Thank you everyone who came down for VanTechKaraoke and for Vancouver Bloggers Meetup. I was a bit worried about whether Shenanigan’s would be the right place, but it seems everyone had a great time. Love you all a lot. You made my night.
Very recently, I found myself pondering on whether I felt it was worth doing a PhD and whether or not I should have stopped after the MBA. There were many reasons that brought me to decide to do a PhD, and since this year many of my dear friends are defending their doctoral dissertations, it’s also been sort of enlightening to see the road they took when undertaking their degrees. The vast majority of my dearest friends who have struggled with their PhDs have questioned at one point or another whether it was worth doing it.
There are many elements that need to be analyzed but the first one I thought about has also been touched upon by Darren in a recent entry where he mentions essay mills. Broadly speaking, essay (and degree) mills are respectively online sites that offer to write up your undergraduate paper, Masters or PhD thesis (depending on what you need at the time), or grant you a PhD based on your accumulated years of experience. Both types of mills are in my opinion, illegal. But both seem to be popular as well.
I have conducted independent scholarly research in more fields than just my doctoral dissertation research. I spent years of my life analyzing data, reading the literature, thinking hard about the research questions I wanted to examine. So when I see these essay and degree-granting mills, I can’t help but cringe. What student on his/her right mind would want to buy an undergraduate paper, or even worse, a PhD thesis?
For me, the most gratifying part of having done a PhD is not the credentials themselves, but the methodological, theoretical and empirical rigor that comes with the training. I am interested in good research questions and I am willing to go the distance to answer them. If someone is going to retreat to the simple, easy answer “I’ll buy it on the internet”, I don’t see that it has any value whatsoever. Their educational process is therefore flawed.
And, one day after my niece N, it’s my friend Duane Storey’s birthday. He has a big heart and a great brain, and he is someone I am glad to have gotten to know during the time I’ve been involved in the Vancouver tech community.
Credit: Duane Storey
I recently complained (jokingly) to Arieanna and Ianiv that Duane had said his congratulations so much better than I had. Truth is, he did. Duane does have a way with words. He is always very positive and his writing is raw, sensitive and direct.
We don’t necessarily need to talk coding, WordPress, PhP or anything to that extent. We can just have a beer and share nachos and enjoy a wonderful conversation. Duane, on this day (your birthday), I hope you know that I have enjoyed getting to know you and that you have a friend in me.
Happy birthday dude 🙂
I cannot believe that she is actually 15 today. I still remember those days when my brothers and I would go and play basketball and my brother A would bring his two eldest daughters (and at the time, our only nieces) to the games. I can’t believe the playful brunette little bundle of joy I saw for the first time 15 years ago is right now a fully-grown young woman.
My niece N is an accomplished junior tennis player, and a very sweet woman. She is the sandwich in the family (i.e. she’s the second of three) and that’s a tough position to be in. I admire her for many reasons, and I am very pleased to see that she has grown to become good friends with her older sister and taken good care of her younger sister.
I love you sweetie, I’m very proud of you and I wish you all the best today and every single day of your life!
Much love, tu tio Rolex
Originally, my blog was launched to keep many of my friends abroad (and local) abreast of what I’ve been up to. With time, it has evolved into a mixture of personal entries, thoughts on social media, technology, environment and a few events. From time to time, people who read my blog and met me as what people call ‘a personal diarist’ (i.e. someone who blogs personally, rather than with a specific theme, focus or do corporate blogging) ask me to write something more personal. And I figured that with the growth of my Twitter followers and new readers to my blog, I’d say a few things that I’m sure most of my close friends know but some people on the Internet may not. So here it goes.
– I pay close attention to my energy levels. Despite the many events I tend to attend, how much I push myself to work hard and do numerous things, I am always conscious of how much energy I have (or I don’t, as it is often the case). Therefore, when I say I’m tired and I need to go, I mean it. Don’t try to disuade me or keep me at the event/social gathering/meetup. If I say I need to go NOW, it’s actually NOW. My energy levels drop dramatically within minutes. Sometimes I am so exhausted that I fall asleep on the bus ride back home.
