countablyinfinite - Latest Comments

Re: Are you in this book? Civic Life in the Information Age

David Moore — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:01:06 -0000

And did you notice what she said on page 190 about John McCain and Barack Obama? And keep in mind, with a publishing date sometime in early 2007 she must have written this fully two years prior to the election. Interesting indeed!

Re: MentalHealthCamp - breaking the stigma of mental health through online tools

countablyinfinite — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:58:22 -0000

Isabella,

An update! The Internet delivers some data points on the question of Chinese Canadians specifically and mental health.

This study by Chen and Kazanjian looks at primary health care providers (GPs, in Canada) and language, specifically Chinese Canadians, and points out of a lot of interesting things. I found this bit in the abstract relevant:

For appropriate mental health services to be provided, clinicians must be able to exchange information with their patients and understand their mental health status within the cultural context. In many cultures, psychological disturbances are expressed as somatic symptoms or not considered health issues at all. Thus, if Chinese immigrants with emotional distress seek medical care, they often present with somatic complaints. Whether the underlying mental health issues are solicited and recognized is crucial to access to services.

I don't know what a "somatic complaint" is. There are also some interesting numbers on the chances of receiving mental health diagnoses and mental health consultation. I'm certainly bookmarking this one for future reference and more detailed combing.

Re: More Awesome, Less Bitch - Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day 2009

Gail at Large — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:37:27 -0000

Thanks to your thoughtful comment over at my site, I have discovered your blog! So much to digest here, I wish I wasn't in such a work crunch so I could read more. And thanks for pointing me to Theresa and Leigh, I'm especially interested in the work they're doing, too.

Re: More Awesome, Less Bitch - Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day 2009

Theresa — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:09:21 -0000

Thanks Karen... You inspire me too, you know. :-)

As for "bitch," when people use the word bitch, I think that now it is a replacement for the word "feminist." We might update Rebecca West's quote to replace bitch with feminist:

'I myself have never been able to find out precisely what bitch is: I only know that people call me a bitch whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat, or a prostitute.'

Re: Transit Photography in Vancouver - now criminal?

countablyinfinite — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:07:46 -0000

Keith, thanks for stopping by.

I don't think I have conveyed it very well, but I am in completely agreement with you on this (emphasis mine):

I would rather they take the budget for this campaign and put it into the intelligence apparatus such as analysts and agents who speak more than just English; into consultations with groups and communities who have the pulse of what is happening in their own worlds; and into practical emergency response should anything occur. Awareness, okay, but let's not kid ourselves that it is a simple trade off of freedoms for security.

I don't think it's a simple trade off by any means. I've had the experience of strolling through bag checks at malls in Manila, then finding out weeks later that those same places were bombed with many killed and wounded. I just think there are prudent ways to help people become more aware and discerning in the correct and actually helpful ways, and this ad did not pass the test with me as doing that effectively.

Re: Transit Photography in Vancouver - now criminal?

Keith Loh — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:20:06 -0000

Karen, as I said in my blog and in that discussion, I think we all should be vigilant against real threats. But we still need to function as a democracy and as a free society. In all those states where terrorism is an omnipresent threat such as Israel, Northern Ireland during the troubles, these places you would expect have a hypervigilant atmosphere but despite that bombings still occurred. The main failure has been 1) not solving the political impetus behind terrorism and 2) knowing beforehand the existence of plots and networks. Let's face it. Anyone with a backpack can carry enough explosive to destroy a bus or a train. Anyone with a handbag could contain enough explosive to kill and injure a dozen people; an event that would grind the Olympics to a halt. Even given Big Brother powers where anyone can be stopped at any time and made to empty out the contents of their bags, this is just a pro forma security measure and extremely random. Even with the tightest security as you see in Israel, at the height of the Intifada they couldn't prevent every bomber from getting through. I would rather they take the budget for this campaign and put it into the intelligence apparatus such as analysts and agents who speak more than just English; into consultations with groups and communities who have the pulse of what is happening in their own worlds; and into practical emergency response should anything occur. Awareness, okay, but let's not kid ourselves that it is a simple trade off of freedoms for security.

Re: MentalHealthCamp - breaking the stigma of mental health through online tools

countablyinfinite — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 02:26:47 -0000

Isabella,

Thanks for your kind words.

The issue is so multi-faceted, like all interactions of people and technology. There are some things that we may view as being positive and some that, for a whole swath of reasons, we may view as being neutral, negative, or very detrimental to the values we hold dear. I think that's what draws me to keep coming back to the academic realm on this topic: seeing how the technologies challenge us to redefine or rearticulate our values in the face of what we individually and collectively weren't able to do or be before.

