New Fab Labs in Ireland

I was lucky to have the opportunity of visiting Belfast last week. The purpose of this trip was to explore the possibility of launching two new FabLabs in Northern Ireland. Pat Colgan, an old friend who serves as the Chief Executive of SEUPB (Special European Union Programmes Body) invited me and M.I.T. Professor Neil Gershenfeld to explore with local partners the possibility of applying innovation to bring divided communities together. They think that our Fab Lab in Bermeo can be an inspiring example for implementing peace building programmes innovatively.

If we succeed in bulding an strong proposal, DenokInn will be in charge of training the managers of the new labs in methodologies for identifying new social innovation opportunities. I will keep you posted.

Nuevos nichos para la innovación

Estos son unos artículos muy interesantes escritos por mis compañeros Javi Finez y Carlos Fernandez Isoird.

patrimonio

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Hiriko in Brussels and Amsterdam

I had the opportunity to watch Holland beating Brazil in Amsterdam last week. As you can see in the picture,there was a great atmosphere in the city after such a big surprise. We had been in Brussels that morning presenting the Hiriko project to a delegation of 50 ABN-AMRO private wealth investors.

Just a couple of hours before the match, we took the fast train to Amsterdam . The purpose of this short break was to have an exploratory discussion with the Sustainability Programme Amsterdam about the electric future of the city. Thank you for a warm welcome and great football!

In Istanbul with BMW Foundation

Last weekend I had the priviledge to be invited by the BMW Foundation to their 3rd European Young Leaders Forum.

In the first panel discussion looked closer at Turkey's current status on the road to EU accession and the contradictions in society and politics. The second panel discussion focused on the city of Istanbul as global megacity and hub between two continents. After the panel discussions, the conference topic addressed and examined through field trips to various institutions in Istanbul. On Saturday we met in workshops to deal with concrete examples for promoting social cohesion in Istanbul and from the circle of participants; I hope we contributed to help develop and support the presented projects and institutions.

La fabrica de sueños

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Agur eta ohore Professor

William J. Mitchell, the former dean of MIT's School of Architecture and Planning, who pioneered urban designs for networked, "smart" cities and helped oversee an ambitious building program that transformed MIT's physical campus, died on June 11 after a long battle with cancer. He was 65.

Mitchell was considered one of the world's leading urban theorists. Through the work of his Smart Cities research group at the MIT Media Lab, he pioneered new approaches to integrating design and technology to make cities more responsive to their citizens and more efficient in their use of resources. He likened tomorrow's cities to living organisms or very-large-scale robots, with nervous systems that enable them to sense changes in the needs of their inhabitants and external conditions, and respond to these needs. A major portion of this new urban infrastructure focused on revamping urban transportation as we know it, and included the development of the CityCar, a light-weight, electric, shared vehicle that folds and stacks like supermarket shopping carts at convenient locations and has all essential mechanical systems housed in the car's wheels. This is the origin of Hiriko, the city car that will be fabricated in the Basque region

Filippo´s thoughts

Dear friends,

I'm flying back from Budapest where I've spent the last 3 days working with our member Barbara Erös of DemNet (Network for Democracy) and group of contacts developing joint actions in the next 18 months. Hungary will hold the European Presidency next year. The Hungarian group inspired me a reflection I would like to share with all of you. It might be interesting for next week discussion.

In 2008 Euclid Network made its entrance in Hungary running a large conference like the one in Madrid. Our partner was the third largest bank in the country but we didn't have any strong partnership with NGOs. It was a success but without follow-up. The network didn't develop at all in the country until we recently identified Barbara as our local champion. Since then she and her organisation DemNet have gathered a group of civil society/social economy leaders keen on exchanging with peers across borders and has facilitated the communication between the European network and the national group. Today the Hungarians are fully on board in European projects and the Euclid working group is a source of innovation in the country.

In our experince Euclid Network can be effective only if it develops a strong partnership with a local organisation. The local partner - an individual or organisation - coordinates members in the country and facilitates the flow of information, contacts and opportunities between the European and national levels. The members provide inputs, ideas and take part in specific initiatives.I hope next week meeting will help identify the partner and group of members to activate an effective collaboration with the European network and all its members. It would also useful to clarify which areas are of most interest for participants.

Together we can replicate the Hungarian story in Spain! See you next week.

Filippo