How green are Edmonton’s festivals? (Blog Action Day 2009)

Today is Blog Action Day, which means that bloggers around the world are writing about the same issue – climate change. The purpose of the initiative is to create a discussion. For my post, I’m hoping to stimulate a little discussion about how “green” Edmonton’s festivals are.

I first wrote about this topic back in December, when I noted a number of the changes BrightNights had made to become more environmentally friendly:

The City of Edmonton hopes to have a number of events operating green within three years, and BrightNights is just the first. I hope more festivals and events in Edmonton follow suit.

One of the big local stories this week is that BrightNights will no longer be taking place due to rising costs. I’m not at all sad to see the event go (the food bank and hot lunch program will be impacted in the short-term but will be fine I think). Even if they managed to make the event carbon-neutral (primarily by purchasing carbon credits, it should be noted) it still encouraged people to sit in a running car for an who knows how long. That’s not very green!

What about the rest of Edmonton’s festivals? What are they doing to be more environmentally friendly? If you have any links or other information, please post them in the comments!

As Canada’s Festival City, I think we have an opportunity (maybe even a responsibility) to lead the way in ensuring our events are green and sustainable. Let’s set the bar high and encourage others to follow suit!

Upcoming Climate Change Events

October 24th is the International Day of Climate Action. People all over the world are holding events pledging action on the science of 350:

350 parts per million is what many scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments are now saying is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere.

We’re currently at 387 parts per million, and rising (check out the Pew Center’s Global Warming Facts & Figures for more). There are six actions listed for Edmonton so far.

Of course, the main event this year is the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15), which takes place from December 7th to 18th in Copenhagen.

State of the Calgary Twittersphere – September 2009

Welcome to the seventh State of the Calgary Twittersphere, my look at the intersection of Twitter and Calgary. You can see last month’s stats here.

The source of the data this month is the same as last, primarily Twitter Search but also from Twitter directly. If a user has his or her location set to Calgary, Airdrie, Okotoks, Cochrane, Strathmore, or matching lat/long coordinates, they are considered a Calgarian. If a tweet is “about Calgary” it contains either the word Calgary, the #yyc hashtag, or both.

For September 2009:

# of local users: 7144 (an increase of 292 from August)

To clarify, that means there were 7144 users who posted at least one tweet in September 2009 with their location set to something that makes them an Calgarian as described above. This number should be treated as a minimum – there are probably many more Calgary users without their location set or that were not captured for some other reason.

Here are the rest of the stats for September 2009:

# of tweets by local users: 261665
# of tweets by local users containing #yyc: 5867 (2.2%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 80182 (30.6%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 67306 (25.7%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 11788 (4.5%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 7812 (3.0%)

Here are the numbers above in graphic form:

Here are the top clients used by local users for posting updates:

Some other interesting stats for the month:

Final Thoughts

I anticipated the user growth for September would have been larger, but at least it’s still going in the right direction! As with Edmonton, the number of tweets being posted by local users is on the rise – there were seven days this month with over 10000 tweets posted.

Since March, I have identified just over 15,300 local users. The number above, 7144, is how many of them were active in September.

Miss dEdmonton 2009

Last night, on October 13th, the first ever Miss dEdmonton was crowned at the TransAlta Arts Barns. About 65 people were on hand to see Joey Tramer beat out four other finalists in a four-stage competition to claim the title. She won some great prizes and will be the face of dEdmonton for the next year!

The first stage of the competition was for all contestants to submit a 90 second video to YouTube. Here’s Joey’s:

Stage two was to demonstrate a “spooky skill” in front of the crowd. In the third stage, each contestant described what Halloween meant to her, and answered one question drawn from a skull. The final stage saw Brandy Jo Ewashko (you can see her video here) and Joey Tramer go head-to-head in a “scream-off”. It was quite the show! In the end, both the crowd and the judges felt Joey had what it took to be Miss dEdmonton.

Miss dEdmontonMiss dEdmonton

The judges were Shaw TV’s Angelika Gawronski, the Edmonton Journal’s Scott McKeen, and The Gateway’s Mike Kendrick. I thought they did a great job of providing short, witty comments throughout the evening, and seemed to enjoy raising their score cards for all to see (scores ranged from 1 to 6, making a perfect score 6-6-6).

Miss dEdmonton JudgesdEdmonton Co-Chairs

Kudos to dEdmonton Co-Chairs Darryl Plunkie and Christian Nelson and their team for a great event! Some friendly advice for next year: add some music or shorten the program, because at times the evening seemed a bit slow. Other than that I thought it was great, complete with three hearses parked outside, some sort of jelly brain dip and many other decorations inside!

Congrats to all of the Miss dEdmonton finalists, and especially to Joey!

