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CoLab Talk: Meeting with Policymakers

2012-01-17T19:31:18Z

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

2011-12-07T22:55:51Z

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: Congratulations to our winners

2011-11-21T20:37:42Z

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

1^st Place, Popular Choice: 2010 Winners Combined by Dennis Peterson, a software engineer based in Charlotte, North Carolina

2^nd 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

1^st Place, Popular Choice: Cycling Carbon by Dennis Peterson, also the author of global category winner, 2010 Winners Combined

2^nd 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.

>Thank you to our community

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.

CoLab Talk: Voting Ends Tomorrow

2011-11-14T20:54:52Z

CoLab Talk
November 14, 2011

>Voting Ends Tomorrow

Please cast your vote for your favorite global and national proposal today. The contest will end when the last place on earth turns from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning: November 15, 23:59:59 in the Yankee Time Zone in the Pacific Ocean. Equivalent times are:

>Wedneday, November 16, 11:59:59 AM (Greenwich Mean Time)
>Wednesday, November 16, 6:59:59 AM (Eastern Standard Time)
>Wednesday, November 16, 7:59:59 PM (China Standard Time)

>CoLab Featured on Crowdsourcing.Org

Research specialist Lisa Jing and Associate Director Rob Laubacher, of the Center for Collective Intelligence, the birthplace of the CoLab, have published an editorial about the Climate CoLab on crowdsourcing.org. Read about our experiences in designing this tool and share your reactions and questions.

>Share Your Feedback on the Current and Future Contests

On our community page, James Greyson (blindspotter) has started a discussion seeking feedback from members about this year's contest and ideas for next year's contest. Please see the crowdsourcing.org editorial for a description of the matrix design that we are planning. We would love to hear your thoughts.

CoLab Talk: Vote for the finalists

2011-11-08T17:54:55Z

CoLab Talk
November 8, 2011

>Cast your vote

The final round of our contest has begun. From now until November 15, 2011, members are invited to vote for their favorite global and national proposals. Popular Choice and Judges' Choice Winners will be awarded based on the voting, and travel expenses will be paid for a representative from each winning team to present to policymakers on Capitol Hill or at the United Nations.

To vote, simply login and browse the global and national proposals. In each of these categories, you can select the button "vote for plan."

Invite your friends to explore the proposals. They, too, can register and vote for their favorites.

>Announcing the Finalists

Three global and five national proposals were advanced by the judges to the voting stage. We congratulate these eight finalists on their hard work and ingenuity.

Global Finalists

2010 Winners Combined by dennis
The Planet or Your Plate: Mitigate Climate Change by Going Meatless by beach-babe-in-fl
ReWirePlus by zannahmae

National Finalists

Dream for a Green Future by amandal [India]
Climate Proofing the Economics of Socially Sustainable Small-scale Agricultural Systems by maruf [African States]
Cycling Carbon by dennis [United States]
How to Change U.S. Energy in One Growing Season by gmoke [United States]
Personal Rapid Transit Grids by fry [United States]

CoLab Talk: Mold the finalist proposals

2011-11-08T16:44:23Z

CoLab Talk
October 25, 2011

>Help the finalists improve their proposals

Until October 31, 2011, 6 global and 6 national finalists will have the opportunity to improve their proposals before voting and the final round of judging begin. This is your chance to pitch in and shape the outcome of these proposals. Comment and debate on the finalists or make inquiries to join a team.

>Our vital stats

2147 members: this powerful membership of 2000+ will decide the outcome of this year’s contest. Invite your friends to join in time for contest voting and they will have the opportunity to influence what appears on global and national policymaking agendas.

400 followers on Twitter: join the conversation.

203 friends on Facebook: connect with us.

21 days till the end of the contest: mold the finalist proposals and join in the voting from November 4-14, 2011.

CoLab Talk: Announcing the Finalists

2011-10-11T16:52:57Z

CoLab Talk
October 11, 2011

>First Round of Contest Ends, Second Round Begins

To our community: thank you so much for your participation in the 2011 contest. Sixty-four proposals came in from the United States, England, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Kenya, and the list continues.

