This coming Wednesday, 13 January, the project Breakout: Escape from the office will continue its third edition in the former Fabra & Coats factory, located in the district of Sant Andreu in Barcelona. This edition wants to concentrate on creative professionals from various sectors, especially from the fields of culture, artistic production, architecture and design.

The framework could not be more appropriate. The old Fabra & Coats factory is in the process of remodeling, with the aim of becoming a facility within the neighborhood context of factories created spaces to accommodate the creative and artistic city of Barcelona. The Project Breakout was born last year in New York, as a movement to rethink the use of public space and new models of work and collaboration. The Citilab-Cornella joined the initiative, held its first edition in Cornella and the second last November at L'Illa Diagonal, where he finished as a way of consolidating new uses of public spaces.

El marc no pot ser més apropiat. La fàbrica de filats Fabra i Coats es troba en proces de remodelació, amb la finalitat de convertir-se en un equipament de barri dintre del context de les Fàbriques de Creació, espais per acollir la producció creativa i artística de la Ciutat de Barcelona.

El projecte Breakout va néixer l'any passat a Nova York, com un moviment per replantejar l'us del espai public i els nous models de treball i col·laboració. El Citilab-Cornellà es va sumar a la iniciativa, celebrant la seva primera edició a Cornellà, i la segona el passat mes de novembre, a L'Illa Diagonal, on es va acabar consolidant com una forma de nous usos dels espais públics.

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 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.

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

Avui estrenarem al congrés Innova Camp Mediterrània un invent que he estat fent aquesta nit. Incorporant una videocàmera per avions de radiocontrol a una gorra de promoció del Citilab, tenim un sistema per enregistrar imatges desde el punt de vista del subjecte. La petita càmera envia les imatges i el só per mitja de radiofreqüencia a un receptor, connectat a un ordinador per poder emetre a la web. Em fet unes proves aquest mati realment sorprenents, on em emès per web un passeig per l'interior del Citilab. Incorporada la càmera al teu cap, la visió que tens es transforma en una perllongació tecnológica que altres persones poden veure, i no només al monitor que tinc al meu despatx, sino desde qualsevol ordinador connectat a la xarxa internet.

Desde l'aspecte etnogràfic, la incorporació del vídeo amb la disciplina de la antropologia visual, a obert tota una serie de discusions sobre la mirada que aplica l'antropòleg sobre el seu objecte d'estudi o els informants. Ara be, si la tecnologia es capaç de construir altres mirades subjectives, com haurem de treballar i analitzar aquestes visions?. Un cas interesant és aquell del periodista convertit en Eyeborg.

Perquè ningú s'ho perdi, Citilab obre les seves portes el cap de setmana del 16 i 17 de maig pel matí i convida a nens i nenes a descobrir els secretes de l'Scratch, una forma divertida de programar amb sons, colors, animacions i jocs de construccions creat pel Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Entre altres activitats, totes realitzades amb Scratch s’inclouen: Teclat gegant per saltar-hi, joc de memòria Simon, Jocs del Món (més de 300.000 per escollir), Altaveu Scratch (missatges dels participants enviats per Twitter a Internet), etc.

Celebracions paral·leles:

• La celebració de la Festa de l’Scratch coincidirà el dissabte 16 de maig amb la Jornada Catalana de l’Ensenyament de la Programació a Nenes i Nens Programa’09, que celebrarà al Citilab la seva primera edició. Amb aquesta proposta lúdica, Citilab es sumarà també el diumenge 17 de maig a les celebracions del Dia d’Internet.
• El Dia de l’Scratch i la Jornada Programa’09 són dues iniciatives impulsades conjuntament per Citilab i el Departament d’Educació de la Generalitat de Catalunya, amb el suport de PuntCat.