Why I think the newspaper is a (waste paper)basket case
August 18, 2007 at 5:35 pm | In fastcompany, local_not_global, media, silo_think, times_colonist, victoria, women | 6 CommentsI updated my Facebook status yesterday with a note about being very angry at our local newspaper, The Times-Colonist, for essentially stealing a story and then not reporting it properly anyway, and for exemplifying the ugliest, but I mean the ugliest, aspects of an “old boys network” mentality. That prompted some of my Facebook friends to write on my wall or leave messages, asking what was up.
Even though I know that this local paper is a total waste paper basket case and that nothing will change it, I had better muster the energy and interest to write my reply. First, some background:
- around the middle of last month I submitted a paragraph-long write up to FastCompany, nominating Victoria for “fast city” status; you can read about the whole process here: So “fast,” I’m nearly invisible, my blog entry from July 18, 2007
- if you read through to the update and follow the comments on the comments board, you’ll see that Dan Gunn from VIATec commented on July 19; I communicated all the information he needed to visit, rank, and comment since, as I learned also that very day, Victoria had been accepted by FastCompany’s editorial team: see Victoria’s page
- on July 20, I emailed Bruce Carter of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce about my submission, explaining the nomination and asking him to rank / comment on Victoria (I never heard back from him: no response)
- I emailed as many people I could think of, but heard back from none — a disappointing process I wrote about on my blog on July 29, in a post called Benchmarks; I ended this entry with these remarks: “And so the response / lack of response has become another benchmark for me. Climates of trust are built on response and responsiveness.”
- in the middle of July, I wrote a brief article about Victoria, which dealt with the “fast city” submission and also addressed the findings of Geoffrey West, featured in the July/Aug.2007 edition of SEED Magazine (“The Living City” by Jonah Lehrer)
- on July 17, I submitted this article to another local paper, The Business Examiner, and while I received an email back from the publisher (Simon Lindley), I never heard once from the editor (Steve Weatherbe), who was on vacation initially but ignored all subsequent emails from me, including the last one on I sent on Aug.2; in that email, I wrote that since I hadn’t heard from him since his return from vacation on July 23, I assumed it was ok if I placed my article elsewhere
- on Aug. 13, Vibrant Victoria published my article (called The Race That Should be On: Victoria as “Fast City?”), linking to it from its front page as well as from the forum; I noted its appearance on my blog that same day with this entry: My “fast” appearance on Vibrant Victoria
I would argue that all of this establishes my role in this story — in fact, without me, there wouldn’t have been a story. And without Vibrant Victoria, whose focus is primarily on urbanism — not technology — my article would not have been published locally. Certainly The Business Examiner showed zero interest, aside from the friendly and courteous reply I received from its publisher. The editor, however, left unanswered what were at least 3 emails from me.
But now look what a cat’s breakfast our local daily paper, The Times-Colonist, and its allegedly professional reporter, Mr. Andrew A. Duffy, make of it. On Aug.17, co-incidentally (or not?) a mere 4 days after my piece appeared on VV’s page, he produced a front page — yes, a front page — article called Does Victoria make the cut? Its teaser intro states, “‘Booming’ Victoria should get quick trip to fast-city status, say tech workers”… Suddenly, this is solely an issue centred on technology, not urbanism; and suddenly, it’s also something that just sort of happened, and that was created — without Duffy ever writing who was behind it (me!) — by the technology sector. Who happen to be all men, too. Most galling is the fact that Duffy clearly interviewed Dan Gunn and Bruce Carter, and that even though they were in the picture from July 19/20 onward, they fail to mention my pivotal role.
And yes, I emailed both “gentlemen,” but have heard nothing back from either one.
Here’s what Duffy wrote in his fluff piece of distortion — it’s the full article, but I shall interrupt for clarity:
Does Victoria make the cut?
