David Dewane's Posts - Urgent Evoke2024-03-28T09:14:20ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewanehttp://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2209222671?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=04mul5bg9u215&xn_auth=noEVOKATION: Spark Library Partnershiptag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-18:4871302:BlogPost:1528202010-05-18T22:00:00.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-large;">URGENT EVOKATION</span></b></span></font></i></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Spark Library Partnership:</span></span></b></font></i></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Information Access, for the Largest Number, at the Least Cost</span></span></font></i></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">TO GAIN FURTHER SUPPORT</span></span></font></i></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">FROM THE EVOKE NETWORK AND</span></span></font></i></p>
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<div style="margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 1100px; counter-reset: __goog_page__ 0; line-height: normal;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 24px; color: rgb(94, 94, 94); line-height: 19px;"><i>Executive Summary</i></span> <br/></font><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br/></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><div style="margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 1100px; counter-reset: __goog_page__ 0; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br/></span></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>FINDING THE FULCRUM</b></span></font></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In order to realize the full potential of many of the initiatives put forth by the Evoke network and begin sparking real change, individuals on the ground need the ability to both access and share information. Libraries are critical spaces in the public domain that offer free information resources and services to communities. This Evokation suggests that we begin constructing libraries - thousands of libraries - that are re-imagined to be more appropriate for the 21st century. To make this work economically, each physical structure becomes a partnership between a centralized funding agent and the local community. The overall strategy is intended to balance local culture with digital culture, which will provide the duel benefits of access to global information networks while preserving the unique attributes of each community. Instead of creating 10,000 clone libraries, we create a process that creates 10,000 different libraries - each as unique as the people that create them.</span></font></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br/></span></font></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>SOCIAL ENTERPRISE</b></span></font></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Libraries are a social enterprise based on promoting self-improvement through access to knowledge. What makes public libraries special is that this objective is attained by a community pooling its resources in order to share them. People who have personally experienced this free access to information don't need an in-depth explanation of their benefits, yet probably would struggle to image their own life experience without libraries.</span></font></div>
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<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br/></span></font></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>CHANGING FUNCTION</b></span></font></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Libraries in the digital age function in a fundamentally different way then their 20th century predecessors. A basic assumption of the project is that once people have access to the library (and Internet), they will begin generating new knowledge. This is not my opinion - it is the way librarians I have interviewed tell me contemporary libraries operate. Once libraries start generating knowledge we have two types of crowd-sourcing:</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br/><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">1) digital knowledge - much like what produced right here on Evoke. While this type of knowledge is notoriously difficult to manage and monitor, it is the job of web platform developers to figure out the best way to organise and share this information. Here, we are just concerned with making the physical spaces used to by people to CREATE MORE knowledge.<br/><br/>2) physical artifacts - this is a bit more radical. When you look at contemporary libraries you can break down their collections into things that are "generic" (e.g. a copy of Moby Dick) and things that are "unique" (e.g. local newspapers, one of a kind records, rare books, etc). Most of the generic stuff will be on the web very soon (if it isn't there already). If the information can be accessed digitally it may not be necessary to create 10,000 redundant physical book collections in Africa. instead, you leave access of those "generic" materials digitally and focus on building your physical collections around the "unique" materials. You find whatever unique materials you've got, continue collecting current unique materials, and invision the creation of NEW unique materials. In this sense, each project becomes a "library for rare books yet to be written." The librarians are in charge of curating the physical collection, and decide what gets added to it - which is basically how libraries work right now.</span><br/></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br/></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">FUNDAMENTALLY PHYSICAL</span></b></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">If we still believe in cities, we still need public space. Libraries are thought about as places of collective memory sites that fulfill our persistant desire for collectivity. In the digital age it is tempting to allow the physical constraints loosen, with the pragmatic notion that a broadband umbilical chord can create a library from an Internet cafe, school, town governmental offices, or community center. However, at their core, libraries are neutral locations in the city fabric that should accommodate all of these functions, equally, and without cost or preference to any individual group.</span></div>
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<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>SPARK LIBRARY PLAN OF ACTION</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><i>Year 1</i> - assemble a multi-disciplinary team of strategists to create the design and economic formula necessary to create such libraries.</div>
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<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><i>Year 2</i> - develop a short term strategy for the construction of a number of prototype libraries in communities in Africa.</div>
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<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><i>Year 3</i> - begin answering grant requests from communities seeking libraries.</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br/><br/></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>TABLE OF CONTENTS</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/spark-library-evokationthe">1. The Place: (full text)</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">1.1 Libraries as Agencies of Culture</span></b></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">1.1.1 Library as Vehicle of Social Mobility</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">1.1.2 Women, Minorities, Children, and Migrants</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">1.2 The Changing Library</span></b></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">1.2.1 The Frontiers of Information</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">1.2.2 The State of the Book</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">1.3 Synthesis: Knowledge Commons</span></b></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br/></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/spark-library-evokationthe-1">2. The Challenge: (full text)</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">2.1 The Digital Divide</span></b></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">2.1.1 Who is on each side of the Divide?</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">2.1.2 The Reality of the Divide</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">2.1.3 Increased Knowledge Penetration</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">2.2 Strengthening Local Culture in the Face of Globalization</span></b></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">2.3 Post Script</span></b></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br/></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/spark-library-evokationthe-2">3. The Idea: (full text)</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">3.1 Spark Library Partnership</span></b></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">3.1.1 Social Enterprise</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">3.2 Power Structure</span></b></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">3.2.1 Carnegie Precedent</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">3.2.2 Contemporary Players</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">3.3 Physical Infrastructure</span></b></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">3.3.1 Addressing Local Needs at a Global Scale</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">3.3.2 Open Building Systems</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">3.3.3 Typical vs. Atypical</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">3.3.4 The Elemental: a Case Study in Typical vs. Atypical</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">3.3.5 Applying this Model to the Library</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">3.4 Making Places of Collective Memory</span></b></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br/></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/spark-library-evokationthe-3">4. The Money: (full text)</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">4.1 Team Building</span></b></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">4.2 Web Presence</span></b></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">4.3 Fund Raising</span></b></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">4.4 Establish Non-Profit</span></b></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br/><br/></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>REQUEST</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">With this proposal I would like to make the following requests, in order of priority:</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br/></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">1)</span> <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Seed investment</span></b> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">to start developing this social venture. I believe that proliferating a new type of library across Africa would be incredibly powerful and will increase the effectiveness of Africans to benefit from the wealth of online knowledge in addition to giving each community an additional public space for education. Nevertheless, it is an enormous undertaking and formal recognition of support from the World Bank Institute would be invaluable to launching this project.</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br/></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">2)</span> <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Online mentorship</span></b> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">would be highly advantageous, and I would be grateful for any mentor. Given the choice, I would be extremely interested in either Mr. Vis Naidoo of Microsoft South Africa or Mr. Paul Gabie of Orient Global, both of whom have specific credentials for education initiatives.</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br/></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">3)</span> <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Travel funds</span></b> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">to participate in the upcoming EVOKE summit in Washington DC would also be extremely useful. I am fascinated by the EVOKE process and am highly interested in the opportunity to meet see the faces of the people whose work I have already benefited from. I am also confident in my abilities to be an fully engaged participant in the summits proceedings.</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br/></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">SUBMITTED BY:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">David Dewane</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">D.O.B. July 21, 1980</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Times New Roman'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">david.dewane@gmail.com</span></font></span></font></span></div>
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</div>Reacting to Disastertag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-11:4871302:BlogPost:1458102010-05-11T06:51:36.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;"><span class="content-subtitle" style="color: black; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; font-weight: bold; xg-p: relative;">Five stages of reaction to a disaster…</span><br></br><br></br></span><table class="data-table" style="border-collapse: collapse; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;"><span class="content-subtitle" style="color: black; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; font-weight: bold; xg-p: relative;">Five stages of reaction to a disaster</span><br/><br/></span><table class="data-table" style="border-collapse: collapse; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px;">
<tbody><tr><td style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; vertical-align: top;">1.</td>
<td style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; vertical-align: top;"><strong style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Self-Preservation:</strong> The first reaction to a disaster is fear and initial anxiety. People are afraid. They seek information. They do what is necessary to figure out how to save themselves.</td>
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<tr><td style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; vertical-align: top;">2.</td>
<td style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; vertical-align: top;"><strong style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Group Preservation:</strong> With the right information provided, there is a tremendous effort—usually guided by what we call pro-social behavior—to help others.</td>
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<tr><td style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; vertical-align: top;">3.</td>
<td style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; vertical-align: top;"><strong style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Blame Setting:</strong> This involves internalizing and many psychological consequences fall in place during this stage. With disasters, we talk a lot about emotional responses, about change in normal activities. This leads into efforts to try to figure out who is to blame and to do something about it by addressing the vulnerabilities and strengths that we have that resulted in that hazard becoming a disaster.</td>
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<tr><td style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; vertical-align: top;">4.</td>
<td style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; vertical-align: top;"><strong style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Justice Seeking:</strong> This involves externalizing. It's part of seeking redress and leads to taking action against the perceived perpetrators of the disaster.</td>
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<tr><td style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; vertical-align: top;">5.</td>
<td style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; vertical-align: top;"><strong style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Renormalizing:</strong> Individuals and groups adapt to the threat.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>I am surprised that I (and relieved) that denial didn't make the list. It is difficult for me to internalize this because I have never been directly in the path of a pandemic. I would be interested in seeing a timeline of a disaster and seeing how long each plays out and whether the same feelings are more or less experienced by all in the community.</td>
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</table>Think Historically.tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-11:4871302:BlogPost:1457982010-05-11T06:36:36.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
As I received this advice from an elder when I was young, so I will pass it along to you.<div><br></br></div>
<div>Learn History. Throughout time, humans have fell victim to many of the same traps. We believe that through technology, science and economics we will become immune to war, disease, and social division. So our forefathers believed, and it has led to ruin. Let us not share in their misery.<div><br></br></div>
<div>Think Historically. Learn about history, but do not focus on the data - the raw…</div>
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As I received this advice from an elder when I was young, so I will pass it along to you.<div><br/></div>
<div>Learn History. Throughout time, humans have fell victim to many of the same traps. We believe that through technology, science and economics we will become immune to war, disease, and social division. So our forefathers believed, and it has led to ruin. Let us not share in their misery.<div><br/></div>
<div>Think Historically. Learn about history, but do not focus on the data - the raw information. Facts are just the pieces, knowledge is comes from stringing those facts together into chains of events that shaped the past. <i>Wisdom</i> comes from understanding the lessons of the past and applying them to our own lives.</div>
</div>Evoke Manifestotag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-11:4871302:BlogPost:1457912010-05-11T06:22:03.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
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<div style="margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 1100px; counter-reset: __goog_page__ 0; line-height: normal;"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: white; color: rgb(94, 94, 94); font-size: 13px; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 3px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Times"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000">We are not strangers to staggering statistics. By 2050 the world population will be EV billion, EV billion of which will live in cities. These will be mostly poor, adding an additional EV billion to the already massive EV billion living in sub-standard or informal housing, and in order to adequately house them we would</font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000">need to build a city of EV thousand every day. Rising sea levels are predicted to create an additional EV climate refugees. Milaria and AIDS kill EV million people a year, while EV million more die from lack of access to safe drinking water. Despite the evidence on climate change, we still destroy EV hectares of rainforest every year and, without a change in our behavior, by 2050 we will see another EV species driven to extinction. This is all old news.</font></font></span></font></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Times"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Times"><br/></font></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Times"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Times"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000">EVOKE exists to change our behavior. Brave citizens from all around the world have joined EVOKE to put that change in motion. Our wisdom is in our ability to share knowledge and our strength is fueled by the courage to act. We do not expect the govenrments or corporations of the world to solve our problems, instead we believe and opposite in an approach: scaling responsibility from the top</font></font> <i><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000">down</font></font></i> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000">and grass-roots, community level-involvement</font></font> <i><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000">up <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">is</span></font></font></i> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000">the most effective way to spark significant progress.</font></font></font></font></font></p>
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<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Times"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Times"><br/></font></font></font><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Times"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Times"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">For every problem that burdens humanity exists a solution. What answers lie latent within YOU?</font></font></font></font></div>
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<br/>SPARK LIBRARY EVOKATION_The Moneytag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-07:4871302:BlogPost:1415512010-05-07T10:30:00.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; line-height: 23px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library">Return to:</a></span> <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library">SPARK LIBRARY Executive Summary.</a></span></span></font></i></span><br/>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></i></span></div>
<div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i>4. Money: The First $1000</i></font></font></font></i></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></i></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">If this project received were granted funding I would propose using the first $1000 in the following four activities:</font></font></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b>4.1 Team Building</b></font></font></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Though this may not represent sizable monetary expenditure, the recognition of receiving a World Bank Institute grant would greatly help in attracting support for further project development. I would immediately set to work formulating an advisory board consisting of individuals with experience in the library administration, online education initiatives, design and implementation of open building systems, knowledge of ground conditions in specific locations in Africa suitable for charter libraries, and the representatives from individual companies that could be allied to provide the basic support infrastructure.</font></font></span></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><b><br/></b></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b>4.2 Web Presence</b></font></font></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Establish an initial web site that would serve as a go-to point for basic information regarding the project, instructions for how to participate, and facilitate the receiving of donations.</font></font></span></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><b><br/></b></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b>4.3 Fund Raising</b></font></font></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Create a basic fundraising strategy that would support short-term goals necessary for launching the project. Produce the necessary literature or mailings that would secure the necessary capital to allow the project to move forward.</font></font></span></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><b><br/></b></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b>4.4 Establish Non-Profit</b></font></font></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Any remaining funds would go toward the registration fees for filing 501c3 non-profit status in the United States.</font></font></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></i></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-size: 13px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library">Return to:</a></span> <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library">SPARK LIBRARY Executive Summary.</a></span></span></font></i></span></font></font></i></span></p>
