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HubTalk:
Nova Scotia at United Nations climate change negotiations in Copenhagen – Part
2: What’s next for Nova Scotia?
The dust has settled after the Copenhagen climate change talks. There were some positive outcomes, like the unprecedented participation of world leaders and the chance for Nova Scotia to share its ambitious tidal projects with the world. But of course, we also know that the negotiations didn't live up to the hopes that a binding agreement would be emerge to move us toward the low-carbon future, so where does Nova Scotia go from here?
On February 23, 2010, from 7 to 9pm, join us for the second installment of the Copenhagen HubTalk, presented by the Hub, Carbon Sense Solutions, and the Halifax Regional C@P Program.
Representing Nova Scotia was a great source of pride in Copenhagen. We have set the forward-thinking objective of Sustainable Prosperity through encouraging the opportunities, innovations, education, and training to make Nova Scotia a world-renowned leader in the green economy. We will kick off the evening with a keynote visioning address from our Provincial government, speaking to the incredible opportunities the Sustainable Prosperity mandate offers. After we have set the scene, Copenhagen delegates will share exciting projects and initiatives other leaders from around the world have undertaken in government, business, and local communities, and more importantly, what exciting possibilities they see in Nova Scotia.
For this event, we have also teamed up with the regional C@P program to
broadcast the talk online. We are also very excited about a new format, where
attendees both at the Hub and over the web will be able to submit questions
throughout the evening for the panelists.
The event promises to be an engaging, dynamic, and inspirational conversation highlighting innovative opportunities from around the world, and how we can tailor them to Nova Scotia.
For information on the Sustainable Prosperity mandate, please visit http://www.gov.ns.ca/econ/ofsp/
Speaker list*
Host & MC: Robert Niven, President and Founder, Carbon Sense Solutions
Vision for Sustainable Prosperity in Nova Scotia, Nova Soctia Government
George Foote, Nova Scotia Government
Emily Richardson, Manager of Carbon Services, Carbon Sense Solutions
*Speaker list subject to change pending final confirmation of the program and availability.
Logistics
Date: Tuesday, February 23, 2009
Time: 7.00 – 9.00pm
Location: The Hub Halifax, 1673 Barrington Street, 2nd Floor, Halifax, NS
Partners
The Hub and HubTalk: The Hub is a values-driven, intentional co-working and meeting space with all the facilities needed to launch an idea, run a meeting, refine a concept, develop strategies and solutions. This environment brings together talent from diverse sectors and professions into a social network that is productive and inspired. The HubTalk series was inspired by hosting the first TEDxHalifax talk in October, which focused on “Global Perspective and Local Learning”. The HubTalks series is a forum to share important ideas and initiatives within the community and abroad.
Carbon Sense Solutions Inc.: Halifax-based Carbon Sense Solutions is an environmental engineering consultancy and technology developer serving industry needs in carbon management. Our expertise includes carbon capture and storage services, carbon sequestration technologies, and carbon and energy solutions. We pursue value-added innovations and use our partnerships with industry leaders from around the world to offer a suite of customized solutions designed to position our clients as leaders in today’s marketplace and tomorrow’s low-carbon economy. Carbon Sense Solutions is a co-organizer of the provincial business trade team to Copenhagen and has participated in other United Nations climate change meetings in previous years.
Halifax Regional C@P Association: The Halifax Regional CAP Association is an established not-for-profit organization with extensive experience managing complex projects. These projects employ professionally trained staff to deliver quality service to communities through their locally operated Community Access Program (CAP) sites. Since 2000 HRCAP has provided support to Community Access Programming (C@P) sites. C@P is a government of Canada initiative to provide Internet access to those who would not normally have it due to economic, social or geographic barriers. Currently 40 C@P sites in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) provide urban and rural communities affordable access to computers and the internet.
Contacts
Tracy Boyer, 482-4729, tracy.boyer@the-hub.net
Robert Niven, 233-7073, Robert.Niven@CarbonSenseSolutions.com
This article is syndicated from http://tintedgreen.net/?page=article&id=16
Now that the pilot C@P site in Lake Echo has been running for a few months, I thought I would share some pictures of the results.
Computers old and really old running the latest version of Ubuntu.
The server has been running perfectly since it was first booted up. The virtual machine running the terminal services hasn't had any problems.
The server in its cabinet at the C@P site.
How easy is it to add a computer to this setup? All it requires is to turn on the computer, enter the bios setting, and changing the boot order so the computer boots from the network first.
Changing the boot order so boot to network is first.
Now the computer will automatically boot into Linux from the server.
That's it. It could not be easier. A person with enough knowledge to hook up the wiring could setup a new computer on this network. Also, no changes are made to the computer, so if you wanted to leave the computer's old operating system in place (just in case) you can. The user can always set it to boot from the hard drive again, if needed. This setup also allows the C@P program to take donations of computers that do no even have hard drives.
Now that we have this setup, we can maintain, backup, and fix the virtual machines running these computers remotely. From my office, in Halifax, I can see exactly what is happening on these machines.
Here are a couple more pictures. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.
Running a Monty Python video flawlessly with sound.
Today, I participated in a stimulating panel discussion on “From Digital Third World to Digital Citizenship: the state of the internet and how Canada measures up“. The panel was organized by Dan Robichaud from the Halifax Regional CAP Association and it was part of Podcamp Halifax 2010. Below are some of my thoughts on this issue:
There is really no debate that Internet access is an important part of modern life. We use the Internet to access government information, look for a job, learn, read news, write blogs, keep in touch with relatives, make purchases, and so on. But unfortunately, access to the Internet is not yet universal. Even in a country as developed as Canada, we are still debating on (1) how to connect as many people as possible to the Internet and (2) whether or not a government should guarantee a minimal Internet connection to its citizens. To address these issues, some European countries, such as Estonia, Finland and France have declared the Internet a human right. The question is should Canada follow these European countries and also legally declare that Internet access is a human right?
Personally I do not think that declaring Internet access to be a human right will lead to universal Internet access for all. And here is why:
In sum, I do see the Internet as an essential service and I agree that everyone should be able to have access to the Internet, but I do not think that it should be legally declared as a basic human right. I believe an effective solution should not be a simple top-down edict from the government, but instead we should pursue a more bottom-up approach to the problem of ensuring universal Internet access. By working closely with communities that still do not have access, we will have a better understanding of what their needs are and how they can best be met with Internet access.
Anatoliy Gruzd, PhD
Assistant Professor
School of Information Management
Dalhousie University
6100 University Avenue, Suite 4010
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 3J5
Canada
E-mail: gruzd [at] dal.ca
Homepage: http://anatoliygruzd.com
