From Tweets to Plans

A city is not just where we are, but who we know — so cities work differently for you depending on who you are. This panel features local pioneers working in journalism, advocacy and progressive urban planning practice who are using online tools as part of their activism on public space, neighbourhoods, issues of long-term sustainability and impacts of the built environment. As we push the envelope on how we connect with each other, how much crossover is there between the observations, ideas and complaints we post to our blogs and Twitter accounts, and the people making decisions about our homes, workplaces, parks and in-between places? As we define and push the boundaries of our online common ground, has anything changed in our ability or willingness to connect with each other to affect change? How are people coming together to make the city what they want it to be here in Vancouver?

Karen Quinn Fung lives for colouring outside the disciplinary lines at every opportunity. A blogger since 2005, Karen mixes the strengths of online conversation with creative, engaging, face-to-face events to grow collaborations for better, smarter and sustainable cities. She is currently a master’s candidate in urban design and transportation planning at the UBC School of Community Regional Planning, working on the use of open government by municipalities in British Columbia and cross-sector collaboration for improving walking and biking for children at schools.

A native of Nova Scotia by way of the Yukon, Ontario and Quebec, Jessica Linzey got her start in journalism as an editorial intern with Halifax's alt-weekly, The Coast. In the decade since, her work has taken her to London (The Frontline Club, Al Jazeera English), Berlin (NewsXchange), and back home again (The Food Network, CBC Radio). She finally settled in Vancouver, where she is now a Master of Journalism student at the University of British Columbia, writing online for The Thunderbird and diving into Twitter.

With a background in political science and economics, Daniella Fergusson employs a multidisciplinary approach to investigate challenges to sustainability. Blending her vast international experiences with knowledge of government, private, and non-profit organizations to create sustainable solutions, Daniella has worked in a range of settings and problems, from empowering entrepreneurial women in rural areas, to developing ulitity-scale solar energy facilities at a renewable energy startup. Her experience and curiosity for the broad range of issues in planning drive her role as a founding editor of PlanningPool.com, a website devoted to disseminating cutting-edge planning ideas through new media.

Andrew Pask is the Director of the Vancouver Public Space Network, a non-profit, city-building organization. Founded in 2006, the VPSN works on advocacy, education and outreach relating to the city's public realm -- and does so by mixing more conventional forms of change-making with creative interventions in city space.

By using 'public space' as a unifying theme, the VPSN has been able to work on everything from the development of community gardens, to creating internationally recognized design competitions, from mapping all the non-compliant billboards in the city, to throwing skytrain parties, public policy debates, and community development workshops.

Andrew was trained as both an anthropologist and city planner, studying in Holland and Canada. He has worked with municipalities and non-profit organizations across the country.

Website: vancouverpublicspace.ca