I remember how excited I was when I got my first blackberry. It was thick, black with a monochrome screen, but it was beautiful. Finally I could get emails, contacts, and a phone all in one. Goodbye abandoned and gently used palm pilots, and hello thumbs.
The first few blackberries I had were fantastic. They did what they were supposed to do really well. The other bells and whistles were slightly useful, like mobile web browsing or the music player, but they could be ignored. Then something happened that changed mobile phones, arguably forever – the iPhone. It did a lot of things really well. It did the basics (phone, email, calendar), and it also made mobile browsing functional. What changed it all was consolidation of media (songs, videos) that people already had and the already legendary app store.
It was around this time that RIM, in an attempt to compete with Apple, decided to push products to the market too early. The Storm was the worst and last blackberry I ever had. The touch was flawed, the clickety screen was a rate-limiting factor, and the thing rebooted like a 386 running windows 95 (aka constantly). It was an embarrassment. Instead of learning from that mistake in 2008, fast forward to 2011 and the release of the Playbook. Once again trying to compete with an Apple game changer, RIM releases a product that just wasn’t ready. Shortcomings were a camera with no camera app, and no native mail app. Let’s put that together with a wasteland for an app store and the fact that the arcane process for creating an app is a barrier (and affront) to developers.
Now Amazon just released the Kindle Fire. I will bet today that it is a game changer in the tablet market at a price point of $199. It doesn’t do everything at that price, but it does many things well. It provides access to movies and music, e-reader excellence, and an enhanced web browser that leverages Amazon’s server capacity. Why didn’t Bezos et al release this six months ago? Because it wasn’t ready! Why will it work? It will hum because there is access to a breadth of content that Amazon already has. The Fire is just another channel to the diversity of Amazon’s content.
Dear RIM, it’s time to wake up. I loved you once. You are Canadian. We should be proud of you, but now we are not. Stop putting products on the market when they aren’t ready. Learn! Pretty please, learn!!
PS – this really isn’t a public participation post, but a social media hardware post. Couldn’t help myself.
-Joseph Peters-
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) was established as a requirement of the Nuclear Waste Fuel Act to develop a long-term management strategy for used nuclear fuel in Canada.
An alternative view of Alberta: Edmonton, energy, climate change and citizen deliberation
Friday, September 30th, 2011
The brouhaha against the Keystone XL pipeline once again shines a harsh light on Alberta and its oil sands industry. And the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy’s latest report on the costs of climate change to Canada sharpens the debate.
What flies under the radar in the rest of Canada is the fact that Edmonton City Council recently passed a comprehensive and far reaching environmental strategy called The Way We Green (TWWG). Its goals and policy directions, including on climate change and energy, are nothing if not forward looking and very ambitious.
The Alberta Climate Dialogue project (ABCD) is a five-year university-community initiative (2010-2015) exploring how new forms of citizen participation in policymaking can enhance Alberta responses to climate change (I serve on ABCD’s Steering Committee). ABCD and the Centre for Public Involvement (CPI) are exploring a partnership with the City of Edmonton to co-create a public participation campaign that seeks to advance climate change policy and action in Alberta. This partnership would also advance knowledge, capacity, and practices of citizen dialogue and deliberation in Alberta and beyond.
On September 23, ABCD/CPI hosted a workshop for the City of Edmonton leaders, community stakeholders who were involved in the creation of TWWG, and ABCD’s leading researchers and public participation practitioners (as both presenters and participants). I had the pleasure of facilitating this event which set out to better understand how citizen deliberation can support the City’s responses to energy transition and climate change; leverage expertise to inform the City’s public engagement efforts; and help align key energy and climate change objectives on a public engagement spectrum. Judging from the buzz at tables and the thoughtful contributions about how serious citizen engagement could really help the City administration and Council to implement TWWG, the workshop was a success.
Following on the heels of this workshop, ABCD convened its annual planning session – this year participants contributed their research and practice expertise to support the Edmonton initiative, including design and learning dimensions. Graphic recorder Avril Orloff captured a snapshot of key elements of ABCD’s work and aspirations in the drawing included here (click on the image on this screen and the next to view it in detail).
Stay tuned for the next chapter in the City of Edmonton / ABCD / CPI partnership story – citizens and the City implementing wise choices for environmental sustainability.
-Mary Pat Mackinnon-
Tags: ABCD, Alberta Climate Dialogue, Climate Change, Edmonton, In-person, Public Involvement, Public Participation
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