Digital Governance

Digital governance is the central challenge facing governing institutions and societies in the coming decades where information knows no boundaries, power is dispersed and authority and accountability need to be reconceived. What is digital governance and why is 'digital' a governance issue?

Westminster parliamentary democracy is widely credited with a high capacity to adapt to societal evolution. Its ability to adapt to the realities of a digital society is putting this claim to the test. Westminster governments were never designed with the digital era in mind. Two forces – digital and governance – are meeting like tectonic plates, shifting the landscape and giving rise to new peaks and valleys around key governance questions that all Canadians need to be concerned about: Who has real power? How should decisions be made? How can all players make their voices heard and ensure that account is rendered?

Digital Governance, an sLab research project, explores unprecedented challenges and opportunities facing governing institutions and associated groups in the digital era. Through research and engagement activities the project develops a network equipped to understand these dynamics and to guide innovation. The initial partners are University of Victoria, Institute on Governance (IOG), OCAD University, Dalhousie University, and MIGHTY Purpose. Together with additional partners (to be identified) the Digital Governance team will build a digital governance research network.

Project Objectives:

  • Provide a platform for a national conversation on the issues and possibilities of digital technology and governance. The partnership has established itself as a Digital Governance Commission – a modernized, virtual royal commission that combines visibility, engagement and evidence based research, and that engages Canadians to develop practical solutions.
  • Recognize that the discussion must move beyond technological change to an understanding of the disruptive nature of digital transformation as an historic opportunity to recast the role and responsibilities of governments, citizens and other actors.
  • Explore emerging governance challenges and possibilities, but also specific practice areas such as evidence based policy analysis, advising ministers and legislators, citizen engagement, modernizing service delivery and realigning administrative systems to meet new and ever increasing demands on the part of governments at all levels.
  • Examine the new and emerging governance challenges of the Westminster system in light of the advent of digital, and to determine the transformative and evolutionary changes required of government and non-government actors in an evolving democratic environment across Canada.
  • Determine and articulate the new, core competencies required of all stakeholders and institutions (e.g. politicians, public servants, citizens, the private sector, and students) in the digital age.
  • Design a research program with windows of opportunity in mind in order to maximize impact and generate practical impetus for change.
  • Articulate the value brought to key stakeholders and include open, transparent and participatory methodologies on an ongoing basis.

 

For further information, please visit http://slab.ocadu.ca/project/digital-governance

This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

 

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Monday, October 23, 2017 - 12:30pm

Art Intersection Meetup: Jeremy Bailey and Midi Onodera

Jeremy Bailey and Midi Onodera are two artists who are engaged with online networks as an intrinsic component of their work. They will present their work as part of the Mobile Experience Lab's  Art Intersection Meetup, a place for artists, moving image-makers, gamers and technologists who are experimenting with art-related digital content and how the moving image is presented in a connected world. Digital culture, social media and networks encourage new ways of storytelling, image making, idea sharing and collaboration. This Meetup celebrates artists and innovators who are embracing change leading the next wave of creativity.

About Jeremy Bailey:

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Throughout his career, the Toronto born artist Jeremy Bailey has explored software in a performative context. As Rhizome author Morgan Quaintance has written "Since the early noughties Bailey has ploughed a compelling, and often hilarious, road through the various developments of digital communications technologies. Ostensibly a satire on, and parody of, the practices and language of "new media," the jocose surface of Bailey’s work hides an incisive exploration of the critical intersection between video, computing, performance, and the body."

Specifically, Bailey’s works consist of all manner of performances that exist as videos, software, websites, inventions, institutions and ephemera all created and presented by his alter ego, Famous New Media Artist Jeremy Bailey.

Bailey studied at the University of Toronto from 1998 to 2002 and completed his Masters in Fine Art from Syracuse University in 2006. He has participated in residencies at the Banff Centre in Alberta Canada, FACT in Liverpool UK, and Quartier 21 in Vienna Austria and has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally.