</div>SPARK LIBRARY EVOKATION_The Ideatag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-07:4871302:BlogPost:1415502010-05-07T10:00:00.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 23px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Return to: SPARK LIBRARY Executive Summary</span></a></span></font></i></span></i></font></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i><br/></i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i>3. Idea: Spark Library Partnership</i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">This section will outline a vision for a new type of library focused on staging a relationship between <b><i>both</i></b></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">the incredible array of resources available online and the physical building that embodies the local culture. The attempt will be to offer organized access to the greatest population, at the least cost.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><br/></b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b>3.1 Spark Library Partnership</b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">The basic tenants of the Spark Library Partnership are: 1) to provide zones of information access (e.g. libraries) that combine wide-spread knowledge sharing with local insight in an effort to trigger the discovery of solutions to immediate and compelling problems through 2) the establishment of structures that are a combination of standardized, technologically equipped cores and auto-constructed<a href="#_ftn24" name="_ftnref24" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[24]</span></a> bodies.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u><br/></u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u>3.1.1 Social Enterprise</u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">This entire undertaking registers as a social enterprise on two important scales. First, at the level of the global<i>,</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">creating an interconnected network of libraries would facilitate a <i>reaching out<a href="#_ftn25" name="_ftnref25" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[25]</span></a></i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">by individuals in Africa to other online communities, either regional or international, in order to enrich their lives and help meet whatever pressing challenges they might face. Conversely, it would allow for a <i>reaching in</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">by individuals from all parts of the world to these locales in Africa in order to discover the valuable attributes unique to each specific node. Additionally, at the local level, each physical library would serve as an important piece of a community’s urban fabric and can be developed with regard to the distinct qualities specific to that place.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b>3.2 Power Structure</b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">When proposing a large wave of new libraries, it is key to evaluate the power structure that would facilitate such an undertaking.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u><br/></u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u>3.2.1 Carnegie Precedent</u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">The Carnegie Library endowment is an extremely useful analogue. Between 1886 and 1917 Carnegie underwrote the construction of nearly 1,700 libraries in the U.S., which represented roughly half the 3,500 of libraries in the entire country by the time the final endowment was issued. Additionally, the philanthropic juggernaut would build another 800 libraries abroad and in the process spearhead the modernization of the library; transforming it from a conservative ninetieth century autocracy to a squarely public agency streamlined for maximum efficiency.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">A defining moment was the establishment of the Carnegie Corporation,<a href="#_ftn26" name="_ftnref26" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[26]</span></a> a new company set up specifically as a machine to start giving away the millionaire’s fortune. The corporate metaphor was backed up with teeth; Carnegie demanded his charitable companies run with the same efficiency that his for-profit businesses had. To ensure this he brought in his personal secretary, James Bertram, to oversee the administration of the library endowment. The kid gloves of the benevolent donor were cast off and replaced with shrewd contractual agreements of a steel magnate. The act of giving was transformed into a business transaction and if a community wanted a library it would have to follow clearly defined protocols, which gradually become known as the “Carnegie formula.” In order to handle the massive volume of projects, the process had to be kept simple and straightforward. Therefore, in order to receive a library grant, each applicant must: 1) Demonstrate a need for a library; 2) Tax itself 10% of the construction grant indefinitely to ensure operation costs; 3) Provide a site and; 4) Provide free service to all in the community.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Over the course of implementing hundreds of libraries, Bertram compiled his observations and eventually produced a short pamphlet entitled “Notes on the Erection on Library Buildings.” It went through multiple additions and by 1911 accompanied all formal grant offers. The “Notes” summarize in a few brief pages the seismic changes rendered unto the library. While generally the document is careful not to assume a position of too much control, the strongest language is aimed at libraries of the past, stating that, “many buildings erected years ago, from plans tacitly permitted at the time, would not be allowed now.” The notes go onto explain in a crisp and matter-of-fact tone that the Carnegie Corporation is interested in, above all, <i>economy</i></font></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">. The clearest indication is the only phrase in the document singled out with dramatic emphasis:</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i>TO OBTAIN FOR THE MONEY THE UTMOST AMOUNT OF EFFECTIVE ACCOMMODATION, CONSISTENT WITH GOOD TASTE IN BUILDING.</i></font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u><br/></u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u>3.2.2 Contemporary</u></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u>Players</u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Who will lead the way in the next great wave of library proliferation? Everyone. The beauty of a densely networked culture is that massive and shocking changes can be implemented by the spontaneous cooperation of millions of individuals. Still, when you examine the actual cast of characters, finer meshes of detail emerge and each node in the system plays a unique and powerful role. As discussed in section two, one can break the world down into information <i>haves</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">and <i>have-nots</i></font></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">. The haves are those citizens of the OECD countries already building the online knowledge base. The best single thing they can do at the present time is support open access protocols. That way, when the digital divide closes and the information have-nots (e.g. India, Africa, and China) become haves, the channels of information absorption, creation, and sharing will be wide open to <i>billions</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">of new knowledge producers.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">What about the contemporary Carnegies? Indeed, there is plenty of room for contribution from the current philanthropic superstars. Bill Gates is, of course, a prime candidate for such contribution and already gives generously to libraries. Perhaps his foundation could leverage greater effectiveness for his capital investment if instead of focusing on providing the Internet to existing libraries he could construct new libraries on the frontiers of broadband connectivity. Additionally, any number of philanthropic individuals or agencies could step up to fund individual libraries. Since the entire web-connected world stands to benefit from the knowledge that will be produced by the affected population, many parties have an interest in seeing the network flourish.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Google also has a role to play and are already doing a remarkable job. The most powerful online search engine has already expanded to providing a broad cache of free online services that seem to get better every day. The Google Book Project is also a key piece in the puzzle, with its mission to "...organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful...The tremendous wealth of knowledge that lies within the books of the world will now be at our fingertips.” The sustained effort of Google and other likeminded companies is vital.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><br/></b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b>3.3 Physical Infrastructure</b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Online networks to the side, there is still the task of conceiving of and implementing the physical infrastructure. The opportunity exists for a significant revamping of the library as a typology, and such questions suggest a systematic approach that favors resilient planning strategies and avoid the Buckminster Fullerarian trap of total design, which leads to extremely complex systems that are hard to execute and delicate to maintain.<a href="#_ftn27" name="_ftnref27" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[27]</span></a></font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u><br/></u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u>3.3.1 Addressing Local Needs at a Global Scale</u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Strategies that address most of these compelling and immediate issues already exist, but lack both widespread understanding and will towards implementation. How can designers partner with local communities to have a maximum impact, in the shortest amount of time, with limited resources? What models have been developed that should be interrogated, modified, and redeployed? What are the tactics and strategies (rather than definitive answers) to these contemporary questions? How can we scale responsibility from the top <i>down</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">and grass-roots level involvement from the bottom <i>up</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">to spark significant progress in the immediate future?</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u><br/></u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u>3.3.2 Open Building Systems</u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">How would such a space be organized? What would be its <i>diagram</i></font></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">?<a href="#_ftn28" name="_ftnref28" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[28]</span></a> If it goes beyond a single project and becomes an entire network of interconnected and cooperative libraries, then what is the prototype? To begin unpacking these questions, I’d like to start by dividing the spaces in the library into two types: knowledge production space and knowledge storage space. (figure 3.1)</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><i><br/></i></b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><i>Figure</i></b></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b>3.1: <i>Programmatic Distribution</i></b></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">–The programmatic components in the library are split into two types: knowledge production spaces and knowledge storage spaces. In open building systems terms, the storage spaces will act as the permanent support with a limited amount of internal territory for expansion. The knowledge production spaces, which are subject to the ambient organizational shifts as production needs continue changing, will have a much greater territory to accommodate expansion, change, and flexibility in use.</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">When the production spaces are <i>activated,</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">that is, they begin generating information, the knowledge produced will go in one of two directions: digitally produced content will go straight online, while anything produced with a physical body that cannot be satisfactorily digitized has the potential to be absorbed by the librarians/archivists into to the library’s permanent collection. <b><i>I propose that this organizational strategy could become the basic prototype for all libraries in the network</i></b></font></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">. (figure 3.2)</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><i><br/></i></b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><i>Figure</i></b></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b>3.2: <i>Activation</i></b></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">– When the production space is activated it generates content that flows in one of two directions: either onto the web as digital content or into the library’s archive as physical artifacts.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u><br/></u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u>3.3.3 Typical vs. Atypical</u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">In terms of building system strategies, I believe that there are multiple ways of achieving this diagram and if you committed it to a brief and distributed it to twenty different architects you would receive twenty unique designs (ranging in effectiveness, but nevertheless fundamentally meeting the challenge). This point is not a digression. When attempting to implement a systematic approach to a problem it is important not to over-design the system, which again leads to solutions that are inflexible, hard to implement, and delicate to maintain.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">An existing approach that seems to be a logical response to this diagram is an open building system, which establishes an up-front <i>support</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">framework and opportunity for ongoing infill through the provision well-defined <i>territory</i></font></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">.<a href="#_ftn29" name="_ftnref29" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[29]</span></a> Support consists of the “hard part” of a building, including the structure, mechanical systems, plumbing, and initial spaces for occupation. Over the course of the life of the building, the territory, or zones of the building left for future development, can be filled in to accommodate temporally appropriate needs. The building system compliments the diagram in several ways. First, it accounts for both stability (critical to current library) and flexibility (severely lacking in the current library, but abundant in related typologies, such as the <i>mediatheque<a href="#_ftn30" name="_ftnref30" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[30]</span></a></i></font></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">). The stability would be provided by the support and include information technology, a steady source of energy, a safe and reliable structure. The production spaces, which are subject to unpredictable (i.e. ambient) organizational shifts as production needs continue changing, will have a much greater territory in which to expand and change in their use. In his article <i>Ambient Organization</i></font></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">, Brandon Hookway introduces the provocative notion that, “organization is the gaze, while ambience is the glimpse.”<a href="#_ftn31" name="_ftnref31" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[31]</span></a></font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">The gaze versus glimpse construction is an incredibly powerful way of describing how this library can begin to take shape. The <i>gaze</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">are those parts of the library typology that endure, that capture and celebrate the physical memories of a people, in short, the hard core of the library’s power at leveraging cultural agency. The <i>glimpse</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">is altogether different; it is the hazy, enveloping, dispersed, noisy, and overlapping “order” that is the prevailing logic of online networks. If we can articulate the ambient in tectonic terms, then we can begin approaching a library that works for patrons with both physical and virtual needs.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u><br/></u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u>3.3.4 The Elemental: a Case Study in Typical vs. Atypical</u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i><br/></i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i>“Every time we come here, we have surprises. The Energy is incredible.”</i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i>Gonzalo Arteaga of Elemental during a site visit to the Renca Housing Development<a href="#_ftn32" name="_ftnref32" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[32]</span></a></i></font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">To illustrate these themes and the immense potential they represent it is useful to look at a contemporary example. While this particular instance deals with housing, the fundamental construction methodology, scale of projects, and stunning economic model can be translated to other building types – <i>such as the library</i></font></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">The Elemental is a group of designers and strategists organized in 2003 and based in Santiago, Chile that utilizes open building strategies combined with auto-construction. Despite being a relatively small operation, Elemental has already completed seven major developments equating to 737 total dwellings, with an additional seven projects either in construction or development adding another 708 dwellings<a href="#_ftn33" name="_ftnref33" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[33]</span></a>.</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><br/></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">As a case study, we can look at the first major development from Elemental: the Quinta Monroy settlement in Santiago, Chile. The project, commissioned by the Chilean government, was the reorganization of 100 families living in a small informal urban settlement and stipulated that the families should participate in the design process. The only way the team was able to provide a successful solution was to distribute the upfront capital equally among all residents, provide only the basic services to each unit, and to activate the residents themselves as a significant contributor to the project.<a href="#_ftn34" name="_ftnref34" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[34]</span></a> This involvement began in earnest in the design process, with architects working with residents and to develop a vision for the future project, and continued after official construction commenced, with residents taking the initiative to finish the units themselves. According to Elemental, eighteen months after the first houses were turned over to their owners, more than half had been expanded to beyond 50 m<sup>2</sup> from the original 36 m<sup>2</sup>.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">By turning control of the ultimate outcome of the building over to the residents, the project also generates a palpable amount of enthusiasm. In other Elemental projects, residents took the principles of auto-construction beyond their private territory and began making improvements to the shared community spaces.<a href="#_ftn35" name="_ftnref35" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[35]</span></a> Formally, the built-out projects represent an incredibly compelling combination of underlying architectural intention, mingled with the themes developed by the inhabitants of the community. (figure 3.3)</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234208786?profile=original" alt=""/></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><i><br/></i></b></font></font></p>
<p align="center" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><i>Figure 3.3</i></b></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><i>Quinta Monroy Housing - Before (TOP) and After (Bottom) Auto-Construction</i></b></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">(Source: Elemental)</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Perhaps the most promising attribute that suggests widespread success of open building methods is a look at the bottom line. Open building combined with auto-construction has demonstrated that with a minimal investment from centralized funding authority, small communities can create buildings of significant value. In the case of Quinta Monroy, the government investment in the land, basic infrastructure, and first 50% of the house cost $7,500 USD per unit. According to post-occupancy evaluations the cost to a resident to build-out the second half of their unit was on average $750, bringing the total invested to $8,250. Within two years of construction these same units had a market value of roughly $20,000.<a href="#_ftn36" name="_ftnref36" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[36]</span></a> The process of building equity through revaluation of the land and transferring that wealth to the families is what Elemental terms <i>building middle-class DNA.</i></font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u><br/></u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u>3.3.5 Applying this Model to the Library</u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">The notion of providing a community with “the hard part” of a library would mean providing initial program spaces, a safe and reliable structure, information technology, and a steady source of energy. The community would be responsible for any additional spaces that would enliven and enrich the atmosphere of the library. This partnership would yield multiple benefits, among which are: minimized up-front capital investment from centralized funding agents; greater community involvement in the establishment of the library; opportunity to capitalize on local building materials, methods, and labor; unique identity for each individual member within the network; and the ability for each library to develop according to their needs and within their means.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><br/></b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b>3.4 Making Places of Collective Memory</b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">It remains an imperative task of both the design team and the community to understand the library as a space that stages a relationship between the virtual and the physical. If only the virtual is represented, then the unique identity of a community is in danger of waning. If only the physical is addressed, then the incredible wealth of information available from the network goes unutilized.</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 23px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library">Return to: SPARK LIBRARY Executive Summary</a></span></span></font></i></span></i></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 23px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></i></span></i></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 23px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></i></span></i></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref24" name="_ftn24" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[24]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i>Auto-construction</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">is a process where only a portion of a building (typically involving the primary structure, spaces, and systems) is constructed initially by professionals. Later, the remainder is finished by the inhabitants.</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref25" name="_ftn25" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[25]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">The terms <i>reaching out</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">and <i>reaching in</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">are being appropriated from Richard Baraniuk, the Victor E. Cameron Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University.</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref26" name="_ftn26" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[26]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Van Slyck observes that Carnegie fell back on using the term <i>corporation</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">because there had not yet existed a term for a company whose sole purpose was to give away money. Ibid 24.