The Pavilion of Art & Design London closed its fifth edition on Sunday with exhibitors reporting strong sales and an impressive turnout of new collectors and visitors. 58 galleries from 11 countries presented the highest-quality works of Modern Painting, Photography, Tribal Art, Design and Decorative Arts from 1860 to today. Tim Jefferies from Hamiltons Gallery stated that ‘the combination of location and the quality of the exhibitors has cemented PAD London’s position as the fair to attend during this hectic season.’ Gallery director David Peckman added ‘the fair is building a reputation that is attracting important new faces’.

Fair directors Patrick Perrin and Stéphane Custot are delighted with the outstanding quality of works showcased and the significant sales reported at the fair this year, creating confidence despite the current economic climate. Perrin and Custot commented on Sunday ‘we are delighted to see how PAD has turned into a successful, mature and inspiring international art event. PAD is more than a fair; it is an eclectic and sophisticated club gathering the finest art and design galleries. Our aim is to put together the most beautiful and exclusive works of art of the 20th Century. As organisers, we are flattered to see such an enthusiastic audience attending the event each year and also how positive PAD is welcomed in London. The fifth edition has been a real success; we are totally confident for the future of the fair.’

Dealers across all genres at PAD London met and sold to new clients at Monday night’s Private Preview, which was attended by major collectors, art patrons, artists and other high-profile figures such as Lady Helen Taylor, Laurence Graff, Lord Rothschild, Elle Macpherson, Princess Chantal of Hanover, Richard Buckley, Norman Rosenthal, Marc Quinn, Saffron Aldridge, Kelly Hoppen, Amanda Eliasch, Max Wigram, Edward Tang, Princess Michael of Kent, Rick Owens and Lady Henrietta Spencer Churchill. Exhibitors Galerie Jacques Lacoste, 88 Gallery, Galleria Tega and Cristina Grajales all reported they made new contacts and conducted significant sales on the opening night. Modern furniture design dealer Gordon Watson said ‘[the Private Preview] was the best opening ever. Our expectations of London’s hottest fair have again been exceeded.’ Alma Luxembourg of Luxembourg & Dayan said ‘the turnout was fantastic – we made new contacts and sold to collectors who were interested and engaged.’ Within the first twenty minutes of the fair Dansk Møbelkunst had sold a chair by Finn Juhl at €70,000, while 88 Gallery completely sold out their stand after the first evening and had to replenish with new pieces, including Ado Chale’s ‘Luna’ Table (1928) which went to a collector with an asking price of £50,000.

Later in the week, the fair was visited by renowned collectors including Christie’s owner François Pinault and fashion designer and filmmaker Tom Ford. Galleries reported major sales including a striking seven-slash red canvas by Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale Attese (1966) at Dickinson Gallery , with an asking price in the region of €3m, as well as Helio Oiticia’s Metaesquema No 191 (1958) with an asking price near $300,000. The New York-based Van de Weghe Fine Art sold incredibly well at the fair, with a canvas by Jean-Michel Basquiat for $2.2m, ‘Mobile Stabile’ by Alexander Calder (1947) at $1.5m and paperwork by Ed Ruscha (1973) for $160,000. Friedman Benda, who featured a solo show of works by Ettore Sottsass, sold their most important piece on the first evening, a large ceramic Totem (1966) by the Italian designer for an undisclosed sum. Newcomers Mitchell-Innes & Nash sold two mixed-media collages, ‘The Den’ and ‘Red Lamps’, both from the Interiors series (1991-1996) by Roy Lichtenstein with an asking price in range of $600,000 each. Sladmore Gallery also had great success at the Private Preview with Rodin’s rare lifetime cast bronze Jean d’Aire (1887) going to a new client at £500,000. The winner of best piece of fine art at the fair, Patrick Caulfield’s Concrete Villa, Bruun (1963) at Robin Katz Fine Art, also sold with an asking price of £450,000. Galerie Vedovi experienced massive success with their solo show of artworks by Italian artist Agostino Bonalumi. The dealers had almost sold out their entire booth by the end of the fair with eight paintings and a bronze sculpture going to various collectors, including the highlight painting Untitled (Nero) from 1967 at the price of €250,000. A ceramic by Henry Moore, Madonna and Child (1943), from New York private dealers Eykyn Maclean, who will open a second space in London in 2012, went to collector and dealer Danny Katz for around $300,000.

Particularly after the strong sales feedback from Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions, several PAD dealers said that they noticed more sales over the weekend compared to past years. Roxana Afshar, gallery director of Hopkins Custot, reported the sale of a work by Jean Dubuffet, three paintings by French-Chinese artist Wou Zou-Ki and an ‘undisclosed masterpiece’ over the weekend. Louisa Guinness sold phenomenally well with ‘35 deals and no time to breathe’ but was incredibly happy with the results, saying some collectors bought five or six of her wearable sculpture jewellery pieces at a time.

The Child’s Chair Project II, curated by Francis Sultana, was a tremendous success with 7 of the unique 11 chairs, with prices from £1,500, sold by the close of the fair. Designers such as Zaha Hadid, Amanda Levete, Peter Marigold, Fredrikson Stallard, Max Lamb and Mattia Bonetti were invited to customize Vitra’s child-size edition of the iconic Panton chair, with proceeds of over £25,000 going to the NSPCC’s Rebuilding Childhoods Appeal.

