Urgent Evoke

A crash course in changing the world.

SPARK LIBRARY EVOKATION_Executive Summary

***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!




URGENT EVOKATION


Spark Library Partnership:

Information Access, for the Largest Number, at the Least Cost


A PLAN OF ACTION FOR

SOCIAL INNOVATION SUBMITTED

TO GAIN FURTHER SUPPORT

FROM THE EVOKE NETWORK AND

THE WORLD BANK INSTITUTE

Executive Summary


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.

The plan of action called for by this Evokation is to:

Year 1 - assemble a multi-disciplinary team of strategists to create the design and economic formula necessary to create such libraries

Year 2 - develop a short term strategy for the construction of a number of prototype libraries in communities in Africa

Year 3 - begin answering grant requests from communities seeking libraries

Place: The Library

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. The evolution of information technology, specifically the Internet, has allowed the idea 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. full text


Challenge: The Digital Divide

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. full text


Idea: Spark Library Partnership

This section will outline a vision for a new type of library focused on staging a relationship between both 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. full text


Money: The First $1000

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. full text

Views: 171

Comment by Shakwei Mbindyo on May 7, 2010 at 12:34pm
David, congratulations for getting your evokation done!! I will read it in detail over the weekend and forward my comments. In the meantime perhaps you could have a look at http://www.hifa2015.org/. It may give you further ideas on how to develop your concept.
Comment by Turil Cronburg on May 7, 2010 at 12:55pm
Also, a short formatting suggestion, rather than the "Full text" link at the end of each section, put a more casual link within the normal text. That way you allow people who are interested in more details the ability to access them easily, while also not making people feel like you're leaving important information out of your proposal. You want to appeal to the widest audience with this proposal, so you want to keep it simple and concise. The details are interesting, but are far more useful to those who are actually going to be working on the project, and far less to to those who are trying to decide quickly whether to invest in your project or not.
Comment by Mita Williams on May 7, 2010 at 2:03pm
Another group who's work that might inspire your Evokation might be the EIFL.
Comment by A.V.Koshy on May 7, 2010 at 2:06pm
what on earth is turil going on and on about?
Comment by Wintermute on May 7, 2010 at 8:22pm
Hi David, just finished reading your plan.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed the depth to which you have researched this subject after reading your proposal I wasn't left with a strong enough impression of exactly what it is you are going to do. I think your idea is: you want to create small physical libraries that utilize the web to access the enormous amounts of data/texts that exist, with the intention and belief much like Andrew Carnegie that knowledge will lift up mankind. But I am unsure. Your issue might be formatting, ie restructuring your argument so that your thesis is more clear and your supporting arguments add clarity and depth to your thesis rather then introducing new ideas. I am going to give this another read tonight and see If I can quantify why I got confused. Although, maybe I am the only one?

Brilliant work! I look forward to hearing your response.
Comment by Wintermute on May 7, 2010 at 8:32pm
PS you mentioned you are having trouble finding collaborators, my advice on this point are thus:

Know what you need. Sit down and think about what talents you need to find. Do you need programmers, designers, legal aid, management staff?

Keep your eyes open. Once you know what you need, listen and look around you for that talent. Eaves drop on peoples conversations, talk to random strangers. The talent you are looking for, could be right under your nose

Tap into your existing network. Ask everyone you know about your idea and if they know anyone who can help. Call up old school friends, high school buddies. The talents you seek are near you, you just have to find them.

My last point is quasi religious but trust me it works

Ask and you shall receive. Its something that I started doing recently and so many things have fallen into place because of it. I ask every morning and every night for "my project to work and to find the people that I need to make it successful". I don't know what I am asking; the sky, myself, the ether, god, insert your own answer because I don't have one. Of all the advice I just gave above this last point is the one that I hope that all of you will follow, but I know that it is the one point that most of you will ignore.

-good luck
Winter
Comment by A.V.Koshy on May 7, 2010 at 9:19pm
geez everyones turned into an advisor lol
Comment by Wintermute on May 7, 2010 at 10:02pm
AV, David asked me for my opinion and I would be doing him a dis-service if I didn't speak truthfully and openly about his idea.
Comment by David Dewane on May 8, 2010 at 9:33am
@Julio: This Evokation suggest that we begin constructing libraries - many libraries...let's say 10,000 - that are re-imagined to be more appropriate for the 21st century. To make this work economically, I am suggesting each physical project becomes a partnership between a centralized funding agent and the local community. The community is asked to provide input on aspects of the design and sweat equity to help built it (which is more economical than a central funding agent underwriting the entire design and construction cost). This is not crowd sourcing so much as collaborative planning. A fundamental 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:

1) digital knowledge - much like what we are producing right here and now on Evoke. I would agree that this is "notoriously difficult to manage and monitor", but 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 spaces used to CREATE MORE knowledge.

