Open Letter to Dr. Martin Ester - The Director of Computing Science Department at SFU

Dear Dr. Martin Ester, The Director of Computing Science Department at Simon Fraser University

I am Naoya Makino, a fourth year Computer Science student and currently taking the SFU Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue. How can SFU make the student experience even better? Can SFU improve the quality and impact of its research? How can SFU strengthen its community ties? The university is seeking those answers, and I believe that the Department of Computing Science could approach these questions by promoting the use of open datasets at City of Vancouver in classes and contributing to the Greenest City 2020 Action Plans through the students’ work.  

I transferred from Langara College two years ago and now I am enjoying courses and university life with many new friends. University gives me a new path way that I never imagined. It is a place where I get to see the wisdom of human civilization. Science shows me what is possible and gives me hope and a sense of future. Computer Science reminds me of the time I spent with a toy car back then and making it from my imagination. It is a sense of adventure. Having the excitement of learning something new today, I can apply that knowledge to make something new that I  never imagined yesterday. This gives me confidence, widen the curiosity, and brighten the future. I would like to appreciate for providing me the best quality of education and opportunities to meet extraordinary people.

Taking the semester in dialogue, I am increasingly aware of what is around me and what is happening in the City of Vancouver. One of the projects I am fascinated is Greenest City 2020. Vancouver has set ambiguous goals to be the greenest city by 2020 and the goals include access to nature, green buildings, creating a zero waste culture and many more. It is clear that none of these goals can be accomplished by the city alone. It should be collaborative efforts of all citizens, institutions, and specially municipalities. I strongly believe that the Department of Computer Science at SFU can play a significant role in this work. There are many talented students who are eager to gain an experience and use their skills to contribute to the society, and the city is in need of supports to computer-related works in many of their targets. If university courses could use city's resources and integrate into the course curriculum, it will be beneficial for both university, students and the city. Students can get hands on experience with real world data, university can promote sustainability learning and bring awareness to the community, and the city gets work done. Learning can be fun, practical, and beneficial to the community.

In particular to Computer Science Department at Simon Fraser University, there are number of courses that could use city's resources into the course and make the learning experience more practical and fun.

• User Interface Design CMPT 363: Dr. Ted Kirkpatrick shows interests in using open data in this course.
• Web Development CMPT 470: Dr. Greg Baker is welcoming students to use datasets from City of Vancouver and make “App for Greenest City” in CMPT 470 course project.
• The Database System CMPT 354: Use the datasets and "hack" the data to see what students can retrieve the new meaning out of it.
• The Geographic Information Science program: Dr. Rob Cameron could use open datasets
• Other courses might consider using the open datasets are CMPT 467, DDP Capstone, MSc projects, and graduate dual degree program (GDDP) projects.

There are countless opportunities in the class and the university can use these potentials to contribute to the community and make the next leaders of green economy. Therefore, I would like to recommend for all Computer Science professors to take a look at Open Data Initiatives and the Greenest City Initiatives at City of Vancouver and consider using their resources into our course learning tools.

I am actively involved in Open Data Initiative at City of Vancouver; in fact I was at a meeting with Open Data Initiatives with civic developers to talk about concerns and opportunities about the open data. I have been having a conversation with Greenest City Initiatives about potentials of city collaboration with university and they are keen to assist guidance and could consider adding more datasets into the data catalogue. I am very happy to talk more about the potential use of city data at computer science courses and I am willing to be a contact person with City to move this forward. I appreciate for your considerations and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

Cc. Dr. Robert D. Cameron - Associate Dean, Faculty of Applied Sciences


With Best Regards

Naoya Makino
Simon Fraser Univeristy
nmakino@sfu.ca

Eyes open, Listen deep, and Take actions

If you would wait for a right time, you would never start. Am I ready for whatever coming next? Who knows if I am ready or not. Why am I so hurry? Why am I taking this so seriously? Go for it, as David, the co-founder of Pulse Energy, said at International Student Energy Summit. What I learned through this semester in dialogue is listening deeply what’s around me, stopping places where I would usually pass by, and talking to people who would not be with otherwise.

