Carparking

 At a recent COE (Community of Excellence) there was a discussion about car parking.  Someone said maybe we could just stack them on top of each other.  Well here you go, that's just what they are doing in New York.  Hydraulic Car Parks!!

This is just a small car park

Not a great pic, but this car park is about 6 stories high and goes on forever.  Taken from the High Line walk.

IDEO - Take Two

I visited the IDEO office in SFO on my first day of the Exchange and was also lucky to visit the Palo Alto office towards the end of my Exchange.  This gave me more insight into design thinking and the way IDEO work. 

The table top is paper, you peel the strips of paper off

Jonah met Ellen and I in the foyer of the Palo Alto office.  There are two things that can happen on arrival.  You could either be met for a brief discussion in the circular couch or stand at the tall counter to see where the discussion takes you and the discretion of your host.  We discovered this after a great 1 ½hr discussion and tour with Jonah – we were lucky not to be the ones that hit the couch. (However I did like the stack of paper - that was the table - and crayons)

 Before we headed off to look around IDEO, Jonah explained ‘rapid prototyping’  showed us an example in the foyer and said it can be used on any project not just engineer designing.  It’s about moving fast. Don’t spend forever on something and then find out it’s a waste of time, says Jonah.  If you spend a long time designing or creating a project before you know whether its going to work well, you may end up having a vested interest in making it work.  He showed us examples of models that are done quickly and either thrown away or continued to be worked on.

In the foyer is an example of one of the ways they gather ideas from the staff.  They did 3 quick prototypes for redeveloping the foyer and asked the staff to make suggestions and advise which one they liked or if there were other ideas.  He said you have to hold them to it and make sure you get ideas. 

IDEO also provides free food for everyone (like Google and Facebook).  Jonah says the kitchen and dining area is a great space as its where some of the best ideas are born.

Onto brainstorming. Whenever there is a brainstorming session or question to be asked of people Jonah says it has to be a very specific question.  Go out and do the research first and understand what you are after, then start the brainstorm with a specific question.   He also said don't let staff or anyone tell you that they aren't creative, its just practice, everyone is creative.  IDEO went out to a school and asked the children to design a wallet, the kids all said they couldn't do it, they weren't creative and when IDEO prompted further, the ideas that spilt out were fabulous.  One group designed a wallet compartment in their 'flip flop' (sandshoe, I guess he means for we non Americans)

IDEO use their ‘human-centred design thinking’ philosophy and the CEO has written some great books I will be buying us.  They research human patterns and go out and experiment with people.  They worked on a new hotel lobby and found out you can change the nature of interaction by standing side by side vs face to face.  Standing side by side is more collaborative.   That's just a very quick example, they discovered much more during that experiment.

 IDEO's ethos - Try things really quickly in the lowest resolution, then increase the level of resolution – don't sit in rooms and pontificate says Jonah, get out there and look at behaviours and find out what's needed.  Don't just talk to the people who you always talk to, or to the majority of people, go to the 'edges' - find out why people on the edges don't get involved.  Go to supermarkets, shopping centres and just talk to people.  Jonah says, do less planning - do more researching.  Research by getting out and talking to people, but do it as quickly as possible.   For big hairy projects do small incremental things a long the way while you are developing towards the final outcome.  It stops the team from going to sleep, keeps them interested - but keep moving fast to the end product - was Jonah's piece of advice.

There's that 3d Machine again

Palo Alto City use IDEO's human centred design thinking in a lot of their work.  I have some examples to bring back.

Can't resist showing the bike racks and use of space

Facebook - Chapter 2

We walked into reception expecting security checks might take some time. It was the quickest, most efficient security check and greeting arrangement via computer we two Aussies, Ellen and I have experienced.  Lauren Sweeney, Director Environment was right there as we turned around to take us on our personal tour which lasted over an hour and a half. 

