SEARCH FOR COMPREHENSIVE DESIGN SOLUTIONS TO HUMANITY’S CRITICAL PROBLEMS LAUNCHED!

 

 

The Buckminster Fuller Institute announces the Call for Proposals to the 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. Recognized as “Socially-Responsible Design’s Highest Award”, the Challenge is an annual global design competition awarding the winner a $100,000 cash prize to support the development and implementation of a solution that has significant potential to solve one of humanity’s most pressing problems. This prize program is a clarion call to the world’s artists, scientists, designers, architects, engineers, students, and entrepreneurs committed to playing a unique and transformative role in addressing the biggest issues we face today.

Winning Criteria

Inspired by Bucky’s call for a design science revolution, The Buckminster Fuller Challenge is the world’s only large scale prize awarding holistic approaches to the interrelated crises confronting the world today.

“We are coming to an era the likes of which we’ve never seen before; we’re in the whitewaters of human history. We don’t know what lies ahead. Bucky Fuller’s ideas on design are at the core of any set of solutions that will take us to calmer waters.” - David Orr, 2011 Challenge Juror

The internationally renowned jury will look for entries with a clear grasp of the ‘the big picture’, focused on a well-defined need of critical importance. Winning entries for the last five years have applied a rare combination of pragmatic, visionary, comprehensive and anticipatory design thinking to tackling issues as broad as urban mobility, coastal restoration and new standards for building performance. 

Additional Support Awarded in 2013

“We are committed to accelerating the implementation of as many outstanding projects as we can, and are thrilled this year to be partnering with a number of organizations and companies to help further support a select number of entries with mentoring, incubation, educational resources, etc. Stay tuned for details as we roll them out over the next 4 weeks!” said BFI Executive Director, Elizabeth Thompson. Partners including international sustainability pioneers Interface, Inc., and the Presido Graduate School’s Center for Professional Development, among others, have joined in supporting entrants of the Challenge in 2013. 

ARE YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW WORKING ON A HOLISTIC SOLUTION TO MAKE THE WORLD WORK FOR 100% OF HUMANITY?
Read below for more information on what we are looking for, download the full Call for Proposals, and APPLY!

Deadline is Friday April 12, 2013, 5pm EST.

¡CATAPULTA! Fest

 

2013 Oaxaca Forum on Social Innovation

The Third Annual Forum on Social Innovation Oaxaca will occur on March 14-17. Please save the date as it we will try to make it the best event you attend all year!  In fact spend the week here if you can as we are creating something bigger and better. Last year we added TEDx Oaxaca to the events happening. This year we are launching a music and food festival. If you know Oaxacan food you can imagine how cool this is going to be. The intention is to broaden the awareness of social innovation and its potential for young people here. With great bands, short videos on Hub Oaxaca social entrepreneurs and Oaxacan cuisine its going to be really special. A whole week of events will be happening under what we are temporarily calling “isFEST” beginning March 10 including films, bands, art installations and more. Many more details to come but please save the date and think hard about coming.

isFEST is a week long series of events and cultural programs including film screenings, the Oaxaca Forum on Social Innovation, TEDx Talks and a Music Art & Food Festival from March 10-17th. This years focus is on Food with special emphasis on the integration of Oaxacan traditions and customs with new and innovative products, designs and collaborations. isFEST starts by mapping the food systems of Oaxaca and then creates a social studio-laboratory environment that merges research, design, culture and collaboration aimed at triggering interventions that improve the food ecosystem and thus the well-being of the people of Oaxaca. The week culminates with site visits to great social enterprises a day long Festival including TedX Talks, presentations and awards to local projects, live music and of course food!

More details here

“Within The Eye of The Storm”, by Hub Tel Aviv member

We are pleased to announce the screening dates for the world premier of our film “Within The Eye of The Storm”, that will take place during a special weekend of International Peace Day between the 20th-22nd of September.
During this weekend the film will be screened in every Cinematheque across Israel, screened in different parts of the world and broadcast on several European TV Channels.

“Within The eye of The storm” directed by Shelley Hermon and produced by Nisan Katz & Shelley Hermon, tells the remarkable story of Bassam and Rami, a Palestinian and an Israeli, whom against all odds turned from enemies to brothers.

This international documentary film, with partners like The Sundance Institute, France 5 TV, Makor Foundation for Cinema, Gesher Foundation for Cinema and Multimedia and the People’s Peace Fund, brings us a fresh perspective on this International Peace Day, in a year when we need it the most.

You are invited to be part of this momentous occasion, by checking out the website with a trailer, info and updates & sharing with friends and colleagues.
For a limited time only, the film will be available for viewing on the website after the 22nd of September.

withineyeofstorm.com
Our facebook page: www.facebook.com/withineyeofstorm

Introducing Studio Xaquixe at New York Gift International Fair!

The Studio Xaquixe Collection is handblown from up-cycled glass waste collected from the local communities surrounding Oaxaca, Mexico. The studio’s furnaces run on bio-fuel and the studio employs and trains unemployed youth from the local community to blow glass creating sustainable livelihoods in Mexico.

Booth 31010
Artisan Resource at Pier 92
New York International Gift Fair
August 19 – 21, 2012
Please RSVP so we can let you know about our show specials!

