Un CitiLab a les muntanyes del Pirineu

Ahir a la tarda vaig arribar a un indret ben maco del Pirineu. En Josep Jordana, ens ha convidat a passar aquest cap de setmana a Espot, un petit poble de dos-cents setanta habitants a la falda de Parc Nacional d'Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici, amb l'objectiu de trobar-nos per parlar sobre les possibilitat de la creació d'un model de CitiLab d'alta muntanya, el Pirene Lab.

Una estada on ens hem trobat uns quants amics, com Ramon Roca de Guifinet o Paco Fernández de Abla, un petit poble de 1.500 habitants a Almeria que compta amb un model de Living Lab que comença connectant a la gent. No  tenen seu, ni edifici o lloc on treballar. Però s'han posat d'acord per trobar els moments i processos que permet innovar en benefici del benestar social, portant a la pràctica una iniciativa tant interessant com un “cafe de ideas”. Cada dia organitzen una tertulià, on qualsevol ciutadà, pot anar i explicar les seves idees, aprendre dels altres i fer un intercanvi de coneixement, experiències i sobretot la quotidianitat del poble.

L'Estage ha estat el principi del projecte Pirene Lab, punt de partida per traslladar el debat a altres plataformes en xarxa. La llavor ja està plantada a l'alta muntanya i comença a arrelar amb la ajuda del CitiLab, dintre d'un ecosistema molt complexe que vol ser sostenible.

 

A CitiLab in the Pyrenees mountains

Yesterday afternoon I arrived a very nice place in the Pyrenees. Josep Jordana, has invited us to spend this weekend at Spot, a small village of two hundred seventy habitants at the foot of Aigüestortes National Park and Sant Maurici, aiming to reach us to discuss the possibility of creating a model CitiLab for mountain, the Pirene Lab.

A meeting where we met a few friends. Ramon Roca from Guifinet and Paco Fernández from ABLA, a small village of 1,500 inhabitants in Almeria has a Living lab that connecting the people. Not They have building or work place. But agreed to find the time for discusion and process innovation that allows the benefit of social welfare, taking a practice so interesting as a "coffee of ideas". Every day host a discussion, where people can go and explain their ideas, learn from each other and to exchange knowledge and experiences on the daily life of the village.

The Estage was the beginning of the Pirene Lab project, a point for the discussion moved to other platforms in a network. The seed is planted in the mountain and began to take root with the help of CitiLab, within a very complex ecosystem that want to be sustainable.

 

I’m green or red, or blue could be

Today, elections are held in Iran to choose its new president after a campaign where the battlefield was the site. To growing, many Iranians in Facebook, have changed their profile pictures to the green, green almost psychedelic. It is the color of Islam, which also has a political compromise in favor of Mir Hossein Mousavi, who now have the support of reformers. This is facing the current president Mahmoud Ahmadineyad, represented by the red color of its militants, although fewer in number but with a similar power to the network. In addition to his personal blog, it has five websites and support the dissemination of videos on YouTube, where does not hesitate to resume its more controversial statements about Israel, highlighting his speech on racism at the UN conference held in Geneva.

The distribution of color, came out of choose the order of candidates speeches TV does for just over a week, the representative of Ahmadineyad extracted the ball from the red and the green ball the representative Mousavi. Since then, the campaign has been impregnated color. On the Internet, the symbolic appropriation by the young has been vigorously with on display photo montages colored green and the girls with their nails painted green and covered with a same color scarf. Accompanied with techno background music very powerful.

All this after a censure by the Iranian authorities, who banned access to Facebook, for reproach for a few days later. According to Iranian news agency IRNA, the ban was "because the followers of Mir Hossein Mousavi candidate had been able to use Facebook to increase awareness of the candidate's positions." The reformer candidate had passed the 5000 friends at that time. It also has a profile on Flickr, with nearly a thousand photos that show the fury of the people regarding the elections and another on Twitter.

From this chromatic symbolism, the blue was the color of their supporters to boycott the elections. Remember the war of colors that lived in the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and the Rose Revolution in Georgia

 

Sóc verd o vermell, o potser blau

Avui es celebren les eleccions a Iran, per elegir el seu nou president, després d'una campanya on el seu camp de batalla ha estat la web. De forma creixent, molts dels iranians subscrits a Facebook, han anat canviant les seves fotos del perfil per el color verd, un verd gairebé psicodèlic.

És el color de l'Islam, que per altra banda, té un compromís polític a favor del candidat Mir Hossein Mousavi, qui te al seu darrera el suport dels reformistes. Aquest s'enfronta al actual president, en Mahmoud Ahmadineyad, representat per el color vermell dels seus militants, encara que menys nombrosos, però amb una potencia similar a la xarxa. A més del seu blog personal, hi compta amb cinc portals web de suport i la difusió de vídeos a YouTube, on no dubta en reprendre les seves declaracions més controvertides sobre Israel, ressaltant la seva intervenció sobre el racisme a la conferència de la ONU celebrada a Ginebra.

Aquesta repartició de color, va sorgir d'una juguesca per triar l'ordre d'intervencions televisives dels candidats ara fa poc més d'una setmana, el representant de Ahmadineyad va extreure la bola vermella i el de Mousavi la bola verda. Des de llavors, la campanya ha estat impregnada de colors. A Internet, l'apropiació simbòlica per part del joves ha estat rotunda, on es mostren en muntatges fotogràfics acolorits de verd, o amb bufandes verdes, així com les noies amb les ungles pintades de verd i cobertes amb un mocador a joc. Acompanyat amb música tecno de fons ben potent.

