Make Something Edmonton moves forward with 8 recommendations

Today the Mayor’s Task Force on Image and Reputation submitted its final report to Executive Committee. The task force is better known by its adopted name, Make Something Edmonton. In summarizing the work that has been done thus far and recommending next steps, the report draws the task force to a close and marks the start of Make Something Edmonton as a more official thing. Exactly what that thing is however, must still be determined.

Here are the recommendations outlined in the report (which you can download here):

Adopt Edmonton’s Brand
Open the Make Something Edmonton Office
Preserve and Maintain the Citizen-Driven Focus
Recognize and Reward Excellence: The Builders Prize
Promote a “Make Something” Culture
Appoint a Make Something Edmonton “Champion”
Implement an Image and Reputation Strategy
Create and Activate Ambassador & Mentor Networks

Some of these recommendations are obvious while others are a little more interesting.

The first recommendation would see “Make Something Edmonton” become Edmonton’s “brand platform”, the foundation for an image and reputation strategy. This doesn’t necessarily mean that “Make Something Edmonton” replaces “City of Champions” as some have suggested, but it does assert that the story behind MSE is our brand.

The second recommendation calls for the creation of an organization similar in structure to the Edmonton Arts Council, perhaps operating under the umbrella of EEDC. The purpose of the office would be “to develop the words, the tools, and the expertise” to help existing organizations and Edmontonians in general to launch new businesses, promote events and initiatives, and attract others to our city. It would guide the brand. The third recommendation is obvious and somewhat related, calling for an advisory council with representatives from a broad range of sectors.

The fourth recommendation is to create The Builders Prize, an annual cash prize to recognize MSE projects. “$30,000 will be awarded to one outstanding and completed Make Something Edmonton project. The recipient of the $30,000 prize will then award four $5,000 Catalyst Prizes to other Make Something Edmonton projects in progress.” I love the twist there – the grand prize winner must award the smaller prizes.

The fifth recommendation is again fairly obvious, and also probably the most difficult to action. Some suggestions include offering a MSE award as part of the Awards of Excellence, and embedding “What are you making? How can we help?” on City of Edmonton business cards.

I’m perhaps most excited to see the sixth recommendation, which calls for a “champion” to operate out of the City Manager’s office. This person’s job would be something like an ombudsperson for MSE. They would help navigate City of Edmonton bylaws and rules, and would work to streamline things for future makers. City Manager Simon Farbrother has endorsed this idea.

The seventh recommendation is really for the organization created out of recommendation #2 and its to implement a strategy and communications plan. As a result of this you should see the brand story and image appear throughout communications from all of Edmonton’s prominent organizations, businesses and institutions.

The final recommendation is really something the task force has already been doing. The idea is to create “an informal training program” to go out and tell the MSE story to anyone who will listen. An addition would be the mentor network, made up of people who have already made and built things in Edmonton, to help new makers get their own ideas off the ground.

The report concludes with:

This is only the beginning of Make Something Edmonton. The first phase of our work was to discover the Edmonton Story and to activate it with early adopters. Now we begin to actively find – to use marketing parlance – the “early majority.”

It also promised a new website and advertising campaign to launch this fall.

I feel like the report and recommendations address many of the concerns I raised in my post from July. Executive Committee this morning decided to request that a funding package be put forward as part of the budget in order to move these recommendations forward. I think this is an initiative that deserves ongoing support from the City of Edmonton, even if it ultimately lives with EEDC or elsewhere, and I am optimistic that Council feels the same way.

Kudos to everyone involved with Make Something Edmonton on progressing to this point!

Recap: Make Something Edmonton Launch Party

Tonight a few hundred Edmontonians gathered at the Avenue Theatre on 118 Avenue to celebrate the launch of Make Something Edmonton. With lots of buzz about the initiative but few details on the launch event itself, attendees arrived both excited and curious. Something was happening, but what? How would the evening unfold?

Sharon and I caught the specially chartered ETS shuttle from City Hall which dropped us off right in front of the theatre. It turns out our driver, who was just 19 years old, had only moved to Edmonton a couple of months ago. He’d always wanted to be a bus driver, he told us, and he came here to make it happen! While enjoying the ride we chatted with The Local Good’s Tad Hargrave, catching up on one another’s projects and blueskying Make Something Edmonton. That sort of set the tone for the evening.

