If you’re ever bored, depressed, or itching to contribute to society, here are some initiatives I’ve been brewing for too long that might do some good.
Let me know if you can contribute/help/champion/lead, I’m trying to initiate good closure to unresolved things this month and some of these were time sensitive and important enough to weigh on my conscience if I don’t do something about them (some dating back to 2007). Obviously, some of these projects may take years of chipping to happen. Also, I'd be partial to people whom I've met or those who take time to reach me and convey sincere intentions.
You can comment directly on the google live document (which looks a lot like this note) here: http://bit.ly/IanOpnSrcAxnPrjcts
http://bit.ly/IanOpnSrcAxnPrjcts
Contents:
[Regional/Big-picture stuff]
1. Tapping a coalition for water
2. Color-Blind Vision Conscientious Traffic Light Legislation
3. New leaders with the Dearborn Sustainability Coalition (DSC)
4. The Open Democracy Project
[UM-Dearborn Specific]
1. Native Landscaping/Bioswale Project
2. Scholar’s Nexus at UM-Dearborn
3. Musicking Guild at UM-Dearborn
Details beyond the jump:
Big-Picture/Regional Initiatives
1. Tapping a coalition for water
Link to the letter and live document: http://bit.ly/MIH2OCoaliton2012
As a volunteer-led organization, several of its founding members (myself included), are stretched thin, but its programming and event participants fill important gaps in the community. What do the next steps for the DSC look like, and how should we proceed? About the DSC: http://bit.ly/DbrnCoolCities
4. The Open Democracy Project (for a sustained and vigorous Democracy)
Envision a functional democratic society in the U.S.--how can we best harness the publicity of the Occupy Movement in tandem with our existing capability as citizens? What does one need to effectively communicate with and hold their government accountable to well-informed and justified insight? This document aspires to be a mix of high-level strategic campaign planning (focusing on disproportionate full-time lobbying as problem behind the industry/government nexus, then expanding the scope to broader themes of sustainability with the Occupy movement) and an ethical citizen efficacy handbook. It’s been proposed at the January Inter-Occupy summit, but the document has gone quiet since I’ve had to focus on other things.
Link: http://bit.ly/OpnDemocracyPrjct
UM-Dearborn Specific
1. Native Landscaping/Bioswale Project (Student Environmental Association)
Create an educational garden space for anyone who ventures into the heart of UM-Dearborn’s main campus with the social, economic, and ecosystemic benefits of native landscaping. For those who wondered what and how native landscaping can be done at home in an aesthetically pleasing manner, or those who want to manage invasive non-native plants, this is for them to explore too. This project reduces grounds keeping expenditures by reducing areas for mowing, using plants that don't need fertilizers, watering, and pesticides. The money saved from this goes into maintenance and site/project-specific educational outreach at the University for sustainability, environmental, financial, and infrastructure literacy, and native landscaping!
2. Scholar’s Nexus at UM-Dearborn
This group is an intra-campus hub for research, refined scholarly technique, and academic communication hosted in partnership with the Mardigian Library Archive and Research facilities.
Interdisciplinary education harnesses diverse insight for optimal problem solving--much needed for fixing the world’s problems well. Creating an intra-campus network for UM-Dearborn researchers (students, faculty, staff alike) to promote awareness of people’s ongoing/former research projects (senior papers, dissertations, publications, etc.), will help spur greater scholarly interest at UM-Dearborn, deepen the rigor, breadth, and quality of academic inquiry, and also enrich the local community. This organization would also be accessable to the public--each time they convene, a scholar will present their latest research and the principles from which their inquiries arise.
3. Musicking Guild at The University of Michigan-Dearborn [low priority, disparate music orgs are shaping up now at UM-D]An umbrella Student Organization for music of all kinds at UM-Dearborn that also promotes music outreach: teaching music theory and application education is intrinsic to this organization. I wrote the constitution circa 2007 and never brought it to muster for approval as crisis management amidst shifting bureaucratic SAO procedures kept my attention on the Debate Team instead.
Let me know if you can contribute/help/champion/lead, I’m trying to initiate good closure to unresolved things this month and some of these were time sensitive and important enough to weigh on my conscience if I don’t do something about them (some dating back to 2007). Obviously, some of these projects may take years of chipping to happen. Also, I'd be partial to people whom I've met or those who take time to reach me and convey sincere intentions.
You can comment directly on the google live document (which looks a lot like this note) here: http://bit.ly/IanOpnSrcAxnPrjcts
http://bit.ly/IanOpnSrcAxnPrjcts
Contents:
[Regional/Big-picture stuff]
1. Tapping a coalition for water
2. Color-Blind Vision Conscientious Traffic Light Legislation
3. New leaders with the Dearborn Sustainability Coalition (DSC)
4. The Open Democracy Project
[UM-Dearborn Specific]
1. Native Landscaping/Bioswale Project
2. Scholar’s Nexus at UM-Dearborn
3. Musicking Guild at UM-Dearborn
Details beyond the jump:
Big-Picture/Regional Initiatives
1. Tapping a coalition for water
Link to the letter and live document: http://bit.ly/MIH2OCoaliton2012
Lots of initiatives and individuals in the region looking to promote water conservation, etc. in the year of the Water Dragon. Can we coalesce, coordinate, enrich, and promote a more coherent series of events to a wider audience? Methinks yes. Can I pull this together during this semester? Not on my own.
