Since there are no currently active contests, we have switched Climate CoLab to read-only mode.
Learn more at https://climatecolab.org/page/readonly.
Skip navigation

History of the CoLab


Fall 2018
Winners from select 2017 & 2018 contests were invited to Boston, MA to present their solutions at three different events. A $10,000 grand prize was awarded. 

Spring 2017
New contests launched for 2017.

Fall 2016
Crowds & Climate: Climate CoLab Conference was held at MIT, and a $10,000 grand prize was awarded. 

Spring 2016

New contests launched for 2016.

Fall 2015
Crowds & Climate: Climate CoLab Conference was held, and a $10,000 grand prize was awarded.

Spring 2015 
A new type of contest was launched, Regional Climate Action Plans (regions included: China, The United States, India, Developing Countries, and Other Developing Countries).

Winter 2015 
New contests launched for 2015.

Fall 2015
Crowds & Climate: From Ideas to Action conference was held, and a $10,000 grand prize was awarded.

Winter 2013-14
New contests launched for 2014. The 2014 round of Climate CoLab activities continued in the same vein as the 2012-13 round, with a group of contests on multiple sub-problems, and a global contest that invited members to develop integrated proposals that bring together multiple proposals from other contests into a coherent plan for the world as a whole.   

Fall 2013
Conference held where a $10,000 grand prize was awarded for best overall proposal.

Summer 2012
New approach launched, involving contests addressing multiple sub-problems, with subsequent development of integrated solutions. See the 2012 contest rules

Winter 2011-12
Winners of the 2011 contest present their proposals in briefings at the United Nations and U.S. Congress.

Spring 2011
On May 16, 2011, a second large-scale contest was launched asking members to consider the question, "How should the 21st century economy evolve bearing in mind the risks of climate change?". See the 2011 contest overview, and 2011 contest rules. 

Fall 2010
First large-scale contest is launched with the winners presenting their proposals at the U.N. and Congress. See the 2010 contest overview, and 2010 contest rules

September 2009
Inaugural moderators join the CoLab community and the system is launched. A White Paper is sent to the U.N. based on the outcomes of the 2009 CoLab contest.

Spring 2009
Initial prototype of a system that combines modeling, large scale argumentation, and voting is tested with users.

Fall 2008
First prototype of the CoLab's modeling functionality presented at a meeting of the Center for Collective Intelligence Executive Advisory Board.

Spring 2008
New York Times Climate Blog and the Nature Climate Blog report on the results of an early trial of the CoLab's large scale argumentation system.

Summer 2007
Harnessing Collective Intelligence to Address Global Climate Change, by Thomas W. Malone and Mark Klein, appears in the MIT journal Innovations, and lays out a broad vision for the Climate Collaboratorium.