We don’t often talk federal politics on Apt613, but we thought this topic was important because it’s not just about politics, but also human rights. When the Canadian government announced it was implementing cuts to health insurance for refugees, it created a big backlash among many groups – from new Canadians to the healthcare community. The government has thus far stood by its plan. The changes have been described by civil society organizations like Amnesty International as “unconstitutional” and falling “short of international legal requirements with respect to human rights and refugee protection.”

Today, June 17th, is the National Day of Action to show that Canadians will stand up for the most vulnerable among us. We’re happy to feature, as our video of the week, a performance by Ottawa poet Ikenna Onyegbula - 2009 & 2010 Canadian team Poetry Slam Champ,  2011 & 2013 Canadian individual Poetry Slam Champ and 2012 Ottawa Capital Slam Champ – on the rights of refugees.

It’s certainly my kind of place and I doubt I’m alone. If more and more of our economy is driven by data, information and knowledge, the storage and maintenance of information should be all the more important. Finding ways to build value from information and organize it in such a way that people can get something from it is something that librarians should be really great at.

Why don’t we have temples of data and information built in Ottawa? What does our city need from a library? Are we doing enough to make sure that a diverse range of Ottawans have access to the information and data they need to compete in our new knowledge economy?

Much of the hope for a temple of data in downtown Ottawa was squashed in the summer of 2010, when plans fell apart to acquire the block at Albert, Bay, Slater and Lyon for a new main branch of the Ottawa Public Library.

It got us thinking about the future of the public library in Ottawa and what we should be planning for. In what ways are the politics and economics of information changing what we need from libraries?

We’ve assembled a panel of some of the city’s librarian-philosophers to chat about what they see as the library of the future and how they see their profession evolving for the digital age.

• Leslie Weir, University Librarian at the University of Ottawa and former executive with the Canadian Association of Research Libraries.
• Jennifer Stirling, Division Manager for System-Wide Services & Innovation at the Ottawa Public Library
• Mary Cavanagh, Assistant Professor in Information Studies at the University of Ottawa

Join us Wednesday, June 26 at the Shopify Lounge for an evening of discussion and debate on the future of the public library in Ottawa. We’ll do live interviews on stage from 7-8 pm, pour the Kichesippi and see where things go. We’ll have librarians, beer and bloggers!

You NEED to pre-register for this talk on Eventbrite.

Thanks to the Public Service Alliance of Canada for their financial support, Awesome Ottawa for giving us some cash to get this lecture off the ground, and special thanks to Maker for our awesome logo. Also, thanks to Shopify for lending us their office for the evening.

Does this scenario sound familiar to you? You’re out for a social visit at a coffee bar or a pub and the friend you arrive with breaks off the conversation to look down at their phone. “I just have to check-in” they say…and a long 20 seconds pass as they fiddle with their screen. Then, satisfied, a “there, that’s done” expression comes over their face, and they look up to cheerfully ask “what were you saying?”.

They act as if they have just done a useful thing and are even contributing to the social fabric. But what have they actually done?

It was launched in Ottawa back in 2009, so by now most readers will know that the app this friend has just used is Foursquare. This social media app connects people by encouraging them to ‘check in’ to a venue through their phones to gain points, thereby encouraging people to interact with real environments through the digital world. With enough check-ins your friend might be rewarded with a   virtual “badge”, or even better, a “mayorship” of the venue he or she repeatedly visits.

So what do you need to know about Ottawa’s community of Foursquare users?

1. We know how to take revenge

Got a bone to pick with a business? Foursquare tips are forever – and they can hang around a business like a bad smell until the person who left them — that’s you– deletes them. Of course, most “complaint” tips often go like “not enough fries with the burger” or “someone needs to tell the barista how to make an Americano “ — relatively trivial irritants that most readers will read with a wait-and-see-if-it happens-to-me attitude, before judging the business on it.

But when it comes time to really call a bad experience out — and warn others — Foursquare’s revenge is sweet. For example, imagine this scenario: you take your dog to a pet grooming business and instead of him coming home clean and fluffy, you find he has actually acquired a bad case of fleas while in the shop. To add insult, when you look at the bill you see an extra $27 tagged on for a no-show penalty when in reality, you showed up for the appointment early.