Facebook only recently bought the premises and gutted the inside of all the buildings, Lauren tells us.  The previous set up comprised of big offices and personal spaces where people worked alone and held meetings in large meeting rooms. Facebook felt that was the organisation’s downfall – Facebook’s philosophy is to have only small individual spaces positioned around the sides of the warehouse (just enough room for your computer) with really large benches in the middle for collaborative interaction.  It gets loud, people throw things across the room at times for fun, “Day 9 made me do it” is the normal excuse says Lauren but the warehouse rooms are engaging, dynamic, fun and creative.  They have pretty much stopped working from home as it lost the collaborative intent of what they do at Facebook

If you want quiet time you can put your headset on or go to a ‘cozy’ which is a small room for 1 to 2 people (or anywhere else on campus for that matter).  There are a number of small to medium sized meeting rooms with digital pads outside each room that shine green or red to show availability.  They are called ‘Wayfinders’ - if the room is busy the digital pad will let you know what rooms are free and how to get there.  There are also small rooms with one treadmill and laptop bench in there to exercise and work if you so wish.  You are also encouraged to walk and brainstorm outside along the road.

The campus is like a mini town and has been designed with that in mind around a street scene.  Large garage doors open up to the street giving an even greater feeling of space when inside.  Bridges connect buildings on the 2^nd and 3^rd floors so engineers/designers don’t have to go up and down steps continually to reach each other.  You can grab one of the many bikes to reach the other end or go to one of the many free café’s available.  Lauren tells us there is a saying for new employees ‘welcome to Facebook and your next 15lbs’.  The food is exceptional with a wide variety of alternatives (both healthy or not quite) and free at any time of the day.  There are a 2 large cafés; one we saw called “ETC”, then there is a burger shack, coffee houses and a sushi restaurant.  All free except for one coffee house if you want your special coffee and the stylish Japanese restaurant.

There is a Bank, a Health Fund, a bike shop where they fix your bike for free, a Laundromat, a Chemist, a shop to buy gadgets, a Bar and much more no doubt that we didn’t see.  This new premises is not near a groovy downtown area like it previously was in Palo Alto so Facebook needed to find ways to give it a village atmosphere.  Once inside for the day, the aim is that employees find all they want and a similar experience to the real world without having to go out. 

‘Hack Plaza’ is a large outdoor events and concert space.  HR organise the parties in this space and there is also an Events team who put on the bigger concerts and events.

Hack Plaza is named after the events they call Hackathons.    Facebook just completed its 35^th Hackathon.  It’s where a team is put together, usually cross functional and outside their area of expertise, to take on a new challenge.  The challenge is often worked on together overnight – from 6pm to 6am.  Hackathons we are told are about creativity. The 6pm – 6am atmosphere gets teams to the next level with the creative thinking and cross functionality (and lots of coffee and energy drinks). 

 Design Thinking, Rapid Prototyping, Agile, Scrums, are just some of the types of tools/techniques company's such as Google, Facebook, Apple use.

Whiteboards, post-it-notes, Blackboards to write on are everywhere – it’s all highly visible and visual environment at Facebook.  The visibility allows for faster more efficient work.  Visual boards outline what teams are working on, where teams are up to and what the stretch goals are.

Lauren showed us one large blackboard which is used for writing thoughts on and Lauren tells us they thought they would only need to clean it every 2 weeks.  Its gone crazy, people are writing, illustrating and posting up messages all the time. 

There is a lot of art in this place, it's all around the walls and people also personalise their space with their own art work.  It’s just one big crazy creative blast at Facebook. (And the pressure to continually perform and succeed, just by the way, is hectic a previous employee later tells me)

Lastly. Every Friday is Q&A.  Mark Zuckerberg comes into the Bar for 1 hour to discuss the strategic outlook and next moves, answer questions and ask for ideas.  Employees grab a beer before Q&A and then the drinks flow after.

As we leave, our Palo Alto city host and driver, Michael says “Congratulations - you two have just joined the small cool crew in the world who have been privileged to visit the Facebook campus”. 

Thank you Palo Alto and Menlow Park Cities for organising our tour.

Connecting through Libraries (and a new Maker Movement)

Libraries, as we know, are being reinvented as spaces for dynamic interaction and lively exchange of ideas.  Traditionally libraries were where we went for quiet reading and researching with break out rooms for interaction.  As the world flips, so do libraries.  Libraries are now ‘upside down’ according to Bill Derry, Assistant Director of Westport Library, Connecticut NYC.  They are community centres, they are noisy and you now find the break out rooms for quiet time.

