Green energy
October 30, 2006 Posted by Clare in : Digital Challenge, Environment , add a commentStephen Hilton and I met Dale Vince from renewable energy providers Ecotricity on Friday, to explore potential collaborations around environmental awareness. They have some very interesting campaigns and initiatives planned for the coming year around empowering people to get involved in climate change, which we hope we may be able to work with them on.
You can look at the plans for future windparks online - including the three windturbines planned for Avonmouth.
Ecotricity Video - Time lapse and video sequence of very large wind turbine construction.
Local Democracy Week
October 27, 2006 Posted by carolhayward in : Education, Digital Challenge, e-democracy, Bristol City Council , add a commentLast week was the national initiative, Local Democracy Week, which aims to improve understanding of local democracy, particularly with young people.
In Bristol, we’ve taken part in the 2-week online activity, I’m a councillor, get me out of here for the last two years and this year was a bumper year with 6 local councillors and about 15 Bristol schools taking part through their citizenship classes - 3 times more than the last couple of years.
Councillors posted manifestos then were quizzed by students who vote for the councillor they like the most. The first week focused on the questions, then voting took place every day last week to evict a councillor until the winner was announced on Friday afternoon. All four political parties were represented with the final winner being Cllr Jon Rogers.
A podcast of the launch event that took place at the City Learning Centres in Brislington and Whitefield/Fishponds will hopefully be available soon. Congratulations to Jon and thanks to all those who helped make this such a successful event.
Schools mediascape site launched today
October 26, 2006 Posted by Clare in : Education, Wireless, Community Media, Innovation, News, Technology , 2 commentsFuturelab today launch the Create-A-Scape website, with the support of the DfES and HP Labs, to enable teachers and students to create mediascapes as easily as possible and to find all the resources they need to make them in one place.
A mediascape is composed of sounds and images placed virtually outside. The images and sounds can then be accessed by a handheld computer (PDA) and a pair of headphones. An optional GPS unit can automatically trigger the images and sounds when you are standing in the right place.
Create-A-Scape was inspired by Futurelab prototype research projects which demonstrated the enormous potential of mobile technology for learning. Futurelab identified a significant need for a tool of this type among educators and, with support from the DfES and HP Labs, turned the idea into a learning resource that is freely available to everybody.
GreenBristol in Green Awards
October 25, 2006 Posted by Clare in : Bristol, Environment , 1 comment so farGreenBristol has been shortlisted for the first Green Awards. The shortlisting is for the production of Bristol’s first green map under the category Best Direct Mail B2C. A low resolution version can be downloaded from http://www.sendspace.com/file/hekuad.
The map will be distributed to all 4,200 households in the Neighbourhood Solutions area of Bristol in the next few weeks.
The winners will be announced at a glittering green gala on November 29th at the historic Guildhall in London featuring speakers from the United Nations Environment Programme. Friends of the Earth and The Energy Saving Trust. The finale of the evening will be the announcement of the overall winner of the Green Awards 2006, chosen from the winners in the individual categories.