The positive feedback from collectors and visitors and the large amount of exhibitors who have already signed up for PAD London 2012 (10-14 October) confirms that ‘…Frieze Week has also, quietly, become PAD week.’ (Wall Street Journal, 14-16 October 2011)

A group of Penn Medicine researchers Led by Dr. Raina Merchant , an emergency physician and resuscitation expert, is launching a crowdsourcing contest this Fall that will use a smartphone app to plot the locations of Philadelphia’s public automated external defibrillators (AED) which are used to restore cardiac arrest victims’ hearts to their normal rhythm.

The MyHeartMap Challenge a great idea among a growing trend toward using crowdsourcing to find solutions to troubling problems in health care, are inviting people to use app to tag the photos with location information and details about the device like its color and manufacturer.

The Penn contest aims to catalog those devices and build an app using the database of AED locations which will link to a person’s GPS coordinates and help them locate the nearest AED during an emergency. There’s an estimated one million AEDs across the nation, hung clearly on the walls in airports and casinos, but also tucked away in restaurant closets and under the cash register in coffee shop.

According to Penn Medicine news blog, unlike implantable medical devices like pacemakers and artificial knees and joints whose model or serial numbers are reflected in a patient’s medical record, in order to notify them in the event of a manufacturer’s recall or other problem, AEDs are not subject to regulations that would allow their makers to know where or when their devices are being used.

Instead, anyone can buy the devices (they cost about $1,500), but what they do with them after that is anyone’s guess.

A grateful cardiac arrest survivor, for instance, might buy one for their gym to keep on hand — but if no one at the gym knows where it is, or that it’s on site at all, its lifesaving powers can’t be counted on in an emergency.

“There could be a AED in the room upstairs or across the street and you’d have no way of knowing,” said Eric Stone, co-director of the MyHeartMap Challenge, to Fast Company magazine. In Philadelphia, the contest wants to change this reality using the power of the crowd.

The automated external defibrillator is a computerized medical device that can check a person’s heart rhythm. It can recognize a rhythm that requires shock. And it can also advise the rescuer when a shock is needed. The AED uses voice prompts, lights and text messages to tell the rescuer the steps to take.

Dr. Merchant said the Philadelphia contest is just a first step in what the group hopes will grow to become a nationwide AED registry project that will put access to AEDs in the hands of anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Merchant hopes word of the contest will spread over Facebook and Twitter with the power of social media mixing with the power of a mobile app to create the first comprehensive log of AEDs all over Philly.

In a statement to Fast Company magazine. Dr Merchant said that without public participation, “it would take years to be able to do this for the whole country.” But by using people as remote sensors, Merchant thinks tracking down the estimated one million AEDs across the country is possible.

“We’re just beginning to understand how to use these tools to connect people with resources. It could work in a multitude of ways,” she said.

Individuals and teams can register to participate, and the Penn group is hopeful that participants will have fun with the contest — maybe organizing AED scavenger hunts, mini-contests to locate all the AEDs in a workplace building, or taking on their friends to see who can find the most devices.

Reborn to life

This story behind the story is told on the Penn Medicine news blog.

Mike Hoaglin, now a fourth-year medical student at Penn, already knew how to do Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) back in April when he came across a man in cardiac arrest on a busy Center City Philadelphia sidewalk.

A cardiac arrest is a condition that claims 300,000 American lives each year, more than AIDS and lung, breast and prostate cancers combined.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is an emergency procedure which is performed in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person in cardiac arrest.

He and a nurse on the scene — still in her scrubs from work — began CPR once they determined the man had no pulse, but the person they sent to find an AED — which they knew was also essential for resuscitating the man — didn’t have any luck.

A nearby drugstore and restaurants turned up nothing. Minutes passed as Hoaglin and the other bystanders continued performing CPR and waited for an ambulance to arrive.

Finally, a fellow Penn Med student, Katie Dillon, arrived on the scene with an AED after remembering that her apartment close by kept one of the devices at the front desk. With a shock from the AED and continued CPR, the man’s pulse returned even before the ambulance arrived, and following bypass surgery to re-route blood supply to his heart, he returned home doing well.

But those tense minutes could have been narrowed to just a few seconds with the help of a tool like Merchant’s team hopes to create.

Join the team

Sign up now on the MyHeartMap Challenge web site to stay in the loop about the contest, download the mobile app once it becomes available, and join the challenge to save lives with your cell phone.

There are lots of ways to participate: you can play as an individual or team, you can use your social network or go solo, you can win a prize by tagging one AED or thousands of AED.

In the near future the map will be available in an emergency. Just call 911 to discover where to find the nearest device, or you look it on your cell phone.

The National Confederation of Industry of Brazil (Confederação Nacional da Indústria – CNI) reaffirmed the commitment of the private sector to invest in technological development and to recognize that innovation is a consumer demand and the imposition of a market. This position is expressed in the document Commitment to Innovation, released during the recent Brazilian Congress of Innovation Industry earlier this month.

In the document, CNI boil down the items that are considered strategic to the advancement of innovation in the country. Among the actions, it highlights the country’s need to enroll a greater number of people in vocational and technical courses in engineering and also to create effective programs and sectoral innovation structuring projects supporting research and development.

