A project by: Alexandra Hong, Alex Shave (BA) and Sarah Eagan In collaboration with: Cheryl Hsu (BA) and Chris Cosack Mentor: Wendy Cukier (B.A., M.A., M.B.A., Ph.D., D.U. (Hon.), LL.D. (Hon.). M.S.C.) Fusing the movement of people with the movement of ideas

Problem: Public transportation commute times and wait times are often written off as unproductive, uninteresting and stressful. How can we make use of this down time and make it more engaging, educational and fun? Project Idea: The web-based application "Today I learned "can be accessed by the cellphones of people using public transit. It is a crowdsourcing app that harnesses travel-time, while making public transit fun and engaging by building a community through the communication of ideas. Commuters can post statements following the words "Today I learned". This post is shared with people in their vicinity. The more popular are post, the further it reaches. The information flow is then mapped visually. Goals: Using public transportation to help engage in, and encourage the movement of ideas and knowledge. Fun! Easy to Use Engaging

These interviews with Toronto Public Transit users show that time spent in transit is often viewed as wasted time. Not only is there potential for using this time for something educational, people want something fun to do while in transit. Interviews on the next page show the reactions of transit users to our project proposal. "Although Toronto transit is public, I don't think of it as a very interactive or social place: the main goal seems to be to distract oneself and avoid engaging with others until the commute is over. Currently the only thing that actively tries to engage with public transit users are advertisements. It would be a more fun experience if there was something in the place of ads to engage and interact with." Kira Treviranus, University of Toronto Student / Public Transit User " I'm not hugely passionate for or against public transit. It’s not a huge detriment to my day, it’s neither here or there. I just kind of tune out and listen to my music. It’s a very introverted experience. Everyone just kind of sits there in a kind of purgatory, waiting for their time to get on and get off. It’s a time-killing moment. " Neil Karassik, Film Writer, Eye Weekly / Public Transit User

"It would be interesting, I like the idea of location specific updates and seeing if something cool happens in the station. I like knowing what’s going on." Jackie McClelland, Intern, Mongrel Media/Public Transit User "I like the idea and can definitely see myself using something like that, but can’t see it being adopted by all that many people. It might be hard to get people to care enough to participate in a thoughtful and engaging way." Nicki A., TTC Employee "I think that this project has the potential to really open up the barriers that exist between people in transit. I think people will have fun tracking information through the city, this could really liven up streetcar rides!" Ted Killin, York University / Public Transit User

Jack Dorsey, The Founder of Twitter We would like to interview the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey particularly to find out what struggles he encountered while creating and implementing Twitter and how he overcame them. Nick Hanselmann, Artist and Programmer We would like to interview Nick Hanselmann because he’s unique combined expertise in art and programming. He creates beautiful images with quantitative information and we would like to get his advices on mapping data flow.