MassChallenge: MassAccess, speed networking event

Yesterday, I participated in MassChallenge’s speed networking event, MassAccess.  It was excellent, and I met a lot of great folks working on interesting project.  Here’s hoping it will lead to a fruitful collaboration.

Today, MassChallenge is hosting another MassAccess event in Western MA.  If you are on the fence, get off and go!

Pics from Friday night: BUX + Awesome @ NERD

Lee Altman, winner of AF's Nov 2009 grant, answering questions about her Awesome Aquatic Phytoremediation Interactive Mobile Pod

Thanks to all who came on Friday night!  Boston Urban Exchange teamed up with the Awesome Foundation, and, in short, it was awesome.  Such a treat to meet such interesting folks.  If you want to learn more about Lee Altman’s Eco Pod Armada, winner of the November 2009 Awesome grant, check out the slideshow on her website.

And a big thanks to Reed for sharing his excellent photos from the first part of the evening (at NERD)!  They are great!

Finally, a reminder, BUX is taking a break for the holidays.  See you in January/February!

Filene’s Basement 100 year Anniversary (1909-2009)

Just watched Filene’s Basement’s excellent celebratory video about its 100 year history.  Most of the footage was from the unfinished documentary, Voices From the Basement, and was shot at the original Downtown Crossing location in Boston, MA, during its heyday. This ad campaign was launched in late October by the new owner, the Syms Corporation, in order to remake the image of the Basement.

To be honest, I’ve been amazed by how quickly the Basement fell in my esteem once the flagship’s doors closed in 2007.  Despite the developer’s promises to re-open in 2009 and the existence of the Newbury Street “Basement,” I missed the Automatic Markdown System and the ensuing thrill of the hunt. I also missed that certain vibrancy that used to palpable in Downtown Crossing.  Since the close of the Basement, it seemed my favorite neighborhood went into mourning, from which it hasn’t yet come out. I can only imagine that others felt this too as losses at the Basement ballooned once the flagship closed, from $6 million in 2006 to $62 million in 2008 (nearly 25% of their yearly revenue), according to securities filing. To be sure, I’m probably better off from being cut from my Basement addiction about two years before the official start of the Great Recession, but still, it pains me.

The Boston Globe has picked another thread (in this case, the city’s urban fabric), and recently sponsored the Re-imagining Boston’s stalled projects competition (my term, although I’m not entirely sure if that is correct).  Eleven projects are featured, and you can vote for the design idea you like best (as well as upload your own). Four include video screens, three/four could fall under the urban garden category, and three seem to be static, historical museum-ish installations.

Although the idea for the competition is fantastic—and underscores the point that all landlords have a civic responsibility to maintain their properties—I’m not inspired by the submitted designs so far. Maybe I’m clutching on to something unrealistic given the region’s development patterns and economics, but have we really given up on the viability of Downtown Crossing as a middle class commercial destination? The Basement was the glue that held Downtown Crossing together. Whatever goes up in its place ought to celebrate the primal satisfaction of getting a good deal. And as a new twist, it would be nice to see the area also celebrate Boston’s creative producers, placing their work for the public’s comparison and consumption on the same stage as firms located elsewhere in the country and internationally.

Currently, Downtown Crossing hosts the Boston Art Windows program, operated by the Boston Redevelopment Authority.  Maybe a simple next step would be something like a “Boston Design Windows.”  Although it would be good to be able to purchase said local goods in neighborhood stores.

Filene's and Downtown Crossing, prior to 2007

Filene's today (almost same view, shot from further away)

President’s Committee on the Arts & Humanities

Last week, Politico published a social map of the President’s Committee on the Arts & Humanities (PCAH) (Catton, Pia. WHO’S WHO: They’ll Be Involved Artistically. Politico: 11.06.2009).  Most numerous are those connected to Harvard, Hollywood, and the Obama Presidential campaign fundraising efforts.  No surprise there.  I would be curious to see maps of past PCAHs, particularly to see if any individuals have repeatedly served.