Libraries are places to engage, be creative, think and also produce.  Why do I say produce?

Westport library, has a space where a mix of people come together, from entrepreneurs to school children, for the production of their inventions.  A new movement is taking hold - the Maker Movement – no longer is invention reserved for specialists, the Maker Movement is  allowing anyone and everyone to innovate, invent and produce.

Westport Library have constructed a “Maker Space” smack bang in the middle of their library.  Bill advised they held a Mini Maker Faire in April 2012 expecting around 800 people, but instead 2,200 came. The Faire was so popular they knew a new trend was upon them and went about finding a way to continue and bring the movement into their Library.  So they built their own Maker Space and bought a 3d printer.  Check out Detroit's Maker Faire

Just as the community came to libraries to learn how to use computers back in the 1980’s, now they are coming to learn how to ‘print’ physical objects from digital designs, Bill advises.  People imagine, design, create and connect using the space and the Libraries free open source Computer Assisted Design programs.

The Maker Space has replaced the stacks and stacks of reference books at Westport Library and boy it gets noisy in there, especially after school, Bill tells me. 

IDEO, when I visited, also showed me their 3d design machine and what they can produce by pressing the ’print’ button. It’s not paper that comes out but physical objects.

I’m personally off to the Maker Space in New York tomorrow.  I’m told to sit in the photo booth.  I won’t get a photo of myself however, I will get a mould of my face

Just as an aside -  the key note speaker, at a recent conference I attended, futurist Dr Cartlett, mentioned, as did President Obama in his State of theUnion Address, manufacturing is coming back to the US with a new focus on creating manufacturing hubs and jobs.

Is this the 3^rd Industrial Revolution

When we finished Bill was off to discuss ‘TEDMED’ with library staff.  What's next in the arena of Libraries?

Building Community Connectiveness

Methods to engage a community include: holding town hall meetings, focus groups, strategic community groups/board platforms, holding events, connecting through libraries, community centres, targeted programs and partnering with specialised community groups - to name a few.

But here's the 'game changer' as they say in the States - digital connectedness.  The advent of network technologies enables collaboration on a scale that hasn't been possible before.  It's creating new ways to bring diverse stakeholders together.  

Having spent time in the epicentre, Silicon Valley, I now have a new perspective on how fast technology is changing the world. New modes of engagement are allowing councils/cities to reach out to a much larger, wider audience and demographic.

Examples include - the world of APPs; Crowdsourcing; Open government; Wi-Fi connectivity; public/private partnerships and I haven't even started on Facebook or Twitter.   

Here are some links just for starters -

Crowdsourcing

Mayor's across the nation used crowdsourcing to get ideas from the public for entry into the Bloomberg Mayor's Challenge.  An open call to residents for ideas (crowdsourcing)  by one Mayor gave the winning person 3 tickets to a major league game.

The Mayor of Milwaukee, also put a call out to the public and picked the 12 top ideas.  The 12 chosen presented at their large city meeting which they called a ‘TORNOVATION’.  The Mayor of Lexington made a city wide conference call with 1000’s on the phone at same time.  SFO also used crowd sourcing to elicit ideas from its constituents, ImproveSF.

Council's work with citizens to set up their own connections and then stay out of the conversations so as not to be Big Brother. Check out 'nextdoor.com'  or https://3japantownsanjose.nextdoor.com/city/

IDEO use crowd sourcing to contribute to social good - Open IDEO  definitely check this one out.

Apps

 

 Applications are revolutioning the way community members interact with their city/council.  Download the APP such as San Jose Clean,  Boston's citizens connect, or many others, take a photo and you have reported graffiti, litter, a missing sign or city park condition to the appropriate department such as Public Works.   The resident gets notification when their discovery has been fixed. 

 

 When it’s that easy, the community gets involved.  Also when it is fun they get involved or if there is a competition.  Check out New York BigApp competition.  Then there is Code for America which is like the 'Peace Corp' for computers - they help council's with fiscal restraints to code new ideas and Apps. 

 

Public private partnership. 