I did not know about the Chinese mental health group. I did know, however, that SUCCESS has counseling services, which IIRC are mostly directed towards new immigrants but also have some broader outreach. My read is that differences embedded in cultural interpretations (for instance, focus on past vs. future, collective vs. individual desires) make providing mental health support a particularly sticky challenge, beyond simply overcoming the language.

Yes, all three topics are interesting, and hopefully we'll be able to get some people involved who might know something about these topics to answer me and my questions :)

Re: MentalHealthCamp - breaking the stigma of mental health through online tools

isabella mori — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:36:22 -0000

karen, thank you so much for thinking about this in so much depth!

i must say that i find the third topic terribly interesting. without much reflection, i'm thinking how this could touch on the topic of internet addiction. it may also be a good time to talk about something like 2nd life (something that i have stayed away from precisely because i'm already skirting internet addiction - don't want to tempt myself too much!)

the first topic is interesting to me, as well - diversity is something that is never talked about enough, and there is no question that most mental health services are used and provided by caucasians. (btw, are you aware of the chinese mental health group at the CMHA - which just got cut by 30%?)

actually, all three topics are interesting :)

Re: Transit Photography in Vancouver - now criminal?

countablyinfinite — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:29:27 -0000

Begs the question, have they run this (same) campaign in other major city centres, and if yes, what's the reaction there?

Re: Transit Photography in Vancouver - now criminal?

countablyinfinite — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:28:17 -0000

Be sure to use an SLR with the biggest lens possible, just to get people's heckles on size issues too. ;)

Re: Transit Photography in Vancouver - now criminal?

countablyinfinite — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:24:39 -0000

Thanks for letting me know.

See, in the context of the other two ads, this one makes sense, and is actually a little funny. But being that this photographer one is the first one (thereby removing a lot of the context), and that the bus version of this ad does not have the first panel ("call a paranormal investigator"), there were few ways to interpret this that weren't negative.

Add to this that there's a certain demographic dimension to this too. Ads like this asking people to be more "aware" can encourage people to make judgments based on their pre-existing prejudices about people and encourage them to imagine scenarios based on things they've seen on 24. I think it would be rather groundbreaking for TransLink to work with riders to actually put across the message ("be aware") while also not getting ahead of themselves ("be mindful").

Perhaps I'm sensitive because I've had a certain experience with the paranoia that can come with racism, and I think this ad campaign actively contributes to that, purposefully or not.

Re: Transit Photography in Vancouver - now criminal?

countablyinfinite — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:16:25 -0000

Also, on another level, I've found some of the comments you've made on other blogs (not as much on this one) to be disrespectful of us, as the public, questioning how we choose to interpret what you've imposed on our mindspace as a condition of us using the transit system (regardless of the fare we pay). You may own and lease the space you've put the ad on, but you have no claim to the space between our ears. Implying that with our objections that we enable terrorism to happen to us is, frankly, pretty sickening to me, the sort of rhetoric I'd hoped had ended when we got a new President down south. (I imagine after the 3rd or 4th blog post it can get pretty exasperating. Jhenifer's tactic - responding once and forwarding people to that - seemed to work pretty well.)

I'm seeing some great comments coming out of the discussion Jhenifer joined on Flickr - perhaps a broader group of citizens who are immersed in the visual language can be your allies in crafting future campaigns that can accurately capture and convey the nuances of the message you are trying to put across.

Re: Transit Photography in Vancouver - now criminal?

countablyinfinite — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:07:49 -0000

If this campaign was intended to educate people on the difference between "suspicious" and "strange," then my disagreement is with the effectiveness of this ad in actually doing this. The ad may meet some criteria on the message it is conveying, but did you focus group this? Even I'll admit I didn't see the potentially negative consequences of a flaming trolley for the Vancouver Transit Camp logo when I stuck them together (it was not that long after Halloween 2007 either). There are many, many interpretations to the images in advertising, not just the "obvious" ones. This ad reminds us that the diversity of backgrounds and interests of those taking transit mean a more urgent need to acknowledge and prepare for diversity of responses, and to take this account in the design of the campaign.

I also tried to broach this subject when TransLink first put out an RFP for what looks a lot like this ad campaign, on the SkyTrain Unconference blog as well.

Paying attention can also manifest in several ways - not just suspicion, but also friendly awareness that can be just as discerning in spotting "suspicious" activities. Why not promote that instead?

Re: Transit Photography in Vancouver - now criminal?

Rich — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:57:01 -0000

Re: London, Madrid

While I can't comment on Israel, all bombings that have taken place in London and Madrid are obviously false flag operations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... perpetrated against the public to insight fear. In case you haven't been to London in a while, check out the posters that the government has put up everywhere:
http://www.wired.com/news/i...
Before the bombings this would have been seen as frightening and Orwellian to the general population, instead polls have shown that the public actually like them!

