Yesterday, the TTC unveiled the beta of their new website, exciting web junkies and transit aficionados all around Toronto.

The new design and functionality comes after a long series of consultations with the city’s web community, and promises to make information about transit services not only more accessible to residents, but also to position the TTC as a forward-thinking and rider-friendly transportation service.

According to the TTC, there are a ton of features planned for the near future including a trip planner, service updates by SMS, and online Metropass purchase options.

The site is still currently in beta, so there are obviously a few bugs (and lack of content) to be worked out, so don’t expect any harsh criticisms just yet. Instead, I wanted to congratulate the TTC for considering a key interface element that is extremely obvious but often ignored.

Give the people what they want

When I go to the Canada Post website, I want to know one thing: how much does it cost to mail my letter? (That information is easily available in one click.) When I go to the Toronto Public Library website, I want to know one thing: when is my local branch open and when does it close? (Getting that information requires multiple clicks in a very non-intuitive interface.)

Similarly, when people go to the TTC website, they have certain questions in mind, the most notable of them being:

• How do I get to my destination?
• How much will it cost me?
• Am I going to run into any trouble?

By putting fare information, service disruptions, and the trip planner on the front page of the new site, the TTC is giving people what they want immediately.

In a world where traffic numbers and web stats reign supreme, it’s comforting to know that the TTC cares more about serving their ridership than pleasing their marketing teams.

Kudos to Adam Giambrone and his team for making this happen. Looking forward to the official launch soon.

Growing up, we were taught that our résumés needed to follow a strict format and could be no longer than two pages. We were taught that a good résumé included all our work experience and our education and everything we could cram into two pages while retaining the standard format and (Microsoft Word template-inspired) style.

Luckily, it didn’t take me long to realize that a résumé was not supposed to be formulaic: it was, instead, a reflection of not only your experiences and accomplishments, but a reflection of you as a person.

I’ve written about résumés before, and while I still believe that they are a necessary evil to getting your foot into the door of certain organizations, I have been looking at alternate ways that are people are using to pitch themselves.

Recently, I found a fun little thread on BusinessWeek that asked people to write their résumé in 140 characters — a type of Twitter elevator pitch. Inspired by the really good resuwitters in the comments (I particularly like the one by Jon Garfunkel), I came up with my own:

Hullo, I’m Vasta, and I tell stories. I help organizations use the web to get their stories heard by the people that need to hear them most.

Not too detailed, not too humorous, but it explains what I do effectively.

Of course, this 140-character blurb will never replace my résumé, which in turn will never replace any kind of portfolio or even face-to-face interaction, but it did make me realize that brevity, apart from being the soul of wit, is also key to communication.

If you can’t describe your work in 140 characters or less, maybe it’s time to reevaluate your activities and discover what it is that you actually do.

In the past two months, there has been a lot of talk about Mayor David Miller’s proposed ban on all firearms in Toronto. Many people agree that removing access to handguns should help reduce the amount of gun-related crime in the city, but there are others in uproar over their right to bear arms.

To be honest, I think a ban on firearms in this city would be a great idea. Funny enough, I don’t think it will be a crime-deterrent, but I do think removing potentially lethal weapons will go a long way in changing a culture of fear that handguns have cultivated in Toronto.

Instead of providing any fresh insight into the topic today, however, I wanted to take a quick look back at some essays I wrote some years ago about handguns in Toronto, and perhaps see how those thoughts are probably still relevant today.

Supply versus demand

On August 10, 2005, I wrote about the futility of trying to stop the illegal trade of firearms across the border. I also then began my advocacy of social programs such as recreation to solve the handgun problem in order to address the problem of demand instead of supply:

The problem is on the demand side: why do the youth in our city feel the need to carry — and worse, use — guns? It’s a proven fact that people of all ages will begin to do irresponsible things if they are not productively engaged. So it’s only fair to say that by keeping the youth across the city, and particularly violence-prone areas, engaged in productive activity, we can keep them out of trouble.

You can read the entire short essay at: Toronto’s Gun Crisis.

The culture of fear

Later that year, on October 31, 2005, I loudly declared that the terrorists had won. In this case, however, I was referring to the people bringing terror to Toronto through gun crime, the people who were cultivating a culture of fear that needed to be addressed before we could even begin to solve the gun crisis:

On Saturday, I attended the funeral of Aleem Rehmtulla and Fahim Talakshi — childhood friends of mine that were shot to death early last week — and I realized, amongst the over-2000 people that attended the ceremony, that fear was not only crippling us, but it was contributing to the sad state of our city’s crime scene. Sure, the undercover cops and security guards may have been a necessary precaution, but it also sent a message: you’ve made your point and succeeded in making us feel afraid. Perhaps instead of battling the source of the gun trade, we should instead invest in propagating a culture of love, cliché as it may seem.

You can read the entire short essay at: Guns in Toronto and the Culture of Fear.

Need for dispute resolution

I closed the 2005 year on December 22 with a look at Prime Minster Martin’s proposed handgun ban, similar to what Mayor Miller is recommending now. Through a quick and informal study, I discovered that the only thing a handgun ban would affect back then would be the price of obtaining an illegal weapon:

Price may be a deterrent in this case, but my above example only shows how control of access will not be a real hindrance, but instead just an easily-surmountable obstacle to obtaining weapons. Add that to the fact that only 16% of gun-related homicides in Canada are committed with registered firearms, and it is clear that the solution to this problem is not in access control, but in working with affected communities in eliminating the perceived need for violence in dispute resolution.

You can read the entire short essay at: Banning Guns Won’t Save Toronto.

Safety in schools

After 2005, I didn’t think much about access to firearms and gun crime in Toronto. There seemed to be a lot of talk, but very little action taken on the subject. That was, until the Toronto School Community Safety Panel came out with a report earlier this year that showed that students in our city were afraid to go to school.

The report released yesterday stated that there was an abundance of guns in our city’s public schools, that sexual assault and harassment is widespread, and that some schools are breeding grounds for gang violence.

Say what you want about guns in the city, but there can be no arguing that schools should be safe havens to foster learning, imagination, and creativity. The fact that some educational institutions are synonymous with violence and fear demonstrates a lack of commitment by our political and community leaders to the cause of eliminating violent crime in the Toronto.

So Mayor Miller, I applaud your efforts in banning handguns, but only if you are truly committed to taking the other steps necessary to ensure that violence doesn’t determine the actions of the community. Before launching your firearm ban, couple that idea with increased funding for recreation, better processes for identifying and promoting good role models, and a strong rehabilitation program for young offenders that does more than just incarcerate them.

What do you think of Toronto’s proposed handgun ban? Does it actually tackle the root causes of violent crime in the city?