Robert E. Horn, Stanford University, shares powerful examples of innovation visualizations — from Leonardo da Vinci to contemporary innovative work. Together, we explored how these examples illustrate the power of vision and visualization in a wide range of innovation fields.
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John Miedema and Howard Sprouse present an overview of their quest to create organic “waste” management facilities yield the highest use for their inputs. Biochar was a big topic for the evening. It catalyzed a multi-disciplinary discussion that spanned topics such as agriculture, forestry and remediation.
The integration of biochar production with biogas facilities was explored in context of the anaerobic digester being proposed to replace the current incinerator run by the City of Palo Alto.
The methane producing bacteria living inside anaerobic digesters do break down a lot organic material, but not cellulose (the compound that makes up the cell walls of plants) Yet cellulose is the ideal feedstock for making biochar via pyrolysis. The integration of biochar production with AD facilities holds the promise of producing a rich, dark, carbon sequestering soil amendment, full of nutrients from the digestate and structurally enhanced by the highly porous biochar.
John Miedema is an internationally recognized expert on biochar systems. As founder of the Pacific Northwest Biochar Initiative (PNW Biochar), John has been taking a leadership role in biochar advocacy and research. He is the Director of Biomass Energy for Thompson Timber and Starker Forests in Corvallis, Oregon where John operates an integrated pyrolysis and gasification facility that produces biochar.
Howards Sprouse is an expert in the remediation industry. He has served as a consultant to Battelle’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory assisting with their efforts at developing mycoremediation technology, (the use of fungi to clean a variety of organic contaminants.)
He is the founder of The Remediators Incorporated, an environmental service company specializing mycoremediation and other biological remediation systems.
John and Howard are a founding members of the Oregon Biochar Corp, who’s focus is integrating biochar production into biogas plants and composting systems.
Dr. James Caldwell shares his experience working with sustainability planners in China to develop actionable strategies for creating Eco Cities. Topics include the need to measure the actual performance of buildings, international joint ventures, livability and scalability. Chinese eco-cities covered include Suzhou, Tianjin and Nansha.
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SVII and CAST Labs joined forces for an end of the year celebration. The program featured live jazz, opera arias, a tango dance performance, and a dinner-debate. The theme of the evening – art, creativity and innovation, a collaborative exploration.
Here is an excellent blog post by Theral Timpson about the evening.
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The premise of this dinner was that to be relevant, you have to move past contemplation and cross the threshold to actually CREATE something that can be shared. To jump out of the box, and JUST GO DO.
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The focus was on the creation of a Green Community Center in North Fair Oaks, CA. Activist architect Morton Frank presented a social venture to manufacture green certified, prefabricated housing units, onsite, in the community and for the community. Continue reading
Sheridan Tatsuno and Suzanne Connolly facilitated an inspiring dialog on converging trends in technology and society that are creating huge opportunities for the art of storytelling. As the evening progressed, diners began to share their own stories. Continue reading
SVII Society’s first ever live foods dinner was a smash hit! The party started during setup as helping hands danced the tables and chairs into place to the tune of Howard Lieberman and Micha’el Bedar improvised piano and flute duet. Jillian Love gave a practical demonstration of how to make a live foods pesto.
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There are finally several ways to get high quality audio signals in and out of iOS devices (via Apogee, Alesis and Sonoma Wireworks peripherals.) Performers can now integrate these multipurpose devices into their performances without apology for sound quality. Continue reading
July’s dinner was a meeting of two great innovation networks. David Weekly shared his remarkable story of creating the Hacker Dojo. A rich discussion followed as SVII’ers shared their own experiences of innovation culture at its heights.
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