IMMERSE YOURSELF IN COMMUNITY DATA

Imagine walking or driving about a neighborhood and automatically capturing data and information on your mobile device about your surroundings, such as: age distribution, political contributions, average rent, popular local spots, recommended restaurants, how people commute, record temperature and housing units over time.

Sitegeist is a mobile App that "presents localized information visually so you can get back to enjoying the neighborhood." It extracts data from available sources. This tech tool was developed by the non-partisan, non-profit Sunlight Foundation, as part of their mission to develop cutting edge technology and make government more transparent and accountable.

I think this idea can be made scalable to include so much more to enrich our experience moving through new communities. Imagine, for example, being presented, in real-time, cultural events and groups, community notice boards of items for sale, rest and recreation, video/audio vignettes of local talent, professional network contacts, local tide and ferry information.


Sitegeist points us towards an immersible experience where the community can offer us its culture, opportunities and vision. What a great tool, for example, for tourism operators and regional economic developers.


If you had a mobile App such as Sitegeist what would want to learn as you walk or drive about a new community?

CAN THE 6% PLACE PROJECT THEORY WORK IN RURAL AREAS?

image from: http://www.citylabpgh.org/experiments/six-percent-place/

6% Theory tells us that when at least six percent of a neighbourhood's population works in creative fields, investors are attracted (2007 Creative Neighborhoods Study). Can the 6% Place Project theory work in rural areas, such as much of Nova Scotia, Canada?

I was inspired by "doTank" cityLab, whose mission is to use the city as a laboratory for experiments that might stimulate economic vibrancy, and their 2011 6% Place Project. Their project developed a practical toolbox of 16 incentives to reach the 6% creatives target. This project identified creatives and the "creatives environment" in the Garfield suburb of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, USA.

The six-percent goal is a starting place to look at economic growth/revival. In its simplest terms, the starting goal is to look at the "lay of the land" and count the number of creatives in the community, looking at factors, such as:
topography
road patterns and infrastructure
median income
educational achievement
family makeup
worker movement/chain migration patterns

The Toolbox that was developed by cityLab to attract 6% creatives to Garfield, Pennsylvania, USA, included projects such as:
Dream property database
Expand the Arts
Food Incubator
Street Market
Tiny Housing
and more ...

What can we learn from the cityLab 'doTanks' example, by mapping and identifying creatives in rural areas and conditions that attract/deter creatives so we can build our economies? Can the 6% theory apply to rural areas?

How does your region's rural communities stack up against the 6% theory?


San Francisco's Six-Percent Neighborhoods PDF 

LINK TO 6% Walkabout article.
LINK TO 6% Place Project PDF.

CREATIVES USE STORIES TO SHARE CULTURE AND HISTORY

The film "How Far Is Heaven", is set in Jerusalem,
an isolated community on the Whanganui River in New Zealand

"Without your past who are you, and does it matter if anyone knows?" : Solange, Rwandan Refugee

Everyone has a story to tell. Stories enrich us, and the creative community of filmmakers and storytellers can capture, preserve and share the culture and heritage of often forgotten, or isolated people.

In 2011, film-makers Christopher Pryor and Miriam Smith created a film about the 120-year-old Sisters of Compassion convent located in Jerusalem; an isolated community along the Whanganui River of New Zealand. The story, "How Far Is Heaven", tells of three remaining three Pākehā nuns who lived there and the local Maori community that embraced them. This is one of several films about small communities, presented at the New Zealand 2012 International Film Festival. The nuns reportedly no longer live there since the film was shot. The filmmakers have shared a part of the community that no longer exists.

Irish-born author, Colum McCann, came to the USA in the 1980s and set out across the USA, on bike, to find stories. He found many. In a recent interview with NPR host Neal Conan, at the Apsen Institute Ideas Festival and Story Swap Project, he says 

"Storytelling is about understanding other people ... if we can understand what’s happening to others, then we can finely, sort of, understand what’s happening to ourselves because there’s really loneliness in not being able to tell your story."