I had an urban picnic on last Friday with dialoguers and random people at Vancouver City Centre Skytrain Station. I was talking to a street musician, shared laughs and stories. I knew him before, or I saw him a couple of times on the street. But now I had a chance to talk to him and know little more about his stories, the street I use everyday looks little different. This change, this little change is a snap-shot of what I have changed.

I am becoming more interested in education. I believe there are many potentials at university learning, and a learning experience can expand out of classrooms. I love the concept of “the city is the classroom” raised via Janet Moore and Duane Elverum, co-founder of CityStudio Vancouver. I still remember the first day at SFU and saw full of young students at Academic Quadrangle; we can’t waste this young energy! What if we apply Google’s 80-20 Rule at university where students can work on whatever they want in 20% of their time at university? What if we work on real projects with City instead of making an application in class which will be never used afterwords? Why do we even have a campus when we have full of things happening in the city? Can we have a classroom in the city? I still believe the value of theoretical learning, and it is nice to have a “just learning” space. But we should always keep an eye open for expanding a learning experience and thinking about how we can apply what we learn in school and practice elsewhere. My project is about promoting use of open data from City of Vancouver in class and work with City to make something cool. Students gain an experience and expose city data, university can promote community engagements and City gets work done. This is just a starting point. I am hoping to keep the relationship with the City and the university, getting involved in both Greenest City Initiatives and Open Data Initiatives. Don’t think too hard, just do it and keep the passion!

Eyes open, listen deep, take actions, and focus what’s now.
Most importantly, have fun!

We are like a bee

We are like a bee. We don’t realize the significance of what we do in daily lives. I don’t see the real impact on this ecosystem of my daily activities. Yet it is clear that we human beings are making a significant impact on this ecosystem, just like bees. Driving cars, charging cell phones, buying foods, going to a party, we all are contributing significantly and relying on the ecosystem. Looking at me from outside, I am in the part of this ecosystem, but I myself don’t realize as much. Bees flying around, kissing flowers and taking their lives somewhere. Air, birds, ants, leaves, salmons, and trees, we are all living on this planet and all are contributing one way or another on this very complicated ecosystem. Yes one doesn’t see the significance of its existence. Do I need to know the whole impact? Do I care? Am I willing to give up anything? Yes I care, because I realized it. I realized how significant impacts I am making by living, breathing at this very moment. I realized what we have now is not necessarily an answer, but can be improved. I realized how much I should work on to make any changes. I realized how important to act now and start small. I realized many people in our generations are working hard right now to make positive changes in their own ways. I realized we are leaders of today, not tomorrow.

What do I do? Start small and iterate. I have started seeding many plants. I started to work on developing an application using Vancouver’s health inspection data. Talk is cheap; one way we developers can demonstrate our existence is making stuff. This world is great; there are so many great tools available everywhere, and free. What I need to do is keep making, iterating through and showing what I get. It is important to keep up the latest technologies and building my skills on top of what I learned from school. If I don’t use it, my four years of knowledge would be obscured. I started contacting organizations I am interested in, such as Creative Commons Canada, and to see ways I can get involved. I am undecided of my near future plans, but the world will not stop and wait for me. Just do it. We never know where the future takes us. Only way we can prepare is do the best we can do today.

I have many interests and problems that I want to work on. Wondering how I can get started? Start small and start with the easiest one. Get your hands dirty. Once a ball starts rolling, it will take you somewhere and you will probably find things that you would never expect.

Don’t focus on what you presume what’s happening, instead embrace what fully is.

