing.  It is an abstraction.  It means something only in conjunction with the buildings and other uses that border it, or border other sidewalks very near it [...] Streets and their sidewalks, the main public places of a city, are its most vital organs. – Jane Jacobs

As a way of thinking everything through, I’ve been fiddling around with illustrations and so far I have come up with these:

One of the most typical behaviours of many pedestrians is to stand and talk.  Why not right?  The sidewalk is after all a public space.  It’s funny in my opinion because as Jane Jacobs had pointed out many years ago, that sidewalks have gradually shrunk in size as roads gradually increased.

Many pedestrians probably find it annoying to walk down the street and have to weave through a pack of people just chatting away in the middle of the sidewalk.

Emily Post’s Etiquette refers to them as the Stationary Schmoozers:

It’s amazing how many people plant themselves in the middle of the sidewalk to chat, seemingly oblivious to other pedestrians.  When crossing paths with friends and deciding to talk, pedestrians should move to one side so as not to pede the flow of foot traffic, whether they’re a group of two or twenty.

The Common Responses:

• Break hard — tip toe around
• Squeeze through
• Plow through

On the other occasions while strolling down the street, we end up behind or participating in an off-balanced game of chicken with people who decide to walk together side-by-side despite the obvious fact that the width of the sidewalk is rather limited.

Amusingly enough, Emily Post’s Etiquette refers to them as the Phalanxers:

A modern definition of phalanx: a line of clueless pedestrians who walk abreast and make it impossible for anyone to pass.  When people are walking together, they should be sure not to block anyone who’s trying to get by.

 The Common Responses:

• Excuse me?
• Look beyond the faces and walk straight ahead (they’ll make room)
• Plow through
• Run around
• Evasive maneuvers! [be nimble and agile]

We are all pretty aware of how dynamic the sidewalk really is and how lively pedestrians can be, but none of it can usually prepare us for the excruciating and most frustrating experience of suddenly not being able to predict where someone walking in front of us is going.  Perhaps you’re following the guy who wasn’t paying attention and walked into a fire hydrant — who knows?  Just as you decide to move to your right, they drift that way, so you instantly change your mind to move left — only to have them drift left … leaving you scowling.

This is either simply because they’re looking up at the clouds and daydreaming, window shopping, or playing with their Blackberry.  Again, Emily Post’s Etiquette has a nice nickname prepared:

The Meanderthal.  This pedestrian might also be dubbed the Veerer, since he often suddenly decides to walk diagonally rather than straight ahead.  His more common trait is walking slowly and aimlessly while everyone about him is keeping to a faster pace.

The Common Responses:

• Patiently follow this person and wait for him or her to be influenced by external factors or come to a level of self-actualization where they can make the decision on their own.
• Pick a direction to pass them on — and run!
• Go buy a tea or coffee and chill out.

The most awkward (and the most fun at times) experience is when we confront this type of pedestrian in situation of opposing directions.  As person A is unsure of where the other is going — and person B is awaiting person A to make up their mind and take a path.  This is when we unveil the game of mimicry.  This is a game that lasts a mere few seconds because typically at some point during this fast-paced game, one of the persons involved gives up or forfeits, and let’s the other one pass.

The beauty of how we walk on sidewalks is that aside from the odd bump or brush on the shoulder (and perhaps collisions with people with many bags), the movement is pretty fluid — like cells flowing through a body’s circulatory system.  I think James Surowiecki in his dated but still very relevant book The Wisdom of Crowds summarizes William H. Whyte’s observation on the urban pedestrian very well:

What Whyte saw–and made us see–was the beauty of a well-coordinated crowd, in which lots of small, subtle adjustments in pace and stride and dirction add up to a relatively smooth and efficient flow.  Pedestrians are constantly anticipating each other’s behavior. No one tells them where or when or how to walk. Insead, they all decide or themselves what they’ll do based on their best guess of what everyone else will do. And somehow it usually works out well.  There is a kind of collective genius at play here.

