[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events - March 17, 2013
George Mokray
gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Mar 17 12:49:52 PDT 2013
Energy (and Other) Events is a weekly mailing list published most Sundays covering events around the Cambridge, MA and greater Boston area that catch the editor's eye.
Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com is the web version.
If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to Energy (and Other) Events email gmoke at world.std.com
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Event Index - full Event Details available below the Index
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Monday, March 18
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12pm “Building Social-Ecological Cities: Community Development and the Institutional Challenge of Urban Environmentalism”
12pm [MIT Energy Club] Energy 101: "Capturing Carbon - The Current State of CCS Technology and the Road Ahead"
4pm "Design Mining the Web"
7pm The Long Gaze, The Short Gaze
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Tuesday, March 19
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5:30pm Legatum Lecture: An Impertinent Inquiry into Microfinance
5:30pm VMS From The Trenches -- Entrepreneurs Start-Up War Stories
6:30pm Cambridge Hackspace Meetup #2
6:30pm Architecture/HTC Forum: Theorizing Transnational Contact Zones in Film and Media
7pm Greenport Forum: After Shock, A New Role For Local Climate Activists
7pm SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE REASONS FOR CLIMATE GRIDLOCK
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Wednesday, March 20
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10:30am Climate Change & Insurance: What’s Ahead
12pm CAST Music and Technology: Chris Janney
12pm [MIT Energy Club] Discussion Series: "Capturing Carbon - The Current State of CCS Technology and the Road Ahead"
12pm [MIT Energy Club] Discussion Series: "Capturing Carbon - The Current State of CCS Technology and the Road Ahead"
12pm The Budget Implications of the U.S. Military Defense of Persian Gulf Oil
2pm Food Policy Councils: Improving Healthy Food Retail in a City
2:30pm Advanced Environmental Control and Life Support Systems for Long-Duration Human Space Flight
4pm DEPARTMENT WIDE SEMINAR - Corruption, Intimidation and Whistleblowing: A Theory of Inference from Unverifiable Reports
6pm TalkBack 360: Science on Trial: Rebuilding Credibility in the Face of Natural Disaster
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Thursday, March 21
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12pm FAS MOVIES/BROWN BAG LUNCH SERIES
4pm BioEnergy Lecture Series - Joule Fuels: A Transformative Production Platform for Liquid Fuel from the Sun
4pm "Differentiating Four Levels Of Engagement In Learning: The ICAP Hypothesis"
5pm MOOCs and the Emerging Digital Classroom
5pm MIT Water Night 2013
6pm Voices of Faith For Climate Justice
6pm Crowd Funding: Where it stands now - “The Power of Alternative Financing for Entrepreneurs”
The EntreTech Forum
6pm March 2013 Boston New Technology Showcase #bnt27
6pm Rebuilding L'Aquila After the Earthquake of 2009
6:30pm Guns Don't Kill People, The Media Kills People
6:30pm Future Cities: Dreams/Nightmares or Opportunities for a New Operating System
7pm CAMBRIDGE URBAN CYCLING 101 CLASS
7pm 4th ANNUAL - WOMEN TAKE THE REEL 2013 - FIRST PERSON PLURAL - Film Screening
7pm Film Screening: Film (1965), Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)
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Saturday, March 23
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8:30am Egypt NEGMA Conference 2013
9am http://libreplanet.org/wiki/LibrePlanet2013/about
10am Arlington EcoFest 2013, EcoFootprints: Arlington's People, Places & Spaces
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Sunday, March 24
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8:30am Egypt NEGMA Conference 2013
9am LibrePlanet:Conference 2013: Commit Change
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Monday, March 25
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12pm “Ecological Forecasting: How Science Can Help Society to Proactively Prepare for a Warmer World”
12pm The Real Estate Crisis in Spain
12:30pm Let there be Light: Addressing the Energy Access Challenge through Innovation
4pm The Future of the GOP: Information Technology in Politics
4:30pm The Underclass Debate 30 Years Later
5:30pm "The House I Live In": Film Screening and Discussion
7pm Ignite LocationTech Boston
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Tuesday, March 26
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8:30am Arctic Warming and Global Climate Change: Deadly Dance
12pm "The New Ecosystem of Journalism and Where It Is Leading"
12pm Chaos or Stability: Venezuela Paving the Way for the After-Chavez
12:30pm Permission Taken
4pm A Deep Dive into Congressional Elections
5:30pm “The Way Forward: A 21st Century Transportation Plan”
6pm Foreclosures: The Great Untold Story
6:30pm Social Entrepreneurs Networking
7:45pm Micro-Housing: Rethinking Urban Living
7pm Lightning talks: 5 minute presentations on hot apps & cool companies
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Event Details
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Monday, March 18
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“Building Social-Ecological Cities: Community Development and the Institutional Challenge of Urban Environmentalism”
Monday, March 18, 2013
12pm
Northeastern University, 450 Renaissance Park, 1135 Tremont Street, Room 426, Boston
James Connolly
Assistant Professor, Political Science and Public Policy and Urban Affairs, College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Contact Northeastern Humanities nuhumanities at neu.edu
617-373-4140
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[MIT Energy Club] Energy 101: "Capturing Carbon - The Current State of CCS Technology and the Road Ahead"
Monday, March 18, 2013
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building 8-119, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Jan Eide
Energy 101 Lectures series
The Energy 101 lectures aim at presenting an overview of various topics in the energy field. These lectures are open to everyone and require no prior knowledge.
Despite initially hailed as a critical climate mitigation technology alongside renewables and energy efficiency, the momentum for deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology on power plants has slowed considerably. The talk will give an overview of existing technologies for CCS as well as some novel technologies currently being developed. After an overview of capture and storage technologies, some of the reasons for the slowed momentum will be discussed as well as some steps that could be taken in order for CCS to live up to the important role in climate mitigation that it was once envisioned to play.
Open to: the general public
Cost: none
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club
For more information, contact: Jonathan Mailoa; Michelle Park
jpmailoa at mit.edu; mpark15 at mit.edu
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"Design Mining the Web"
Monday, March 18, 2013
4:00pm
MIT, Building 32-G449, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Ranjitha Kumar (Stanford Univ.)
The Web has transformed the nature of creative work. For the first time, millions of people have a direct outlet for sharing their creations with the world. As a result, the Web has become the largest repository of design knowledge in human history, and the ensuing “democratization of design” has created a critical feedback loop, engendering a new culture of reuse and remixing.
The means and methods designers employ to draw on prior work, however, remain mostly informal and ad hoc. How can content producers find relevant examples amongst hundreds of millions of possibilities and leverage existing design practice to inform and improve their creations? My research explores data-driven techniques for working with examples at scale during the design process, automating search and curation, enabling rapid retargeting, and learning generative probabilistic models to support new design interactions. Knowledge discovery and data mining have revolutionized informatics; in this talk, I’ll discuss what we can learn from mining design.
Bio
Ranjitha Kumar is a PhD candidate in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University, where she builds principled, data-driven tools for amplifying human creativity in design. Her work has received best paper awards or nominations at both of the premiere HCI conferences (CHI and UIST), and been recognized by the machine learning community through invited papers at IJCAI and ICML. She is the recipient of the 2011 Google PhD Fellowship in Design Development, and holds a BS in Computer Science from Stanford.
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The Long Gaze, The Short Gaze
Monday, March 18, 2013
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building E15-001, ACT Cube, Wiesner Building, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Knut Asdam, Artist and filmmaker
How, amidst continual changes in society and media and the shifting relationship between psychology and film spectatorship, can we deal with notions of site, space, society, and subjectivity within cinema today? What narrative devices can be used to explore the interplay between these notions in the moving image? Asdam examines these questions within the context of his new film and installation projects that include border narratives between Russia and Norway, life in the edgelands of Oslo, and the narration of the uncanny in a never-completed exposition center in Lebanon.
Knut Asdam is an artist and filmmaker whose work explores the subjectivity of social structures, history, language, struggle, and the body. His work also addresses the usage and perception of urban public spaces. Asdam's experimental use of narrative and dramaturgy moves between social discourse and hallucinatory disintegration. In addition to narrative film, Asdam also works with photography and installation. His work has been recently exhibited at the Oslo National Museum, Tate Modern, Depo Istanbul, and Bergen Kunsthall. He is currently working on three film projects in Murmansk (Russia) and Kirkenes (Norway), the Grorud Valley in Oslo, and the Hebrides (Scotland).
Experiments in Thinking, Action & Form
CINEMATIC MIGRATIONS II
Web site: http://act.mit.edu/projects-and-events/lectures-series/2013-spring/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and open to the public
Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning, MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology
For more information, contact: Laura Anca Chichisan
617-253-5229
act at mit.edu
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Tuesday, March 19
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Legatum Lecture: An Impertinent Inquiry into Microfinance
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
5:30p–6:30p
MIT, Building E25-111, MIT Whitaker, 45 Carlton Street, Cambridge
Speaker: David Roodman, Center for Global Development
Microfinance has been a major inspiration for the social enterprise movement in developing countries. It has garnered more than 100 million customers, billions of dollars in financing, and a Nobel Prize. But, microcredit bubbles have popped. This lecture will address the impact of microfinance and how it should be supported.
Web site: http://legatum.mit.edu/content/1285
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship
For more information, contact: Agnes Hunsicker
617-324-2768
agnesh at mit.edu
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VMS From The Trenches -- Entrepreneurs Start-Up War Stories
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
5:30p–7:00p
MIT, Building 4-163, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Ben Vigoda
From The Trenches
Entrepreneurs Speakers Program of behind-the-scenes realities of launching your own company, given by CEO's of VMS-mentored ventures.
