We aim to create a pathway for revolutionary ideas for the environment through academic institutions...
PROJECT FLOW
IDEATELook for the environment's most pressing issues. Don't be afraid of the challenge.
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CREATEDesign, build, prototype, refine, polish. Do what you need to do to develop something tangible, something real.
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IMPLEMENT/COMMERCIALIZETransform your ideas from paper to reality. Work in the field and make real impact.
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The Need: The "Ecological Commons" |
The Solution: Open-source Technology "Platform" Development |
Technology enables change, both good and bad. Throughout modern history, technology development
has often been presented as being at odds with the environmental movement, and often rightfully so. However, as green technologies such as clean energy emerge as saviors to the dangerous technologies of the fossil fuel industry, it is becoming more accepted that technological development in the environment can be a vehicle that enables widespread social change. The central question for environmentalists should be, how do we ensure that technology development is a tool that works in the environment’s favor? Companies have become very good at doing less harm and mitigating their “own” environmental impacts by focusing on clean energy, low-carbon and zero waste, but tech development for the benefit of the ecological commons, (the collective planet biome) is still lacking. One of the major issues is that many technologies that are developed for the benefit of the ecological commons tend to be hard to monetize by traditional means as there is no “owner.” For example, amazing animal tag technologies have been developed by places like Woods Hole to monitor keystone species such as whales - however the small market has driven monthly costs to ten thousand dollars per tag, and meant technical support has largely ceased. The lack of viable market has largely kept large technology R&D companies and the financial sector away, despite the economic (ecosystem services) and intrinsic reasons to do so. If there are few prestigious/lucrative careers in the area, this has a flow-on effect in that top talent is not retained. Engineering and technology development is a lucrative career choice – Georgetown’s “Economic Value of College Majors” study showed that 9 out of the top 10 most profitable majors were engineering. Until there are significant financial incentives for the protection and restoration of the ecological commons, it will be difficult. |
Without a current clear path to market, many green technologies should begin to look to set up
an open-source platform (infrastructure to allow meaningful innovation to more easily occur as IP is never utilized as a competitive advantage). Open source platforms are the building blocks on which innovative initiatives can emerge. Many of today’s large companies (Facebook, Twitter, Uber) were made on the back of open-source platforms such as PHP and Node.js. The platforms create a democratization of information and but rely on a passionate core community to contribute new content. Successful examples of open-source platform organizations are littered throughout society – Linux, Mozilla, Wikipedia, R, Arduino. There are also examples of open-source platforms focused on the environment such as iNaturalist (and other citizen science communities), Open Science Framework, Open Source Ecology and ConservationXLab’s Online Makerspace. To borrow an analogy from software “Platforms are driven by the community (hardware enthusiasts and academia), whereas products are built by industry and startups.” Innovation is challenging when one has to build both the platform and the product. Universities are an ideal location for the formation of an open-source environmentally focused technology development platforms – ideas developed to a point where NGOs and communities can adapt them to their specific needs. College campuses have always been a hotbed for social change, there is no reason why change through technologies cannot occur there in student groups and project classes. Students, especially those in technical majors, contribute very little of their skillset to society until they graduate. This is unfortunate, as in many ways they are the most ideal demographic to solve technical issues for the environment. Students have the lowest barrier to entry – ample space and funding resources, expert assistance from faculty, and the diverse skill sets of other students to count on. They also bear very little financial responsibility or consequence of failure. As recruiters have begun to look more towards projects than GPA, the development of green technologies could become a valuable career move. Students have an educated outsider advantage – they are not embedded in seeing the status quo as those in the industry are, and are therefore more likely to come up with revolutionary ideas. |