That’s what happened to local blogger Mark Blevis this past winter, so he made sure to attach the above account as his “tip” to the business’ Foursquare entry, where it sits to this day, stinking up the business’s reputation. The groomers deleted his negative feedback from their Facebook page, but until they take steps to get right with Mark, his Foursquare comments are clamped around their necks like a leash on a Labrador. In fact, the tip has now attracted enough attention that the former owners of the shop have added their own comments to Blevis’s, talking pains to disassociate themselves — and taking a few extra swipes of their own at present management, which of course amplifies the original complaint all the more.

2. Big Media is Big on Foursquare — but Ottawa bloggers could take them on!

I’m writing this post for the hyper-local Apt613, so it pains me to to admit this next fact. Swedish-owned Metro News — now in 47 countries and counting — has put local bloggers in the shade when it comes to creating content on Foursquare. Metro might not be the first to discover that new wine bar everyone’s talking about, but they’ll still get to it before most – and their Canada-wide “tip list” runs to 350 of the most interesting diners, pubs, bistros, sandwich bars etc. — in the whole country. And they aren’t afraid to be negative, as in, for example, their reproach to well-known downtown sandwich destination Green Rebel: “the meat was unseasoned and the tomatoes mushy.” Ouch!

3. Food Porn: Ottawa Foursquarites love it

Gorgeous pastries, steaming bowls of pho from Chinatown; burgers oozing with blue cheese topping — it seems no Ottawa Foursquare user profile is complete until a mouth-watering foodie shot is in the mix. But the all-time classic Foursquare pic that truly IDs your location, just as surely as GPS? Our scan kept turning it up again and again: it’s your blurry 3 am snap of that ESD poutine, gravy glistening in the bright diner light. Pure Ottawa!

4. Our workplaces are on Foursquare

If you get busted checking your Foursquare activity when you should be doing work-related activities, tell your boss you are doing work-related activities. And because dozens of Ottawa businesses, NGOs, consultancies and even federal departments actually keep up their own Foursquare pages, there’s a good chance you’ll be telling the truth.

In fact, the Government of Canada even pays people to create Foursquare tips. For proof, check the Department of Foreign Affairs Foursquare tip sheet — short little advisories for Canadian travellers, across the Globe. Right now someone is probably sitting at desk at DFAIT, thinking more up – but they already are up to 80 Foursquare tips including nuggets from how deal with becoming a crime statistic in various place in Mexico and Argentina (have the Canadian consulate’s phone number taped to your wrist, basically) to why you should never try to land in Pago Pago if you are more than six month pregnant (you’ll be turned back). Someone probably got Communication Officer wages to write that stuff, too – I only wish it was me.

5. Ottawa has a major badge deficit.

Here’s a huge directory of Foursquare badges – over 900 of them — a not an Ottawa-based one in the bunch. Not only has our food and beverage sector been slow to work with Foursquare to create its own badges — the kind you can get in Austin or Chicago or New York, for exploring aspects of the city’s nightlife — but we don’t even have an official overall Ottawa City badge. And when even little Trois Rivieres can come up with one of its own, that really is slack of us.

But the good news is that Foursquare is just waiting for us to make enough of a fuss, and  has a web form we can use to make the case for an Ottawa City Badge. But remember, Foursquare is headquartered in NYC, so don’t expect them to know what an ESD poutine is, without some backstory first!

How to score:

5 out of 5: News stud! I hear The Citizen is hiring…
4 out of 5: Cheater! You work at City Hall.
3 out of 5: Not bad, but you may want to check your #ottcity Twitter feed a little more often.
2 out of 5: Newspapers are dying, but you should still try to pick one up once in a while.
1 out of 5: Do you have the internet?
0 out of 5: Might as well be living in the Prairies.

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Back in 2009, Rios paid little attention to fitness, a problem given his family’s long history with diabetes. When a friend convinced him to register for the Ottawa Army Run half-marathon, however, he surprised himself by signing up.

“I was inactive, I was asthmatic, I was overweight,” says Rios of his physical condition at the time. During an initial training run, he recalls, he was unable to finish a five-kilometre loop around the Alexandra and Portage bridges.  Given that he had just committed to running a 21-kilometre race, this could have been a cause for concern.

Photo courtesy of Joe Rios

Undaunted by the challenge, however, he slowly but surely got stronger, and on race day beat expectations by finishing in under two hours.  Fast forward to today, and Rios is running marathons around the world, as well as preparing for ultramarathons, including a 100-kilometre race in October.

He is also a blogger having started the site THRIVE with Joe in September 2012.