Founder and CEO of Lyric Semiconductor gives first-person account of developing vision for unique probability processing technology into a real business (acquired by Analog Devices). RSVP: Friday, March 15. vms at mit.edu.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Venture Mentoring Service
For more information, contact:
Roberta McCarthy
617-258-0720
vms at mit.edu
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Cambridge Hackspace Meetup #2
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
6:30 PM (EDT)
5 Fainwood Circle, Cambridge
RSVP at http://cambridgehackspace2-es2005.eventbrite.com/
We had an awesome time at our first meeting, and we're hoping you did too! Please join us again (or for the first time!), and bring some stuff to hack.
What we will provide:
- Snackage and drinks.
- At least one Arduino Uno, plus access to a full kitchen and some other crafty things (needles, fiber fill, felt).
- Some storage space.
- A ping pong table.
What you'll have to bring:
- If you already have a specific project in mind that you want to get started on right away, bring all necessary materials. This includes food/ingredients if you plan on tinkering in the kitchen!
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Architecture/HTC Forum: Theorizing Transnational Contact Zones in Film and Media
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
6:30-8:30pm
MIT, Building 7-429, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Masha Salazkina, Film Studies PhD Program Director and Concordia University Research Chair in Transnational Media Art and Culture, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University
Web site: http://architecture.mit.edu/history-theory-and-criticism/lecture/theorizing-transnational-contact-zones-film-and-media
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture, History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art
For more information, contact: Kelly Presutti
presutti at mit.edu
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SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE REASONS FOR CLIMATE GRIDLOCK
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
7 pm
NU, Marine Science Center, 430 Nahant Road, Nahant
Dr. Susan Solomon, Professor
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Greenport Forum: After Shock, A New Role For Local Climate Activists
Tuesday, March 19
7:00pm
Cambridgeport Baptist Church, 459 Putnam Avenue, Cambridge (corner of Magazine Street and Putnam Avenue)
How many shocks have there been? Katrina, summer heat, loss of Arctic sea ice, drought, rising seas, melting permafrost, methane plumes, Sandy, and more. Yet American public opinion about climate change and climate policy have changed little since Al Gore sounded the alarm in An Inconvenient Truth. About one in four American adults believe that citizens should be doing much more about climate change.
In an essay titled After Shock, A Strategy for Climate Activists (http://climatebluecircle.blogspot.com/) Cambridge resident John Pitkin asks why they aren't doing more. His answer suggests that grassroots activists can move thousands of people in Cambridge alone to act in many new ways to reduce and prepare for climate change. John will lead a discussion about our current situation and a proposed new role for grassroots activists in responding to the climate crisis. Join us!
John is a demographer by profession and a local activist by conviction. He helped to organize the Cambridge Climate Congress (in 2009), chaired the Cambridge Climate Emergency Action Group (CCEAG), and now serves on the board of Green Cambridge.
GreenPort envisions and encourages a just and sustainable Cambridgeport neighborhood
For more information, contact Steve Wineman at steven.wineman at gmail.com
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Wednesday, March 20
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Climate Change & Insurance: What’s Ahead
March 20
10:30 am to Noon
EPA Region 1, Court Room 6, 15th floor, 5 Post Office Square, Boston
Panelists: Cynthia McHale, CERES; Jay Burns, The Hartford; Paul Bianco, Traveler’s Institute; and Glen Daraskevich, Karen Clark & Co. (catastrophe modeling).
There is a webinar option; connect at https://epa.connectsolutions.com/r1-climate-change-seminars/
For more information, contact Shutsu Wong, wong.shutsu at epa.gov
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CAST Music and Technology: Chris Janney
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
12:00p
MIT, Building 14W-111, Killian Hall, Hayden Library Building, 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
CAST Music and Technology Seminar Series presents Chris Janney. Janney began "painting with sound" in 1976, combining architecture and jazz at MIT???s Environmental Art program under artist Otto Piene. Janney's thesis "Soundstair" initiated the "Urban Musical Instruments" series whose large-scale installations, often using interactive electronics, colored glass, and sound, are found in subways, airports, and other spaces around the United States and Europe. Noon, Killian Hall. Free.
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): Music and Theater Arts
For more information, contact: Clarise Snyder
mta-request at mit.edu
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[MIT Energy Club] Discussion Series: "Capturing Carbon - The Current State of CCS Technology and the Road Ahead"
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building 5-234, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Jan Eide
In this roundtable discussion, Jan will first give a quick summary of his Carbon Capture and Sequestration 101 talk, including an overview of existing technologies for CCS, some novel technologies currently being developed, and some of the reasons behind the slowed momentum of the CCS industry. Then Jan will lead the discussion between the audiences about topics of interest in carbon capture.
MIT Energy Discussion Series
The Discussion Series is an energy discussion series led by graduate student experts in various energy areas. Suggested preparation readings for upcoming discussions are available on our website.
Open to: the general public
Cost: None
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club
For more information, contact: Jonathan Mailoa; Michelle Park
jpmailoa at mit.edu; mpark15 at mit.edu
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The Budget Implications of the U.S. Military Defense of Persian Gulf Oil
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
12:00p–1:30p
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Eugene Gholz, University of Texas at Austin
SSP Wednesday Seminar
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Security Studies Program
For more information, contact: 617-253-7529
valeriet at mit.edu
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Food Policy Councils: Improving Healthy Food Retail in a City
Wednesday, March 20
2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Eastern/ 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Pacific
Webinar - register at https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/s/registrations/new?cid=yfe1helvstrt
Food policy councils are becoming an effective way to foster healthy food environments in communities across the country. Join us for an in-depth examination of the successful Los Angeles Food Policy Council. Plus, learn about efforts in other cities across the United States.
Presenters Include:
Mary Lee, Deputy Director, PolicyLink
Clare Fox, Strategic Initiatives Coordinator, Los Angeles Food Policy Council
Lindsey Day Farnsworth, Researcher, University of Wisconsin-Madison Community and Regional Food Systems Project, Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems
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Advanced Environmental Control and Life Support Systems for Long-Duration Human Space Flight
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
2:30p–4:00p
MIT, Building 37-212, 70 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Prof. Tom Filburn, Dept. ME, University of Hartford, Formerly with Hamilton Sundstrand
16.68 Modern Space Science and Engineering Seminar
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): AeroAstro, MASS Space Grant Consortium
For more information, contact: Liz Zotos
617-253-7805
zotos at mit.edu
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DEPARTMENT WIDE SEMINAR - Corruption, Intimidation and Whistleblowing: A Theory of Inference from Unverifiable Reports
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
4:00p–5:45p
MIT, Building E51-345, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Sylvain Chassang (Princeton)
Web site:http://www.princeton.edu/~chassang/papers/corruptionIntimidationWhistleblowing.pdf
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Economics Special Events
For more information, contact: Theresa Benevento
theresa at mit.edu
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TalkBack 360: Science on Trial: Rebuilding Credibility in the Face of Natural Disaster
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
6:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building N51, MIT Museum, 275 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: John Ochsendorf, Robert van der Hilst, Larry Susskind, Barnaby Gunning, Maddalena D'Alfonso, Michele Natasi
TalkBack 360
TalkBack 360 is a new program series at the MIT Museum where audiences and researchers come together to share their diverse perspectives on hot topics in science, technology, and the arts.
Rebuilding Credibility in the Face of Natural Disaster
When natural disaster strikes, who is held responsible? After the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake struck the Italian region of Abruzzo, killing more than 300 people, six seismologists were convicted of manslaughter. Nearly three years later, the city is still rebuilding. Join representatives from the city's reconstruction team in discussion with MIT experts on geology, architecture, and dispute resolution. Share your thoughts on the limitations of scientific data, and the obligation of scientists, city planners, and policy makers alike to predict and plan for the impact of natural disasters on local communities.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/museum/programs/talkback.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum, School of Architecture and Planning, Consulate of Italy in Boston
For more information, contact:
Josie Patterson
617-253-5927
museuminfo at mit.edu
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Thursday, March 21
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FAS MOVIES/BROWN BAG LUNCH SERIES
Thursday, March 21, 2013
12-1 p.m.
Harvard, Mallinckrodt Faculty Room, 102, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Join the FAS Green Program for screenings of the most inspiring TED talks on a variety of environmental topics. Every 3rd Thursday of the month
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BioEnergy Lecture Series - Joule Fuels: A Transformative Production Platform for Liquid Fuel from the Sun
March 21, 2013
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 54-100 (the tallest building on campus)
Dan Robertson, Chief Scientific Officer, Joule Unlimited
Joule was founded in 2007 to develop and implement direct photosynthetic conversion to fuels and commodity products. The company has developed cyanobacterial photobiocatalysts that operate continuously in a proprietary SolarConverter to use sunlight, waste CO2 and brackish water to synthesize drop-in ethanol and paraffins.
This lecture is part of the BioEnergy Lecture Series offered by the new BioEnergy Community at MIT.
Sponsored by: MIT Energy Club
Admission: Open to the public
For more information: Contact MIT Energy Club
energyclub at mit.edu
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"Differentiating Four Levels Of Engagement In Learning: The ICAP Hypothesis"
Thursday, March 21, 2013
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 4-163, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Michelene (Micki) Chi, Professor, Division of Educational Leadership and Innovation, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University
Professor Chi will describe the ICAP hypothesis, embedded in a framework that differentiates overt engagement activities.