– I don’t practice the “passive aggressive” thing that is so popular online. If I have something to clarify with you, I’ll find a way and a proper moment to talk to you about whatever needs to be said and talked about. If I say things, I mean them, both the positive AND the negative. And I rarely say negative things. If I say I like you, I really do. If I pay you a compliment, it comes from the heart. I don’t like “games” as they call them.
– I don’t react well to pressure to do anything. This applies to writing about a specific topic, attend a gathering, add to my Twitter follows, etc. And since I tend to be a bit of a contrarian, sometimes I just won’t do it just because I can (and to take a stance).
– I am a very positive person and love making friends. I am a natural-born connector. I don’t make money off of connecting people with one another. I just enjoy creating relationships, amongst myself and other individuals and I enjoy encouraging new friendships amongst my own friends. Therefore, people have grown to understand that I can love everyone and be friends with everyone without taking any sides. I’m the Switzerland of personal relationships. Please respect that (for the most part, my friends do respect that).
– I may at some points experience personal hardships, financial constraints, challenging moments. I may feel defeated. But I *never* give up. I intend to keep this approach to life. So far, it has worked to my advantage.
– I made a pact with myself to *always* find at least ONE thing to be amazed by. Something simple, perhaps, but I always manage to find something that makes me go “oh, wow”. You may find whatever amazes me silly or simple, but I take great joy in being surprised every single day of my life. That’s the beauty of my life.
– I really don’t think I’m as big of a deal as sometimes people make it to sound. Whatever popularity on the Internet or whatever reputation and name I have created for myself in the academic world, it all is worthless if it isn’t harnessed for good. I enjoy being able to give my friends access to things, goodies, events, etc. that I come by through my involvement with the social media community. I enjoy being able to use said “popularity” to good use and spread a message of community-building, love, happiness and empowerment. I enjoy using my blog to promote local causes, charitable events, small businesses, local restaurants and everything that has to do with the Vancouver tech community. And more than anything, I love being able to use whatever perceived influence or popularity I may have to help raise awareness of issues and/or raise funds for charitable causes (e.g. BC Cancer Foundation, A Loving Spoonful, Mental Health Camp).
I count my success in how happy I make myself, not in how happy I make other people. But if I am also able to bring happiness to others, I am always thrilled.
Have a nice weekend everyone
I’m not actually liveblogging, I’m using Cover It Live and pulling the tweets directly. I could have used Scribble Live but I’m not too familiar with it and I want to make sure that the liveblog goes.
My 2009 has been so overbooked that unless somebody brings stuff to my attention, sometimes I fail to remember some excellent stuff that is happening in town, even when it’s associated with my own work! So, hat tips to Trevor O, who reminded me of the Projecting Change Film Festival, which this year takes place from April 2nd to the 5th, 2009.
Last year, you might remember that I covered Projecting Change (thanks to the organizing folks who kindly gave me media access). This year, I’m going to ask them again if they’ll invite me and also, I’m going to see if I can have some free tickets for my readers to give away in a contest.
Check the schedule of films and speakers (erm, why didn’t they invite me to be a speaker? hehehe). To learn more about the festival, click here. The full festival pass is $ 80 and single screening passes are $ 10. The opening night exclusive event is $ 50.
I know that they’ll be showing Blue Gold (I reviewed the film on my blog as well) and a number of other excellent films. I should make a point of commenting Blue Gold at the festival!
After 3 years of launching my blog, 2 years of actually writing frequently on it, 1 year of engaging in social activities with the Vancouver tech community, I’ve decided to call it quits. I appreciate the love, support, and so on. I’ll be closing down my Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, Plurk, Yammer, Skype accounts and everything else that has to do with online life. I might actually even erase my email.
Much love to you all.
R.
…. Yes, this is my dorky version of April’s Fool’s 🙂 Have a great day!
I had the pleasure of attending one of the concerts that my friends from Mojave had, and my good friend Pat Zaph was kind enough to join me (I was pretty sick that day so I just stayed for a few songs). Pat and I met up with Rebecca and John there too, so we all had an opportunity to enjoy the concert and a beer. Pat took a number of great photos that you can check out here.