The Story Swap is a powerful storytelling idea that builds community. Storytelling creatives abound, such as:

The League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling including New York State.

Ottawa Storytellers.
The UK Society for Storytellers.

Zanendabe: The Institute of African Storytellers.

Mapping Memories "is a collaborative media project which uses personal stories and a range of media tools (video, sound walks, mapping, photography) to better understand the experiences of youth with refugee experience in Montreal". Hip Hop artists, No Bad Sound, in "Roots To Rap With: Expressing Identity Through Music" use music to tell about their roots and their new life in Canada; to let people of other cultures understand each other.

Stories are powerful. Today, they can be readily created and shared. What stories can your community share with the world?

LINK: How Far Is Heaven (Trailer)
LINK: Interview with Colum McCann (Audio)
LINK: Mapping Memories Project (Video)

CREATING AND SHARING YOUR CULTURE THROUGH MAPS

If you could share and map great "campfire" stories from your area, what would you say? What would you show? What would you write? What would you teach? If you could easily do this online, with friends and colleagues, where would you start?

What would you share about the elder, for example, who still collects rare plants in the area to make native medicines? Or the music historian who has collected local folklore and songs from the past? Or the author who writes about long-lost, ghost towns? Or the lady who makes periwinkle soup? Or the farmer who teaches how to make rich compost in eight weeks?

Destination tourism consultant and guru Roger A. Brooks once wrote "Great Stories Make the Campfire Memorable" in his book "The 25 Immutable Rules of Successful Tourism". If you want to entice visitors you must share interesting stories.

"Generic" map and images of the area around Argyle, Nova Scotia, that can be customized.

Google Map Maker lets you customize a map and post such stories with friends and colleagues, and now share them with the world (text, images, audio, video, links).

You share the map with those you want to help build it. You display the map with those you want to see it. People can comment on the map. They can review/correct the map. They can provide further/new information about the area. 

Google has just made community mapping and sharing easier, so your culture, heritage, geography, industry -- your stories -- could be shown to the world. It's like crowd-sourcing an "organic, breathing map" of your area, making the map richer, more complete and current.

What's your next community map?

LEADERS WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN A CREATIVE ECONOMY

"Yes, politics can kill projects - if you let them!", Karl Shutz once wrote me.

Selected murals from Chemainus, British Columbia, Canada.

Back in 1971, way before the internet, Karl Shutz proposed an idea, a vision, to revitalize the small community of Chemainus, British Columbia, population 3,000. 

The town was a fast-fading relic from its past glory in the forest industry. It wasn't until 10 years later, during the recession of the early 80s,  that a young 29-year old Mayor came along to share this vision, and who was in a position to say "let's do it". Karl's vision, the Mayor and community helped to put Chemainus on the cultural map -- a town now nicknamed "Mural Town" for its many murals, with a tagline "The Little Town That Could". 

Chemainus now boasts cultural, craft and culinary fairs, galleries, musical performances, theatre and growing recreation and support industries. This month alone 97 events events were posted to its website; not bad for a town of 3,000 people. 

That theatre in Chemainus, the Chemainus Theatre Festival, has a connection to another leadership story -- one from Rosebud, Alberta, a hamlet of 300+ people.

The connection is LaVerne Erickson. His story dates back to 1973.

About 100km outside Calgary, in the badlands of Alberta, lies the tiny hamlet of Rosebud. It was once a thriving community of ranchers, farmers and miners, but times turned tough and the town faded. Nothing drew people to Rosebud.

In 1973 LaVerne, a high school teacher had a vision. He opened the Rosebud Camp for the Arts as an outreach for city youth, many of whom had not experienced rural life. His original summer camp grew over time and became a Fine Arts High School. Then, in 1988, came a turning point. The Alberta government passed the "Rosebud School of the Arts Act" opening its doors to post-secondary training. Rosebud School of the Arts was based on a guild model, using mentors and outside professionals, that began to attract theatre arts students from all over North America.