It’s just as fascinating to observe how people respond to other pedestrians.  You may have noticed some Facebook groups such as these and even joined their cause:

• I Secretly Want to Punch Slow-Walking People in the Head
• Fast Walking People!
• Anti-Hall Clogging People and Slow Walkers

I’ve been working on illustrating more patterns on the sidewalk but in the meantime, which  type of pedestrian are you?  Are you guilty of a particular behaviour?  Do you standby that characteristic?  Let me know if I should add another type to the poll. 

Welcome to Sidewalk Politics.

Credit for character descriptions:  (Page 21) Emily Post’s Etiquette

Last year, or rather the beginning of 2009, I focused on building character.  For 2010, I thought it’d be rather fitting to focus on projects for three reasons:

1. My work in not-for-profit fundraising has made me even more curious about the idea behind spare change.
2. I have way too many projects on the go.  I’ll elaborate in a bit.
3. There is nothing more inspiring than to see the projects — that so many people invest their time, sweat, and energy (money as well) into — come alive.  It is their dream.

Before I mention my own projects what I really wanted to do was shed light on a few projects that I’ve stumbled across.  The following projects that I’ve dug up on Kickstarter are really worth so much more attention than mine.  Some need more support than others but I think they offer something to people that is refreshing and it is generally nice to see someone in the world throw themselves into a dream that is not so conventional.

Gaming
Project: The Gentlemen of the South Sandwiche Islands

As a kid growing up in the 80s, the best thing about that time was the balanced pull between the physical board game and the video/computer game. I was definitely drawn to video and computer games of the time but I’d always pick up a board game and take it to my parents hoping that they’d play round or two with me.

With the increasing attention paid towards the iPod, iPhone and whatever tablet computer that successfully captivates the market attention, I think board games gradually (and have already in some cases) migrated over to the digital interface. That said, I do love the physical board game and the attention paid towards the art and crafting of the game itself (i mean, who didn’t love Mouse Trap?); and the unique gaming experience is worth taking into consideration.

I think we can’t count out the board game just yet.

***

Hiking
Project: Walking 1800 Miles Across New Zealand

I am an avid hiker so I just had to add this because as much as I love road trips, the idea of hiking across a tremendous distance is very appealing (if I only had the time off…). Why not live vicariously eh? Simon Cook (aka. Cookie) has made a number of hiking films in the past and I’m astounded by the amount of work involved although seeing this hike makes it seem more like fun than work.

Supporting Cookie and Nicky in their adventure across New Zealand just seems like something fun, and more fun will always make the world better.

***

Creativity
Project: Dear Mr. Watterson

Just like Joel Schroeder who’s spearheading this project to capture and document the impact of Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes on the world, I too can remember the time when I would be drawn into the world of Calvin and Hobbes every weekend during piano lessons. My piano teacher was a huge fan and as a result, while my sister would be attending to her lesson, I’d be sitting back reading away.

***

So I have a tendency to focus on a gazillion ideas which usually means that anything I want to do tends to progress … at the pace of …uh … sloth.  At work, we’re now encouraged to focus on a pretty specific goal for the year.  In a sense, I wanted to apply that same idea on my personal projects.  I narrowed it down to three:

1.  The annual one little cog overhaul

Considering the timing of courses and potential trips, I may not actually complete this until Spring 2010.  I figure getting this done in time, just as the weather becomes suitable for hiking, would be quite ideal.

2. Spice up Operation ThrowYourDesk

This is a project that I have continued to work on for some time and dedicate to the survivors and victims of micro-management, as well as those who struggle to stay optimistic on a day-to-day basis  under oppressive or poor management.

We throw stuff that’s on the desk, but never the desk itself. Why?

Nay, ’tis not at all a revolution — it’s merely a learning process.

Ideally, this should get some updates by summer but we’ll see.

