Region of Waterloo

Photo by Joost J. Bakker IJmuiden used
under creative commons license

The Region of Waterloo is getting serious about giant hogweed (GHW) this year. Serious enough to hire three summer university students to help curb the growth of this invasive species. I've stumbled across what I believed to be GHW, but I was never sure. Then tonight I had this crazy idea...

With the Region of Waterloo bursting with GPS and camera toting techies, I'm sure we can come up with a way to help the weed inspectors in their battle with this particularly noxious weed. So, here's the plan. If you see what you think might be hogweed in your travels, snap a photo with your phone and send an e-mail to lrs@region.waterloo.on.ca. Add that address to your contact list right now! If you send the photo, it will help with identification. If you add the coordinates, it will help the staff find and destroy the nasty plant.

You could likely use whatever photo and location services you see fit... maybe TweetPhoto or Flickr or whatever works. These social tools will help spread the details about GHW too.

By the way... do not try to handle this weed on your own. Get professional help. You can seriously harm yourself if you get the sap on your skin or in your eyes.

For more details, check out the region's news release.

Update: Here's some great photos of young GHW plants. Very helpful for identifying the weed before it gets taller than you!

Update 2: The government of Ontario released a Giant Hogweed Identification video. It's a good way to see what the plants look like when they're young.

Update 3: Here's a video made by YouTube user WorkSafeBC. It shows what the sap can do to your skin (nasty), how tall the plant can get, and how to safely remove it.

Bre Pettis has a mission. Awhile back he tweeted:

"My mission in life is to develop infrastructure to support people who want to make things and meet people who make things and make things."

I've been thinking about Bre's mission for a week or so, wondering what my mission in life is... and especially how it relates to supporting people who want to make things.

Reading the Make: Magazine blog for over a year and following Bre with his posts there and his more recent development of Makerbot Industries had me all juiced up and interested in how hackerspaces (NYC Resistor in this case) can spur on great ideas and technological creativity. I've made my attempts to get hackerspace setup in our area. At this point though, a number of competent people have taken that ball and are now running with it where I have fallen behind... and that's OK. I think I need to get my maker groove on before I can play an active part in a hackerspace just yet.

The Make: KW maker group is a more likely target for my "supporting maker energies" these days. From what I've seen so far, we've got a large group of extremely talented makers in our region, and I think having meetups and events where makers can mingle is a good thing. Who knows what inspired collaborations might be spawned across the table? Who knows what problems can be solved when people bring in their half-finished projects for a demo? Who knows what we will learn from each other when workshops are held and skills are shared? Who knows?

I love meeting makers and hearing their stories. I love seeing connections made and projects take form. I would love to see the maker movement spread across our region and make a difference in our communities. So for now my mission... well maybe not my life mission but more of a life resolution at this point, is to support the maker movement in the Region of Waterloo in any form I can figure out.

Are you a maker? If you are interested, check out the Make: KW website where you can blog about your projects and sign up to the mailing lists of your choice. Or you can send ideas my way and we'll see if we can make things happen.

What is a maker you ask? A maker is a person imbued with the do-it-yourself (DIY) spirit, someone who would rather create than buy. A maker is bold and creative when blurring the lines between technology and art.

O'Reilly Media has been capturing the maker spirit for awhile now with their Make: magazine. I've been an avid follower of the magazine's blog. It's full of more-than-interesting accounts and pointers to how-to instructions for projects that boggle the mind.

This post is a call out to makers in the area. Are you out there? Are our numbers strong? Should we organize, uprise and bring our knowledge of art and technology into our community?

Leave a comment here or drop me a note at onecog2many@gmail.com if you're interested. More importantly, spread the word... blog it, tweet it, facebook it, call your friends, whatever. Let's see who's out there and what we have to offer each other and the community.