Rosebud now attracts over 40,000+ "paying visitors" each year to its theatre and cultural events and a growing cultural community.


Chemainus and Rosebud, to me, are examples where visionary cultural leaders began a creative process that were helped along by the political visionaries. 

Today, our world interacts very differently than the early 1970s. We need, however, to back our cultural visionaries and political leaders who view the creative economy as our new economy. Our political and economic leaders need to understand this change. As, economic developer consultant, Greg Baeker once said "you have zero economic advantage when you choose to chase smokestack industries".

Let's support the visionaries like Karl Schutz and Laverne Erickson. It's time to unearth, celebrate and be inspired by our creative visionaries and use politics to help when and where possible. 

COWORKING MOVEMENT

Italian architect, entrepreneur, community developer, and curious observer, Andrea Paoletti states a case for rural co-working, "If more informal coworking spaces were created in rural and natural settings it would generate a unique opportunity to connect social entrepreneurs with local communities. The ideas and projects created there will have a much better chance of making a direct impact on local rural communities..."


I came across this note from Paoletti after some coworking groups began to follow me on Twitter @CREandET. So I started to do some digging about coworking and ended up signing the Coworking Manifesto. The manifesto supports redefining the way we work; "inspired by the participatory culture of the open source movement and the empowering nature of IT ...".

Wikipedia defines coworking as "a style of work that involves a shared working environment, often an office, and independent activity." Coworking also deals with shared ideas. Apparently coworking attracts entrepreneurs and work-at-home professionals -- people mostly in the creative industries and new media. Its short history is primarily urban, having started in 2006 with the "Hat Factory" in San Fransisco and is now spread worldwide. Coworking involves community building and sustainability.


OK, so how can coworking impact rural communities? 


Wyoming freelance writer, Beth Buczynski notes that the coworking community has seen a surge in rural towns, "... areas where the population is quite small and something other than technology is the main industry", but requires some educational legwork on the concept. Buczynski tells of Mark W. Kidd who is building a coworking community in Whitesburg, Kentucky (population 2,000) and has attracted a diverse cross-section of people. She describes five essential tools for setting up a coworking space:

• Coworking Wiki
• Coworking Google Group
• Meetup.com
• WorkatJelly.com
• Global Coworking Blog

Diversity in rural communities is seen as a benefit for coworking.

Want to start a rural coworking environment?
"A short commute, reliable internet, coffee, print technologies, proximity to local eateries and services, affordable work space, access to a diverse community of professionals, opportunities for continuing education, and child care were all mentioned as things that attracted rural entrepreneurs to coworking communities." 

LINK: Origins and future of Coworking (YouTube video)

NEW TOOLS TO MAP YOUR COMMUNITY

New tools to create maps of your community have been rolled out by Product managers with Google Maps at their I/O conference. They relied heavily on user feedback, for example from their API issue tracker, to determine what tools to build.GOOGLE PLACES API
Users will now have access to top reviews of places when they explore map icons, such as eating places. Google extracts reviews from Zagat scores in Google+ Local to provide reviews.
GOOGLE MAPS API
The new Google Transit adds a transit layer to maps and helps find possible route alternatives in your town.

New maps will allow users to include clearer symbols that can also change as they’re viewed (dynamic visualization of vector data). This YouTube clip shows and example of this visualization.

GEO-CLOUD

Google Geo-Cloud platform is designed to make it easier and cheaper for organizations to place their various data types onto maps, then to build and create personalized maps for their own audience. These can then be used to securely deliver maps on desktops or mobile devices.
ASSET TRACKING and MOBILE APIs

Not all features are static. Some move about, such as trucks, packages, animals, and employees out in the field. Google's Maps Coordinate and Asst Tracking APIs are designed to help track and map these assets. Google reports that by 2015 over 1.5 billion employees will be mobile.

Google Maps is now available on Android, and soon to be available on iOS, iPhone and iPad devices. This will complement Google's 3D earth imaging technology and Tour Guide system.

LINK to YouTube Presentation.