To explore this issue, I interviewed Hans van Hellemondt, founder of Battle of Concepts Brazil, an organization that has been working with several global brands all of which have a presence in Brazil including names such as Whirlpool, Philips, Vopak and Akzo Nobel. Battle of Concepts is a tool, among many other things, that connects industry and students with a common objective: to develop open innovation. Being an easy to use platform, it is freely available to any college student or young professional below the age of 30 that hold university degrees.

The concept originated in Netherlands 10 years ago as a solution to a common problem: how to connect big business with great minds present in many in universities? Once contact has been established, Battle of Concepts provides the means to establish a business relationship whereby both the student and businesses continue to gain from the connection? This challenge caught the attention of a Dutch national, Hans van Hellemondt, former president of Sears who has been living in Brazil for the last 28 years who knows full well the needs of businesses operating in Brazil.

“In the beginning it was difficult because the concept was still very new. But in the last six months there has been a huge increase in demand for new challenges”, said Mr. Hellemondt. “Today it’s clearer for companies that the intellectual property of everything that is produced by the challenges they launch belong to the company itself. For students the target is not just money, but the real opportunity to communicate with innovative companies, and in some cases even go to work for them”.

To participate, the company submits its challenge to the students and in return receives ideas. Winners receive a cash prize and a score in the ranking of the best ideas. It’s as simple as that. “We take care that the ideas are delivered anonymously. The company does not know who is the originator. Thus, we avoid any bias”. From its initiation, the Battle of Concepts of Brazil hás so far paid out $ 150,926,00 (R$ 239.000,00) in prize money.

Mr. Hellemondt illustrated three examples of Battles of Concepts that had been originated through the Brazilian platform.

The Whirlpool Battle

Whirlpool is a global giant, in Brazil however, the company is relatively unknown and the fact that it owns two well know brands in Brazil, Brastemp and Cônsul is overlooked. Its challenge:

“Innovative communication approaches to position Whirlpool’s brands Brastemp and Consul at the point of sale?”

The challenge was reviewed by 2550 potential contributors and received 40 concepts that together brought a total of 2000 hours of intensive thought to addressing Whirlpool’s challenge.

The Vopak Battle

Vopak is the world’s leading independent provider of conditioned storage facilities for bulk liquids. Its challenge:

“Create fast heating tanks that could be installed in trucks, occupying only part of the available volume, without needing to change the vehicle specifications”.

The challenge was reviewed by 983 potential contributors who submitted 32 concepts in all. “While we did not receive a definitive solution to the problem, the three top concepts shared contained similar ideas which tells us there is something there that we need to explore in more detail”, explained the company. Vopak considered the endeavor a success and subsequently decided to launch two more battles.

The Tecumseh Battle

Tecumseh Products Company is a global leader in the refrigeration and air conditioning industry. Its challenge:

“Propose new applications and business models to use the T-Control, and these need not necessarily be used by cooling systems. The T-Control is an electronic controller originally designed to control a cooling system completely”.

The challenge was reviewed by 5,395 potential contributors who submitted 58 concepts in all including participation from the major Brazilian universities including the University of São Paulo, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Federal University of Santa Catarina and Federal University of Minas Gerais.

Mr. Hellemondt said that after having established the Battle of Concepts in Brazil the two years ago, many private sector companies use the platform to access the countries best minds however the Brazilian government has not caught on to the fact that it can also use this approach to search for innovation that address needs within the public sector. “In Holland, on the other hand, the government has already initiated more than 20 battles, with surprising results. The prime minister has said he wants to turn the Netherlands into one of the five most innovative countries in the world.

According to Mr. Hellemondt, after the release of the document Innovation Commitment and the Congress that was attended by several Brazilian government agencies such as the Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (National Bank for Economic and Social Development) and the Instituto Nacional de Propriedade Industrial (National Institute of Industrial Property), the subject has been receiving a lot more attention.

“We have an army of 10,000 students and 400 universities waiting for new challenges and a commitment of the major companies to invest in innovation. As we also know, no company will survive without innovation”, pointed out Mr. Hellemondt .

A UN initiative to boost emergency response by crowdsourced mapping and space technology

How to ensure that space-based information for crowdsource mapping benefits the emergency response community and disaster risk reduction?

This is the key question that specialists around the world will attempt to answer during the Expert Meeting being held in Geneva, this November, which is being held to coincide with the International Conference on Crisis Mapping.

The Expert Meeting is a fundamental part of the programme that is being organized by the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (SPIDER). The SPIDER program was established by the United Nations General Assembly with the mandate of ensuring that all countries, international and regional organizations, have access to space-based information, and to ensure they develop the capacity to use all types of space-based information to support the full, disaster management cycle. This includes the need to ensure that space-based information supports the crowdsource mapping efforts for the benefit of the disaster community.

The meeting will focus on exploring the different ways that the space technology community can collect, organize and provide greater access to its information and how it can better coordinate the communities through which it crowdsources information.

Some of the issues the experts are talking about:

1. Disasters are increasing

First of all, making the issue particularly important is the indisputable fact that the number of disasters is on the increase and that the impact of disasters is becoming increasingly more severe on a global level, requiring hightened efforts by multilateral organizations to better manage their consequences.

