Metaverse presentation at the CSIR conference

pdf: Bernelle_CSIR_Conference_2022.pdf

Carel spoke after me, and the Q&A was lively!

CSIR conference: https://conference.csir.co.za/programme-day-2/

What would I want the CSIR to do with this information?

  1. Make your code open source.
  2. Contribute your data in 5 star format, using RDF (Resource Description Framework).
    https://5stardata.info/en/
    An example of what this looks like: https://dr.jones.dk/me/
  3. Forget about blockchain. Everything that blockchain promises to do can be done, and done better, without blockchain. Further, blockchain cannot even do most of the things that blockchain promises. Start your journey with SafeNet. https://safenetwork.tech/
  4. Work with terria.js and Digital Earth Africa https://www.digitalearthafrica.org/ if you are not already.
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Raw highlights from INSPIRE report

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/510cd3aa-32e4-11ec-bd8e-01aa75ed71a1/language-en

European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Penninga, F., Lutz, M., Minghini, M., et al. (2021) INSPIRE, a public sector contribution to the European green deal data space : a vision for the technological evolution of Europe’s spatial data infrastructures for 2030. Publications Office of the European Union. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/8563

p6
Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) must evolve from complex and highly specialised frameworks to more sustainable, flexible and agile data ecosystems, lowering the entry level to non-specialists and welcoming an increased participation from less traditional stakeholders (e.g. open source software communities, standardisation bodies and early adopters) in addition to data providers and users.

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Zandvlei, Demogarchy and Bitcoin

in draft.

I used to be on the Zandvlei Protected Areas Advisory Committee (ZPAAC) for a few years. We were a group of people, both volunteers, residents in the area, and City employees tasked with managing the estuary, or ‘vlei’ in Afrikaans, hence the name. It was heavily impacted by poor design and construction choices in the 60s, in the form of the Marina da Gama estate, primarily, but also inappropriate urban density upstream, both formal and informal (backyard dwellers upstream with insufficient service delivery, and not enough toilets). So it needed constant management – rewilding was simply not an option.

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Art-Science Initiatives in Scandinavia

I’m planning a three month (give or take) residency in Scandinavia – Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. It needs to be in winter because I’m still obsessed with the northern lights and other phenomena (check it out: http://spaceweather.com/). And yes, also, because maybe I want to leave SA. Who doesn’t, at this point? And if I go, I need to know I can survive the winter. I’m also seriously considering buying a place in Hopefield, because, animals, space… so not that serious about leaving SA. Maybe a halfies halfies thing, at best.

While there I have to make myself useful, and because I’m on this game thing at the moment, connecting with art-science initiatives like geospatial art is a great way to make networks, get inspired and maybe start a North-South collaboration that could result in something like the Eden Project in SA, or ‘Skills on a Train‘ vocational training or … in short, have fun. This page is researching what is out there – including funding to get me there.

To do: ask Thomas Niederoest and Hadley Arnold. And keep an eye on the DIYBio stuff. urban interventions – natalie jeremijenko?

While open-ended, I’m particularly interested in information design, biotechnology (in the DIYBio sense), geospatial, urban interventions and urban resource flows. Lower priority areas include animatronics, biomimicry, entertainment. I would prefer working with independent organisations rather than academic institutions, and open-source mindsets.

I guess I could just go to a well functioning hacker space with my own projects and then just see what emerges. I just realised though, that I want to be beyond the arctic circle (latitude 66.5), and the stuff seems to happen on the 60th latitude (Oslo 59.95, Helsinki 60.17, Stockholm 59.32, and Copenhagen 55.67, by the way, via Wiki). (ha! I thought, why not do a symmetrical collaboration, but Cape Town is a measly -34 degrees latitude. So not an easy marketing move)

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Refining the game idea at DebConf19

The slide presentation using reveal.js for my talk is here: https://indiebio.co.za/slides/DebConf19_Bernelle_Verster_20jul19.html#
The video recording of the talk (30 minutes) is available on the DebConf website: https://debconf19.debconf.org/talks/111-the-metaverse-gaming-and-the-metabolism-of-cities/

After the talk I thought more about the privacy issue, and remembered a slightly different version of what I planned to do, that I revisit here. I think this is more achievable to start with, and possibly more elegant.

The complete setup of the game is like a macaron.

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SAGTA presentation: The metaverse, gaming and the metabolism of cities; Building connection across boundaries

IN DRAFT

This talk was given at the South African Geography Teachers Conference (SAGTA) in Pretoria on 21 June 2019. The talk was well received and I found useful resources related to GIS. I hope to pilot a version of the game, or at least the data gathering and interpretation in a school project which would help update the geography curriculum too.

The presentation is in html and can be found here (link to follow) or downloaded in pdf here (link to follow).

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