After careful review, our judges have selected 12 finalists. These teams are invited to improve their proposals between now and October 31. The judges will then review these proposals for feasibility and the Climate CoLab community will be invited to vote on their favorite until November 15.

The CoLab will announce Judges’ Choice and Popular Choice Winners. We will sponsor one member from each of these teams to travel to and present their work at briefings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. and at the United Nations in New York. Their work will also be featured on TreeHugger.

>Announcing the Finalists

We are pleased to announce the 2011 contest finalists: 6 in the global category and 6 in the national category. These teams will have until October 31 to strengthen their proposals before public voting will open. We congratulate all the finalists.

Global Finalists

2010 Winners Combined by dennis
Blueprint for a Sustainable Planet by roymahoff
Fix the System by blindspotter
Mitigate Climate Change by Reducing Short-lived Warming Gases by beach-babe-in-fl
ReWirePlus by zannahmae
Safe Nuclear Power by DrAlexC

National Finalists

Dream for a Green Future by amandal [India]
Climate Proofing the Economics of Socially Sustainable Small-scale Agricultural Systems by maruf [African States]
Cycling Carbon by dennis [United States]
How to Change U.S. Energy in One Growing Season by gmoke [United States]
Personal Rapid Transit Grids by fry [United States]
Society for a Sustainable Economy by cborn [European Union]

>Thank you to our judges

We thank our expert judges for their careful review of the proposals. Without them, our contest would not be possible.

Shoibal Chakravarty, Research Associate, Princeton University Environmental Institute
David Goldston, Director of Government Affairs, Natural Resources Defense Council
Martin Heimann, Director, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
William Moomaw, Director, Center for International Environment and Resource Policy, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
Susan Solomon, Senior Scientist Emerita, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

CoLab Talk: When the Clock Strikes Midnight

2011-09-27T18:26:01Z

CoLab Talk: When the Clock Strikes Midnight

September 27, 2011

> Contest Deadline this week

It’s upon us. This Friday, September 30, 2011 will be the end of our contest. But as the discerning among you have wondered: what is the actual deadline for a global contest?

Our contest ends when the last place on earth turns from 23:59, September 30, to midnight, October 1, which happens to be in the mid-Pacific, east of the International Dateline. When is this deadline for CoLab members scattered around the globe?

Midnight, October 1, 2011, Somewhere in the Pacific
5:00, October 1, 2011, Pacific Standard Time
8:00, October 1, 2011, Eastern Standard Time
12:00, October 1, 2011, Greenwich Mean Time
13:00, October 1, 2011, British Summer Time
20:00, October 1, 2011, China Standard Time

But why wait till then, whatever then is for you, to share your ideas? Submit a global or national proposal today.

>Expert Judges Announced

We are thrilled to introduce the expert panel that will be judging our contest this year. We are deeply thankful for the support and commitment of these leaders to the vision of the CoLab.

Shoibal Chakravarty, Research Associate, Princeton University Environmental Institute
David Goldston, Director of Government Affairs, Natural Resources Defense Council
Martin Heimann, Director, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
William Moomaw, Director, Center for International Environment and Resource Policy
Susan Solomon, Senior Scientist, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

>From D.C. to New York to Durban

As previously announced, our winners will present their ideas at briefings with national and global policymakers. Confirmed is a briefing to Members and Staff on Capitol Hil after Thanksgiving. Shortly, we hope to announce presentations to the U.N. in New York and at COP17 in Durban, South Africa.

The CoLab will support the costs for one member of each winning team to travel and attend briefings on Capitol Hill and at the U.N. in New York. Representatives from Climate Interactive, and possibly, with the Climate CoLab staff, will present at Durban.

CoLab Talk: The Power of Numbers

2011-09-22T03:41:16Z

Climate CoLab: The Power of Numbers

September 22, 2011

>1 week left in the contest

There is one week left in our contest on the green economy. The deadline is September 30, 2011, at which point judges will determine the finalists and then rounds of public voting will begin.

It is still not too late to submit a global or national proposal in response to the question, “How should the 21^st century economy evolve bearing in mind the risks of climate change?”

There will be winners in both the global and national categories and their proposals will be featured on TreeHugger, a leading environmental website, and will be presented on Capitol Hill. The CoLab is also confirming a briefing at the United Nations.