The framework suggests that any learning activity can be classified into one of four distinct categories based on students' overt behaviors or mode of engagement: Interactive or dialoguing, Constructive or generating, Active or selecting, and Passive or receiving.
Based on this framework, the ICAP hypothesis predicts that as students become more cognitively engaged with the learning material, from passive to active to constructive to interactive, their learning will increase. Empirical support for the ICAP hypothesis will be provided by numerous studies in the literature, by studies undertaken in her lab, as well as in classrooms whose teachers they have trained.
Limitations of the hypothesis, caveats to its generalizability, and benefits of the hypothesis for research and instructional design will also be discussed. Her lab's immediate effort is the development of an online module to train teachers how to design and improve classroom activities that move students from one level of engagement to a higher level of engagement.
If time permits, she will also describe briefly our findings about learning from observing videos of tutorial dialogues.
DUE Education Talk series (DUET)
DUET is a monthly series emphasizing current research on learning, cognitive psychology, educational technology, machine learning, neuroscience, and educational assessment, among other topics. DUET's goal is to provide the MIT community with the latest research in education and to contribute to efforts to enhance student learning both residentially and online.
Web site: http://chilab.asu.edu/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Teaching and Learning Laboratory, Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education
For more information, contact: Jennifer French
617-324-4506
jfrench at mit.edu
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MOOCs and the Emerging Digital Classroom
Thursday, March 21, 2013
5:00 - 7:00 p.m.
MIT, Building E14-633, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Abstract
MOOCs and other forms of online learning have the potential to disrupt traditional classroom education—or to help us better understand how to exploit the many learning spaces students now inhabit. This forum examines the ongoing migration of our analog practices into digital forms, looking at the ways in which digital technologies are transforming teaching and learning both on and off campus. What gaps in our curricula, or in our students’ experience, can be filled through technology? What elements of teaching practice can be effectively translated into new media, and what aspects of “teaching” must be redefined?
Speakers
Anant Agarwal the president of edX, a worldwide, online learning initiative of MIT and Harvard University, and a professor in MIT’s electrical engineering and computer science department.
Alison Byerly holds an interdisciplinary appointment as College Professor at Middlebury College and, during 2012-2013, she is a visiting scholar in the Literature Section at MIT. Recently, she was named the 17th president of Lafayette College in Easton, Pa.
Daphne Koller is the Rajeev Motwani Professor in the computer science department at Stanford University. Koller will join the conversation live from the west coast.
Moderator: David Thorburn is Professor of Literature at MIT. His most recent books are the coedited volumes Democracy and New Media and Rethinking Media Change. Other writings include Conrad's Romanticism, and many essays and reviews on literature and television. He has been the director of the MIT Communications Forum since 1994.
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MIT Water Night 2013
Thursday March 21st
5:00-8:30 pm
Morss Hall, Walker Memorial, MIT Bldg. 50, 142 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Light food and beverages will be served.
MIT Water Night will showcase around 40 posters on water-related topics. This is a great opportunity to network with MIT students and faculty in water-related field, as well as professionals from water industry.
Furthermore, 2013 is the International Year of Water Cooperation and March 22nd is World Water Day. You will learn more about “water cooperation and World Water Day” at the event.
Registration is free, however, to help us estimate the number of participants, we appreciate if you register at http://goo.gl/v7uiD
More information and list of presenters at http://waterclub.mit.edu/
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Voices of Faith For Climate Justice
Thursday, 21 March, 2013
06:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Arlington Street Church, 351 Boylston Avenue, Boston
Shalom,
I invite you to join people of faith that are called to work towards Freedom and Climate Justice for all in an interfaith evening of prayer, ritual, advocacy and a shared veggie potluck dinner.
Please bring a veggie dish to share, your own plate and utensils, and a reading from your faith tradition if you would like. Palms or ritual foods for Passover - matzah, parsley, charoset, grape juice, sliced horseradish root, and/or sliced beets – or another ritual food or object from your tradition that speaks to the themes of justice, freedom, and the environment, are also welcomed.
Please RSVP on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/484802971568129/ and invite your friends.
Contact Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
www.mayantikvah.org
Email: rabbikza at verizon.net
Phone: 508-358-5996
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Crowd Funding: Where it stands now - “The Power of Alternative Financing for Entrepreneurs”
The EntreTech Forum
Thursday, March 21, 2013
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
Cambridge Innovation Center, Havana Room, 5th Floor, One Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://etfmar2013-eorgf.eventbrite.com
3:00 - 6:00 PM - Networking, Other Events and Refreshments - Cambridge Innovation Center - 4th Floor, Cambridge, MA
6:00 - 8:00 PM - EntreTech Forum Panel Discussion - Cambridge Innovation Center, Havana Room - 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA
Ask any entrepreneur about raising seed capital to get their venture off the ground, and you'll hear a wide range of adventure stories. Lucky ones are able to secure an initial investor and get started, while the majority spends countless months selling their ideas to investors that like the ideas but are hesitant to gamble on an uncertain exit. Enter crowd funding, a powerful means to directly tap into groups of new and veteran investors. In last year's EntreTech Forum session, we saw successful Crowd funding efforts that funded small projects up to startup companies. No longer a techie fad, crowd funding has raised more than $10 million for some companies. Now many want to know how or if it can be used as a mature source for financing ventures.
Join us for this EntreTech Forum where we will have a discussion with an executive panel of advisors from the investment, startup, and legislative areas. They will share their perspectives and experiences on topics that every entrepreneur grapples with as they seek funding, including:
What is the outlook on Crowd Funding from a political perspective?
Where does the government legislative and Securities and Exchange Commission findings-report on Crowd Funding stand?
How do I leverage crowd funding?
How does the equity allocation work?
With respect to the IRS, what do we need to be aware of and what are the rules?
If I use crowd funding for seed financing, does this make my company more or less attractive to traditional angel or VC investors down the road?
Bring your own experiences and share them at this lively discussion.
Panel:
Alon Hillel-Tuch, Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer - RocketHub
RocketHub is one of the world’s largest crowdfunding platforms. Alon was born in the land of cheese and clogs, The Netherlands, and speaks English, Dutch, German, and a smidge of Mandarin Chinese. Alon co-authored two whitepapers, entitled Regulation of Crowdfunding: Building On the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, and Implementation Of Crowdfunding: Building On Title III Of The Jobs Act, which have both received critical acclaim and resulted in Alon testifying before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in US Congress and meeting with the U.S Treasury Department, White House’s Jobs Counsel, SEC, FINRA, and the Ontario Securities Commission.
Alon holds a B.A. from Hamilton College and received his M.Sc from Columbia University. Alon is a fellow at the Earth Institute and is currently part of the Advanced Consortium of Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity think-tank on genocide prevention.
Joseph Schlesinger, Founder – ArcBotics, Founder & Director - MakeIt Labs
Joseph was trained as an electrical and computer engineer at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and has worked across many fields, with a passion for robotics. A serial entrepreneur since a young age, he is the founder of MakeIt Labs. MakeIt Labs is an open-access workshop in Nashua, NH, where anyone can come to brainstorm, learn and create with like-minded people. Joseph is currently working on his company ArcBotics, which develops and sells open, low-cost robotics platforms for hobbyists, education and research. ArcBotics is dedicated to helping igniting a wave of innovation in robotics through Open-Source Hardware. The company aims to provide easily-accessible tutorials, plans, kits and parts for anyone from the enthusiast to the dedicated researcher, to make it cheaper and easier to build robots. Joseph has successfully raised funding for his business through Kickstarter.
Moderator
David R. Pierson, Partner, Foley Hoag Emerging Entreprise Center
David chairs Foley Hoag’s Venture Capital/Emerging Companies Practice Group. He represents a broad range of emerging companies, including companies in the software and technology, life sciences, cleantech and other industries. David also represents U.S. and foreign venture capital firms in connection with their investments throughout the U.S. His practice at the EEC focuses in particular on start-up companies, and includes providing advice regarding corporate formation, founder arrangements, angel and venture capital financings, equity incentive plans, mergers and acquisitions and other strategic transactions, contract negotiations and general corporate matters.
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March 2013 Boston New Technology Showcase #bnt27
Thursday, March 21, 2013
6:00 to 7:00 - Networking with pizza and beverages provided by VoltDB and McGlynn, Clinton & Hall Insurance Agencies (5th floor)
7:00 to 7:10 - Announcements (6th floor)
7:10 to 8:30 - Presentations, Q&A (6th floor)
8:30 - More networking over drinks at the Lingo Bar & Grill on the first level of the building (go left after exiting the elevators to the lobby area).
Hult International Business School, 1 Education Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston_New_Technology/events/105741752/
Wait for an usher to escort you through security and to the 5th floor.
Come learn about 7 innovative and exciting technology products and network with the Boston/Cambridge startup community! Each presenter gets 5 minutes for product demonstration and 5 minutes for Q&A. Please follow @BostonNewTech and use the #bnt27 hashtag in social media posts: details here.
