Clearly both approaches work, but there are also parallels between how these communities grew and what the communities themselves are like. Facebook by nature is closed compared to Twitter. In Facebook you generally have to except people/friends before they can see your profile but you certainly need to be a Facebook member; whereas most of Twitter is open to anyone with a web connection, member or not. One’s content is restrictive by nature while the other is open by nature and this is similar to their community building philosophies as well as developers’ ability to create applications for the platform.

So what kind of platform is My City Lives going to be, exclusive or open?  Well we hope it will be as open as Twitter and that the community will create all the game changing apps that Twitters community has spawned.  So how do we ensure this? We keep it as simple as possible while allowing our users to find useful information. But how will it grow?

Once you’ve decided on the inclusive or exclusive community part, then there comes the actual building and growing of the community. Do you send out press releases? Do you connect with bloggers in your area? Do you buy adds on Facebook (god no)? Do you speak at events/hang out where early adopters hang out? Do you SEO the %*@# out of your site? Do you focus on word of mouth? Do you take the age old inventors angle and just make something that you would use and hope that you’re solving a problem that many people have? Or maybe you just sit back and let Twitter do what it does best.

Well I can comfortably tell you that we are “focused” on most of these options.  But what we really want to do, is build this sucker from the inside out. My City Lives is about recommendations and exploration, so we’re hoping our community will recommend it to friends and recommend through exploration. This is exactly why we are adding 10 StoryCatchers to our team.  In no particular order, Ambreen, Emily, Bill, Gabby, Lu Anne, My Ahn, Simon, Mahmoud, Aliyyah and Grace will be joining our team officially this Saturday.  These StoryCatchers will be responsible for helping to seed the early stage content on My City Lives and will help define what the site is all about by infusing the site with their talent and creativity.  We have also been in contact with quite a few bloggers who write about Toronto as well as conventional media in order to reach the non-techies. There are many things we have on the go and hopefully some will even surprise you.  But for now, please welcome our new StoryCatchers.

But finally, a sign that someone is coming around. Sports Illustrated seems to have found a modern way to get people back into paying for premium content (not to say what we’re doing here isn’t premium). Please check out that Sports Illustrated link and enjoy the fact that not everyone in the news industry is completely stupid.

So we took a volunteer week 2 weeks ago and volunteered at the Creative Places and Spaces (ArtScape) conference, I’m a little bit late in sharing my experience but hopefully the video I’m sharing will makes up for my tardiness.  It was an interesting experience for me in that I’ve never been to a ‘real’ conference like that before and I’ve certainly never volunteered at one either.

The volunteering aspect was actually kind of secondary to the rest of the experience though I think because my responsibilities always fell during times when there were no speakers, so for me that was very fortunate.  This obviously allowed me to observe the conference as an attendee for the most part which I really enjoyed.  There were 3 speakers that I thought I would share some thoughts about.

The first is Richard Florida. I have never seen a picture of Florida before and frankly he’s a lot younger than I expected.  He talked about local governing, changing education to be a more modern and relevant medium and the importance of intelligent collaboration and competition. It was a good talk but I think that’s what I was expecting, so I wasn’t blown away.

The second speaker of note was Spencer Tunick, who among being arrested countless times has been able to organize 18,000 people to pose naked for him in a public place at one time (see the link above – and yes these are all real pictures, nothing photoshopped). The man is clearly dedicated to his art, but then again it looks like a blast, so who wouldn’t be. What I couldn’t wrap my head around is how he found so many people in one place to get naked for a picture. The amount of community building behind this is nothing short of amazing.

Finally was probably the one of the best talks I think I have ever heard in person or on TV or even on TED. Sir Ken Robinson absolutely captivated the crowd through a lot of laughter and even more wickedly intelligent insight and delivery.  He spoke on many different topics and one of the more interesting ones to us is that our current education systems kill creativity. There are many takeaways from Sir Ken’s talk. Firstly is that you will never be creative if you let fear keep you from being wrong. You must overcome your fear and allow yourself to fail. Second he gave great insight into the nature and thought process of taking things for granted.  Here he describes an interesting correlation between common sense and creativity and how your ability to ask “why” about your surroundings changes your ability to be creative.  There are many other great tidbits within his hour long speech and is certainly worth watching.

