[p2p-research] WeWare and thackara's online speaking

Thu Oct 14 17:26:13 CEST 2010

...AND TO THE POTS
After years traveling the world in airplanes to speak at sustainability
events,
my low-emission online alternative is now available. In recent weeks I was
compelled by a family matter to substitute my physical presence with a
virtual
one in Austria, China, Canada, the USA, and Brazil (Curitiba and Rio). These
online encounters have a simple format: I make a customized-for-you 20
minute
pre-recorded talk, which is downloaded in advance; this film is then shown
at an
event; this is followed by a live conversation between me and your group via
Skype or POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). The films are neither fancy nor
glossy, but this simple combination seems to work well. If this could be of
interest to you, or someone you know:
http://www.thackara.com/pressdownloads/thackara_speaker_online.pdf
http://tiny.cc/h5wfp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Doors Report <doors-report at list.doorsofperception.com>
Date: Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 7:15 PM
Subject: Doors of Perception: September-October 2010 - WeWare
To: Doors Report <doors-report at list.doorsofperception.com>

Doors of Perception Report
September-October 2010
WeWare
By John Thackara

This free monthly newsletter starts conversations on issues to do with
design
for resilience - and thereby reveals opportunities for action. It also
brings
you news of Doors of Perception events and encounters.
Back issues: http://www.doorsofperception.com/mailinglist/archives.php
Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://www.doorsofperception.com/mailinglist/

THIS MONTH'S HIGHLIGHTSgen
Going to the DOG  - - Online Encounters - - Pre-Renaissance Man  - - The New
Cooperativism  - - How to Make Cooperation Easier  - - We Can Change The
Weather
- - Buckminster Fuller Challenge  - - Making Sense of Renewables - - 50,000
Landsharers  - - Re-think University - - Design Museums and Social Change
- -
Unplugged Diary  - - When The Pretending Stops  - - How To Make Less, More
 - -
Open Urban Gastronomy  - - Social Spaces  - - Radical Urban Sustainability

]  CHANGES HERE

GOING TO THE DOG...
Starting next month, I will be blogging at Design Observer Group (DOG). My
books, personal writing archive and Twitter feed will also be based there in
a
new channel for writers named Observer's Room. I'm thrilled at the prospect
of
working with professional editors to improve my content, and with platform
developers on new publishing formats.
Meanwhile, we will refocus the Doors of Perception website on Doors of
Perception events - including Doors of Perception 10 in India next year.
For the time being, you will continue to receive this free newsletter each
month. It will take on a Design Observer look-and-feel, but your email
address,
which is the only detail of yours we retain as a subscriber to Doors of
Perception Report, will not be sold or given to any third party. As always,
you may unsubscribe at any time.

...AND TO THE POTS
After years traveling the world in airplanes to speak at sustainability
events,
my low-emission online alternative is now available. In recent weeks I was
compelled by a family matter to substitute my physical presence with a
virtual
one in Austria, China, Canada, the USA, and Brazil (Curitiba and Rio). These
online encounters have a simple format: I make a customized-for-you 20
minute
pre-recorded talk, which is downloaded in advance; this film is then shown
at an
event; this is followed by a live conversation between me and your group via
Skype or POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). The films are neither fancy nor
glossy, but this simple combination seems to work well. If this could be of
interest to you, or someone you know:
http://www.thackara.com/pressdownloads/thackara_speaker_online.pdf
http://tiny.cc/h5wfp