1. VoltDB / @VoltDB - A scale out persistent in-memory OLTP database focused on high velocity transaction processing! (Ariel Weisberg) www.VoltDB.com Technologies: Java, C++, Ruby, Python, PHP, C++, C#
2. Polar / @PolarPolls - The most fun you can have collecting and sharing opinions. Free iPhone app lets you take entertaining polls and make your own! (Dmitry Dragilev / @Dragilev) www.PolarB.com
3. MortgageAuction.com / @LendersBid - Saves borrowers $10k on average via open auction bidding where lenders discount mortgage rates and fees! (Jeff Chin / @IAmJeffChin) www.MortgageAuction.comTechnologies: Ruby on Rails, Twitter Bootstrap
4. Mecube / @MeCubeCom - Easy-to-learn mobile 3D design software that allows anyone to 3D print their designs from their smartphone or tablet! (Janos Stone) www.MeCubeCom.comTechnologies: HTML5, Java
5. AppPack by Ubersimple / @UberSimple - Lets you easily collect and share info from events using a mobile app or web on your phone. (Brad Durbin) www.UberSimple.com Technologies: iOS, Android, mongo, Node.js, SQL, HTML5, PHP
6. Hubster.TV / @HubsterTV - Hubster.TV is the easiest way to find premium streaming content on the Internet. (Anil Goud / @Mr_Goud& Ethan Greenspan / @EthanGreenspan) www.Hubster.TVTechnologies: Python, JavaScript, JQuery, iOS, Android
7. PlowMe / @PlowMeApp - Lets you wake up to a snow-free driveway, a shoveled walkway, even a cleared-off vehicle. (Yeh Diab / @yehdiab & Brandon Casci) www.PlowMe.com
Sponsored by:
McGlynn, Clinton & Hall Insurance Agencies, Inc. -For over 50 years, the McGlynn, Clinton & Hall insurance agencies have worked hard to provide our customers with the insurance coverage and financial services they need. Whether you have a multi-million dollar business with hundreds of employees or just need home and automobile insurance, our knowledgeable staff will make sure you have the right amount of coverage at the best price. Follow @LLMcGlynn.www.mchinsure.com
VoltDB provides a fully durable, in-memory relational database that combines high-velocity data ingestion and real-time data analytics and decisioning to enable organizations to unleash a new generation of big data applications that deliver unprecedented business value. Organizations in markets ranging from financial services and Web media, to public utilities and national defense, use VoltDB to narrow the “ingestion-to-decision” gap from minutes, or even hours, to milliseconds. Founded by database legend Dr. Michael Stonebraker, VoltDB is privately held with offices in Billerica, Mass. and Santa Clara, Calif. Follow @VoltDB and join them on facebook. www.voltdb.com 1-[masked]
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Rebuilding L'Aquila After the Earthquake of 2009
Thursday, March 21, 2013
6:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building 10-105, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Rebuilding L'Aquila After the Earthquake of 2009
A roundtable discussion in conjunction with the Wolk Gallery exhibition Suspended City: L'Aquila After the Earthquake of 2009, Photographs by Michele Nastasi. The discussion features Maddalena D'Alfonso, Architect and Curator, Milan Polytechnic University; Giuseppe Di Girolamo, Official Architect for the Commissioner, Preservation of Cultural Heritage of L'Aquila; Barnaby Gunning, Architect, London; Alessandra Mancinelli, Archivist Director of MIBAC, Ministry of Heritage and Culture of Italy, and Deputy Commissioner, Secretariat for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage of L'Aquila, 2009-2012; Luciano Marchetti,National Commission for Forecasting and Preventing Major Risks - Cultural Heritage - Presidency of the Council of Ministers of Italy, and Deputy Commissioner for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage of L'Aquila, 2009-2012; Michele Nastasi, Architectural Photographer, Milan and Editor, Lotus International; Moderated by John Ochsendorf, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, MIT; Introduced by Gary Van Zante, Curator of Architecture and Design, MIT Museum.
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): School of Architecture and Planning
For more information, contact: Laura Knott
617 258 9106
lknott at mit.edu
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Guns Don't Kill People, The Media Kills People
Thursday, March 21
6:30-8 pm
Suffolk University Law School, McLaughlin Moot Court Room, 120 Tremont Street, Boston
Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University presents with John Rosenthal and Charlton McIlwain; moderated by Edward Powell.
The media shapes how we see things, even when we know the truth is otherwise. After all, why is the national conversation on guns framed as "pro-gun vs. anti-gun" despite most of our perspectives being much more nuanced? Moderator Edward Powell (Executive Director, The Boston Foundation's StreetSafe Boston) shines a spotlight on how the media's distortion of reality exacerbates gun violence. He speaks with John Rosenthal (gun owner and founder/Chairman of Stop Handgun Violence) and Charlton McIlwain (Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, NYU Steinhardt) to identify how TV, internet, and newspaper reporting paints an inaccurate picture of guns' effects on communities of color and engages in fear-mongering that fails to prevent further tragedies.
Further background information on the participants:
Charlton McIlwain is an Associate Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University at Steinhardt. His research interests focus broadly on issues of race and media, particularly within the social and political arena. McIlwain co-authored/edited the books Race Appeal and The Routledge Companion to Race and Ethnicity.His other scholarly works have appeared in the International Journal of Press/Politics, American Behavioral Scientist, Communication Quarterly, and many more. Currently, he is researching individuals' cognitive and physiological responses to race-based messages in political ads. McIlwain is also exploring how people use digital media to influence both the discourse and political work surrounding racial equality and equal opportunity. Additionally, he recently launched a new site, KidsOnColor.com, a forum for exchanging childhood stories about racial awareness.
Edward M. Powell is the executive director of StreetSafe Boston, bringing 20 years of experience in the private, not-for-profit, and government sectors to StreetSafe’s mission of transforming Boston’s toughest youth in an effort to make city neighborhoods safe. Powell comes to StreetSafe Boston from the Boston Private Industry Council, one of the nation’s premier public-private partnerships that connects business, the Boston Public Schools, higher education, government, labor, and community organizations to create innovative workforce and education solutions. A decade ago, he co-founded the All For One AAU Basketball program where he served as an assistant coach and oversaw the academic component of the program. Powell now serves on the board of the Manny Wilson Developmental Basketball League at the Yawkey Boys and Girls Club which receives academic support through an educational component implemented by Powell.
In 1995, gun-owner and recreational Trap Shooter John Rosenthal founded Stop Handgun Violence, an organization known for its giant billboard along the Mass Turnpike near Fenway Park. Their billboard campaign communicates the extent of the national gun violence problem as well as practical solutions. In 2005, Rosenthal co-founded a membership organization called American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA). AHSA is an alternative membership organization to the NRA for moderate gun owners who care about gun rights as well as gun safety, conservation and wildlife habitat, and support for law enforcement. John Rosenthal is also the President of Meredith Management (real estate development) and the founder of Friends of Boston’s Homeless.
Admission is free and open to all. Wheelchair accessible and conveniently located near the Park St. MBTA Station. For more information, contact Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University: 617-557-2007, www.fordhallforum.org.
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Future Cities: Dreams/Nightmares or Opportunities for a New Operating System
Thursday, March 21, 2013
6:30-8:30pm
MIT, Building 7-429, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Nasrine Seraji, Architect, Atelier Seraji, Paris; Dean, Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Architecture de Paris-Malaquais
Architecture Lecture Series
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture
For more information, contact:
617-253-7791
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CAMBRIDGE URBAN CYCLING 101 CLASS
Thursday, March 21
7-8 pm
Cambridge City Hall Annex, 344 Broadway, Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is holding a free Urban Cycling 101 class open to all Cambridge residents and students. No experience or bicycle necessary. Please RSVP with Jennifer Lawrence jlawrence at cambridgema.gov or by calling 617.349.4671.
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4th ANNUAL - WOMEN TAKE THE REEL 2013 - FIRST PERSON PLURAL - Film Screening
Thursday, March 21, 2013
7:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building 4-163, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
First Person Plural
Directed by Deann Borshay Liem
In 1966, Deann Borshay Liem was adopted by an American family and was sent from Korea to her new home. Growing up in California, the memory of her birth family was nearly obliterated until recurring dreams lead Deann to discover the truth: her Korean mother was very much alive. Bravely uniting her biological and adoptive families, Deann's heartfelt journey makes First Person Plural a poignant essay on family, loss, and the reconciling of two identities.
First Person Plural is "eloquent and reserved, a study of courage tempered by love. Everything about this documentary feels breathtakingly real. But thanks to Deann Borshay Liem's balance of restraint and candor in telling her own story, her film never makes you feel like an intruder in her private realm. Instead, you know you are an honored guest." ~ The New York Times
Trailer: http://www.mufilms.org/films/firstpersonplural/#.UQqf--judNw
60 minutes.
Discussion with WGS Professor S. Haslanger to follow.
*Wheelchair accessibility available through the Infinite Corridor in Building 8 or through the ramp at Building 14.*
Web site: web.mit.edu/wgs/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Women's and Gender Studies
For more information, contact: The Friendly WGS Staff
3-8844
wgs at mit.edu
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Film Screening: Film (1965), Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)
Thursday, March 21, 2013
7:00p–8:30p
MIT, Bartos Theatre, Lower Level, E15, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Film (screenplay, Samuel Beckett; dir., Alan Schneider, 1965, 20 min.)
Land of Silence and Darkness (dir., Werner Herzog, 1971, 85 min.)
In her work Amalia Pica confronts the failures, gaps, and slippages of communication. The act of delivering a verbal or non verbal message, and the various forms of communicative exchange that may take place along with the very limits of language, are central to her work. In conjunction with the exhibition the List Center presents a special film program featuring Film, Samuel Beckett's only work written for film; and Land of Silence and Darkness Werner Herzog's critically acclaimed documentary about the world of the deaf-blind.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): List Visual Arts Center
For more information, contact:
Mark Linga
617-253-4680
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Friday, March 22
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An unusual occurrence: I can't find anything going on!