You can read his review here and Rebecca’s article on E! Online interviewing Mojave is here. I really enjoy Mojave’s music (they’re an acoustic band with very Earth-y, natural tones) but even more importantly, I value 3 elements in their approach:
1) They live a very eco-minded life. As in, their day-to-day life. They eat, breathe and live in an ecologically-conscious mode. They are inspiring.
2) Their music is fantastic. And they created a song that they contributed to the Earth Hour Canada
3) They are very approachable and connected. Both Paul and I follow each other on Twitter, and he interacts with people very frequently (e.g. he is a real person behind the keyboard, not only promoting the band, but creating a very personal following because of how nice he is. He comments on blogs, he writes on the Mojave blog, etc.). I love having geeky friends who are environmentally minded and musically inclined.
Go, Mojave, go!
Credit: Duane Storey
My good friends Arieanna and Ianiv Schweber (Blogaholics.ca) just let us know the great news that they’re expecting, so I just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS! I really value my friendship with the Schwebers and this is one bit of great news that should be shared with the world!
I was going to wait until Wednesday to publish a congratulatory post on your anniversary, but since you’ve broken the news, I thought the post shouldn’t wait. Happy anniversary, and again, many, many congratulations and look forward to meeting the new member of the Schweber family! 🙂
Richard asked me on Twitter how does ScribbleLive compare to Cover It Live and what my opinion of both tools is. I have a really hard time comparing two tools that I enjoy thoroughly and whose creators both have been in personal contact with me via e-mail and over Twitter. I am a big supporter of Canadian enterpreneurs and therefore will not choose one over the other. My intention is to continue undertaking liveblogs with both tools and testing them thoroughly and offer my feedback.
As it happens with anything, I got very used to Cover It Live at the beginning simply because it was the first tool I tested. I like the fact that Cover It Live gives me an iFrame to insert. This past week was the first time that I had tested ScribbleLive and I had a few glitches (that I have to say, the folks of SL were there to help me with as my liveblog went by). I know that both tools allow for importing Twitter feeds, although I frankly like the SL presentation better than the CiL display of Twitter feeds.
TechVibes compared SL and CiL recently, but I’m not sure if they’ve tested the tools. However, I do know that both Rebecca and I have tested both tools. (Update – Via Twitter Rebecca just confirmed that Canucks Fan Zone uses CiL for liveblogs). I know that AgendaCamp Waterloo is using SL for their liveblogging
Bottom line – for me, both tools are useful and I plan to use them both on different occasions and seeing how things go. I believe in co-opetition (if you need to know the background, read the Brandenburger book). At any rate, I think both tools are very useful and look forward to using them further down the road.
One of the best birthday presents I have had in my entire life was Season 1 of Wonder Woman (the TV series), with Lynda Carter as the powerful Amazon. Carter made such an impression that, despite repeated attempts to initiate a feature-length film, nobody has been able to find an actress that would portray Wonder Woman the way Lynda Carter did. Again, Carter made such an impression that I think very few people remember that one of the very first Wonder Woman impersonators was actually blonde actress Cathy Lee Crosby. Here is the only blonde version of Wonder Woman I have ever seen. If anybody has a DVD of the movie, let me know!
I’ve been unfollowed on Twitter many, many times, and for a wide variety of reasons. At first, I did take it personally, I admit. And by at first, I mean within the first 3 months of using the service. Particularly since it was pretty much the Web 2.0 application I had signed for that allowed me to catch up with my friends in real life. Now that I am on Facebook, it’s not anymore the case. A few times in the past few months, I have declared Twitter bankruptcy and I thought to myself that I wouldn’t feel offended if the reason why some friends of mine (who are actually friends) would unfollow me on Twitter (because, even though I’ve toned it down, sometimes I am still a tad too noisy).
I also have unfollowed some people who have unfollowed me first, not because I am engaging in a reciprocal unfollow but simply because it annoys me when someone sends me a uni-lateral DM that I cannot reply to privately. And well, seeing as I’m being the person unfollowed first, I think it’s alright to regain control. I actually have suggested to Twitter that if a DM is initiated by someone who is not being followed by the other person, the recipient should have the ability to respond also as a DM.