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 D***) 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 how libraries work right now. Only instead of ordering books from publishers, they "crowd source" rare materials from the community. Here, the librarians are in charge of managing and monitoring the system.

The overall strategy here is intended to balance local culture with digital culture, which I think is key for avoiding the worst aspects of globalization. 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.
Comment by A.V.Koshy on May 8, 2010 at 10:16am
the second idea is sound and interesting
but i have a question - that of sharing
suppose a local library has a rare artefact (old or new) and i in another part of the world want it for a few days can i get it
i mean
will these libraries not only be stand alone projects of intellectual independance but alsdo linked loosely for sake of the global/local network to benefit
i do not want to use the word glocal because i mean the opposite - locbal....

Comment

You need to be a member of Urgent Evoke to add comments!

Join Urgent Evoke

Latest Activity

Ning Admin is now a member of Urgent Evoke
May 17, 2023
N updated their profile
Sep 25, 2020
Sophie C. commented on Asger Jon Vistisen's blog post Stinging Nettle
"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
Aug 19, 2020
Meghan Mulvey posted a blog post

Fourth of July on the Lake

This past weekend was the annual celebration at the lake house in Connecticut. It is amazing that the lake is still so clear and beautiful after all these years. The watershed association has done a wonderful job protecting these waters from the damaging effects of development.The wood grill was finally ready to cook on, so we didn't miss the propane tank fueled grill anymore. The food actually tasted fresher than in the past and was easy to keep fueled.Dad was very proud of the solar hybrid…See More
Jul 6, 2020
Asger Jon Vistisen posted a blog post

Stinging Nettle

In this blog post I will focus on a plant that is abundant in our nature, and which is immensely nutritious. It's of course the Stinging Nettle. Let's start with the chemical constituents of this plant:37 % Non-Nitrogen-Extracts19 - 29 % Ash9 - 21 % Fiber4 % Fat22 % ProteinOnce the leaves are drid, their protein content can reach an astounding 40 %, which is much higher than beef, which even under the best of circ**stances can never exceed 31 % protein. In addition the Stinging Nettle consists…See More
Apr 13, 2020
Jonathon McCallum posted a blog post

The meal

It is 7'oclock, I was late home from work due to an assignment that i wanted to get ahead on. By the time I get home I am feeling extremley tired and I cannot be bothered to make a proper meal. I walk to the fridge and open it to see what there is for me to eat. All of the out of date foodstuffs have been automaticaly thrown away by the fridge, they will be recycled tomorrow as animal feed or something. I see i have organic local eggs and some local cheese. Foods are vacc** sealded for easy…See More
Mar 10, 2020
Jean Paul Galea shared a profile on Facebook
Mar 1, 2020
Kevin posted a blog post

Future

FutureToday is 2020/1/1. It is just like yesterday. The war is still continuing. It has started since 2010. In 2010, that year was a horrible year. Almost every energy ran out. Every country’s governments were crushed down at the same time. There were riots everywhere. All of the big company’s bosses were killed xdeadx in the riots. Troops fought each other everywhere. Food was bought up xawayx at once. There were no more food supplies in any shops. The economy was all crushed down. All the…See More
Jan 1, 2020
Namwaka Mooto posted blog posts
Jan 13, 2016
T D updated their profile
Sep 3, 2015
Brook Warner posted blog posts
Aug 25, 2015
Santiago Vega posted blog posts
May 5, 2015
Santiago Vega commented on Santiago Vega's blog post Act 8
May 5, 2015
Santiago Vega posted photos
May 5, 2015
Rico Angel Rodriguez posted blog posts
May 2, 2015
Rico Angel Rodriguez posted a photo

public servants

The exchange works directly for state and public workers and servants. It gives them credit in exchange for the amount of public work they contribute to the community. The more constructive they are based off a base rate the more credit they recieve.
May 2, 2015

Follow EVOKE on Twitter




Official EVOKE Facebook Page




EVOKE RSS Activity Feed










© 2024   Created by Alchemy.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service