Human Scale Web

Celebrating human warmth and the personal on the Internet by peering closely at human scale cities and neighborhoods as a model and metaphor for the Web. My name is Evelyn Rodriguez, and I aim to create a cooperative of web designers to storytellers helping each other and other independent producers, culture makers and artisans. This site cost zero dollars and employs no technical skills--purposefully showing how anyone can start with nothing, and evolve and iterate over time. The Web doesn't need a singular splashy Big Launch, it's dynamic and growing and changing.

[humanscaleweb]

Reading Oscar Wilde's fairy tales last night, I saw the quote:

“And what have we to do with the lives of those who toil for us? Shall a man not eat bread till he has seen the sower, nor drink wine till he has talked with the vinedresser?” -The Young King, by Oscar Wilde

The story's a bit melodramatic in the way fables and such can be, yet it does leave lasting food for thought on the idea of getting to know where our goods are produced and knowing producers directly -- something that The Cluetrain Manifesto (it's an oldie, yet classic) raves (and rants) about as well:

"Markets once were places where producers and customers met face-to-face and engaged in conversations based on shared interests."

Full text of the fairy tale "The Young King" by Oscar Wilde.

Art credits: Painting based on “The Young King” via Fiona Ryan

[humanscaleweb]

social capital - I do not refer to real estate or cold cash but that which in life tends to make these tangibles count for most

The thing that weaves together my interest in both tangible human scale cities and virtual human scale cities is, in a nutshell, social capital. I'm not that fond of how the word 'capital' can connote and reduce personal connections into a mercenary view, but if we don't get too hung up on that terminology, it can convey the potential of social media in establishing true social networks of people. I glanced over at Wikipedia's definition of social capital, and extracted the following which does distill the concept well:

In defining the concept, [L.J.] Hanifan contrasts social capital with material goods by defining it as:

"I do not refer to real estate, or to personal property or to cold cash, but rather to that in life which tends to make these tangible substances count for most in the daily lives of people, namely, goodwill, fellowship, mutual sympathy and social intercourse among a group of individuals and families who make up a social unit… If he may come into contact with his neighbor, and they with other neighbors, there will be an accumulation of social capital, which may immediately satisfy his social needs and which may bear a social potentiality sufficient to the substantial improvement of living conditions in the whole community. The community as a whole will benefit by the cooperation of all its parts, while the individual will find in his associations the advantages of the help, the sympathy, and the fellowship of his neighbors (pp. 130-131)."

Jane Jacobs used the term early in the 1960s. Although she did not explicitly define the term social capital her usage referred to the value of networks.

Photo credit: Jane Jacobs, center, at the White Horse Tavern on Hudson Street in Greenwich Village, 1961. Photo by Cervin Robinson

[humanscaleweb]

A simple, practical practice: write online as yourself using your own name (with affiliation, yes) instead of hiding behind an anonymous royal 'we' or vague institutional voice. If there are multiple employees or other stakeholders writing online have each one have their own signature.

Below is an excerpt from an old interview between Tom Peters and Robert Scoble while he was at Microsoft Corporation and had just co-authored "Naked Conversations: How Blogs Are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers" circa 2006.

I learned a lot about social media (stress on social) from Robert. Robert wrote as a singular human being while simultaneously evidently being a Microsoft employee and ambassador. 

Your first chapter is a bit of a history of your own blogging. It's also about your employer, Microsoft, softening its image through employee blogging. This blogging has humanized Microsoft.

RS: We've been allowed to blog in a very non-corporate way. When you're a corporate employee, you have these fears of talking favorably about competitors or linking to them. But I do that all the time.

Some people don't want to share their knowledge because they're being paid for their knowledge. I talk to lawyers all the time and try to get them to blog. They say, "I can't blog that way. You're paying me $300 an hour for what I know." They don't understand that if they shared what they know, they would get even more business.