</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref27" name="_ftn27" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[27]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">This point is borrowed from Antone Picon, who raised it during a Q&A session with Bill dunster of ZEDfactory during the Conference on Ecological Urbanism, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, April 3-5, 2009.</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref28" name="_ftn28" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[28]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Since everyone seems to have a different definition for the term <i>diagram</i></font></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">, I’d like to specify that, for me, a diagram is a two-dimensional geometric symbolic representation of information according to some visualization technique, which provide an abstract way for thinking about <i>organization</i></font></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">. The variables in an organizational diagram can include both formal and programmatic configurations.</font></font></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref29" name="_ftn29" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[29]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Open building systems have a significant slate of literature, but the specific ideas cited here may be found in: Habraken, N. John. "Control and Complexity." Places vol.4 no.2 (1987) pg. 3-15</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref30" name="_ftn30" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[30]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">A mediatheque is an establishment, generally public, which preserves and provides access to various types of media and is not centered on the physical book.</font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref31" name="_ftn31" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[31]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Hookway, Brandon. “Ambient Organization,” in <i>Log 5</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">ed. R.E. Somel and Sarah Whitting (MIT Press: Cambridge, 2005), 65</font></font></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref32" name="_ftn32" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[32]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Gudrais, Elizabeth. "Housing With Dignity." Harvard Magazine, November 7, 2008</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref33" name="_ftn33" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[33]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><</font></font><a href="http://www.elementalchile.cl/viviendas/" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">http://www.elementalchile.cl/viviendas/</font></font></a><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">> Accessed April 5, 2009</font></font></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref34" name="_ftn34" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[34]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Durack, Ruth. “Village Vices: The Contradiction of New Urbanism and Sustainability<i>.”</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">In PLACES 14 vol. 2 (2001)</font></font></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref35" name="_ftn35" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[35]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Gudrais, Elizabeth. "Housing With Dignity." Harvard Magazine, November 7, 2008</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref36" name="_ftn36" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[36]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">VERB editors, “Quinta Monroy, Iquique: Elemental / Alejandro Aravena,” in VERB Crisis, ed. Mario Ballestreros, Irene Hwang, Tomoko Sakamoto, Michael Kubo, Anna Teta, Albert Ferre, Ramon Prat (Actar: Barcelona, 2008), 291</font></font></font></font></p>
<p></p>SPARK LIBRARY EVOKATION_The Challengetag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-07:4871302:BlogPost:1415052010-05-07T10:00:00.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; line-height: 23px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library">Return to:</a></span> <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library">SPARK LIBRARY Executive Summary.</a></span></span></font></i></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></i></span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></i></span></div>
<div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i>2. Challenge: The Digital Divide</i></font></font></font></i></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">For those in the OECD, it is easy to fall into the trap of believing global connectivity is here: the World Wide Web has made it possible for anyone, anywhere to access anything.</font></font></span></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><br/></b></font></font></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b>2.1 The Digital Divide</b></font></font></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">In reality, however, that is not the case. While author Thomas Friedman has added much to the perception of a flat world, he is also quick to point out that without a web connection you are not in the game<a href="#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[12]</span></a>. In 2009 just over 25% of the world’s population were classified as Internet users, with conspicuously low percentages of Internet penetration in both Asia (19.4%) and Africa (6.8%). (figure 2.1)</font></font></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><i><br/></i></b></font></font></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><i>Figure 2.1 World Internet Usage and Population Statistics</i></b></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">(Source: <a href="http://www.internetworldstats.com">www.internetworldstats.com</a>)</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">There are, however, steady signs of improvement. The growth of high-speed connectivity – practically mandatory for the contemporary web - has grown from just over four million subscribers ten years ago to some 400 million in 2009. (figures 2.2a - 2.2c) Even though much of the world still remains either disconnected or hobbling along on painfully slow dial-up networks, a significant milestone was achieved in 2009 when the first sub marine fiber optic cable reached the Eastern shore of the African continent from its origin in Mumbai.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: times; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><b><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234189346?profile=original" alt=""/></b></font></i></span></p>
<p align="center" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><i>Figure 2.2a The Global Growth of Broadband – 1999</i></b></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">(Source: BBC)</font></font></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><i>Figure 2.2b The Global Growth of Broadband – 2004</i></b></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">(Source: BBC)</font></font></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><i>Figure 2.2c The Global Growth of Broadband – 2011</i></b></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">(Source: BBC)</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">It is important to take note that what regions like Africa and Asia lack in percentage of users, they make up easily in sheer number of users. Asia, for example, despite having less than 20% web penetration already represents over 40% of global Internet users. Contrast that with North America, who despite having a commanding 74% of their population online only have a 14% share in the total number of users. While it is only a matter of time until Asia, driven by broader penetration into India and China,</font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">significantly outweigh the US and Europe in volume of users, it remains to be seen how these parties will use their girth to steer the development of the web itself.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u><br/></u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u>2.1.1 Who is on each side of the Divide?</u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">The decade-long head start that the OEDC has in large-scale Internet mobilization is nonetheless extremely significant. One way of expressing the current disparity is what educator Marc Prensky has termed <i>digital natives</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">and <i>digital immigrants<a href="#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[13]</span></a></i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">- the difference being whether digital technologies such as personal computers, Internet, and mobile phones were widely available in a society throughout a child’s development. Prensky asserts that natives are almost automatically accustomed the language, rites, and customs of the IT, whereas immigrants, who come to these</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">tools after living a non-digital existence, operate with a <i>thick accent</i></font></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">. The first generation of OECD natives is already emerging from college while the bulk of their peers from developing countries are by and large still scrambling to adapt.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">On the other hand, this logic might become outmoded by the evolution of the Internet itself. Most observers recognize the decline of the preliminary methods of communication of information online, which involved users going to sites strictly to access content provided by the site’s administrator. Web 2.0 is the catchphrase for sites that shifted to more interactive platform, which not only allows users to access data but also relies on them to generate content themselves. As the interface between the user and the network become more engaging, we may witness a casting off of the immigrant complex that hampered the previous generation. Furthermore, the next Internet evolution, referred to as the <i>semantic</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i>web</i></font></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">, aims to understand the meaning of online content as pure information, thus providing ultimate accessibility to humans and machines alike, perhaps further easing the transition for fresh users.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Conjecture aside, what is the situation at the threshold of the digital divide in 2010? To answer this question, it is useful to examine in detail EVOKE itself as a MMO (massive multiplayer online game) that offers interesting insights from both sides of the chasm. The focus of the game is to get participants to put their energy towards solving real world problems. The potential is enormous: in her TED presentation creator Jane McGonigal cites data suggesting online gamers have spent a combined total of 5.9 million years playing the worlds largest MMO, World of Warcraft. EVOKE’s mission is both a manifesto and a rallying cry:</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i><br/></i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i>“EVOKE was also conceived as a crash-course in changing the world. It is a chance to showcase the kind of resourceful innovation and creative problem-solving that is happening today in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions, and to collectively imagine how the lessons from those scenarios can transfer, scale, and ultimately benefit the entire planet.”<a href="#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[14]</span></a></i></font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">The goal of the game is to achieve an <i>epic win,</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">which McGonigal defines “as an outcome so extraordinarily positive you had no idea it was even possible until you achieved it.” The epic win that EVOKE is searching for is the real world solutions for major problems facing Africa. The creators believe they can make strides towards achieving this by combining the incredible resourcefulness, dedication, and ingenuity of gamers with social networking tools akin to Facebook.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">In its structure the game is a straightforward techno-utopia, who idea of <i>winning</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">is more dependant on the process than on specific outcome. The goal of the system is to create the maximum amount of information sharing and relationship building between gamers - especially between avant garde sustainability activists and those living in the developing world currently dealing with issues of food security, energy scarcity, disease, water shortages, etc. Most top players drawn into the game have a altruistic disposition and are motivated to continuously contribute at a high level in hopes of gaining one of twenty seed grants dedicated towards real-life funding of the best ideas put forth in the game<a href="#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[15]</span></a>. The format of the game regularly emphasizes the importance the individual. For example, according to the ambiguous <i>How To Play</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">link you will find the message, “Take the journey you want to take and chose the rewards you want to earn.”<a href="#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[16]</span></a></font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u><br/></u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u>2.1.2 The Reality of the Divide</u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Once you get past the utopian rhetoric, the goals of the game are rather modest: get people from all around the world to share information and hopefully start spin off efforts. However, early on it became apparent that there was a severe imbalance between percentages of players from Europe and the United States versus their African counterparts. A survey sampling of 50 EVOKE gamers (from the 14,217 players at the time of the survey) chosen at random from the Agent database consisted of: 28 North Americas, 16 Europeans, 2 Asians, 2 South Americans, 1 Australian, 1 Latin American/Caribbean, 0 Middle Eastern, 0 African.<a href="#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[17]</span></a> The data is not entirely surprising given the statistics regarding Internet penetration rates on Figure 2.1. This disparity does not go unacknowledged by African gamers themselves. In a blog within EVOKE a gamer from North America conducted the following interview with a fellow gamer from Uganda:</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i>AGENT JAKE BAIRD: What is the worst crisis to you in the world currently that requires Evoke's attention?</i></font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i><br/></i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i>AGENT SSOZI JAVIE: The Digital Divide! The GAP between the INFORMATION HAVES and HAVENOTS. The world is currently registering major political, social and economic developments and setbacks. The information age is demanding for creation of more information recourses. And sharing of more information. It’s a big shame that in many communities this need has not been realized. And in some communities access remains a very big challenge. In my opinion, information access and networking is the climbing step to solving a wide range of crises in the world.<a href="#_ftn18" name="_ftnref18" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[18]</span></a></i></font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">The digital divide poses serious threats to the effectiveness of the game. It is interesting to observe the cybernetic cycle of how this threat was acknowledged and dealt with in the game. The characteristic targeted is the presence of African gamers. The game organizers realized there were disproportionately fewer African gamers (undoubtedly they anticipated this). The decision of the comparators<a href="#_ftn19" name="_ftnref19" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[19]</span></a> was that more visibility of African gamers was necessary in order to ensure the success of the system. It is unclear from the perspective of the gamer the entire range of corrective measures the organizers implemented. One easily observable angle was to increase the number of friendships<a href="#_ftn20" name="_ftnref20" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[20]</span></a> by African gamers by putting them in a “Featured Agent” heading of the Agent directory (figure 2.3).</font></font></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><i>Figure 2.3: Screenshot of Featured Agents</i></b></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">(source: screenshot by author with notes by author)</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Gamers themselves were acutely observant of the activities of the organizers, as is reflected by this blog post by Agent A.V. Koshy<a href="#_ftn21" name="_ftnref21" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[21]</span></a>:</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i><br/></i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i>It's none of my business if Evoke wants to create an elite set of leaders for the world who will be from all the races but American and Eurocentric inside. Take the leader board. Look carefully at it. Look at the approved projects - the patterns are emerging clearly but it's not my business, I'm here to game, to help people and the world with its problems, to make friends and ultimately to learn, find out what's happening and also see if my vision for autistic peoples can fit into theirs and vice versa, since it is an international vision, in which case I'm ready to move with them. As for you, I know as little about you as I do about them. There are networks and networks and the future is about swarm theory, crowdsourcing, collaboration etc. Evokers are new, and trying to push the boundaries, so to that extent I'm with them. This is an experiment regarding the future and I want to be in it to see where it leads.</i></font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">The reality instantiated by EVOKE is a provocative and sobering counter to views regarding the degree to which the web has managed to connect all peoples on the globe. It is apparent that those on the front lines, who seek out and, in the case of the organizers, <i>depend</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">on this connectivity to exist, that the digital divide is indeed a significant barrier. The prospects for change are already in motion and, while all indications are that the gap is steadily closing, we are clearly still a ways off.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">What about the world <i>after</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">the divide closes? What might we expect to see from a game like EVOKE in five or ten years? On one hand there is clearly a desire to facilitate the proliferation of knowledge. EVOKE gamers on each side of the gap have met the challenges of the system with great alacrity and are clearly probing the limits of the system. But EVOKE is only one instance. Even if the existing Web 2.0 platform maintains only its current level of sophistication, knowledge sharing sites such as Wikipedia, Youtube, and Flickr will experience an explosion of new content. If, as some predict, institutions of higher education become disaggregated and given universal access, it is reasonable to imagine a spike in learning that would dwarf the Renaissance. Significantly, the majority of the above activity is going to be generated and consumed by the population epicenters of China, India, and Africa, which promise to shake up the American and Eurocentric dominance of current web content. Indeed, in the future of examples like EVOKE, it is not entirely unreasonable to think you may have trouble finding the OECD players amongst the incredibly numerous counterparts from the rest of the world.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">But, as Buckminster Fuller reminds us, we are the architects of the future, not it’s victims. This was the very same frame of mind with which Sir Thomas Moore framed the original Utopia (at least the first such named). Moore sketched out his vision for an ideal society at the critical juncture when Europe was colonizing the New World. Like Fuller and his other ideological descendants, Moore understood the promise that with a proper course of action something better could take place in the future.<a href="#_ftn22" name="_ftnref22" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[22]</span></a> Where are the current leaders of the utopian project leading the society? It would seem that <i>rip > mix > burn<a href="#_ftn23" name="_ftnref23" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span">[23]</span></a></i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">is still the operative catchphrase. Projects such as EVOKE or TED are hungry for a balance between finding the right creative minds, connecting them to other creative minds, sparking a synthesis of ideas, and providing channels to the necessary resources to realize those ideas. A concrete example of this is an EVOKE post from Agent Heyming proposing an initiative called <i>Gratitude Gardens</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">(the underlined portions represent hyperlinks):</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i>This idea has been inspired by several other Agents, from Agent McLellan's <u>Hyperlocavore</u> movement to Agent Buentrostro's <u>Community Urban Farms</u> <u>, Garden Earth Project</u>, and even Agent Falconer's <u>connection with the local ecovillage</u> and his heritage as a South African.</i></font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i>I think all of these agents are on the right track, so I created the <b>Gratitude Garden Movement</b></i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><i>as a way of making this work something anyone can contribute to and create a global resource for sustainable gardening practices.</i></font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Agent Heyming goes on to explain his concept for the Gratitude Gardens Movement, which, as he alluded to, is a synthesis between his own ideas and new ideas he discovered in the game. The post generates a significant amount of chatter and support from other gamers and inspired some to take the first steps to creating Gratitude Gardens in their own communities. The idea stands an excellent chance of receiving future funding from the game organizers, especially if it continues to attract more supporters both within and outside the game.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u><br/></u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u>2.1.3 Increased Knowledge Penetration</u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">In order to take advantage of this vast pool of knowledge, individuals from the target region (e.g. Africa) must have web access. Ideally, numerous libraries would be established on the frontiers of Internet penetration. <b><i>This is precisely where the establishment of new libraries could have the largest impact.</i></b></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">As web connectivity reaches into new territories more libraries are added: each offering free online access to all members of the community and a synthetic approach to orientating new users to the array of resources now available. If strong communication channels are established between these libraries, solutions found to be effective against local or regional challenges will spread quickly throughout the network.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><br/></b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b>2.2 Strengthening Local Culture in the Face of Globalization</b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">The digital divide exists, but it is closing and by the time it vanishes completely the demographics of the parties currently separated will be very different. The utopian vision that is observable from the examples cited here represent a desire to forge a future society that uses Internet technology, specifically social networking, to harness the enormous amount of resources available online and focus that energy towards solving tangible problems in the real-world. Perhaps an unspoken promise is that by focusing intensely on the individual and their unique position to fuse knowledge shared by others with local insight, they can illicit change in their own community that will be both empowering and incredibly unique. Globalization, in this view, may not represent a soul-crushing blandness but instead an incredibly fascinating kaleidoscope of hybridized ideas.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b>2.3 Post Script</b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">After reviewing a draft of this Evokation, fellow Agent A.V. Koshy provided a link to the following map featuring the relative placement of Evoke Users. (figure 2.4)</span></font></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234234532?profile=original" alt=""/></span></font></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><i>Figure 2.4: Screenshot of Map Showing Locations of Evoke Agents</i></b></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">(source: screenshot by author)</font></font></span></span></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 23px; font-size: 13px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library">Return to:</a></span> <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library">SPARK LIBRARY Executive Summary.</a></span></span></font></i></span></span></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; line-height: 23px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></i></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><br/></font></font></p>