3. Mashing up Road tripping and Design Experiments

You might already know I love road trips, but what I love just as equally is the expression of the love for road tripping in creative fanatical ways.  I’ve already been tinkering around but I have more ideas on the whiteboard that I’d like to play with.  This is my last priority but any spare moment that I have, I’d love to dive into this sandbox.  I’ve already been queuing up ideas and you might have already noticed it over on Posterous.

***

Projects don’t necessarily need to be outwardly focused to make for a better 2010.  I think a project itself out of interest or passion can do great things in the world.  What’s your own project for 2010?  And is there one that you’d want to support?

Tell people about it and spread the word.

Photo credit: alancleaver_2000

Being either sick or just plain busy and without any energy, I really haven’t been paying much attention to blogs lately. I just happened to stumble across Mark Bertil’s not-too-recent blog post about user experience of a bookstore. But … I think the term “user” isn’t correct in this case. It seems too limiting in the case of a bookstore (or any retail store for that matter). A website can focus on user experience but an organization itself must focus on something greater.

Be it a website or retail floor that serves as the platform, the customer should be the focus and their unique experiences are what businesses and organizations want to derive insight from in order to achieve their goals or objectives.

To be honest, aside from the odd local bookstore that actually cultivates, in my opinion, some form of authentic community — majority of bookstores (and the big box stores) I walk into are pretty standard, I notice two primary types of customers. One that is browsing — simply identifying their next reads, needs and wants, and the other that is seeking something specific.

If you begin to look at your bookstore as a living organism — you can start to systematically (or … biologically?) identify the number of inputs and outputs, I/O ports, gates, or whatever you want to refer to them as. When it comes to your inputs and outputs, the key really is to simply be listening, identifying potential and existing problems, and working towards addressing those problems.

Those are really just the basics — laying the foundation for your customer. Similar to designing the walls and components that make up a living cell.

The next tier, stage, or level, however one would want to phrase it, involves understanding the who, what, where, when, why, and how. You name it.

Who likes what?
Who goes where?
What goes where?
Why do they go there?
Why do they like what?
How do they get there?

An organism, like a living cell or its components, needs to adequately (and in some cases pro-actively) respond and adapt to its dynamic environment. It’s no different for the bookstore or business, escalating the needs and wants of a customer requires more than a feedback loop — the no/few-questions-asked type of understanding or comprehension of what we want as unique individuals with diverse interests and motivations. This means acknowledging that the customer isn’t always right — what they say does not always mean what they really think.

Why do we need to register on an e-commerce site? An extra step that is unnecessary. True there are reasons why, but few e-commerce platforms provide customers with a solid justification.

Customer service representatives — the ones with an intuitive understanding, comprehensive knowledge, and the motivation to help — are key to identifying changes in behaviour. That said, how this dynamic intelligence and power is wielded and deployed will likely determine the level of engagement of the customer. Technology will assist — but the decision-making process is still human.

I think it would be interesting to study biology as a model for learning how to deploy an effective customer experience…

Feeling tired after work and school and since I need to follow up on my previous post, I thought I’d post some photos and trail data after trying out the Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx that I had just gotten recently.

So a couple of weekends ago, in fact it was a Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, I decided to journey up to Algonquin for a solid hike.  After much hoping, praying, and sharing the enthusiasm for autumn colours at the office, I just had to make it to Algonquin (rain or shine) to take in the vibrant colours.  A friend and I had gone up a couple of weeks even further back but it was still too early as most of the trees had not changed yet.  Thanksgiving weekend turned out to be the peak time, which resulted in a spectacular hike.

I had planned for going on the Booth’s Rock trail.  Some friends and I had made a visit during the winter and it was an excellent hike with some solid views as you’ll see below in a photograph of a friend at Booth’s rock lookout point.

I had heard about the Centennial Ridges trail before but after I stumbled across a site called Trailpeak, I was determined to hike the trail. Trailpeak’s great for Canadians in particular although I’m not sure how appealing it may be in comparison to sites like EveryTrail. That said, the great thing about Trailpeak is that there is plenty of data on Canadian trails and that was exactly what I was seeking out.

