Hack Climate Change 2008 - Boston

 

Climate change and ecosystem resilience are understood as incredibly complex information spaces. For humans to understand their next best moves in relation to these physical processes, we need the full potential of powerful computing tools hooked up with the insights and intuitions of experts from a wide range of knowledge disciplines.

Hack Climate Change

Semantic technologies have been promoted as the next evolutionary step in data/information/knowledge interoperation and synthesis.

Hack Climate Change (HC2) is a first attempt to:

  1. Bring the best semantic technologists face to face with a massive public-good problem space.
  2. Bring the best scientific minds face to face with the potential of semantically-enhanced collaborative environments.
  3. Demonstrate to the public and policy makers what can be done in an atmosphere of open knowledge and the science commons.

What are the pitch points for HC2?

  1. A rallying point for the burgeoning SW community, not only to further their tech skills but do something for a good cause, something that many people are passionate about.
  2. 2008 is International Year of the Reef
  3. Climate Change is a major issue, nuff said

How could it work?

An initial view is to see two groups: the scientists who "own" the climate change/ecosystem resilience problem space, and the hackers who "own" the toolset for digital engagement with a given knowledge-scape. Generally, the scientists are wanting to present their dilemmas in such a way that digital knowledge tools can get traction. The hackers want to see what they can do with real-world scenarios.

The two groups are meant to challenge each other, as well as themselves, to push towards truly emergent outcomes, including:

  • discovering new ways to characterise the problems (technical and scientific)
  • discovering new processes for collective problem-solving
  • discovering insights useful in related problem domains.

Some aspects of how the HC2 event could come together include:

  1. don't be shy about offering seductive prizes (MacBook Air, travel, thematic prizes)
  2. focus on light, fast hacks to shift entire viewpoints in the problem space
  3. work closely with the climate change scientists here to develop a tightly focused problem domain. Most of this information would be released on a wiki a month or so out from the actual event.
  4. what gets entered into the challenge becomes open sourceable so that it could be used in "real world" climate change research
  5. although the atmosphere is competitive, the rule is collaboration. This is the "Cohort of 2008" and their achievements are collectively seen in relation to furture cohorts.
  6. process models: Open Space, World Cafe, FooCamp

Who are the Guiding Lights? (preliminary)

These people could be advisors and science/data specialists who will help formulate the problem and process efficiently:

  • Prof Iain Gordon, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
  • Dr Steve Williams, JCU
  • Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, UQ
  • Dr Mark Stafford-Smith, CSIRO Climate Change
  • Dr Paul Marshall, GBRMPA Climate Change
  • Prof Jane Hunter, UQ
  • Alan Ruttenberg - Science Commons, US
  • Scott Bainbridge - Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), Australia
  • Nova Spivack - Radar Networks, US
  • Eric Prud'hommeaux, W3C, US
  • Lee Feigenbaum, Cambridge Semantics, US
  • Kingsley Idehen, Open Link, US
  • Matthias Samwald, Semantic Web Company, Austria

 

Attendees

To attend, the entry fee per person is AUD$150 and this covers your lodgings (MIT dorm) but not food. People selected to attend the event as scientists or hackers will need to fund their own travel of find a sponsor.

Sponsorship: overall

We provide:

  • lots of promotional energy (global circulation)
  • excellent documentation and event capture

You get:

  • logo placement on materials produced (website, print)
  • time and position at the event's media function
  • acknowledgement at event
  • invite to hacker/scientist drinks
  • permission to use HC2 branding on your corporate website

Sponsor: Cash

Flat fee: AUD$7,000 (a great deal for Microsoft, a bit of a stretch for the start-ups?)

Sponsor: In-kind

We need:

  • A tech provider to handle the recording and broadcast of the event
  • A travel and carbon offset sponsor
  • A "food for hungry brains" local providore?
  • Any speciality tech or service offering considered.

Contact

David Peterson: +61 (0)407 471 561 [sykpe:david.seth.p]

John Brisbin: +61 (0)407 471 565 [sykpe:boabjohn]