Right Here, Right Now

The present time matters most to me for several reasons. The first of all, This is the only time I am fully in control; what I decide at the present time can have literal impacts. Also I can only do so much right now, everyone having about an equal chance. The time is an equal for all people and how to use it is up to us. No matter who you are, no matter what you have gone through before, we all have about an equal control and a chance at this present time. Doing the best you can do at the given present time will make up the future and I believe that is the best investment you can do for your future. A couple of years ago, before getting into SFU, I tended to plan future a lot and tried to make precise career steps for many years ahead; it did not work for me. There were so many uncertainties and often those things were not in my control: financial situations, economy, and permit issues. All of those plans I made before did not work and the time spent to make the plans were wasted. This experience changed me to focus most of my resource into the present time and set a boundary between what I am in control and not. I still do care things that are out of my control but with the understanding of the fact that those are not in my control, so I would not spend too much time thinking about those; instead I try to focus my attention to more of controllable elements. Another reason why I focus mostly on the present time is I believe this age we are uniquely poisoned, and in fact we are very fortunate to have all what we have today. The world is changing so rapidly and this is once in life-time opportunity for many of us to make a great impact to the world. We individuals have so much power like never before. Having access to nearly unlimited information, the amount of resources available for those who have a strong passion to study whatever subjects is unbelievable. I very much appreciate where I am currently poisoned and feel an obligation to use this chance to make a positive impact to the world. I am very excited right now and yet I am bit too considerable to make a next step. I try not to think like I need to make a “right” decision but I need to be ready for failures. Don’t even try to make a right decision at first, but it is important that I learn from experience and make a next step from there. “Keep tying, don’t settle”.

What is Possible?

As my last semester at SFU, I am taking this program called Semester in Dialogue, which is a discussion-based, student-oriented course rather than a normal lecture type class.

What interesting to me is that I can get to meet people from all over the faculties, including Communications, Business, Geography, Environmental Studies, Criminology, Education, and Science who would never meet and have a same class otherwise; it is very interesting to hear their stories and see different perspectives. We, including myself, tend to follow stories in our interests, care things that matter only to us, and hang out people who have similar backgrounds or interests. This is a great chance for me to mingle with people who have completely different backgrounds and often have very different interests. But we do share one common interest: Vancouver. Hence the topic of this course is "Wilding Vancouver".

Vancouver is a very active city that welcomes multiculture, diversity, and nature. Yet it is surprising how much I don't know about the city and what is "really" happening in local communities. This course lets me explore the city and meet with community leaders, having a dialogue about a whole range of topics.

As a part of ice breaking sessions, we went to a retreat at Rolling Earth in Robert Creek where I met with people who are practicing a sustainable living and enjoying the richness of wild. They produce about 25% of food by themselves and really, enjoying their lives there.

One of the unique exercises we did was "Walk in Silence", which we go on a trail and not allowed to talk, listening in what we hear. This gave me a different view of what is visible and what I can hear. I can hear things that are not visible, giving me a greater sense of surroundings. Regardless of my presence, the sound is always on; I capture only a part of the sound that is present, constantly on and dynamically changing.

Wildness in me is something uncontrolled, free, powerful, changing and authentic. The definition of wild in this course is not entirely clear to me yet and I expect to change as the program goes on. I am very excited to be a part of this experimental project and looking forward to meeting with great guests and working with new friends.

One more thing I realized during the retreat: the path I am taking right now is nothing wrong. I am about to find out what works and what not. All I have to do is figuring out how/where I can give a shout and try things that interest me and keep trying until I find it. Keep tying, don't settle.

"Stay hungry, stay foolish"
just like someone said.

What is Change?

Today, we've invited Sarah Blyth from Vancouver Park Board. She is a person who listens communities, bringing their voices to the board and takes actions until voices be heard. She has strong connections with youth and tries to make more youth-friendly parks. Your voice does matter, and it will make a difference. She proves this by taking actions herself.

I think it is extremely important to share these stories to young people that your voice does affect policy makings and changing communities. It is hard to know whether your vote is making a difference and raising voice is worth time, but she was a clear example that a public voice can change cities and it is possible to change politics (slowly).