>36 proposals and growing

The CoLab is pleased to announce that we have 35 proposals on how the global or national economies can evolve greenly. Review them here and comment and debate their ideas.

Inspired? Remember, it is not too late to join a team or to start your own proposal.

>407 tweets and 314 followers

Want up-to-the-moment information about the CoLab? Follow our twitter and participate in our conversations with fellow environmental organizations and leaders.

>2000 CoLab-borators

The CoLab has a membership of nearly 2000. As a young project, we are excited by the momentum of the world community and by the diverse intellectual and personal strengths of our membership.

A reminder that to connect with your fellow members, you have the resources of the Community Discussion and the commenting and debating about proposals.

CoLab Talk: September 17, 2011

2011-09-22T03:31:35Z

CoLab Talk
September 17, 2011

Happy autumn to the CoLab! We are fast approaching the deadline of our contest on September 30, 2011 and these final weeks are filled with exciting activity. It is still not too late to write a proposal. Do it today.

Deadline: September 30, 2011

Our contest closes on September 30, 2011, at which point judges will determine the finalists. These finalists will have until October 31, 2011—Halloween!—to revise their proposals before public voting begins that will determine the winners.

You can still submit a proposal that addresses the evolution of the green economy at the global or national level.

Eleven Proposals Spotlighted by Expert Review

Eleven proposals were selected and reviewed by Travis Franck of Climate Interactive and Kevin Huang of Fireside Advisors. Please wish the following authors a sincere congratulations:

Carbon-Negative Biocharring Economies (Blindspotter)
Fix the System not just the Symptom (Blindspotter)
2010 Winners Combined (Dennis)
Cycling Carbon (Dennis)
Personal Rapid Transit Grids (Fry)
How to Change U.S. Energy in One Growing Season (Gmoke)
Ongoing Global Brainstorm (Gmoke)
Wind, Water and Sun (Icarus)
India: a Fast Growing Economy (Pjadhav)
Global Policy Change on Agriculture (Sachina)
Internalize Economy in Earth Economy (Vishal)

As a reminder, all proposals that were submitted to the contest by August 31, 2011 were eligible for expert review. The CoLab staff first screenall all submissions and then experts commented on 11 of them.

It was a great pleasure to review these proposals. Whether yours underwent expert review has no bearing on the final outcome of the contest. Judging will begin anew following the September 30, 2011 deadline. Take this time to edit and strengthen your work.

Winners will present their work on Capitol Hill

The CoLab is thrilled to announce that winners of the contest will present their proposals in a briefing to Members and Staff on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The briefing will take place after Thanksgiving, which is the last Thursday of November in the United States. Stay tuned for our announcement about a presentation to the United Nations.

In addition, the winning proposals will be featured on TreeHugger.Com, a leading climate and environment website that is part of Discovery Communications, the parent company of the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet.

There is still time left in the contest. Work hard and you could find yourself sharing ideas with national and global policymakers.

CoLab Talk, August 24, 2011

2011-09-17T21:46:12Z

CoLab Talk
August, 24, 2011

We are within one month of the end of the contest on September 30, 2011. Rather than winding down, the CoLab has several features that make this last month the most exciting one so far in our contest.

Expert Feedback

If you submit a proposal (global or national) by August 31, 2011, an expert panel will review it and offer you suggestions for how to improve it in the last month of the contest. This panel will be composed of representatives from:

>Climate Interactive, a leading community of scientists and modelers who simulate the impact of environmental interventions,

>Fireside Advisors, a national network of scientists and engineers that advise on new energy technologies.

We are very fortunate to receive their support and we encourage our members to take full advantage of this opportunity by submitting a proposal by August 31, 2011. For those who have already submitted a proposal, review and prune it and get ready for an exciting conversation with experts. Read more.

Winners will be featured on TreeHugger

TreeHugger.Com is the leading media outlet on sustainability issues and it is a sibling of the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, all three of which belong to the parent company, Discovery Communications. Now, the CoLab is pleased to announce that the winners of this year's contest will be featured on TreeHugger. Read the coverage of the Climate CoLab on TreeHugger from two days ago.

