lean construction - games

Zofia Rybkowski described that as part of lean construction course she runs an assignment to create a game. As an example she mentioned one of the students' designed games:
Everyone gets given a letter size piece of paper and is told to make a paper plane in three minutes. Follows a competition and which plane flies the furthest is the winner. The winner then teaches everyone how s/he built her/his plane and round two of building/testing is on. Then the best few get to share their techniques. The cycle goes on.
The result is that everyone in the group progresses, everyone becomes quite confident and no-one in the team/company gets fired.

This is such a clever idea.
I like it so much better than just pure capitalist competition.

I do wonder whether this can work in the colonias and how.

Housing and the Democratic Ideal: The Life and Thought of Charles Abrams

A. Scott Henderson

Housing and the Democratic Ideal is the only comprehensive work on Charles Abrams to date. Though structured as a narrative biography, this book also uses Abrams's experiences as a lens through which we can better understand the development of American social policy and state expansion during the twentieth century. In his left-leaning critique of centrist liberalism, Abrams took aim at the use of fiscal and monetary policies to achieve social objectives—a practice that allowed business interests to maximize private profits at the expense of public benefits. His growing concern over racial discrimination prefigured its emergence as a highly contested aspect of the American state.

http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-11950-4/

immigration hackathon

I wonder whether a hackathon in Las Lomas with planners, transport engineers, construction scientists,
urban designers, lawyers, etc. would be just the thing to do.
Or perhaps do hackathons work when there is a specific issue - like immigration and a specific tool - online/tech and the convergence of what the two have to offer is the most fruitful.

people with first hand experience on one side - people with skills to create apps and websites on the other.
So the hackers provide a public space where the 'clients' can make themselves visible and support their cause by lobbying the right people.

Does this encourage illegal immigration? When the invitees were undocumented immigrants?
Are the state boundaries essentially illegal?

This is an event organized by private firm.
How will the government respond? Can it 'regulate' events like this?

Would this be handy for colonias?





http://mashable.com/2013/11/22/hackathon-for-immigration-reform/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link

It is hour 22 of a 24-hour hackathon, where coders join together to build new products and programs from scratch in a short amount of time. The scene is not uncommon in Silicon Valley. Every startup and tech company worth its weight in code has hosted at least one internal hackathon. (LinkedIn, for example, has a company-wide one every month.)

But the scene in building No. 3 is different. Many of the coders are undocumented immigrants, and the projects they are working on could very well change their lives.

LinkedIn played host to the first known DREAMer Hackathon on Thursday, bringing together 20 to 25 undocumented immigrants to join Silicon Valley tech veterans in a quest to further immigration reform. The teams created projects like websites and apps, some meant to educate citizens about immigration issues, others meant to connect constituents with the congressional leaders who represent them. (A few actually do both.)

Roaming the Boundaries: The Less Explored Roles of Architects in the Low-Income Settlements of Texas.

CARLOS A. REIMERS

The Catholic University of America

Roaming the Boundaries: The Less Explored Roles of Architects in the Low-Income Settlements of Texas.

- colonias are periurban settlements

- extra legal development

- architecture and low-income housing - in US: contemporary efforts date back to work of 

Charles Abrams: 

1. Legendary urban planner, policy maker
2. A. Scott Henderson: Housing and the Democratic Ideal: The Life and Thought of Charles Abrams
3. http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-11950-4/
4. book on social policy and state expansion in the early 20th Century U.S. 

Oil production in America - example of brilliant infographic

http://www.oilposter.org/images/oil-age-2010-ve-xlg-outlined.jpg

Urban observatory

http://www.urbanobservatory.org/compare/index.html

comparison of cities' maps including land-use, transport, and other indicators.

d3 infographics

https://github.com/mbostock/d3/wiki/Gallery

a gallery of open source codes for animated, interactive data visualisation tools and graphs.

Houston Endowement

http://www.houstonendowment.org/GrantGuidelines/ApplicationTypes.aspx

Stanford encyclopaedia of philosophy

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/

Carl Sagan - podcasts of American Museum of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History holds a series of podcasts about science. 

http://www.amnh.org/podcast/snc/

The particular podcast I listened to was 1hr and 22 minutes long and was about the approach of Peter Sagan to science and religion and the overlaps, differences and Carl's overall opinions on the topic of god, God and science. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan

It is a fascinating, gentle and calm discussion of Carl's former colleague, wife and the moderator. They manage to portray Carl's own position, the way he argued for it and the way he would answer to classic rebuttals. His thesis was that intelligent design (new name for creationism) is not correct, however that the science itself - in its mere 4000 years of studying the Earth - is perhaps as close to some Truth about the cosmos as is religion. The difference is that science does not claim it knows the unknown, where else most religions do.