‘Booming’ Victoria should get quick trip to fast-city status, say tech workers
Andrew A. Duffy, Times Colonist staff
Published: Friday, August 17, 2007‘Fast cities” are billed as creative, innovative places of the future, and a group of Victoria high-tech workers believes it’s high time B.C.’s capital joined their number.
That’s called fudging the facts. Duffy makes it sound as if these “high-tech workers” nominated Victoria. They didn’t — they’re not that fast.
Fast Company, a magazine that sells itself as a playbook for and chronicler of the “new economy,” recently released its Fast Cities issue, listing the 30 fastest cities — those deemed ideal for you and your business — in the world.
Victoria did not make the list, but Toronto and Vancouver did — the only Canadian cities to do so.
Ah, again: wrong. Duffy can’t get anything right, can he? Calgary also made the cut. Moral of this part of the story? Whatever you do, don’t believe everything that so-called professional journalists tell you.
But some capital region tech workers think Victoria should make the cut the next time round.
Already, 27 people, most tech workers, have gone to bat for Victoria on the Fast Company website ( www.fastcompany.com).
Poor Mr. Duffy is decidedly un-web-savvy, otherwise he would have linked to the page for Victoria, for it’s not exactly easy to find us otherwise. There’s the user map, but even that takes a number of zoom-in clicks to the Pacific Northwest.
“Victoria is booming! There are cranes everywhere. Jobs are plentiful and we were a host city for the FIFA U-20. We just need the rest of the country to recognize it,” wrote Thomas Guerrero.
I would guess Duffy was being very lazy here. That’s the first comment up, and it indicates to me that he didn’t bother scrolling down the page to read some of the other remarks.
According to Dan Gunn, executive director of the Vancouver Island Advanced Technology Centre, it’s about time people starting talking about Victoria in glowing terms.
“It’s very important to us if we are going to maintain our largest private-sector industry,” said Gunn of getting Victoria onto the world’s radar screen. “We can’t be a quiet industry anymore and that involves pumping up our chests once in a while.”
Gunn said that while Victoria’s high-tech industry has grown to a $1.7-billion sector and is going head-to-head with cities around the world for talent and investment, it sometimes gets forgotten.
“We’re not on the tip of everyone’s tongue like Silicon Valley,” he said. “Can we honestly expect to be put in the same category? No, but we can be considered one of the up-and-coming, most innovative and best places to live.”
Yes, it’s about time people started talking the place up, but you know what? It wasn’t your technologists at VIATec who did it, Dan. And it’s not about “pumping up” in some manly macho manner, either.
Bruce Carter, CEO of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, applauded the talk-up-Victoria campaign, saying Victoria has been too modest for too long.
Lovely, Bruce, glad to know that you applauded. But guess what? I didn’t hear you!
“It’s our job to do that, our job as associations, and as a municipality and citizens to say, ‘hey we’re not newlywed and nearly dead. There is lots of stuff going on here,’ ” he said. And, he said, the city can sell itself as a place for large companies to set down head offices by playing up the lifestyle for workers.
Vancouver made the fast cities list as a green leader alongside Chicago, Stockholm and Portland, Ore., while Toronto made the list as a global village alongside Johannesburg and Berlin. Other cities on the 30-fastest list include usual suspects like New York, San Francisco, Raleigh-Durham, N.C., London, Shanghai and Sydney.
The magazine also put out a list of five slow cities: Budapest, Havana, New Orleans, Detroit and St. Louis, Mo.; five too-fast cities: Cairo; Almaty, Kazakhstan; Greenwich, Conn.; Las Vegas; and Shenzhen, China; and 20 cities on the verge, which included Seattle, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Beijing.
My “fast” appearance on Vibrant Victoria
August 13, 2007 at 5:47 pm | In cities, fastcompany, links, victoria | 1 CommentI’m pleased to be able to point readers to a short article of mine available on Vibrant Victoria‘s front page. It’s called The Race That Should be On: Victoria as “Fast City?” and you can read it by clicking through on the link.