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<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[12]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Friedman, Thomas. “World is Flat 2.0.” MIT Open Courseware. Accessed March 28, 2010.</font></font></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[13]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Prensky, Marc. “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.” In <i>On the Horizon</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">(MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001)</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[14]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><</font></font><a href="http://blog.urgentevoke.net/2010/03/09/who-created-evoke-and-why/" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">http://blog.urgentevoke.net/2010/03/09/who-created-evoke-and-why/</font></font></a><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">> March 25, 2010</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[15]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Personal observations based on the author’s participation in EVOKE.</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[16]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><</font></font><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/page/how-to-play" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">http://www.urgentevoke.com/page/how-to-play</font></font></a><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">> March 25, 2010</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref17" name="_ftn17" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[17]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Survey conducted by author March 25, 2010 with data from the EVOKE website.</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref18" name="_ftn18" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[18]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><</font></font><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/background-2" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/background-2</font></font></a><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">> March 25, 2010</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref19" name="_ftn19" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[19]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">In the cybernetic cycle, the <i>comparator</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">is the agent who takes data from the sensors, makes judgments about how effectively the system is functioning, and issues directives to the <i>activator</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">who carries out adjustments to the system.</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref20" name="_ftn20" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[20]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Creating invitational friendships is a feature of the game used by players to create an interior network of peers whom you theoretically support and are supported by.</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref21" name="_ftn21" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[21]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Agent Koshy identifies himself as being from Trivandrum, Kerala State, India – a county with low penetration of Internet users but high volume of users.</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref22" name="_ftn22" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[22]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Picon, Antoine.</font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">“The Digital and the Utopian.” Harvard Design Magazine 29 (Fall/Winter 2008-2009) 134-139</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref23" name="_ftn23" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[23]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">A modified version of the slogan <i>Rip. Mix. Burn.</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">popularized by Apple Computers, Inc. at the outset of the 21<sup>st</sup> century.</font></font></font></font></p>
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</div>SPARK LIBRARY EVOKATION_Executive Summarytag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-07:4871302:BlogPost:1414902010-05-07T09:30:00.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
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<p style="text-align: left;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">***This is a draft of the Evokation I plan on submitting. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE comment on anything you feel could be improved. I am also soliciting collaborators, if anyone is interested in continueing the development of this idea. You can see an overview and links to the other sections below. THANKS!</span></span></font></i></span></span></font></i></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">URGENT EVOKATION</span></font></i></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Spark Library Partnership:</span></b></font></i></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Information Access, for the Largest Number, at the Least Cost</span></font></i></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">A PLAN OF ACTION FOR</span></font></i></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">SOCIAL INNOVATION SUBMITTED</span></font></i></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">TO GAIN FURTHER SUPPORT</span></font></i></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">FROM THE EVOKE NETWORK AND</span></font></i></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">THE WORLD BANK INSTITUTE</span></font></i></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234207067?profile=original" alt=""/></font></i></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Times;"><i>Executive Summary</i></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Times;"><b><br/></b></span></p>
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<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Times New Roman'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">In order to realize the full potential of many of the initiatives put forth by the Evoke network and begin sparking real change, individuals on the ground need access to information. Libraries are key spaces in the public domain that offer free information resources and services to communities. This Evokation suggests that we begin constructing libraries - thousands of libraries - that are re-imagined to be more appropriate for the 21st century. To make this work economically, each physical structure becomes a partnership between a centralized funding agent and the local community. The overall strategy is intended to balance local culture with digital culture, which will provide the duel benefit of access to global information networks while preserving the unique attributes of each community. Instead of creating 10,000 clone libraries, we create a process that creates 10,000 different libraries - each as unique as the people that create them.</span></span></font></b></div>
<font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Times New Roman'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br/></span></span></font><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Times New Roman'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">The plan of action called for by this Evokation is to:</span></span></font></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Times New Roman'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br/></span></font></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Times New Roman'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Year 1 - assemble a multi-disciplinary team of strategists to create the design and economic formula necessary to create such libraries</span></span></font></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Times New Roman'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br/></span></span></font></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Times New Roman'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Year 2 - develop a short term strategy for the construction of a number of prototype libraries in communities in Africa</span></span></font></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Times New Roman'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br/></span></span></font></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Times New Roman'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Year 3 - begin answering grant requests from communities seeking libraries</span></span></font></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Times New Roman'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br/></span></span></font></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Times;"><b><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/spark-library-evokationthe">Place: The Library</a></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Times;">Libraries, by definition, are collections of sources, resources, and services AND the building in which these are housed. Additionally, libraries serve as a critical piece of the public domain; a symbolic space that accommodates our persistent desire for collectivity.</span> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Times;">The evolution of information technology, specifically the Internet, has allowed the <i>idea</i></span> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Times;">of the library, which is rooted in free information sharing, to grow beyond its physical constraints and participate in the expanded field of information being created, organized, and shared online. <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/spark-library-evokationthe">full text</a></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Times;"><b><br/></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Times;"><b><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/spark-library-evokationthe-1">Challenge: The Digital Divide</a></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Times;">It is easy to fall into the trap of believing global connectivity is here: the World Wide Web has made it possible for anyone, anywhere to access anything. In reality, however, that is not the case. In 2009 just over 25% of the world’s population were classified as Internet users, with conspicuously low percentages of Internet penetration in both Asia (19.4%) and Africa (6.8%). The EVOKE network itself is a useful example of the constrains posed by the digital divide, and reinforces the case for widespread proliferation of public libraries, which serve as key access points to the bank of online knowledge while simultaneously serving as agencies culture. <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/spark-library-evokationthe-1">full text</a></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Times;"><b><br/></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Times;"><b><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/spark-library-evokationthe-2">Idea: Spark Library Partnership</a></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Times;">This section will outline a vision for a new type of library focused on staging a relationship between <b><i>both</i></b></span> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Times;">the incredible array of resources available online and the physical building that embodies the local culture. The attempt will be to offer organized access to the greatest population, at the least cost. The basic tenants of the Spark Library Partnership are: 1) to provide zones of information access (e.g. libraries) that combine wide-spread knowledge sharing with local insight in an effort to trigger the discovery of solutions to immediate and compelling problems through 2) the establishment of structures that are a combination of standardized, technologically equipped cores and auto-constructed bodies. <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/spark-library-evokationthe-2">full text</a></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Times;"><b><br/></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Times;"><b><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/spark-library-evokationthe-3">Money: The First $1000</a></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Times;">If this project were to receive funding I would propose using the first $1000 in attracting collaborators and advisors, establishing basic web presence, preliminary fund raising, and filing for 501c3 non-profit status in the United States. <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/spark-library-evokationthe-3">full text</a></span></p>SPARK LIBRARY EVOKATION_The Placetag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-07:4871302:BlogPost:1414852010-05-07T09:30:00.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="times"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library">Return to:…</a></span></span></font></i></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="times"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library">Return to:</a></span> <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library">SPARK LIBRARY Executive Summary</a></span></span></font></i></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="times"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="times"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">1. Place: The Library</span></font></font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="times"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Libraries, by definition, are collections of sources, resources, and services AND the building in which these are housed. Additionally, libraries serve as a critical piece of the public domain; a symbolic space that accommodates our persistent desire for collectivity.</span></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">The evolution of information technology, specifically the Internet, has allowed the idea</span></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">of the library, which is rooted in free information sharing, to grow beyond its physical constraints and participate in the expanded field of information being created, organized, and shared online.</span></font></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="times"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">1.1 Libraries as Agencies of Culture</span></b></font></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="times"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">What a library is depends on what it does: it is a social enterprise, a physical infrastructure, a symbolic site of collective memory.</span><a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">[1]</span></span></a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Historically, libraries were thought of as places for contemplative learning through access to books. However, the physical infrastructure of the contemporary library is now greatly expanded by its connectivity to the global community and what was once a closed resource within a community is now an open portal to a large and vibrant knowledge ecosystem. In other words, the growth of the digital increased the scale of our collective social enterprise. Nevertheless, the physical buildings remain, and each is a material representation of the form our culture takes within the civic landscape.</span></font></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></u></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">1.1.1 Library as Vehicle of Social Mobility</span></u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">As repositories for information, libraries are invaluable resources for individuals committed to advancement through self-education. It was for this reason that the great American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie funded the construction of more than 2,500 libraries at the outset of the twentieth century. When asked why he focused on libraries, Carnegie would recall a story from his youth, when he was a child laborer at a mill in Alleghany, Pennsylvania. It came to pass that a prominent local citizen generously opened his personal library to the working boys of the town and with it provided access to “the precious treasures of knowledge and imagination through which youth may ascend.”</span><a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">[2]</span></span></a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Carnegie took full advantage of this opportunity and saw it as foundational in his rise out of poverty.</span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Now more than ever the library bears the promise of knowledge and imagination. Physical collections are cheaper and easier to build, the range of materials continues to grow exponentially, and foundational resources are available in virtually every language. Additionally, web connectivity offers access to incredible resources that can either be accessed virtually or downloaded and turned into physical volumes. Noteworthy examples are sites whose content focuses on education. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s OpenCourseWare</span><a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">[3]</span></span></a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">was a pioneer of online higher education and we can now find a range of online degree programs offered by a wide range of universities. The BBC now offers free primary and secondary level educational resources</span><a href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">[4]</span></span></a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">in addition to free language courses.</span><a href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">[5]</span></span></a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Connextions</span></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">is</span></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">a free website that provides user-generated, open-source material for textbooks that is customizable and allows users to quickly "create, rip, mix and burn" coursework without fear of copyright violations.</span><a href="#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">[6]</span></span></a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">While it is true the majority of existing content is in English, this base provides a template awaiting translation, which may even be automated in the near future. Additionally, as web connectivity spreads more new content is being generated in a variety of languages.</span></font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">1.1.2 Women, Minorities, Children, and Migrants</span></u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Unlike other modes of educational advancement, such as higher learning and trade schools, libraries offer a free and open forum to any individual interested in absorbing information on a subject of interest. In this sense, public libraries have been a particularly important resource for women, minorities, children, and migrants. For those of limited economic means, libraries have also come to represent places of free Internet access, which is now a given in most libraries of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)</span><a href="#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">[7]</span></span></a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">member states.</span></font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">1.2 The Changing Library</span></b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">As a building type, the library needs to change. The approach of the previous generation, predicated on the book as the dominant means of communicating information, is a model that is rapidly becoming outmoded. What we currently understand as the book - a written or printed work, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers - is far from dead. However, its supremacy is crumbling, and with it an antiquated spatial logic. A new array of media, mostly digital, is being offered to the public as alternative means of communicating information. Compared to the book, these new forms of media are radically different in their approach to creating, storing, and accessing knowledge. Likewise, those accustomed to new forms of media have an alternative relationship to that knowledge. Where the library of the physical book was a place of contemplative learning, the library at the outset of the digital age is one where users come to aggressively reconstitute the sea of data they’re immersed in. In other words, the contemporary library is an environment deeply concerned with the activity of knowledge production.</span></font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">1.2.1 The Frontiers of Information</span></u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">At a cognitive level, the process of acquiring knowledge is network-based, requiring a complex mix of perception, learning, communication, association, and reasoning. Contemporary advancements in telecommunications are leading to a radical overhauls for each of these inputs and we now have fundamentally new ways to create, disseminate, and exploit knowledge. The potential of these new technologies finds peak efficiency when delivered with open access protocols,</span></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">that is, a system where participants are given free access, free interaction, and can contribute freely. These were the fundamental principles upon which the Internet was founded, and as it continues to develop, we are seeing a move away from classic, top-down, corporate models for providing content in favor of fresh, bottom-up, open access/open source platforms. This current seems completely in step with the core ambition of the public library: to provide free information to all.</span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">1.2.2 The State of the Book</span></u></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Computation has changed the rules of the game and currently anything that is not dependant on a bodily form is migrating to the much more immediate, glamorous and flexible domain — that of the electronic.</span><a href="#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">[8]</span></span></a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">This migration is certainly not limited to newly created materials. Google is in the midst of a well-publicized campaign to scan as many books as they can and create a database of universally accessible knowledge. They are not alone. Parallel efforts are underway by a variety of other groups throughout the world</span><a href="#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">[9]</span></span></a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">to add to the burgeoning pool of digitized material.</span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">There exists, however, a significant portion of content that is resistant to digitization. These are exceptional and obscure artifacts found in archives and rare material collections whose digital status is among their least important qualities. They serve other more valuable cultural purposes. These materials are unique to, and definitive of, the place they were created and/or currently reside. In their physicality they are alive with aura, an intangible experience that cannot yet be replicated electronically. Interestingly, as the mass scanning continues, these special materials become more special.</span></font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">So, in this context, what is the next step for the physical book? While there may be a great deal of chatter in the blogsphere about the death of the book, upon reflection it seems an overly presumptuous forecast. For starters, about 1.6 billion people on Earth still live without electricity,</span> <a href="#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">[10]</span></span></a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">and 75 percent of the global population is still not online.