We found the Avenue Theatre already buzzing with activity when we got there just after 5:30pm. Volunteers scanned tickets, checked coats, and welcomed us. We entered the theatre and found it completely transformed. The seating was gone, and the space had been converted into a two-level open room, with tables around the edges and the stage at the front. There were lights, cameras, food, and the pleasant sounds of connections being made and ideas being spread.

We split up and said hi to as many people as we could. It was a veritable who’s-who of the hyper-engaged in attendance, and I felt like every direction I looked there were familiar faces to greet. People continued to pour in and after a few brief delays to ensure the shuttles could all make it through the snow, the formal program got underway.

Mayor Mandel took the stage first to welcome everyone and to say a few things about the project. I had managed to snag a few minutes with him just before the program began, and he seemed totally pumped about Make Something Edmonton. Who cares what people outside the city think, he told us. What matters is getting Edmontonians on board with the idea that Edmonton is a great place to make something. If we can do that, the rest will come. Mayor Mandel then brought Randy Boissonnault, a local entrepreneur, literacy advocate, and public speaker, to the stage. As our MC for the evening, Randy shared a few introductory thoughts and then welcomed Todd Babiak to the stage to provide some history.

I really feel like tonight was Todd’s night. He would probably tell you that Edmontonians are the ones who came up with Make Something Edmonton, but he’s the one who listened to what we had to say and helped us put our thoughts into words. Todd spoke of Edmonton’s history of collaborating and building, and of our struggles with civic identity. He framed Make Something Edmonton as our city’s story, and noted that “a story is about choice.” Some in the room had made the choice to come to Edmonton, others had made the choice to stay.

Here’s the video he showed to help tell the Make Something Edmonton story:

Next we heard from four makers. Lewis Cardinal kicked things off by discussing the importance of our city’s history. He introduced words like Pehonan and Monto. Our pehonan (“gathering place”) is where Edmonton was born, the area we now call the Rossdale Flats. Monto, which is found in our city’s name – Edmonton – refers to our spirit. You can learn more in the Spirit of Edmonton presentation.

The second speaker was Dave Mowat, who shared his idea for lighting up the High Level Bridge. It would take 45,360 LED bulbs to light the bridge, he told us, and the money for the project will come not from the government, but from Edmontonians themselves. His presentation was a lot like the one he delivered at Pecha Kucha 14, but with some new visuals to help illustrate the idea.

Third was Christy Morin of Arts on the Ave. She welcomed everyone to Alberta Avenue and gave some background and context to the ongoing revitalization of the area. The initiative got underway over eight years ago because she was sick of the crime and knew the community could be different. “The beauty that hides behind the crime and grime,” is what she wanted to help expose.

The final presentation was from Rob and Kirk who are looking to launch the Edmonton Keg Roll. They got the idea from the annual Cheese Rolling event that takes place near Gloucester in England. So why a keg roll? “Edmonton isn’t known for its cheese making,” they told us, “but we do make fine beer.” The winner will get, appropriately, a keg of beer. Their presentation was my favorite, both for its whimsy and for its seductive simplicity.

Make Something Edmonton co-chair Chris LaBossiere brought the formal program to close by thanking all of the volunteers and attendees, and by introducing the rest of the makers who were in the room. In addition to the featured makers, attendees could check out the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters, Make Jen’s Day, The Found Art Project, Gillian’s Just Right, Little Warriors, Edmonton’s Next Gen, and The Startup City Project. Chris highlighted the fact that Make Something Edmonton needs to “change the culture of our whole city,” to make it easier for projects to move forward. “Welcome to Edmonton, what are you making, how can I help?” is how he described the new approach.

The new Make Something Edmonton website went live this afternoon, and it features the ability for you to add your own project and to discover other projects that Edmontonians are working on:

Explore how your neighbours are making the city more fun, more beautiful, more caring, more profitable, sillier and sassier and stupider and smarter. Join them, help them, launch your own project.

