Open Climate Collabathon, Nov. 2020

The second 2020 edition of the Open Climate Collabathon was organized online between Nov. 16 to 22nd. Tim and Tibi were Sensorica's most active affiliates in helping produce and coordinate the event, in collaboration with Yale Open Lab, Hack for LA, CoMakery and others. 

 

Sensoricans proposed to extend the centrally planned and organized event with an adjacent self-organized event called COMMUNITY EVENTS. 

Community Events are a number of independent coordinated events across the world. You can propose one too! Events can be of various types and can take place either online or offline. Our goal is to build a movement, to discover new initiatives, to build relationships, to collaborate, and to have fun together.

To learn more about the Community Events experience see the wiki (main coordination page facing the public, or participants) and this document used by facilitators and coordinators.

Sensorica also piloted two prompts, the Green Wall building and the Carbon Sequestration.

For more information about Sensorica's involvement with the Open Climate Collabathon visit this page.

Video lists

• Open dialogues
• Lightning talks

Open Climate Dialogues - with the Open Climate Collabathon

In April 2020, Sensorica took the role of co-organizer of the Open Climate Dialogues, an event anchored in Yale OpenLab, part of the larger Open Climate Collabathon initiative. 

Sensorica's focused was on organisational structure, planning and digital environment. 

Sensorica's involvement in the Open Climate Collabathon is coordinate here. 

 

See all video recordings

Some photos are here

Eco2FEST 2018

From November 5th to the 23rd, 2018, Sensorica and Ouishare organised eco2FEST 2018, an open space and unconference where we engaged the Montreal South-West population in discussions and workshops about the social and collaborative economy.

A significant number of local organisations that engage in socio, economic and cultural development contributed to the eco2FEST experience and manifested their interest in future collaboration. We also engaged governmental organisations in general discussions about the collaborative economy.

eco2FEST space, Verdun, Qc., November 5th to 23rd, 201

We plan to publish a comprehensive report about eco2FEST during the month of April 2019, in collaboration with Jeremy Diaz, a researcher at UQAM University. Our preliminary conclusions show that Verdun consists of a vibrant community with an informal network of coops and non-profit organizations that collaborate to improve the well-being of local citizens. Their activities span from awareness-building and education programs through to those that strengthen social cohesion and mutual support, to urban agriculture, fair commerce and cultural events. The civil society in Verdun is in development mode, and is still far from the stage of emancipation and refinement seen in Le Plateau, Montreal - the epicenter of the social economy in Quebec. Although the Verdun borough pays a lot of attention to these local social development initiatives, resources are very scarce. We maintain that local coops, nonprofits and independent individuals can do a lot more with the little they already have by mutualizing resources and collaborating better through formal relationships, prescribed by collaborative economy models. The three-week-long eco2FEST event gave local organisations opportunities to know each other and strengthen their bonds. A few months later, some of them are still meeting on a regular basis and planning for a better future in the Montreal South-West neighbourhood.

 

 

Fourth Sector

For enthusiasts of open collaboration, open networks and communities, open source development, open science and innovation

Wednesday October 9th, 5:30pm to 8pm, in Verdun (Caffe le 5eme).

An open forum, sharing experiences in open networks and communities, defining the Fourth Sector together, identifying achievements and roadblocks. Canada's Justice Minister helped us identify a path towards recognition and legitimization of the Fourth Sector.

Many of us have had some experience with open networks and communities. Some of these experiences have probably been frustrating. Ask yourself if some of the frustration came from the fact that these new types of organisations aren't well understood, recognized and legitimized. Ask yourself what would be the situation if your work in open networks and communities can give you access to social benefits, if there were budgets allocated to open networks and communities.

The event's Facebook page

Open working folder

Sensorica at #GOSH2017

Sensorica was invited to participate in the Gathering of Open Science Hardware (#GOSH2017), which took place between March 22-25th 2017 at the Anacleto Angelini Innovation Centre, Pontificia Universidad Católica, in Santiago, Chile. The event was funded by the Sloan Foundation, with funds dispersed through Public Lab. A total of 90 people (representing both individual work and organisations) attended the event from over 30 countries. This year, Maria Frangos represented Sensorica at the event.

Objectives

The goal of GOSH 2017 was to co-create a roadmap for making Open Science Hardware ubiquitous by 2025 by "expanding the reach [...] within academic research, citizen science and education." 

Another goal of the workshop was to represent a diversity of voices involved in OSH initiatives. Participants from Asia, Africa, South America, Europe and North America attended GOSH 2017, half of whom were women. Achieving gender parity, as well as representing queer and trans voices, were important aspects in ensuring that GOSH 2017 remained open and equitable:

"We strive to make open science hardware open to everybody, regardless of scholarly or professional background, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, ability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, economic background, country of origin or employment, religion, and other differences. Because we come from different backgrounds, it is important to be intentional about providing respectful, equitable spaces — both online and in person — for our community to come together and engage in constructive, respectful discourse. As our manifesto states: GOSH is used for peaceful purposes and causes no harm."

Events

In addition to participating in creating the roadmap, Maria led a design skills sharing session as well as collaborated with other participants in planning the 'unconference' sessions, one of which focused on business models (notes from the session will be available online soon).

Sensorica also participated in a public exhibition on opening day. In addition to creating a poster and flyers highlighting our contribution to Open Science as an OVN, Maria demonstrated the Breathing Games flow meter prototype. 

Approximately 200 people attended the public exhibition, including a school group, university students, professors and GOSH participants. 

In terms of individual specialization, the design skills sharing workshop led by Maria covered the following topics: how designing for connected devices differs from designing for software, creating user stories, designing for empathy, how to create a user flow, and how to create a low-fidelity clickable prototype. More than 10 people attended, none of whom had any design experience. A few were hardware engineers, while others were working in biology, performance art and other disciplines. The feedback Maria received was great and so was what they produced. Workshop participants were able to quickly grasp the design process by applying it to their own ideas, projects and hardware. You can access the design skills presentation here. 

See more on this event HERE. 

Michel Bauwens visits the Sensorica lab in Montreal

 

More photos