2008 Transit Camp: METRONAUTS!

The Transit Camp Community

Transit Camp 2007 showed two things: that people can be passionate about transit and transportation issues while having fun and being positive at the same time, and that the combination of passion, fun and a positive creative environment could produce some amazing ideas. More about the history of TransitCamp can be read here.

The global Transit Camp community runs on the mantra:

“this is not a complaints department, it is a solutions playground”

It also runs on the BarCamp principle that “Community is the Framework”. It is powered by participation. The Transit Camp community stewards, with the support of sponsors, are building the platforms for community collaboration.  The content of the conversation is up to the community to determine. How the community wants to work together and what it wishes to do will determine the direction of the project.

Going to New Places

Transit Camp in 2008 goes beyond public transit to all forms of transportation and well beyond the City of Toronto into the whole city-region of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). The community stewards are preparing this new and exciting project with the sponsorship and active participation of Metrolinx (the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority), along with a number of other community sponsors and contributors.

The project is a series of events around the GTHA, plus a new online community.  It will provide many new opportunities for citizen involvement and participation in the planning process. It will provide Metrolinx planners and representatives of local transit operators and municipalities the opportunity to engage citizens in new ways. It is a unique living experiment in participatory planning processes.

The Transit Camp community-driven approach will run parallel to Metrolinx’s formal public consultation process and does not seek to replace it in any way. For more info on Metrolinx other public consultation opportunities, see the Metrolinx site.

The First Event

The first TransitCamp event will be held at the MaRS Discovery District on Saturday, April 5, 2008.

Capacity is limited and it will sell out. Tickets will be free for participants and we will be seeking community supporters and sponsors to help support the event. See How to Get Involved to stay informed on registration details.

A series of up to six Transit Camp events will be held across the region between April and September 2008, so if you can't make this one or want to attend one in your region there will be more opportunities. These will be full  unconference style events, where the topics are determined by participants and the schedule finalized on the morning of the event. Participants will be asked to prepare and suggest session topics. All sessions that are well-documented and shared (text/photos/audio/video) via the online community site and/or this wiki will be available to inform the planning process and allow for participants to continue their conversations online.

Background and Opportunity

Metrolinx is undertaking a major planning and public consultation effort in 2008 to develop a Regional Transportation Plan and accompanying Investment Strategy for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. The Regional Transportation Plan (“RTP”) is “a strategic, long-term vision for a coordinated transportation system across the entire region”, which will look at roads and highways, public transit, cycling and pedestrian experiences, transportation demand management, mobility hubs and the transportation of goods and delivery of services. The Metrolinx RTP is scheduled to be completed in Fall 2008, and will guide infrastructure investment decisions in the coming years. For more info, see the Metrolinx site.

The Online Community

This new community site will be a major focus of conversation before, during and after the Transit Camp events, and the direction of the dialogue will be determined by the participants. It will provide meaningful interaction among community members, and between the community and planners and policy-makers.

Who Is in the Band?

The band of instigators behing METRONAUTS Transit Camp assembles together some of Canada's leading thinkers and practitioners in open and participatory media, policy, innovation, technology and culture: Mark Kuznicki (Steward-in-Chief), Wendy Koslow (Cruise Director), Sean Howard (Participatory Research Strategist), Misha Glouberman (Conversationalist & Facilitator), Sameer Vasta (Storyteller), Jed Kilbourn (Cultural Anthropologist), Qasim Virjee (Online Community Architect), Matt Rintoul and Lee Dale (Community Site Design), Alistair Morton (Visual Identity Designer), Daniel Rose (Collaborative Innovation Facilitator), David Eaves (Public Sector Renewalist), Michele Perras (Innovation Design Strategist), Jay Goldman (Social Technology Advisor), Eli Singer (Social Media Advisor), David Crow (transitcamp.org Domain Steward) and Mark Surman (Professor of Open).

How to Get Involved & Stay Informed?

Watch for announcements on blogs, join the Google Group, on the Facebook group and follow “transitcamp” on Twitter for information on the launch of the online community site and the registration process for the first event. Follow/post with the tag transitcamp.

We are looking for volunteers to help facilitate the event and to help moderate the online community. Please email Wendy Koslow at wendy (at) remarkk.com to express your interest in helping out. Also, we’re looking for people with compact web-friendly video cameras to record sessions at the event. Other ideas? We’d love to hear them! The channels are open, please use them.