The funny thing about Centennial Ridges was that Algonquin pegged it as a strenous hike. I guess it is 10 kilometres long and the estimated completion time was 6 hours however in my opinion it’s not a strenous hike. I actually thought that the Track and Tower trail might actually be more difficult because large chunks of the Centennial Ridges trail is literally just walking on the ridge of the cliff. Honestly, there are very few trails that provide that much view for so little hike.

What was fascinating about this hike was that the east side seemed full of vibrant yellows and golds while the southern ridge provided views of oranges and reds.

Some hikers complained that it was too easy of a hike (true to some degree) and that there were too many people (also true), but the one thing I’ll note is that despite the number of people on the trail, I never found it crowded one bit — even when I stopped to eat lunch on one of the ridges. There was always more than enough space. For those who don’t want to hike through a lot of wooded areas, this is a great trail with diversity.

Near the last quarter of the trail, we’re treated to a grand view of Whitefish Lake. I only wish that I would have had the opportunity to share the hike with a few more friends, but I guess the timing doesn’t always work when it’s a Thanksgiving long weekend.

The most interesting thing about this hike was that majority of the people there were visiting from another country, and the Canadians who were on the trail were graduate students on a break. The funny thing is that the grad students also mentioned the peculiar fact that we live so close by to such beauty yet so few of us actually take the time to enjoy it. Oddly enough Niagara Falls (which by the way is only one hour less of a drive away) is the popular destination. Yuck.

I guess I should mention that there was a beaver sighting, but with the kids screaming “BEAVER!” at the top of their lungs, it was highly unlikely that it would swim closer.

Some trail data
Centennial Ridges Trail – Algonquin Park at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: GPS Trip Sharing with Google Maps

Every year, I find that there just isn’t enough time to enjoy the autumn colours. The thing that I wonder about the most is that why around this time of year when the trees are the most beautiful that we are usually the busiest. Whether it may be school or work, it seems to be difficult to get a weekend with little precipitation.

After so many years of not having the time for autumn colours, I decided to block off multiple weekends. Despite the poor weather over the last couple of weekends, I still managed to wander north up to Algonquin Park for some hiking. The Highway 60 corridor contains some stunning colour changes.

So many people travel to Canada to enjoy our autumn colour changes, yet so many of us are unable to get out of Toronto (which by the way has pretty poor colour change by comparison to Northern Ontario) and spend time to take in the autumn season which tends to be so short-lived. I still have a few more weekends blocked off for autumn hiking … let’s hope for good weather and colours!

I happened to be reading Mark Bertil’s post on risk taking and funding and he points out Kickstarter — a funding platform for artists, designers, etc. — not unlike Kiva, except they focus on alleviating poverty through partnerships with micro-financing institutions and by encouraging people to make small loans to entrepreneurs to fund their endeavours.

A fine example:

Mark being Mark, thoroughly discusses his thoughts and ideas in the context of publishing.  He points out that publishers take the risk, but I’d disagree because publishers play it safer than we think.  Dan Wagstaff a while back (probably around BookCamp Toronto, feel free to correct me Dan) made a point of emphasizing that publishers should make small investments in many different initiatives to play it safe and experiment.

An argument that I’d like to put forth is that so far the major investor and “risk taker” in all Canadian books has really been the government and thus the people who pay taxes in this country.  I had a conversation earlier today with a friend who said to me that the formula to publishing is about balance.  My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when I saw that statement.

A while back, a friend of mine and I were throwing this idea around.  The general goal of the Canadian government or at least part of it is to ultimately ensure the survival of Canadian culture  (because Canadians are somehow consistently feeling  insecure about their identity).  This means the Canadian government must do something about investing in culture which then brings about the grant system that subsidizes the production costs of books in order to make them affordable.