Unfortunately, the act itself of unfollowing someone on Twitter, un-friending them on Facebook, un-whatever-ing anyone is perceived as an act of detachment and alienation. By it’s very nature, it is the breaking of a bond. Whatever relationship or bond existed between the people whose photos you could see (Flickr), whose DMs you could receive and send (Twitter), the very act of un-following/un-friending (Facebook) severs said relationship.
It would be totally cool if we all were mature enough to deal with this, but some of us may or may not be. I’ve become way cooler with people unfollowing me on Twitter, simply because I know that we’re linked in many other ways. We have each other’s phone numbers and emails, we check each other’s Flickr account every so often, etc. If a good friend unfollows me, I’ve come to assume that it’s because they find that my tweets aren’t adding value and that’s quite alright. We still see each other at meetups and other Vancouver tech community events, and I’m still good friends with them.
I don’t want ANYONE to follow me on Twitter out of obligation or some sense of reciprocity. I have a limited capacity to follow people’s tweets and I’m not really there for any sort of corporate reason. I’m on Twitter to chat and catch up with my friends, and to keep up with their lives and with what’s going on in Vancouver.
I just think that the use of Qwitter is not going to do any good. At least, it’s not going to do ME any good to know who unfollows me. I happened to notice earlier when I had relatively few followers, but right now, I’m lucky that I have so many followers I can’t really notice if anybody has unfollowed me. And for what it’s worth, I don’t really care. As long as our friendship is intact, anybody can unfollow me at will.
I was just thinking about what I would be doing for Earth Hour Canada, given that (a) I’m pretty sick and (b) I committed to turning off my lights and (c) I committed to using the Earth Hour Canada plugin developed by Brave New Code. So what I think I’m going to do is just hang out with one of my best friends who knows I’m sick and who will understand if we just sit in each other’s company without doing anything.
I have also committed to send in a couple of tweets to the Earth Hour Canada team and I’ll be doing that (of course, I am quite ok with using the Earth Hour plugin because since I’m not doing any event coverage, I doubt people will want to read my blog between 8.30 and 9.30pm).
I might go for a very short walk with my friend (simply because I don’t want to get sicker and it’s too cold outside) just to see how the Earth Hour Canada program has an impact on Vancouver. Given that the Junos are happening right now, I have no clue how they are going to cope with it. But I believe in human’s ingenuity so I’ll wait and see. I am very much looking forward to seeing how EHC will impact Canada!
Here is a list of ways in which you can take action!
Despite the fact that I was already fully sick by the time I woke up this morning, I had the pleasure of attending a keynote address by Kate Trgovac, dear friend of mine and one of Canada’s most influential people in social media. The seminar was organized by CNW Group, and as expected, Kate did a fantastic job.
In her talk, she shared some data profiling the Canadian consumer of internet data (see her excellent slides here). For the longest time, whenever I see data on social computing and social media analysis, it’s always coming from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. In conversations with Dave Jones, Kirk Lapointe, Lorraine Murphy and Kate Trgovac (on Twitter) I lamented that we didn’t have the same Pew-like data for Canada.
Well, Dave Jones was kind enough to share the idea of the Canadian Internet Project and I was blown away. In many ways, yes, the data is very similar to Pew. For my next academic talk on social media and social computing I am definitely going to ask permission to use CIP data.
I *love* Twitter because it allows me to learn SO much! Thanks everyone!
You all know the kind of schedule I have, how many things I have on the go, and how little sleep I tend to have. And if you don’t (because you are relatively new to my blog) I am sure you will know sooner or later.
This past week and this week have been really busy with the launch of a project, interviews, meetings, etc. And on top of that, I think that I caught a cold (possibly chest cold). I have been coughing and feeling really bad.
So everything caught up to me this morning. Right at 10 am, I started feeling incredibly ill, so instead of going to UBC as I had planned (for an academic seminar that was a one-of-a-kind event) I had to go home. This is just my own doing, I *need* to take better care of myself. I really do. Listening to my body is possibly the thing that I do not do often enough.
So if we had any kind of social commitment between now and say, Monday or Tuesday, forget about it right about now. I apologize, and I’m sorry, but if I don’t take care of myself the next thing you’ll hear from me will be that I’m in the hospital. So, better to start now than never.