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said recently that climate change is a real threat to international peace and security. He urged developed countries to lead the global effort to find ways to both mitigate and adapt to the detrimental effects of disasters but also said that emerging economies must shoulder their fair share of the responsibility and take necessary actions.

“Extreme weather events continue to grow more frequent and intense in both rich and poor countries alike, not only devastating lives, but also infrastructure, institutions, and budgets – an unholy brew which can create dangerous security vacuums,” said Mr. Ban.

Achim Steiner, the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme added that humanity was at a point in its history where it has the capacity to fundamentally alter, within one or two generations, the conditions on which societies have evolved over millennia.

“It is the speed of environmental change, including climate change, that will be increasingly at the heart of our collective concern and response,” said Mr. Steiner. “There can be little doubt today that climate change has potentially far-reaching implications for global stability and security in economic, social and environmental terms which will increasingly transcend the capacity of individual nation States to manage,” he added.

Mr. Steiner also said that the international community’s ability to manage the consequences of climate change will depend on a “proactive strategy of evolved and perhaps new international platforms, mechanisms and institutional responses” which anticipate security concerns and facilitate cooperation.

2. Crowdsource communities are working hard

Secondly, it is important to understand that an essential part of working to provide support to disaster preparedness and emergency response efforts is carried out by thousands of people around the world linked to NGOs, government or multilateral agencies and, in many cases these communities of contributors are volunteers.

In recent years, advancements in technologies have made it possible for platforms such as OpenStreetMap, Ushahidi, Sahana, CrisisMappers, Virtual Disaster Viewer, Google MapMaker and INSTEDD to operate by being directly linked to communities around the world.

OpenStreetMap is a free editable map of the whole world. It is made by ordinary people and allows to view, edit and use geographical data in a collaborative way from anywhere on Earth.

Ushahidi is a non-profit tech company that specializes in developing free and open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping.

The Sahana Software Foundation is dedicated to the mission of saving lives by providing information management solutions that enable organizations and communities to better prepare for and respond to disasters.

The International Network of Crisis Mappers is the largest and most active international community of experts, practitioners, policymakers, technologists, researchers, journalists, scholars, hackers and skilled volunteers engaged at the intersection between humanitarian crises, technology and crisis mapping.

Virtual Disaster Viewer is a kind of “social networking tool” for earthquake impact assessment, developed by an international consortium, including The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.

Google Map Maker allows any person to add and update geographic information for millions of users to see in Google Maps and Google Earth. By sharing information about the places each person know, like businesses in town or places on school campus, it can ensure the map accurately reflects the world.

Innovative Support to Emergencies Diseases and Disasters designs and uses open source technology tools to help partners enhance collaboration and improve information flow to better deliver critical services to vulnerable populations.

Important cornerstones of this virtual effort are the possibility to access and take advantage of post-disaster satellite imagery as well as the use of other space-based technologies such as telecommunications satellites and global navigation satellite systems.

3. The gateway to space-based information is opening

Thirdly, taking note of the need to connect these pioneering communities with the space industry as well as the disaster management community, the UN-SPIDER Programme is carrying out a one-year project Space-based information for Crowdsource Mapping aiming at identifying specific actions that could ensure a closer cooperation among the three communities.

The UN-SPIDER programme is focusing on being a gateway to space information for disaster management support, by serving as a bridge to connect the disaster management and space communities and by being a facilitator of capacity-building and institutional strengthening.

See the UN-SPIDER promotional video:

UN-SPIDER is being implemented as an open network of providers of space-based solutions to support disaster management activities.

Working together to mitigate effects of disasters

This is work-in-progress, a huge effort to gather critical information that can be used to save lives. During the Expert Meeting in Geneva, around 70 leading experts representing crowdsource communities, space and remote sensing agencies, disaster management communities, NGOs, private companies, and regional and international organizations will meet to find the answers to the questions being raised.

If you are an expert currently working in any of the relevant areas (disasters, crowdsource mapping, space-based information) you can still apply to attend this meeting through the cut-off date of 30 September. Alternatively, if your organisation would like to cooperate in the Space-based information for Crowdsource Mapping Project you can contact Teresa Kokaislova. Email: teresa.kokaislova@unoosa.org

By the people and for people: this is the intelligence that the urban life calls in the 21st century. In spontaneous movements, characteristic of the network society, the growing certainty that no one can do anything alone.

“Nobody believes in my projects.” The phrase heard at the next table caught the attention of Jair Roberto Cassiani, Secretary of Science and Technology of Pedreira, who has having lunch with the mayor, Hamilton Bernardes Junior, in a restaurant in Campinas. The teacher Leonardo de Souza Mendes, coordinator of the Laboratory for Communication Networks at Campinas University, the author of the outburst, regretted not had found yet a city which supported his idea of deploying a network of free data for the whole city.

Interested in the subject, the secretary and the mayor began a conversation, and with this meeting was born the Infovia of Pedreira (Infovia de Pedreira), the first Brazilian community network that allows open access of population to the Internet and other services. It is a project that nowadays connects 5,000 of 13,000 homes in the town of 41,000 inhabitants and enabled the creation of Knowledge Connection project, a network through students and teachers exchange information.

This simple story is an example of a great movement of connection and exchange of information that is underway in Brazil and around the World. A movement that gradually changes how the life in cities is organized and developed.

