A city that thinks like the web, slides + audio
November 27, 2008 § 50 Comments
Thanks to everyone who pitched in with comments and ideas for my City of Toronto 2.0 Web Summit talk yesterday. The idea that we can create a ‘city that thinks like the web’ — and that Toronto can learn from projects like Mozilla — seemed to go over well. Here are the slides:
… and the audio:
As outlined in my call for ideas last week, the talk ended with three simple challenges to City Hall. They went something like this:
- Open our data. transit. library catalogues. community centre schedules. maps. 311. expose it all so the people of Toronto can use it to make a better city. do it now.
- Crowdsource info gathering that helps the city. somebody would have FixMyStreet.to up and running in a week if the Mayor promised to listen. encourage it.
- Ask for help creating a city that thinks like the web. copy Washington, DC’s contest strategy. launch it at BarCamp.
I also made off the cuff encouragements for the city to open source the software it produces and put Firefox on every desktop. Didn’t want to push these, but had to at least mention ;).
A fun story: the mayor was in the front row for the whole talk. Every time I’d say something challenging or controversial, he’d start typing madly on his his Blackberry. I thought he was taking notes. Turns out he was emailing people on his staff with questions about opening TTC data for Google Transit, open sourcing city-made code, and so on.
When my talk finished, the mayor came back immediately with ” … I’ve been emailing people about your challenges. Open data for Google Transit is coming by next June, and I don’t see what we shouldn’t open source the software Toronto creates.” He also said “I promise the City will listen” if Torontonians set up a site like FixMyStreet.com. Great news, and hopefully real encouragement for TransitCampers and open web geeks into Toronto start hacking away at online tools that make our city better. I’ve uploaded audio of the mayor’s remarks here:
The one challenge the mayor didn’t address directly: doing an Apps For Democracy-style contest like the one done in Washington, DC. I still think this is a super and low cost idea. I talked to Tonya, Mark K and Will P about it after the Summit, and all said they want to make something like this happen. In fact, Tonya offered to host a Toronto Social Innovation Camp (geeks gather to sprint on solutions to a problem) where people hack on ‘make Toronto better’ web projects. This could totally blend in with the contest idea. All we need is for City Hall to is open up some data and pitch in the prize money. Fun times ahead.
One the talk itself: a little longer than I’d hoped (40 mins) and got a few Mozilla facts wrong (ooops), but overall think it was okay. Comments on how to improve for similar talks welcome.
Mark, thanks for posting this. I love you whole open approach and the way you’ve reached out and involved others in the process of thinking through these issues and creating your presentation. I was able to take come of your calls to participate and send them on to folks in my network, and happy to see that some responded! I am hoping that other business and social leaders will see the benefit of working this way and copy your methods. For now I can point them to your blog and say “you see!” 🙂
Hahaha! That should say “I love YOUR whole open approach” — although you know I’m a fan 🙂
Mark,
I gave your presentation a listen to online and found it very interesting. As a citizen of Toronto I hope to see the city change for the better in the future by embracing the ideas you spoke of.
Good work 🙂
Aaron Train
Great stuff, Mark. I love the story about Miller on his Blackberry. It’s great that you’re getting this sort of audience for your ideas about open cities and the web. Thanks for giving us the update.
[…] in history as the moment that Government 2.0 landed in Toronto. The truly historical moment was Mark Surman’s keynote at lunch, with an audience that included Mayor David Miller. Surman posed three challenges to the […]
I’m very happy to have been in the audience the day that the open meme landed in the City of Toronto. Truly a job well done, this shows that the ideas and methods of Mozilla have a lot to give to the world outside the browser.
I’ve raised my hand to help, and I will do my part to get the word out to others who want to be part of this new movement towards a better city: http://remarkk.com/2008/11/28/a-city-that-thinks-like-the-web/
[…] A city that thinks like the web, slides + audio « commonspace – Great news for participatory government in Toronto: a promise to open up TTC data and other good stuff, from the Web 2.0 summit at City of Toronto earlier this week. […]
Mark – great presentation and promising outcmoes. Nicely done!
