Updates from Esmeralda
0xPARC x SoP's weeklong collaboration, Protocol Worlds, is underway in Healdsburg, California. The event kicked off with presentations from Tim Beiko, Jayda Novak, and Arthur Röing Baer. Attendees were able to collect four of the week's ~25 collectible tension cards, which will be used as constraints in their worldbuilding projects.
Each tension card describes a tradeoff commonly faced by individuals, organizations, or societies. For example, Institutional Gatekeeping vs. Amateur Virality – the creativity of unaccredited amateurs can lead to breakthroughs, but they can also unnecessarily misguide thousands of people. Institutions provide powerful sources of common knowledge, but create red tape that can delay important discoveries.
More protocol-based events are being hosted by SoP alum and affiliates, including:
A session on sustainability (RSVP),
Decolonization protocols, and (RSVP)
Horizontal and vertical protocolization of public policy (RSVP).
If you're at Edge City and want to join any of the Protocol Worlds events, they're all available on the shared EE calendar. Next week we'll share a more detailed overview of the ideas and worlds that were generated by attendees, as well as a recording of the kickoff event.
P.I.G. Highlight – Shoreline Adaptations to Flooding in Urban Waterways
Danielle and Celeste's project was inspired by a question about climate change: When will the water have risen? Sea level rise is not, it turns out, a steady process of creeping shorelines. Inspired by challenges explored in Rosanna Xia’s book “California Against the Sea,” they began to wonder: how many floods will it take for a piece of land to be considered part of the water? How will that new shoreline reflect the potential of the future — not just a piecemeal, reactionary defense against rising waters that continue trends of disconnection, disenfranchisement, and unintended consequences?
This protocol improvement will examine and map responses to sea level rise and flooding on urban shorelines. The result will be a tool to enable laypeople who live along waterways to more deeply consider what futures are possible and encourage more diverse participation in shaping climate change adaptations and thus the cities we live in.
Danielle Isadora Butler is an experience designer, professor, producer, and collaborator. She designs experiences, installations, and objects that create opportunities for emotional connection.
Danielle has made playgrounds that teach about cooperation, multi-sensory poetry archives that get you ready to listen, large-scale games that connect you to the place you’re in, and floating jazz clubs to prototype new ways to interact with New York Harbor.
Celeste LeCompte is a nonprofit leader dedicated to creating an informed, engaged public. Most recently she was the Chief Audience Officer at Chicago Public Media. Previously, she was the vice president of strategy and operations at ProPublica, the director of product at GigaOM Research, the research manager for the California Clean Energy Fund, a co-founder of Climate Confidential, and the managing editor of Sustainable Industries magazine. She is an active board member of the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club and an advocate for greener, more accessible waterways throughout New York City. She is also a Waterfront Alliance-certified WEDG Associate.
License to Protocol
Multiple SoP community members have been making strides in their protocol entrepreneurship ventures. Steve and Ramona Waldman have been building network-scale applications around RSS, a well-known protocol. It has been somewhat eclipsed by the rise of social media platforms, but Steve continues his mission to "RSS All The Things".
To learn more about this project, visit the forum, where Steve has been posting updates and engaging with the community about the RSS protocol.
Hot Protocol Summer 2 has increased the volume of interesting posts on the SOP Discourse, where anyone can share their thoughts. Here are some popular topics from the past few weeks:
The Wilderness Boundary in Protocol-Space (Link)
A conversation about the punk-protocol dialectic (Link)
Reflections from the Datus-Nusas workshop (Link)
Even Andrew Huberman has hopped on the protocol train.
But we all know the real reason why Huberman is selling more copies. His book is a convenient stepping stone to a superior product.