There are already a couple of dozen projects up on the site, and I’m sure we’ll see many more added over the next few days.

Thank you #yeg for helping us kick off #makesomethingyeg. Talk to the makers and start your own projects. #makesomethingyeg

— Make Something YEG (@makeitYEG) March 22, 2013

I left the launch party feeling energized (it didn’t take long for Sharon and I to start plotting a future project). I think Make Something Edmonton has really tapped into the core of what makes Edmonton the city it is, and I’m glad that so many people are supporting the initiative already. We’re going to need all the help we can get – moving beyond the hyper-engaged and connecting with the average Edmontonian is going to be a much bigger challenge than we’ve faced thus far. As the launch day blog post states:

A city is not like a new soap or a box of cookies or a chain of restaurants. How can you sum up the spirit of a million people in a few words, a pretty logo, a big sign at the corporate limits?

You can’t. But:

This city does have a story. It does have an identity. It does have a spirit. Make Something Edmonton is an evocation of that spirit.

I want to say a big congratulations to Toscha Turner, Thomas Scott, and the entire event subcommittee who worked really hard to make tonight happen. The “YEG Heads” were great, the livestreaming via the Edmonton Journal seemed to work well, and there were lots of volunteers on hand to ensure everything went smoothly. It feels great to have Make Something Edmonton out in the open, and tonight’s event was a great way to kick that off!

Stay tuned to Make Something Edmonton on Twitter at @makeitYEG and on Facebook. You can check out more of my photos from the evening here, and you can re-watch the video here.

What are you making? How can I help?

Proudly waving the Make Something Edmonton banner

Why Edmonton? I’m often asked this question. As if I somehow need to justify why I spend so much of my time experiencing the city, thinking about it, writing about it. Or maybe people ask it because they can’t fathom why I would choose to live here, of all places. Why choose Edmonton over some other place?

Some people ask that question because they’ve already made up their minds about Edmonton, and they don’t like it. They ask the question because they want to compare their negative vision with someone who appears to have a much more positive one. Some people ask because they want to explain why they have chosen Edmonton, but they’re not sure how. Others ask the question from a neutral point of view. Some days they like Edmonton, other days they don’t. Maybe I can move them a little closer to the positive side with my response, but they won’t stay there for long. They like sitting on the fence.

I don’t like being asked this question, mostly because I don’t have a good answer for it. And yet it is a good question to ask. I want to respond with a well-rehearsed elevator pitch, but instead I usually spit out something about opportunity and how Edmonton is such a great place to live. Blech. I just can’t articulate what I feel, what I know to be true. I think a lot of Edmontonians struggle with that.

Why do I live here? I was born here. My siblings live here. Most of my extended family lives here. And now, my life is here. My friends, my work, my partner. But that’s the easy answer. I could find work elsewhere. I could keep in touch with friends and family from afar. So, why do I still live here?

It’s true that Edmonton is a great place to live, and I can rattle off all the statistics that help to illustrate why this is so. Per capita income is about $11,000 higher and unemployment is about 2% lower than the national average. There are more than 160 kilometers of trails in our river valley parks, the longest urban parkland system in North America. Three quarters of Edmontonians live within a 20-minute walk of a natural area. The Edmonton Public School system is regularly cited as the model for other jurisdictions in North America. About 60% of waste is diverted from landfill, and we’re on track to increase that number to 90% by 2015. Our water is some of the best in the world. Over the last three-year capital investment cycle, a record $3.3 billion was invested in capital infrastructure projects. We have more than 2200 hours of sunlight each year.

I could go on, but so what? Nearly every city has a similar list of positive features. How does any of that differentiate Edmonton? There are lots of cities that could be said to offer great quality of life. You don’t even have to go very far to find one.

There must be something more to Edmonton.

Maybe that something, in a word, is opportunity. Edmonton is a city in which it is possible to get things done. We’re big enough to be considered a large city and to have the affordances (and challenges) that go along with that, yet we’re small enough that the degree of separation between the average Edmontonian and the city’s power brokers is quite small. But it’s more than that. You don’t need permission here to take action, and people are always willing to lend a hand if you ask for it, even the so-called power brokers, in my experience.