[…] of how government can use the tools to reach out to citizens, including the luncheon keynote by Mark Surman and the interaction with Mayor Miller, but there were also logistical & planning issues that […]
Great to hear the city of Toronto is open to opening up Mark. If you know anyone that wants a head start on the FixMyStreet app for Toronto, we’ve got the very same app we’re just about to Open Source that the City of Ottawa will be using over at OpenOttawa.org. It’s built on PHP + CodeIgniter and Google Maps.
I’ll say it again: amazing presentation Mark. What’s even more amazing is that it spurred the mayor into taking action. Now, we all just have to keep him accountable.
(And thanks for the shout out again. I’m blushing.)
[…] what they were talking about. I’m glad I suffered through the panel and stuck around, because Mark Surman’s luncheon keynote was exactly what the mayor (and the rest of the city) needed to […]
[…] can find a review of it here. And slides with audio from the mozilla dude here. Fully archives should be up […]
Mark, thank you for using Apps for Democracy as an example at #TO20! We’re really excited by the innovation we’re seeing in our city at the hands of the talented citizens that live here. We’re currently noodling on what a round two of this would look like and would love to sync up with you to discuss what you might think we could do better and if the Mozilla Foundation would like to be involved somehow.
Also, if anyone from Toronto wants to pick my brain about how to get this off the ground I’ll be happy to share what we learned along the way in creating #apps08.
He’s a summary post about the contest if anyone’s interested in learning more:
http://www.istrategylabs.com/apps-for-democracy-yeilds-4000-roi-in-30-days-for-dcgov/
-Peter Corbett
peter@istrategylabs.com
P.S. Apps for Democracy was a 30 day contest!
[…] timetables) to be used in Google Transit was posed by Mark Surman of the Mozilla Foundation during his talk at the summit. Mayor Miller stated in response to Surman that the process to get Toronto online […]
[…] Mark Surman of The Mozilla Foundation posts slides from his upcoming presentation, “A city that thinks like the web.” […]
Mark, also really enjoyed your post. I especially liked the slides showing the growth in participation around Firefox, and the circles of participation and impact.
[…] Check out his slide-show here (accompanying audio): […]
Tonya, I blog with Mark K – if you are interested in setting up a Toronto Social Innovation Camp, I would love to help.
[…] the Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation used Apps for Democracy as a case study at #to20 (he talks about it at min. 30 in his presentation here) as did Anthony Williams, author of the super-awesome-sitting-on-iStrategyLabs-shelf book […]
[…] the Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation used Apps for Democracy as a case study at #to20 (he talks about it at min. 30 in his presentation here) as did Anthony Williams, author of the super-awesome-sitting-on-iStrategyLabs-shelf book […]
Just to let you know, mySociety launched the next stage in FixMyStreet today, the iPhone version. Now you can snap problems, and upload them with GPS coordinates from the street.