Highlights posted here.

More detailed dissection, here.

Last Boston Urban Exchange for 2009 coming up…

The last Boston Urban Exchange (BUX) for 2009 will be in partnership with the Awesome Foundation this Friday (11/13)!  The program will be slightly different from previous BUXs, but it will be a great opportunity for planners, architects, nerds, philanthropists, lawyers, and etc to mingle, share ideas, and catalyze projects.  If you’re in town, feel free to come to Microsoft NERD for the Awesome Foundation award ceremony and presentation, or come directly to the after-party at Cambridge Brewing Company, or both!

// CROSS-POSTED @

FB: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=171467669211

LinkedIn: http://events.linkedin.com/Boston-Urban-Exchange-Awesome-Foundation/pub/163909

// THE DEETS:

8:00 PM – 9:30 – Award Ceremony and Presentation @ Microsoft NERD, 11th Floor (map here)
Join Micro-Trustees from the Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences as they celebrate and award their 4th Fellowship! Their November Fellow, Lee Altman, will be discussing her scheme to experiment with a cheap DIY pod-boat that could be used to naturally clean up NYC’s notoriously polluted East River. We’ll also be hearing from some of previous Awesome Fellows about how their projects are progressing and how people can participate. For more details about Lee’s project, The Remote Control Pollution-FIghting Armada, see here: http://j.mp/40xEMd.  For more about fostering awesomeness in the universe, check out the Awesome Foundation’s website and blog.

10:00 – Midnight (& probably onwards) – Post-Award Reception @ Cambridge Brewing Company (map here)
Then, once the big check is awarded, join us over at the nearby Cambridge Brewing Company for the post-award party!  You’ll meet folks from the Awesome Foundation, Information Superhighway, Betahouse, the Berkman Center, and more… in all, fascinating individuals, makers, organizers, etc. (AF extends a huge thank you to Microsoft for the venue, and Whole Foods for providing snacks for the event.)

// What is the Boston Urban Exchange?

• Boston Urban Exchange is a gathering of planners, architects, urban designers, developers, ethnologists, technologists, entrepreneurs, policy-makers, artists and others who care about urban development in the Boston/Cambridge region.
• We organize open and informal events, focusing on providing opportunities for interesting, talented, urban-minded people to meet and exchange ideas, connections, etc.
• We started organizing these meetups in June 2009 .  Sometimes it’s just us and sometimes we partner with local organizations like Common Boston and Planners Network Boston Chapter.
• BUX is free! And if you talk to us at the event, we’ll ply you with drink tickets! (Before supplies run out) :-)

// What is the Awesome Foundation?

• We support people doing awesome things in the world. Every month we give out a grant.
• Submit an awesome idea. If we pick it, we’ll give you $1,000 in cash. Yup, $1,000. Cash. Maybe even in a brown paper bag. You’ll also get access to coworking space at BetaHouse for the month of your grant. The only condition is that you be willing to tell us (and some of our friends) about what you did a month later. If we don’t pick it, don’t stress. We’ll pick a new awesome idea next month.
• We are not an international cabal of malcontents. Just a small group of individuals making personal contributions in the name of awesomeness. For more information, see the about page. We’re currently in Boston but are open to awesome ideas elsewhere. We’d also be happy to help others start an awesome foundation in their location.

// Plugs for upcoming events (*hosted by other organizations) that you might be interested in:

• MassDOT Developers Conference, 11/14: http://massdotdevconference.eventbrite.com/
• Boston Preservation Alliance Social Wednesday, 11/18: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170217003094&ref=mf
• Pecha Kucha Boston 14, 11/18: http://pechakuchaboston.org/blog/
• Build Boston, 11/18-11/20: www.buildboston.com
• Boston World Partnerships November Open Mixer (Date TBD): http://www.facebook.com/BostonWorldPartnerships
• Ignite Spatial: Boston, 12/2: http://isb09.eventbrite.com/
• Launch of MassChallenge (2010), the worlds largest global startup competition (esp. check out social impact track), http://www.masschallenge.org/ @masschallenge

