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April 18, 2013 - 12:48pm
Unconferences, according to technology guru David Winer, are based on The Law of Two Feet, one which holds:
If during the course of the gathering any person finds themselves in a situation where they are neither learning nor contributing, they must use their two feet and go to some more productive place.
On April 25th an unconference devoted to “Innovation and Sustainability,” will take place at the Venture Café of the Cambridge Innovation Center. The event is sponsored jointly with Hub Boston and EcoMotion.
Organized, structured and led by participants, the gathering will allow freedom to proactively generate content. Much as Wikis and open source, unconferences have gained in popularity among entrepreneurs unconstrained by hierarchy and receptive to collaboration.
The format should be conducive for exploring ‘sustainability,’ a concept which eludes agreement about its true meaning. Offering perspectives will recognized practitioners such as Mark Orlwoski of Sustainable Endowments institute, Shaun O’Roarke from the Boston Architectural Center and Kisten Von Hoffman of the Cambridge School District.
Pundits have observed that small, entrepreneurial businesses may be slow on...
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April 17, 2013 - 11:13am
April 15th bombings, perpetrated by misguided zealots, were an assault on both Boston and on the fraternity of runners who for 117 years have arrived for the marathon from all corners of the globe. As CIC community is connected with both populations it would be apt for those involved with the race to recall their experience in this blog . Many are already participating in fund drives and in memorial events, doing what they can to help support the hundreds of victims and their families.
The race was abruptly halted by a police cordon at Massachusetts and Commonwealth Avenues which sprang up at about 4:12 event time (approximately 2:50 pm) at the point when I was at a quarter mile from finish line . On pace to run 4:15, was fortunate not to have been faster and confronted explosions. Thousands of runners backed up along the course, standing dumbfounded in chilly air. Many suffered from hypothermia and needed medical care which was slow in arriving, while kind homeowners along the course offered shelter.
With ambulances racing by and police helicopters overhead runners managed to glean news reports from cell phones just as transmission was cut off by security agencies. Foreign...
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December 6, 2012 - 3:41pm
Boston, December 3. The Great Hall of the Massachusetts Statehouse echoed with the Senator’s steady voice. Brian Joyce of Canton presided at a press conference honoring the first companies registering as Massachusetts benefit corporations. “It’s a terrific day for Massachusetts” Joyce announced “as we become an even more attractive place for companies to do business and create jobs”. In August the state had became the tenth to pass legislation enabling the new corporate class, one which allows companies to legally integrate commercial goals and social purpose. Growing numbers of advocates and experts believe that the innovative model has potential for reshaping American business practices.
The seven newly minted benefit companies include Cambridge-based Dimagi, Inc and Leap Organics, LLC as well as Dancing Bear Baking Company of Boston. Most are existing Massachusetts corporations changing status along with one converting from Delaware registration. Senator Joyce had guided the bill through the legislature while supportive firms pitched in with lobbying. He recounted that proposal was packaged as sub-chapter of a popular jobs bill to leapfrog the slow legislative process....
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August 31, 2012 - 2:07pm
Observers of the Brown-Warren senate campaign have described the incumbent Republican senator's fundamental qualification as that of "a nice guy to have a beer with." Reflecting this apt conclusion is the nature of modern electoral contests. One can't avoid being struck by their emphasis on show business and image making compared with scant attention given to substance and policy. Scott Brown, the most popular politician in Massachusetts at 60% approval, has proven far more adept at public manipulation than Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren, who as Harvard Law Professor appears uncomfortable with this type of campaigning. Brown pointedly refers to his opponent as "Professor Warren", boxing her in as elitist intellectual disconnected from the concerns of regular people.
Warren may indeed be hampered by her dignified and formal style. Her scripted interview responses and testy exchanges with reporters have left mixed impressions. Warren's fumbled handling of the controversy over her presumed native American origins was hardly surefooted public relations. A contest predicted to be a blow-out in Democratic Massachusetts has thus turned into a horse race. Campaign...
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June 22, 2012 - 3:51pm
Following up on Saul Tannenbaum's helpful heads up, yesterday attended tour of dasHaus demonstration pavilion on MIT campus. DasHaus is an advanced German technology for energy efficient buildings apparently being promoted by Cambridge city officials (including mayor Davis) who will take part, with Mass state reps, in legislative breakfast and presentation at MIT on June 26th. On Saturday June 23rd joining guided tour of local homes constructed according to dasHaus principles.
Fortunate to have been invited by project manager of program to cover June 26th event (please see link below). Would be helpful to bring along film camera and knowledgeable operator, would be indebted to anyone available and willing to volunteer for one-two hours on said day. In any event will do still photos and post article.