Cities around the world are exploring new partnerships that stretch further in local government than they used to.  They leverage their existing resources which include individual businesses, developers, entrepreneurs, non profits, universities and colleges, Chambers of Commerce, innovation agencies and through crowdsourcing platforms potentially all residents .  They engage the private sector to take more interest in their community and be included in decision making in new ways.

 

I have a disc with an array of information to bring back, including such articles on New York's Network of Business Leaders. The Partnership is a non-profit membership organization comprised of a select group of two hundred CEOs (“Partners”) from New York City’s top corporate, investment and entrepreneurial firms. Partners are committed to working closely with government, labour and the non-profit sector to enhance the economy and maintain New York City’s position as the global centre of commerce, culture and innovation. 

The Bloomberg Mayor's Challenge has also highlighted the way councils can get powerful new partnerships together to help councils and cities tackle tough problems.
 

Mapping

Cities digital road map – check out New York's Roadmap.

Free WI-Fi

The race is on to get WI-F in as many places as possible.  Santa Cruz have it all coffee shops down their main street.  San Francisco are aiming to have it all the way down one of their main city streets, Market St.  New York is aiming to have it in all their parks.  And on the subject of parks, Bloomberg's aim is that every person will live within 10mins of a Park - this includes using school grounds for parks after school hours.

Open Government.
Transparency for our community  -  check out https://nycopendata.socrata.com/


311

Once upon a time residents had to go through 500 or more phone numbers to reach the right department or ask a simple question.  Now it all goes to the one number, 311.  It’s very innovative, check  New York or San Francisco

Social Media  - I haven't even started on this – ‘it’s where the public are, so it’s where governments should reach out to them’  says  Ron Vinson, (Director of Media in the Department of Technology, SFO)  but that's for a blog of its own
 

QR codes and Signs

 QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response Code) is the trademark for a type of matrix barcode. These two examples below show the QR square in the bottom right corner.

It comes to us from Japan where they are very common.  I am seeing a lot of them - on pamphlets, council material, hotel doors, executive staff and councillors cards - and we expect to see more and more.

The optical machine-readable labels are attached to items that record information related to the item. The QR Code system has become popular because of its fast readability and connectivity.

You download the APP and then scan the square (or barcode) wherever you see it and it takes you straight to a website which has much more detail and information about the business or art project or councillor or Event or hotel or movie trailer or.........
 
Councils will be putting them on their signs around their cities before long.  Scan the bar code and it will take you to a site that will outline the history of the park, an aerial shot of where you are, what else is in the park, what you are and are not allowed to do in the park etc. etc.  It's endless and it could mean much less information is required on a sign, plus much more information is provided for the resident, tourist or passer by.
Scott Burns, from CEO & Co-Founder, GovDelivery: "Mobile is a trend that is affecting everyone. One day soon with QR code type of systems you will be able to swipe your phone over a wand and sign up for alerts and emails at parks for example. I am most interested to see how we are able to tie geographic information to smart phone. So if you are headed to a park you can see the updated parks information on your phone".

Did You Know?

A few snippets of Santa Cruz info:

When there are no lights at an intersection - all cars have stop signs and take it turns.  Very polite. 

Plastic bags were ban last year in California.  You now pay 10c for a bag and its a sturdy brown paper bag.  The coffee cups are recyclable (no polystyrene anywhere around here) and the take away cutlery are  usually strong biodegradable utensils.  Still - a medium coffee cup is huge, I hate to think what the large is like, let alone a medium or large soda.

I'm about to hit the Big Apple and find out though, however new legislation, adopted on Thursday by the city's Board of Health has put new restrictions on supersized colas.  The Board hope this will lead to changes in the way New Yorkers eat and drink.  Bloomberg I see hopes to ban Styrofoam food packaging from stores and restaurants before his term runs out.
 
Back on Bikes.    In Santa Cruz it's 5c an hour to lock your bike away in safety.



