Roger Waters (ex of Pink Floyd) made 3 appearances in Toronto last week touring The Wall Live. I saw the record and it was, in a word, spectacular! I'm always trying to get up with interesting analogies for the re:Brand effort and there are several items worth mentioning coming out of the show. 
In the 1st case The Fence is all about alienation/isolation and how to cope with issues surroundingalienation/isolation.
If you looking at our web you might say we alienate users whenever we provide bad web or bad web experiences. We sometimes isolate ourselves and users by not providing enough information. We may not be as barbarous as the Pink character's teacher or father or wife but users do get alienated all the same.
I took this image at the show
Is There Anybody Out There? One of the most powerful moments in the point is when the fence is built across the point and the ring is performing behind it. In song, Waters asks the question: "Is there anybody out there?"
I'd ask the like thing but in the setting of social media. While there is some clean up of the chance to dialog with City players, in general, social engagement hasn't brought in the masses. Even the "We Need It" video I mentioned recently is far beneath the potential reach possible and pales incomparisonto traffic at our static website.
That says to me a few things. People may not have heard we are "here" - as in the Metropolis of Toronto using YouTube, flickr, facebook, twitter and blogs (see our subscribe page for links). OR, people may simply not like that much to engage. It's pretty early in the shift toward open dialogue to build a real conclusion but, it is something to ponder.Do users require such opportunities from their local governments? Perhaps all they want is to obtain info about garbage collection times and not to discourse it. So, do we integrate social media inside toronto.ca or stay away from it?
TrustThat brings us to the song Mother. Here, Waters has a note asking should he (we) "trust the administration" The audience adds a reply that I'll edit somewhat here . "no &%#&^*@ way". That's interesting - it's actually an out of context response to the problems the case is experiencing. But, I receive no doubt people find this way. I think, however, users do trust our content. Would you agree thatinformationabout the flu and flu shots would give more credibility here than, say, toronto.com? Just asking.
The Show
As I said , The Fence is a spectacular presentation. Underneath the film projections and inflatable pigs and characters, the clear show and the heavy sound, you had very great content. Bringing this idea back to toronto.ca, I mean much of people need some of the peripherals on our web but, deep down, it's still all around great content. What I'm getting at here is we could move toward a lots more spectacular presentation but, unless we get our content straight, it won't matter that much. Am I wrong? 
Another scene from the show
These are just random thoughts while contemplating the see of beholding the show. As the wall gets torn down by the end, and the circle comes to the presence and sings about the experience, I think the audience gets it that connections, no matter howdifficult, are important. To quote from another Pink Floyd song . "all we want to do is keep talking."Much better than putting up more bricks!
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