2007 December | Eco-mUNITY

The Eco-mUNITY Kiosk

This project blends the leading edge of converging trends and technologies into a single, tangible object. This object is the cornerstone for community collaboration and organization as it has never happened before. By bringing community citizens together to collaborate locally and non-locally, citizens can produce virtual art, vote on community issues, teach classes, and exercise while generating power for the electronic devices. By monitoring social and technological trends, e-c-o is putting the tools of the future into the hands of citizens today, preparing them for tomorrow.

Our family is growing

We are excited to announce that we have a new addition to the Eco-mUNITY family of kiosks. This latest addition increases the number of kiosks to three: Super Robot, Sidekick Robot and the Bright Neighbor Kiosk, on which a new touch screen interface leads directly to the Bright Neighbor site while a new video screen streams Bright Neighbor TV. If you are interested in promotion through Eco-mUNITY, contact us. In 2010 a fourth robotic kiosk will join the family. Rob bot the mobile robot will be making a citizen assisted journey accross all 20 of the neighborhoods that make up the SE Uplift Neighborhood Coalition as he travels from one Neighborhood Association meeting to another. Along the way he will attempt to get more residents involved with their own neighborhood.

Eco-mUNITY Vitality

The livability that comes from a thriving community base also instills a vitality at the neighborhood level. When technology is used to bring people together for education, communication, collaboration, and fun, you are able to get informed and involved at a hyperlocal level. Eco-mUNITY kiosks connect you with local neighborhood associations, businesses, community organizations, and your neighbors through the interactive touchscreen. Invite an Eco-mUNITY kiosk to YOUR neighborhood today!

Eco-mUNITY Livability

By providing public places for art, education, collaboration, and community participation, the stake citizens have in their community is increased. When we see others investing in the community, and feel our quality of life increased, we start to buy in to the idea of community stewardship. The result of that buy in is that it empowers a community to organize with open access to tools designed to increase input at local and city levels. This is the vision that Eco-mUNITY holds when considering content, partnerships, and projects. Let us know if you have similar goals. Perhaps we can work together!

Eco-mUNITY Safety

As a Neighborhood Emergency Team member, Dwayne has been trained, certified, is currently on call in the case of a catastophic occurance that impacts Portland's neighborhoods, and is requiring all Empowering Community Organizers to have at least basic First Aid training. Cyd Manro also has experience with community outreach, is trained at conflict resolution, project managment, and managing change. With Eco-mUNITY kiosks providing such a visible and time intensive presence at the street level, we can utilize direct and unconventional outreach methods to more greatly impact the communities we live in, and improve safety in communities. The following is a short list of ROBOT/Kiosk safety related equipment and services: Community web cam (web video monitored safe zone), Information repository (first aid, evacuation routes, etc.), Content filtering, Bright Neighbor secure exchange, Free phone calls (non emergency), Emergency services contact links, N.O.A.A. radio with Emergency Alert System. This system remains idle until an emergency alert is broadcast by EAS. In 1996 EAS replaced the Emergency Broadcasting System. In case of an emergency, alerts are sent out by the EAS not just to broadcast media but also to cable television, satellites, pagers, Direct Broadcast Satellite, High Definition Television, Video Dial Tone, and the Eco-mUNITY Kiosk.

Eco-mUNITY Social Diversity

Through amplifying more voices in the community, the colorful diversity embedded in the stories, visions, and concerns of more residents can be more readily heard. By providing easily accessible means for underrepresented members of the community to voice their ideas and concerns, the breadth of involvement will be increasingly diverse. Also, through the community outreach effort, those who may not be likely to seek out others of a socially different background may come into contact and find common ground or at least better understand one another. You can be connected to the community with which you identify by location and by interest. You are invited to help tell your community story - celebrating with your neighbors the diverse cultural history, present, and future of your neighborhood. We can amplify your voice through our community television shows, locally oriented content on our website, or featured content on our kiosks!

Eco-mUNITY is Empowering Community Organization

By REAListic optimIST

Eco-mUNITY is working to provide as many laptops to third world children as possible. Each laptop for which we successfully fundraise means one will be sent to Eco-mUNITY, which Eco-mUNITY will then donate to the Portland community. These laptops will be implemented into the free informational kiosks that Eco-mUNITY will install around Portland. For more information about how Eco-mUNITY is working to educate the Portland community while providing third world children with learning tools, continue to read about our project below. The best way to get involved is to contribute today! Hurry, the opportunity to get involved ends with the holiday season, and this is a gift that truly provides benefits for many people. Making a donation in someone’s name can be a great gift, too.

Eco-mUNITY is actively working in the Richmond and Montavilla communities in Portland, Oregon, though this template can be used anywhere. Through a four-phase plan, Eco-mUNITY will work with the communities of Portland to provide learning tools here and in less fortunate communities across the world. Eco-mUNITY will work to provide free wi-fi internet access, linking community members to one another, and free access nodes through kiosks that will be placed throughout the interactive communities. This infrastructure then will be used to link those in the community who wish to provide services to those who may seek them locally, without the need for a storefront, keeping local business local, and thus enhancing the sustainability of the communities we affect. The project will be done face to face, door to door, in a grass-roots format, and paper-free to boot. Eco-mUNITY is working to increase the sustainability of Portland while increasing the sustainability of our business model at the same time. Environmental concerns and awareness permeate our implementation strategies. Keeping the fundamental services available for free ensures that poverty does not overwhelmingly prohibit access to bicycles, computers, or the internet. Get involved today!

Phase 1
Eco-mUNITY is actively working this holiday season to raise funds to provide third world children with a laptop through the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program. For each a laptop with which a third world child is outfitted, a laptop will be sent to Eco-mUNITY to be donated to the Portland community for use in Phase 2.

Phase 2
Eco-mUNITY will use each laptop earned from phase one as a component in an educational kiosk placed within the Portland community. Each kiosk will be an information node to teach and learn about community news and events, to meet and interact with local community members, and to provide and seek local services peer-to-peer. Environmental and sustainability awareness permeate our building designs.

Phase 3
Eco-mUNITY will build a wi-fi mesh network from the grass-roots up, providing free and accessible internet access using existing internet connections. Top down solutions seem to be ridden with issues. Grass-roots solutions have worked quite well in third world implementations, and they provide the model for this project.

Phase 4
Eco-mUNITY will build a community collaboration and listing service which will enable interaction, collaboration, and communication. This service can be used for chatting, coordinating community campaigns, voting on community issues, informing the community about news and events, and telling you when and where Eco-mUNITY will be going next! By combining these tools with ones that already exist, such as Bright Neighbor, neighborhood associations, and the city of Portland through PortlandOnline, accessibility
Richmond Eco-mUNITY: Learn more…
Montvilla Eco-mUNITY coming soon!

An interactive metaverse for community collaboration - Thank you for participating

The Eco-mUNITY Kiosk

Pages

Our family is growing

Public Installation in 2010

EcoTV3 will highlight local content

eCo-Lab

Meta

Eco-mUNITY kiosk contest

Eco-mUNITY Vitality

Eco-mUNITY Livability

Eco-mUNITY Safety

Eco-mUNITY Social Diversity

Eco-mUNITY is Empowering Community Organization