For someone who's not involved in this world of blogging, it's counterintuitive; that if you give away what you know, it'll come back to you in spades. I had a friend that I played Monopoly with when I was a kid. Despite the fact that you're trying to amass money in Monopoly, he would always try to give his money away. He would pay more than the normal rent or whatever. But somehow, he always ended up making more money. I don't know how it happened. There's an analogous situation here. The more information you give away, the more it pays off.

Photo Credits: Robert Scoble with Tammy Camp

[humanscaleweb]

Leaders speak as the voices of institutions, issuing opinions from the mountaintop, hidden by the cloak of distance. Yet today, in our connected society, we do not trust institutions. We demand transparency. We expect conversation.

- from the oldie archive Oct 22, 2006,  by Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine blog (for Guardian UK)

[humanscaleweb]

acting in cooperation with one another

Last Thursday after a leisurely dinner, my roommate (and owner of the home he has graciously allowed me to live in rent-free while I work on an indie project) walked outside our house to accompany our friend to her car and they were engrossed in conversation by the stoop. I stayed indoors.

Soon after, I heard screams and two gunshots.

"Give me everything you've got. Out your pockets!" demanded the gunman to my friends. 

Just this Mother's Day, a nineteen-year-old shot nineteen people gathered for a holiday neighborhood parade not too far from us. One of those shooting victims, Deborah Cotton, shared the following statement from the hospital:

“I have known from the moment the shooting happened that I did not want these young men thrown to the wolves,” she said, “and that we have been given yet another opportunity to demonstrate a different way of treating our humanity.”

In a question that seemed directed as much to the city as a whole as to City Hall, she asked: “Do you know what it takes to be so disconnected in your heart that you can walk out into a gathering of hundreds of people who look just like you and begin firing?

“They have been separated from us through so much trauma,” Cotton said, “Now where do we go?” - via The Advocate, May 27, 2013

I have witnessed this you versus them exclusiveness, a sense of segregation and feeling left out of economic and social opportunities in various subtle and not-so-subtle ways both online and offline. This violent outburst is the latest incarnation. In no way could I do this topic justice in one posting, but it gets to the heart of why I am getting back into social media after a hiatus. The roots and origins of a sharing ethos on the Web has been slowly whittled down toward a me, my, and mine hustle self-promotion mindset. A young visitor from Europe commented to me the other day that he hates (and his choice of word was 'hate') the Internet as he blames it for destroying humane social interaction. 

The essence of what I'd like to engender and encourage cooperatively is boiled down in this excerpt from The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Managing Your Business and Your Life, by Michael Roach.

"Give, give, give to others; make sure deals are win-win for both sides. Again, it's not the amount of money involved, it's maintaining--all day long--a truly generous, creative, flowing state of mind that wants to see everybody prosper. Ben Franklin was perhaps the greatest statesman, scientist, and businessperson in America's history--and his response to competition was to invite all his competitors to join a new society called a Chamber of Commerce, dedicated to finding ways together to expand markets, and make everybody involved richer.

This kind of thinking by itself creates powerful imprints in all the people involved, by the way. A group of businesspeople can, by acting in cooperation with one another, create imprints in each of their minds to see a common reality such as an expanding market. No problem. It's not, incidentally, that imprints can be shared or transferred to another person--they can't. Rather, a group of people acting in a concerted charitable way create imprints that flower as a shared experience such as a successful company or a more prosperous nation. And this in fact is why some countries are more affluent than others--but that's a little big for us to talk about here. Anyway, if you think about the principle you can get some pretty amazing understandings about wealth on a global scale. "

Photo/art credits: Macdougal Stoop, by Jill Freedman; Benjamin Franklin playing chess, painting by Edward Harrison May

[dark-alter-ego-blog]

[humanscaleweb]

Karp is founder of Tumblr and that quote totally gets to heart of human scale Web.

[measuredman]

Lauren and I are doing an orientation today for the Park Slope Food Coop. Pretty cool to actually have managed to get a spot. Lauren describes it as having won the lottery or getting the golden ticket.