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Saturday, March 23
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Egypt NEGMA Conference 2013
8:30a–3:00p
MIT, Building E14, Media Lab, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
NEGMA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was established after the January 25th Uprising, when a group of seven Egyptian-American and Egyptian professionals from the Harvard and MIT community got together and asked the simple question: What can we do to move ideas to action on the ground, for a brighter future for Egypt? As we thought about the social and economic needs on the ground in Egypt, we realized the need for an organization that supports innovation in order to help spur job creation and create a social impact. The founders did not want to focus exclusively on any one particular sector or industry, but rather to promote innovative and entrepreneurial projects that respond to broad social and economic needs in Egypt. The NEGMA Conference, and later NEGMA, Inc., became an outgrowth of this initiative.
Web site: http://www.egyptnegma.org/conference
Open to: the general public
Cost: $30
Tickets: http://egyptnegma.org/register
Sponsor(s): Egyptian Student Association
For more information, contact: Tarek Rakha
---------------------------------------------
LibrePlanet:Conference 2013: Commit Change
March 23rd-24th 2013
Cambridge, MA
Register at https://crm.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&id=9
LibrePlanet is an annual conference of the Free Software Foundation. What started out as our annual membership meeting has grown into a two-day conference open to the general public. At LibrePlanet, software developers, policy experts, activists and computer users come together to celebrate and advance the movement for software freedom.
LibrePlanet 2013: Commit Change
LibrePlanet is where global free software community members and newcomers meet together to learn from each other, share accomplishments and face challenges.
The free software movement is built around the concept that computer programs should be "free, as in freedom"; available for everyone to use or modify as they see fit. Software that is developed collaboratively and shared freely can help us create a more just and abundant world for everyone. We need the free software movement now more than ever, as giant IT corporations are working to restrict our freedom, stifle disruptive innovation, and invade our privacy, threatening our ability to create change in areas beyond technology.
This year, the conference focuses on bringing together the diverse voices that have a stake in free software. From software developers to activists, academics to computer users, this convergence is about working together for the software freedom we need. If you're interested in technology's role in struggles for justice, community, and freedom, then you will find a lot to be excited about at LibrePlanet.
Join us at LibrePlanet 2013 and help Commit Change.
More information at http://libreplanet.org/wiki/LibrePlanet2013/about
Editorial Comment: This event costs money but looks like it is more than worth it if you are interested in the free and open software movement.
------------------------------------
Arlington EcoFest 2013, EcoFootprints: Arlington's People, Places & Spaces
Saturday, 23 March, 2013
10:00 AM - 02:00 PM
Arlington Town Hall, 730 Mass. Avenue, Arlington
This year's EcoFest will focus on Arlington's outdoor places and spaces -- parks, playing fields, playgrounds, waterbodies, trails, gardens and more -- and how people use and care for them. Using the ecofootprint concept, we'll look at how our activities affect our outdoor resources and how to manage our ecofootprints so that those resources continue to be available for future generations.
Co-Sponsored by Arlington Garden Club, Town of Arlington, and Vision 2020/Sustainable Arlington
Featuring Guest Speaker, Meg Muckenhoupt, author of Boston's Gardens and Green Spaces; music for families with children
Exhibitors and vendors to be determined.
Check Town of Arlington website for EcoFest information starting in February: http://www.arlingtonma.gov/public_documents/index
Contact Gail McCormick
gaildtm at gmail.com
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Sunday, March 24
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Egypt NEGMA Conference 2013
8:30a–3:00p
MIT, Building E14, Media Lab, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
NEGMA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was established after the January 25th Uprising, when a group of seven Egyptian-American and Egyptian professionals from the Harvard and MIT community got together and asked the simple question: What can we do to move ideas to action on the ground, for a brighter future for Egypt? As we thought about the social and economic needs on the ground in Egypt, we realized the need for an organization that supports innovation in order to help spur job creation and create a social impact. The founders did not want to focus exclusively on any one particular sector or industry, but rather to promote innovative and entrepreneurial projects that respond to broad social and economic needs in Egypt. The NEGMA Conference, and later NEGMA, Inc., became an outgrowth of this initiative.
Web site: http://www.egyptnegma.org/conference
Open to: the general public
Cost: $30
Tickets: http://egyptnegma.org/register
Sponsor(s): Egyptian Student Association
For more information, contact: Tarek Rakha
-----------------------------------------
LibrePlanet:Conference 2013: Commit Change
March 23rd-24th 2013
Cambridge, MA
Register at https://crm.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&id=9
LibrePlanet is an annual conference of the Free Software Foundation. What started out as our annual membership meeting has grown into a two-day conference open to the general public. At LibrePlanet, software developers, policy experts, activists and computer users come together to celebrate and advance the movement for software freedom.
LibrePlanet 2013: Commit Change
LibrePlanet is where global free software community members and newcomers meet together to learn from each other, share accomplishments and face challenges.
The free software movement is built around the concept that computer programs should be "free, as in freedom"; available for everyone to use or modify as they see fit. Software that is developed collaboratively and shared freely can help us create a more just and abundant world for everyone. We need the free software movement now more than ever, as giant IT corporations are working to restrict our freedom, stifle disruptive innovation, and invade our privacy, threatening our ability to create change in areas beyond technology.
This year, the conference focuses on bringing together the diverse voices that have a stake in free software. From software developers to activists, academics to computer users, this convergence is about working together for the software freedom we need. If you're interested in technology's role in struggles for justice, community, and freedom, then you will find a lot to be excited about at LibrePlanet.
Join us at LibrePlanet 2013 and help Commit Change.
More information at http://libreplanet.org/wiki/LibrePlanet2013/about
Editorial Comment: This event costs money but looks like it is more than worth it if you are interested in the free and open software movement.
----------------------
Monday, March 25
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“Ecological Forecasting: How Science Can Help Society to Proactively Prepare for a Warmer World”
Monday, March 25, 2013
12pm
Northeastern University, 450 Renaissance Park, 1135 Tremont Street, Room 426, Boston
Brian Helmuth
Professor, Marine and Environmental Science and Public Policy, College of Science and College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Contact Northeastern Humanities nuhumanities at neu.edu
617-373-4140
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The Real Estate Crisis in Spain
WHEN Mon., Mar. 25, 2013, 12 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Cabot Room, Busch Hall, Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Iberian Study Group
COST free
CONTACT INFO Alvaro Santana-Acu–a, asantana at fas.harvard.edu
NOTE This will be a panel discussion over a light lunch. Further details forthcoming.
LINK https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/#/studygroups/iberian
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Let there be Light: Addressing the Energy Access Challenge through Innovation
Monday, March 25, 2013
12:30-1:45 PM
Tufts, Cabot 702, The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
Kartikeya Singh, Junior Research Fellow, CIERP, The Fletcher School
Two great challenges face humanity: energy access and climate change. There are 1.3 billion people who lack access to electricity, but providing them equitable and genuine access – enough to thrive, not simply survive – may conflict with existing frameworks for addressing climate change. Or, this challenge can be met through innovation in energy access. Kartikeya will draw on his research to frame the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the energy access sector and the base of the pyramid in a climate constrained world.
Kartikeya Singh, a PhD candidate at The Fletcher School and CIERP Junior Research Fellow, received his Master of Environmental Science degree at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies at Yale University. His research interests include climate change and energy policy, innovation and the geopolitics of energy use. His Master’s thesis focused on effective management of access to energy for rural communities in India through decentralized renewable energy systems. Previously, Kartikeya was a consultant with the Environmental Defense Fund. He is the co-founder of the Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN), which has served as a forum for voices of the budding youth climate movement across South Asia. He has been involved with international climate negotiations since the UN climate talks in Bali in 2007 and has served as part of the negotiating team of the government of Maldives at the climate talks from 2009 to 2012.
------------------------------------
The Future of the GOP: Information Technology in Politics
WHEN Mon., Mar. 25, 2013, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE John F. Kennedy School of Government, Institute of Politics, Littauer 166
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics
Fellows & Study Groups
SPEAKER(S) John Murray, Spring 2013 IOP Fellow
Rob Saliterman, Head of Republican Advertising, Google
Katie Harbath, Manager-Public Policy, Facebook
Priscilla Valls, East Coast Vice President, Pandora
CONTACT INFO Eric Andersen: Eric_Andersen at hks.harvard.edu
LINK http://www.iop.harvard.edu/future-gop-led-john-murray
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The Underclass Debate 30 Years Later
WHEN Mon., Mar. 25, 2013, 4:30 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Center for Population & Development Studies, 9 Bow Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Center for Population & Development Studies
SPEAKER(S) Douglas S. Massey, Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Princeton University
COST Free
NOTE This seminar will begin at 4:30pm.