So with no further hesitation, here is a very poor quality video of the speech (sorry for the quality), but it’s worth watching.

Sir Ken Talk

So Google Street View has hit Toronto.  I would imagine you’ve all heard about this before and are probably either excited about it or scared about some privacy issues.  Personally I think it’s really cool; I can see what a place looks like from the outside so I don’t drive by it whilst I’ve never been there before, or I can… I can… ummm… What else can I do?

Well that just blew my top.

The good news for MyCityLives is that the hype, excitement and soon to be high usage of Street View proves that people really want to see what a place is like (visually) before they visit the location (or whatever else people use Street View for). Google has graciously mapped the outside of all businesses in the city and left the inside and the experience to the users of MyCityLives J.  Just imagine the excitement for an ongoing street view where people share what they do inside these locations. Not just a onetime snapshot of the outside.

Currently it is unclear to me at this point in time whether or not Street View will have any legs (strange considering it’s been out for over 2 years in some places).  I have been unable to find any usage numbers to confirm or deny Street View’s staying power in places where it has been for a while.  But it certainly has gotten a lot of press coverage over the past 24 hours (217 news stories in the past 24 hours to be exact)

We will certainly utilize Street View to give users an outside look at a location (where applicable) and think Street View is really cool, but as I said, we’re most excited because it is a proof of concept for us, even before we launch. We love you Google J

What does everyone think: Does Street View have legs? Are there other applications for Street View other than looking at your end destination?

Enjoy your searching and keep your eyes open for suspicious activities.

So I’m sure as everyone knows, writing something from scratch is often harder than it seems, but then again, so are most things worth doing. As I sit here beside my BBQ/smoker (first time use, yay) “it” hit me.  Doesn’t it just taste better when you do (cook) it yourself??  Whether it comes to food or building something, I’ve always enjoyed making things that I get to benefit from/share with others.  Coming to this realization has really made me think about what Taylor wrote a month ago about the significance of money or lack thereof.  I can’t think of the last time I enjoyed anything (by myself at least) I bought as much as something I created/made/built.  Now, I’ve never spent a large sum of money on a house or on a really nice car, but I’m guessing that based on my buying experiences, they probably won’t match  the enjoyment achieved from smoking a pork shoulder all afternoon with a beer in the sun.

So how does all this relate to killing the recession you ask, well it doesn’t in the way I’m thinking about it.  I’m not saying you should DIY to save money because times are tough.  I wanted to see who else out there enjoys taking on a project that you could pay someone else to do. Not because you’re cheap, but because creating something and learning a new skill makes you happy.  Now I know there are some programmers/hackers out there that know exactly what I’m talking about, but I’m really curious to know who else out there does “projects” or takes educational classes for pure enjoyment. Who here’s taking the time to smell the roses.

I read an article recently from Freakonomics and it explained that as countries get richer the people are happier. However it was on a decreasing scale, meaning that as Juan in Colombia doubles his income from $1000 to $2000 dollars a year it would give him the same boost of satisfaction as Sue doubling her income from $200,000 to $400,000 in Canada.  So basically this means there is a diminishing return in what money can do for your happiness.  This concept is really interesting when you think about it.  It might help explain why countries with nothing suffer from depression less than countries with a lot.

So maybe we should be spending more time doing what we like rather than trying to accumulate wealth… But enough of that, I really just wanted to make sure that everyone is taking the time to do what matters to them.  I know recessions are a good time to learn a valuable skill (get a new degree) or start a business. But I really want to know who out there is learning something for the sake of learning something, not because they think it will get them ahead.

Simple thoughts from a simple man I suppose.

EDIT: I also found this, which I thought backs up what I’m talking about.  Doing things is what makes us happy, not buying things. So go out and do/explore something new.

