What if Facebook wasn’t just for gawking at pictures of now-pregnant
acquaintances from high school? Or your Twitter feed wasn’t just for
following Tracy Morgan’s day-to-day musings? What if the internet and
its addictive spawn, social media, could be harnessed for loftier
purposes?
That’s the sentiment behind ChangeCamp Halifax, a one-day
“unconference” bringing together creative types, social media junkies
and urban gurus with bureaucrats, planners and city politicians.
“The central question of the day is ‘What does Halifax as a vibrant
city mean to you?'” says organizer Emily Richardson. “So what we’ve
tried to do is bring together as diverse a group as possible so that
the issues will be as diverse as possible.”
Richardson stresses that ChangeCamp’s main goal is to hear bring new
voices to the table in hopes that fresh perspectives will pave the way
for new solutions to old problems, from infrastructure to accessibility
to racism. “The idea is to start identifying solutions to whatever
issues are raised, and establish the next steps as to how that
discussion or those tools move forward,” she says. ChangeCamp is
“positive, it’s constructive, it’s solution-oriented…it’s not a
photo-op, it’s not a complaints department.”
ChangeCamp Halifax will be held this Saturday, December 5, from
9:30am to 4:15pm, at The Hub on Barrington Street. See changecamphalifax.eventbrite.com for more info.
This article appears in Dec 3-9, 2009.