</span><a href="#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">[11]</span></span></a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Based on the current trends, one might suggest that under the pressure of digitization what we understand as the current book will split into three parts, which I’ll refer to as absent, common,</span></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">and unique.</span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">The absent</span></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">is an acknowledgement that information is now produced in a wide variety of media whose representation can no longer be accommodated by the physical book alone. This is the electronic, virtual, online book. It is also the sub-worlds of information generated by Facebook, email, the blogsphere, online journals and newspapers, digital music and videos – all created without ever having a necessity for bodily presence.</span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">The common</span></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">is what we understand as the current, physical, leaf-bound book. While at first blush this might seem like a stable technology, it is, in fact, capable of being radically recast using slightly evolved combinations of existing technologies. For example, there are a number of recently launched companies providing compact book printer/binder on the scale of an office copy machine. These devices are interfaced with online book suppliers, like Google, and are capable of printing and binding volumes rapidly and on-demand. If, instead of printing books on a cellulose-based paper, we switched to a material with a high recycling coefficient, such as a polymer film, then one could imagine this scenario: a patron goes to the library, requests a book, which is instantly printed, and then when it is returned it is ground up and recycled into a new book. A highly functional, 50 million+ volume library could be achieved with a small machine, a high-speed internet connection, and a few hundred pounds of cycling print material.</span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">The unique</span></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">is an understanding of how to treat those objects resistant to digitization. As library collections become more and more similar, the rare materials – that part of the collection that makes an individual library different and is often a potent embodiment of the local culture – increase in value. In a future where printing on-demand is widely accepted, the traditional foundation of the library collection will be obsolete. Instead, libraries can devote more energy and space to archiving rare and unique material. This curation should not focus only on materials from the past, but strive to support the creation of new unique materials in the present and future.</span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">1.3 Synthesis: Knowledge Commons</span></b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Libraries remain a critical piece of the pubic domain and a symbol of our persistent need for collectivity. They are also engines of mobility that provide equal services to all genders, classes, and races. In imagining the next evolution of this building type, we might return to old notions of gauging success in a public library through progress</span></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">and abundance</span></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">in its collection. (Aurst 2001, 10) In this light, the goal for the next library should be an approach that maximizes the potential of each respective phase of the book and provides a stage for synergetic interactions between them. The exact nature of that atmosphere is difficult (if not impossible) to pin down because in all likelihood it will take on the qualities of the medium it instantiates: it will be a user-generated machine, constructed literally by countless contributions from the entire community, rather than the singular vision of any one individual. If the typology is allowed to loosen up and go with the electronic flow, it will be able to begin bridging the divide artificially separating our physical and virtual realities and dramatically increase its effectiveness.</span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">There is already a wealth of useful information online and more is being generated every minute. The library is a servomechanism that can facilitate the flow of information from its source to any point where it can be made useful. The following section will discuss the most strategic placement of new libraries in order to leverage the greatest possible impact with respect to the continent of Africa.</span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px;"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library">Return to:</a></span> <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokation-spark-library">SPARK LIBRARY Executive Summary</a></span></span></font></i></span></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br/></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[1]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Augst, Thomas, “American Libraries and Agencies of Culture.” In <i>Libraries as Agencies of Culture,</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">ed. Thomas Augst and Wayne Wiegand. (University of Wisconsin Press: Madison, 2001), 5</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[2]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Carnegie, Andrew. <i>Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie.</i></font></font> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Open Source book: BiblioBazzar 57</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[3]</font></span></a> <a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm</font></font></a></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[4]</font></span></a> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/schools/index.shtml" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/schools/index.shtml</font></font></a></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[5]</font></span></a> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/</font></font></a></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[6]</font></span></a> <a href="http://cnx.org/" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">http://cnx.org/</font></font></a></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[7]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">The OECD is an international economic organization of 30 countries. Most OECD members are high-income economies with a high Human Development Index (HDI) and are regarded as developed countries. The identification of OECD will be used in place of the dubious term “western.”</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[8]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Paraphrased from Rem Koolhaas’ acceptance speech of the 2000 Pritzker Prize.</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[9]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">The dizzying pace at which Google has moved forward with its book digitalization initiative has caused anxiety among some European intellectuals, especially in France and Germany, that if the vast majority of archived knowledge online is English, it will weaken the agency of works done in other languages. The result has been an rippling of accelerated scanning in throughout Europe.</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[10]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Source:</font></font> <a href="http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats</font></font></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Accessed April 8, 2010.</font></font></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times"><a href="#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" target="_self" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">[11]</font></span></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Source:</font></font> <a href="http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm</font></font></a> <font class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="times">Accessed April 8, 2010.</font></font></font></font></p>
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<p></p>KickStarter Rulestag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-03:4871302:BlogPost:1347412010-05-03T15:30:00.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
<div>As I catch up on some old quests I hit a serious snag with ACT 5, which was about making non-typical monetary transactions. I'm TOTALLY THRILLED I STUCK IT OUT because I found KickStarter, a website that promotes projects trying to start up by allowing strangers to fund them. I thought of my own model for a website like this ages ago (go ahead, roll your eyes...) and am ECSTATIC that it exists. In celebration I dished out a small contribution to:…</div>
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<div>As I catch up on some old quests I hit a serious snag with ACT 5, which was about making non-typical monetary transactions. I'm TOTALLY THRILLED I STUCK IT OUT because I found KickStarter, a website that promotes projects trying to start up by allowing strangers to fund them. I thought of my own model for a website like this ages ago (go ahead, roll your eyes...) and am ECSTATIC that it exists. In celebration I dished out a small contribution to:</div>
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<h1 id="name" style="margin-top: -0.25em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-size: 2.5em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 1.25em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><a href="%20http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/meyergrelli/a-community-apiary-in-pittsburgh">A Community Apiary in Pittsburgh!</a></span></h1>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: -webkit-xxx-large;"><b><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/">CHECK IT OUT!!!!</a></b></span></div>
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<div><br/></div>Take Your Water to School Weektag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-03:4871302:BlogPost:1342442010-05-03T14:50:13.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
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<p style="text-align: left;">Students across America will build up to World Water Day 2020 by spending every day of the proceeding week carrying to school the amount of water needed to get them through the school day. At the end of the week, they can send up their own water security Evokations on Season 10 of…</p>
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<p style="text-align: left;">Students across America will build up to World Water Day 2020 by spending every day of the proceeding week carrying to school the amount of water needed to get them through the school day. At the end of the week, they can send up their own water security Evokations on Season 10 of Evoke.</p>Appropriate Infrastructure Development Grouptag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-03:4871302:BlogPost:1336872010-05-03T13:45:23.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
<div><a href="http://www.aidg.org/">AIDG</a> is a non-profit that implements sustainable building systems in the developing world, with a specific focus on Guatemala and now Haiti. They do several interesting things with water including hydroelectric and solar hot water.</div>
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<div>What I find interesting about this work is that most NGOs dealing with water focus on providing water for consumption, while maybe not dealing with the energy related issues. While I cannot comment…</div>
<div><a href="http://www.aidg.org/">AIDG</a> is a non-profit that implements sustainable building systems in the developing world, with a specific focus on Guatemala and now Haiti. They do several interesting things with water including hydroelectric and solar hot water.</div>
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<div>What I find interesting about this work is that most NGOs dealing with water focus on providing water for consumption, while maybe not dealing with the energy related issues. While I cannot comment with great authority on the merits of <a href="http://www.aidg.org/outreach/featured_projects.htm">small-scale hydro electric systems</a>, I can speak a little about the benefits of <a href="http://www.aidg.org/outreach/solar_water_guarderia.htm">solar hot water generation</a>.</div>
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<div>In case you don't realize it, generating hot water is a major energy hog in a household where it is available. Heating water directly from the sun is relatively easy and FAR MORE EFFICIENT that using wither electricity of fossil fuels. On top of that, the systems are fairly cheap and easy to maintain. Consider them for yourself and consider <a href="https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=14192">DONATING to AIDG</a>.</div>
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<div><br/></div>Lessons Learnedtag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-21:4871302:BlogPost:987172010-04-21T10:52:51.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
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<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Evacuation for Hurricane Rita, Houston, Texas. 2005 AP photo</span></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Hurricane Evacuation: Houston</span></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;">2005 was a disastrous year on the Gulf Coast. After Katrina…</p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Evacuation for Hurricane Rita, Houston, Texas. 2005 AP photo</span></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Hurricane Evacuation: Houston</span></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;">2005 was a disastrous year on the Gulf Coast. After Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi, people elsewhere in the region were waiting for lightning to strike again. That was very much the atmosphere in Houston when Rita looked like it was on a direct course for this low-lying metropolis. People panicked and the population fled the city in a mass exodus of 2.5-3 million, making it the largest in US history. The traffic jam, with cars stalled on the highway for tens of hours, actually killed more people 107 (according to the Houston Chronicle), this despite the fact that Rita veered away from Houston and made landfall in Louisiana. Hurricane Ike, whose eye passed directly over Houston in 2008, resulted in only 43 deaths in all of Texas.</p>
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<p style="text-align: left;">I was not living in Houston for Rita, but have to say that after experiencing Ike first hand I gained a much grater appreciation how fickle hurricanes can be. They strengthen, weaken and change course pretty rapidly, and it is a incredibly intensive undertaking to evacuate major metropolitan areas. I was impressed with Houston's reaction to Ike, and thought the evacuation was carried out in a orderly fashion (relative to Rita, at least).</p>
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<p style="text-align: left;">If you are motivated to prepare for the next storm, the City of Houston has a <a href="http://www.houstonoem.net/go/site/1855/">website</a> waiting for you. It is a bit clumsy, but you can find Hurricane Preparedness Guides in several languages. I assume the links become more prominent when in August and September...</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><br/></p>Women Between Peace and War: Afghanistantag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-14:4871302:BlogPost:923102010-04-14T13:36:03.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
<div><p style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(107, 106, 106); font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><img alt="" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234201708?profile=original"></img></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(107, 106, 106); font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family: Courier, monospace; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px; text-transform: uppercase;"><span id="imgDisplay_title" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 11px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(255, 102, 0); text-transform: uppercase; background-xg-p: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">KABUL, 2002.</span><span id="imgDisplay_caption" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 11px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-xg-p: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">SWITAN, AGE TEN, LOOKS INTO THE WINDOW OF THE HERAT RESTAURANT.. SHE GAZES AT PEOPLE EATING WITH THE HOPES OF GETTING LEFTOVERS AND MAKES 50,000 TO 70,000 AFGHANI ($2.50 US) PER DAY BEGGING FROM FOREIGNERS.<span style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 11px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; display: block; background-xg-p: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">PHOTO: PAULA BRONSTEIN</span></span></span></span></p>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(107, 106, 106); font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The <b><i>Art Works Projects</i></b> is a Chicago-based organization whose mission is to use design and the arts to raise awareness of and educate the public about significant human rights and environmental issues. They achieved some recognition a few years ago with a travelling exhibition called <a href="http://www.darfurdarfur.org/main/">Darfur | Darfur.</a></span></span></div>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I had a chance to volunteer with them in the past and they are a fantastic organization. Please check out their recent work: <a href="http://www.artworksprojects.org/afghanistan/">WOMEN BETWEEN PEACE AND WAR</a></span></div>
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I'll try to contact Director Leslie Thomas for and interview. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll add them."Building Middle Class DNA"tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-14:4871302:BlogPost:922142010-04-14T12:30:00.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Times"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">ELEMENTAL, CHILE: Building Equity in Cities</span></b></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times"><i>“Every time we come here, we have surprises. The Energy is incredible.”…</i></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Times"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">ELEMENTAL, CHILE: Building Equity in Cities</span></b></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times"><i>“Every time we come here, we have surprises. The Energy is incredible.”</i></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">Gonzalo Arteaga of Elemental during a site visit to the Renca Housing Development<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn1" href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[1]</span></span></a></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times"><b><i>Elemental</i></b> is a group of designers and strategists based in Santiago, Chile that has been implementing open building strategies since 2003. Their efforts have demonstrated how to leverage a small amount of concentrated investment to spark a surge in community development, allowing people to turn ingenuity, cooperation and sweat-equity into a significant financial equity. Since it’s founding, Elemental has completed seven major developments equating to 737 total dwellings, with an additional seven projects either in construction or development adding another 708 dwellings <a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn2" href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span>[2]</span></span></a>. From the beginning, the working hypothesis was centered around a type of building that would allow for high densities, while simultaneously avoid overcrowding by making extensions and<br/>
auto-construction available within the property.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">As a case study, we can look at the first major development from Elemental: the Quinta Monroy settlement in Santiago, Chile. The project, commissioned by the Chilean government, was the reorganization of 100 families living in a small informal urban settlement with the condition that the families should participate in the design process. Elemental was given a very limited funds which were expected to buy the land, install the proper urban infrastructure, and construct homes for as many of the families as possible. After examining various housing typologies, including detached housing, town housing, and apartment blocks, it was found that none of these models offered adequate conditions to all residents. (figures 1-3) The final solution was an open matrix of individual units and adjacent territory arranged on each site in a two unit stack. For this scheme, the basic home started as 36 m<sup>2</sup> but could expand up to 72 m<sup>2</sup> safely within the existing support structure. (figure 4)</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times"><b><i>Figure 1: Typology Study- Single Family Detached Housing </i></b></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times">(Source: Elemental)</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times"><b><i>Figure 2: Typology Study - Row Housing</i></b></span> <span>(Source: Elemental)</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times"><b><i>Figure 3: Typology Study – Tower Housing</i></b></span> <span>(Source: Elemental)</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times"><b><i>Figure 4: Typology Study – Stacked Matrix</i></b></span> <span style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Times">(Source: Elemental)</span></p>
<br/><span><br clear="all" style="page-break-before:always"/></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">The only way the team was able to provide a successful solution was to distribute the upfront capital equally among all residents, provide only the basic services to each unit, and to activate the residents themselves as a significant contributor to the project.<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn3" href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[3]</span></span></a> This involvement began in earnest in the design process, with architects working with residents and to develop a vision for the future project, and continues after official construction<br/>