Here are the rest of my photos from the evening. You can follow dEdmonton on Twitter for updates and be sure to check out the Events Calendar for all the Halloween events taking place over the next few weeks. Both DEDfest and the Scarecrow Festival are taking place this weekend. Get out and enjoy the first ever dEdmonton – Canada’s Halloween Festival!

State of the Edmonton Twittersphere – September 2009

Welcome to the ninth State of the Edmonton Twittersphere, my look at the intersection of Twitter and Edmonton. You can see last month’s stats here.

The source of the data this month is the same as last, primarily Twitter Search but also from Twitter directly. If a user has his or her location set to Edmonton, St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Leduc, Nisku, Stony Plain, Fort Saskatchewan, Beaumont, Spruce Grove, or matching lat/long coordinates, they are considered an Edmontonian.

For September 2009:

# of local users: 5447 (an increase of 82 from August)

To clarify, that means there were 5447 users who posted at least one tweet in September 2009 with their location set to something that makes them an Edmontonian as described above. This number should be treated as a minimum – there are probably many more Edmonton users without their location set.

Here are the rest of the stats for September 2009:

# of tweets by local users: 241433
# of tweets by local users containing #yeg: 14320 (5.9%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 85819 (35.5%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 49412 (20.5%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 12343 (5.1%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 7847 (3.3%)

Here are the numbers above in graphic form:

Here are the top clients used by local users for posting updates:

Here are the number of local users by community (besides Edmonton itself) for September:

Keep in mind that is based entirely on the text inside the location field of the user’s profile, and is definitely a minimum. Still, gives you an idea of the breakdown.

Some other interesting stats for the month:

Final Thoughts

Very little user growth again this month. I was expecting it to pick up again in September, but that obviously didn’t happen. The number of tweets being posted by local users is definitely on the rise, however. There were seven days this month with over 9000 tweets posted.

Since January, I have identified just over 11,600 local users. The number above, 5447, is how many of them were active in September.

Should have the Calgary stats up soon!

Thoughts on Edmonton 2030

A video entitled “Edmonton 2030 – It’s Our Time” is being broadcast on Global and Citytv today. It was first shown to students at Edmonton Public and Catholic schools on May 20th, and was broadcast on Access on May 23rd. Here’s what it is about:

The video links the ideas of the leaders of our major organizations and institutions with the hopes, dreams, and imagination of Edmonton’s youth. Edmonton 2030 is a provocative teaser that challenges us to consider the many positive attributes of our city and how we might imagine them in the future. It reminds us that the decisions and plans of today are creating the Edmonton our young people will inherit tomorrow.

You can watch the video online at Access.

It’s related in some way to Edmonton Stories, though how isn’t quite clear. The video was developed independently by Doug Goss and was produced by Don Metz of Aquila Productions. Funding and other contributions came from the City of Edmonton, the University of Alberta, NAIT, MacEwan, the Province of Alberta, and Alberta Health Services. Craig Simpson narrates and hosts the 24 minute video.

Doug Goss is more than just an Edmonton-based lawyer (with Bryan and Company). He’s a passionate and extremely involved Edmontonian. Doug is Chairman of the NAIT Board of Governors, Chairman of the Edmonton Eskimos Board of Directors, Chairman of the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation Board of Directors, Co-Chair of the 2010 Grey Cup, and was Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the Heritage Hockey Classic, among other things. He clearly loves this city.

I give Doug lots of credit for getting everyone on board and for creating the video. Anything that causes Edmontonians to think about the future of the city is a good thing as far as I am concerned. I think the core message of the video – the time for us to start building the Edmonton of 2030 is now – is powerful, if somewhat obvious.

The video is far from perfect, however. Here are some of my thoughts on it:

  • There are dozens of Edmontonians who speak in the video, but none of them are members of the so-called next generation (aged 18-40). It’s the people in that demographic who will be building the Edmonton of 2030, so it’s a glaring omission.
  • On the whole, the video seems scattered. There are a few “sections” including education and health, but I think they could be more clearly defined.
  • The use of young children throughout certainly makes the video more approachable, but it also makes the video less about Edmonton specifically. Hovercraft? Holographs? Cure for cancer?
  • At the other end of the spectrum are the more senior vanguard of Edmonton’s post-secondary institutions. All of them receive some great marketing throughout the video but contribute little in the way of vision.
  • The truly provocative and futuristic ideas of the video, including a downtown entertainment complex and a boardwalk in the river valley, receive just a few seconds of screen time and should have played a more prominent role.
  • I find it extremely annoying that the video looks at 2030, while all of the Transforming Edmonton plans look at 2040 (though I recognize that ten years probably doesn’t matter much that far into the future).

I do think the video could be useful for marketing, as Doug points out, and it will get people talking and thinking. As a visionary piece however, I think it misses the mark. Watch the video for yourself – what do you think?