The idea of a public data network emerged in 2001 Morungaba, at the hands of journalist José Aparecido Miguel, but died for lack of political will and interest of the population. And it reborn few years after as a great solution to the neighboring Pedreira — classified in the ranking of National Institute of Educational Studies and Research of the Ministry of Education as the first among the 19 cities in the metropolitan region of Campinas, although it is only the 16th in revenue.

The meeting between the Secretary Cassiani, Mayor Bernardes and Professor Mendes can be seen as mere chance, but perhaps it is best to use the understanding of the Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology Carl Gustav Jung, for whom there are no coincidences. After all, what is the reason for the project not move forward in Morungaba and bloom in Pedreira as a result of an informal conversation in a restaurant?

Because the community needs to appropriate the idea for it to work, responds to an economist and administrator Ana Carla Fonseca Reis, author of several books, including Creative Cities – Perspectives. By deploying its Infovia, Pedreira not only appropriated the idea but also managed to make the connection between local and global, one of the conditions outlined by Ana Carla for a city to be able to generate creativity and reinvent itself.

There are several terms that try to explain this process of urban renaissance: smart cities, creative cities, innovative towns, sustainable cities, among others. The architect Pedro Rivera, from Studio-X, a global network of research that explores the future of cities, prefer a more straightforward one: cities that work. Cities which can provide quality of life for those who live in them. “What makes a city intelligent are smart people”, says.

But there’s more to think about: it also need articulation, the joint action by the government, the private sector and society all together searching for solutions. It is obvious, believes Ana Carla Fonseca, that none of the actors is able to promote change alone. The key is work in network, as stated by Augusto de Franco, founder of the School Network (Escola de Redes) and organizer of the International Conference on Innovative Cities that took place in Curitiba this year. For him, cities need to be connected, agile and with local systems of governance.

The Athens square

We’re not just living through an “age of change.” We’re experiencing a change of age: the most profound inflection point in human history since the Enlightenment, observes Franco, quoting a phrase coined by Eamonn Kelly partner at the consulting Monitor Group, in his book Powerful Times: Rising to the challenge of our uncertain world. And it is not easy to understand when you’re in the midst of this change. In fact the humanity realized that in practice, 193 nation-states are not sufficient to meet the needs of nearly 7 billion people, 50% of whom live in cities. The world have governments too much centralized to understand the needs of who, for example, ride a bus every day.

As a result, in recent decades social changes are creating favorable conditions for the autonomy of cities, from the standpoint of its development. A trend that dates back to Athens from 509 to 322 BC, where for the first time the city is no longer the state to become community. In Athens, the decisions were taken democratically in the public square, so the solutions emerged by people to people. A path to think the city of the 21st Century, in the vision of Mr. Franco, is to return to the root of Athens.

The difference is that nowadays we have a global connected community that exchange information via the Internet in real time, allowing the dissemination of ideas and solutions worldwide. The Athens square is nowadays a global network of interconnected conversations. “And the way you connect to other people is what determines the collective behavior,” explains Mr. Franco.

Cloning

This global conversation allows the reproduction of a typical pattern of nature, cloning, Mr. Franco teaches. “Everything that is alive grows by cloning”. And so solutions found in a particular part of the world are successfully recreated thousands of miles away. This was how the architect Jaime Lerner, as mayor of Curitiba in the 70′s, has created the Bus Rapid Transport, a rapid transport system for buses in exclusive lanes and this model has been replicated successfully in over 80 countries.

This year, the Chinese version of BRT won the Sustainable Transport Award 2011. Implanted in Guangzhou, the original design was refined, incorporating other global idea: hire bicycles in bus terminals, as has already done Paris and London, to name just two cities.

According to an article publishe by Fast Company magazine The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) released a preliminary report examining the successes of Guangzhou’s bus corridor along Zhongshan Avenue, which now has 805,000 daily boardings–giving it the title of most-used bus corridor in Asia–and an increase in the bus speed of 29% compared to the previous bus system in the area.

Replicate good ideas can be the fastest way to in the next 40 years, the world find out how to accommodate 70% of its population in cities, as estimated data of the United Nations. But what is a forecast for the world is already a reality in Brazil. The 2010 Census showed that 84% of the Brazilian population lives in cities. For the architect Rivera, the country already has a clear dimension of what will be the global challenge post-2050. “We already know the size of the problem.”

As a genuine carioca, Rivera is deeply involved into rethinking the city of Rio de Janeiro. He is one of the creators of the Cultural District of Lapa (Distrito Cultural da Lapa), the Integrated Centres of Culture (Centros Integrados de Cultura) and several housing projects in downtown Rio. He agrees with Augusto de Franco and gives examples of how cloning can be used to improve life in cities.

“The cable car is a technology known for many years and it was rediscovered as an alternative transport in areas of difficult access. Medellin and Bogota, Colombia, recently deployed its systems and this year was the turn of the Rio de Janeiro, where the Pão de Açucar cable car works since 1912, inaugurates the Alemão cabe car — a set of 152 cabins with capacity for 10 passengers each, linking the various slums of the Morro do Alemão.

“This is one way of thinking about public transportation in an unconventional manner and give a new creative use an existing technology,” says Rivera. Some of the stations got colored panels depicting the life of the community, one of them created by the artist Romero Britto, internationally recognized for his work with bright colors and great humor.

