Civil Sandbox

Sandbox Festival 2010 in development

2009-05-27T09:49:45Z

We’ve begun to develop the first Sandbox festival, targetted for next year. We are beginning with a music festival as a basic. It will then be upgraded over time with the more experimental ideas we have. The core of the event is based around Flapper Management and [...]

Projects breakdown

2009-03-03T12:34:32Z

Social Computer - The thought experiment. This is something to talk, think and philosophise about. Not just an empty concept but a question that leads to a higher level of group intelligence. What is it and how could it impact our society should we build one? - Currently I’m looking into making a movie about [...]

Tightening Feedback Loops

2009-02-05T23:55:13Z

The whole project is about “tightening feedback loops” which is aiming to address the fundamental problems with the current world systems communism, capitalism, democracy, organisation etc. The majority of the problems are there because the feedback loops are slow and dumb so the bigger problems can not be dealt with effectively or even recognised in time [...]

2006 Spotlighted by Foundercontact.com

2009-02-04T09:55:06Z

“We are building society in a box simulations with art, music and other exciting but concrete ways of getting people active.” “I think entrepreneurs of today are challenged by bridging the evolution out of industrial thinking. No more copy and paste, assembly lines and repetitive tasks.” You can download the full pdf using this link -> Spotlighted_prasanand Thanks [...]

Quick update

2009-01-25T14:53:17Z

Just a quick update after a long period of inactivity (on the blog, not in general!). We are now developing the Sandbox Festival. An annual, travelling, city-level prototype Civil Sandbox event. First prototype pencilled in for 2010 in Groningen, in north Holland. 1 We have a physical space where we are building a community to build the [...]

What is it?! Prototype2003 interview

2008-11-15T14:47:30Z

I wrote this in January 2003 to try to describe the kinds of things you would see at a Social Computer building (a Civil Sandbox). The name Prototype comes from the name of the event we were proposing to explore the Social Computer. Please bear in mind that it is nearly 6 years ago so [...]

Buckminster Fuller Challenge entry

2008-11-07T15:45:58Z

Here is the civil sandbox entry to the Buckminster Fuller Challenge 2009 Summarize the purpose and key elements of your strategy: The Civil Sandbox is a proposition for a new kind of city building. As a Sandbox, the environment is designed to be dynamic and exploratory. There are several key problems being adressed at it’s heart. 1 If you [...]

Too anal?

2008-11-04T12:57:22Z

Here’s the previous month’s analytics reports for this blog for those who are interested. uniquevisitors - geomap country - geomap city - lengthofvisit - depthofvisit - pageviews

2002 Shared public research space for technologies

2008-10-10T12:55:52Z

“I really like the idea that you can have an environment in which you can test technologies, products and see feedback and see a lot of things happen. You could see a lot of new things get developed, and innovations. Almost like an atmosphere of its own.From there you have [...]

2002 Thematic network research document

2008-10-09T20:33:37Z

This was the first document I wrote that people started to see what I was trying to do. It was finished in October 2002, before the ist2002 brainstorm document Social (Network, People, Community) Computing (System, Process, Result) The Social Computer is a potentially revolutionary thematic arts research project. The theme of Social Computing aims to suggest a platform [...]

2002 Trying to build a brain

2008-10-09T19:33:16Z

In 2002, Mathew Lowry was website manager for IST 2002. I think, although he was a science journalist for many years, this was the first time he was interviewed. I shouldn’t say interview because we talked most of the time haha.

Howard Bloom - Reinventing Capitalism

2008-10-09T10:11:15Z

http://www.howardbloom.net/reinventing_capitalism/ “The Western World is in a new war, a war for its heart, a war for its head, a war for its values, a war for its identity, and a war for its very right to be. This is not a war of bombs, munitions and military might. It is a War of Faith & [...]

Merlijn Twaalfhoven, Symphony for all

2008-10-08T23:02:50Z

There are many projects we can bring together to create a Sandbox Festival, for example “A Symphony for All” that struck me as precisely the kind of project I would like to bring into the events. I feel that Merlijn’s work represents perfectly the notions that I am trying to [...]