Credit: landersen
So, after the last Launch Party Vancouver, Maura and I got talking about doing something fluid, something fun that people could just attend and let loose and not have something super-structured. The idea of doing Vancouver Tech Karaoke (#vantechkaraoke) arose and we decided to call all Vancouver bloggers/tweeps/everyone who reads my blog, etc. to join us for an evening of singing and hanging out with friends.
WHAT – Inaugural Vancouver Tech Karaoke
WHERE – Shenanigan’s (Blue Horizon Hotel) – 1225 Robson Street.
WHEN – Wednesday April 8th, 2009 – Any time after 8:00pm (we’ll try to be there by 8pm).
WHY – Just because we like karaoke and we want you to join us.
HOW MUCH – Cover is free on Wednesdays. Isn’t it awesome?
I am going to try to get a Facebook event but I can’t promise as I’m over-worked. But if you feel like coming, why not drop a comment here informally (leaving a comment doesn’t commit you to come by, but it’d be fun 🙂
Hope to see you all there! It will be right after Vancouver Bloggers Meetup so we can segway from VBM to Vancouver Tech Karaoke 🙂
I’m exhausted but very happy with the results of my Net Tuesday talk. The speakers who were at the event were all fantastic, and I’m truly honored to have shared the stage with them.
The feedback on my presentation was great and people seemed quite happy with the content of my speech. I think people were also taken by the fact that I presented the social network of the New Testament in a very cool visualization.
Thanks to AHA Media for providing documentation through videography/photography/live-tweeting and to Darren and Joe, respectively, for MC-ing and organizing/inviting me.
The liveblog/live-tweet is inserted below (or you can click in this link) and my presentation slides are hosted in my research blog and on SlideShare.
I’d be very curious to hear people’s reactions to my talk on the comments section. One thing I noticed is that people had a lot of questions that I really couldn’t address right there and then as we had very limited time, so if you have any questions, feel free to drop me a comment on my research blog or here.
When I first started live-blogging, I used the WordPress platform, but more recently, I have tested the usability of Cover It Live. This time, since I can’t liveblog, I am going to only use ScribbleLive (my liveblogging guru and dear friend Rebecca Bollwitt I think used it for a liveblog she did of the NHL Trading). I have used ScribbleLive before but wasn’t fully satisfied and haven’t used it since. This a new test 🙂
This evening, I’m joined by a stellar group of social media folks. Thanks to Joe Solomon for the invitation, to Darren Barefoot for MC’ing and to Grace Carter, Steve Williams, Doug Van Spronsen, Shawn Smith. I’m honored to be part of such a great roster of speakers.
Given that I decided to wait until April to hold a Vancouver Bloggers Meetup, I’ve been getting requests and inquiries from a variety of people on how they can find when these tweetups happen. Let me point out some differences between the “Tweetups” and the Vancouver Bloggers Meetup.
Vancouver Bloggers Meetup Group
Ever since I inherited the organization of the Meetup (June 2008) I have tried to make it happen at least once every couple of months. These gatherings happen almost every month, and are intended to provide new and experienced bloggers an opportunity to share thoughts, ideas, etc. For a sample of the topics we discuss and a detailed description, I’ll point you out to the great recaps that Dr. Jan Karslbjerg does (he is a long time member of the meetup and a great person to ask about the meetups as he takes great care to record the sessions). VBM is a more organized
Vancouver Tweetups
The hyper-social nature and ultra-fast nature of Twitter has given rise to the concept of ‘Tweetups’. Usually organized online, on-the-day-of, these are gatherings of people who use Twitter, are based in the same city and often happen on a weekday (or a weekend). Given the impromptu nature of Tweetups and given that they are very organic, the best way to find them is either check the site Vancouver Tweetup and/or check the hashtag on Twitter Search.
On potential overlaps between a Tweetup and a VBM
If/when this happens (which I would hope it won’t but it just might at some point), I will continue to hold the Vancouver Bloggers Meetup on the last Wednesday of the month. I know that this would mean that tomorrow (Wednesday) we would be getting together for the VBM but right now, I’m feeling overwhelmed with too much going on. To make up for the month of March, only this time I will be holding VBM early in the month of April.