In Colombia, the interventions have been even more radical, with the construction of public works of high social and architectural value in sites with lower HDI, the Human Development Index, completely transforming the perception of the city for those areas previously spurned by the local community. “It creates a space power capable of changing relations between people and the city,” says Rivera.

According to him, the same is happening in Rio de Janeiro with the Pacification Police Units (UPP), which gradually regained spaces before forgotten by the government. “Public space is space diversity. Integrate and understand the powers of informality is to realize the intelligence of the city, “he says.

These actions in Colombia and Rio are not to much different from the other one put into practice in Sao Paulo, when Marta Suplicy was the mayor: the construction of the Unified Educational Center (CEUs). Or, in the same perspective, the revitalization project in the central region of Santos. Jaime Lerner calls these examples as urban acupuncture, or an isolated action which can bring new energy flow for a given region. Actions that can come from both the government as organized groups – or not – of society.

Do it yoursefl

The characteristic of this movement is that many people already operates independently and does not expect more for permits or the initiative of governments to enact the changes that the city needs. There is a do-it-yourself revival with people promoting interventions in the urban landscape, something that has been called by wiki urbanism.

In Guadalajara, Mexico, for example, a group of cyclists decided to make a bike path on their own. Tired of waiting for the government actions, the group picked up traffic signs and other stuff and went to fight. The initiative was documented by a video on YouTube.

These interventions may not always be called smart or considered tasteful by all, says Douglas Gordon, sociologist at the University of Chicago. But it shows an interest in the resumption of public spaces for people. In his blog, Douglas show many of these initiatives. In the United States, many people are installing furniture public as bench at bus stops, potted plants and giving new uses to old phone booths.

Other people, beyond not wait for government initiatives, decide to transform into law their own world view. This is the case of the economist Ana Domingues, founder of the NGO Foundation Ecoverde, from Maringá, Paraná. Outraged by the huge amount of plastic bags used in supermarkets, Ana has created a bill prohibiting its use and released it ??via Internet.

The idea spread and ended up in Jundiaí, São Paulo, where an agreement between the City and traders, with massive public support, abolished the use of plastic bags in supermarkets. But not everything is perfect. Ana criticizes the fact Jundiaí and other cities that have adopted the measure to allow the use of one type of bag made ??of biodegradable starch. “Starch is food. We’re using food to make bags, when the idea is to use reusable bags, “he laments.

In the same line do-it-yourself, Marci McGuire has convinced 10 000 workers to leave their cars at home daily and go by bus to an office park in San Ramon, 68 km from San Francisco, California. Marci, who is the transportation manager of the park, focused her action not only on the environmental aspect, but in changing the culture. “It became cool to have a bus pass,” she says.

Faster than bureaucracy

What does the program work, says journalist Lisa Margonelli, transport expert, is the Marci’s action itself, who daily runs the place with his team trying to bring more fans to the system. One of the innovations of the buses that serve the park is a bicycle rack.

Marci McGuire’s action is the catalysts which explains the success, says Ana Carla, the author of Creative Cities. It is the glue that binds the private, public and civil society in a transformative project. This is also how Bage, Rio Grande do Sul, won buses with bike racks.

The manager of the bus company StadtBus, Maiquel Frandoloso, brought the idea of ??a trip to Europe and he returned to Brazil, quickly put the service in operation. “We like innovation,” he explains. The same company has internet and TV on their bus. Frandoloso used one of the keys to the transformation of cities, such as Jaime Lerner says: quickly put into practice good ideas so they do not get lost in the state bureaucracy. In Curitiba, the Opera de Arame, a concert hall designed by Brazilian architect Dominic Bongestabs, was built in just 75 days.

Good ideas travel at the speed of social networks, reproducing the mouth-to-mouth model globally. A large number of private networks, governmental and nongovernmental, are dedicated to the discussion of best practices for the new world of cities. The Global Network of Innovative Cities is one of them. His proposal is to add people that are innovative. If the city reflects the characteristics of its inhabitants, there is no innovative city without innovative citizens.

The Observatory of Metropolis is another example. It is a Brazilian group that brings together 200 researchers from 51 academic institutions that produces and disseminates knowledge. In the a global perspective the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.

These are some of the tools that society today has to face the challenge of a world that is increasingly organized in networks. A global network of interconnected cities, as emphasized by Augusto de Franco. “There is no a global solution. All solutions are glo-cal. ”

It is a challenge, especially for governments also organized hierarchically, as shown by Our São Paulo Network, a group with more and more political representation capable of imposing a mandatory plan targets for the city of São Paulo and now works for approval of a Proposed Constitutional Amendment, taking the same plane for all instances of the Brazilian government.

Mental geography

The city as public space is the representation of diversity. In this space all actors in the transformation are acting and upgrading its communities, each one with a map of its own mental and emotional territory. The more it expand its emotional maps, more it will be integrating our cities, believes Peter Rivera.

Sao Paulo for the architect and urban planner Jorge Wilheim, for example, begins in Campinas and ends in Santos. And also begins in Sorocaba and ends in São José dos Campos, a vast area where 1 million people daily exchange its city to live, work and study. it is a mega polis with mega problems but also mega solutions. “São Paulo has a tension. But that’s not all bad. It is a tension created by the people. It is creativity”, he says.