Complex City visual via ffffound

The problem is that for many publishing companies, they have essentially integrated this grant formula into their business model and combined it with the idea of investing in many initiatives (in this case, books).

Let us unveil a giant machine that is pumping a massive output of “Canadian culture”.  This massive output will hopefully reach a few readers across the nation with the “bestsellers” playing their role, each as a success story of how Canadian identity survived and perhaps even thrived.

I don’t think the question is, as Mark puts it, the platform and who will run it because anyone can set one up in a free and democratic society.  The key is choosing where to place the funding.  The question is that if we keep talking about better books, better interactions, better communities — shouldn’t we focus on ourselves?  We ironically, are the people who continue to allow Canadian culture to be diluted and the real gems to remain hidden.

If anything, perhaps the Canada Council will set up a platform where the people can decide on an individual basis how much of their portion they want to dedicate to a form of art and culture be it a book, film, music, theatrical performance or video game (etc..).  Pushing it even further, perhaps individuals may even decide on the specific initiative.

The old formula may have been similar to Pareto Principle (the 20/80 rule) — although I have my doubts.  I might even suggest that further fragmentation and or  segmentation is the future.

I like variety; I like diversity; I like randomness. Those who know me well understand where I come from — especially when it comes to music.  If you’re looking for randomness in another sense, well Wikipedia is the place to go.

Shucks, I just want a solid shuffle play function.  According to Wikipedia, digital audio players don’t have the computational power?

Step into the car:
I’ve got a CD player. I burn my own CDs but it’s not enough that I want the widest variety of music possible (that is how I create each disc), I also want it randomized. Of course, the CD player fails at that terribly.

Enter the mp3 player:
The randomize formula has not changed since my first mp3 player — the 32mb Diamond Rio.

Enter the iPod Touch:
Okay so I figure Apple must have something good developed by now. Nope. Same old randomize formula that doesn’t seem to work too well, even with the new Genius function that was introduced relatively recently to track a music listener’s preferences.  Some people suggest that Apple uses albums in their algorithm while others point at track names.

I don’t know.

I think last time I put too many Bob Marley songs on there and left shuffle on, the frequency those songs.

Let’s just say I got really tired of Bob Marley very quickly…

Reality is that people likely do not really want pure randomness. Randomness can actually be a subjective experience.

What do we pick next?  How about something random? [link]

Can TRUE randomness exist?

Very likely but it’d be hard for any human to really choose something at random considering all the factors in play — no matter how spontaneous one really is.

The Shuffle Play function appears to have been discussed to some extent over at the Hydrogenaudio forums.  Interestingly enough, a user by the name of chelgrian stated:

Believe it or not it’s very difficult to get a computer to generate a really random number, there are various sources of entropy that can be exploited such as time between user input, certain properties of transactions across peripheral buses but in the end you usually generate a sequence of pseudo random numbers using a seed value and a pseudo random function. Now if you feed the same seed value into a pseudo random number function then it will give you the same sequence of numbers every time.

So even a computer has difficulty choosing something at random eh?  We can’t just roll the dice I guess.

Well in that case, how about we figure out some sort of function or formula that we as individuals can fine tune to our hearts content.  For every formula and function there are variables.  Now by no means am I a mathematical genius (or even mathematically proficient) — far from it.  I think my last math class, Calculus I for Life Sciences, *shudder* in university and was definitely not my forte.  Nevertheless, I’m quite confident people can get the idea — if not, we can revise accordingly.  I’ll let the real programmers and mathematicians do the actual work.

We are in the world of editable (and for many, edible) content after all…

Mennonite Longhand Math anyone?