Our next Vancouver Bloggers Meetup is on Wednesday April 8th, 2009. Come one, come all!
Sometimes I miss the times with my brother (he used to live in Vancouver) particularly on the weekends. We would hang out on Friday nights, he’d stay over at my apartment or me at his and then we’d go on Saturday for brunch and some brother time. He then would on to visit his girlfriend for the rest of the week.
Therefore, I’m always somewhat slightly envious of my friends who have family here and whose family dynamics resembles mine. The Behans are an example. I just recently learned that Jordan, Wesley and Janis are competing against each other in the Sun Run AND are raising funds for charity. Obviously I support all three, but since Jordan is raising funds for the BC Cancer Foundation (a cause for whom I Blogathoned this past year) I’m definitely cheering for him. But I’m also cheering for his brother and sister so go on and check their sites and please consider donating.
Congrats to the Behans on such a worthy and positive effort.
Credit: Tris Hussey
The words of my PhD advisor (whom I respect quite a lot, and with whom I am very much in touch even after having completed my PhD) have been resonating in my head for the past few days… “Remember, Raul – research is about telling a story with the data you have, the insights you have gained from your research, and communicating it in a clear way to your audience”. This past week and also this weekend, I’ve been contemplating the idea of storytelling as a method and embracing my inner storyteller.
Yesterday, on our way to the WaterDrop event where I spoke at, I shared a few stories about how I came about doing a PhD in environmental studies, where I studied my MBA courses, which countries I’ve lived in, etc. I also shared the story of how I started blogging and where it has taken me. As I was sharing my stories, I thought of the advice given to my by my advisor, the words of my dear friend Erica Hargreave (with whom I shared this morning a lovely breakfast and a walk along the seawall), the musings of my dear friend and neighbour DMcN (who is able to bend the English language to her very whim at will), as well as the powerful insights I’ve gained from my brother HZ (who, like me, is a scholar who is very engaged with the community at large): we are all telling stories.
My PhD advisor always told me that one key element to my success in academia, and to write excellent academic papers, books, thesis, journal articles, was to be able to find one key insight, and tell the story around it. Despite this fact, I never thought of myself as a storyteller. I always thought that I was an academic, a scholar, someone who was supposed to report back on facts, findings and issues. In the past week, however, I’ve come full circle. I’ve come to embrace my inner storyteller. I realize that with my blog, I am sharing not only the pathway of my evolutionary development as a human being, an academic, a scholar, a consultant, but also my very own personal journey through life.
Credit: Tris Hussey
Furthermore, and while we are on the topic of storytelling, I was particularly amazed by the fantastic work that April, Peter, Tris, Marina, Dan, Rebecca and all of my peers did at Women in Film 2009 Bridging Media Day. I think that the wonderful and major effort that Erica put to bring a team of social media specialists of the caliber that were in the room and the panels really paid out well, because we (the social media panel and the social media team) were able to tell a new story: the story of how traditional and mainstream media can create bridges and embrace new media. I think we were very, very successful in doing exactly that.
I am quite disappointed that I missed James Chutter‘s talks both at Orality 2.0 and at Northern Voice ’09 on storytelling, because I think that I would have learned a lot from James. Lucky for me, my dear friend Rebecca captured his NV’09 talk here. I’ll have to say that I’ve learned a lot from everyone who has been sharing their stories with me through their blogs, Twitter, and other platforms, through our continued interactions. I am also hopeful that Mental Health Camp will help people afflicted with mental illness tell their stories in a manner that makes them feel safe, comfortable and protected.
I have also come to embrace the power of telling stories through a variety of media and platforms, and through both my research eyes (see my research blog) and my personal lenses. I do hope that in sharing these stories, the people who read both my blogs can find some insights into their own personal learning journeys. If that is my contribution to the development and growth of our community, I will feel extremely successful.
My name is Raul, and this is my story.
