Friends,
The third salon of the Protocol Symposium begins in ~20 minutes at 24:00 UTC. Join here.
Abstract:
The 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,” we began to wonder: how many floods will it take for a piece of land to be considered part of the water? What a fascinating and murky thing to consider! 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 in hopes that we can answer these questions proactively. We will compare timelines and chart infrastructure changes and interrogate climate change regulations that are shaping urban waterways in cities around the world. Historic pollution, tidal range, and current will also be included to give context to the challenges that many waterways face. Outcomes of access and diversity of use and culture will be included. 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.
Speakers:
Danielle Butler and Celeste LeCompte
Cheers,
Timber
P.S. You can RSVP for the six remaining sessions here.
Week I Review
Tuesday's plenary centered on SoP's recent history and plans for the future. The first cohort asked the question "Are protocols worth studying as a first class concept?" and the second cohort tested if an opportunity exists to practice applied protocol stewardship. The answer to both questions was a firm Yes. Tim gave attendees a quick intro to protocolics with the following definition:
"A protocol is a stratum of codified behavior that allows for the construction or emergence of complex coordinated behaviors at adjacent loci.”
Before people joined breakout rooms to discuss the future of the program, Venkat provided three prompts for improving protocol literacy. First, try to see through technological tangled bank lenses. Second, consider the Erdos-Whitehead protocol age of your behaviors. Lastly, look at historical change as a process of a planetary kit constantly reconfiguring itself and exploring a kitspace of civilization.
For more context on that terminology, check out the plenary slides. We'll publish the full recording of the talk on our (recently upgraded) YouTube channel next Thursday, before the unconference begins.
We have hosted two great salons so far: End-to-End Encryption in ActivityPub and ARC Regenerative Communities. The speakers (Tom, Evan, Kaliya, and Day) sparked conversations on both technical and social dimensions of protocol entrepreneurship. They also set a high bar in terms of content! As of now, we're 30% of the way through the Protocol Symposium. The next section covers the upcoming events.
Week II Agenda
Next week kicks off with an AMA. On Monday, Tim Beiko and Venkatesh Rao will be answering questions about protocols, the SoP program, and developing the scene. You'll need to be a forum member to participate.
The second half of the salon series runs each night at 24:00 UTC from Monday to Wednesday:
Monday, Sep. 23 – Plurality in Practice with Ben Busch and Rich McDowell
Tuesday, Sep. 24 – Autonomous Realities with Botao Hu and Yisi Liu
Wednesday, Sep. 25 – Fire Protocols with Nathalia Scherer and Jiordi Rosales
The Protocol Symposium's capstone session is Thursday, September 26th at 24:00 UTC. This event will include a short reflection on the salon series, followed by two panels. These panels will feature partners from this year from around the globe and some multilingual discussions.
Immediately after the capstone session is the kickoff for the Asia leg of the unconference. Kaliya Young will facilitate the co-creation of an agenda, where participants can pitch ideas for workshops, games, presentations, essay readings, and so on. We want to make space for participants from both years and all those who are interested to connect and dialogue together about protocols and their power in the world. RSVP to the Asia leg here.
The Americas leg of the unconference kicks off in identical fashion about 12 hours later, at 14:00 UTC (3PM CET / 10AM EST / 7AM PT). RSVP to the Americas leg here. Anyone is welcome to attend both.
There will be a joint closing circle on Saturday, September 28th at 14:00 UTC for about thirty minutes, where people can collect the Symposium's final POAP badge and do a shareback. Saturday is also the overflow day for unconference sessions that didn't fit into Friday's agenda, to ensure ample time for rabbit hole exploration.