http://www.mysociety.org/2008/12/10/fixmystreet-iphone/
[…] remiss if it didn’t source the public for answers to these important questions. People like Mark Surman and Vivek Kundra have been advocating and implementing game-changing ideas on how to partner with […]
[…] podría ayudar a un Gobierno a relacionarse con sus ciudadanos. Su presentación se llamó «Una ciudad que piensa como la web» y puede verse y escucharse en su blog. Así que llevaba algunos apuntes y la idea de recabar […]
[…] סורמן, מנהל קרן מוזילה, כותב כיצד ניתן לחולל שינוי בעיר באמצעות כלים פתוחים (ראו מצגת ופודקאסט בתוך הפוסט של מרק). ההרצאה בכנס ווב 2.0 […]
[…] extolling the benefits of an “open city”, so here goes. The presenter, Mark Surman, outlines his idea for using collaborative technologies to improve the quality of life and efficiency of a […]
Mark you might like this article: http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/01/mark-gorton-ceo.html
[…] life outside the technology sector. We have leaders like Mark Surman of Mozilla Foundation who laid the groundwork within our City government, opening the door to open data. We had a recent “Web 2.0 […]
[…] Surman – Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation – gave this wonderful speech entitled “A City that Thinks Like the Web” as a lunchtime keynote for 300 councillors, tech staff and agency heads at the City of […]
[…] Web 2.0 Summit : Moving Towards Government 2.0 (see Torontoist’s for a summary of that, plus Mark Surman’s (also involved with ChangeCamp) keynote address); there was also a second TranistCamp which has made a impact on the (on going) redesign of the TTC […]
[…] of 2008 – a breakthrough. The City of Toronto hosts an internal Web 2.0 conference and invited Mark Surman – executive director of the Mozilla Foundation and long time participant in the Toronto social tech […]
[…] speca od wszystkiego co otwarte, obecnie pracującego dla Mozilla Foundation – zatytułowana “Miasto myślące tak jak Sieć”, a wygłoszona w czasie spotkania City of Toronto 2008 Web 2.0 Summit. Surman twierdzi, że […]
[…] what spurred the mayor to become a techno-geek? Was Mayor Miller’s life changed after a talk by Mark Surman at the City of Toronto’s Web 2.0 Summit? We think so — do […]
[…] A city that thinks like the web, slides + audio « commonspace […]
[…] participated in Government 2.0 online last year, but just got around to going through this talk by Mark Surman of Mozilla. He offers a great primer on technology and how the open source movement relates to civic […]
[…] Draft a city: that thinks like a web City thinks like the web […]
[…] was an announcement that was highly anticipated, from the challenge posed by Mozilla’s Mark Surman at the City’s Web 2.0 Summit in the fall of 2008, through the very popular session on open […]
[…] Surman provides a great vision for the role that data plays in the development of a city. Re-reading his post has me thinking […]
[…] Underlying all of these initiatives is the idea that cities behave like the Web — interconnected, innovative, participatory, open — so ask more people to participate online to create a better city! For a better explanation of this idea, see this Powerpoint presentation created by Mark Surman, executive director of the Mozilla Foundation, supporter of open source software (h/t commonspace.) […]
[…] A city that thinks like the web […]
[…] which struck a chord with Mayor David Miller. In his speech, Mr. Surman encouraged the city to “think like the web”, that by enabling citizens to help the city, (as a community of developers supports open source […]
[…] September 1, 2010 Over the past two years, I’ve given talks on many Mozilla topics. How a massive global community can (and did) make the web better. Threats and challenges ahead for the internet. The importance of […]
[…] interrelacionados e independientes: pensamiento computacional, principio de las cuatro Rs, y Mark Surman introdujo el pensar como la […]
[…] the Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation used Apps for Democracy as a case study at #to20 (he talks about it at min. 30 in his presentation here) as did Anthony Williams, author of the super-awesome-sitting-on-iStrategyLabs-shelf book […]
[…] Surman. “How to build a city that thinks like the web” took its title from an earlier talk by Mark, in which he argued that two principles shaped the web for the better – openness and […]
[…] life outside the technology sector. We have leaders like Mark Surman of Mozilla Foundation who laid the groundwork within our City government, opening the door to open data. We had a recent “Web 2.0 […]
[…] In 2011, I found Mozilla Foundation Executive Director Mark Surman’s City of Toronto 2.0 Web Summit presentation from 2008 – A city that thinks like the web. […]
[…] In 2011, I found Mozilla Foundation Executive Director Mark Surman’s City of Toronto 2.0 Web Summit presentation from 2008 – A city that thinks like the web. […]
[…] become better online communicators. And not only, or mainly, those in government. In a city that thinks like the web every public-facing information resource will be bound to its creator’s online identity and […]
[…] the past two years, I’ve given talks on many Mozilla topics. How a massive global community can (and did) make the web better. Threats and challenges ahead for the internet. The importance of […]