You might recall that I wrote a few days back about an invitation that Jered Love and Doug Van Spronsen from WaterDrop made recently. Jered and Doug asked me if I’d be willing to speak about the state of Canadian water within the global water issues context. Of course, I accepted gladly because I believe very strongly in the work that Doug and Jered are doing in regards to highlighting the relevance of water within the context of global environmental change. As I’ve mentioned before, many people are SO focused on climate change that they tend to forget that water IS also a natural resource that faces great challenges in the very near future.
The event took place last night, with a showing of a video that WaterDrop created, a screening of the movie/documentary “Flow” and two talks, one by the folks of Run for Water (I’ll write more about them in the next few days) and my own. I’ll have my slides up on my research site in the next couple of days. On the way back, we were talking about the event and I mentioned that they should be proud, because bringing 70 people to Langley (at Trinity Western University) on a Saturday night to talk water, is not an easy task, and the participants stayed for much longer to talk to the folks who had exhibits at the event (the Township of Langley, Oxfam, the Council of Canadians). They did an amazing job and they also had several people who helped make the event successful, and I personally had a great time.
Water and energy are considered two of the most important and pressing environmental issues in the next 50 years. Unfortunately, so much emphasis is placed on the need for energy resources that not enough attention is paid to the myriad of issues surrounding water. Who has the right to access water? How can we make this access equitable? Is privatization the right way pathway for water conservation? What can we do to re-purpose wastewater and how safe is the technology? There are many, many questions regarding water that are still not answered. My research on water governance aims to tackle just a few of this questions.
Only 3% of the world’s water supply is freshwater (the rest is salt water). This fact comes as a good reminder that today, March 22nd, 2009 is not only the second day of spring, but also the celebration of World Water Day. The theme for 2008 was Sanitation (where my main focus of water research is) and for 2009 is Transboundary Water.
Over the last 60 years there have been more than 200 international water agreements and only 37 cases of reported violence between states over water. We need to continue to nurture the opportunities for cooperation that transboundary water management can provide. [World Water Day UN Site]
In my research, I have examined the way in which wastewater policy is created within a river basin that encompasses territory of five Mexican states (the equivalent of provinces in Canada). The 2009 theme of Transboundary Waters is very timely, because (as I found while conducting fieldwork for this project) water can be used not only as a natural resource but also as a political resource. When water bodies (aquifers or lakes or rivers) are shared amongst two political entities, conflicts about jurisdiction over the water bodies may potentially ensue. Right now, we don’t have water wars, but given the irresponsible consumption patterns that many individuals have, we may see real water fights in the near future.
How many transboundary river basins are there?
There are 263 transboundary river basins. Over 45 percent of the land surface of the world is covered by river basins that are shared by more than one country. Over 75 percent of all countries, 145 in total, have within their boundaries shared river basins. And 33 nations have over 95 percent of their territory within international river basins.
While most transboundary river basins are shared between just two countries, there are many river basins where this number is much higher. There are 13 basins worldwide that are shared between 5 to 8 countries. Five river basins, the Congo, Niger, Nile, Rhine and Zambezi, are shared between 9 to 11 countries. The river that flows through the most countries is the Danube, which passes through the territory of 18 countries.[UN World Water Day]
On this World Water Day, I encourage all my readers to re-think their consumption patterns, to think of ways to conserve and recycle water, to ponder how can each one of us contribute to the work of non-governmental organizations that are fighting tirelessly to provide safe drinking water to the many people in developing nations that don’t have access to clean water. Happy World Water Day.
Thanks Vancouver for reminding me how beautiful you are when it’s sunny and dry.
My friend Duane has always been interested in environmental issues, and he and Dale Mugford (Brave New Code) created an Earth Hour Plugin. Duane asked me to help translate some text to Spanish, which I very happily did, and you can download the plugin here. Basically, the plugin will do the following:
With the Earth Hour plugin for WordPress you can easily show your support and have your site automatically “shut off” for the hour, no matter where in the world you are.
The plugin counts down to earth hour, counts how many other sites are using this plugin, and share the link to earthhour.org with your visitors. [Brave New Code]
While the title of my post says Canada, the plugin can be downloaded from anywhere in the world and can be used in a variety of languages (last I read, it was in German, English and Spanish, I think the Portuguese version is coming soon). Congratulations to Duane and Dale for such an inspirational effort and the commitment to Earth Hour!