“I focus the blog on how to empower people … but from a practical perspective,” says Rios, whose site contains posts on different races, tips for runners, interviews and descriptions of various charity events.

Regarding his charitable activities, he tells me that his blog is a perfect forum for partnering up with other community members.

“What I’m discovering through the blog is that  if you put yourself out there you will meet more people,” says Rios, who works for Export Development Canada.  As a case in point, he has registered for the Sears Great Canadian Run, a 100-kilometre race that starts at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum and ends at Montebello, Quebec.

The run, which raises money for research to fight children’s cancer, is normally completed by a relay team that can include up to 20 people.  Rios, in contrast, partnered with Mike Herzog and Steven Thomas of Good Guys Tri, who have assembled a team of 20 runners that will each complete the 100 kilometers.  The team of ultra-marathoners are hoping to raise $30,000.

Photo courtesy of Joe Rios

The ultramarathon is not the only charitable work Rios is involved with.  Last summer, he started Run 4 a Cause, a 5-kilometre run for runners at all levels.  About 150 runners participated last year, representing 10 different charities.  (Rios usually runs races on behalf of Team Diabetes in his effort to raise money to fight the disease)

On August 25, 2013, Rios plans organize the second annual Run 4 a Cause run, with the goal of attracting 300 runners.  As a Lululemon ambassador, Rios convinced the company’s Head Office to donate $500 to the charity with the most runners in the 2012 run.  Lululemon expects to make a similar donation for the 2013 run.

The idea for Run 4 a cause has gathered interest from around the world, with people from Germany, India and the Philippines approaching Rios about setting up similar events.  The aim is to replicate the event across Canada and around the word.

If all of this were not enough, Rios has a personal goal of running a marathon on all seven continents.  He has already covered North America (Ottawa), South America (Rio de Janeiro), Europe (Reykjavik, Iceland), and is preparing to run the Gold Coast Marathon in July in Australia.

Next year he plans to run the Great Wall of China marathon, and is on the waiting list for the 2015 Antartic Marathon.  He is also gearing up for an ultarmarathon in Africa in 2014, though he is not sure if he will run a 256-kilometre race in the Sahara, or a 250-kilimatre run in the Kalahari desert between Botswana and Namibia.

Not bad for a guy who only a few years ago couldn’t run 5-kilometres.

Zara Ansar and Michelle President (of OVV) have been busy putting together Velo Vogue: A bicycle fashion show, which highlights the latest trends in clothing, accessories, and bikes (vintage and new) from local and international designers. The event is sure to be a fun time – what with China Doll playing host, great beer and tasty food, door prizes, a silent auction – and it’s all for a good cause.

Cycle Salvation provides training and employment for economically disadvantaged bike mechanics, and recycles/refurbishes bikes destined for scrap and landfill sites. Also, if you have a bike and want to learn how to fix or modify it, the staff at Cycle Salvation provide tools, a workshop and experts on site to give you a hand.

Zara Ansar took some time to answer a few questions earlier this week.

Apt613: Who and what is Ottawa Velo Vogue?

Zara Ansar: Ottawa Velo Vogue is Zara Ansar and Michelle President. It’s a photoblog about stylish cyclists in Ottawa.

Apt613: Where did the idea for the fashion show come from?

ZA: It’s the natural extension of our blog. We’ve been to bike fashion shows around North America and wanted to show Ottawa what riding your bike is all about. It’s not Lycra, it’s comfy and stylin’! It’s a great excuse to get the focus on bikes, fun and fashion – which is what we’re all about.
This year we’re really excited to be raising money for Cycle Salvation!

Apt613: Who is this event for?

ZA: This event is for anyone who is interested in the everyday bike lifestyle! We’re going to show off bikes in a fun way and encourage people to hop on a bike more often. We’ve got a silent auction with local artists and cool bike gear, food vendors (such as Ottawa’s newest food truck Ottawa Streat Gourmet, Cafe My House and Suzy Q Donuts), door prizes and much more. All this hosted by the lovely Ottawa Cyclista China Doll! Vendors from literally around the world will be selling clothing/accessories as well. Everyone’s invited — from messengers to models to the mayor.

Apt613: What goes into planning an event like this?

ZA: Like any event it’s all about coordination. It’s our second year so we’ve learned a lot but we’ve been working the pedals on location, food, drinks and silent auction items. The fun stuff: putting together bikes and outfits. It’s like riding your bike on a sunny day and (as you might expect) there is the occasional flat you have to be prepared for.