For more information about his work visit jeremybailey.net and parinadimigallery.com/jeremy-bailey

About Midi Onodera:
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Midi Onodera is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker who has been directing, producing and writing films for over twenty years. She has over twenty-five independent short films to her credit as well as a theatrical feature film and several video shorts. Her recent works feature a collage of formats and mediums ranging from 16mm film to Hi8 video to digital video and “low end” digital toy formats such as a modified Nintendo Game Boy Camera, the Intel Mattel computer microscope, the Tyco and Trendmasters video cameras.

Onodera's films have been critically recognized and included in numerous exhibitions and screenings internationally. Some highlights include the Andy Warhol Museum, the International Festival of Documentary and Short Films, Bilbao, Spain; the Rotterdam International Film Festival; the Berlin International Film Festival; the National Gallery of Canada and a number of screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival.

For more information about her work visit midionodera.com

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Tuesday, January 17, 2017 - 6:30pm
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Common Pulse Symposium 2011

A partnership between OCAD University and the Durham Art Gallery, COMMON PULSE created a forum for presentations and discussion during a three-day symposium. Twelve artists and curators were invited to present their experience creating work in the context of university research. These presentations sparked a dialogue among all of the participants which examined current developments in digital media production and consumption within contemporary art practice and how they predict, reflect or refute parallel media phenomena within North American culture in general. We looked at societal shifts in authorship brought about by file-sharing, sampling and the open source movement, as well as collaborative initiatives sparked by mobile media such as citizen journalism, wiki culture and flash mobs. In each model of research-informed, digital media art practice, the flow back and forth between analysis and production is strongest and most focused in the artist-led research labs of the symposium contributors

 

  

Common Pulse Transcripts
Proceedings from the Symposium

The Common Pulse Symposium brought together twelve prominent media artists to discuss their approaches to four issues:

  • Social Authorship: Where do Ideas Come From?
  • Digital Identity: The Public Self
  • Users and Viewers: The Role of Participation
  • The Artist in the Research Lab

This book presents the contributors speaking about art, interactivity, media and the shifting landscape of Canadian culture: David Clark, Brooke Singer, Marcel O'Gorman, Jim Ruxton, Martha Ladly, Michelle Kasprzak, Jason Edward Lewis, Jean Bridge, Steve Daniels, David Jhave Johnston and Jessica Antonio Lomanowska. Edited by Geoffrey Shea.

Get it on Amazon - or - Download PDF

Common Pulse Website

http://commonpulse.ca/symposium.php

Sponsor(s): 
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Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - 4:30pm

1D3NT1TY CR1515: Digital Security Student Competition

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Tuesday, March 3, 2015 - 5:00am

OCAD U has launched the first-ever student competition to raise awareness of digital security in an increasingly digital world. Students were challenged to create a campaign centered on any form of cybersecurity, ranging from hacking and malware prevention to data back-up and privacy. 

Students’ submissions will be on display for two weeks beginning March 6 at 4 p.m., in the North end of the sixth floor hallway at 100 McCaul. OCAD U students will be given the opportunity to vote for the Students’ Choice Award by joining the 1D3NT1TY CR1515 Canvas course.  Students wishing to vote will need to submit their ballot by March 9 at 1:00 p.m.

The Awards:

  • First Place: $2000
  • Second Place: $1000
  • Student Choice: $100

The Jury:

  • Nora Young, host of CBC’s radio show Spark, which reflects life steeped in technology and culture
  • Brian Lesser, the Director of Computing and Communications Services at Ryerson University 
  • Jim Babbage, Solutions Consultant for Adobe Systems and professional photographer, web designer and teacher
  • Richard Hunt, Assistant Professor of Design at OCAD U, with an expertise in typography, information design and research methods.
  • Simone Jones, a multidisciplinary artist working in film, video, sculpture and electronics as well as a faculty member at OCAD U.

Winners will be announced at 4 p.m. Monday, March 9 at 49 McCaul St. at an event hosted by Andrew McAllister, Manager, Academic Computing. Submissions will be displayed on digital screens. All are invited to attend, refreshments provided. This event is sponsored by OCAD U Copy & Print Services.

For more information please contact:

Alea Drain, Assistant, IT Services

OCAD University, 416-977-6000 ext. 212