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CoLab Talk: CoLab 2012 Brainstorm April 19, 2012
The Climate CoLab is busy updating the look of our website in collaboration with Moth Design. Our goal is to create a site that will support simultaneous activity by a large community about many aspects of climate change.
>Contribute to the CoLab 2012 Brainstorm
In the past, the CoLab has sponsored one or two contests per year. This year, members of our community will be able to participate in a larger number of activities. Sample topics are: How can homeowners increase the energy efficiency of houses in United States? How can governments in developed countries finance adaptation in developing countries?
How will all this diverse activity be organized? Based on the key dimensions used to define these sub-topics: What, Where, and Who.
>What action is being taken to address climate change, >Where in the world this action is being taken, >Who, that is, which organizations and individuals, will be the key actors?
Please see the taxonomy for the initial breakout of What, Where, Who that will be featured in the 2012 activites. Contribute your thoughts in the community discussion about the taxonomy and about which sub-topics should be highlighted in this year’s activities.
Climate CoLab at MIT Sustainability Summit
On April 27, 2012, the fourth annual MIT Sustainability Summit will be held at the Microsoft New England Research and Development (NERD) Center in Cambridge, MA. See this schedule for more details.
The Climate CoLab is proud to partner with Continuum on a breakout session at the Summit on “Socially-Mediated Collective Action Workshop.” After an introductory panel, participants will work in groups from 13:55 to 14:55 EST to develop ideas on how to reduce emissions from the building and the transportation sectors. Near the end of the session, the groups’ work will be posted on the Climate CoLab site.
Members of our online community can contribute to the collective brainstorming on these topics by logging onto the CoLab site and submitting ideas before, during, and after the Summit.
CoLab Talk: 2012 Activities March 28, 2012
CoLab 2012: Dividing the climate change challenge into sub-problems Beginning this spring, the CoLab will introduce a new approach to the climate change challenge. This complex problem will be broken down into a series of sub-problems, and members of the community will be invited to submit proposals on each of them. Later, they will combine proposals that focus on sub-problems into broad integrated proposals.
A key element of this new approach is the taxonomy--the structure by which the sub-problems will be organized. It has three dimensions:
>What action is being taken >Where the action is being taken >Who is taking action
A sub-problem is defined by a combination of What x Where x Who. An example is Increasing Building Efficiency x United States x Individual Citizens.
Please view the draft of the proposed taxonomy and the description of the planned 2012 activities. We encourage you to participate in the discussion on how to improve the taxonomy and 2012 activities and on what sub-problems should be highlighted. Pilot of collaborative activities
Based on community feedback, we will pilot collaborative activities in the CoLab through April. Depending on the results and feedback, we may incorporate these collaborative approaches in the formal activities in 2012:
>Pilot One: Community development of a single wiki proposal. All members will have writing and editing privileges for the creation of a single proposal on "Climate Friendly Diet."
>Pilot Two: Community Proposal that will be developed alongside proposals submitted by individuals and teams in a pilot contest. All members will have the option either to write their own proposals or to contribute to a community proposal on the topic "Transportation."
2011 Contest winners at the U.N. and Congress
In January, the 2011 CoLab Contest winners presented their proposals to the United Nations and U.S. Congress. For details, see the press release announcing the briefings.
2011 winner Chris Fry featured in NASA publication
Congratulations to Chris Fry, 2011 Judges' Choice winner, whose proposal was featured in the NASA Research Park newsletter.
CoLab Talk: Meeting with Policymakers January 17, 2012
Happy New Year to the Climate CoLab Community! This month we are looking forward to two meetings with policymakers. Winners of the 2011 Climate CoLab contest will present at the United Nations in New York City on January 24 and the United States Congress in Washington, D.C. on January 25.
Last month, members of the Climate CoLab staff also presented at the UN, during an Intersessional Meeting to plan the Rio+20 Conference. >January 24: UN Briefing
Professor Thomas Malone, the head of the Center for Collective Intelligence, will introduce the Climate CoLab and 2011 contest winners to officials at the United Nations. The winners will then present their proposals. Our audience will include the executive coordinators of the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Brice Lalonde and Elizabeth Thompson.
>January 25: US Congress Briefing
The day following our meeting at the UN, Professor Malone and contest winners will also present in a briefing on Capitol Hill sponsored by the US House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee.