Also, stay tuned for our announcement about the policymaker meetings at which the winners will present.

Join a global or national team

Browse, comment, join one of the 16 global teams or 2 national teams. We have an excellent spread of proposals from those on very specific technologies to others on general systemic change. If you have an idea of your own and are keen to gather teammates, post the abstract first and seek help.

We invite all visions of what a green economy should be and how we can achieve it. Whatever your scale of interest, from local change to global policy, we look forward to your contributions.

TreeHugger to feature 2011 contest winners

2011-08-22T20:54:54Z

After this year's Climate CoLab contest ends in mid-November, the winners will be featured on TreeHugger, the online sustainability site.

TreeHugger calls itself the "leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream" and strives to be "to be a one-stop shop for green news, solutions, and product information."

TreeHugger publishes a blog, daily newsletters, and weekly radio interviews. It also posts ongoing updates on its Twitter and Facebook pages.

TreeHugger is part of Discovery Communications, a media company that also operates the cable televisions networks, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet.

A Tree Hugger post on the Climate CoLab ran earlier today.

Expert input for proposals submitted by August 31

2011-08-22T20:53:38Z

Proposals submitted to the 2011 Climate CoLab contest by August 31 are eligible for expert input.

The Climate CoLab team first will review all proposals, and the top ten or so will be forwarded to experts from:

Climate Interactive, a community of scientists and modelers that builds simulations and related media to improve the way leaders and citizens think about the climate. Climate Interactive developed the C-ROADS and C-Learn models that are used in the Climate CoLab.
Fireside Advisors, a national network of scientists and engineers that provides expert insight into emerging energy technologies. Fireside includes many researchers who are working at the leading edge of new energy technology.

The experts will read the proposals they receive and provide feedback.

So submit your proposals over the next two weeks, and let the experts help you improve them before the September 30 deadline.

CoLab Talk: Special Contest Edition

2011-08-08T15:10:51Z

CoLab Talk: Special Contest Edition
July 25, 2011

Happy summer to the CoLab! And, to our members under the equator, happy winter!

Welcome to the Neighborhood

The CoLab is pleased to welcome our 40 new members who joined in June and in July. We hope that you will not be shy and will jump right into our contests and debates.

Spread the word: CoLab on Twitter and a Poster for Your Friends

Follow the CoLab on twitter @Climate CoLab.

Find that you want to tell your friends about the science and practice of the CoLab? Interested in the science of the design of the CoLab yourself? We have just made publicly available the poster about the CoLab presented to the National Science Foundation’s Social-Computational Systems initiative (NSF SoCS), one of our sources of funding. Peruse it, ask questions about it, pass it along.

Special Edition: The Contest, May 16, 2011-September 30, 2011

This edition of CoLab Talk is dedicated to our contest on the green economy, which kicked off on May 16, 2011 and closes on September 30, 2011. This past month, the CoLab released several features that make proposal writing and collaboration more interactive.

As a reminder, we are seeking proposals in response to the question: “How should global or national economies evolve through 2100, given the risks of climate change?”

Our New Features

The CoLab is not only a gallery where completed proposals are submitted and displayed. It is an online workspace for collaborative brainstorming. To promote these interactive goals, the CoLab is excited to introduce three new features:

>Ideas scrapbook (Global or Regional): The ideas scrapbook is a marketplace of ideas about the contest question. If you would like feedback on an idea before making it into a proposal, or are seeking team members with whom to develop an idea into a proposal, or would simply like to donate an idea to other members, then the scrapbook is the right place to be. Our global and regional scrapbooks are pages that all members can edit. You can provide a description, sources and links to multimedia and you can attribute the idea to your username.

>Proposal pitch: The proposal template has a new section called the pitch. It is a 140-character tweet-length summary, or abstract, of your proposal. We encourage you to fill it out as soon as you are ready to start your proposal. Your pitch will evolve overtime but it will initially attract helpful support and dissent from other members.

>Matchmaking forum: Community Discussions has a new thread for team matchmaking. We encourage you to find other members with whom you might want to collaborate on a proposal in this forum. Additionally, you can also find teammates through adding or browsing ideas in the Scrapbook or in the Pitches.