DasHaus road show has visited a half dozen U.S. cities where it has been received by local officials. Link to website below includes media resources with photos of futuristic house designs and presentations in Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco etc.
Thank you in advance for your attention to the above.
Andrew
http://cambridge.dashaustour.com/
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May 23, 2012 - 6:29pm
WHOLE SYSTEMS
The simple maxim about the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, attributed to Aristotle and several modern thinkers, may be an underrated kernel of wisdom, one which often resists enactment. Our age of hyper-specialization creates information stove-pipes, such as brought the financial industry to the brink in 2008, obstructing a view of the forest in favor of focus on separate trees.
Amory Lovins , prominent scientist in Sustainability, in 2010 introduced the concept "whole system design" as an organizing principle for efforts in clean energy. He argued that concentration on disparate components of the multi-faceted enterprise could undermine the effectiveness of the complete system. Lovins and his colleagues at the Rocky Mountain Institute think tank believe that the whole systems approach to planning green buildings can be successfully extended to Sustainability schemes in a municipality or region.
The closest example of environmental systems thinking in Cambridge may be the Climate Protection Action Committee (CPAC), a public forum for initiatives to counteract global warming. Established after City Council adoption of...
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April 10, 2012 - 10:33am
COLLABORATIVE PROJECT
Hackfests, as they have come to be known, occupy a special status as rituals of our media tech saturated culture. Essentially these are gatherings, commonly informal and off-duty, of technical and creative mavens seeking to test their skills on new collaborative projects. On April 6th and 7th Public Radio Exchange (PRX) of Cambridge and Frontline documentaries of PBS Boston hosted a hackfest to craft innovative digital stories based on recent Frontline TV productions. PBS filmmakers taking part included Tom Jennings (A Perfect Terrorist), Dan Edge (The Wounded Platoon) and Carl Biker (Post Mortem) along with two dozen journalists, programmers and web designers from Frontline, PRX and other media organizations.
Meeting at PRX Cambridge office on Friday evening and at Harvard Innovation Lab in Allston during Saturday, hackfest participants set about remixing content from four recent Frontline films. Included were the three aforementioned along with Money, Power and Wall Street scheduled to air on April 24th. Four reframed narratives took shape by integrating impactful excerpts from existing content with new material generated by brainstorming...
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March 16, 2012 - 8:01am
Hi,
Seeking CCTV collaborator, from Neighbor Media or other groups, to join me in coverage MIT Energy Conference 2012 in Boston (Westin Hotel)on Saturday, March 17th.
Pasted below is link to is program. Hopefully you will consider joining me on Saturday to film and interview the round table "MIT Perspectives on Energy" which takes place in the morning before lunch. No requirement to hang out all day if inconvenient. Would like to give organizers a heads-up today in order to have you registered and issued media credentials. Have reserved camera and mics.
Andrew
http://mitenergyconference.com/
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February 23, 2012 - 12:35am
Origins and Objectives
The Cambridge Energy Alliance (CEA) was launched on March 29, 2007 at a festive public ceremony highlighted by an address from Governor Deval Patrick. CEA was a new public-private partnership (PPP) undertaking the worthy mission of upgrading energy efficiency in Cambridge on an unprecedented scale. Participating partners included the City of Cambridge, utility company Nstar, the Kendall Foundation and other local philanthropies along with the financial group Bostonia Partners and other private sectors firms.
Objectives outlined in memoranda and documents encompassed reducing the city's electricity consumption by 15%, decreasing annual fuel and water consumption by 10% and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the city by 10%. 2011 was envisioned as target date for achieving the benchmarks. The context of the launch, it should be noted, was a pre-2008 thriving economy along with rising awareness among government, non-profits and private sector of the need for an effective sustainability agenda.
Structure and Services
Energy consumption of buildings, residential, commercial, industrial and institutional, was identified as a central...
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January 20, 2012 - 7:33pm
The Challenges
During the last decade Cambridge has gained recognition as platform for research and development of energy innovation policy, a subject which in election years take on added attention and controversy. Among important views presented in the city late in 2011 were those of Secretary of Energy Michael Chu. On December the Secretary delivered an address at MIT defending the Department Of Energy (DOE) ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy) As model for U.S. financial backing of R & D and production of green energy equipment, ARPA-E has faced criticism in the wake of high-profile setbacks such as May 2011 Solyndra bankruptcy in California. Coincidentally, Chu was echoing recent affirmation of support by Governor Duval Patrick for a parallel Massachusetts policy, one which has seen its share of miss-fires with liquidations of green energy companies Evergreen Solar in Devens and Beacon Power of Tyngsboro in last year's closing months.
In the unfolding 2012 election cycle heat generated by political debate has been balanced in part by efforts to shed useful light on the issues. While many voice concern about shrinking international...
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