Seeds From 2008 are Emerging into #CitizenScienceLab

#CitizenScienceLab - A System Dynamics Think Tank for a Smart Zero Net Carbon City h/t @ClimateCoLab giving the opportunity through the Smart Zero Carbon Cities Challenge

Pitch

Exponentially towards a future with net zero carbon output by engaging individuals & organizations, providing scalable learning & prosperity. (2016-05-23)

For more?

Read through the proposal to the very end (where the whole story is told in short)

Action?

Why don't you join "u.lab - Leading From the Emerging Future"(starting September)?

Future of Science & Research Funding

Due to the current turbulent discussions, activities, and movements around the globe it becomes evident that the present forms of financing are outdated in times that are accelerating so fast that as soon as the funding is right, the business model has changed already.

A year back in time, a dear FB friend from California, Michael Herrler, initiated a crowdfunding approach for scientific research, NextGenCrowd. An interesting project, even though it by now has not managed to get either larger attractiveness by the stakeholders, or real impact on the scientific research (worldwide).  At present times lots of scientific research is financed by public funding via grants. These arrangements are time consuming, and often take quite a chunk of researcher's daily work, which certainly could be more effectively used in their main work domain. 

Especially constrained are efforts of research-based spin-offs that on one hand depend on their main enabler, the education institution their makers come from, and the public domain of funding. In Germany, and especially the Eastern parts (formerly GDR) quite a thriving science community could be built up over the past 20 years. Now with the European Community extending towards even more Eastern countries the current funding will go down significantly, and funding will be mostly given in the future to technology-related work.

Which future paths may come when the questions are on the table, "How do we monetarize our research findings by getting a viable startup up, and going?"- "Will the efforts of networking across disciplinary boundaries be supported, and which ways?"

What are the possible future funding schemes currently hidden by our "blind spot" (individually and collectively)?

Some examples of new ways of funding are (and more on Crowdnavigator itself):

Crowdnavigator - a quite new crowdfunding matchmaking platform - seems to open new paths of collaboration to give new answers to the questions above.

Seedmatch (currently in German only) - a Dresden-based crowdfunding platform could also be a valuable source for technology-based startups to check out for funding

Credits go to Philippe Greier making the connection on Facebook (a case of serendipity)

Openness is the Future of Science = #OSS2011

BS (before script) - be curious and dig all given links that appear in the text!

The past two days an amazing event took place in Mountain View, California. Mountain View is not just the headquarters of Google, it also houses the Computer History Museum. An stunning place where the legacy of information technology is like a "cultural island" (even though I haven't been there yet, I have the feeling it probably has a similar energy like the MIT Museum in Cambridge, which I visited in 2007, 2008, and 2009).

This inherent energy made it possible to house the 2nd Open Science Summit created and initiated by Joseph Jackson, be the beacon sending the "lights of research innovation" out in the world. Glad for being connected via Livestream and Twitter (#oss2011; check Greplin to get all relevant tweets). Though the 9 hrs time difference has been a real challenge (as with all action that is going on in the Valley, the inspiration and encouragement for moving on similar paths here in Silicon Saxony and its vast research community has been almost overwhelming.

Thank you all and especially Andrea Kuszewski (whom I got to know -by now only via FB- during last year's H+ Summit Harvard which we screened at CoOrpheum after Ray Kurzweil had visited Dresden for the 4. Dresden Future Summit).

Even though I couldn't make it (crowdfunding for networking entrepreneurship and science is still in an early stage, as we learned all from Jai Ranganathan in his talk on Saturday) I am most positive that in the near future I will come over for a chat with Joseph to BioCurious.

Cheers to all from Dresden,
Ralf