]  WE-WARE: THE COOPERATION MEME

PRE-RENAISSANCE MAN
Is it true that the Renaissance 'never happened in Wales' ? In re-reading
"the
internet and everyone" by john chris jones I've been astonished once again
by
the sensibility of an artist-writer-designer whose philosophy – indeed his
whole
life - first inspired me when I was a young magazine editor more than 30
years
ago. Like another muse of mine, Ivan Illich, John Chris Jones was decades
ahead
of his time. He wrote about cities without traffic signals in the 1950s –
sixty
years before today's avant garde urban design experiments. In the 1960s,
Jones
was an advocate of what today is called 'design thinking'; then, it was
called
design methods. He advocated user-centered design well before the term was
widely adopted. As a kind of industrial gamekeeper turned poacher, Jones
went on
to warn about the potential dangers of the digital revolution unleashed by
Claude Shannon. Computers were so damned good at the manipulation of
symbols, he
cautioned, that there would be immense pressure on scientists to reduce all
human knowledge and experience to abstract form. Technology-driven
innovation,
Jones foresaw, would under-value the knowledge and experience that human
beings
have by virtue of having bodies, interacting with the physical world, and
being
trained into a culture. The time is ripe now for a wider readership: His
book
"the internet and everyone" is beautifully designed and made, and the author
will supply copies for £10 (half the original price) plus postage.
http://tiny.cc/v9ij1

THE NEW COOPERATIVISM
'Talkoot', a cooperative tradition of rural Finland, is now appearing,
swarm-like, in cities. This is one one of the gems reported in a special
edition
of the online journal Affinities on 'cooperative practices and values that
create alternative modes of economic, cultural and social life'. Among
articles
by activists, practitioners and researchers, I especially liked Andrew Gryf
Paterson's 'A Buzz between Rural Cooperation and the Online Swarm' and
 'Social
Centres and the New Cooperativism of the Common' by Andre Pusey.
http://journals.sfu.ca/affinities/index.php/affinities/issue/current/showToc
http://tiny.cc/zbkao

HOW TO MAKE COOPERATION EASIER
"It's not just about page views; nothing beats the face-to-face". Bethnal
Green
Ventures in London is a practical school for people who want to use the web
and
mobile technology to change stuff that really matters: from health care and
education, to employment and energy creation. The new venture concentrates
on
the internet and mobile networks because 'we think the potential they hold
for
changing the way we organize our society is only just beginning to be felt'.
http://bethnalgreenventures.com/

WE CAN CHANGE THE WEATHER
Among one hundred tangible local initiatives in Marleen Wynants' new book
'We
Can Change The Weather', I especially like the sound of 'Sailing Cargo
around
the Globe',  'Physalia Positive Energy Amphibious Garden', 'Prosperity
Without
Material Growth', and  'Green ICT Nomadic Applications'.
http://www.aspeditions.be/article.aspx?article_id=WECANC729F

BUCKMINSTER FULLER CHALLENGE
How are we to evolve beyond the short term reductionist thinking that
dominates
industrialized societies? The Buckminster Fuller Challenge is one element of
this journey. A $100,000 prize supports the development and implementation
of a
solution that has significant potential to solve humanity's most pressing
problems. The Call for the 2011 Challenge closes soon.
http://challenge.bfi.org/press/2011CallAnnounced

MAKING SENSE OF THE RENEWABLES MAELSTROM
It's a good thing that the range of renewable energy solutions is expanding
exponentially. But how is one to choose among all the competing claims?
Transition Maidenhead has set up a co-op to help people navigate the
minefield
of renewable technologies and take advantage of new UK government
legislation
which rewards householders for going solar.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/2010-07-20/people-powered-renewable-co-op
http://tiny.cc/gk8ui

50,000 NOW LANDSHARING IN UK
Congratulations to Landshare for reaching 50,000 members - a great example
in
the UK of how the web can build resilience.
http://tiny.cc/9hma4

700 GREEN MAPS ONLINE
Shared and open knowledge of local resources is critical to communities in
transition. So it's great to learn that over 700 projects are now registered
at
Green Maps. Michigan's Finlandia University is hosting an exhibition of
Green
Maps until 16 October; Green Maps founder Wendy Brawer will speak there on
23
September. A unique series of wetlands Green Maps is also on view at the
2010
EXPO in Shanghai; these maps were created by 30 university teams working
with
WWF China Green Map System
http://www.finlandia.edu/index.php?id=4239

RE-THINK UNIVERSITY
My good friends in Nova Scotia have launched The Goggles project. A quirky
troupe of traveling players will collect and disseminate proposals for the
role
that universities can play in creating a sustainable world.
http://gogglesproject.org/