Edmonton has always been a city of opportunity. In the early 19th century, Edmonton was an important fort in the North American fur trade. As the 20th century approached, thousands flocked to Edmonton on their way to the Last Great Gold Rush. Many stayed. Just after the second world war, oil was discovered near Leduc, and we quickly became known as the Oil Capital of Canada. A sense of opportunity seems to be ingrained in our civic culture.

But don’t other cities also have opportunity? Of course they do. The thing is that in Edmonton, you can have an impact. You can act on that opportunity and do something and make a difference.

Todd Babiak has been writing about this topic a lot lately. He too likes to ask the question, Why Edmonton? I’ve come to really like his answer. Here’s how he explains it:

People are growing things in every city in the world, but we’re doing it differently in Edmonton. Our economy and our culture, that spirit of openness and curiosity, of urban barn-building, is peculiar. People say it in different ways: this is the best place to build, to create, to get ‘er done. To make something. It always has been.

This is our past and our present. Edmontonians know this. They arrive at this truth, when you talk to them long enough. But we don’t say it to each other and we don’t say it to people in Toronto, in New York, in Beijing.

I think that’s the truth I was having trouble articulating. Todd calls this Make Something Edmonton, and in recent weeks many Edmontonians have embraced the idea by using the #MakeSomethingYeg hashtag on Twitter.

Make Something Edmonton is a call-to-action. It’s about building up rather than tearing down. It’s simple and powerful. It is broad enough to encompass the great diversity found in our city, yet it doesn’t fall into the trap of being vanilla. It encourages story rather than sound bites. But perhaps the most important thing about Make Something Edmonton is that it is participatory. Anyone and everyone can make something here, and that’s why it is meaningful.

Why Edmonton? Because if you have the courage to make something, Edmonton is your city.

Thanks to Todd, I now have some vocabulary to address why I love this city. Just like any of you, I can take the Make Something Edmonton banner and wave it proudly.

But saying that naturally leads to a question – what does the banner look like? What exactly is Make Something Edmonton? Does it fit into the various branding exercises we’ve undertaken over the years? Could it be the next one? Todd discussed the notion of a Make Something Edmonton campaign back in October:

If this is going to work, it has to be a call and an invitation to all Edmontonians — not just the creative class types. In Edmonton, you can make something beautiful. You can make something new, make something big, make something global, make something delicious, make something green, make something north, make something odd, make something unforgettable, make something true. We have anecdotes to prove all of these and more.

I like that Make Something Edmonton is inclusive and that all Edmontonians can participate. It doesn’t matter what you’re making, as long as you’re making something. Sure that makes it a little bit messy, and it certainly makes it more difficult to fit into a “traditional campaign”, but I think that’s one of the greatest things about Make Something Edmonton. It’s more than just a slogan or a logo, because Edmonton and Edmontonians should not be reduced to such things.

Clearly there’s tremendous upside to having three simple words like Make Something Edmonton to help articulate the complexity behind why Edmonton is different. The downside is that it’s all too easy to jump from those words straight to the notion of a brand or campaign. To ask what the banner looks like. I say, who cares? Just make something, and wave that banner proudly!

Civic Smart Card coming to Edmonton?

At today’s Executive Committee meeting Councillors will discuss a report on Smart Card Solutions, the result of an inquiry Mayor Mandel made back in February. You might remember that the Transportation & Public Works Committee had approved a recommendation that ETS implement a smart card solution. But why should ETS be the only ones to benefit? That’s the thought that prompted the mayor to ask for more information.

A civic smart card would be something like the cards pictured above, presumably more like a modern credit card with a little chip embedded inside. It could serve two primary purposes: payment, like a gift card you’d get at Starbucks, but also identity, like a digital driver’s license.

The new report sidesteps the question about what it would take to implement a civic smart card that would work for all City services, including the Edmonton Public Library, essentially saying that a business case would need to be made, and that more research needs to be done to find similar solutions implemented elsewhere. I suppose that’s prudent, but I would think based on the TPW report that they’d have some idea (the estimate for an ETS solution was close to $23 million, which would pay for itself within 15 years).