Things to look forward to: a UM-Dearborn professor ultra marathoning 80 miles from Lake Huron to Lake Superior in 12 hours, a UM Life Sciences Orchestra concert about water, and the culmination of various stewardship/citizen group efforts. Perhaps we’ll create some good ordinances in a few key SE Michigan cities like Dearborn, Detroit, and Canton, which can lead to prudent state legislation in the future.
2. Color-Blind Vision Conscientious Traffic Light Legislation
I seeded the idea with the Alliance for Disability Awareness at the University of Michigan-Dearborn to draft (United States) legislative recommendations for standardizing traffic lights to better aid proper distinction between the stop and go for color blind persons.
Horizontally oriented traffic signals can be particularly dangerous for colorblind individuals as it can be confusing for those who rely on spatial cues (red on top, green on bottom) to discern whether to stop or go. I’ve few easy to suggest solutions for flashing traffic lights (yellow or red) at this time though. I think focusing on standards for light intensity (Red with the most lumens, Yellow second, Green fewest) would be the most reasonable standard to propose for now. Lights would phase-in state-wide in the future (2025 or so).
Inspired by reading these comments:
http://www.colblindor.com/2007/02/06/colorblind-at-the-traffic-light/
http://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/aboutCB.asp
See what it’s like here: http://www.colourblindawareness.org/
3. New leaders with the Dearborn Sustainability Coalition (DSC)
The DSC hosts inclusive and comprehensive community dialog with credible education to proactively facilitate actions to meet the following goals:
Things to look forward to: a UM-Dearborn professor ultra marathoning 80 miles from Lake Huron to Lake Superior in 12 hours, a UM Life Sciences Orchestra concert about water, and the culmination of various stewardship/citizen group efforts. Perhaps we’ll create some good ordinances in a few key SE Michigan cities like Dearborn, Detroit, and Canton, which can lead to prudent state legislation in the future.
2. Color-Blind Vision Conscientious Traffic Light Legislation
I seeded the idea with the Alliance for Disability Awareness at the University of Michigan-Dearborn to draft (United States) legislative recommendations for standardizing traffic lights to better aid proper distinction between the stop and go for color blind persons.
Horizontally oriented traffic signals can be particularly dangerous for colorblind individuals as it can be confusing for those who rely on spatial cues (red on top, green on bottom) to discern whether to stop or go. I’ve few easy to suggest solutions for flashing traffic lights (yellow or red) at this time though. I think focusing on standards for light intensity (Red with the most lumens, Yellow second, Green fewest) would be the most reasonable standard to propose for now. Lights would phase-in state-wide in the future (2025 or so).
Inspired by reading these comments:
http://www.colblindor.com/2007/02/06/colorblind-at-the-traffic-light/
http://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/aboutCB.asp
See what it’s like here: http://www.colourblindawareness.org/
3. New leaders with the Dearborn Sustainability Coalition (DSC)
The DSC hosts inclusive and comprehensive community dialog with credible education to proactively facilitate actions to meet the following goals:
- Increase sustainability awareness
- Organize interest in sustainability
- Foster informed coalition building and network development in the city
- Cultivate a more vibrant and sustainable community in the Metro Detroit area
- Reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions city-wide through community participation
As a volunteer-led organization, several of its founding members (myself included), are stretched thin, but its programming and event participants fill important gaps in the community. What do the next steps for the DSC look like, and how should we proceed? About the DSC: http://bit.ly/DbrnCoolCities
4. The Open Democracy Project (for a sustained and vigorous Democracy)
Envision a functional democratic society in the U.S.--how can we best harness the publicity of the Occupy Movement in tandem with our existing capability as citizens? What does one need to effectively communicate with and hold their government accountable to well-informed and justified insight? This document aspires to be a mix of high-level strategic campaign planning (focusing on disproportionate full-time lobbying as problem behind the industry/government nexus, then expanding the scope to broader themes of sustainability with the Occupy movement) and an ethical citizen efficacy handbook. It’s been proposed at the January Inter-Occupy summit, but the document has gone quiet since I’ve had to focus on other things.
Link: http://bit.ly/OpnDemocracyPrjct
UM-Dearborn Specific
1. Native Landscaping/Bioswale Project (Student Environmental Association)
Create an educational garden space for anyone who ventures into the heart of UM-Dearborn’s main campus with the social, economic, and ecosystemic benefits of native landscaping. For those who wondered what and how native landscaping can be done at home in an aesthetically pleasing manner, or those who want to manage invasive non-native plants, this is for them to explore too. This project reduces grounds keeping expenditures by reducing areas for mowing, using plants that don't need fertilizers, watering, and pesticides. The money saved from this goes into maintenance and site/project-specific educational outreach at the University for sustainability, environmental, financial, and infrastructure literacy, and native landscaping!
2. Scholar’s Nexus at UM-Dearborn
This group is an intra-campus hub for research, refined scholarly technique, and academic communication hosted in partnership with the Mardigian Library Archive and Research facilities.
Interdisciplinary education harnesses diverse insight for optimal problem solving--much needed for fixing the world’s problems well. Creating an intra-campus network for UM-Dearborn researchers (students, faculty, staff alike) to promote awareness of people’s ongoing/former research projects (senior papers, dissertations, publications, etc.), will help spur greater scholarly interest at UM-Dearborn, deepen the rigor, breadth, and quality of academic inquiry, and also enrich the local community. This organization would also be accessable to the public--each time they convene, a scholar will present their latest research and the principles from which their inquiries arise.
3. Musicking Guild at The University of Michigan-Dearborn [low priority, disparate music orgs are shaping up now at UM-D]
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