>Report from Rio+20 Intersessional Meeting in December
We have uploaded slides to the Climate CoLab Library from our presentation at a side event during the Rio+20 Intersessional Meeting on December 16, 2011. A co-presenter, the Boston University Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, also wrote an interesting post describing its plans for the event.
Please stay tuned as weupdate you on upcoming developments. As always, you are invited to contribute any thoughts, ideas and feedback on our Community Page.
CoLab Talk: COP17 and Rio+20 Intersessional December 7, 2011
>Get Involved with Policymakers and Innovators
December is a busy time for policymakers. Right now, COP 17 is taking place in Durban, South Africa. Next week, the side events leading up to Rio+20 Conference for Sustainable Development will be taking place in New York City. As a result, it is a busy time at the CoLab. Check out these events with which we are involved and offer your support and insight:
“Achieving Implementation—Accountability, Engagement and Multi-Stakeholder Cooperation,” December 16, 2011, United Nations, New York City. As Rio+20 approaches, the Prepcom will be holding meetings at which organizations will present their work on climate change action strategies. The CoLab will have 1.5 hours, along with the other presenters, to contribute its ideas about multi-stakeholder cooperation.
U.K. Youth Climate Coalition Durban Dares from November 28, 2011 to December 9, 2011. A collaborator with the CoLab, the UKYCC, is attending COP17 and making sure its youth delegates have their voices heard by the attending countries. During COP17, the UKYCC is challenging the global community with Durban Dares where you can do your individual part for the health of the environment.
Green Innovators in Business Network’s (GIBN) Third Annual Boston Solutions Lab on December 8, 2011. The Environmental Defense Fund, Center for Climate Change and Energy Solutions and DIG IN are convening a conference on green innovation at the Microsoft New England Research Center. Staff at the Center for Collective Intelligence, the organization where the CoLab is designed and managed, will be attending. If it interests you, please join in this exciting day.
>Contribute to the design of the 2012 Contest
The 2012 contest will have a new format and technology. Read about the proposed changes here. One of our goals is for the community to be involved in the evolution of our tool, through a series of activities, but in the meantime, contribute your ideas.
CoLab Talk November 17, 2011
>Congratulations to our winners
After months of hard work from our community, we pleased to announce the winners of the 2011 Contest. These proposals reflect an excellent range in the methods and geography of the authors. Representatives from each team will present their work to the United Nations or U.S. Congress. Please stay tuned for these events.
Global Category
1st Place, Popular Choice: 2010 Winners Combined by Dennis Peterson, a software engineer based in Charlotte, North Carolina
2nd Place, Popular Choice and Judges’ Special Commendation: The Planet or Your Plate: Mitigate Climate Change by Going Meatless by beach-babe-in-fl, an environmental activist and founder of the Daily Kos Meatless Advocates, Nancy A. Heitzeg, of St. Catherine University, and Gerard Wedderburn Bisshop, advisor and senior scientist at the World Preservation Foundation
National Category
1st Place, Popular Choice: Cycling Carbon by Dennis Peterson, also the author of global category winner, 2010 Winners Combined
2nd Place, Popular Choice: Dream for a Green Future by Arnab Mandal and Pooja Aroora, graduate students at TERI University, India
Judges’ Choice: Personal Rapid Transit Grids by Christopher Fry, research scientist at the M.I.T. Media Lab
Judges’ Choice: Climate Proofing the Economics of Socially Sustainable Small-Scale Agricultural Systems by Maruf Sanni, Idowu Ologeh and William O. Siyanbola, of the Nigeria National Centre for Technology Magement, and James O. Adejuwon, of Obafemi Awolowo University Also, sincere congratulations to our finalists: ReWire Plus by Beth Savan, Zannah Matson and Ellie Farahani, and How to Change U.S. Energy in One Growing Season by George Mokray.
We thank the winners and the finalists for their outstanding work, as well as the semifinalists and 50+ members who contributed proposals during the contest. We are grateful to all members of the Climate CoLab for their enthusiastic comments and voting. Without all of your contributions, this contest would not have been possible.
Our membership has grown to nearly 3,600 and more than 1,750 votes were cast in support of the finalists. Please look out for our upcoming activities, which will offer more opportunities for collective thinking and design.
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