Urban OS – a city operating system

Although I'm no longer working for Citilab, I'm still involved in the Urban OS project which has grown out of UrbanLabs . I've previousy written about Urban Labs here

The main aims of the Urban OS project are to:

Conceive, develop, test, implement and distribute components of a new operating system for the city, which improves the processes of communication, participation and consumption under open, efficient and sustainable parameters. It will be necessary to design and/or reutilise different type of interactions and of networks between technologies and people in the urban space, like mechanisms of visualization, distribution and improvement of each one of the components of the system. UrbanLabs OS can be composed of different autonomous projects that follow these aims, which at the same time realize the potential of the OS

Besides working locally we've also had contact with Birmingham School of Media at Birmingham City University, FutureGov, and DIYCouncil

PodCamp Barcelona 2010

And we're back…

[en]

PodCamp Barcelona 2010 will take place in El Masnou from September 13 to September 18th. Yes, that’s right, five days of PodCamp Barcelona  — because this year we have a new venue, a new format and a theme: community.

 

[es]

PodCamp Barcelona 2010 se celebrará en El Masnou del 13 al 18 de septiembre. Sí, si, esto es correcto, cinco días de PodCamp Barcelona porque este año tenemos un nuevo local: Els Vienesos; nuevo formato: Talleres y presentaciones, y tema: Comunidad.

 

[ca]

PodCamp Barcelona 2010 tindrà lloc a El Masnou del 13 al 18 de setembre. Si, si, correcte, cinc dies de PodCamp Barcelona perquè aquest any tenim local nou: Els Vienesos; nou format: Tallers i presentacions, i tema: Comunitat.

 



Kfé Innovación – Let’s Go!

Tomorrow I'm off to the freezing cold city that is Sevilla to facilitate a session in the Kfé Innovación/Innovation Cafe. I'll be riffing on new paradigms, disruptive technology, the creation of memory and the destruction of heirachies. Or something like that. Here's an inteview I did with @margaojeda which introduces the gig (in Spanish). It's going to be hotter than hell so I'm gonna need me to get me some cooool tapas 😉

 

Listen!

Do 1002 Systems/Layers WalkShop Barcelona FTW!

Damn! this is going to be like getting those X-Ray Spex (no – not talking about the seminal punk band, although they rock too) from old comic books. Adam Greenfield & Nurri Kim are going to be exposing the city, explaining all of those mysterious boxes clamped on to "street furniture", where they are from, what they mean and where they are going. What are those cameras, sensors, and other connected, networked objects doing and why? How are they going to change the city and you & me,  politics and relationships and behaviour and culture. What is going to happen to society and space, public & private?

If you have any interest in cities, technology & society, urban design, the future of public space and relationships you simply DON'T want to miss this – Adam & Nurri have conceived a new format – the Walkshop in which we're going to get down & dirty and see this stuff in situ, not on a bunch of slides, and distinctly run the risk of pissing off security guards.

Check out the video above, shot during the #walkshop in Wellington, and read this blog post to see how CJ Wells rediscovered his barrio:

"Over the course of an hour, Adam pointed out curiosities previously unnoticed. This was my ‘hood. Yet, I had not seen rooftops bristling with aerials, streets covered by security cameras, and buildings shielding black boxes. It was mind blowing…"

The #walkshop is going to be unique event in which a great thinker & communicator riffs on the fabric of the city itself – Bring it on!

Full details here

Check out this talk from Adam at Urban Labs last year to see the context of the #walkshop

 

Kfé Innovación – Innovation Café

KFE-logo-v1

Ana's off to Seville today to take part in the first Kfé Innovación .

The idea of the café is to get some "experts" to sit down with a maximum of 10 interested people from business, education and the public sector and have a real particatory discussion about what innovation means to them and how they can use creative ideas in future projects. The event is organised by Kpacita a  Seville and Catalonia based company who want to rethink "conventional" wisdom both for themselves & their clients.

Over coffee Ana will be facilitating the 3 hour session today on the concept of innovation and how the internet can be the perfect stage for social & business development (Kfé Innovación blog post – in Spanish). On June 9th our mate Enric Senabre will introduce a discussion on social networks and knowledge networks, and on June 23rd, I'll be getting plenty of tapas provoking everyone about online contacts, social networks and the crossover IRL (In Real Life).

It'll be interesting to see how the format works and hopefully the typical event of experts and public will be replaced by collaborative thinking and a lot of crowdsourced, practical conclusions. Hats off to Kpacita for taking the risk and hopefully the Seville experts can guarantee me some excellent tapas…

The hashtag for the series of Innovation Cafés is #kfesev

pdf pack (in Spanish)