Basically, the coop is the best place to get high quality food in the city, for a reasonable price, as everyone who shops there is a member. Members are all required to work at the coop for about 3 hours a month. This ownership is what keeps the prices low, as it decreases the overheads of running the operation.

I’m of course hesitant to give up a couple hours a month, but the benefits seem highly worthwhile, as all the food is supposed to be from local, organic sources.

Living in New York, actually getting a spot in the coop is pretty awesome. It is hard to find reasonably priced, good quality food here.

Is it overly nerdy to be this excited over a grocery store?

[humanscaleweb]

Peeps showing so much love (and hate--hate has more engagement, intimacy, care and passion than 'meh') around the Park Slope Food Coop. I'm sort of jealous!

I've been noticing that my local* food coop of which I'm a member doesn't quite feel as, well, cooperative as I'd expect with that name.

In an effort to have this blog show some practicality and not only abstract models and metaphors, I'm going to see how I can help out our food coop on its "social media," and post the results here. (They don't know I'm doing this yet.) I don't even like the term "social" media as it's sort of vague and for them (and me) "cooperative media" may be better way for them to distill and envision it. 

For instance, their Twitter account has zero retweets and zero replies. So that's an easy place to start--remembering that the Internet can be used for two-way exchange, sharing, collaboration, interaction, expanding, helping each other. The web is far more powerful than a digital billboard. Tip 1: Read, respond, and reply to others as much as you tweet or post. Not surprisingly, the Park Slope Food Coop's Twitter has plenty of replies and retweets and overall back-and-forth exchange going on.

* Local is a tough word for me--I don't technically live anywhere long enough to count as a local, I joined the New Orleans Food Coop years ago simply to see it come to fruition in an area that was bereft of grocery stores years ago.

[humanscaleweb]

I first saw Doc Searls speak many years ago. I ran into him last summer sitting with his family at Coupa Cafe and decided to go thank him profusely for his influence on me as I was re-reading The Cluetrain Manifesto and marveling how relevant it still was. I still read his blog (and I don't read many).

He recently spoke (May 3rd) at Qui Share Fest on a topic near and dear to me: 

"Markets are about making culture, and not just money. What can the "transactional" markets and businesses of today learn from the "natural" markets we've had ever since we traded shells for food?"

Photo credit: Coupa Cafe. Plus a post I wrote referencing Coupa Cafe written while sipping a spicy Maya Mocha from Coupa on generative ecosystems. 

[humanscaleweb]

Cyberspace + Meatspace: Mashups that Transform Mere Space into Deep Sense of Place

Corey from Ignite Vegas just invited me in an authentically written, personable email (aside: get dozens of press release and mass invitations per day that I delete, and only respond to people) to speak at their 3rd Ignite event (I can't attend, as I'm in New Orleans).  I'd totally forgotten what I submitted back on December 14, 2011 (wasn't a go back then) and pulled up the original email proposal--and am pasting it below. Still relevant I think:

