• Structure of Sound

    by greenspacewriter 05/18/2012

    *A post by Courtney Selstad*

    Living in a city with a lot of noise, it is easy for New Yorkers to take sound for granted. In an attempt to tune out the blaring car horns, we often miss a lot of the variety and beauty in everyday sound. If you stop and pay attention to the sounds around you what would you hear? Does it have rhythm? Is it musical? Do you enjoy it?

    While it might not be considered a concerto, sound is naturally generated by everything around us. Our daily routines and the objects we use all contribute to a soundscape.

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  • Participatory Planning with Mike Ernst

    by greenspacewriter 05/07/2012

    * The following is a guest post from urban planner and designer, Mike Ernst *

    Urban planning as a profession works to address the challenges cities face as they undergo rapid change. Working on multiple scales, planners seek to create communities that are economically viable, inclusive and sustainable.

    Yet planners have had a conflicted history with the communities they’re purported to serve. Planners too often have taken on the role of experts; planning and urban design have been viewed as technical, elitist pursuits, with set rules that could be applied universally, regardless of local context or history.

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  • May Day, OWS Style

    by greenspacewriter 05/03/2012

    May Day - also referred to as International Worker’s Day - this year drew attention in the United States as a result of an anticipated resurgence of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Occupiers throughout the nation circulated plans for a general strike, asking people not to go to work or school and to abstain from spending on May 1st. In effect, the Occupy movement sought to convince people to join their May Day protests and marches instead of participating in the capitalist system.

    Despite their efforts, these scheduled activities fell short on numbers.

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  • Earth Day, Every Day

    by greenspacewriter 04/24/2012

    Participation has been a key theme in GreenspaceNYC’s initiatives and the sustainability movement as a whole. Earth Day 2012 was no exception.

    It goes without saying that green events require active members of society that work together to promote environmentally friendly practices. While GreenspaceNYC has a clear focus on the New York City community, the Earth Day Network has made their annual event an international affair.

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  • Participatory Urbanism

    by greenspacewriter 04/10/2012

    Now that more people live in cities than ever before, how can we contribute to the planning, design and development of our neighborhoods, communities or city? In the dawn of the age of participatory culture, sharing economies, social media and inter-connectivity, what does it mean to contribute to the development of our built environment?

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  • Coworking in the City

    by greenspacewriter 04/03/2012

    After our March 23rd gathering, it became clear that many people were curious about Wix Lounge, a free coworking space and host to a variety of events. There were a multitude of questions asked in regards to Wix Lounge’s general functions and operations. Above all, guests were astounded that use of the space comes at no cost.

    In recent years, coworking offices have been cropping up nationwide, usually in larger cities like San Francisco, CA and Dallas, TX. The idea behind coworking is not only a move towards greener urban living, but also generates a more positive atmosphere for those conducting business in these spaces.

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  • In Thanks

    by greenspacewriter 03/29/2012

    We at GreenspaceNYC would like to thank all of those who came and showed their support at Wix Lounge last Friday for our event, “A Toast to Your Influence.” There were over 100 attendees and the overall enthusiasm of the crowd was tangible throughout the night. We hope that all enjoyed the refreshments, presentation, and conversation; we certainly took great pleasure in answering any questions and hearing about our guests’ personal projects and endeavors regarding green living in the city.

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  • Crowdsourcing, Revisted

    by greenspacewriter 03/19/2012

    Since the first blog entry about crowdsourcing was posted on GreenspaceNYC last April, gathering and utilizing data from the general public has become evermore prominent and significant in society. Indeed, this method of data collection has become an integral tool for a wide variety of businesses and organizations.

    While corporations may use crowdsourcing to gauge levels of productivity or customer satisfaction, other organizations are utilizing the power of the crowd for much more innovative projects and initiatives.

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  • Occupy Wall Street Lives On

    by greenspacewriter 03/14/2012

    While Occupy Wall Street (OWS) dominated US media this past fall, 2012 has seen a significant decline in coverage of this social movement; yet activity continues to surround it.