Benchmarks
July 29, 2007 at 5:33 pm | In business, fastcompany, victoria | 1 CommentAfter I learned that FastCompany had accepted my reader-submitted nomination of Victoria as a “fast city,” I tried to let as many people as possible know about this so that they could go and rank the city. I poked friends on Facebook, I scribbled on their walls, I sent emails to people at the Chamber of Commerce and at other business organizations. And I sent email to city councillors and staff. I heard back from one person. Clearly, more people than that clicked through and ranked and/or commented on Victoria. But the lack of response to my attempts to beat the drum for this made me feel really sad. I’m heartened by the response from the tech community here — most of the comments are from that sector. But the mentality suggested by a cautious withdrawal from celebratory spirit? Let’s just say that is not fast. It’s so not fast.
And so the response / lack of response has become another benchmark for me. Climates of trust are built on response and responsiveness.
Victoria on “fast cities 2007,” with comments
July 29, 2007 at 5:17 pm | In fastcompany, victoria | Comments Off on Victoria on “fast cities 2007,” with comments
Victoria, British Columbia
The City of Victoria, designated a Canadian Cultural Capital in 2005, is the core municipality of a metro region known as the Capital Regional District (pop. ~350,000 and growing). It is home to several universities (University of Victoria; Royal Roads; and the recently-founded private University Canada West, which plans to have a downtown campus by next year), as well as a number of colleges and technical and trade schools. The Vancouver Island Technology Park serves as incubator for high tech companies, and Victoria’s high tech sector is expanding greatly. Victoria is BC’s provincial capital (seat of government) and, in addition to its growing high tech sector, Victoria commands a thriving world-class tourism industry, which benefits from the city’s rich inventory of intact heritage buildings (late 19th and early 20th century). Long considered a “sleepy” city (its island location has tended to isolate it in the past), it can now leverage today’s networked business climate. Victoria is also undergoing a renaissance in urbanist thinking, manifesting in a construction boom that’s creating a vibrant downtown filled with residential towers and new office buildings. A highly desirable place to live (mild climate, beautiful scenery), Victoria is enriched by the “three Ts” (as defined by Richard Florida), which are crucial to city-making today: talent, technology, and tolerance.
View the Next Fast City
(Currently rated 4.8 out of 5)
Not Fast – 1 5 – Fast
See how everyone else rated this entry, and read their comments! (Your comments will be added in the next day or so, but your rating is added immediately.)
Thomas Guerrero – Victoria, BC, Canada
Victoria is booming! There are cranes everywhere. Jobs are plentiful and we were a host city for the FIFA U-20. We just need the rest of the country to recognize it!
jbutt – Victoria bc Can
It’s starting to move fast, but needs a bit of a push!
Dan – Canada
The Tech Sector in Victoria is the largest private industry bringing in $1.7 billion in annual revenues.
Bill – Vancouver
Extreme growth by teh tech sector has seen this once small industry grow by double digits in the last 5 years. From global leaders like Aspreva and Carmanah to up and comers like ParetoLogic and Triton this little Canadian city is punching way above its weight.
Nevin Thompson – Victoria, BC, Canada
There are hundreds of tech companies serving a variety of niches here, so there’s lots of work. The commute takes about 15 minutes, max, if you drive, but you can bike all year round. There’s plenty of stuff to do, especially for families. There is no crime and it’s very safe. All in all, Victoria is a great place for a tech professional to live.
Rob Bennett – Victoria, BC, Canada
A fantastic city to live in and raise a family!
Jim Wallace – Victoria,BC
Great place for living and working. It is all that is good about SF without any of the troubles.
Kevin Slagboom – Victoria, BC, Canada
I’ve been involved in Victoria’s tech sector for over 10yrs and have watched it grow exponentially. Victoria is a great place to work with clean air, under 20min commute, many green initiatives, beautiful landscape with lots of recreation opportunities, and friendly people. With a global economy, there is no real need to be based in some industrial park in the middle of no-where or crammed in the nth floor in an overcrowded city.