Session Description:  Cyberspace + Meatspace: Mashups that Transform Mere Space into Deep Sense of Place  SESSION DESCRIPTION This talk will be a rapid-fire neighborly photowalk of past and present examples to making the real-life knock-knock-knock tangible world we live, eat, barter, bake, breathe, and play and partake in even better. Through the collaboration of virtual and real space we can rise to the challenge to create human-scale places with a palpable and pulsing community spirit. For instance, two slides might include these examples: In Utrecht, The Netherlands an urban game design studio made a game: "We challenged ourselves to design a game for the [troubled] area of Hoograven which would function as an intervention of sorts. The game would be a short-term event that would hopefully have a positive effect on the neighborhood on the longer term. We aimed to connect residents through light-weight, casual play." In Brixton, UK, a local Meetup.com group got together "most months there were twenty of us: artists, activists, social-media people , architects, think-tankers, squatters."  Their group picked up momentum and convinced the owners of a nearly-vacant marketplace to "to fund a competition, making shops available for up to three months, rent free, to people who submitted the best ideas. The initiative kicked off with a freewheeling open house. "A week later, we had ninety-eight proposals, some for temporary creative and community projects, others with longer-term business plans," Hine says. The result? Nine months later, Granville Arcade, as it's locally known, is thriving. Eight of the businesses originally selected for the competition remain; the rest of the shops are leased to new tenants." TELL US WHY YOUR SESSION IS GONG TO BE AWESOME!  I have a passion for places that are fun, vibrant, innovative and neighborly to live in and the grassroots collaborations in which people make a place lively and welcoming. I've lived in urban San Francisco, Oakland, Chicago, Brooklyn, New Orleans, and am now residing in Las Vegas. And I adore the Internet (began working as a computer engineer in the Internet industry in 1993; later, included the company that held the patent for online shopping cart.) However... I'm saddened how often the Internet is cited as if it were an enemy of real-life connections and real places as if it were the wedge driving people apart, and tearing social cohesion (and I'm not going to quote Bowling Alone here).  So I'd like to show and tell how the Internet is used and can be used more as an ALLY in placemaking, and also challenge all of us to design for BOTH rich online and offline experiences. Why not just enrich life and our lives, and never mind the distinction of virtual or geographical.  Today alone, I read these stories (and no I wasn't hunting for them, just normal course of a day) which seem to challenge my underlying premise, that technology especially the Internet, can be used to strengthen interpersonal and community bonds making for vibrant living conditions. "Sometimes you can live without food," Tiongson said. "But you can't live in isolation, and that's what I'm going through. It's been very difficult for me." -http://www.lvrj.com/view/solitary-holidays-organization-gives-hope-to-area-s-struggling-residents-135491353.html "One of Facebook's main selling points is that it builds closer ties among friends and colleagues. But some who steer clear of the site say it can have the opposite effect of making them feel more, not less, alienated." - http://www.cnbc.com/id/45659248 (read it in today's Las Vegas Sun originally) "I was walking the dog in the park the other day and saw a father pushing his little girl on a swing. It was a lovely sight until I realized Dad was checking his BlackBerry while he was pushing. Is there any way you can give that little girl her father back? She'll be gone before he knows it." - http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/finalword/story/2011-12-14/final-word-craig-wilson/51888056/1 As far as experience on stage: I spoke at IgniteNOLA (New Orleans) in February 2010. I have in the past, spoken at BlogHer, NewComm Forum, SxSW and other Internet conferences. (Here's a link to transcript to one talk I gave on blogging in business in 2005, http://evelynrodriguez.typepad.com/crossroads_dispatches/2005/08/business_bloggi.html). There's also more about me (if you need a bio or overview) at http://evelynrodriguez.typepad.com/about.html (although much of that is obsolete, it does have accurate backstory) and on Google+ http://gplus.to/eve11, Tumblr panmesa.tumblr.com, and Twitter @eve11

Photo credit: Flickr via Knight Foundation. Local currency urban game in Macon, GA. According to the Knight Foundation (funders): "Macon Money is a social game helping people connect with their neighbors in Macon, Ga."

[massurban]

This Big City:

“100 Urban Interventions in 1 Day

Joe Peach. 18 April 2013

There’s a limit to the amount of physical change one person or a small group of people can initiate in a city, but what if hundreds of citizens united, each putting in place the projects and changes they want to see in their city all on the same day? That’s the goal of 100en1día (100 in 1 day) – a social movement originating from Bogotá, Colombia, which aims to inspire citizen driven change on a significant scale, transforming cities over a 24 hour period.

The project has already encouraged hundreds of interventions in the Colombian cities of Bogotá, Pasto, Pamplona and Chinú, with street art, urban gardens and bike lanes all appearing on the same day. Bogotá is currently preparing for their second event on the 27th of April and international cities are also beginning to get on board. San José is launching its first event on the 20th of April and Cape Town and Copenhagen are running their own versions on the 25th of May.”

