Disclosures

Today I attended Disclosures, a project by Gasworks.

Disclosures seeks to scrutinise the notion of openness across fields of cultural production at large. A first reading of openness refers to situations in which the viewer, reader, listener or internet user becomes emancipated through egalitarian participation, collaborative authorship and/or the breaking down of hierarchical and social boundaries.

I didn' attend Saurday's presentations with seminars on Node.London and Open Congress. Instead I opted to attend sessions on 'Blue Skies, Grey Skies' to explore the limitations of FLOSS as a tool and as a model. I went to the morning seminar, presented by Toni Prug from LSE and attended a Resource Camp held by Critical Practice with the aim of drafting a set of guidelines for open budgeting.

The ResourceCamp will explore the ‘elephant in the room’ of open organisations and art institutions – the management of money and more generally the administration of resources. Through presentations, discussions and dissent we aim to draft ‘open’ budget guidelines for all.

The camp was similar to an open space technology event with participants setting the agenda for the sessions. Together the group explored issues concerning 'Opportunity Cost', generosity, exploitation, transitional practice, case studies of open budget participation, definition and balance of resources, issues of defining value.

Peter Dunn gave a presentation, providing some pragmatic advice on managing distributed budgets. I supported Peter when he mentioned measuring in-kind income/cost incurred during a project so that a 'real' monetary value is assigned to project budgets. The group concurred that if we gave value and budgeted for in-kind generated income the institutions we work for would be burdened with a heavy debt. Interesting thought ;-)

Jem McKay pointed out a useful report: open budget evaluation by Harrow Council. This sites Influence, Information, Diliberation, Feedback, Independence as the upholding principles for open budgeting. With this in hand Jem and Peter offered a a much needed practical view point.

A mailing list will be started with the aim of distributing notes from the days discussion, and carry it on - perhaps towards the stated aim of creating the guidelines. Lets see.

I just found an interesting report at infonomics.nl looks like it's also worth a read in the perspective of working with transactions that are not traded in monetary system.

twgfoe

Previous News from 2007 from Tottenham and Wood Green, Friends of the Earth, on Hale Village London...

News on major developments: We have commented on major plans for Wards Corner and Lawrence Road, both in the Seven Sisters area, calling for carbon-neutral developments with lower amounts of parking. There is a community campaign on Wards Corner trying to save some of the historic buildings on site, which we are in contact with. This campaign had 350 local people to a public meeting on 28 February.

The Hale Village proposal for the GLS site at Tottenham Hale, with 1210 flats, 700 student rooms, 800 parking spaces, a hotel, school, shops and health centre got outline planning permission on 17 May.

The site has now been demolished. The developers are obliged to hold a design competition for the "flagship building" at the front of the site. One of the four firms of architects proposed cladding the building with Photovoltaic panels, making it effectively carbon neutral. That's what we'd like to see on all new developments.

The other application we opposed - for 16-storey flats on the Hale Wharf site - has been withdrawn in the face of our campaign. This is a big win for local people. We have since met the developers, Isis, and they have asked different architects to come up with plans for the site which have now been shown to local residents. It looks likely that we will get a better and more interesting design, with lower buildings and maybe up to 200 car parking spaces instead of 350.

a message from RUDI (Resource for Urban Design Information)

I don't have much faith in the apparent green and sustainable spin to this development. As ever the planners had a chance to do something different, even ground breaking, but instead it looks like the usual uninspiring typical architecture.

Current public information about the development plan for Tottenham Hale:

BDP was commissioned by Lee Valley Estates to provide a masterplan for the former GlS site located immediately adjacent to Tottenham Hale Station in the London Borough of Haringey in north London.

The residential-led scheme will include a mix of uses including office, education, health, a hotel and local retail. The residential element will comprise 900 private tenure units and 300 affordable units, and at a density in line with the GLA recommendations for brown field sites. The site will be fully accessible and permeable, and provide amenities for existing local residents and workers in the area.

Key sustainability features for the site include:

• CCHP (combined, cooling, heating and power generation) as part of a whole site-wide energy infrastructure scheme – biomass boilers that will provide a minimum of 10 percent CO_ savings from the site through provision of thermal energy for the district heating network
  
  
• Brownfield site adjacent to major transport hub
  
  
• Rainwater harvesting
  
  
• Green roofs

This scheme demonstrates how imaginative private sector investment can generate a mixed and sustainable development. The project will at the same time set a new and higher quality benchmark for future investment in the area and kick start the regeneration of Tottenham Hale.

Meanwhile in skyscraper news...

The Pacific Gyre

Eee PC

My Newest Toy, originally uploaded by Denni Schnapp.

I found this photo on flickr and just had to post it. I am very pleased with my little white one, but I have to say the blue Eee PC looks lovely. Even Stephen Fry is talking about it. Now I know Mr Fry is a bit of a collector so I am sure he will try and get every colour. I have even bought a Linux magazine and had a go at changing skype settings through the command window.