Chris Holt – Victoria BC Canada
Victoria is quite simply a hot bed of high tech innovation and success, and comes with a friendly and cooperative business culture. Victoria is wired up and clicking.
jim hedger – victoria bc, canada
Victoria is a center of excellence in the search and online marketing sector. It is also the warmest, most beautiful and recreationaly varied place to live in Canada.
Greg Caws – Victoria, BC, Canada
There is a wonderful synergy in the technology community. A highly experienced work-force with a strong work ethic give it a strong base.
Darien Martay – Victoria
I have lived here for more then 30 years,rnand hope too, for another 30… Great place to live and work, and be happy.
Jonathan Kerr – Victoria, BC, Canada
Victoria is a fantastic city to live and work in. The booming technology industry is providing more jobs then local companies are able to fill. The city that gave us Jeff Mallet (Yahoo!) continues to incubate new innovators.
James – Victoria, BC
Number one industry in Victoria? Not tourism… It’s technology.rnrnWith the universities-government-outdoors trifecta, clean-tech companies are especially making their mark in Victoria: Carmanah (solar), Triton Logging (underwater harvesting), Hydroxyl (wastewater) to name a few.
Mike – Victoria, BC, Canada
Victoria has gone through significant changes (for the better) since it’s placid days in the early 1990’s. The nightlife and cultural life of this city have benefited from a more aware and more active local populace interested in downtown as a place not only to work but to live and play.
Mike – Victoria, BC, Canada
Victoria has gone through significant changes (for the better) since it’s placid days in the early 1990’s. The nightlife and cultural life of this city have benefited from a more aware and more active local populace interested in downtown as a place not only to work but to live and play.
Walt – Victoria, BC
Victoria’s been a “Fast City” in the making for almost 15 years. The high tech side is strong, the geography is stellar – and – like all growing places, the talent pool needs more swimmers… so put on your wet suit and jump in!rnFYI – Victoria was one of the first Canadian cities to sign up for a Company of Friends chapter.
D. Verhille – Victoria, BC, Canada
Love this place I call home.
ken kelly – victoria, b.c.
having lived in 7 cities across the country, and travelled around the world, I can truly say this is a magical city! Well worth a full five points.
T. Crljenko – Victoria, BC
Simply the best.
Yule Heibel – Victoria, BC, Canada
Victoria has tremendous potential, which will be released most effectively when we achieve sufficient density. We need to watch our affordability (already very endangered), but there’s no going back for this city. We’re on the verge, and our only option now is to fly — as we should. For Victoria today, it’s all about being connected, which is ironic insofar as the city managed to excuse itself from the fray for decades by virtue of its island status. In today’s digital age (and market), however, there’s no place left to hide, so Victoria may as well come out and shine. We know it can.
David Ross – Victoria, BC, Canada
I’m proud to be a downtown business owner in Victoria. With the amount of residential and office space under construction and planned over the next 3-5 years along with retiring baby boomers migrating here there should be nothing but positive growth for downtown retailers.
Craig – Tokyo, Japan
Beautiful place to live, but not very fast.
Aidan Henry – Victoria, BC, Canada
Victoria is definitely blossoming as a tech hub. I look forward to being a part of future growth.
jbut – jbuttown
Fast, but not too fast!
http://www.fastcompany.com/cities/2007/p…
So “fast,” I’m nearly invisible
July 18, 2007 at 4:40 pm | In business, cities, fastcompany, public_relations, victoria | 8 CommentsReally important update — scroll down…
I have been so fast, I’m nearly invisible, which is not as it should be! Perhaps I should make sure that I’m at least leaving tracks — digital footprints, like tea leaves or entrails…
First, a quick personal update for everyone who sorta-kinda heard that I might be moving to Seattle: I am not moving to Seattle after all. I’m staying put in Victoria, and I’m actually very happy about it. There’s so much happening here — I want to stick around for Part II, for the sequel, for the To Be Continued.