    The New School, for instance, recently opened the doors to their exhibit: #searchunderoccupy, a project which explores a multiplicity of OWS records in order to create what the institution has deemed “a living archive.”

    In the meantime, OWS continues to exist both physically and virtually in its own right.

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  • A Toast to Your Influence: How Conscientious Consumers Change Business

    by greenspacewriter 03/03/2012

    GreenspaceNYC, in partnership with ethikus and Wix Lounge, invites you to join an open discussion about the impact of ethical consumerism on Friday, March 23rd at Wix Lounge. As a companion to GreenspaceNYC’s mission and ethikus’ “Shop Your Values Week” attendees will have the opportunity to learn about experiences living a sustainable lifestyle in the city while enjoying food and drink.

    Ultimately, we hope that this gathering will inspire others to pursue their own ventures and potentially work with us towards a greener New York City. The event will open at 6:30pm and close out around 9:00pm. Further information and registration can be found on our MeetUp page (http://bit.ly/xUN4UI) and we hope to see you on the 23rd.

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  • Open Education: A Progress Report

    by greenspacewriter 02/20/2012

    As many of you may have noted, shortly after the publication of our December 6th blog post about open education, MIT announced that they would be launching MITx, a free online platform for higher education. At first glance, it may be unclear as to how this system differs from Stanford’s “Machine Learning” or even from MIT’s pre-existent OpenCourseWare (OCW) database.

    First off, every course on MITx will include all necessary online tools and greater interactive features - also free of charge - in order to allow a more complete and enriching virtual learning experience.

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  • Urban Planning with Mike Ernst

    by greenspacewriter 02/16/2012

    Joining the ranks of our Pop-Up Class instructors is Mike Ernst, an urban planner and designer that is new to New York City. Originally from Ohio, Mike was based in the San Francisco Bay Area for 8 years prior to his move this January. After graduating from Miami University of Ohio, Mike went on to earn a Masters of City Planning at UC Berkeley.

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  • Placing Trust in the Media

    by greenspacewriter 02/11/2012

    In our last post, we discussed the need to educate the population in such a way that will produce citizens well versed in the art of social media. In other words, media is becoming such a significant component of American culture that it would be irresponsible to deny people all of the opportunities that media creation and participatory culture have to offer. So what, exactly, are the benefits of becoming an active member of the Internet community?

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  • Socializing with Media

    by greenspacewriter 02/08/2012

    There can be no doubt that social media has become an integral part of American culture and society. Use of social networking platforms and other online resources is common practice in the every day lives of US citizens, including the large percentages of the population grew up in a world without the Internet. While it has certainly been an adjustment for those who had to adopt an Internet-driven society, what the country must now focus upon is the need to alter the way we educate the generations that are being socialized with media.

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  • New Media: Closing the Participatory Gap

    by greenspacewriter 02/04/2012

    There are some really interesting ideas about the relationships between media and communications. Media refers to the many channels which provide a conduit for communication, and is ever-changing. Historically we thought of media as mostly a non-interactive domain—- here we are thinking of newspaper, radio, television. Today we have the world-wide web which connects the masses.

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  • Introducing ethikus: Ethical Spending in the City

    by greenspacewriter 01/28/2012

    Sustainable urban living has become increasingly discussed amongst city dwellers, New Yorkers included. GreenspaceNYC is one of a number of organizations working to promote “green” lifestyle in New York City; it is part of a growing community, which lends itself to many opportunities for collaboration. Ethikus is one of these like-minded social ventures that GreenspaceNYC is proud to work with.

    A valuable resource for ethical consumers, ethikus offers information about local stores and restaurants, evaluating each business’ practices in terms of sustainability and ethics.