Microcredit for Americans

Microcredit for Americans

New York Times

By SHAILA DEWAN

Published: October 28, 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/business/microcredit-for-americans.html?pagewanted=1&pagewanted=all&utm_source=General+Database&utm_campaign=3eb82292d9-NY_Times_Exclusive_110_29_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c4656e16a9-3eb82292d9-50745533&_r=0

Colonias program promotoras help Socorro flooding victims

Colonias program promotoras help Socorro flooding victims

The Texas A&M Colonias Program came to the aid of flood-stricken West Texans last September when heavy rain and rising water drove many colonia residents in Socorro, a suburb of El Paso, from their homes.

The local community center, operated by the Colonias Program and the city of Socorro, was transformed into an emergency operations center, and the program’s community workers, known as promotoras, were dispersed around the community to check on residents threatened by the floodwaters. 

http://one.arch.tamu.edu/news/2013/10/29/colonias-program-promotoras-help-socorro-flooding-victims/

Colonias and Public Policy in Texas and Mexico Urbanization by Stealth

Peter Ward: 
Colonias and Public Policy in Texas and Mexico Urbanization by Stealth 


This book is about the phenomenon of colonias in Texas and in northern Mexican border states. While the focus is upon the Texas-Mexico border, the findings will bear scrutiny in all of the border states, given that throughout the border region colonias are important low-income housing areas, the principal characteristics of which are cheaply acquired land, inadequate infrastructure, and self-help dwelling construction. But despite the enormous social costs associated with living and raising a family under these conditions, colonias are home for a large number of people—indeed, in Mexico, for the majority of the population in many cities. Fortunately, the physical conditions in colonias improve over time. They are, in the words of one author, "Slums of hope" (Lloyd 1979), such that between fifteen and twenty years after their establishment they have often become integrated working-class districts with paved roads, services installed, and consolidated dwellings, many with two stories. They are, then, both a problem and a solution—at least if one takes a long-term perspective (Mangin 1967). 


http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/warcol

FREE TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT: A CASE STUDY OF THE TEXAS COLONIAS

F. Andrew Schoolmaster:
FREE TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT:
A CASE STUDY OF THE TEXAS COLONIAS

Department of Geography
University of North Texas

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1131&context=greatplainsresearch

Dell Innovation Challenge

Social venture competition organized by University of Texas.

http://www.dellchallenge.org/

New Institute at Berkeley

New Institute for Business and Social Impact launched at Berkeley. 
http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/IBSI/



Research will also be an important aspect of the institute’s role, galvanizing the Haas faculty’s thought leadership in areas ranging from corporate social responsibility and multi-sector leadership to fraud, corruption, and ethics; environmental governance; poverty; health efficacy; gender parity; and more. The institute will house several of the school’s current centers and programs that already provide courses, activities, and research spanning the for-profit, nonprofit, and public sectors. They include: The Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership, which works with organizations whose mission is to improve social and environmental sustainability. The Center for Responsible Business, which integrates social and environmental goals into the business models of for-profit enterprises. The Graduate Program in Health Management, which trains students for the future of health finance, health systems, and new innovations in health care. The Haas Global Social Venture Competition, which is the nation’s largest student-run competition for approaches to social and environmental challenges. The Institute is also launching an initiative on the impact of women on business and the economy. Through classes, applied research, a speakers' series, and seminars with leading executives, this program will explore strategies to foster the advancement of women in corporate management, entrepreneurship and nonprofit leadership. 


source: 
http://newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu/article/berkeley-haas-boost-its-efforts-creating-social-and-environmental-impact-vibrant-hub?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffere81ba&utm_medium=twitter

Global Social Venture Competition

UC Berkeley



http://www.gsvc.org/finalists_winners/gsvc_winners/

Field Experiments

Macartan Humphreys and Jeremy M. Weinstein:
Field Experiments and the Political Economy of Development

http://www.columbia.edu/~mh2245/papers1/HW_ARPS09.pdf



Esther Duflo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(Department of Economics and Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab)
BREAD, CEPR, NBER
January 2006

Field Experiments in Development Economics

http://economics.mit.edu/files/800


Field Experiment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_experiment

Super-Awesome Sylvia - 11 yo maker

A maker, tinkerer and online celebrity, Sylvia Todd has attracted more than a million views on YouTube of the show she produces and hosts, called “Sylvia’s Super-Awesome Maker Show.” Not bad reach for an 11-year-old.