So I’ve read a lot lately (the past few months) about people who had immigrated to America that are emigrating back to their original home country. Most of the cases I’ve seen have been people going back to China and India.  I understand why someone might do this on the surface (these economies are ‘booming’), but when you actually think about it, personally I think it makes absolutely no sense.  Let’s explore….

Never having immigrated somewhere in my life, I can only speculate; but I think that there are two main reasons why someone leaves their homeland. The first being they’re in eminent danger (i.e. war, the KGB, civil unrest, drug lords, etc.) and the second is to find somewhere with more opportunities to flourish.  Now correct me if I’m wrong but over the past generation there hasn’t been so much more eminent danger in India or China than there is now, right? This leads me to believe that people leaving India and China to go to America because it was (is it still?) the land of opportunity and not because India and China were war torn countries.  So, people left their homeland seeking opportunities and now feel that opportunities are better back home and are therefore heading back. (Let me say one thing before we go any further here, I am Canadian and have disliked most of what the US has done for the better part of a decade now, so this piece is not an emotional response, it’s purely subjective… I hope) I do not know why these people are doing this, well I think I do – opportunity, but it seems like an incredibly big gamble. I have done a bit of reading/research on China as of late and here’s why I think moving to China could pose a really big problem.

China’s economy has continued to grow even when everyone else’s was shrinking. Yet China relies on the world to buy products from them. So the world is not buying products, yet the product maker is still making lots of money, strange no? Well it is. The agree upon reason for this that I could find is that the Chinese government, for reasons of communism and dictatorships, is forcing banks to lend money to businesses and citizens at very low rates.  This is essentially leaving the market open for very bad debt, not to different from the housing market in the states in the last few years. This inexpensive money is resulting in people investing other people’s money (in this case banks) into things they know nothing about, for example the Chinese Stock Market – which continues to rise strongly. But really how long can this cycle go on for? At what point in time will this all come falling down? If and when it falls, what’s going to happen to the people of China? Something tells me their government is not going to be as supportive as the American government was of its people (making sure companies don’t fail so people retain jobs – as much as they could that is).

With this potential bubble (see what Google has to say about it) not to mention Chinese living conditions, constant disease outbreaks, disastrous working conditions, lack of free speech and whatever other ridiculousness that people over there put up with on a constant bases. I can’t fathom why moving there with ones family (in the chance that China doesn’t catch on fire and blow up in the not too distant future) is even a consideration once you’re in America… or Canada.

Good Luck

There I was lying in bed at 1am and much to my chagrin, I was being forced to watch the final episode of American Idol… then KISS came on stage. Yes, that’s right Knights In Satan’s Service were standing on stage pretending to be hardcore and cool standing beside what I think is yet another painful peace of corporate America. I don’t think I’ll get into what KISS used to claim they were all about but I can tell you it didn’t involve endorsing things like Ford (American Idol’s big sponsor). That said, KISS sold their souls to the musical devil long ago, so seeing them on American Idol was more of a matter of time than a surprise. But what really turned my stomach was seeing Slash, from the once amazing band (Guns n Roses), on American Idol a few weeks back. It hurt so much because it was yet another symbol of one’s rebellious youth and free spiritedness falling to the all mighty green back. So sad.

Those heart breaking moments really forced me to consider a few questions that I would like to pose to our readers that will hopefully have you reflect on what you see in the media. First, do you feel it’s important for artists – musical, written, visual, etc. – to have artistic integrity? I personally think the answer without a doubt is YES.

If you agree with me for the first question, then the next question to ask is – is ones artistic integrity lost when the artistic material is dictated/guided by those footing the bill? To this I would say it depends on what you do with their suggestions. There’s the Britney Spears-esque approach of not writing or singing your own music – zero artistic integrity in my opinion. Or you can take Weezer-esque approach. Weezer was told by their label executives that their last album was not commercial enough. So before releasing their first single Weezer’s label demanded that they come up with a commercial single. Weezer quickly threw together the album’s first single [the mega successful] – “Pork and Beans” – which essentially was Weezer creating a song explaining that the song was commercial and that it’s not their style. The rest of their album sounded very different from their first single, because that’s what they wanted to do. Artists with integrity.