LINK http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/population-development/events/pop-center-seminars/
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"The House I Live In": Film Screening and Discussion
WHEN Mon., Mar. 25, 2013, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Askwith Hall, Longfellow Building, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Ethics, Film, Law, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR HGSE Critical Race Theory (CRT), HGSE Alumni of Color Conference (AOCC), HGSE Black Student Union, and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School
SPEAKER(S) Charles Ogletree, Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at the Harvard Law School
DIRECTED BY Eugene Jarecki
COST Free and Open to the Public
CONTACT INFO Liane Hypolite: lih932 at mail.harvard.edu
FB event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/594600920567633/
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0atL1HSwi8
----------------------------------------
Ignite LocationTech Boston
Monday, March 25, 2013
7:00 PM to 10:00 PM (EDT)
Space With A Soul, 281 Summer Street, Boston
RSVP at http://ignitelocationtechboston1-es2005.eventbrite.com/
Open Source And Geospatial Technology In Snack Size Presentations
Join us for an evening of great 5 minute talks about open source and geospatial technologies by people who are passionate about it. Speakers will be from the local and national communities. Each presentation is 5 minutes, 20 slides, 15 seconds a slides.
Presentations
City Hall and the Blizzard
The blizzard this year tested City Hall's technology to its limit. This talk will detail the new challenges that the city faced and explore the lessons learned.
Michael Lawrence Evans, New Urban Mechanic, Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics
Michael Lawrence Evans is a developer and designer with the Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics. Lately, his primary focus has been on data visualization and cartography. Previously, he was a developer at Stamen, a design and technology studio in San Francisco. He was also a 2011 Fellow at Code for America, where he led the development of the Open311 Dashboard and served as a Google Summer of Code mentor. You can reach him at mevans at newurbanmechanics.org or @EvansML on Twitter.
Leaflet for some cats
An introduction to the Leafletjs JavaScript library so easy any feline with a working knowledge of JavaScript can understand it. Covering basics towards some fancy stuff with D3. (With apologies to Max Ogden).
Calvin Metcalf, Cartographer, MassDOT
I make maps professionally for MassDOT and also annoy my lovely girl friend by making even more maps in my free time. My weapon of choice is Leaflet, in addition to Leaflet, I also use PouchDB and D3.
The Hubway Data Visualization Challenge: an Open Data initiative for engagement and awareness about bicycle transportation.
In October 2012, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) released more than a year’s worth of trip data from Boston’s bike sharing program Hubway and launched the Hubway Data Visualization Challenge. The contest invited the interested public to explore, analyze and visualize data from more than half a million Hubway bike trips in the Boston Metro Area, and submit interesting visualizations, animations, or other kinds of creative analysis.
Christian Spanring, Metropolitan Area Planning Council(MAPC)
Christian Spanring, GIS Developer, has been with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) since 2009. His focus is introducing innovative Open Source mapping and public engagement solutions to support MAPC’s mission and projects. The variety of MAPC projects he is working on ranges from mapping tools like the MAPC Trailmap for pedestrian and bicycle facilities, over engagement tools like the MBTA Budget Calculator to urban park discovery applications or data exploration tools like the MetroBoston DataCommon.
How I started contributing to open source projects
My New Year's resolution was to begin contributing to open source software. After using FOSS tools like OGR/GDAL and PostGIS for years, I wanted to give something back and get involved with the community. In this talk, I'll walk through how I got started on my first small open source project, an HTML5 offline mapping project using Leaflet, PhoneGap, and MapBox (offline_map_poc)
Max Uhlenhuth, Founder, SilviaTerra
Max Uhlenhuth is the co-founder and technical lead of SilviaTerra, a high-tech forestry company. Often combining many diverse technologies into a single project, he enjoys working on projects ranging from robotics and cloud computing to GIS and mobile. A 2012 graduate of Yale University, Max was recently named by Forbes as one of America's top college entrepreneurs.
Going multispectral: open source multi-band satellite imaging and spectroscopy
The Public Lab community has developed both open source hardware and software to replicate some of the functions of multispectral imaging satellites and visible-infrared spectrometers, with a focus on investigating plant health and contaminated water and soil. Both techniques have geospatial aspects and Public Lab is encouraging open source publication of this data by contributors, hosting an open spectral library (spectralworkbench.org) for the exchange of data as well as a suite of online tools and APIs for manipulating, interpreting, and comparing spectra. Come and find out why you need a multispectral camera or a spectrometer!
Jeffrey Warren, Co-Founder/Research Coordinator, Public Lab
The creator of GrassrootsMapping.org and co-founder and Research Director for the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science, Jeff designs mapping and civic science tools and professionally flies balloons and kites. Notable software he has created include the vector-mapping framework Cartagen and orthorectification tool MapKnitter. He is a fellow at MIT's Center for Civic Media and an advocate of open source software, hardware, and data. He co-founded Vestal Design, a graphic/interaction design firm in 2004, and directed the Cut&Paste Labs project, a year-long series of workshops on opensource tools and web design in 2006-7 with Lima designer Diego Rotalde.
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Tuesday, March 26
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Arctic Warming and Global Climate Change: Deadly Dance
Tuesday, March 26, 2013 from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM (EDT)
Tufts University - Alumnae Hall, 40 Talbot Avenue, Medford
RSVP at http://arcticwarmingglobalclimatechange.eventbrite.com
A Edward R. Murrow Center International Inquiry
The warming Arctic is both a result of global warming and key contributor to it. Reduced sea ice in the summer occurs because of a warming atmosphere and ocean. With dark water absorbing more solar energy than reflective sea ice, it accelerates global warming as well. Calving of icebergs from glaciers and growing melting of the Greenland ice sheet is further impacting the composition and temperature of northern oceans.Thawing permafrost has become a source instead of a sink for heat trapping carbon dioxide and methane. So what can be done? As part of an ongoing Fletcher School initiative, a group of experts, policy makers, business and media will convene to examine the critical interaction of the Arctic and global climate change - and share some fresh ideas to address it!
Speakers:
Jennifer Francis, Rutgers University
Dalee Sambo Dorough, Univ. of Alaska, Anchorage
Kwong Byong Kwan, ForeverForest, Seoul
Robin Chase, BuzzCar, Paris
Andrew Freedman, Climate Central, New York
Craig Altemore, 350.org, Cambridge
and Fletcher faculty:
Crocker Snow - The Arctic Index
William Moomaw - “Burden Bearing to Opportunity Sharing”
INQUIRY TOPICS:
Science Worst Case/Best Case
Indigenous Insights
--------------------------------
"The New Ecosystem of Journalism and Where It Is Leading"
Tuesday, March 26
12 p.m.
Harvard, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Speaker series with Paul E. Steiger, executive chairman of ProPublica's board of directors; founding editor-in-chief, CEO and president of ProPublica from 2008 through 2012.
---------------------------------
Chaos or Stability: Venezuela Paving the Way for the After-Chavez
WHEN Tue., Mar. 26, 2013, 12 – 2 p.m.
WHERE 1730 Cambridge Street, CGIS South, S-250, DRCLAS, Cambridge, MA
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR DRCLAS, Weatherhead for International Affairs
SPEAKER(S) Leonardo Vivas and Boris Muñoz, fellows, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
CONTACT INFO sjampel at fas.harvard.edu
LINK http://www.drclas.harvard.edu/node/1890
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Permission Taken
March 26
12:30pm ET
Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor, Cambridge
RSVP required for those attending in person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2013/03/gillmor#RSVP
This event will be webcast live at 12:30pm ET.
Once, personal technology and the Internet meant that we didn't need permission to compute, communicate and innovate. Now, governments and tech companies are systematically restricting our liberties, and creating an online surveillance state. In many cases, however, we're letting it happen, by trading freedom for convenience and (often the illusion of) security. Yes, we need better laws and regulations. But what steps can we take as individuals to be more secure and free -- to take back the permissions we're losing?
About Dan
Dan Gillmor teaches digital media entrepreneurship and is a founding director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The Center, originally funded by the Knight Foundation and Kauffman Foundation, is working to help create a culture of innovation and risk-taking in journalism education, and in the wider media world.
Dan is currently working on a new book and web project, tentatively entitled Permission Taken, about the increasing control that companies and governments are exerting over the way we use technology and communicate, and how we can take back some of that control. He has posted an outline at
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vCAKdIPxgda5ZfjKZs-Hg0CAOmm3k_w90TDds1CzFxw/edit
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A Deep Dive into Congressional Elections
WHEN Tue., Mar. 26, 2013, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE John F. Kennedy School of Government, Institute of Politics, Faculty Dining Room
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics
Fellows & Study Groups Program
SPEAKER(S) Charlie Cook, Spring 2013 IOP Fellow
Rob Jesmer, fmr Executive Director, Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee
Guy Cecil, Executive Director, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
CONTACT INFO Eric Andersen: Eric_Andersen at hks.harvard.edu
LINK http://www.iop.harvard.edu/deep-dive-congressional-elections-led-charlie-cook-0
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“The Way Forward: A 21st Century Transportation Plan”
March 26th
5:30-7:30pm
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
MassDOT Secretary Richard Davey followed by a discussion with representatives from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), Transportation for Massachusetts (T4MA), local businesses and elected officials. Please join us.
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Foreclosures: The Great Untold Story
WHEN Tue., Mar. 26, 2013, 6 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Kennedy School, Belfer Building, Weil Town Hall
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, GSD Department of Urban Planning & Design
SPEAKER(S) Chris Arnold, NPR housing correspondent; Bruce Marks, Gary Klein, and Mike Calhoun
COST Free and open to the public
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Social Entrepreneurs Networking
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
6:30 PM To 9:00 PM
MIT, Building 32-124, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://s08.123signup.com/servlet/SignUpMember?PG=1521972182300&P=15219721911426147100
The TIE Social Entrepreneurs Group would like to give everyone an opportunity to continue with the connections and networking. This meeting will be an opportunity for any social entrepreneur to come and present their idea. We also encourage any service providers who are willing to provide a service (legal, accounting, consulting, marketing etc.) to emerging social entrepreneurs to also pitch their company or service.