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  • Reducing Impact and Spending: Sustainability as an Affordable Lifestyle

    by greenspacewriter 01/21/2012

    It has been clear from the start that one of GreenspaceNYC’s foremost concerns is sustainable urban living. In the past few years, the concept of a “green” lifestyle has taken on greater value in American society and new resources for sustainable living have been cropping up nationwide. At the same time, a “green” lifestyle is often times seen as an expensive one; as a consequence, sustainability is popularly perceived as a luxury and even as an inconvenience.

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  • Forging Linkages: Sustainable Development and Education Reform

    by greenspacewriter 01/12/2012

    *A Guest Post from Jennifer Lauren*

    In many regions throughout the world today, citizens are discussing and acting upon the growing realization that the system of education is not meeting the shifting needs and aspirations of students, teachers and communities. While the dynamics of education reform is under local and national media scrutiny in New York and the United States, Chile’s current reform process which involved coordinated activism on behalf of students and youth groups (see http://econ.st/AjuHlC “The Fraught Politics of the Classroom”) and Europe’s evolving attempt to standardize higher education via the Bologna Process so that college degrees are better serving, are just two of many other current examples which demonstrate the the pressing need to re-evaluate how the delivery of education today can more effectively meet the needs of citizens and communities, in the present and the future.

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  • Andrew Haner: Architect

    by greenspacewriter 01/06/2012

    Architect Andrew Haner, founder of the Brooklyn-based sun|tect studio, has lived in numerous locations throughout the United States. Having grown up in a military family, Haner resided in various parts of the West coast, South, and Midwest before settling in New York. Between earning his undergraduate degree at Washington University in St. Louis and his Masters of Architecture at University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign, he apprenticed at Studio|Durham Architects under the supervision of Philip Durham.

    Upon completion of his graduate degree in 2004, Andrew relocated to New York City to work at Allen + Killcoyne Architects under Daniel Allen and in 2009 he opened sun|tect studios in Brooklyn. So why New York?

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  • Artist Seth Mulvey: Portraiture and Community

    by greenspacewriter 01/02/2012

    Seth Mulvey is an artist living and working in Brooklyn painting portraits and symbolic objects. His work is built on a traditional approach to drawing, light, color, and composition.

    A strong visual learner, Seth began reading at age two and drew throughout childhood. During high school in detention, Seth drew portraits and scenes of the security guards and staff. His drawings were so well received that he was often given a pass from class on non detention days to come back and draw more portraits of them.

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  • Interdisciplinary Social Change with Jennifer Lauren

    by greenspacewriter 12/13/2011

    Jennifer Lauren is dedicated to implementing projects that creatively work toward the integration of sustainable development principles with education and social service delivery in order to better meet the evolving needs of youth and communities. Jennifer comes from a diverse professional background and has worked in various areas concerning the arts and design, humanitarian and education initiatives, international collaboration, NGOs, and government. Having already cultivated such a wealth of experience, she now joins the mission of GreenspaceNYC.

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  • Education: Free for All

    by greenspacewriter 12/06/2011

    It’s no secret that technology has changed the way that people learn today. Older generations are awestruck by the vastity of information available to every one through the Internet. Sites like Wikipedia were just the beginning in an ongoing movement to make education more accessible. Today social media tools are being utilized to perpetuate networked and distributed learning on an international level.

    In the past few years, distributed learning and open education resources have been increasing in numbers and visibility.

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  • Collaborative Work Spaces

    by greenspacewriter 12/03/2011

    As New York’s creative class of sole practicing artists, designers, technologists, architects, consultants, developers and programmers move through these harsh economic times, they seek the benefits of an accessible work space and community.

    Why should creative young freelancers and entrepreneurs work alone in their apartments, or be forced to pack into busy coffeeshop chains? Even sole practitioners seek the community and camaraderie that working with others brings.

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  • Audrey Berman: Architect (and Foodie)

    by greenspacewriter 11/22/2011

    A first generation Russian-American, Audrey Berman grew up eating traditional Russian cuisine; she had her first taste of sushi at age two. For Audrey, food has been an ever-present opportunity to explore a myriad of cultures that would be otherwise inaccessible to her. Tasting a variety of cuisines has spawned a continuous curiosity about what, how, and why people eat the foods that they eat as well as the implications of these decisions.