commenced, with residents taking the initiative to finish the units themselves. According to Elemental, eighteen months after the first houses were turned over to their owners, more than half had been expanded to beyond 50 m<sup>2</sup> from the original 36 m<sup>2</sup>. Surprisingly, they also witnessed a change in the culture of auto-construction: while some residents had improved their units using sweat equity, many families hired contracting professionals and only a quarter employed reused materials.<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn4" href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[4]</span></span></a> By turning control of the ultimate outcome of the building over to the residents, the project also generates a palpable amount of enthusiasm. In other Elemental projects, residents took the principles of auto-construction beyond their private territory and began making improvements to the shared community spaces.<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn5" href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span>[5]</span></span></a> Formally, the built-out projects represent an incredibly compelling combination of underlying architectural intention, mingled with the themes developed by the individual inhabitants of the community. (figure 5)</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times"><b><i>Figure 5:</i></b></span> <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times"><b><i>Quinta Monroy Housing - Auto-Construction: before (left) and after (right)</i></b></span> <span>(Source: Elemental)</span> <span style="font-family:Times"><br clear="all" style="page-break-before:always"/><br/></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">Perhaps the most promising attribute that suggests widespread success of open building methods is a look at the bottom line. No city benefits from the blight of slums, which are notoriously dangerous and hold down land values. On a humanitarian level, society is interested in seeing people lifted out of the cycle of poverty, but cannot afford to build middle class housing for all those living in informal settlements. Open building combined with auto construction has demonstrated that with a minimal investment from centralized funding authority, individuals can contribute to significantly increasing the value of this housing stock. In the case of Quinta Monroy, the government investment in the land, basic infrastructure, and first 50% of the house cost $7,500 USD per unit ($750,000 for the 100 unit complex). According to post-occupancy evaluations the cost to a resident to build-out the second half of their unit was on average $750, bringing the total invested to $8,250. Within two years of construction these same units had a market value of roughly $20,000.<a><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[6]</span></span></a> The process of building equity through revaluation of the land and transferring that wealth to the families is what Elemental terms <i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">building middle-class DNA.</span></b></i></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>PIVOTAL MOMEN</b></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">This is truly a building strategy that addresses the pressing issues that are germane to, but ultimately transcend, the design world. For architects, the question of typology is inseparable from notions of design methodology. Is there a more synthetic way how to characterize the design method currently advocated? What improvements can be made to current approaches? How can we build a stronger relationship between the agencies implementing the urban development of the world’s nest 3 billion people with designers working in the field? How can we better prepare our students and activists to find inroads to this process? How can we support individuals participating in the act of auto-construction or, in other words, how can we create a billion+ armature architect/builders?</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">In the last fifty years governments and housing authorities have tried addressing the increased need for habitation be building enormous housing projects, often in super dense and notoriously disliked towers. Open building strategies, synthesized with other existing intelligence from the political realm, the sustainability movement, or prefabrication, might suggest that the opposite approach is perhaps more viable; scaling responsibility from the top <i>down</i></span> <span style="font-family:Times">and grass-roots involvement from the bottom <i>up</i></span> <span style="font-family:Times">might be the most effective way to spark wide-spread progress while giving individual families currently living in informal settlements the opportunity to establish a financial footing.</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn1"><p class="MsoNormal"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn1" href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[1]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Times">Gudrais, Elizabeth. "Housing With Dignity." Harvard Magazine, November 7, 2008</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn2"><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn2" href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[2]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt"><<a href="http://www.elementalchile.cl/viviendas/">http://www.elementalchile.cl/viviendas/</a>> Accessed April 5, 2009</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn3"><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn3" href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span>9.0pt""><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[3]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">Durack, Ruth. “Village Vices: The Contradiction of New Urbanism and Sustainability<i>.”</i></span> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">In<br/>
PLACES 14 vol. 2 (2001)</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn4"><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn4" href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[4]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">VERB editors, “Quinta Monroy, Iquique: Elemental / Alejandro Aravena,” in VERB Crisis, ed. Mario Ballestreros, Irene Hwang, Tomoko Sakamoto, Michael Kubo, Anna Teta, Albert Ferre, Ramon Prat (Actar: Barcelona, 2008), 293</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn5"><p class="MsoNormal"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn5" href="#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[5]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">Gudrais, Elizabeth. "Housing With Dignity." Harvard Magazine, November 7, 2008</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn6"><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn6" href="#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[6]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">VERB editors, “Quinta Monroy, Iquique: Elemental / Alejandro Aravena,” in VERB Crisis, ed. Mario Ballestreros, Irene Hwang, Tomoko Sakamoto, Michael Kubo, Anna Teta, Albert Ferre, Ramon Prat (Actar: Barcelona, 2008), 291</span></p>
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</div>Rainwater Court construction begins in Mahiga, Kenyatag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-30:4871302:BlogPost:736742010-03-30T22:00:00.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
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<div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i><b>The following post is a new project from Architecture for Humanity:…</b></i></span></div>
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<div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i><b>The following post is a new project from Architecture for Humanity:</b></i></span></div>
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<div><p style="margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The contractor will begin excavations for the 14-week <a href="http://architectureforhumanity.org/updates/2010-03-29-rainwater-court-construction-begins-in-mahiga-kenya">Rainwater Court project</a> which will provide a new community gathering space, sports facilities, and clean water collection and storage for the Primary and Secondary school students and greater community. <br/><br/></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The Rainwater basketball court broke ground yesterday at a ceremony with Design Fellow Greg Elsner, the Mahiga School Steering Committee, and Project Partners Turk Pipkin and Joseph Mutongu of <a href="http://nobelity.org/" style="color: rgb(158, 11, 15); font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">The Nobelity Project</a>.</span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Just next door, the new high school, a parallel effort by The Nobelity Project, is beginning to take shape as the slabs are poured.</span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">To top off this busy day, the entire community will be gathering in the morning to spread recently-delivered gravel on the main road to the school and in the afternoon, community members will assemble again to plant 300 trees on the school site, reinvigorating the biodiversity and water retention in the area.</span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Congratulations to the entire Mahiga community!</span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tLn9l7Fois">VIDEO</a></span></p>
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<div><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tLn9l7Fois">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tLn9l7Fois</a></p>
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<br/>The Bucky Effecttag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-30:4871302:BlogPost:734512010-03-30T19:44:03.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
Fellow gamers,<div><br></br></div>
<div>I believe that EVOKE is simply a means of disseminating knowledge about how to provide basic services that have the potential to improve world - dressed up as a game to stimulate participation. I believe it was created in a spirit of altruism, that is, the out of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others.</div>
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<div>Some gamers have taken it upon themselves to add a level of critical analysis to the game. An excellent example…</div>
Fellow gamers,<div><br/></div>
<div>I believe that EVOKE is simply a means of disseminating knowledge about how to provide basic services that have the potential to improve world - dressed up as a game to stimulate participation. I believe it was created in a spirit of altruism, that is, the out of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others.</div>
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<div>Some gamers have taken it upon themselves to add a level of critical analysis to the game. An excellent example of this is A.V. Koshy's post <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 26px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/the-first-one-in-a-series-of"><i>THE FIRST ONE IN A SERIES OF METACOGNITIONAL ESSAYS ON EVOKE</i></a><i>.</i> <font class="Apple-style-span" color="#5E5E5E" face="'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;">These posts probe the overarching political and societal issues and are very successful at identify the weak spots in the structure of the game. I welcome this discourse (as should the organizers) and absorb as much as I can in my limited time on EVOKE.</span></font></span></span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 26px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#5E5E5E" face="'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><br/></span></font></span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 26px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#5E5E5E" face="'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;">However, I think there is an alternative discourse. Ideologically, this game seems to borrow heavily from Buckminster Fuller. To Illustrate what I mean, I'll offer a short commentary on five quotes by Bucky:</span></font></span></span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 26px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#5E5E5E" face="'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><br/></span></font></span></span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 26px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#5E5E5E" face="'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">1) "How can we make the world work for 100 percent of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone?"</span></span></font></span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This is the central theme of the game. We we achieve it? Not here. Is it overly ambitions? Yes. Should we work toward it anyway? Yes.</span></div>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">2) "Be naive."</span></div>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I believe that in spite of the overwhelming scale of the challenges we face, the damage already done, the shadowy and insidious agents controlling society, and lack of capital I can make a difference.</span></div>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">3) "Don't fight forces, use them. <i>OR</i> You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, you build a new model that makes the old model obsolete."</span></div>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There are many people on EVOKE who are suspicious of the World Bank. Nevertheless, they have a lot of power and I don't mind taking their money and putting it to good use. Multi-national corporations also have a dubious reputation. But they also have a lot of power, and if they start making responsible decisions they can have tremendous positive influence. We can help them make better decisions.</span></div>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">4) "You can't make the world better just by talking to it. Philosophy to be effective must be mechanically applied."</span></div>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="">We all want to help. That is why we are here playing this game. Sharing information is a great first step, but we as a EVOKE community have to work together to figure out how to evolve ideas into action. The organizers are promising to lend a hand through the May 12 Evokation, but I am confident we will see examples of this happening before then.</span></div>
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<div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">5) "When an individual joins a cooperative venture, the power generated far excedes what they could have accomplished acting individually."</span></span></div>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">EVOKE is about forging relationships to affect change. If you are creative, find someone with knowledge, someone else with local insight, someone else with a vision for how achieve it and GET SOMETHING DONE.</span></div>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><br/></span></div>Notes on the Digital Dividetag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-30:4871302:BlogPost:727992010-03-30T14:00:00.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">Fellow EVOKE users. I converted a recent essay composed for my graduate studies into a post describing the realities, as best I can discern them, of the "digital divide," that is, the gap in access of Internet penetration between different parts of the world. It is a bit lengthy (~2,500 words...15 min read), but might be useful information to those actively engaged in the conversation regarding lack of African/South…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">Fellow EVOKE users. I converted a recent essay composed for my graduate studies into a post describing the realities, as best I can discern them, of the "digital divide," that is, the gap in access of Internet penetration between different parts of the world. It is a bit lengthy (~2,500 words...15 min read), but might be useful information to those actively engaged in the conversation regarding lack of African/South Asian/East Asian participation.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Native/Immigrant Complex:</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Notes on the Digital Divide</span></b></span></b></span></b></span></p>
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<br/><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times"><i>“We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.”</i></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times">R. Buckminster Fuller</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">It is difficult to be engaged in contemporary design culture and avoid continuously bumping into any number of clumsy utopian projects. The outpouring of such effort is no doubt the result of a decade’s worth of doom and gloom predictions regarding the future of life on Earth (which are only complete, of course, when capped with the mantra: <i>within crisis thy shall find opportunity</i></span><span style="font-family:Times">). Many voices heard today recall the Bucky Fuller image of striding towards an ideal future and, indeed, uphold the model that the utopian vision is like a great merry-go-round that comes to the foreground only to recede again and again. With each pass, its spirit assumes a new host, usually of the technological persuasion.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">Today’s champion is, of course, the Internet, with its feverishly evolving network culture. It is interesting to note that we use the verb <i>open<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn1" href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title="">[1]</a></span></i></span> <span style="font-family:Times">when refereeing to activating a web browser. What we are doing, in fact, is opening the door to what could be thought of as an <i>atopia,</i></span> <span style="font-family:Times">or a society without territorial boundaries. This does not seem altogether different from Fuller’s vision of the society of the future, which was characterized by a fluidity of communication that allowed individuals to live pretty much anywhere on the surface of the globe. (Picon) For an OECD audience (figure 1), it is easy to fall into the trap of believing global connectivity is here: the World Wide Web has made it possible for anyone, anywhere can access anything.</span></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family:Times"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234189031?profile=original" alt=""/></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 26px; display: inline !important;"><span style="font-family:Times"><i><b><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Times;"><b><i>Figure 1: OEDC Members (Source: wikipedia)</i></b></span></b></i></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">In reality, however, that is not the case. While author Thomas Friedman has added much to the west’s perception of a flat world, he is also quick to point out that without a web connection you are not in the game <a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn2" href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span>[2]</span></span></a>. In 2009 just over 25% of the world’s population were classified as Internet users, with conspicuously low percentages of Internet penetration in both Asia (19.4%) and Africa (6.8%). (figure 2) There are, however, steady signs of improvement. The growth of high-speed connectivity – practically mandatory for the contemporary web - has grown from just over four million subscribers ten years ago to some 400 million in 2009. (figures 3a-3c) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><br/></span> Even though much of the world still remains either disconnected or hobbling along on painfully slow dial-up networks, a significant milestone was achieved in 2009 when the first sub marine fiber optic cable reached the<br/>
Eastern shore of the African continent from its origin in Mumbai.</span></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family:Times"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234189176?profile=original" alt=""/></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 26px;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-size: 12px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 13px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Times;"><b><i>Figure 2 World Internet Usage and Population Statistics (Source: internetworldstats.com)</i></b></span></span></b></span></i></span></i></span></p>
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<div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><i><b><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234189346?profile=original" alt=""/></b></i></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-size: 12px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 13px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Times;"><b><i>Figure 6.2a The Global Growth of Broadband - 1999 (Source: BBC)</i></b></span></span></b></span></i></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-size: 12px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 13px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Times;"><b><i><br/></i></b></span></span></b></span></i></span></i></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family:Times"><i><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234189585?profile=original" alt=""/></i></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 13px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Times;"><b><i>Figure 4.2b The Global Growth of Broadband – 2004 (Source: BBC)</i></b></span></span></b></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><b><i>Figure 4.2c The Global Growth of Broadband - 2011 (Source:BBC)</i></b></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">It is important to take note that what regions like Africa and Asia lack in percentage of users, they make up easily in sheer number of users. Asia, for example, despite having less than 20% web penetration already represents over 40% of global Internet users. Contrast that with North America, who despite having a commanding 74% of their population online only have a 14% share in the total number of users. While it is only a matter of time until Asia, driven by broader penetration into India and China, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 13px;">significantly outweigh the US and Europe in volume of users, it remains to be seen how these parties will use their girth to steer the development of the web itself.</span></b></span></span></p>
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<br/><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">The decade-long head start that the west has in large-scale Internet mobilization is nonetheless extremely significant. One way of expressing the current disparity is what educator Marc Prensky has termed <i>digital natives</i></span><span style="font-family:Times"><br/> and <i>digital immigrants</i></span> <span style="font-family:Times">- the difference being whether digital technologies such as personal computers,<br/>
Internet, and mobile phones were widely available in a society throughout a child’s development. Prensky asserts that natives are almost automatically accustomed the language, rites, and customs of the IT, whereas immigrants, who come to these tools after living a non-digital existence, operate with a <i>thick accent</i></span><span style="font-family:Times">. The first generation of OECD natives are already emerging from college while the majority of their their international peers are still scrambling for connectivity.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">On the other hand, this logic might become outmoded by the evolution of the Internet itself. Most observers recognize the decline of the preliminary methods of communication of information online, which involved users going to sites strictly to <i>access</i></span> <span style="font-family:Times">content provided by the site’s administrator. Web 2.0 is the catchphrase for sites that shifted to more interactive platform, which not only allows users to access data but also relies on them to generate content themselves. As the interface between the user and the network become more engaging, we may witness a casting off of the <i>immigrant</i> complex that hampered the previous generation. Furthermore, the next Internet evolution, referred to as the <i>semantic</i></span> <span style="font-family:Times"><i>web</i></span><span style="font-family:Times">, aims to understand the meaning of online content as pure information, thus providing ultimate accessibility to humans and machines alike, perhaps further easing the transition for fresh users and helping to alleviate language barriers.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">Conjecture aside, what is the situation at the threshold of the digital divide in 2010? To answer this question, it is useful to examine in detail a recently launched MMO (massive multiplayer online game) that offers interesting insights from both sides of the chasm. The game, introduced at TED2010<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn3" href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title="">[3]</a></span> by creator Jane McGonigal<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn4" href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[4]</span></span></a>, focuses on getting online gamers to put their energy towards solving real world problems. The potential is enormous; in her presentation she cites data suggesting online gamers have spent a combined total of 5.9 million years playing the worlds largest MMO, World of Warcraft. McGonigal’s game is called EVOKE and its manifesto is a rallying cry for immediate action:</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times"><i>“EVOKE was also conceived as a crash-course in changing the world. It is a chance to showcase the kind of resourceful innovation and creative problem-solving that is happening today in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions, and to collectively imagine how the lessons from those scenarios can transfer, scale,<br/> and ultimately benefit the entire planet.<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn5" href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[5]</span></span></a>”</i></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-family:Times">The goal of the game is to achieve an <i>epic win,</i></span> <span style="font-family:Times">which McGonigal defines “as an outcome so extraordinarily positive you had no idea it was even possible until you achieved it.” The epic win that EVOKE is searching for is the salvation of planet Earth. The creators believe they can make strides towards achieving this by combining the incredible resourcefulness, dedication, and ingenuity of gamers with social networking tools akin to Facebook.