So whether or not you think Britney Spears or Weezer have or don’t have artistic integrity I would like to pose the next question. Can an artist’s message be taken seriously if they are corporately sponsored? I believe the answer to this lies within the artists ability to have enough integrity that allows the artist to be true to themselves, but this is the same with anyone, artist or not.

Next I would like you to ask you; do you think you can be passionate about something in which you show no integrity? Personally I’d think NO. Maybe this is why almost all pop singers don’t write their own music. Next, can someone be truly creative in an area without having passion in that area? This I don ‘t know for certain but instinctually I believe the answer is NO. This would also explain why large corporations are “creative through acquisitions” and not through they’re operations/bureaucracy. Even touted creative corporations like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft find it easier to buy creativity than to create it (the hyperlinks provide the lists of each of their acquisitions).

So, are large institutions well suited for creativity? Are many artists much different from an employee at the same label? Do these so-called artists deserve our praise as artists? Or do the artists who fill the pop airwaves have the same artistic integrity/ability as the man designing the speakers you hear them on if they’re both just doing their job.

These questions and my positions I have stated are generalizations, there are exceptions to everything but can we really expect truly novel ideas/art from people that are purely motivated by money? I personally don’t think so.

The American auto industry is….. up the creek without a paddle. The two major publicly traded players, Ford and GM created some value for themselves about 10 years ago but have since lost it all. We have all heard stories about this type of restructuring or this plant closure and so on. Over the past 19 years Ford has lost 77% of its value while GM has lost a dismal 92% of their worth (google finance). It is time for a change in Canada and this recession is when it should happen.

Canada has managed to keep itself relatively shielded from these bad times; however, just because our fiscally tight-assed government managed to keep us out of the initial fire, doesn’t mean we’re entirely safe. The reality of the matter is that if the US’s economy keeps sucking we will be hit hard. Not because of our stupid lending habits, but because of our poor foresight and lack of initiative. I am talking about our complacency and our mentality that we are fine coasting off the US’s success. So what does the recession have to do with cars you ask?

One of the more publicized US TARP bail-out spending initiatives is the) $25 billion going to the “Big 3” auto manufacturers. Not wanting to get political and not being directly affected by these terrible car companies folding, I say screw them. But alas, I am not here to debate that and it looks like they’re getting the billions for running terrible companies anyways. So, on we go. With this $25 billion from the US government the “Big 3” will also be required to make some changes according to what bailoutpackage stipulates. The bailout requires work to be done in the US and not shipped abroad, (ie making American cars in Canada will be highly frowned upon). So depending on how bad things get, chances are even with money from the Canadian government (a planned $4 billion), Canadian plants will continue to close, not only because of money but because of politics too.

This is where a little creativity (and yes, it is only a little) comes into play. Instead of spending $4 billion to save some junk that is probably going to sink to the bottom of the toilet anyways, why don’t we let the plants close? Let a Canadian company buy the plants (with $4 billion in government aid) and do something useful with them, like build good Canadian cars! There is no reason that any of the “Big 3” are needed in Canada and it’s almost nice of them to give us a fighting chance to compete by abandoning/selling their Canadian plants. The American manufacturers have no material/manufacturing advantages over a Canadian counterpart; as a huge portion of raw materials and cars are already built/come directly from Canada. Not to mention our superior efficiency. The “Big 3” don’t have any human resource advantages over a Canadian competitor as everyone in Canada knows our education system is hardly second to the US. As for experience, we will have thousands of recently laid off workers hungry to put the screws to their old employer.

Another big kicker that I just realized now is that we are the only country in the G8 that doesn’t have their own car. When it comes to resources and capabilities, we should be leading the field. Also, wouldn’t it be nice to have something that Canada’s known for other than the Blackberry and maple syrup…. eh…..?