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  • Pop-Up Artist: Introducing Robert Bohn

    by greenspacewriter 11/18/2011

    We at GreenspaceNYC are pleased to introduce the first of our teachers for the pop-up class series: Robert Bohn.

    Robert Bohn is a New Yorker and artist who draws inspiration from his city’s streets, literally. Utilizing discarded materials found on the sidewalks, Bohn recreates trash, transforming it into a work of art.

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  • Pop-Up Series Launch and Partnerships

    by greenspacewriter 11/18/2011

    In the last few months the GreenspaceNYC team has been hard at work speaking and brainstorming with artists, teachers, and organizations around New York to create an exciting new Pop-Up Lecture Series. Well, we are ready to go! Inaugural events are scheduled for early January 2012.

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  • Social Media for the Common Good

    by greenspacewriter 11/03/2011

    Social media solely aimed at facilitating virtual interaction is a thing of the past. The emergence of various web 2.0 sites and software, including GreenspaceNYC, has ushered in a new era: the use of social media for the betterment of society.

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  • Occupy Change

    by greenspacewriter 10/09/2011

    Though “Occupy Wall Street” officially commenced on September 17th, it has just begun to recieve a significant amount of media attention in this past week or so. The movement began, of course, in our own New York City and, by this week, has spread to a number of other cities throughout the country.

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  • Call for Teachers for Pop-up Classes

    by greenspacewriter 10/04/2011

    We are seeking to collaborate with teaching artists, designers, urban farmers, gardeners, craftsmen and community advocates for the launch of the GreenspaceNYC Pop-up Class Series. The series will take the form of public community programming (classes, workshops, presentations,) that address topics in sustainable urban living, social good, and the creative arts.

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  • A Year of Growth

    by greenspacewriter 09/27/2011

    As with any start-up organization, GreenspaceNYC has undergone huge development in its first year. There was, certainly, a lot of learning to be done throughout the year and the team was often engaged in acquiring new knowledge pertaining to Web 2.0 and community growth. Events throughout the year inspired a variety of new ideas and initiatives, such as Hurricane Irene, which prompted further discussion about cultural mapping, or the team’s participation in the NYC BigApps 2.0 competition.

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  • Pop-Up Series

    by greenspacewriter 09/18/2011

    As GreenspaceNYC continues to move forward in its endeavors, the team has decided to add a pop-up class program to the master laundry list.

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  • Collaborate with GreenspaceNYC on Pop-Up Community Workshops and classes!

    by greenspacewriter 09/10/2011

    Greenspacenyc is currently interested in working with teachers, community educators, working/teaching artists, craftsmen, and designers.

    We are working to develop and facilitate pop up classes, workshops, presentations, and events within various neighborhoods and communities throughout New York City. Our goal is to foster more dialogues about art, diversity and sustainable urban living in our communities.

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  • Optimizing the User Experience

    by greenspacewriter 09/05/2011

    Functionality and user-friendliness are both integral aspects of creating a successful web tool. If you recall the previous post, “Facilitating Change with 2.0,” you might be familiar with the name, Ushahidi, an free and open source web platform that allows users to report emergencies and disasters in their area through interactive mapping. This web tool is accessible through multiple data streams, including text messages, email, twitter, and so on. Another essential component of web platforms is continuous improvement. Thus it is noteworthy that the organization recently released Ushahidi 2.1, which includes a number of new features and updates.

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  • You, the Web, and Irene

    by greenspacewriter 08/27/2011

    As the East Coast endures a major hurricane, thousands of people face the possibility (and probability) of extended periods of power outages. Countless false predictions given by various meteorologists has proven that weather is, indeed, unpredictable. Thankfully, crowdsourcing has allowed Web 2.0 users to access helpful information for storm preparations and track Hurricane Irene as she makes her way up the Atlantic coast.