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-family:Times">In its structure the game is a straightforward techno-utopia, who idea of winning is more dependant on the process than on specific outcome. The goal of the system is to create as much information sharing and relationship building as possible between gamers, especially between avant garde sustainability activists and those living in the developing world facing issues of food security, energy shortages, disease, water shortages, etc. Most players<br/> drawn into the game tend to have a altruistic disposition and are motivated to continuously contribute at a high level in hopes of gaining one of twenty seed grants dedicated towards real-life funding of the best ideas put forth in the game<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn6" href="#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[6]</span></span></a>. The format of the game regularly emphasizes the importance the individual. For example, according to the ambiguous <i>How To Play</i></span> <span style="font-family:Times">link you will find the message, “Take the journey you want to take and chose the rewards you want to earn.<a><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[7]</span></span></a>”</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-family:Times">Once you get past the utopian rhetoric, the goals of the game are rather modest: get people from all around the world to share information and hopefully start spin off efforts. However, early on it became apparent that there was a severe imbalance between percentages of players from OEDC nations versus their African counterparts. A survey sampling of 50 EVOKE gamers (from the 14,217 players at the time of the survey) chosen at random from the Agent database consisted of: 28 North Americas, 16 Europeans, 2 Asians, 2 South Americans, 1 Australian, 1 Latin American/Caribbean, 0 Middle Eastern, 0 African.<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn8" href="#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span>[8]</span></span></a> The data is not entirely surprising given the data regarding Internet penetration rates on Figure 2. It aslo not take into account language barrier issues (the site is only in English). This disparity does not go unacknowledged by African gamers themselves and there have been multiple posts discussing the subject. For example, in a blog within EVOKE a gamer from North America conducted the following interview with a fellow gamer from Uganda:</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times"><i>AGENT JAKE BAIRD: What is the worst crisis to you in the world currently that requires Evoke's attention?</i></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times"><i>AGENT SSOZI JAVIE: The Digital Divide! The GAP between the INFORMATION HAVES and HAVENOTS. The world is currently registering major political, social and economic developments and setbacks. The information age is demanding for creation of more information recourses. And sharing of more information. It’s a big shame<br/> that in many communities this need has not been realized. And in some communities access remains a very big challenge. In my opinion, information access and networking is the climbing step to solving a wide range of crises in the world.<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn9" href="#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[9]</span></span></a></i></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">The digital divide poses serious threats to the effectiveness of the game. It is interesting to observe the cybernetic cycle of how this threat was acknowledged and dealt with in the game. The characteristic targeted is the presence of African gamers. The game organizers realized there were disproportionately fewer African gamers. The decision of the comparators <a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn10" href="#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span>[10]</span></span></a> was that more visibility of African gamers was necessary in order to ensure the success of the system. It is unclear from the perspective of the gamer the entire range of corrective measures the organizers implemented. One easily observable angle was to increase the number of friendships<a><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[11]</span></span></a> by African gamers by putting them in a “Featured Agent” heading of the Agent directory (figure 4). Gamers themselves were acutely observant of both these issues and the activities of the organizers, as is reflected by this blog post by Agent Koshy <a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn12" href="#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[12]</span></span></a>:</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times"><i>It's none of my business if Evoke wants to create an elite set of leaders for the world who will be from all the races but American and Eurocentric inside. Take the leader board. Look carefully at it. Look at the approved projects - the patterns are emerging clearly but it's not my business, I'm here to game, to help people and the world with its problems, to make friends and ultimately to learn, find out what's happening and also see if my vision for autistic peoples can fit into theirs and vice versa, since it is an international vision, in which case I'm ready to move with them. As for you, I know as little about you as I do about them. There are networks and networks and the future is about swarm theory, crowdsourcing, collaboration etc. Evokers are new, and trying to push the boundaries, so to that extent I'm with them. This is an experiment <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i>regarding the future and I want to be in it to see where it leads. The cracks in the system like the Bongomusa episode, the political implications of race and class involved which I won't go into now, the rapid rise of a radical like Panamericana, with Rahul as sidekick, and the presence of Reid Falconer at the top of the board are all only indications that the Evoke network has to look into things and change if they need to change what they are doing, if they really understand ground realities.</i></span></i></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family:Times"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234191387?profile=original" alt=""/></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i>Figure 4: Screenshot of Featured Agents</i></span></i></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">The reality instantiated by EVOKE is an provocative and sobering counter to views regarding the degree to which the web has managed to connect all peoples on the globe. It is apparent that those on the front lines, who seek out and, in the case of the organizers, <i>depend</i></span> <span style="font-family:Times">on this connectivity to exist, that the digital divide is indeed a significant barrier. The prospects for change are already in motion and, while all indications are that the gap is steadily closing, we are clearly still a ways off.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">If the present utopia appears to be another apparition, what about the world <i>after</i></span> <span style="font-family:Times">the divide closes? What might we expect to see from a game like EVOKE in five or ten years? On one hand there is clearly a desire to facilitate the proliferation of knowledge. EVOKE gamers on each side of the gap have met the challenges of the system with great alacrity and are clearly probing the limits of the system. But EVOKE is only one instance. Even if the existing Web 2.0 platform maintains only its current level of sophistication, knowledge sharing sites such as Wikipedia, Youtube, and Flickr will experience an explosion of new content. If, as some predict, institutions of higher education become disaggregated and given universal access, it is reasonable to imagine a spike in learning that would dwarf the Renaissance. Significantly, the majority of the above activity is going to be generated and consumed by the population epicenters of China, India, and Africa, which promise to shake up the American and Eurocentric dominance of current web content. Indeed, in the future of examples like EVOKE, it is not entirely unbelievable to think you may have trouble finding the OEDC players amongst the incredibly numerous Asian and African counterparts.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">But, as Bucky Fuller reminds us, we are the architects of the future, not it’s victims. This was the very same frame of mind with which Sir Thomas Moore framed the original Utopia (at least the first such named). Moore sketched out his vision for an ideal society at the critical juncture when Europe was colonizing the New World. Like Fuller and his other ideological descendants, Moore understood the promise that with a proper course of action something better could take place in the future. (Picon) Was Moore a cultural empiricist? In one sense perhaps, but a more constructive view might look at him as anticipating where development was inevitable and trying to have a positive impact on its trajectory. Where are the current leaders of the utopian project leading the society? It would seem that <i>create > rip> mix > burn<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn14" href="#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14" title="">[14]</a></span></i></span> <span style="font-family:Times">is still the operative catchphrase. Projects such as EVOKE or TED are hungry for a balance between finding the creative minds, connecting them to other creative minds, sparking a synthesis of ideas, and providing channels to the necessary resources to realize the best ideas. A concrete example of this is an EVOKE post from Agent Heyming (the underlined portions represent hyperlinks):</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times"><i>This idea has been inspired by several other Agents, from Agent McLellan's <u>Hyperlocavore</u> movement to Agent Buentrostro's <u>Community Urban Farms</u> <u>, Garden Earth Project</u>, and even Agent Falconer's <u>connection with the local ecovillage</u> and his heritage as a South African.</i></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family: Times;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I think all of these agents are on the right track, so I created the</span> <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Gratitude Garden Movement</span></b></i></span> <span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">as a way of making this work something anyone can contribute to and create a global resource for sustainable gardening practices.</span></i></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">Agent Heyming goes on to explain his concept for the <i>Gratitude Gardens Movemen</i>t, which, as he alluded to, is a synthesis between his own ideas and new ideas he discovered in the game. The post generates a significant amount of chatter and support from other gamers and inspired some to take the first steps to creating Gratitude Gardens in their own communities. The idea stands an excellent chance of receiving future funding from the game organizers,<br/> especially if it continues to attract more supporters both within and outside the game.</span></p>
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<br/><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:Times">The digital divide exists, but it is closing and by the time it vanishes completely the demographics of the parties currently separated will be very different. The utopian vision that is observable from the examples cited here represent a desire to forge a future society that uses Internet technology, specifically social networking, to harness the enormous amount of resources available online and focus that energy towards solving tangible problems in the real-world. Perhaps an unspoken promise is that by focusing intensely on the individual and their unique position to fuse knowledge shared by others with local insight, they can illicit change in their own environment that will<br/> be both empowering and incredibly unique. Globalization, in this view, may not represent a soul-crushing blandness but an incredibly fascinating kaleidoscope of hybridized ideas.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times">Bibliography:</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times">Blenford, Adam “New Africa broadband 'ready'” <i>BBC World News.</i></span> <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times">September 16,<br/> 2009, <<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8257038.stm"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8257038.stm</span></a>>, March 25, 2010</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times">Picon, Antoine. <b>“The Digital and the Utopian.”</b></span> <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times">Harvard Design Magazine 29 (Fall/Winter 2008-2009) 134-139</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times">Prensky, Marc. “<b>Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.”</b></span> <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times">In <i>On the Horizon</i></span> <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times">(MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5,<br/> October 2001)</span></p>
<br/>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Virilio, Paul. <b>“The Overexposed City.”</b></span> <span style="font-size:10.0pt"><i>L’espace critique</i></span> <span style="font-size:10.0pt">(Paris: Christian Bourgeois,<br/> 1984); translated in <i>Zone 1|2,</i></span> <span style="font-size:10.0pt">ed.<br/>
Michel Feher & Sanford Kwinter (New York: Urzone, 1986), trans. Astrid<br/>
Hustvect</span> <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times">Blenford</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote-list"><br clear="all"/><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%"/><br/> <br/>
<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn1"><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn1" href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[1]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">Paul Virilio also made this point in regards to the television in his essay “The Overexposed City” from <i>L’espace critique</i></span> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">(Paris: Christian Bourgeois, 1984); translated in <i>Zone<br/> 1|2</i></span> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">(New York: Urzone, 1986), trans.<br/>
Astrid Hustvect</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn2"><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn2" href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[2]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">Friedman, Thomas. “World is Flat 2.0.” MIT Open Courseware.</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn3"><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn3" href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[3]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">TED (Technology Entertainment Design) is a technology conference that was originally held annually in California, but now held<br/> periodically at additional locations around the globe. The format typically consists of<br/>
ingenious professionals giving short lectures, which are then widely<br/>
disseminated on the Internet.</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn4"><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn4" href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[4]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">Jane McGonigal: “Gaming Can Make a Better World.” TED2010</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn5"><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn5" href="#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[5]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt"><<a href="http://blog.urgentevoke.net/2010/03/09/who-created-evoke-and-why/">http://blog.urgentevoke.net/2010/03/09/who-created-evoke-and-why/</a>> March 25, 2010</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn6"><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn6" href="#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[6]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">Personal observations based on the author’s participation in EVOKE.</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn7"><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn7" href="#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[7]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt"><<a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/page/how-to-play">http://www.urgentevoke.com/page/how-to-play</a>> March 25, 2010</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn8"><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn8" href="#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[8]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">Survey conducted by author March 25, 2010 with data from the EVOKE website.</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn9"><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn9" href="#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[9]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt"><<a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/background-2">http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/background-2</a>> March 25, 2010</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn10"><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn10" href="#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[10]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">In the cybernetic cycle, the <i>comparator</i></span> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">is the agent who takes data from the sensors, makes judgments about how effectively the system is functioning, and issues<br/> directives to the <i>activator</i></span> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">who<br/>
carries out adjustments to the system.</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn11"><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn11" href="#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[11]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">Creating invitational friendships is a feature of the game used by players to create a interior network of peers whom you<br/> theoretically support and are supported by.</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn12"><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn12" href="#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[12]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">Agent Koshy identifies himself as being from Trivandrum, Kerala State, India – a county with low penetration of Internet users but high volume of<br/> users.</span></p>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn13"><br/></div>
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<div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn14"><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn14" href="#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[14]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">A modified version of the slogan <i>Rip. Mix. Burn.</i></span> <span style="font-size:9.0pt">popularized by Apple Computers, Inc. at the outset of the 21<sup>st</sup> century.</span></p>
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</div>People you should know abouttag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-22:4871302:BlogPost:553092010-03-22T13:02:42.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
There is a magical place in Austin, Texas called the <a href="www.cmpbs.org">Center For Maximum Potential Building Systems</a> where people have been Evoking for 30+ years. CMPBS is co-run by Pliny Fisk III and Gail Vitorri. Pliny was trained as an architect and has been developing building systems since the Bucky days and Gail was focusses on policy and just finished up a term as National Chair of the US Green Building Council (who administers the LEED building certification…
There is a magical place in Austin, Texas called the <a href="www.cmpbs.org">Center For Maximum Potential Building Systems</a> where people have been Evoking for 30+ years. CMPBS is co-run by Pliny Fisk III and Gail Vitorri. Pliny was trained as an architect and has been developing building systems since the Bucky days and Gail was focusses on policy and just finished up a term as National Chair of the US Green Building Council (who administers the LEED building certification standard).<div><br/></div>
<div>The ever-evolving cast is rounded out by incredible characters from just about every walk of life and corner of the world. If you are looking for an internship they take people on a rolling basis (I interned there a few years ago and would be happy to answer any questions if you're interested).</div>
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<div>Check them out!</div>
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<div><p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234184554?profile=original" alt=""/></p>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">the 2007 Texas A&M Decathlon was a collaboration between the university and CMPBS</span></div>
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<div><p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234184692?profile=original" alt=""/></p>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">GroHome building system</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br/></span></div>
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</div>Take the journey you want to take and chose the rewards you want to earn.tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-22:4871302:BlogPost:552442010-03-22T12:06:14.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana;">I think Evoke is pretty amazing. <br></br><br></br></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana;">There has been a lot of chatter the last few days about points, scoring, winning, etc. and I share the same sentiment of people like…</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana;">I think Evoke is pretty amazing. <br/><br/></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana;">There has been a lot of chatter the last few days about points, scoring, winning, etc. and I share the same sentiment of people like <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/life-imitates-a-game?id=4871302:BlogPost:43294&page=1#comments">Heyming</a>, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(54, 54, 54); line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-win">Ayala Sherbow</a></span>, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(54, 54, 54); line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evoke-politics-points">Crystal Bellar</a><a class="nolink" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0) !important; font-weight: 400 !important; font-size: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: normal;">, and others have expressed in their blogs. It's ironic that the 'game' premise serves as the basis for bringing together this social community, yet the few aspects that actually make it a game have been the most divisive features.</span></a></span></span></div>
<br/><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">In order to keep my focus (and sanity) as Evoke plays out I am going to set aside the BS and establish my own definition of 'winning' - my own special brand of BS, if you will.</div>
<br/>To have a winning experience I will:<br/><br/><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">1. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Absorb</span> as much knowledge from the site as possible without getting overwhelmed</div>
<br/><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">2. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Share</span> worthwhile things I know and incredible people I know about</div>
<br/><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">3. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>Synthesize</i></span> 1 & 2 into ideas that can improve the real world</div>
<br/><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">4. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Present</span> those ideas as clearly as possible in order to generate quality feedback</div>
<br/><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">5. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><u>Build relationships</u></span></div>
<br/><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">The last point is the most important. For me, and i'm sure for many of you, dealing with these issues did not start when you joined and does not end May 12. I hope to work on these idea my entire life and think the ultimate reward would be to maintain contact with some of the brilliant minds I've brushed up against on Evoke.</div>