Apt613: Who are some of the local fashion designers you will be showcasing?

ZA: Local fashion designers include Amy Scarlett, Jana Hanzel and Emilia Torabi, Sessiedress. Artists like Timothy Hunt and Laura Langford [have work] in the silent auction. We also have a bunch of national/international designers coming such as Vespertine, Riyoko, Tira, Cleverhood. There is also Urbanite Jewelry and Jasmine Virani showing off their stuff.

Apt613: Any pièce de résistance (or designers) you are super-excited about?

ZA: Well we’re excited to show off all the designers and stores but look for Vespertine from NYC – a piece by her might blow you away.

Velo Vogue: A bicycle fashion show takes place tomorrow – Saturday June 1 – at Kichesippi Brewery (866 Campbell Avenue). Doors open at 7pm, fashion show starts at 8:30pm. For more information on the event, check out Ottawa Velo Vogue online.

Tickets are $10 in advance at velovogue.eventbrite.ca or at the door.

One of the artist’s the city selected to create work for the summit was local designer Mark Stephenson. He’s the man behind HipsterMonocle — a square monocle that users hold up to their face, giving subjects in their non-digital lives the avatar treatment. I sent Mark over a few questions to see what the project was all about.

Apartment613: How do you define hipster? Why did you choose to use this term?

Mark Stephenson: The hipster term seems to get thrown around a lot today and probably means different things to different people. For this project I thought it was a fun fit. The HipsterMonocle has a connection to modern culture yet borrows from the past in the same pattern of inspiration as some of its references. A monocle, square photos, Instagram/Polaroid, a heart, and an old school handle equals a disjointed mix of things that works together. That is hipster to me.

Apartment613: Your project is playing on some interesting and familiar shapes and aesthetics. Can you take us through your inspiration for the piece?

MS: Yeah [it] certainly is. I thought it would be fun way to take the view finding experience of Instagram and the familiar pattern of cropping profile pictures into squares and play with that in a physical context. I specifically incorporated some design elements like the heart and Instagram/Polaroid styling and even a logo in an effort to make that connection. Instagram is taking inspiration and replicating elements from the past and bringing that into our digital world, and I’m in my own small way taking some of that back to the physical in the form of this monocle. Sounds deeper than it really is [but] I’m just having some fun with this project.

Apartment613: We normally experience avatars and photos digitally. Do you think there is a need for new tools to create these same forms?

MS: Why not, especially if the experience is enjoyable. The HipsterMonocle although it takes its styling cues from online experiences, produces a different one. It’s tactile and looking around through the lens is fun and social, not just for the viewer but those around them as well. There is no photo created just the memory of having used it.

All that said I am trying to have a simple online component as well. I want to encourage those who have the monocles to submit pictures of themselves using them to www.hipstermonocle.com to chronicle the project in some fashion. I’ll get the most out of the online component as I get to see images of people enjoying their monocles and that puts a big smile on my face.

It’s my hope that the HipsterMonocles have [the] opportunity to spark some interesting connections and fun moments for those at the Creative City Summit.

I really enjoy projects that people interact with, the ones where they become part of the experience. I’m planning [on] doing more projects along that idea.

Developed in collaboration with our favourite local designer Steve St. Pierre, and through a partnership with the City of Ottawa for the Creative City Network of Canada 2013 Summit (starting tomorrow), By Day By Night is your source for innovative projects by artists and makers, as well as some of the galleries, shops, restaurants and cafés that make our city unique. We’ll be distributing copies over the next few days in various downtown locations (you can download a version of your own here).

The initial idea for the guide came out of conversations a few of our editors had with the great minds working at the Community Arts + Social Engagement division of the City of Ottawa (aka - Caleb Abbott and Allison O’Connor). Once a year, the Creative City Network of Canada hosts a conference for municipal staff working in communities across Canada on arts, cultural and heritage policy, planning, development and support – and this year it’s happening in Ottawa. What better way to share our passion of the city with visitors from out of town? Contrary to what others may think, we know there’s a ton of great stuff going on here and we want to share it!

While the conference is designed with specific people in mind (and also sold out), the By Day By Night guide profiles projects by artists (including a HipsterMonocle by Mark Stephenson and audio soundtrack composed by Adam Saikaley), self-guided walking and bike tours (free!), as well as other events that are open and accessible to the general public.