George Wilhelm, former Secretary of Planning of São Paulo, author of several books, including Sao Paulo, an Interpretation has an optimistic vision of the future of cities, even the complicated and congested São Paulo. “We all know what the solution is what we need is political will to put into practice.” And put into practice means working together government and society.

That’s what made ??the secretary and the mayor Cassiani Bernardes in Pedreira. They took the journalist’s idea developed by professor Miguel Mendes and put it into practice. Today, the initiative serves as an inspiration to other cities around world, and so the wheel spins. “We were visited by more than 100 cities who want to learn more about our project,” he says, satisfied, Cassiani.

* halt the controversial Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River,
* revoke the proposed gutting of the Forest Code, and
* protect forest activists from a recent wave of assassinations and intimidation.

Saturday’s simultaneous demonstrations brought crowds of people to the streets of 15 Brazilian cities, with thousands gathering in São Paulo and Belem, reported Amazon Watch. A diverse group of indigenous leaders joined the actions, decrying the Brazilian government’s escalating violation of their rights.

“The Belo Monte Dam will deeply harm the indigenous peoples who live and depend on the Xingu River,” said Kayapo chief Megaron Txucarranãe in São Paulo. “The Brazilian government is not listening nor respecting our rights.”

Today’s worldwide solidarity protests in 23 cities in 17 countries echoed the concerns of some 1.4 million people, the majority of them Brazilian, who have so far signed the online petition by the organization Avaaz, calling on the Rousseff government to cancel the dam and veto any weakening of the Forest Code.

Closely coordinated with Brazilian actions, global protests reached from Turkey to Taiwan, demonstrating a mounting concern among the international community that the current shortsighted development model jeopardizes the entirety of the Amazon, explained the NGO.

“These protests were organized via social media networks. This is a new chapter in the struggle to defend the Amazon, and everyday more people are getting involved,” said Christian Poirier, Brazil Program Coordinator at Amazon Watch. “The Dilma Rousseff government is at crossroads. The world is calling on her to demonstrate courage and leadership and take immediate actions to safeguard the Amazon for future generations.”

“These protests solidify our calls to revoke the approval of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam. Once it is revoked, it will be possible to carry out public consultations to insure the rights of communities who are directly threatened,” said organizer Marco Antonio Morgado of the Brazilian Forests Movement.

The risky $17 billion Belo Monte Dam would be the world’s third largest dam and would divert nearly the entire flow of the Xingu River along a 62-mile stretch. Its reservoirs would flood more than 120,000 acres of rainforest and local settlements, displace between 20,000 and 40,000 people and generate vast quantities of methane–a greenhouse gas at least 25 times more potent than CO2. Critics of the dam are urging Dilma to cancel the costly and destructive project and instead invest in truly renewable energy from wind and solar along with improving energy efficiency.

Drastic changes have been proposed in the Brazilian congress to the conservation rules of the country’s decades-old Forest Code, clearing the way for a new wave of deforestation in the Amazon and other threatened biomes. Critics predict that the proposed changes to the Code’s strong legal protection of Amazonian agricultural parcels could lead to 85 million hectares of the Amazon being destroyed, an area the size of England and France put together.

These threats to the Amazon come at a time of renewed violence against leaders of social movements and other forest guardians who have recently faced a wave of assassinations and death threats in a region known for impunity for crimes involving violent conflicts over land and other natural resources, reported Amazon Watch.

The tropical rainforests of the Amazon stabilize the global climate while deforestation there is a significant source of green house gas emissions.

According to Amazon Watch, protests on August 20 were held in Brazilian cities of Belém, São Paulo, Brasília, Rio de Janeiro, Fortaleza, João Pessoa, Recife, Salvador, Santarém, Florianópolis, Cuiabá, Manaus, Natal, Paimas and Belo Horizonte. International solidarity actions were held on Monday, August 22 in Canberra, Copenhagen, Toronto, London, Paris, Berlin, Tehran, Jakarta, Guadalajara, Hague, Oslo, Lisbon, Edinburgh, Wrexham, Taipei, Ankara, Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and Miami.

Source: Amazon Watch press release.

A worldwide survey developed by blur Group showed that nearly half of entrepreneurs and start-ups are developing ‘knowledge-as-a-service’ (KaaS) business models and crowdsourcing is a popular method to jump-start projects.

The study had reviewed the 1,546 members that had participated on the Innovatrs Exchange www.innovatrs.com, an innovation platform where corporations worldwide can discover, partner with or invest in innovative startups and entrepreneurs.

I interviewed — for Crowdsourcing.org — Philip Letts, the founder and CEO of blur Group, a London based international crowdsourced creative group with 11,784 creatives all over the world delivering relevant design, marketing, advertising, media and ideation services. Its main clients are CNN, Financial Times, GE Healthcare and Ralph Lauren.

According to Mr. Letts, using communities like Innovatrs to connect with funding and like-minded people has proven to be effective in getting projects off the ground. The research found that the most prominent sector is ‘knowledge-as-service’ (34%). Other business areas include creative services (18%), technology (13%), web-internet (12%), green technology (10%), manufacturing (7%), mobile (4%) and biotechnology (2%).

Why do you think green technology and web-internet represent only 10% and 12% respectively, when they are traditionally areas that receive a high degree of innovation?