Get started on the contest. Why?

The CoLab is scheduling meetings with the U.N. in New York and Congress in D.C. These policymakers are excited for the contributions that you will make to the conversation about the green economy.

New features to make it easier to contribute and to join teams

2011-08-01T14:12:21Z

The Climate CoLab has added several new features to make it easier for members to contribute ideas and to form teams that can work together.

Scrapbook proposals

These are a special kind of proposal where members are invited to submit individual ideas, rather than an entire complete proposal. Other members can then peruse the list of ideas and incorporate them in their own proposals. There is an international scrapbook proposal and a national scrapbook proposal.

Proposal pitch

Another new feature, called the pitch, allows members to summarize their main idea behind their proposal in a brief, tweet length (140 character) format.

When a member starts to create a new proposal, the pitch appears as a separate field at the top of the proposal desription. Once it has been entered, the pitch will also appeas on the list of all currently submitted proposals.

With the pitch, members can readily communicate the general idea behind a proposal and more easily find other like-minded members to work with them.

Matchmaking forum

A third feature is a matchmaking forum, a discussion thread where members who would like help to find teammates can post information about their interests.

The site's moderators will keep an eye on this thread and will make introductions to teammates who might be well suited to one another.

More to come

We hope to add additional features soon to make it easier for members of the Cimate CoLab community to contribute and work together.

CoLab Talk, June 3, 2011

2011-06-03T19:17:41Z

June 3, 2011

Introducing CoLab Talk
CoLab Talk is the newsletter of the Climate CoLab. If you have news for the CoLab community, please send a message to Lisa Jing.

Welcome to the Neighborhood
17 new members have joined since mid-May, bringing our community to 1727 members. Three members of the Climate CoLab community have become moderators:

James Greyson,
Mike Matessa,
Lisa Jing.

If you have questions, please contact them.

What does collective intelligence mean to you?
A new discussion, Framing Our Collective Activity, brainstorms about future activities for the Climate Colab. This discussion has received dozens of contributions in the the past two weeks. One member suggested activities that focus on personal and community-based actions, and another wondered about an activity that set out to measure the impact of such actions.

New proposal combines last year’s winners
A new proposal, 2010 Winners Combined, which incorporates elements of all three winning proposals from last year’s contest, has been submitted to the 2011 global contest.

CoLab Featured in the New York Times Dot Earth Blog
Andrew Revkin, who writes the Dot Earth blog for the New York Times, mentioned the Climate CoLab in a mid-May post entitled Exploring Roots of Climate Stasis, and Next Steps. Revkin also wrote about the CoLab last October, in Seeking Crowd-Sourced Climate Pacts.

2011 Contest
On May 16, 2011, the CoLab kicked off its third annual contest, inviting members to submit proposals in response to the question, How should the 21st century economy evolve bearing in mind the risks of climate change?

This year's contest will run until September 30, 2011. A new feature is two categories of competition: members can submit proposals that address this question at the global or national levels. The national category includes proposals for trans-national groups, such as the European Union.

An invitation

2011-11-09T13:58:51Z

A sustainable environment is important to every person on earth today and it affects every person differently depending on who they are and where they live.

The Climate CoLab, an online project by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Collective Intelligence (MIT CCI), offers the unique chance for people anywhere on the planet, of any background, education and profession, at all hours of every day of the year, to work together in addressing climate change.

How does the CoLab work?

The CoLab is structured around a series of activities that invite the public to develop proposals on what should be done about climate change. This year, the CoLab is seeking proposals that answer the following question,

How should the 21st century economy evolve bearing in mind the risks of climate change?

Following assessment by a team of expert judges and rounds of public voting, at least two proposals will be selected as winners. Last year, the winning proposals were presented in briefings to the United Nations in New York and U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C.

Why should I join?

Running from May 16th, 2011 to November 15th, 2011, this year’s contest reflects the theme of the upcoming Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

While world leaders and experts will attend this conference, anyone can become a member of the CoLab and submit a proposal, form a team to develop a proposal, or join a debate about the current proposals and related topics. From November 4th anyone can vote on proposals.