The Variables

1. Number of songs
2. Number of times a song has been played
3. Number of times a song has been specifically chosen to be played
4. Frequency of which a song has been played
5. Frequency of which a song related to a particular album has been played
6. Frequency of which a song has been skipped while in shuffle mode
7. Mood associated with a song
8. Favourites
9. The last time a song was played
10. Category or Genre of song
11. [Anything else?  Insert your own]

A simple attempt at a simple example

With basic basic algebra… [note that I have an aversion to mathematics]

if f is considered a play decision function…

if p is considered as a variable that defines a priority …

and if n is the number

f(x)(n, n+1, # of songs){ f((# of songs)pn + [f(frequency)pn + f(album frequency)pn] + f(mood)pn] + f(frequency of skips)} … and so on…

The ever-growing randomness…

What happens when your music/media player becomes connected to other people and their collections?  This would have an even greater impact on the idea of randomness and has to some degree already taken place with internet radio initiatives such as Pandora, thesixtyone, and Last.fm.  Users are able to connect with one another and mix their collection of favourites with the collections of others.

The shuffle feature may seem relatively minor compared to the rest of a music player but its role is massive with many minor details — and its contribution to music listening is priceless.

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Having spent majority of my time over the past six or seven months focusing on internet fundraising, I haven’t had much time to finish the blog posts that I’ve been building up from my random musings and observations.

That said, today I was leaving work and a fundraiser (of a charitable organization that will be remain undisclosed) approached me as I was walking to the subway station. He attempted to stop me and I simply informed him that I was in a hurry. He then posed an intriguing question to me:

What if I told you that I was helping people and that all I need is 30 seconds of your time?

I actually stopped to respond to him to discuss that idea further, but just as I explained that if I had more than 30 seconds, rather than listening to me — he simply told me not to worry about it and have a nice day … and then proceeded to attempt to find another donor. Now is that any way to treat a potential donor? If we are to engage people to encourage and inspire them to contribute, volunteer or even take action — we definitely need to understand that there are multiple perspectives and approaches to how we as individuals want to help or make a difference.

Similarly and interestingly enough, the Globe and Mail published an article by Lawrence Martin today that points fingers at the youth for the lack of political inspiration. Isn’t it easy to make assumptions that points to a mere small factor for our country’s political woes?

The young reject the political status quo, as they should, but they are too lazy to do anything about it. Most of the under-25s don’t even bother to vote. Instead of fighting for change, they wallow in their vanities and entitlements. Not much turns them on except the Idol shows, movies with smut humour and the latest hand-held instruments. Their disillusionment with the political class is understood. Their complacency isn’t. It will soon be their country. You’d think they’d want to take the reins. – Lawrence Martin, Globe and Mail

Ignoring that our education system continues to fail to engage young citizens on the history of the diverse Canadian landscape; that our political system continues to produce stable yet rather bland governments; that much of the political agendas continue to alienate what concerns the young adults who are able to vote; that people have generally lost faith in many of our provincial and federal government institutions and their inability to tackle a problem — is an attempt to avoid acknowledging the fact that many individuals have now focused on what they can contribute towards and actually see progress and results. Results that they want to achieve without dealing with the political ideologies that have been tossed back and forth.

“If you don’t like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.” – Marian Wright Edelman

I’d go to the extent of arguing that the lack of political inspiration isn’t about laziness, vanities or entitlement, it is about relevance or context, and requires a more effective method of engagement than patronizing marketing campaigns by Elections Canada.

Same goes for fundraising, it takes more than simply 30 seconds of chatting with someone to encourage them to invest their time and energy into your cause. It is a democratic society after all that we live within and simply blaming the younger generation for not understanding the importance of issues that just aren’t relevant to them really makes us just as bad for not understanding them and seeing the world through their eyes — especially when we should know better through time and experience.

I just stumbled across Hayao Miyazaki’s 2008 film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. Me being a huge fan of Miyazaki’s work, I can’t help but share this and look forward to seeing it:

I’m usually quite impressed by the quality and the wide range of styles of photography that anyone can find online.  This time I’m blown away by Robert Buelteman’s vision and work in Signs of Life and kudos to him for sharing his amazing work via Issuu.  Wired also wrote a brief article showcasing his work. If his work is ever showcased in Toronto — I’m there.