<br/><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">When the game ends the points will vanish - new friends will not.</div>You're invited...Party time 2020tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-21:4871302:BlogPost:533062010-03-21T18:24:27.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><i>You're invited to celebrate the birthday of the shadowy and lovable</i> <b><i>Alchemy!</i></b></span></div>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Dinner will be a sampling of the various surplus crops exported from all over Africa.…</i></span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><i>You're invited to celebrate the birthday of the shadowy and lovable</i> <b><i>Alchemy!</i></b></span></div>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Dinner will be a sampling of the various surplus crops exported from all over Africa.</i></span></div>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><i>You are invited to submit images from your favorite missions for a slideshow highlighting the birthday boy's exploits.</i></span></div>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Panamericana will</i></span> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roast_(comedy)"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><i>roast</i></span></a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><i>him at midnight.</i></span></div>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Dancing till dawn on one of those ridiculous energy-generating dance floors.</i></span></div>
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<img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234186382?profile=original" alt=""/>'s 10th birthday party!<br/><div><br/></div>Bicycle Sharing Systemtag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-21:4871302:BlogPost:524562010-03-21T11:39:15.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
<p style="text-align: left;"><img alt="" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234186671?profile=original"></img></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;">I recently moved to Paris and gained first-hand exposure to their bike sharing system. You can find out everything you need to know about the details from the company's <a href="http://www.velib.paris.fr/">website</a> or, if you don't speak French, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9lib'">wiki</a> is pretty comprehensive. For those of you unfamiliar with the system, I'll…</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234186671?profile=original" alt=""/></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;">I recently moved to Paris and gained first-hand exposure to their bike sharing system. You can find out everything you need to know about the details from the company's <a href="http://www.velib.paris.fr/">website</a> or, if you don't speak French, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9lib'">wiki</a> is pretty comprehensive. For those of you unfamiliar with the system, I'll try to quickly summarize.</p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>OVERVIEW:</b></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Paris is just one example of a well organized bike sharing system continuously becoming more prevalent in Europe. The current system was implemented in 2007 with 750 stations and 10,000 bikes but has grown to 1,450 stations with 20,000 bikes - making it the largest system of its kind in the world. The stations in the city center are roughly 300 meters apart (the above photo was taken from a station about 100 meters from the front door of my building).</p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">SYSTEM</span></b></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The bikes in the Paris system are all 3-speed, 22.5 kg, and come with a basket, LED light, and lock. The towers are where you check in to get the bike and have information about payment and nearby stations, should the station you are at be empty or full. A crew goes around at night and redistributes bikes.</p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>RATES</b></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">You pay a membership fee (e5 week or e29 month) and then you pay per use. If you check out a bike for less than 30 min its free, but after 30 min the rates climb exponentially (see table below). <b><i>YOU MUST HAVE A CREDIT CARD TO GET A BIKE</i></b>, and are liable if it goes missing.</p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">IMPLEMENTATION</span></b></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Typically, these systems are put in place by large corporations take it on as a for-profit enterprise (the financing scheme for the Paris system seems pretty convoluted). In Paris the company that installed the system also handles repairs and replacements. Here, theft and vandalism is a serious issue and exceeded initial expectations. Nevertheless, ridership demand still exceeds current capacity and the system is set to expand again.</p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-large;"><b><u>QUESTIONS:</u></b></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">1) The most successful systems involve major up-front capital investment, which tends to be provided by large corporations. <b>How could such companies be convinced that Africa is the next place they should invest? Which city would make an ideal pilot?</b></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br/></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">2) One of the major benefits of the system is that you don't have to have money to buy a bike in order to have access to one. The key to the system functioning properly is getting users to take financial responsibility for the bike they are using. <b>How can the credit-based rental system be re-imagined? Is it realistic to imagine wide-spread credit card use in the near future (or does it already exist in major urban centers)?</b></span></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;">3) <b>Is the threat of theft and vandalism too great to make such systems viable?</b></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;">4) <b>Could the system be modified for a rural application?</b></p>IMAGINE2tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-20:4871302:BlogPost:499832010-03-20T13:00:00.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
On March 10, 2020 I'll be having dinner with my mother, who will be in her mid 70's and my daughter, who will be 9. We are in my hometown of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in the dining room of the house where I grew up. I am cooking and they are sitting at the table talking.<div><br></br></div>
<div>The youngster is asking her grandma questions about what things were like when she was a girl. My mom begins telling some stories, "Your great-grandparent's farm was about 30 minutes drive from here out into…</div>
On March 10, 2020 I'll be having dinner with my mother, who will be in her mid 70's and my daughter, who will be 9. We are in my hometown of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in the dining room of the house where I grew up. I am cooking and they are sitting at the table talking.<div><br/></div>
<div>The youngster is asking her grandma questions about what things were like when she was a girl. My mom begins telling some stories, "Your great-grandparent's farm was about 30 minutes drive from here out into the countryside. It was surrounded mostly by other farms, except right across the road was the one room school house I attended when I was a little girl. No, I'm not kidding. My father grew corn and hay mostly as cattle feed. My mother had a sprawling garden that had a much bigger footprint than the farmhouse, which my sisters and I had to weed like crazy all summer. We kept pretty self-sufficient by eating off our land, trading with neighboring farms, and getting through the winters with the help of things preserved from the previous harvest. We bought as little food as possible from town."</div>
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<div>As they are talking I am serving dinner. We are having chicken with a vegetable soup, bread, and milk. The chicken came a neighbor, the vegetables were extras from our own garden that we canned, the bread is made by hometown heros <a href="http://www.naturalovens.com/">Natural Ovens</a>, and the milk is by a dairy farmer just outside town.</div>
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<div>My daughter turns to me and says, "What about you dad? Is that how you ate when you were a boy?"</div>
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<div>"Not exactly," I reply, thinking back to the fast-food and mega supermarkets of my youth, most of which have either died out or transitioned to more responsible practices. "Society had a different outlook on things when I was growing up, but we're getting back on track now."</div>
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</div>Food Security Missiontag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-20:4871302:BlogPost:499082010-03-20T12:00:00.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><img alt="" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234186272?profile=original"></img></span></div>
<div>I just moved to Paris and my French is still pretty lousy, so until I get into the groove over here I'll just focus on engaging people I can communicate with: foreign tourists. And Paris has lots of them. In fact, according to several online sources France is the number one tourist destination in the world with Paris…</div>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234186272?profile=original" alt=""/></span></div>
<div>I just moved to Paris and my French is still pretty lousy, so until I get into the groove over here I'll just focus on engaging people I can communicate with: foreign tourists. And Paris has lots of them. In fact, according to several online sources France is the number one tourist destination in the world with Paris itself attracting some 30 million people annually.<div><br/></div>
<div>I live just south of one prominent landmark, Notre Dame Cathedral. According to their website these are there numbers:</div>
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<div><i>"</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><i>Approximately 13 million from all over the world every year (an annual average of over 30,000 people per day). On peak days, there are over 50,000 pilgrims and visitors entering the cathedral."</i></span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(94, 94, 94); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 13px;"><br/></span></span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(94, 94, 94); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 13px;">So, my idea is for an installation in the plaza in front of the cathedral. It would be gigantic message, including a quote from Mother Teresa and a link to a website providing food security to thousands of children. It can be read at by two groups of people. First, there are the millions who visit the church in person every year and will see it first hand. Second, are the millions more who hover over Paris in mapping programs like Google Earth.</span></span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(94, 94, 94); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 13px;"><br/></span></span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(94, 94, 94); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 13px;">Now, if we could just figure out how to make it a link...</span></span></div>
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<div><p style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234186353?profile=original" alt=""/></span></p>
</div>BoGo (Buy One, Give One) Lighttag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-19:4871302:BlogPost:471792010-03-19T12:30:00.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
<p style="text-align: left;"><img alt="" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234186902?profile=original"></img></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">If you are in the market or a flashlight you should check out this amazing company. They are called <a href="http://www.bogolight.com/Default.asp?Redirected=Y">BoGoLight</a> and they sell very durable, very high quality solar powered flashlights. The catch is that when you buy one have the option to buy an extra and they'll give it to someone in the world who needs light. I have one and it is excellent. Great battery life…</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234186902?profile=original" alt=""/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">If you are in the market or a flashlight you should check out this amazing company. They are called <a href="http://www.bogolight.com/Default.asp?Redirected=Y">BoGoLight</a> and they sell very durable, very high quality solar powered flashlights. The catch is that when you buy one have the option to buy an extra and they'll give it to someone in the world who needs light. I have one and it is excellent. Great battery life and slick design. Not too expensive, either.</p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.worldchanging.com/archives//007120.html">BoGo on WorldChanging</a></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/25/opinion/25fri4.html">Editorial in NY Times</a></p>Zerow Energy Row Housetag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-19:4871302:BlogPost:469302010-03-19T09:00:00.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
<div><p style="text-align: left;"><img alt="" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234186710?profile=original"></img></p>
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<br></br><p class="MsoNormal">This is a short blurb about the 2009 Rice University Zero Energy Rowhouse. It’s a follow up to my blog post on the <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/solar-decathlon-competition">Solar Decathlon</a> and I’ll post some pictures documenting a bit of the process/details.…</p>
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<br/><p class="MsoNormal">This is a short blurb about the 2009 Rice University Zero Energy Rowhouse. It’s a follow up to my blog post on the <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/solar-decathlon-competition">Solar Decathlon</a> and I’ll post some pictures documenting a bit of the process/details.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The design of the ZEROW HOUSE adopts the traditional row-house typology as a primary precedent. Our design addresses the small size and limited budget of typical row houses through replication, innovative use of current technologies, local materiality, and an understanding of life-cycle costs.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The ZEROW HOUSE will be able to produce all the energy needed for its operation on site through the use of a photovoltaic array and solar hot water system that collect solar energy.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The home designed specifically for a hot, humid climate, and after the Solar Decathlon will be permanently located at Project Row Houses, a CDC that provides low income housing in inner city Houston. The row house typical to19th century Houston is a high-density urban model derived from traditional low-income Caribbean-type houses found across the South. Also called shotgun houses, where rooms lead directly into one another in a line, these affordable and small<br/> houses are lined up in rows for blocks. These row houses have a beautiful, recognized form that resonates with the historic significance and culture of the Third Ward. The design of the ZEROW HOUSE is based on respecting the character of the existing homes and community, and re-imagining the row-house typology in terms of what it means to be an affordable solar house for Houston that will be able to produce all the energy needed for its operation on site.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The primary thing we tried to demonstrate with this project was that building a 100% solar powered house could be reasonably affordable. When we priced out the project we found that if you were to take these plans to a builder in Houston you could have one for about $140,000 ($100k for the house, $40k for the PV/solar hot water systems). This does not include the cost of the site, permitting, etc. but does include labor. It is, however, not a bad starting place for a one-off project. If you were to move towards mass production (it is already designed for highway dimensions) you would continue to push the price down. Keep in mind that you also are no longer paying energy bills and the PVs we used (BP solar) are warrantied for twenty years.</p>Solar Decathlon Competitiontag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-19:4871302:BlogPost:457652010-03-19T00:00:00.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
<div><p style="text-align: left;"><img alt="" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234189598?profile=original"></img></p>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">2009 Solar Decathlon, Washington D.C.</span><br></br><p class="MsoNormal"><br></br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Many of you probably already know about the Solar Decathlon, but for those of you who do not I’ll give a brief introduction here and provide some links so anyone who is interested can follow up. I am a veteran of two decathlons (2007 with Texas A&M and 2009 with Rice University)…</p>
<div><p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234189598?profile=original" alt=""/></p>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">2009 Solar Decathlon, Washington D.C.</span><br/><p class="MsoNormal"><br/></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Many of you probably already know about the Solar Decathlon, but for those of you who do not I’ll give a brief introduction here and provide some links so anyone who is interested can follow up. I am a veteran of two decathlons (2007 with Texas A&M and 2009 with Rice University) and so I’ll try to illustrate what the event islike from a student’s perspective – in my case an architecture student.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The Solar Decathlon is a competition administered jointly by the US Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which challenges teams of college students to design and build a small house entirely powered by solar energy (typically a combination of passive solar, photovoltaic, and solar hot water). Twenty teams are selected from the pool of applicants and given roughly two years to complete their house and ship it to Washington D.C. where all of<br/> the projects are reassembled in a solar village on the National Mall. After a brief construction period the houses are ‘turned on’ and the teams compete against each other for about two weeks in ten energy-related events, hence the title decathlon. During this period the homes are also regularly opened for public tours and the event typically draws around 125,000 spectators.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">2005 Solar Decathlon, Washington D.C.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Several factors make the Solar Decathlon an exciting and engaging enterprise. First and foremost it is a chance to put your money where your mouth is (quite literally). It is easy to promote solar energy, incorporate solar into your school projects, etc. It is something else to engage in a contract with the government where you are bound to an absolute deadline to provide a finished building that is 100% zero energy.<span>yes""></span> The sobering prospect of accounting for the production and use of every single watt of electricity make many instant converts to the doctrine of efficiency – if you minimize the need, you minimize the amount of production. Furthermore, designing the systems and getting the energy models to work is only half the battle, while installing them, testing their actual output, and getting them to perform on the Mall are in themselves major undertakings.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">2007 Solar Decathlon Winner, Team Germany</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">A second beneficial aspect to participating in the Solar Decathlon is the necessity to form interdisciplinary teams. Typically, teams are comprised of a core of engineering and architecture students with a variety of wildcards such as business students, economists, ecologists, English majors and others (one of the team leaders for the Rice house was a Spanish major who was just really passionate about solar energy!). Then you throw in the myriad professional consultants that often offer their services to teams pro bono. Getting down in the trenches with all these folks on a high-pressure, live project is extremely valuable exposure.</p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">2009 Solar Decathlon, Cornell House</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Finally, there is the event itself. I have to say that as an aspiring architect I gained a life long admiration for good engineers who, during this completion, play these houses like musical instruments. Their ability to gauge the houses performance and ration energy for critical tasks certainly adds drama to the event. For the rest of us, giving the seeming endless public tours is a way to permanently imprint every detail about the design into your brain. Also, seeing nineteen other incredible houses and talking to other students who’ve been working under the same constraints is certainly intriguing.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">2007 Solar Decathlon, Texas A&M House</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I apologize for the lengthy post, but if you made it this far presumably you have some interest. I’ll add a few links below and if you have any general questions about the Solar Decathlon I’d be happy to do my best to answer them.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.solardecathlon.gov/">Solar Decathlon Hom</a>e</p>
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<a href="http://www.sdeurope.org/index.htm?lang=en">2010 Solar Decathlon Europe</a> <br/><br/>
<a href="http://www.solardecathlon.tu-darmstadt.de/home/home.de.jsp">2009 winner Germany</a><br/>ACT1tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-18:4871302:BlogPost:433312010-03-18T08:30:00.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
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<p style="text-align: left;">For this assignment I am shadowing an architect named <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(83, 82, 79); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Diébédo Francis Kéré:…</span></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;">For this assignment I am shadowing an architect named <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(83, 82, 79); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Diébédo Francis Kéré:</span></p>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(83, 82, 79); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><a href="http://www.kere-architecture.com/index.html">http://www.kere-architecture.com/index.html</a></span></div>
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<div>He keeps up a news section on his homepage and is well published in the grater world so it should be no problem tracking him. I hope it is not bad form to attach your CV to your contact email...</div>
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<br/>start bigtag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-18:4871302:BlogPost:433002010-03-18T08:25:56.000ZDavid Dewanehttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/DavidDewane
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><strong>Think creatively</strong>: start big, use constraints as a filter and find the simplest solutions.…</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><br></br></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><strong>Think creatively</strong>: start big, use constraints as a filter and find the simplest solutions.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><br/></span></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#333333" face="'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;">I think this is a pretty succinct statement: dreams + reality.</span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#333333" face="'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><br/></span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#333333" face="'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;">Never heard of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.paulpolak.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 68, 119); text-decoration: underline;">Paul Polak</a> or <a href="http://go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&site=designinafrica.wordpress.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nextbillion.net%2Fblogs%2F2008%2F10%2F22%2Fpop-tech-paul-polak-on-scaling-the-bottom-of-the-pyramid" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(184, 91, 90); text-decoration: none;">Nextbillion</a> before. Guess I better look them up...</span></span></font></div>