Notes for 10/11/2009

Here are my weekly notes:

Edmonton Notes for 10/10/2009

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Edmonton Eskimos vs. BC LionsCity Centre Market

Local TV Matters vs. Stop The TV Tax

As you may know, there’s a battle going on between Canada’s broadcasters and its cable/satellite companies. The broadcasters, CTV, Canwest Global, CBC, and others, want the CRTC to impose a fee-for-carriage, alleging that their signals are being distributed without compensation. The cable and satellite companies, Rogers, Bell, Shaw, Telus, and others, view such a fee as a “tax” on their subscription fees. The CRTC will examine the issue again in policy hearings beginning November 16th.

Both sides have started to encourage supporters to get involved and to contact the CRTC directly. The cable and satellite companies have launched Stop The TV Tax, while the broadcasters have launched Local TV Matters. They’re both on Twitter too: @stopthetvtax and @LocalTVmatters. If you want to submit comments, you have until November 2nd to do so:

I like that the issue is getting Canadians involved. Here are my thoughts on the issue:

  • As I wrote back in May, I think it’s disingenuous of the broadcasters to position this as a “save local” issue.
  • If it was really about saving local programming, the broadcasters would have no problem guaranteeing that funds raised from the fee-for-carriage would go entirely toward local programming. They aren’t willing to do that.
  • Local TV doesn’t matter. Local content, reporting, and community service matter, but none of those things require a TV station.
  • Is it really a coincidence that the broadcasters only started complaining loudly about this when the economic crisis was in full swing?
  • The local stations are still available for free via antenna. If there’s a fee associated with accessing them via cable or satellite, I want the ability to opt-out (ideally they’d be opt-in).

The fee-for-carriage wouldn’t result in an incredibly large amount of money for the broadcasters, so it’s not going to solve all of their financial troubles. It’s more of a stop-gap solution. They’re still going to lose money and viewers. Isn’t it time to rethink the strategy? Focus energy on something constructive?

As I’ve said before, we need to allow sick businesses to die so that healthy, innovative ones can take their place.

Edmonton’s new Centre for Public Involvement

One of the items that was discussed at today’s Executive Committee meeting (agenda in Word) was the proposed Centre for Public Involvement, a joint venture of the City of Edmonton and the University of Alberta. The idea is to combine the strengths of both organizations to “intentionally consider and apply the most effective means to undertake public involvement.” Here’s the proposed mission:

To provide leadership in understanding and applying innovative practices and new technologies for citizen participation, engagement, and deliberation.

The centre would try to strike a balance among research, best practices, and consulting. Annual operating costs would be $300,000, split equally between the City and the University. Other partners may join at some point in the future.

I really like the idea. That said, I want to echo the opening statement of the prospectus:

The timing is right for establishing the proposed Centre. In reality, the timing is probably late by ten years.

Both the City and the University have already started exploring new forms of public involvement. The City has been quite successful with its social media endeavors, and the University is starting to experiment as well. It seems there’s a new U of A account on Twitter each week (the latest I’ve come across is the International Centre)!

While it is true that there is some frustration among the public with regards to being able to impact decision-making, not everyone has become angry and complacent. Initiatives such as ChangeCamp are proof that some citizens are already engaged in re-imagining public involvement.

I think there’s a great opportunity here for the City, the University, and the public to work together to explore the future of public involvement. I think Raffaella nailed it in a recent post discussing the new City of Edmonton blog she’s been working on:

We seek to create informed communities, engaged citizens, and generally make our lives better.

You can download the Centre for Public Involvement Prospectus in PDF here.

Recap: EdmontonTweetup6

Just got home from our sixth “official” tweetup here in Edmonton! Thanks to @britl for organizing, as she did for our last tweetup. Tonight we met at Ceilis Irish Pub downtown. They just joined Twitter quite recently but are not exactly new to the Edmonton community as a bunch of local Twitter users have been gathering there regularly for trivia nights. There was a lot going on tonight, such as the Oilers game (yay we won in the shootout!) and a ChangeCamp organizing meeting, but we still had a decent turnout of about 20 people. Thanks to the Social Web Meetup folks for dropping by after their event.

EdmontonTweetup6EdmontonTweetup6

I know I’m missing a couple people, but here is who attended tonight: @britl, @DuncanKinney, @agrabia, @Kiri_W, @LauraSem, @GuitarKat, @VeryAngryBeaver, @wunderbar, @murdawk, @ickleCarlykins, @kevin_bigelow, @TheSpinDoctor, @wburris, @alainsaffel, @dibegin, @chrislabossiere, @fusedlogic, @eadnams, @GenoaK, @mastermaq

Again a great mix of new and familiar faces!

Stay tuned to the wiki and @edmontontweetup for updates on our next event!