In August, we will be featuring tableware and home textiles from our artisan partners in India and Mexico: Tilonia, Avani, Hao Craft, ROPE, Colectivo 1050° and Studio Xaquixe. We’re excited at the opportunity to introduce these artisans to American buyers. Take a peek at their online catalogs and see why!

The Studio Xaquixe Collection will be available from Tilonia for the first time at the NYIGF. If you can’t make it to the show, please contact us at shop@tilonia.com to place your order.

Self-Employed Workers Sustain Small Economies

When the economy tanked, both existing jobs and the promise of creating more faded with it. Thousands of people with “job security” were laid off only to find that companies weren’t hiring, or weren’t willing to pay for their 15 years of experience.

So the workforce got creative. Those who had been harboring secret hatred for their cubicles decided to look on the bright side. They jumped off the corporate ladder willingly. Many gathered up their talent and their networks, and went into business for themselves. After all, if your future’s going to be uncertain, shouldn’t you at least get to hold the reins?

According to the most recent BLS data, between 8-10 percent of all working men and women in the U.S. are self-employed. Although big corporations usually garner all the praise for job creation, new research shows that it’s actually these freelancers, contract workers, and self-starting entrepreneurs who are making a difference in small local economies.

A study by Stephan Goetz, professor of agricultural economics and regional economics at Penn State, found that the number of self-employed workers in nonmetro American counties significantly predicted personal income and job growth, as well as declines in family poverty levels.

“We often look at self-employment as a stopgap measure, something done out of desperation,” Goetz says. “But, in fact, self-employment has a tangible effect in raising income growth and lowering poverty.”

During his research, Goetz, along with associate Anil Rupasingha, examined statistics from the Bureau of Economic Analysis on self-employed rates in 3,000 metro and nonmetro counties. They found that between 1969 and 2009, the number of the self-employed in nonmetro areas has risen from 2.9 million to 5.6 million, an increase of 93 percent. When analyzed in relation to economic trends over the past few decades, it was discovered that self-employment helped drive positive growth in these communities.

Of course, self-employment isn’t completely fail-proof. Just like brick and mortar businesses, the self-employed depend on demand for their goods or services, and can be affected by economic downturns, though not as severely.

That’s why coworking spaces, especially in rural areas, are so important. Yes, as Goetz found, self-employment can revitalize and empower local economies. But who empowers and supports the self-employed? The global coworking community, that’s who.

Goetz says to encourage growth, leaders should help the self-employed by organizing networking meetings and alerting them to exporting opportunities. “Economic development groups also can assist entrepreneurs with credit and grant applications,” he explains.

Or, those same government leaders could help plant coworking spaces in their communities. Shared office spaces are the perfect, fertile mix of business incubator, think tank, professional network, therapy group, all rolled into one.

Freelancers and small business owners have been shown to thrive when exposed to the open sharing that occurs in coworking communities, and the coworking spaces themselves are small businesses that can act as lightning rods for innovation and economic growth.

See the original article.

“Kicked Out”: an idea that was born in the Hub

 “Kicked Out”: an idea that was born in the Hub

We came up with an idea how to address youth indebtedness and youth poverty (a major problem here in Austria and possibly also in your country) with an online facebook game that will teach kids and teenagers how to responsibly deal with money.

Please have a look at our project and if you like the idea, please spread it in your networks!

And if you really like the concept to teach kids an intuitive way how to deal with money, you are more than welcome to contribute on Kickstarter.

You can find all the information about the project on our Kickstarter page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kicked-out/kicked-out

Oaxacan support to children, you can help!

I’m so excited! I’ve created a Kickstarter project to help me publish the children’s EFT Tapping/Visualization book I’m completing in order to support more children and their families around the world. The book will be available in English and Spanish and will be complete with delightful illustrations.

My desire is to help more children around the world have an improved quality of life by using energetic techniques, whether they are physically healthy or have a serious illness.

I would greatly appreciate it if you felt inspired to pledge support for this project. I would also be very grateful if you could share this information with your friends, family and e-mail lists so that I receive sufficient pledges to allow this project to go ahead.

Here is the Kickstarter link to see the video, some illustrations and info about the book and to pledge:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1874453796/the-dragon-with-flames-of-love

I appreciate from the bottom of my heart your pledge of support and help with this project.

Thank you!

Deborah Miller

TEDx Oaxaca CIty: Lucina Jimenez

Lucina Jimenez, Director of ConArte, talks about the importance of art and music in our culture and in Mexican schools. Working with students in communities devastated by trajedy like Ciudad de Juarez, she describes the critical importance of cultural and individual identity in the creation and healing of our internal and external architecture – the neuroscience and economy of creativity – and an investment in the culture of peace.

Hub Oaxaca

The Community

Social initiatives in Oaxaca are as diverse as its people. Urban projects, art & culture, craftwork, environmental efforts, community development… How can we support and participate in grass roots projects emerging in our state? 

Hub Oaxaca is a platform to support and catalyze local initiatives dedicated to community development and common well being. We believe in a Oaxaca—and in a world—where the pressing needs of society are solved through locally-designed alternatives; where people and diverse communities can grow, openly learning from the knowledge and expertise they share.

Come join us in transforming common challenges into creative solutions through: collective learning, self-management and economic, social and environmental sustainability.