To keep the event moving, we will limit this to the first FIVE Social entrepreneurs who contact us and the first FIVE Service Providers.
Each presenter will have 2 minutes to pitch their idea or service
We will hold all questions to the end
At the end of the presentations, we will take 15 to 20 minutes to allow the audience to ask questions of the entire group of presenters
The Q&A session will end promptly to allow you to network, connect and learn more about each other and the presenters. We will spend five minutes telling you about the TIE SE group and some of our ideas for this year.
Please email to "vvdeshpande (at) gmail (dot) com" ASAP to get a spot on the list of presenters.
UPDATES
Social Entrepreneurs who will be presenting at this event:
Shaun Jayachandran:
Crossover Basketball and Scholars Academy (www.crossover-india.org) - is the first non-profit international program in India to leverage athletic values and skill as a means to develop academic opportunities for Indian students.The main objective of Crossover Basketball is to use basketball as a vehicle of change in communities in India by combining the ideas of of a sport and imparting the values of leadership, character, communication, and teamwork with the goal of inspiring and preparing those students to continue in their educational pursuits through the university level.
Shefali Kalyani:
Doing the charity work along with a group of like minded people for last seven months. Our mission consists of two things: To feed and to cloth those in need in the U.S.A. and beyond. Currently cook for a soup kitchen; for a children's home; host a winter clothing drive for homeless shelters and we send used Indian and American clothes to India to NGOs which we have identified.
Parul Singh:
CEO and Founder, Gradebale, The revolutionary mobile education assistant: a product which uses a mobile device to semi-automate the grading process and gather rich, actionable, daily data on student learning. We aim to allow teachers to recover 10-20% of their total time while encouraging best instructional practices which have been shown to increase standardized test scores by as much as 29%. We are more affordable, easier to implement, and more flexible than alternatives. We allow schools to make data-driven decisions about where to allocate instructional resources for maximum impact.
Gildo Teixeira:
Social entrepreneur who has developed the most advanced technologies to solving the problem of childhood malnutrition which kills a child every 6 second which translate to 5 million kids a year. We raise our own funds and are dedicated to saving the lives of children all over the world. Mission is to fight global malnutrition by nourishing the world with Real Food Technology®
Diane Hendrix:
American filmmaker Diane Hendrix is on a mission – to discover innovative startups led by young Africans in East Africa and document their experiences as they develop their innovations and businesses. Inspired by her experiences with students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) DLab, a program at the MIT that fosters the development of appropriate technologies and sustainable solutions within the framework of international development, and the MIT Accelerated Internet Technology Initiative (AITI), Diane set out on a mission to seek out the young inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs who are charting a new future for themselves and their countries that is the opposite of what the African continent has been known for in the past – disease, war, corruption and poverty.
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Micro-Housing: Rethinking Urban Living
March 26, 2013
7:45pm - 9:45pm
Modern Theatre, 535 Washington Street, Boston
RSVP at http://buildingboston2030.evenbrite.com/#
Tom Connelly, Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Tamara Roy, ADD Inc
Karen Clarke, NE School of Art and Design at Suffolk University
Kelly Saito, Gerding Edlen
Kairos Shen, Boston Redevelopment Authority
Moderated by Peter Howe, NECN
Presented by the Center for Real Estate and the Greater Boston Real Estate Board
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Lightning talks: 5 minute presentations on hot apps & cool companies
Thursday, March 28, 2013
7:00 PM
Lippmann House, 1 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
Rescheduled from March 7. If you plan to attend, please RSVP, even if you RSVP'd for the last event at http://meetupbos.hackshackers.com/events/109037312/
Also, there will be a reception, starting at 6:30 pm.
Using MuckRock to get public records
Michael Morisy, founder: MuckRock is a tool used by journalists, activists and researchers to make the government more transparent through easier public records requests. Users can easily click and file to discover everything from how government is spending tax dollars to insight into the FBI's files on prominent figures, and publicly track and share the progress and results of their request.
LazyTruth
Matt Stempeck, MIT: LazyTruth is a Chrome extension for Gmail that gives you verified debunks of common chain forwards.We’ve built an inbox extension that surfaces quality information when you receive an email forward full of political myths, urban legends, or security threats. People who consulted fact-checking sites in the 2012 election had a better understanding of candidates’ positions, even after controlling for party, ideology, interest in the election, gender, age, education, and race. LazyTruth brings this knowledge to you. We’ve built a Chrome extension for Gmail, and we’re looking to expand to other mail providers and browsers.
Bringing News to a News Desert
Saul Tannenbaum, Cambridge: “Using paper.li aggregating to simulate a newspaper.” Cambridge is effectively a news desert. It's not that there isn't a lot of Cambridge news, it's' that there is so much of it spread across so many sources with no one "paper" of record. I've been experimenting with paper.li, a news aggregation service, to build a Cambridge-centric news compendium and will describe how it works, how to build your own news site, and some of the positives and pitfalls.
Twitter Metrics
Joel Abrams, Boston.com: Followerwonk.com, Tweetreach.com, and a study on the impact of writing good tweets and tweeting a second time.
#Bigbirds never die: understanding the dynamics of emergent hashtags
Brian Keegan, Northeastern U: The study examines the emergence, growth, and lifetime of emergent hashtags during the 2012 presidential debates. We examine 256 exogenously created, emergent hashtags in terms of their growth, survival and interaction with their environment. We find that emergent tags can be classified into two categories: "winners," that grow rapidly and sustain growth over a substantial period of time, and "also-rans" tags that start with a burst but quickly die out.
Data vs. the Volcano
Hjalmar Gislason, founder & CEO, DataMarket: I was working on an earthquake visualization late at night when I noticed some weird things in the Icelandic earthquake feed. Posting this on Facebook, I quickly had scientist friends, emergency response team leaders and others commenting and analyzing and for the next 90 minutes my Facebook thread was the only place with coverage of the beginning of the now infamous Eyjafjallajökull eruption.
Mediathread
Nate Aune. Mediathread is an innovative, open-source platform for exploration, analysis, and organization of web-based multimedia content. Mediathread connects to a variety of image and video collections (such as YouTube, Flickr, Pinterest, and library databases), enabling users to lift items out of these collections and into an analysis environment. In Mediathread, items can then be clipped, annotated, organized, and embedded into essays and other written analysis.
Cascading Tree Sheets
Ted Benson, MIT: Cascading Tree Sheets does for web structure what CSS does for style. It helps you create interactive widgets and themes that can easily be reused and customized just by adding a few CSS classes to your website. For journalists, this offers a way to weave interactives into your web content without having to write custom plugins for your CMS.
Dynamics of shared attention on Twitter during media events
Yu-Ru Lin, Northeastern U.: Media events such as political debates generate conditions of shared attention as many users simultaneously tune in with the dual screens of broadcast and social media to view and participate. Using data from about 200,000 Twitter users, we compare features of their behavior during eight major events during the 2012 U.S. presidential election to examine (1) the impact “media events” have on patterns of social media use compared to “typical” time and (2) whether changes during media events are attributable to changes in behavior across the entire population or an artifact of changes in elite users’ behavior. Our findings suggest that while users across the system become more active during media events, this additional activity reflects concentrated attention to a handful of users, hashtags, and tweets.
Vine for Journalism
Joanna Kao, MIT. How newsrooms are using Vine, ways it can be used in reporting. Joanna will also talk also about (and maybe show the beginnings of) a tool for journalists using Vine.
The event is sponsored by Hacks/Hackers Boston and the Nieman-Berkman Fellowship.
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Upcoming
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2nd Annual Boston Baseball Hack Day
Saturday, March 30, 2013
9:30 AM To 7:00 PM
Thoughtbot, 41 Winter Street, 7th floor, Boston
Register at http://bbhd2013.eventbrite.com/
Are you a web developer, designer, or a programmer who is interested in baseball? Or a passionate baseball fan with ideas?
Boston Baseball Hack Day on March 30, 2013, is the second annual hacking event where area baseball minds come together, form a team, and collaborate to create baseball-related project and bring an idea to life. The goal of the day is to bring creative minds into one room and see what they can produce within a limited time. The project could be (but is not limited to) a tool, simple web app, website, or data visualization. See what we did in 2012 to get an idea.
It is also a great opportunity to network and socialize among like-minded people. Projects will be judged by area experts, and a brief awards ceremony (with prizes courtesy of our sponsors) will conclude the program.
At the end of the day, projects will be judged by area experts, and a brief awards ceremony will conclude the event.
Baseball Hack Day is a free event thanks to the generosity of our sponsors. Registration is required and seating is limited. So Register NOW!
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Landscaping with Climate in Mind
April 3
7:00 pm
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
Sue Reed, Author of Energy-Wise Landscape Design.
Learn how to manage your landscape to save energy and reduce your carbon footprint—essential actions in this era of climate change.
Sponsored by Grow Native Massachusetts
http://www.grownativemass.org/programs/eveningswithexperts
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Food Access & Health Impacts: Trends and New Research
Thursday, April 4
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Pacific / 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Eastern
Webinar - register at https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/s/registrations/new?cid=3s1ufdgf51lm
Limited retail access to healthy foods affects the dietary patterns and health outcomes of many Americans. Join us to learn how new research and evaluation practices are helping to generate innovative solutions that stimulate change in local communities.