What do you think of change?
something dramatic, forward-looking, old vs new. Seeing great changes over the years, I think of a change as something driven by people, against old and big power, seeking for hope. But change could be a bad thing; it might not be what you want. It might not be a choice.

I find this question very interesting. What do you think? What is change?

Dialogue with Tilo Driessen at Vancouver Park Board

Today we had a privilege to talk with Tilo Driessen from Vancouver Park Board. He is very knowledgeable, has passion in the local communities, and open to share stories, even ones that are off-records. Coming from an architecture degree, he shared his view of architecture as "Social Craft". As it comes to a park, it is where people gather, taking a break, accessing to nature, and forming a community. Making a desirable park is not easy to design as it seems. He shared many struggling stories with communities and described how hard it can be to meet community demands as well as City's capacity. It is also surprising that they do not know how parks are actually used, and therefore they are interested in knowing what's going on in the parks. In fact, we are assigned to go to five chosen parks in Downtown Vancouver and observe how parks are used, which becomes our group project of this program. We might have a chance to present the reports to the Park Board and could have a real impact on their decision makings. I will be at George Wainborn Park for next a couple days to observe and collect data.

City of Vancouver has the Access to Nature goal; "All Vancouver residents live within a five minute walk of a park, greenway, or other green space by 2020". In order to archive this goal, community engagement is essential. It is important that these are driven by neighborhood. City and the Park Board are providing what he calls a "toolkit" and working with communities to make better neighborhood. There are programs such as Neighbourhood Matching Fund and Greenest City Neighbourhood Grants for community leaders to make green neighbourhoods. I would be very interested to see how city is encouraging collaborations within communities and improving their services.
Another thing I would like to note from the conversation is how city planning is shaped by complains. People complain when things are not working well or they don't like whatever they are getting. If, however, it is working well, they are happy and don't bother report back to city. So it is often filled up with complains and city has to deal with "don't do this" voices.
Therefore, in order to make a better community, it is a key to encourage active engagement and bring creative people on the board to plan their neighbourhood together.

Reflection Week One

Sitting is the forest, having no human surveillance around me, surrounded by calm yet absolute nature was the first experience in many years. There was no sense of fear, expectation, hierarchy, nor trend. It was me, being present. There was possibility, excitement, and enjoyment of being there. "What is possible?" this is the question I ask over the time of this dialogue. It is the question of what is possible to me, without fear or any other parameters. How can I work on this question in this constantly moving society? How can I not to care about other parameters? I have not come up with a good solution yet. But one thing I learned from the time I spent in the forest was the importance of being present. The present is the only controllable element and the actionable time. What can I do right now? Speaking of controllability, control is the my keyword when I think of wild. I myself is the only controllable element. City is dynamic and always changing; I see city is wild like the forest. It is not in my control. The significance of my presence in the city or in the forest is both small. Regardless of my presence, the sound was there and my contribution to the music was relatively small. Yet I enjoyed this uncontrollableness of city and forest. "Whatever you do in life will be insignificant, but it's very important that you do it". This saying brings me back the initial question of what is possible. Knowing the insignificance of my presence, it is very important that you do what you believe in. Although I am not entirely sure what I want to do in life, I am becoming more optimistic about where I am right now; I am about to find out what works and what not. All I have to do is figuring out how/where I can give a shout and try things that interest me and keep trying until I find it. Keep tying, don't settle. Probably this is the best thing I got from the retreat.
Another note I would like to make in the first week is Naomi Steinberg's Workshop. She emphasized the importance of deep listening. Listening to know who your audiences are, listening to know what is around you, and listening to know who you are. She also reminded us of the importance of our personal stories. You might undervalue your personal stories, but it is often a great story to share and we can learn so much from sharing those stories.
I am greatly looking forward to listening many other personal stories and sharing my stories in this course.