GoodGNUs

Small Steps

This page refers to a project from early 2009

[Weds 20 & Thurs 21 May - this page is being updated live, so don't worry about changes & oddities]

Stop Press: The FACT meetings after-hours in Gallery 1 have been moved online.

You can now find the conversations at the FACT blog, and information distilled from the blog, and the workshops, below.

Traditional agriculture is labour-intensive; modern agriculture is energy intensive (& unsustainable) - but permaculture is design & knowledge intensive, using natural systems that give abundance to provide for our material needs with local adaptation to micro-climate, people & landscape.

“…Permaculturist’s propose asking questions the current culture leaves unasked: How much is enough? How hard should we work? What do we need? Want? How do we measure that? What are our individual responsibilities to the common good? How shall we have accountability to each other?” - Chris Carlsson in Nowtopia: How Pirate Programmers, Outlaw Bicyclists and Vacant-lot Gardeners Are Inventing the Future Today.

Small Steps to Sustainability

Part of FACT’s Climate for Change exhibition
Liverpool, UK - 13 March - 31 May, 2009

NEW TOOLS: ‘SMALL STEPS TO SUSTAINABILITY’ WEEKLY TECH SOCIAL
Wednesdays in Gallery 1, to 27 May
FREE

An after-work social café combining beer, conversation, and the jagged interface between technology, networks, and “saving the world”, kicked off by a five minute talk by sustainable technologist Richard Smedley. Running every Wednesday in Gallery 1 at 6pm.

18 March: Sustainable Learning – GNU/Linux
25 March: Sustainable Communities – Drupal / Plone / WordPress
1 April: Low Carbon Computing
8 April: Sustainable Economy – From LETS to Demurrage to Credit Unions
15 April: Sustainable Life – Getting Away From the Screen and Into the Allotment
22 April: Sustainable knowledge – Embracing Technology with Creative Community Learning
29 April: Sustainable Sanity – detox your world
6 May: Your Actions Count – after Peter Singer’s The Life You Can Save
13 May: Permaculture – Linking It All Up
20 May: Community or business – Social Enterprises, IT & environment
27 May: Next Steps…

Details & links below...

18 March: Sustainable Learning – GNU/Linux

GNU/Linux has led awareness of Software Freedom & Open Source; we look at this, and open access, open knowledge; and forms of collaborative learning. Can sharing knowledge be enough to make the world a better place?

25 March: Sustainable Communities – Drupal / Plone / WordPress

Linking Up Sustainable Communities with Social Software, and the right tactics.

1 April: Low Carbon Computing

Half of the electricity used by data centres is for cooling (the other half makes the heat). Find out about computing without waste.

8 April: Sustainable Economy – From LETS to Demurrage to Credit Unions

The Big One. We’ve got the credit crunch, billions to banks, & a government printing money like it’s Weimar Berlin (but the music was better back then). Is this madness the only sane way?

15 April: Sustainable Life – Getting Away From the Screen and Into the Allotment

The #smallsteps events have been examining the rôle of technology in sustainability. Tonight let’s look at the limitations of technology, and where it has almost no part to play.

In particular, Spring is in the air :) - let’s look at a bit of organic gardening: is it enough to feed the world?.

Upcoming page

22 April: Sustainable knowledge – Embracing Technology with Creative Community Learning

Lifelong learning, making & doing.

School, work, retirement, death has never been a compelling option, and learning is best done with participation. What’s going on now in the city? Hackdays, artists’ workshops, knitting circles, community get-togethers – making & doing is the best education.

Don’t fear technology. Let’s build something. Learning should be fun :-)

Upcoming page

29 April: Sustainable Sanity – detox your world

As a general rule, only 20% of what you do brings in 80% of your results. What can you productively throw out? Ditch Windows & Take Back Control of Your PC. Cut back on e-mail. What’s really important?

6 May: Your Actions Count – after Peter Singer’s The Life You Can Save
13 May: Permaculture – Linking It All Up

#SmallSteps: Permaculture on The[FACT]blog

A Permanent Culture

Permaculture is a design system for saving the world. Instead of throwing oil energy at a problem (20th Century solution), or manual labour (pre-industrial), Permaculture uses design, and an understanding of natural cycles, to produce a Permanent Agriculture.

Maximum contemplation; minimum action

The idea is to “introduce design into agriculture in order to create permanent high-yielding agricultural ecosystems“, through local solutions which work with “local climate, land form, soils, and the combinations of species which will thrive” and, of course, local people & culture.

Guided by the ethics of Earthcare, People Care, and Fair Shares, Permaculture has successfully rebuilt damaged eco-systems across the globe, and some great examples are linked from the Wikipedia page, and from the Permaculture Association (Britain) website.

More locally, Manchester Permaculture is fairly active, but Liverpool needs you! More on permaculture later in the week.

20 May: Community-minded – Social Enterprises & IT

Making a profit is not about taking money from other people. Social Enterprises build ethical, environmental & social capital. Social Entrepreneurs eschew the inflexibility of grant-based organisations, and take risks to try to achieve more.