Edmontonians, Cidade e Internet
Churchill Square, espao pblico central em Edmonton, preenchido pelos edmontonians para os fogos do Reveillon…Normalmente ela bem vazia!
Dois post mostram a dinmica da cidade de Edmonton no que se refere cibercultura e a discusso sobre a cidade em blogs e fruns de discusso.
Estou h alguns meses na cidade e posso afirmar que dificil pensar o espao pblico onde reina o automvel e onde o frio coloca as pessoas sempre em zonas comerciais fechadas, circulando por “pedways” (passagems de pedestres por pontes). Apesar disso, h na cidade vrios hotspots (em cafs e nos centros comerciais), uma certa cultura dos games, algumas zonas wi-fi livres, celulares 3G e smartphones, disseminao de GPS…mas a cidade est longe de ser uma cidade pulsante em termos de cibercultura ou de socialidade tout court.
Ontem os Edmontonianos bateram um record e entraram para o “Guinness” com um blog massivo onde as (apenas) 100 pessoas colocavam seus desejos para a cidade em 2008 em 3 horas. A idia aqui discutir a localidade (vejam meu post sobre local e ciberespao) e divulgar a potncia e a facilidade dos blogs. A ao criou uma nova categoria e, logo, um novo record. Nao entendi muito qual seria o interesse, mas a “operao” foi feita para entrar no livro e incentivar os blogs por aqui. A matria do Edmonton Journal, Bloggers set world record to gain skills, mostra o “feito”:
“Community bloggers in Edmonton set a world record on New Year’s Day. Not a very big record — 100 people posted or commented on community related news in a three-hour period — but it’s a new category so anything is a record, said volunteer organizer Marilyn Jones.
“We’re setting the bar,” she said, and promised to break the record and set the bar higher next New Year’s. The record category has already been accepted by Guinness World Records.
The event was held at the Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Laptop computers were set up for people to drop in and learn how to post news about community events or commentary on local issues. Posts were only counted from specific websites, which can be found through www.eventnews.ca.(…)”
Outro post interessante sobre a discusso de Edmonton, espao pblico e internet vem do “Space and Culture”, Winter is Public. O argumento que aqui o espao pblico o ciberespao j que os Edmontonians discutem muito a cidade em fruns como o “Connect2edmonton” forum. Vejam trechos dos post:
“(…) Its true Edmontonians are most proud of their new Anthony Henday ringroad and its Gateway Boulevard mega overpass/spaghetti junction. Finally a bigger piece of transportation art than Montreal! The investment in streets is towards automobiles, little else. But to return to the study, the comparison with cities with milder winters such as Salzburg doesnt help ask how huge indoor atria can be linked to the street and made to contribute to the city as a whole? These glass-covered indoor spaces, embodied in shopping malls, but also in major public buildings and city centre office developments, represent the Canadian architectural achievement of the late twentieth century.
But there is a further question – one may assume that Edmonton streets emptied by buildings being interconnected by overhead pedways reflect a lack of interest in the cities public spaces. The paradox is that the public sphere is online: Edmontonians are the most vocal, engaged and opinionated population Ive ever encountered when it comes to the city and its spaces (…) (R.Shields)”