Alex Reid

Politics is all about faith; faith that you won’t remember or care.

Tell – Tales from the 204 is a new story telling show that will happen on Thursday, November 4th. People will be given 7 to 10 minutes to tell a personal story live on stage and without notes, told on a theme that story tellers can interpret how ever they wish. The mission, says organizer Amanda Yusishen, is to expose Winnipeg for what it really is, a city full of fantastic tales.

“Story telling events are becoming more and more popular in recent years and I decided to start TELL – Tales from the 204 after I had trouble finding the type of story telling event I wanted to attend and possibly, be a part of,” says Yusishen.

“These types of events have been going on for years in the states, mostly New York, Chicago and LA. If people want to get an idea of what the TELL- Tales from the 204 event may be like, they can check out such famous Story Telling events as The Moth or RISK, two of my personal favorites out there right now.”

If you’re interested in telling your story, contact Amanda at TELL204@gmail.com. The event will take place at Aqua Books on Thursday, November 4th starting at 7:30pm.

A UK police force has scored a massive social media hit.

In an “exercise”, the Greater Manchester Police highlighted the types of calls they have to deal with by posting the calls via their Twitter page in a scheduled 24-hour period from 5 a.m. on Thursday until 5 a.m. on Friday. They posted so many calls, they had to create three Twitter accounts to get past the Twitter API limits (#1, #2 & #3).

Why?

As Inside the M60 reported yesterday, the Greater Manchester Police is under threat of having its budget cut by up to £7 million ($15 million CAD). So Chief Constable Peter Fahy decided to use Twitter to illustrate what they deal with on a daily basis, in hopes of showing the public how stretched their police resources already are.

So far, the Twitter public have responded positively and open data geeks are already combing through the data in hopes of analyzing the calls. In one day, the police force posted every of its 3,205 incidents, officers arrested 341 people and 126 of those remain in custody. The police force also gained 14,000 more followers through the demonstration.

From the Globe:

“The reaction we have received proves that the public perception of modern day policing was removed from the reality that my officers face,” said GMP Chief Constable Peter Fahy. “I think that it’s time to start measuring performance in a different way,” he said. “There needs to be more focus on how the public sector as a whole is working together to tackle society’s issues and problems.”

ConnectedCOPS.net also has some interesting numbers on who follows cops’ twitter accounts. Some other police departments that are posting on Twitter:

@omahapolice, @bocachief, @portlandpolice, @WOODSTOCKPD, @modestopolice, @milwaukeepolice, @WaterfordPolice, @JOCOSHERIFF, @BaltimorePolice, @TexasDPS_PIO, @OkCountySheriff, @BocaPolice, @BBPD, @RichmondPolice, @DenverPolice, @NaplesPolice, @boulderpolice, @AuburnPD, @HawthornePD, @OBPD, @TorrancePD, @peekskillpolice, @WarrentonPD, @HollyHillPolice, @TyronePolice, @GulfportPolice, @UCPD, @Streetsboropd, @MBTAPoliceTPSA2, @newtownpd, @RemingtonPolice, @OSPolicing, @IACPOfficial, @EppingNHPolice, @PPBPIO, @JuneauPD, @ChesterfieldPD, @bellevuepolice.

Edmonton is getting their own Hackathon, a codefest where developers, programmers, engineers, designers and even marketers get together for a collaborative technical project.

This isn’t the first for Edmonton or Alberta, as the first hackathon happened in Calgary in 1999, focusing on cryptographic development (according to wikipedia, “part of the reason for holding it in Canada was to avoid legal problems caused by United States regulations on the export of cryptographic software”).

This hackathon – sponsored by Microsoft – will focus on creating an emergency information application that can be used “in cities all over the world. An application that will help families prepare during a disaster. An app that will list emergency muster points, emergency info, alerts during disasters, and what you can do.”

This is Edmonton’s third official hackathon to take place at 9:15am Wednesday, October 20th, and continue until 9:15am Thursday, October 21st. To join this hackathon, click here.