DESIGN MUSEUMS AND SOCIAL CHANGE
Every design action has consequences. Do we need a place and a process to
discuss those consequences? Could design museums be that place? These were
among
pointed questions addressed at a Winterhouse Institute seminar in Italy; a
report has now been posted at Change Observer. Some professionals present
were
sceptical that museums should take it upon themselves to direct social
change.
I'm sceptical, too, about commercial design firms jumping with too much
abandon
into the 'social impact space'. But you decide. 'Reasons Not to Be Pretty:
Symposium on Design, Social Change and the Museum' is online here:
http://bit.ly/cG9a0X

UNPLUGGED DIARY
"Hello, my name is Stephanie Smith. I checked out on Sept 1, 2010. This is
the
story of what happened next"
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Unplugged-Diary/149767348378179
http://unpluggeddiary.tumblr.com/page/2

]  FORTHCOMING ENCOUNTERS

WHEN THE PRETENDING STOPS
The Lens conference in Bangalore marks a turning point. For 20 years, most
of us
associated with design education have pretended that the transition to
sustainability can be reconciled with perpetual economic growth. But this
pretending phase is over. A system change is unavoidable. In Bangalore, I
will
propose three steps towards the goal of radical changes in the way we
produce,
consume and socially interact. LENS Conference Bangalore, 29 September to 1
October.
http://www.lensconference.polimi.it/

HOW TO MAKE LESS, MORE
My contribution to Vision2020 - Leicester's 'big discussion about its
visions for the future' – is a talk called 'How To Make Less, More'. The
event
brings together change leaders from communications, retail, transport,
technology, property, law and finance. Smaller cities are often better
placed to
act on ideas that metropolitan centres just talk about, so I'm looking
forward
to the event. I'm especially intrigued by a CD called Oneplanet, sent to me
by
an Islamic environmental group in the city. It contains verses from the
Koran
that speak to such environmental issues as Cosmos and Creation. (Information
about the CD from 1earthguardians at gmail.com) Vision20202 is on Wednesday 13
October, Leicester.
http://www.vision2020.org.uk/

OPEN URBAN GASTRONOMY
A "people festival" has invited residents of the Kortrijk region and
Flanders to
think up innovative concepts. I'm especially intrigued by a new organization
called TimeLab, a workplace for art, technology and daily life. It features
'people doing strange things with electricity' and a restaurant called
fabFood
that features 'open urban gastronomy' that involves 'DIY  cooking and
gardening,
horizontally and vertically, high and low tech, sweet and sour'. A roof
garden
will be equipped with 'Open Source DIY sensors, irrigation systems and other
charming electronics. It all sounds Fab. I'll be there on Monday 18 October.
http://www.timelab.org/
http://www.innovationfestival-kortrijk.be/

SOCIAL SPACES
Tessy Bitton has created a terrific book called 'Hand Made: Portraits of
Emergent New Community Culture'. It  features 26 innovative projects that
explore new ways to create connection and community. Between October 2010
and
March 2011,Tessy will run free workshops around the UK that draw on the
book's
inspiring lessons.
http://www.socialspaces.org/
http://www.blurb.com/books/1541053

RADICAL URBAN SUSTAINABILITY
Scott Kellogg and Lauren Ross expose attendees to a "toolbox" of techniques
in
this intensive weekend workshop. Topics range from low-tech bioremediation
(cleaning contaminated soils using plants, fungi and bacteria) through
rainwater
harvesting, aquaculture, worm composting, city chickens and micro-livestock.
2-3
October, Albany. New York.
http://radixcenter.org/workshops/rust/

-----

BACK ISSUES - SUBSCRIBE - UNSUBSCRIBE
Back issues: http://www.doorsofperception.com/mailinglist/archives.php
Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://www.doorsofperception.com/mailinglist/

-- 
P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org

Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

Think tank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/attachments/20101014/9f0d4f4d/attachment.html>