User:Steven Forth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I find Wikipedia to be an ideal collaborative workspace for me and see it is as an important forum for the collaborative construction of knowledge and shared understanding. On controversial subjects the Discussion page can be informative, and my belief, perhaps naive, is that by working through the shared editing process and discussions on the Discussion page people with different points of view can come to at least better understand the many different views possible.

In addition to Wikipedia, I have used Mediawiki in a number of internal and public websites for knowledge construction and in the Earthblog.ca project we experimented with using it as a policy formation and discussion tool - with limited success.

Born in the late 1950s north of Toronto to a military officer and a nurse, I grew up mostly in Montreal and Ottawa, with a formative one-year stay in Quebec city in the late 1960s (before the October crisis). After attending Carleton University in Ottawa I spent the next decade traveling in Europe and Sout East Asia and living in Japan.

In Japan I married the artist-designer Yoshie Hattori and we had three children - Kaito, Kasumi and Kenji. I worked as a translator (Japanese to English) and in the publishing, software and media industries.

After returning to Canada late in 1988 (when my eldest son was of an age to enter elementary school) we settled in the Kitsilano district of Vancouver and started a series of companies in the localization, media and software industries. I also participated in the founding of non-profit organizations for translation and knowledge management.

I am a rather typical Vancouver knowledge worker: live in Kitsilano, cycle most everywhere (though I do own a car and use it once or twice a week), have started a number of companies, and spent my 20s living in Asia (mostly Tokyo). I speak and read Japanese, though I write the language rather poorly. My French is modest.

My main interests are life-long learning and how to support it using the Internet and semantic technologies.

I will sometimes be found editing pages on Vancouver, its poets, artists and restaurants.

One day I hope to translate the works of Fujiwara Shunzei and Fujiwara Teika into English.

My learning goals for 2006 look something like this.

Personal Finance

Understand Our Basic Financial Situation

Develop Plan for Financial Independence

Physical

Cycle 4000 KM

Climb Grouse, Cypress, Seymour, SFU and One Big Climb

Increase Standing Strokes to 240 (currently 120)

Learn how to hydrate and feed properly while cycling

Baseline Upper Body Strength

Lose 15 KG

Cooking Basics

Get basic understanding of food science

Learn Basic French sauces

Improve cleanup and organization

Indian Basics Masalas Breads Philosophy Vocabulary

Knowledge & Skills

RDF and OWL - Theory

RDF and OWL - Application

WS Standards

WS Actual Use in Learning and KM

Adult Learning - Theory

Adult Learning - Learning Plans and Projects

Marketing Basics

Strategy Basics

India Industry Structure

India Culture

China Industry Structure

China Culture

Get basic understanding of Ruby and Ruby on Rails

Travel Major Trip to Europe (Barcelona or Northern Italy)

Key Readings

McGee On Food and Cooking

Darwin The Descent of Man

Haida Mythic Cycle

Icelandic Sagas

Borges Poetry Fiction and Non Fiction