Urban Systems Collaborative - The UC Berkeley meeting
Colin Harrison
I can barely believe that it is already three weeks since the USC got together in Berkeley for the two day symposium and I have STILL not managed to write this up in the form of a newsletter. I seem to have been almost permanently traveling since that time. Must try harder.
To net it out very briefly, so I can actually send this off before my flight from London back to New York departs:
- We began with around 70 participants on the first morning, winding down to around 40 by the end of the day. On the second day we had a great core team of 25 to 30 people, which was exactly the right size for the exercises we conducted in the workshops.
- We were much better focused than at the first meeting in May 2011, After much casting around following the May 2011 meeting, we have found our focus in the role that information will increasingly play in the design, planning, development, construction, management, and operation of cities and the speakers and audience members in Berkeley represented this view extremely well.
- All the presentations are posted in the symposium agenda on the Web site (http://urbansystemscollaborative.org/meetings/usc-fall-2012-university-of-california-berkeley/). We should have the edited video available RSN.
- I proposed a concrete project supporting this focus. Namely to develop a textbook for a Masters level programme in the education of the practitioners of Urban Systems - administrators, agency leaders and managers, planners, and designers. A number of institutions around the world are running or preparing to run such programmes and there is a lack of a textbook that presents the practitioners side of our story. (There are many books underway or already published on the technology side.) I am discussing this idea with a number of publishing houses. My feeling is that this field continues to evolve very rapidly and this might well be a "living book" rather than a conventional bound volume. Several USC members have expressed interest in taking part in such a project. I attach a strawman outline for such a book and would be pleased to hear from more members of their views and interests in preparing such a manuscript.
I thank all those who made the Berkeley meeting possible whether as organizers (thanks especially to Susan Cass), as panelists or as moderators. I live in hope of getting back to writing a real newsletter - and to publishing it also through our blog channel as several people have requested.
Regards, colin
PS Our webinar series is back on alternate Fridays. Look to the Web site for the programme and for emails from Laxmi Sagar one or two days prior to each event.
(See attached file: USC Textbook strawman20120912.ppt)
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