Presenters Include:
Allison Karpyn, PhD, Director of Research and Evaluation, The Food Trust
Erin Hagan, PhD, Senior Associate, PolicyLink
Giridhar Mallya, MD, Director of Policy and Planning, Philadelphia Department of Public Health
Angela Odoms-Young, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois-Chicago
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Kitchen Gardeners Get-Together
Tuesday, April 9th
6:30 - 8:30pm
Central Square Branch of the Cambridge Public Library
45 Pearl Street (off Massachusetts Avenue)
Free and Open to the Public
April Topic: getting ready for spring planting
As spring approaches, many of us are thinking about starting our gardens. Some of us are beginners with a lot of questions. Some of us have a lot of experience to share. A lot of us would love the opportunity to talk to other gardeners about our common interest.
Jules Kobek of DIO Skillshare will be facilitating a monthly get-together of kitchen gardeners to discuss informally our practices, problems, and successes as vegetable gardeners. Each monthly meeting will have a specific topic for general discussion, but there will also be time set aside for individual questions.
Topics can include: deciding what vegetables to grow for your specific situation and needs; soil fertility; insects, good and bad; plant diseases; and succession planting.
Topics will be limited to kitchen gardening: growing food for yourself, family, and friends.
Participants will be sharing from their own experience. There will be no formal presentations.
Not covered: commercial growing, fruit and nut trees, beekeeping, chickens, or other animals. These are all specialized areas that requires a different set of skills and knowledge.
This will be a pilot project of three months. If there is sufficient interest, we'll continue year-round.
Call Jules at 617-492-2340 for more information
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Cambridge Mini Maker Faire
Saturday, April 13
Noon - 4pm
Tennis courts outside Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School/Cambridge Public Library
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Save the Date: Friday 19 April, 2013
20th Anniversary Celebration of the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy (CIERP)
Convened in Honor of CIERP’s Director, Professor William Moomaw
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
On the afternoon of Friday, April 19, the Fletcher community will host a symposium on campus celebrating CIERP’s 20th Anniversary and honoring the distinguished career of William "Bill" Moomaw,Professor of International Environmental Policy and CIERP’s Founder and Director. The event will be themed around scaling renewable energy.
Please mark your calendars! More details to follow. All are welcome.
The Center for International Environment and Resource Policy (CIERP), established in 1992 at The Fletcher School, Tufts University, develops innovative approaches to shifting global development onto an environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable path. We analyze how economic and social activities impact the environment, and design strategies for meeting human needs without straining the planet’s resources. CIERP advances theory, turns it into practice, educates the international community, and prepares students for careers as global leaders and citizens.
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SUSTAINABILITY: PRACTICES AND POSSIBILITIES
3rd Massachusetts Sustainable Communities Conference
2nd Massachusetts Sustainable Campuses Conference
April 24, 2013
8am - 4pm
DCU Center, Worcester, MA
Conference details at http://masustainablecommunities.com
Register early and save at http://masccc.eventbrite.com
Cost: $45 to $75
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Opportunity
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Where is the best yogurt on the planet made? Somerville, of course!
Join the Somerville Yogurt Making Cooperative and get a weekly quart of the most thick, creamy, rich and tart yogurt in the world. Membership in the coop costs $2.50 per quart. Members share the responsibility for making yogurt in our kitchen located just outside of Davis Sq. in FirstChurch. No previous yogurt making experience is necessary.
For more information checkout.
https://sites.google.com/site/somervilleyogurtcoop/home
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Boiler Rebate
If your boiler is from 1983 or earlier, Mass Save will give a $1,750 to $4,000 rebate to switch it out for a new efficient boiler that uses the same fuel (i.e. if you have oil, you have to continue to use oil) so long as it is installed by July 31, 2012.
Call Mass Save (866 527-7283) to sign up for a home energy assessment or sign-up online at www.nextsteplivinginc.com/HEET and HEET will receive a $10 contribution from Next Step Living for every completed assessment.
This is a great way to reduce climate change emissions for the next 20 or so years the boiler lasts, while saving money.
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CEA Solar Hot Water Grants
Cambridge, through the Cambridge Energy Alliance initiative, is offering a limited number of grants to residents and businesses for solar hot water systems. The grants will cover 50% of the remaining out of pocket costs of the system after other incentives, up to $2,000.
Applications will be accepted up to November 19, 2012 and are available on a first come, first serve basis until funding runs out. The Cambridge grant will complement other incentives including the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center solar thermal grants. For more information, see
http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/resources/additional-resources/solar-hot-water-grant-program
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Cambridge Residents: Free Home Thermal Images
Have you ever wanted to learn where your home is leaking heat by having an energy auditor come to your home with a thermal camera? With that info you then know where to fix your home so it's more comfortable and less expensive to heat. However, at $200 or so, the cost of such a thermal scan is a big chunk of change.
HEET Cambridge has now partnered with Sagewell, Inc. to offer Cambridge residents free thermal scans.
Sagewell collects the thermal images by driving through Cambridge in a hybrid vehicle equipped with thermal cameras. They will scan every building in Cambridge (as long as it's not blocked by trees or buildings or on a private way). Building owners can view thermal images of their property and an analysis online. The information is password protected so that only the building owner can see the results.
Homeowners, condo-owners and landlords can access the thermal images and an accompanying analysis free of charge. Commercial building owners and owners of more than one building will be able to view their images and analysis for a small fee.
The scans will be analyzed in the order they are requested.
Go to Sagewell.com. Type in your address at the bottom where it says "Find your home or building" and press return. Then click on "Here" to request the report.
That's it. When the scans are done in a few weeks, your building will be one of the first to be analyzed. The accompanying report will help you understand why your living room has always been cold and what to do about it.
With knowledge, comes power (or in this case saved power and money, not to mention comfort).
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Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHhwM202dDYxdUZJVGFscnY1VGZ3aXc6MQ
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HEET has partnered with NSTAR and Mass Save participating contractor Next Step Living to deliver no-cost Home Energy Assessments to Cambridge residents.
During the assessment, the energy specialist will:
Install efficient light bulbs (saving up to 7% of your electricity bill)
Install programmable thermostats (saving up to 10% of your heating bill)
Install water efficiency devices (saving up to 10% of your water bill)
Check the combustion safety of your heating and hot water equipment
Evaluate your home’s energy use to create an energy-efficiency roadmap
If you get electricity from NSTAR, National Grid or Western Mass Electric, you already pay for these assessments through a surcharge on your energy bills. You might as well use the service.
Please sign up at http://nextsteplivinginc.com/heet/?outreach=HEET or call Next Step Living at 866-867-8729. A Next Step Living Representative will call to schedule your assessment.
HEET will help answer any questions and ensure you get all the services and rebates possible.
(The information collected will only be used to help you get a Home Energy Assessment. We won’t keep the data or sell it.)
(If you have any questions or problems, please feel free to call HEET’s Jason Taylor at 617 441 0614.)
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Resource
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Sustainable Business Network Local Green Guide
SBN is excited to announce the soft launch of its new Local Green Guide, Massachusetts' premier Green Business Directory!
To view the directory please visit: http://www.localgreenguide.org
To find out how how your business can be listed on the website or for sponsorship opportunities please contact Adritha at adritha at sbnboston.org
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Free Monthly Energy Analysis
CarbonSalon is a free service that every month can automatically track your energy use and compare it to your past energy use (while controlling for how cold the weather is). You get a short friendly email that lets you know how you’re doing in your work to save energy.
https://www.carbonsalon.com/
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Boston Food System
"The Boston Food System [listserv] provides a forum to post announcements of events, employment opportunities, internships, programs, lectures, and other activities as well as related articles or other publications of a non-commercial nature covering the area's food system - food, nutrition, farming, education, etc. - that take place or focus on or around Greater Boston (broadly delineated)."
The Boston area is one of the most active nationwide in terms of food system activities - projects, services, and events connected to food, farming, nutrition - and often connected to education, public health, environment, arts, social services and other arenas. Hundreds of organizations and enterprises cover our area, but what is going on week-to-week is not always well publicized.
Hence, the new Boston Food System listserv, as the place to let everyone know about these activities. Specifically:
Use of the BFS list will begin soon, once we get a decent base of subscribers. Clarification of what is appropriate to announce and other posting guidelines will be provided as well.
It's easy to subscribe right now at https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/bfs
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Artisan Asylum http://artisansasylum.com/
Sprout & Co: Community Driven Investigations
Greater Boston Solidarity Economy Mapping Project http://www.transformationcentral.org/solidarity/mapping/mapping.html
a project by Wellesley College students that invites participation, contact jmatthaei at wellesley.edu
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Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
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Links to events at 60 colleges and universities at Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com
Thanks to
Fred Hapgood's Selected Lectures on Science and Engineering in the Boston Area http://www.BostonScienceLectures.com
Boston Area Computer User Groups http://www.bugc.org/
Arts and Cultural Events List http://aacel.blogspot.com/
Cambridge Civic Journal http://www.rwinters.com
http://www.massclimateaction.net/calendar/events/index.php
http://www.mitenergyclub.org/calendar/mit_events_template
http://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
http://green.harvard.edu/events
http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/tabid/57/Default.aspx
http://boston.nerdnite.com/
http://www.meetup.com/
http://www.eventbrite.com/
http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/calendar
http://harddatafactory.com/Johnny_Monsarrat/index.html
http://bostoneventsinsider.com/boston_events/
More information about the Act-MA
mailing list