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  • Finding Our Place in Cultural Mapping

    by greenspacewriter 07/28/2011

    As we move forward in the grant application process, we at GreenSpace discover more refined versions of our goals and missions every step of the way. While the applications do call for the more tedious, technical information (budget, partners, etc), the grants are also interested in our purpose and the unique way in which we aim to make change. The specificity of some of the questions posed has allowed us a renewed outlook on exactly what we are doing here at www.greenspacenyc.org. At the moment, GreenSpaceNYC can provide a resource for finding, tracking, and discussing various vacant locations throughout the city, yet we lack the monetary means to financially support construction of any kind. Receiving funding would allow us to offer seed money to projects involving the conversion of vacant spaces into functional facilities, bringing our site’s mission full circle.

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  • Communal Growth

    by greenspacewriter 07/17/2011

    Here at GreenSpace NYC, we understand that no organization is an island. In order to reach our full potential, it is important that we communicate and collaborate with other projects involved in similar initiatives. GreenSpace NYC has begun developing a relationship with one group in particular: The Laundromat Project.

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  • Collaborate with GreenspaceNYC

    by greenspacewriter 06/09/2011

    Calling all community organizations, socially conscious arts collaboratives, grassroots organizations, and city town boards!!!

    As you might know, GreenspaceNYC is expanding its capabilities as a crowdsourcing application. Through our interface, we intend to allow users to increase the visibility of vacant spaces throughout the city, in order to facilitate sustainable uses of community space. GreenspaceNYC is currently seeking to partner with local organizations on community projects as well as in the participation of our new crowdsorcing platform.

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  • Facilitating Change with 2.0

    by greenspacewriter 06/07/2011

    In the past couple of years, digital applications have become tools used by many on a daily basis, whether to increase productivity and organization or simply to provide quick entertainment. What some of the most avid app users might not realize is that such technology can serve as a mobile platform for social reform and even increase safety in targeted communities. Projects like Ushahidi and Atlanta Crime Maps are forerunners in this Web 2.0 revolution, striving to make the world a better and more secure place.

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  • The Power of the Crowd

    by greenspacewriter 04/21/2011

    Mapping has become an incredibly rich resource used in a variety of initiatives. In particular, the use of crowdsourcing through software like GSI and FrontlineSMS can be used to produce an effective and grassroots-led interactive community mapping project that increases transparency as well as provides citizens with the opportunity to mobilize around existing and new projects.

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  • A Greener City

    by greenspacewriter 03/18/2011

    GreenspaceNYC is looking to become more present and involved in community projects.  Thus far the team has found that community gardens, mainly those associated with GrowNYC, are the most visible and active displays of communal involvement. The majority of these gardens can be found in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan.

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  • Transparency and the City

    by greenspacewriter 03/11/2011

    The public polls for the NYC BigApps 2.0 officially closed yesterday and now all there is to do is wait for them to announce the winner.  Wait and continue working toward building a more sustainable city, that is.

    Although the idea is quite recent, sites like GreenspaceNYC that take part in the Gov 2.0 initiative are the next step to building stronger, healthier communities.  The Gov 2.0 concept allows for all citizens to be heard in one way or another.  Making use of open data allows city residents direct involvement in their local government and is a privilege that should not be overlooked.  With the expansion of communicative media there are more opportunities than ever to gain awareness of the issues at hand on the local and national level.

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  • Welcome to GreenspaceNYC

    by greenspacewriter 03/07/2011

    GreenspaceNYC provides a social network that encourages communication between New Yorkers who want to see change in their city.  GreenSpaceNYC collects and organizes maps and data, which enable users to engage in a collective effort to build sustainable communities through collaboration of ideas and creativity, inspiring green urban development and bring life back to vacated spaces.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

May 9th Participatory Urban Planning

June 2nd Structure of Sound

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