Re: Transit Photography in Vancouver - now criminal?

Vincent Janelle — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:44:42 -0000

Those were RCMP ads, afaik. I saw it and was confused myself.

Re: Transit Photography in Vancouver - now criminal?

Jhenifer @ TransLInk — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:19:05 -0000

Hi Karen,

Got your trackback. In addition to Ken's point, I just wanted to mention that I've also discussed TransLink's perspective on the ads in the Flickr thread you've mentioned. I've also posted images of the other 2 ads currently in the campaign.

Re: Transit Photography in Vancouver - now criminal?

DaveO — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:24:39 -0000

I now plan to ensure i take at least one photo per day of Translink property.

Re: Transit Photography in Vancouver - now criminal?

Ken Har — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:02:00 -0000

Karen, it is an exaggeration to claim that this program 'criminalizes' photography. It does not.

It reflects a fact of life that has been only too real in London, Madrid, Israel and other places -- that bad people like to target transit. And one of the things that these bad people do is to research their targets by collecting stills and videos of security systems, wiring, control systems, etc.

Right now, there are no direct threats to our system. However, Canada has been indicated as a terrorist target and, a couple of years ago, US investigators found pictures of SkyTrain infrastructure among the material seized from individuals with terrorist ties.

The purpose of the campaign is to get your fellow transit passengers to pay more attention to things going on around them, If the campaign works, those taking pictures under circumstances deemed to be suspicious by their peers on the transit system are more likely to be challenged. Creating this environment is known to be a deterrent to those bad people I referred to above.

So, no criminalization -- no need for that kind of hyperbole -- but certainly more vigilence in an increasingly hostile world.

Re: On reasons to quantify

roland — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:21:18 -0000

don't get me started on kumon and our mathematically ignorant culture and the failure of schools :-) needless to say our child will NOT be going to kumon or anything like it

Re: Refining the concept of Busker Idol

Ashley Webster — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:06:37 -0000

I agree. From what Karen described, this is only superficially similar to American Idol. Perhaps some brainstorming is needed for a new name that does not link it to reality tv but speaks more to public space, interactivity and promotion of street art.

Re: Refining the concept of Busker Idol

unconed — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:11:18 -0000

I think it's unfair to use reality TV as a baseline metric for how competitions work: they are ugly affairs that thrive on controversy and really only serve to generate ad revenue from the viewers. The line-up is usually decided by networks and the presentation of the whole thing is tightly controlled.

A crowd-powered competition however is more participatory, and lets the network effects between different players happen transparently and spontaneously. In reality TV, if you lose, you're quickly pushed off the show, and viewers will be actively encouraged to forget about you. On the web however, it costs virtually nothing to keep all content online indefinitely.

In fact, the kinship between players that Michelle is championing happens naturally in online competitions. I've seen it happen up close myself, both from the inside and outside.

Re: Refining the concept of Busker Idol

Michelle — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:57:38 -0000

Thank you for the detailed answer! I like that you don't want to pit buskers against one another (for the sake of entertaining audiences, like they do in reality TV shows), and I understand the dilema of how to get the general public involved. While I still don't like the idea of a competition, I don't have another idea for getting the general public involved through technology... but -
I would like to suggest that maybe you might want to consult with the 'Saw Lady' - http://www.sawlady.com/blog - though she is in New York City, she is one of the buskers who were on the MSG TV show. Through her blog you can see how connected all the buskers of her city are. Maybe she would have an idea...
And yes, I agree - more publicity for any artist could never be a bad thing.

Re: Busker Idol needs your help!

countablyinfinite — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:27:06 -0000

Michelle, my response to you is so long it is becoming its own blog post. I'd love to discuss this with you by e-mail as well, but you did not leave one so I hope you come back to read the post when I have posted it!

Re: Busker Idol needs your help!

Michelle — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:57:37 -0000

I think the idea is not good - why make it a contest? Buskers are all friends with one another, they are like a family, seeing each other every day, helping each other. Why pit them against one another?!
MSG TV did a "buskers Idol" reality TV show. ALL the buskers on this show said the same thing: they don't want to compete against one another.
Also:
Most buskers I know (and I know many)have a website and MySpace, they sell their music as CDs and downloads - why is this project presenting buskers as technically challenged?

Re: Busker Idol needs your help!

Amiel Martin — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:45:39 -0000

sounds cool. do you already have a system for delivering and receiving text messages? I work for tatango.com, and we have an api for sending and receiving text messages that is really easy to use.