For more information on where to pick up a copy, head to www.apt613/ca/bydaybynight

Over the course of the residency, Artengine and Apartment613 will be cross-posting Melody’s writing in the hopes of encouraging discussion and fostering new perspectives on the media arts landscape. Recently, Melody and I met to talk about the residency, her artistic practice and what she’s got planned over the coming year.

Apt613: What drew you to applying for the Artengine Critical Blogging Residency?

MM: I’m a big fan of the work that Artengine does and I follow their updates – it sounded perfect. It provides the intersection between the two worlds I’ve been living in over the past couple of years – trying to work as an artist but also as an academic. I’m really drawn to the blogging writing format because it allows you to take a more informal tone that what the ‘academy’ might allow at times – to draw on a lot of critical ideas and also be able to link to other things directly. [For example using] YouTube or Sound Cloud to directly embed different ideas and reference other projects and have it be more of a multi-media format.

Apt613: What are you hoping to achieve during the residency over the next year? Are there certain projects, ideas or topics you want to bring to Artengine?

MM: From my own perspective, a lot of my writing and performance practice deals heavily with Indigenous issues. There’s a really vibrant Indigenous performing and media arts community happening in Canada (and worldwide) right now.

A big event coming up this summer is the Sakahàn exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada – I’ll actually be performing as a part of that in July. They’re doing a music in the galleries series and I have a solo set, It’s one of the biggest shows I’ve ever done. I’m really excited about that – doing a lot of preparation to get myself to the level I think that Sakahàn deserves.

Apt613: How would you describe your work?

MM: I’m an Anishinaabe musician, writer and media artist. My writing covers (broadly) Indigenous issues, but also arts. I love writing about music and the intersection of the two. Some of my writing – that was also linked to on Artengine – is more explicitly political, coming out of Idle No More, decolonization, Indigenous resurgence – big, overarching themes that I’m trying to engage with. I often try to make it really personal, to demonstrate how these concepts really play out through lived experience.

I currently hold one of the Aboriginal Voices grants from SAW Video, so I’m looking to incorporate more DJing and video art into my music practice in the future. I’ve dabbled with it a bit, done some short experimental works. I produced a video documentary last summer about A Tribe Called Red and I used that as a part of my masters research. Documentary filmmaking, coming back to Ottawa and gaining access to all of the SAW resources has been amazing – it’s something that I’m excited in pursuing.

Apt613: What kind of performer are you?

MM: I perform solo with viola and laptop. I’m a natural introvert and horrendous with stage banter, and I will be staring at my laptop for five minutes until I explain, “Oh sorry – there’s a problem. Almost got it!” My music is instrumental. I do sing elsewhere – at times – in Native women’s drum circles, but I wouldn’t put that on my performers’ cv.

Apt613: As a performer, how important is it for you to make those distinctions?

MM: I think they all feed one another – I wouldn’t segregate Native drumming. It’s more that I don’t describe myself as a vocalist. Singing in a group and leading songs helps me to build that confidence I need to go onstage elsewhere, to talk to people and not be afraid. Likewise, playing drums allows for a sense of timing and rhythm that carries over into everything else I do. Playing strings lends itself to phrasing, sensitivity and musicality that some percussionists have a lot of trouble developing. I can’t imagine separating these different parts of my musical practice because they all inform each other.

Apt613: Can you describe what your performances “look” or sound like? What motivates your work?

MM: To be honest, I’ve been getting more gigs performing solo – just Melody McKiver, viola and laptop. It’s a learning process. Drawing back to Artengine, they do so much pushing electronic media forward and providing resources for people to learn. The laptop is a new instrument for me – there are so many amazing electronic musicians that are doing things that I can barely comprehend. This is a learning experience.

I’m really diving hard into the laptop as an instrument, how it can augment my performances. My work is really improvisational. I’ve been working on my composition as well, talking with some filmmakers about doing some scoring. But live, I’m often improvising. What I love about it is letting the laptop do its own thing – if I set it up like this, what’s going to happen? Being able to grab that and run with it, and see where it takes me.

Written for Chief Theresa Spence.

In anticipation of Melody’s first post, check out her piece, How Do You Say Idle No More in Anishinaabemowin, initially posted last February with the open-access journal Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society. Additionally, she will be performing TONIGHT at Gallery 101 (301 Bank Street) with Cris Derksen, Kristi Lane Sinclair and Laura Ortman. Doors open at 7pm, tickets are $10.