Second, I really will get around to putting my magazine articles online soon. The publication I write for (FOCUS Magazine) doesn’t have an online presence (aside from a webpage), but I should do the work at least to put my articles up, perhaps as a “page” on this blog.
Third, …no, wait, I can’t talk about that! (Sorry! ;-))
Finally (for now), why the “fast” in the title? A: I did one of my crazy things the other day — and it again has to do with Victoria, which I find intriguing and fascinating these days. I read all the articles in FastCompany related to the 2007 listings for “fast cities” — and felt aggrieved that of course only Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto were included for Canada. Waterloo and Montreal were included as “reader-nominated” “fast cities.” “Reader nominated,” eh? At that, I felt motivated to act, of course. (Update 7/19: Edmonton is up, too, reader-nominated.)
So naturally I nominated Victoria — which would probably horrify many Victorians, but it’s about time some of us zippy types got to have some say, too. In my nomination of Victoria, I wrote this:
The City of Victoria, designated a 2005 Canadian Cultural Capital, is the core municipality of a metro region known as the Capital Regional District (pop. ~350,000 and growing). It is home to several universities (University of Victoria; Royal Roads; and the recently-founded private University Canada West, which plans to have a downtown campus by next year), as well as a number of colleges and technical and trade schools. The Vancouver Island Advanced Technology Park serves as incubator for high tech companies, and Victoria’s high-tech sector is expanding greatly. Victoria is BC’s provincial capital (seat of government) and, in addition to its growing high-tech sector, Victoria commands a thriving world-class tourism industry, which benefits from the city’s rich inventory of intact heritage buildings (late 19th and early 20th century). Long considered a “sleepy” city (its island location tended to isolate it in the past), it can now leverage today’s networked business climate. Victoria is also undergoing a renaissance in urbanist thinking, manifesting in a construction boom that’s creating a vibrant downtown filled with residential towers and new office buildings. A highly desirable place to live (mild climate, beautiful scenery), Victoria is enriched by the “three Ts” (as defined by Richard Florida), which are crucial to city-making today: talent, technology, and tolerance.
No sooner had I submitted my nomination, I realized that I hadn’t mentioned all the “fast” companies (high tech types and others) that are creating a foothold here. So I tried to add to my submission a couple of days later (today, in fact), but you can’t “double-dip” or double-submit, as it were.
Naturally, I didn’t want to be deterred and so wrote an email to FastCompany‘s editors directly, asking them to pass my supplementary information on to the appropriate editors of the “fast cities” feature. Here’s what I sent today:
In my initial submission I neglected including information about all the interesting locally-founded and locally-based Victoria companies we have right here. Many of them at times appear to have a Vancouver connection (instead of Victoria), but that’s only because Vancouver is the source of most of the press releases. The following companies in fact are actually Victoria-based.
As Victoria seems to be a bit weak in trumpeting its “fast company” highlights, I hope you’ll let me add, for your information, the following (abbreviated) list of local businesses that are developing reputations nationally and internationally:
Abebooks (world’s largest online marketplace for books, lists over 100 million new, used, rare, and out-of-print books from more than 13,500 booksellers, started & grown right here, in Victoria)
Carmanah Technology Corp. (they make solar-powered traffic signs, crossings, bus stops, etc. — used in London, UK)
Tactex Controls Inc. (manufacturers of space-age fabrics like Kinotex that incorporates fibreoptic sensing technology, originally designed for the Canadian Space Agency as a sensory skin for robots — I believe they did something with Canadarm, which was used by the space shuttle… They also manufacture high-tech fabrics that are straight out of The Matrix.)
