Designing Our Future. Together.
Jonathan J. Halperin
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Cities of the Future
The mega-cities of the nearest future are either hubs of innovation and creativity, as outlined by Richard Florida at the Aspen Ideas Festival (video below), or overrun slums without electricity, transit access to center city, running water and the most basic urban services.
Or maybe they are both?
Check out the forthcoming The Misfit Economy: Innovation on the Fringe by Alexa Clay and Kyra Maya Phillips (www.misfiteconomy.com)
Capetown photo by Kyra Maya Phillips, co-author with Alexa Clay of the forthcoming
The Misfit Economy: Innovation on the Fringe
The Misfit Economy: Innovation on the Fringe
Florida has a fascinating project that seeks to assess economic development not through conventional surveys and data collection that lead to traditional computations of GDP, but rather through satellite imagery and calculations of energy use as derived from light emissions seen from space at night.
While intriguing, Florida acknowledges key shortcomings in his innovative approach. I asked him about these yesterday (see video below).
For video of the entire presentation and Q & A session,
visit the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival video channel.
(The exchange above appears at 50:06-51:54.)
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When I began to unhook from SustainAbility in 2008, after 20+ years, to co-found Volans, Jonathan was working with the US end of SustainAbility — and sent the London end of the Volans team a large cardboard box of multi-colored felt rocks, which initially I couldn't make head nor tail of. I thought he was mad, or overly American.
But I have to say that, over time, those felt rocks have become a central feature of the Volans culture, thrown by team members at other team members (or guests) on the slightest provocation. That aside, he's a consummate professional, creative collaborator, skilled communicator, and keen intellect—and I am delighted both to have had Jonathan as a colleague and to now count him as a friend.
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