Some highlights from the report:

Administration would contact the provincial and federal governments “to investigate possible synergies in respect to pilot projects around identity management.” Apparently both have already started exploring similar ideas.
ETS, Community Services, EPL, EFCL, and the University of Alberta are just a few of the potential partner organizations mentioned.
In response to the mayor’s question about engaging the public: “For a civic smart card to be successful and fully adopted by Edmontonians, Edmontonians must be engaged in the design and implementation planning process as well as the actual implementation of a solution.” Administration would leverage “every channel from town hall meetings to social media.”
For the IT folks reading this: “Administration should also engage the IT community by creating a project advisory group made up of Edmonton’s best and brightest technology minds…”

By improving Edmonton’s livability, the civic smart card supports the City’s strategic plan. What are the next steps?

The Information Technology Branch will take the lead, working with city departments and external stakeholders to develop the value assessment to determine if this initiative should be considered in the 2012-2014 capital budget. This project will provide a test case for the new IT governance framework which is being designed to allow the city to make the right technology investment decisions.

I really love the idea of a civic smart card for Edmonton. A quick Google search reveals lots of examples of transit cards, and even some parking cards, but not much for city-wide cards. As Councillor Iveson pointed out back in October, when writing about a smart card for ETS, “this isn’t leading edge stuff anymore. This is now an established practice.” I agree – ETS absolutely needs this. Something city-wide is quite intriguing, however, and I think Edmonton would be one of the innovators there.

Let’s get it done!

If you want to follow along with today’s meeting, you can do so here.

OpenID Connect

I’ve been doing some work with OpenID and OAuth lately, making use of the excellent DotNetOpenAuth library. I am pretty much a beginner when it comes to these technologies, but I have been able to get up-to-speed fairly quickly. I was a big fan of Facebook Connect, and I quite like the new Graph API too (which uses OAuth 2.0). Though it was easy to develop against, I think the biggest benefit of Facebook Connect was the excellent end user experience. It was consistent and simple.

In contrast, OpenID is a little more cumbersome, and a lot less consistent. The discussion on how to make it easier and sexier has been going on for a while now. It seems like some significant progress will be made this week when OpenID Connect is discussed at the Internet Identity Workshop. What is OpenID Connect?

We’ve heard loud and clear that sites looking to adopt OpenID want more than just a unique URL; social sites need basic things like your name, photo, and email address.

We have also heard that people want OpenID to be simple. I’ve heard story after story from developers implementing OpenID 2.0 who don’t understand why it is so complex and inevitably forgot to do something. Because it’s built on top of OAuth 2.0, the whole spec is fairly short and technology easy to understand. Building on OAuth provides amazing side benefits such as potentially being the first version of OpenID to work natively with desktop applications and even on mobile phones.

Chris Messina has some additional thoughts on the proposal here:

After OpenID 2.0, OpenID Connect is the next significant reconceptualization of the technology that aims to meet the needs of a changing environment — one that is defined by the flow of data rather than by its suppression. It is in this context that I believe OpenID Connect can help usher forth the next evolution in digital identity technologies, building on the simplicity of OAuth 2.0 and the decentralized architecture of OpenID.

It sounds very exciting – I hope OpenID Connect becomes a reality!

Yahoo and Google become OpenID providers

The OpenID single sign-on project got a major boost this week when Yahoo announced it would enable it’s 250 million users to use their Yahoo logins for authenticating at OpenID websites. And just yesterday, Google announced that Blogger accounts can now be used as OpenID logins. OpenID is definitely gaining momentum.

So what is OpenID?

OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites, simplifying your online experience.

You get to choose the OpenID Provider that best meets your needs and most importantly that you trust. At the same time, your OpenID can stay with you, no matter which Provider you move to. And best of all, the OpenID technology is not proprietary and is completely free.

It’s a really good idea, and works fairly well in practice. I think a major question new users will have is, which provider should I use?

See I think most users have a Yahoo account and a Google account, and many others. There are tons of sites that act as OpenID providers. Which one should you choose? How do you decide which to use as your provider?

I guess it wouldn’t matter if you could combine them somehow. I don’t know enough about OpenID to know if that’s possible. Anyone reading this have any idea?

Read: OpenID

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