Map & Photos from Jordan, August 2009

While in Jordan, I made a Google map of the places I visited and talked about with my family and friends back home.  It is shared below.  You will need to scroll out once to see Petra and Irbid :)

View Larger Map

And today I uploaded 594 of my pictures from Jordan to Flickr. They are arranged in chronological order:

1. Amman, first few days back and forth to work, getting my bearings;
2. Amman Citadel;
3. Irbid;
4. Salt;
5. Amman, downtown souks;
6. Petra;
7. Amman, downtown and suburbs.

The slideshow is below is for the patient.  If you want to quickly scroll through, go directly to the set details.

more about “Jordan, August 2009“, posted with vodpod

Small Taste of Amman

I’m in Jordan until late August, working with the Amman Institute on the development of their eKnowledge Center for Urban Planning and Governance in the Arab Region. Until I return to Cambridge, here is a slideshow of some of the things I’ve seen in the last few days.  More will be posted after I return.

more about “Small Taste of Amman“, posted with vodpod

Nina Paley sings “Copyright Isn’t Theft”

Nina Paley is the artist who created Sita Sings the Blues, my favorite contemporary cartoon.  Paley is an animator and cartoonist who’s husband dumped her via email (!) while she was away on a business trip, basically stripping her of home and identity in one dramatic swoop.  As the story goes, Paley found strength in starting her life all over again by listening to Annette Hanshaw’s music from the 1920s & 30s, learning about the Hindu goddess Sita (who was similarly jilted by her husband in the Ramayana), and combining the music and stories into beautiful, heartfelt, and compelling animated shorts, which Paley posted on her website.  As word of Paley’s creations spread, the public took a real interest and the shorts were a hit.  Paley then developed a feature-length film, Sita Sings the Blues.

On its own, it’s a wonderful story about healing via the creative process.  However, things got more complicated.

As the film travelled the festival circuit and received more and more support and fans (Roger Ebert wrote an excellent review), Paley was sued for copyright infringement.  The Annette Hanshaw recordings that Paley used had been in the public domain since the 1950s.  Unfortunately, the musical composition (ie the lyrics) was not.

If you would like to learn more about what then happened, the Wikipedia article on the film gives a good review of the copyright issues and how that affected Paley’s distribution (the copyright holders criminalized her creative work, which affected her ability to receive income for it). QuestionCopyright.org’s interview of Paley goes into greater detail about the affects of these laws on creativity.

Anyways, why am I telling you all this?  To prepare you for the video below.  Paley’s Copyright Song is fantastic, and I hope every school child learns it:

Vimeo:  Nina Sings “Copying Isn’t Theft” from Reel 13 on Vimeo

In fact, I am happy to report that kids are starting to learn it :-)

Featured in the New York Times!

This Sunday, just in time for the Inauguration, Lily Pollans’ and my submission for the White House Redux competition was featured in an article in the New York Times!  See our idea for an Oval Office that faces an interactive media wall — so that the President must face public opinion – in the multimedia interactive feature.

Documenting the everyday: Keith Loutit

Keith Loutit’s Bathtube II is 54 seconds of genius.  His documentation of the flows of commerce and people in Sydney harbour both illustrates the harbor’s intense importance to the well-being of the city and makes light of the seemingly scattershot movement of the objects.  Loutit’s technique is to miniaturize the environment using a tilt shift lens and then intensify the suspended state of reality with time lapsed frames. 

My favorite scene is the last 22 seconds: no editing, just a single frame of the boats rapidly weaving in and out of each other’s way to get to their destinations. It’s a new take of the workers pouring out of the city machine in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, or company men pouring out of Grand Central in Nunnally Johnson’s The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (if I remember correctly).  

His other videos employ the same techniques, six of which are available through his site, his vimeo account, and fan uploads to youtube.  An artist, he aims “to present Sydney as the Model City, and help people take a second look at places that are familiar to them.”