Out of interest, the UK has a massive campaign currently on to make cycling safer.  A good article to read is Cyclists live longer – refer to Graph    
http://www.cyclingpromotion.com.au/images/stories/factsheets/Issue_Sheet_2_cyclists_live_longer.pdf
Also Copenhagen has saved millions of pounds through people cycling rather than driving. A bike can save you money – read paragraph ‘Improving the health of your bottom line”
http://www.cyclingpromotion.com.au/images/stories/factsheets/BFA_Fct_Sht_SaveMoney_Web.pdf
New York also has taken the focus away from cars in Manhattan and onto pedestrians and cyclist.  Stay tuned on how that is tracking, how they are achieving this and what the benefits are. 



The newspapers are much smaller and easier to manage over here, they are long and skinny and lighter paper is used. San Jose, has one of the oldest newspapers in the state - The San Jose Mercury which was founded in 1851.  The Mercury News was named one of the five best-designed newspapers in the world by the Society for News Design for work done in 2001. 

But did you know, on average, a year's worth of newspaper (one paper per day) produces 550 pounds (250 kilograms) of waste paper. An average New York Times Sunday edition produces 8 million pounds (3.6 million kilograms) of waste paper.

 

It will be interesting to see how long hard copy papers will be around.  I am witnessing the paperless office. City workers and council officials have extremely clean desks in Silicon Valley and Santa Cruz.  Only the Ipad is taken to council meetings and city staff know everything they want is stored on their computer.  Palo Alto had a 'bin' week, where they asked all employees to get rid of all unnecessary folders and papers and to rethink the way they work e.g. stop printing.

 

The Importance and Power of Stories

I arrive late into my next destination after my time in San Jose and its pitch black.  My host welcomes me to the 'treehouse' and when I log in to the Wi-Fi connection that night, I see the name is 'treehouse'.  "Cute" I'm thinking, what a nice name.  Next morning, as the light is slowly creeping into my bedroom I sit bolt upright to look out the window - shock - through the dawn light I am confronted with a massive Sequoia tree - CRICKIES I really am staying in a treehouse, and not at the bottom trunk but in amongst the branches of this massive beautiful tree.

Terrence McNally, Speaker at the League of Cities Conference spoke on the unique power of telling compelling stories

We are our stories, Terrence tells us.  The best way to reach people is by sharing compelling stories. To catch people's attention we need to adopt story telling, have a narrative and craft stories with clear messages in them. 

It strengthens our work – how?  It engages people more emotionally and we can more easily connect to our audience.  It helps you build credibility, engagement and trust, but good stories are not enough –  we also need to combine them with data. The treehouse, by the way, is 20 years old, the Sequoia Redwood is about 80 years old. There are no old generation Redwoods in the valley I am staying as they were all chopped down to rebuild San Francisco after the early 1900 earthquake. Century old trees were logged, it was a devastating 'clear cut' of the entire valley.

Data spells out the challenges and value of a story.  If you find data, find a story to link it to.  If you have a Story, link it to data. Then it’s a call to Action.

Story +Data +Call to Action

The earth is warming as we know, we need trees to absorb carbon dioxide as we know, we need plants and animals for humans to be healthy as we know - so we also need to stop logging old growth forests

The ultimate purpose of every communication is to inspire a specific individual to take a specific action.  Your story is part of the bigger story, Terrance advises.

Relating the power of stories to work places. We need core stories.  At Warringah we are gaining more understanding of the need for stories. We are starting to collect stories and we as staff all need to understand the importance of compelling stories and assist in getting a story bank.  As we hear a story we need to bring it in.  Terrance said once you have a system to collect them, then you need to craft them – the secret of great writing is rewriting, produce a draft then rewrite it, a number of times if necessary. Then share it and use it to demonstrate it is something you are doing.

Stories are emblematic, they fit the program an organisation is trying to push, e.g. it goes with the organisations culture. Success stories reinforce what the culture is.  A great story can also be what we didn’t do or what we were up against and the lessons learnt.

What if? Stories.  If this program gets defunded we wont be able to….. –  Terrance says you need to personalise a story, give us a family, children, tell us what it looks like for them if your program doesn't get funded etc..  Any presentation or talk can be very dry, or alternatively, it can be very interesting if it is turned into a 'story'.  

