Post-Summit thoughts
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Ed Borden
May 9, 2012, 4:57:57 PM5/9/12
to sensemak...@googlegroups.com
Recently at the Sensemakers Summits (NYC and Amsterdam), a lot of time
was spent talking about this project. Something is slowly starting to
emerge out of the chaos...
The vision:
In some (distant?) future, we envision a healthy energy infrastructure
not built around a few centralized power sources, but instead built
as a completely decentralized system spread across the entire urban
landscape.
People will no longer be disconnected, ignorant consumers, but become
directly involved as energy producers, independent and far more aware
and knowledgeable about where their energy comes from and where it
goes.
They will harvest energy from the world based on their own particular
environments, lifestyles, activities, etc. They will have easy to use
tools to do this themselves.
They are independent and empowered. They will be able to share
production with their neighbors directly, greatly increasing the
efficiency and reliability of the system as a whole.
A few things to keep in mind:
- We don't have all the answers yet. But that doesn't mean that this
vision isn't something that we both want and believe can be realized.
- It was extremely helpful for us to frame this conversation similarly
to the Egg project. It has the same spirit behind it, and looking at
what was successful for the Egg is a great way to "test" messaging.
- We largely dropped any specific location references from the
project... at least for now. While Big Allis provides a great
framework to think about the social impact of this project, it limits
the vision, which was confusing for us. We want to do a Kickstarter
and make something that is broadly applicable. We want to ATTEMPT to
solve the problem on a mass scale.
- The "digital lifestyle" scope definition continues to be the
counter-argument for the fact that we cannot power an entire family
dwelling without the grid. AT LEAST FOR NOW.
MOST IMPORTANT problem to solve at this point: What is the mechanism
for sharing power? We will be working on this problem during a slew
of events in early June in Holland. Stay tuned to Sensemakers
Amsterdam Meetup (http://www.meetup.com/sensemakersams/) to
attend/participate. We'll of course be feeding everything back into
this listserv.
was spent talking about this project. Something is slowly starting to
emerge out of the chaos...
The vision:
In some (distant?) future, we envision a healthy energy infrastructure
not built around a few centralized power sources, but instead built
as a completely decentralized system spread across the entire urban
landscape.
People will no longer be disconnected, ignorant consumers, but become
directly involved as energy producers, independent and far more aware
and knowledgeable about where their energy comes from and where it
goes.
They will harvest energy from the world based on their own particular
environments, lifestyles, activities, etc. They will have easy to use
tools to do this themselves.
They are independent and empowered. They will be able to share
production with their neighbors directly, greatly increasing the
efficiency and reliability of the system as a whole.
A few things to keep in mind:
- We don't have all the answers yet. But that doesn't mean that this
vision isn't something that we both want and believe can be realized.
- It was extremely helpful for us to frame this conversation similarly
to the Egg project. It has the same spirit behind it, and looking at
what was successful for the Egg is a great way to "test" messaging.
- We largely dropped any specific location references from the
project... at least for now. While Big Allis provides a great
framework to think about the social impact of this project, it limits
the vision, which was confusing for us. We want to do a Kickstarter
and make something that is broadly applicable. We want to ATTEMPT to
solve the problem on a mass scale.
- The "digital lifestyle" scope definition continues to be the
counter-argument for the fact that we cannot power an entire family
dwelling without the grid. AT LEAST FOR NOW.
MOST IMPORTANT problem to solve at this point: What is the mechanism
for sharing power? We will be working on this problem during a slew
of events in early June in Holland. Stay tuned to Sensemakers
Amsterdam Meetup (http://www.meetup.com/sensemakersams/) to
attend/participate. We'll of course be feeding everything back into
this listserv.
Natalie Jeremijenko
May 10, 2012, 7:59:07 AM5/10/12
to sensemak...@googlegroups.com
Thanks for articulating
that Ed ...great work.
This sunday is the opening for Civic Action exhibition at Socrates http://www.socratessculpturepark.org/ to which u are all invited. 2pm - 6 -- yes mothers day but what better place to come to celebrate.
I understand the non-site-specificness, but from Sunday on Socrates will be a great public outdoor venue for workshops--already setup for this with benches and dedicated workshop space. And with the towering stacks of Big Allis in the background, and plenty of sun, wind and tidal energy to play with, and good community groups involved, it makes a photogenic site for a solar assembly workshop or pinwheel, wind or tidal turbine event ...
so keep it in mind. Till early August it is ours to play with.
I'll schedule another solar workshop there soon. Because solar is diffuse but some people get much more than others, it might be a good opportunity to do an initial demon of shared info and/or power system.
nj
This sunday is the opening for Civic Action exhibition at Socrates http://www.socratessculpturepark.org/ to which u are all invited. 2pm - 6 -- yes mothers day but what better place to come to celebrate.
I understand the non-site-specificness, but from Sunday on Socrates will be a great public outdoor venue for workshops--already setup for this with benches and dedicated workshop space. And with the towering stacks of Big Allis in the background, and plenty of sun, wind and tidal energy to play with, and good community groups involved, it makes a photogenic site for a solar assembly workshop or pinwheel, wind or tidal turbine event ...
so keep it in mind. Till early August it is ours to play with.
I'll schedule another solar workshop there soon. Because solar is diffuse but some people get much more than others, it might be a good opportunity to do an initial demon of shared info and/or power system.
nj
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