Invitation to August 15 / Update from July
Come join us August 15 for sessions on low-flying academia and best practices for virtual conferences. — And keep reading for a recap of Brian Sutherland's solar inspirations from our July sessions.
Here’s another two-part post, folks! — First, an invitation to our August 15th sessions, and second, a glance back at last month’s session, where Brian Sutherland took us on a historical journey of solar technology, and then tickled our imaginations with some of his DIY solar adaptations for everyday devices.
**And a quick note to those who are new to this space… These sessions would not exist without the inspiration and mentorship of the members of Anne Pasek’s Low-Carbon Research Methods Group. Check out this diverse group of low-carbon methods thinkers HERE.
Join us August 15…
Our August 15th sessions focus on what might be possible when we encourage people to fly less, and when we make virtual and hybrid options available to conference-goers.
Session #1 with Aksel Biørn-Hansen
“The FLIGHT project: attempts and struggles at unsettling the status quo of academic flying at a Swedish University”
Join Session #1 Zoom (ID: 824 8700 3410 Pwd: 191249)
(08:00AM New York / 13:00PM London / 14:00PM Stockholm / 15:00PM Cairo / 19:00PM Jakarta / 20:00PM Shanghai)
Session #2 with Kate Elliott
“Virtually There: Stories of best practices and next practices to ensure access, inclusion and enjoyment”
Join Session #2 Zoom (ID: 826 3538 2531 Pwd: 702478)
(17:30PM Vancouver / 20:30PM New York / August 16 ==> 08:30AM Hong Kong & Manila / 09:30AM Seoul / 10:30AM Melbourne)
What about you?
Want to share one of your own experiences of a virtual or hybrid conference? You can DO SO HERE. — We’re most curious about what you loved at good online conferences, and what organizers could have done differently at online events that disappointed you. (These are anonymous. We just want to inspire folks to think more deeply about what is possibilised by virtual options.)
Update — What happened at Brian Sutherland’s solar sessions in July?
At the July 17 Low-Carbon Conversations, Brian illustrated what becomes possible through salvaging, repurposing, and fuelling our devices with solar power.
I left the session intrigued by the treasures waiting to be salvaged in “junk” yards, inspired to make my first solar-powered gadget, and equipped with enough knowledge to embark on a project.
Some of you expressed interest but were unable to attend. Don’t worry! Brian generously allowed us to record and share his presentation. Click to watch the YouTube recording HERE.
Apologies for those who watch the video and notice the 17-second gap at the 50-minute mark. This was a glitch in my recording, and not an editing choice. The conference Brian refers to at the point where the audio cuts out is Our Networks (July 27) and was organized by Dawn Walker.
And click to access Brian’s presentation slides with links to resources HERE.
If you’re inspired after attending the presentations or watching Brian’s recording, reach out if you’d like virtual company in trying out one of Brian’s solar-making projects. It would be lovely to connect virtually with tinkerers of different levels of DIY experience!
Selected tidbits from Brian’s presentation that tickled my brain:
Inspiration and materials for starting our own DIY experiments:
Adafruit Industries and SparkFun — for their many DIY offerings
Disobedient Objects — “Building electronic objects can be an effective form of social argument or political protest”
Two (of many) favourite quotes:
“It's an interesting social problem that roofs are designed to only last about 12 years, but solar panels last for 25 years. So really, there's a kind of mismatch there, and it results in there being a lot of used solar panels on the market that you can purchase quite cheaply.”
“In terms of tips for working in the scrapyard, generally speaking, you want to bag everything really promptly, and you want to limit getting mud into things.”