The CoLab is your sandbox and our members are equipped with the tools to model, debate, consult experts on and interact with policymakers about their proposals for a sustainable environment.

We need you for your insight, whether on tax incentives in a green economy, the value of green technology in developing countries or how your small town can make a big difference.

We invite you to explore and to join the Climate CoLab.

Now that the contest is underway, spread the word to your friends via email, facebook, twitter and more. Just share this invitation using the connect icon in the upper right hand corner.

Happy spring,
The CoLab

Climate CoLab 2011 contest starts May 16

2011-05-26T21:23:28Z

On May 16, 2011, the Climate CoLab will launch a new contest, with a focus on the green economy, one of the two key themes of the UN’s Rio+20 conference next year.

The 2011 contest addresses this question:

How should the 21st century economy evolve, bearing in mind the risks of climate change?

Teams can submit two kinds of proposals:

global,
national.

Proposals can be submitted through September 30. A panel of expert judges will select finalists in early October, and teams will have a chance to improve the finalist proposals through October 31st. Members of the Climate CoLab community will vote on the finalists in early November.

There will be at least two winners in both the global and national/regional categories: one for the proposal that receives the most votes from Climate CoLab members and another for the proposal deemed best by the judges.

The Climate CoLab project staff is working to schedule meetings with relevant policy makers about the winning proposal.

Briefing to the United Nations (New York, NY).
Briefing on Capitol Hill sponsored by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce (Washington, DC)

The Climate CoLab team will support travel by at least one representative from each winning team to one or more of these policy briefings.

For more information, see 2011 contest overview.

Briefings on Climate CoLab 2010 contest at UN and U.S. Congress

2011-01-05T21:37:33Z

In December 2010, representatives of the winning teams from the Climate CoLab 2010 contest attended briefings held at the United Nations and the U.S. Congress.

The UN briefing was on Thursday, December 2 with Janos Pasztor, Director of the UN Secretary-General's Climate Change Support Team and Head of Secretariat of the Global Sustainability Panel (GSP), along with his colleagues.

Representing the winning teams were Christophe Chung and Shoko Takemoto (Overcoming the North-South Divide proposal), Arthur Geuneau (Realistic Climate Proposal), and Dennis Peterson (Carbon Rights proposal). MIT Professor Thomas Malone and Robert Laubacher attending the briefing as representatives of the Climate CoLab project staff.

The Congressional briefing was on Tuesday, December 7 with Jeff Sharp, a staff member of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming of the House of Representatives, and a group of other Congressional staffers.

At this briefing, the same people who attended the UN meeting represented the North-South Divide proposal, the Carbon Rights proposal, and the Climate CoLab staff. Timothy Cronin represented the Realistic Climate Proposal team.

A recording of Congressional briefing is available.

Climate CoLab announces winners of 2010 contest

2011-05-31T17:32:53Z

The Climate CoLab project staff is pleased to announce the winners of the 2010 contest.

Popular Choice Award

1st place: Overcoming the North-South Divide (43% of the votes), developed by Christophe Chung and Shoko Takemoto, graduate students in the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP)
2nd place: Carbon Rights (29% of the votes), developed by Dennis Peterson, a software engineer based in Charlotte, NC

Judges’ Choice Award (tie)

A Realistic Climate Proposal, developed by Timothy Cronin, Arthur Gueneau, Jennifer Morris, and Paul Kishimoto, graduate students affiliated with the MIT Joint Program on Science and Policy of Global Change
Overcoming the North-South Divide (see Popular Choice Award above for more details)

The judges noted that "North-South Divide is stronger in novelty, but...A Realistic Climate Proposal seems quite feasible." For the full text of the judges' remarks, see the 2010 contest results page.

The winning proposals will be featured in briefings on the contest results scheduled at the United Nations on December 2 and at the U.S. Congress on December 7. A representative from each winning team will be invited to these briefings.

One other proposal was a finalist in the contest: Clean Development based on CCS, developed by Chen Bo Wan (visiting student), and Jianbo Sun and Xiaofan Yang (students), from Tsinghua University in Beijing.

The 2010 contest is the first in a series of planned challenges to be held on the Climate CoLab site.