Philip Letts: This study shows that a new type of innovative business model is emerging: the knowledge-as-a-service (KaaS) offering. While we’re still seeing web technologies and green businesses making waves, it’s companies that offer ways to bolster existing businesses or develop new methods that are emerging.

We know that while the green tech movement is gaining ground, it is also one of the longest lead times from idea to launch: entrepreneurs in this sector have to find ways to keep funds coming in during this lead time. And although the time to market for most web offerings isn’t as long as in the green-tech sector, there is still the idea that development for other people to support your own development is a viable business model.

The survey showed as well that a significant number of entrepreneurs belong to the “digital natives” generation, and are focused on developing ways to leverage technologies to stimulate global business. Nearly one-quarter of entrepreneurs are under the age of 30, with the average age being 39, according to blur Group.

“We’ve seen that the “digital natives”, those that grew up digital technology, are more likely to develop innovative business models and are looking for ways to more efficiently jump-start their businesses,” said Mr. Letts. “Innovatrs provides a platform for these entrepreneurs to connect, build a community and get their projects off the ground.”

Are we talking about digital natives creating digital based businesses?

Philip Letts: These “digital natives” have only known a networked existence and are increasingly looking for innovative ways to generate new business models in all sectors. We’ve seen an increasing number of younger entrepreneurs joining the exchange, suggesting that they be more wiling to take the risk to strike out on their own – and yes that’s likely to be in the digital field.

Are there any other methods being used in addition to crowdsourcing?

Philip Letts: Many entrepreneurs are looking for new ways to build relationships and partnerships. The benefit of working through a community like Innovatrs, is that they can connect with relevant people from around the world. Entrepreneurs are also tapping into social media marketing as a way to self promote or joining online communities where they can interact with like-minded people.

Is the recent agreement between Coca-Cola and Music Dealers an example of this partnership?

Philip Letts: The recent partnership between Coca Cola and Music Dealers is an example of how businesses are turning to sourcing as a method to jump-start their projects, particularly with ideation. Innovatrs is an exchange where businesses wanting to do something like this can brief their partnering requirements with a pool of innovative businesses ready and able to respond.

Is this kind of movement creating a new “global platform”? Something like transnational crowdsourced workforce?

Philip Letts: Using this innovation exchange breaks away from the traditions of the office environment. It even breaks away from traditional incubators and support environments for start-ups. Rather, it creates a global, virtual and boundary-less exchange providing frameworks, advice, networking, community build, corroboration and content. It provides a showcase for entrepreneurial companies so that businesses wanting to partner and investors looking for their next opportunity can brief directly into this community.

So yes, it does start to create a transnational force – but it’s not really a workforce. And the reason we talk about an exchange is because of this constant trading between those able to provide the service and those wanting it. It’s not just a find-resource option.

Mr. Letts said as well that Innovatrs provides a platform for these entrepreneurs to connect, build a community and get their projects off the ground. Entrepreneurs are responding to a dwindling economy and the significant shift towards networked consumers by developing business solutions that adapt to a digital economy.

How do you measure how successful the Innovatrs platform has become?

Philip Letts: “Success” is difficult to measure. With the Innovatrs Exchange, we measure success by how quickly the community is building, how many of those businesses go to revenue stage and how many attract interest from those outside the community.

Crowdsourcing platforms that facilitate the process of Open Innovation are creating new opportunities for smart organizations who are looking to partner with the next generation of start-ups rather than do it all for themselves. It’s now much easier to find and support great entrepreneurs and match them to the most relevant strategic partners and investors.

SHE arrived in the presidential palace with a reputation as a no-nonsense manager, but one who had never previously held elected office. Almost eight months into her term as Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff has found herself sucked into the political swamp that is Brasília. She has reacted firmly to corruption scandals, and is striving to trim budget pork and to fill senior government jobs on merit rather than through political connections. Her reward has been signs of mutiny in her coalition. With the world economy deteriorating, whether Ms Rousseff can impose her authority on her allies matters a lot for Brazil’s prospects.

Read the article here.

The report was co-authored with a research team at the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies led by Dr. Pan Jiahuathe.

It cites alarming facts about the status of China’s environmental stability, including the placement of seven Chinese cities on a list of the top ten most polluted places on earth.

“In 2005, water in 59 percent of rivers was undrinkable, along with 70 percent of water reserves and inland lakes, and one quarter of all aquifers polluted with more than half of urban aquifers heavily polluted,” according to the report.

Read more

This project needs men to support building of this scenic path. Project is about 50% complete, told me a Chinese friend of mine.

Thousands of metres up the vertiginous slopes of Shifou Mountain in Hunan Province , China , a team of workers, operating with hardly any safety measures, are building a footpath.

The workers are building a plank road on the side of the mountain that, once it is finished, will stretch for 3km 9843 ft and be China ‘s longest sightseeing footpath.

48 year old Yu Ji above is one of the workers and he has been working on high cliffs building such plank roads for more than 10 years. He comments: Young people don’t want this job, as it requires them to stay deep in the mountains for months or even years.

Building a plank road on Shifou Mountain is difficult because the cliff stands vertical at 90 degrees, without any slope or alcoves.

Yu Ji takes charge of the most dangerous part of the project drilling the holes to set up pipes to support the footpath.

Does anyone interested?