Photo: Images via 100en1dia

[noosphe-re]

The city is a fact in nature, like a cave, a run of mackerel or an ant-heap. But it is also a conscious work of art, and it holds within its communal framework many simpler and more personal forms of art. Mind takes form in the city; and in turn, urban forms condition mind.

Lewis Mumford, The City In History

(via stoweboyd)

[humanscalecities]

Promising new book by Jan Gehl.

—-

At the end of May, the Danish publisher Bogværket will publish the book Bylivsstudier by Jan Gehl and Birgitte Svarre. The book is filled with inspiration on how to go out in the city and study city life. In the fall, the book will be out in the US, published by Island Press and titled How to study public life. The book both presents tools on how to study the relationship between the built form and life, as well as a historic perspective on the field of city life studies.

[humanscaleweb]

The participatory nature of unconferences such as BarCamp describes the expressive human urge of the Web in general too. A BarCamp facilitates the structure for roundtable discussion rather than adhere to the lecture format. A BarCamp cooperatively hosts, gathers, and provides the resources to make it happen: the physical and online gathering space, fuel and meeting equipment (food, water, restroom, white boards, power outlets, projectors, WiFi, and such), and the people who engage as listeners and speakers. It's arranged by a self-organizing methodology based on Open Space meetings so it's not the lecture format of selected speakers on stage and a spectator audience, but rather facilitating exchange.

"BarCampBlock is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment." - Bub.blicio.us 

And I could just as well say the Web "is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment."

Photo credit: Bub.blicio.us. While searching for a photo of Ross Mayfield for another post, I found this photo from a 2008 BarCamp in Palo Alto--and I'm in it. (I'm talking to Chris Messina and Tara Hunt, although all you can see is my back.)

[toffeemilkshake]

Freed from the constraints imposed by the dominance of capital, the pooled labor of groups of people defined by shared spatial proclivities — not just mountain bikers, but also skateboarders, soccer players, drag racers, parkour traceurs, rock climbers and boulderers, paintballers, and bird watchers — could begin to generate urban public landscapes which are more idiosyncratic and more differentiated than the public parks of the twentieth century. Similarly, the labor of knowledgeable and motivated ecological hobbyists could transform gardening from an individualistic and primarily ornamental practice into a communal effort, cultivating whole and diversified cities.

future baroque – mammoth // building nothing out of something

[humanscaleweb]

Instead of adding Facebook friends online, we were actually making friends in person, often over a cup of hot “chai”. Life around us came alive in a new way. A walking pace is the speed of community. Where high speeds facilitate separation, a slower pace gifts us an opportunity to commune.

Nipun Mehta's 2012 commencement speech at UPenn

Beautiful talk! Distills why I value walkable neighborhoods, literally and figuratively, offline and online. Plus, Nipun walks the walk--I've bused and walked to his and his family's open-to-public, free weekly Wednesday meditation and supper at their Santa Clara home many times. 

[humanscaleweb]

From my classics file. Yes, the Web's become more Tower of Babel as the trend has shifted toward confining it for broadcast ends. It's never too late to engender a sense of place there. James continues to use the bazaar metaphor, which I feel is spot on for interactive and transactive media.

James Cherkoff, a marketing blogger, says: “A single blog can be akin to a ranting madman on the corner. However, when linked together into massive intertwining communities they have the vibrancy and passion of an enormous street market, with information, opinions and whispers exchanging hands at light speed.” In an August 2005 post (no longer online, I'll keep searching for it), James points to a TIME Europe story on blogs. In the article, TIME  uses the metaphor of the Tower of Babel. James counters, “Bazaar is probably a better comparison.” 

[humanscalecities]

Handmade Urbanism: From Community Initiatives to Participatory Model

[humanscaleweb]

"As surely as we shape and change our cities, our cities shape and change us. Why not make that process as hands-on as possible?"