Tot això després d'una censura per part de les autoritats iranians, que van prohibir l'accés a Facebook, per retreure's uns dies més tard. Segons l'agencia de noticies iranià IRNA, el lloc es va prohibir “perquè els seguidors del candidat Mir Hossein Mousavi havien pogut utilitzar Facebook per donar a conèixer millor les postures del candidat”. El reformista havia superat els 5.000 amics en aquell moment. També compta amb un perfil a Flickr, amb gairebé mil fotos que mostren el furor del poble respecte a les eleccions i una altre de Twitter.

D'aquesta simbologia cromàtica,  no queda pas exclòs un altre més. El blau ha estat el color dels partidaris de boicotejar les eleccions. Recordem la guerra de colors que es van viure a la Revolució taronja d'Ucraïna i la Revolució de les roses a Geòrgia.

 

Seniorlab: An Innovative, User-Driven, Lifelong Learning Project Based on the Experiences of Senior Citizens

Objective

The objective of Seniorlab is to put senior citizens at the centre of the knowledge society, under the belief that they should not have to adapt to new technologies and tools, but rather that these should be adapted to senior citizens'needs, and it should also be taken into account what they can provide to society. Seniorlab is, in this context, a social innovation that regards people – senior citizens in this case- as the drivers of social and cultural innovation.

 

Methodology

Seniorlab uses a project-based learning approach, and also borrows from the Living Lab methodology; members meet twice a week, and receive formative sessions on the technology tools they require for the projects being developed . The 13 members of the team also participate in meetings to follow-up on these projects, discuss and propose new ideas for innovation, and share experiences with other groups and organizations that are interested on this area. Through some the projects that were carried out, slideshows became family photo albums, and video was used to create a record of the places they have grown and worked in. This in turn meant they not only had to learn how to use new technologies, but also how to do research: how to conduct interviews how to search for a file, how to document facts. It is essentially a combination of project-based learning and a Living Lab methodology: the users are at the centre of the open innovation process, and are involved at every step of it.

 

Results

The project has just reached its first year of life. As of today, Seniorlab is a Living Lab community composed of 13 members, who during 2008 have developed a number of innovation, learning and difussion projects centered on new technologies. Seniorlab has also played the role of observatory for innovation projects developed for and by senior citizens.

The activities developed at Seniorlab have been focused on the interests and needs of the members themselves; instead of starting with ICT courses, a different approach was taken: through the use of focus groups and observation, the interests ans needs of the group were identified, and then it was decided what tools were necessary for the execution of the related projects. The training sessions were done as workshops rather than as formal courses, based on the requirements and feedback of the participants, A lab/meeting ares is being set-up, and a blog was created (http://seniorlab.citilab.tv); this is maintained by the Seniorlabers themselves.

Additional results are the promotion of a techno-social identity among senior citizens, bringing them closer to technology; a high level of enthusiasm and involvement in the project; and providing the participants with a basic knowledge on tools such as blogs, video recording and slideshows. There also some specifics results, related to the projects developed by Seniorlab, and which are structured around two main axes: the Memory and history axis, and the Technology axis.

 

Future work

So far, the Seniorlab experience has been a successful one, and we intend to keep on developing new projects and ideas, always driven by the users themselves. All projects have been proposed as prototypes that can be improved and expanded, either from the content or the technology point of view. Proven methodologies and tools could be applied to new environments, and current projects could be improved and enhanced by using new tools and applications. The project is starting its second year with an expanded group of Seniorlabers, including the ones that participated in the first edition and additional members in the coordination team.

 

Isidor Fernàndez, Citilab Spain – Visual & Media Anthropology Archive; Ricardo Torres, Fi2cat; Rosa Casanovas, Universitat de la Gent Gran; Artur Serra, Fi2cat; Doris Moreno, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Carlos Bezos, Value Creation.

2009 EDEN Annual Conference. Innovation in Learning Communities. Gdansk, Poland

 

Xina censura Twitter i Hotmail a pocs dies de l’aniversari de la massacre de Tian’anmen

tiananmenDes d'aquesta tarda, l'accés als servidors de Twitter, Hotmail, Flickr, Bing i altres tants llocs, han estat bloquejats pel govern xinès, deixant així a milers d'internautes xinesos sense accedir a la xarxa. Aproximadament a les 17:00 hora local (09:00 GMT), sense informar prèviament i de la forma més desapercebuda possible, les autoritats xineses han decidit bloquejar els serveis de xarxes socials. Van fer el mateix durant el mes de març de l'any en curs, bloquejant l'accés al portal de vídeo YouTube, propietat de Google, després de que alguns grups i col lectius de suport al Tibet pugessin una bona quantitat de vídeos amb imatges de la repressió per part de militars xinesos durant les protestes de 2008.

Aquest proper dijous, es compleix la celebració del vintè aniversari de la massacre de Tian'anmen, quan el govern va declarar la llei marcial, enviant els tancs que van entrar a la plaça de Pequín i aixafar les protestes d'estudiants i treballadors. Des de llavors, el govern xinès mai va fer pública la llista de víctimes, que va qualificar com una conspiració contrarevolucionària.

En aquell moment, el govern xinès va emprendre nombrosos arrestos a fi de suprimir els instigadors del moviment, expulsant literalment a la premsa i els mitjans de comunicació estrangers, passant a controlar estrictament la cobertura dels esdeveniment des de la premsa xinesa. És clar, que, les repercussions contra el govern xinès, van ser realment incommensurables, causant la condemna internacional de la seva pròpia actuació.

Encara que això forma part de la història, surgeix el dubte de replantejar-se fins a quin punt un govern té el dret a reprimir la llibertat d'informació i expressió, que és d'una certa forma allò que possiblement volen durant els propers dies. Fins i tot alguns s'han estranyat de la tardança, com Kayser Kuo, un comentarista xinès de tecnologia al que li sorprèn que el govern xinès hagi trigat tant en bloquejar aquests serveis.