A story needs:

• a Protagonist
• a created world - e.g flesh and blood with people with dialogue that come to life
• obstacles, conflict or drama that has been turned around
• emotion - People  want to be entertained and moved
• data
• clear meaning
• call for action

I'm coming back with all sorts of tricks and tools to elicit stories

San Jose - 2013 Mayor's State of the City Address

When it comes to a Mayor outlining the year's achievements, there is a little more pomp and ceremony in the USA than in Australia.  In fact, do we even do this in Australia??

I was fortunate to be working at San Jose City Hall the week the Mayor, Chuck Reed, gave his annual "City Address".  The city has 1 million residents, 60,000 businesses, is America's 10th largest city and the urban centre of Silicon Valley, so the Mayor's address to the Nation is no small event.

When I first walked in to the Auditorium, it felt more like I was attending a rock concert than a Mayoral Address, the crowds, the air of excitement and the large media podium was impressive.

The Mayor was more upbeat this year than in the last few.  (2013 not on YouTube as yet) Silicon Valley, still dealing with the effects of the dot.com bust, was hit badly by the GFC or Recession as they refer to it.  The fiscal pressures over the last decade have meant the Mayor and City Executives of San Jose have had to make difficult decisions for the city to remain solvent.  In the past 3 years particularly, there have been modifications to pension benefits,  staff levels have reduced to that of 20yrs ago,  the pay of remaining staff  has reduced and of course there has had to be reductions to city services.  They have not been 'doing more with less', but instead had to tackle doing 'less with less' 

Mayor Reed presented a much more optimistic future in his address this year and spoke about the innovative ways the city and community have, and still are, meeting and overcoming the challenges from the Recession.

The Recognition Awards really showcased the dedicated and motivated city staff and community members.

 

Community Garden Models

San Jose residents like their veggie patch. 

There are 19 very well kept community gardens.  City Hall provides one program overseer but the community have their own managers and committee who run a particular garden. Some gardens have been going for over 20 years but there are also new models appearing.

 



The first and oldest model is your "typical garden" model where individuals hold their own plot, the average plot size being 10 x20 ft.

 

 

Newer ones use reclaimed water - San Jose was the first city to introduce this.  There are also raised beds for disabled people in wheelchairs

 

 

 

The 'Veggilution' is a communal garden model.  Some who run the joint expect attention from favourite Park Officers
 Veggilution is on 4 acres where the growers get together to decide what to grow and then share their harvest depending on the time people put into the work.  They are also able to sell surplus vegetables.

The third and newer model is 'Garden to Table'.  The city has a contract with a not for profit group who take on all the liability including the construction.  All the city/council does is provide the land.  No photos of this one as it is still under construction.

All the programs are very popular.  The city has whittled the waiting list for individual plots down from 900 to 400.  Not only are the gardens used to grow food to eat but its also about community coming together, making friendships, mixing cultures and bonding.  Companies such as "Valley Verde" are also coming to the table to help expand the program as they believe that healthy people need to have plants and animals around them (just like my mad professor, see 21st century blog).

Community Art projects help reduce Grafitti

Public Art projects are often used to cover ugly construction zone perimeters.  These projects: engage the community; beatify the neighbourhood and help reduce graffiti.  Graffiti artists, in general, respect others art and don't tag over the top.

 

A bit of light Super Bowl trivia

During football finals in Australia you use the commercial breaks to take a break.  Not here, no way. 

The commercials are made specifically for the Super Bowl and cost approx. $4m for 30seconds.  I'm afraid this was my favourite  or maybe this one. Go to UTUBE and check out the top 10 funniest Super Bowl adds

OK, I'll go to the loo at half time then. "Huh, no way - that's the half time show". 

Electric Cars and Energy Efficiency

San Jose City is a place where ideas and innovations are born.  'Start up' companies come to San Jose as they know there is a culture to support the birth and expansion of new technologies.

The City has a unique 'Demonstration Policy'.  It allows companies to demonstrate new ideas in a public setting, anything from buildings, fleets and processes.

A walk at lunch time uncovered cars at filling stations right across the road from Civic Hall.

San Jose was the first to demonstrate this technology which led to a federal grant of $37m putting Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in 9 cities.

















 Another initiative is the SV Energy Watch Program where they provide $1m in grant competitions around energy efficiency