Playful experiments

2008-10-08T20:11:52Z

I think a good event reminds people that there are new possibilities out there. It is warm and friendly and gives people a nice backdrop to meet new people and explore common interests or discover new ones. It is open to new ways of thinking and gives room for [...]

2008 Civil Sandbox - Another description

2008-10-06T22:51:04Z

“A building, that is reprogrammable, that has custom functions that are decided upon by the citizens, that incorporates the newest experimental social technologies to explore the fringes of our imaginations into where civilisation should be going. Then, imagine one in every city. Imagine that each one has a brain (like a starship computer) that talks to [...]

2007 Societal Computing text

2008-10-03T12:20:10Z

I was trying to describe a science for the concept of Societal Computing. I realised that Social Computing didn’t really cover the high-level stuff like redesigning the processes that make a society function. Again, a lot of thought and a lot of talk, but not much action. My mistake was thinking that I need to convince the [...]

2001 Mayor of Groningen NL talks to us about involving young people

2008-10-03T12:09:28Z

In 2001 we were mostly busy with opening people up to new kinds of art form and expression. It is true, however, that most of our research is useful for other industries as it represents creativity towards approaching change. You could say that designing society is also an art form [...]

2001 BBC interview about city culture festival

2008-10-03T11:53:38Z

This was the project that initially sparked the idea of a building with a very special function. This festival is the basic format I will use for the Sandbox festival which is a city wide experimental Civil Sandbox within an event. For me, this is the best way to research [...]

2002 Interview clip potential EC benefit from a Social Computer

2008-10-03T11:41:28Z

“Even though it has the agenda of promoting R&D, the European Union, the companies and all that, thats at one level the level that people would see is just a hip and happening place, would be nice to go to there and spend time and learn a lot so its [...]

2002 Interview clip about an intelligent city building

2008-10-03T11:37:27Z

Aladdin Ayesh and Karina discuss ideas of how to use a Social Computer in terms of intelligent buildings and usage of congnitive technologies. They are looking at what we could use the building to help the citizens deal with civil decisions. Some people found this a bit too technical, imagine [...]

2002 Knowledge E=MC²

2008-10-01T22:32:17Z

Here David shares his thoughts on the notion of a Social Computer and talks about knowledge management within society. Interviewed: David Willis, Hull University

Civil Sandbox entry for Google Project 10^100

2008-10-01T16:47:20Z

http://www.project10tothe100.com/index.html What one sentence best describes your idea? A new kind of city building that serves as a risk-free, continous city-improvement platform for big ideas. Describe your idea in more depth. (maximum 300 words) The Civil Sandbox is a name for a new kind of building. The building is a joint research centre [...]

OpenGL presentation from IST2002

2008-09-30T19:46:09Z

This was part of our presentation, a visual installation for the brainstorm (we used it without the music). Link to openGL demo (win32)

From inbredTV to Social Computer 2004

2008-09-30T19:33:22Z

This is an explaination of what happened after the Blue Moon project and a brief interview with Pete Kercher and a few words around the Social Computer. The building became our test subject for the following 3 years. Pete Kercher Wiki

2008 Exploring complex issues with visual thinking

2008-02-10T21:48:07Z

I recently came across this great workshop. Anyone want to sponsor me the £40k I need to do one of these about the Civil Sandbox? lol GroupPartners

2002 DG Infso IST2002 event brainstorm document and results

2008-02-04T17:00:47Z

The Information Society Technologies conference of November 2002 was the annual research event of DGInfSo in Copenhagen. a 4000 attendance conference where EC-related research activities are brought together. The event was held in the Bella Centre in Copehagen, Denmark. I was lucky enough to be accepted for a slot within the networking sessions and had a [...]

Introducing the “Civil Sandbox”

2008-01-21T16:35:36Z

I started in 2000 with a process of understanding, developing and discussing a complex conceptual framework I called “The Social Computer”. This could be seen as a thought experiment along the lines of - What can a society achieve if it was more “reprogrammable”, and what could a building achieve if designed with all the “new programs” in [...]