Tag: upyerbrum

Of All the People in All the World finally comes to brum.

One of Birmingham’s greatest recent cultural exports has finally found a venue in Birmingham. Birmingham based Stan’s Cafe describe their enormous show over on their site:

As you approach this former metalworking factory you will be given a grain of rice. This grain is you. Inside lots of people are waiting for you, billions of them, each represented by a grain of rice. 112 tonnes of rice – 6.7 billion grains – one for everyone on the planet.

As you explore the extraordinary landscape of rice hills and mountains stretching out in front of you, you discover every pile represents a different population and that together these piles tell hundreds of stories, stories of the world’s people and politics, history and current affairs.

This breathtaking show has amazed adults and children alike, from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Madrid to New York City and now it is coming home. Shocking, up-lifting, thought provoking and funny, Of All the People In All The World will change the way you think about the planet we share. Come and find yourself.

So from the 13th September to the 5th October you can visit this astonishing performance for the modest fee of £2.50 at Birmingham’s AE Harris Factory, B3 1SZ.

[youtube:http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iDWcuBygAUw]

Before then you can add a statistic to the performance – just think of one grain of rice represents one person and give them your numbers here.

Video as evidence in community campaigning.

[youtube:http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpwp3xJWqfY]

At first I thought this was a bit too long but then realised it has a specific purpose. As the blurb says: “A short film produced for the Edgbaston Constituency on the subject of Post Office closures in the community. The film was designed to be used as supporting evidence and handed to the Post Watch Commission when deciding whether to close the Edgbaston Post Offices. Viewed during during the consultation process, the film gives real people from the local community a voice which is too often lost in paperwork or statistics…”

I like it. (Hat tip Jon)

Cquestrate: Can we crowdsource a carbon solution.

Cquestrate Intro Video from cquestrate on Vimeo.
Last week I met Tim Kruger. He’d asked me to do a little bit of work on a very bold plan that he hatched today.

Cquestrate is an organisation and a website which plans to crowdsource technical solutions to the huge problem of recapturing the CO2 pumped out since the industrial revolution began.

He’s working with some financial backing from Shell, but critically he has a legal agreement which means that all the ideas generated through cquestrate remain open source.

Why should Shell care? Well partly because he wants to use lime as a means of capturing CO2 by adding it to seawater. Producing huge quantities of lime could be a viable (money making) use for the energy wasted in oil/gas production.

For more information see the site. As cased puts it:

… well, the site explanation actually then continues onward by answering the very question about to drop from my smug yet woefully uneducated lips :

One of the questions I often get asked is: if this is so simple why hasn’t it been done before? The idea has been around for a number of years. It was first suggested by Haroon Kheshgi in 1995, but it was considered uneconomic as the process uses a large amount of energy. What we are interested in doing is using stranded energy to drive the process.

Aha- well, that explains it. Its all down to stranded energy.

Well, I think it sounds like a wonderful idea – a bit of open sourcey, crowdsourcey goodness… if only I knew more about stranded energy and limestone…. hm.

Thank goodness for scientists! Please forward on this post to people who know what stranded energy is!

Other mentions:
Neural Transmissions
UmLud
Physorg
Juno


Civil Service Principals for Online Participation – Be Responsive.

After the suspension of a civil servant for blogging Cabinet Office Minister Tom Watson has finally got some guidelines up to help civil servants join the online conversation. They are based on the civil service code and a big conversation which was encouraged by Tom on his blog and evolved into Richard Allan’s task force on the Power of Information. I like the simplicity and clarity. For me the advance is number 3 “Be Responsive”. Encourage constructive criticism is good but is also going to exercise some civil service structures and perhaps liberate others:

1 Be credible: Be accurate, fair, thorough and transparent.

2 Be consistent: Encourage constructive criticism and deliberation. Be cordial, honest and professional at all times.

3 Be responsive When you gain insight, share it where appropriate.

4 Be integrated: Wherever possible, align online participation with other offline communications.

5 Be a civil servant: Remember that you are an ambassador for your organisation. Wherever possible, disclose your position as a representative of your department or agency.
Other feedback from bits of the web:Brilliant in their simplicity.

It is good.

To be applauded.

Woo Hoo!.

This is a big step indeed.

Some sense of security for those already blogging.