Triton Logging Co. (again, a locally founded company, which uses a locally invented device called a Sawfish that cuts trees which were submerged during hydro or dam building operations; these are old-growth forests, underwater; Triton has a big contract in Africa; their press releases say they’re in Vancouver, but they’re actually here) (From their profile: Triton Logging is the world leader in underwater forestry technology, operations and certified wood products. It was created to take advantage of the significant forest reserves that stand in dam reservoirs throughout the world, collectively holding timber worth more than $50 billion)
Aspreva Pharmaceuticals (founded here, an emerging pharmaceutical company focused on identifying, developing and, upon regulatory approval, commercializing new indications for approved drugs and late stage drug candidates for patients living with less common diseases)
GenoLogics Life Sciences Software (founded here; a leader in the development of open bioinformatics solutions that assist life science research and pharmaceutical laboratories to manage, integrate and analyze vast volumes of scientific and lab data to advance health research and drug discovery)
ETraffic Solutions (established in Victoria: an eLearning company that specializes in Internet-based applications for staff development, information gathering and analysis, online language training and online learning communities)
Municipal Software Corp. (founded in Victoria, the company provides easily installed, powerful and long-term software solutions that manage the everyday business processes of municipalities; most customers are in the US)
ParetoLogic (a Victoria based international software Development Company focusing on Internet Security and PC Optimization was established in 2004 by four software professionals, who just happened to be brothers; uses proprietary Zheng technology)
ACD Systems (a Victoria company; one of the world’s leading developers and marketers of digital imaging software, including the renowned ACDSee image management tool and Canvas, an advanced cross-platform technical illustration and graphics program)
Agresso Corporation (Victoria subsidiary of multinational Unit 4 Agresso, a $450 million provider of business and security software and services listed on the Dutch Stock Exchange EURONET-U4AGR. Agresso, founded in 1991, and Unit 4, founded in 1980, merged in 2000 to become Unit 4 Agresso.)
Terra Remote Sensing Inc. (GIS technology)
Schneider Electric (used to be another, local, company?, bought out by Schneider, a French firm)
Total Delivery Systems (TDS) (founded in Victoria; delivery service, grown here, now expanding / franchising to the Lower Mainland/ Vancouver)
Beanstream Internet Commerce (founded in Victoria, Beanstream provides payment and authentication services to a growing number of active businesses, service organizations, resellers and sales agents across Canada and the United States)
EDS Advanced Solutions (leading provider of Information Technology and Information Management services focused on the provision of outsourcing services to clients who desire a labour-friendly outsourcing solution)
The University of Victoria Genome BC Proteomics Centre (a not-for profit organization, providing analytical services to researchers internationally; Genologics works in the field of proteomics, too; biomedical fields are growing here; Ocean Sciences is also big, but I didn’t include any companies since I don’t know this field)
Neverblue Media Incorporated (founded/ based in Victoria; a leading online marketing company that specializes in client acquisition and lead generation)These are just some of the companies I’ve personally heard about or dealt with in some way. There are literally scores more — for a more complete listing see The VIATec Directory (this webpage was also my source for most of the detail info, above).
N.B .: In addition, Victoria is also home to the Dockside Green development, a LEED certified project headed up by Joe van Belleghem of Windmill Developments and Vancity Savings. You can find out more about this “green” project, which is gaining global recognition (we have delegations visiting from China to learn from Dockside) at this site.
Now, do I think that a big player like FastCompany is going to take Victoria seriously, particularly given that Vancouver out-bullies us on the bully pulpit — which incidentally isn’t difficult to do, since Victoria in part likes to think of itself as a nobody? No, I don’t really expect FastCompany to shine its munificent light this way, but at the same time, I couldn’t help thinking, “hot damn, there is a lot going on here! And this tech stuff is just one part of it!”
Victoria and I perhaps make the same errors: so fast we don’t leave a trace, which perhaps means it’s time to make a pit-stop and send up some signals…
**UPDATE** NEWSFLASH** UPDATE!!
My submission was approved! Victoria is up as a “fast city” on FastCompany! Now please please please: go and rate it — let the world know that you think this is a great place! Click through on this page and give Victoria some linky love!