Published: April 23, 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/04/23/science/super-awesome-sylvia-video-grid.html?ref=science#index

Arduino - open platform

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.




http://arduino.cc/

Texas Development Water Board

The Texas Water Development Board offers grants to any person(s) or political subdivision(s) of the State of Texas for water research that addresses one of the Texas Water Development Board's research topics published in the recent Request For Proposals.  The Board defines research to be scientific activities that are undertaken to address practical problems rather than to expand the frontiers of knowledge.

Financing of the Water Research Program is through the TWDB's Research and Planning Fund.

http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/financial/programs/WRG/index.asp



The priority research topic for fiscal year 2013 funding is listed below as it appeared in the 
Request for Statements of Qualifications. Detailed information on this topic in the Request for 
Statements of Qualifications is included in Attachment A. 

• Testing water quality in a municipal wastewater effluent treated to drinking water 
standards. 

http://www.twdb.texas.gov/board/2013/08/Board/Brd25.pdf

Steven A. Moore: Technology and Place - Sustainable Architecture and the Blueprint Farm

In this book, Steven Moore demonstrates how the various stakeholders' competing definitions of "sustainability," "technology," and "place" ultimately doomed an experimental agricultural project designed to benefit farm workers displaced by the industrialization of agriculture in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. 


http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/mootec

bordercoalition.org

The Border Low Income Housing Coalition (BLIHC) is a grassroots coalition that responds to the severely substandard conditions found in colonias along the Texas-Mexico border. It consists of 350 low-income border residents, housing providers, advocates, government officials, and lenders, united in the pursuit of socially and economically just community development policies. 
The Coalition is led by colonia residents, who have experienced first-hand the unnecessary suffering in border communities that lack basic infrastructure such as water, wastewater, electricity and sewage services. The BLIHC is devoted to the belief that through a unified coalition of border residents, change is possible.

The BLIHC has a history of successfully challenging the State of Texas and its elected officials to improve living conditions in border colonias. Since it’s founding in 1993, the BLIHC has secured the allocation of over $50 million in public funds and has played a pivotal role in reforming the State’s housing agency.

The BLIHC devotes itself on an array of community development issues, including housing, infrastructure, water quality, public health, and democratic, accountable governance. Gloria Romo, the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service’s (TxLIHIS) community organizer, is striving to reorganize the BLIHC through her organizing efforts in Laredo-area colonias. From our office in Austin, TxLIHIS is making the Coalition’s work accessible to the public, press, and policy-makers.
This website tells the story of the Border Coalition: of its meager beginnings, its challenges, its astounding victories, and its outlook for the future.

(2005)

source:
http://www.bordercoalition.org/page9/page9.html

Freakonomics podcast

http://freakonomics.com/2013/10/03/how-to-think-about-money-choose-your-hometown-and-buy-an-electric-toothbrush-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

Attorney General - Colonias prevention

The Office of the Attorney General has enforcement responsibilities under several of these laws. To assist the public and governmental agencies in understanding and following these laws, the Office of the Attorney General has compiled them into a booklet and developed assorted materials to explain them.

Texas laws intended to prevent colonias take a variety of forms and apply in a variety of circumstances. The Texas Legislature has refined these laws during the past 15 years. Some of the major laws apply only in the border area or in "economically distressed" counties with high unemployment and low per capita income.

The laws have four major thrusts:

(1) requiring subdividers to provide basic infrastructure (water, sewer, roads, and drainage) when creating (or "platting") new residential developments,
(2) restricting the advertising and selling of lots that are not platted or that lack water and sewer,
(3) limiting connections to utilities in substandard areas, and
(4) mandating certain disclosures and protections when lots are sold through contracts for deeds.

https://www.oag.state.tx.us/agency/weeklyag/2010/0410colonia.pdf


source:
https://www.oag.state.tx.us/consumer/border/colonias.shtml

Attorney General - colonias map

https://maps.oag.state.tx.us/colgeog/colgeog_online.html#app=a527&1d99-selectedIndex=1