totally agree with you that planning decisions tend to be sticky and influence the city for a long time also it is hard to "heal " some of the consequences of it , however this top down planning process is somehow shifting to a more bottom up collaborative process .anyway hopefully in the near future the way of planning should change.
for Egypt the situation is very interesting there is the absolute top down planning from the government (it doesn’t matter before or after the “revolution”) which is done in a very" non transparent way " by some planners of course :). but there is a lot of urban interventions even big scale intervention like an exit from the ring road and there is also a lot of informal settlements where there is a strong and somehow connected community and sometimes stick together against plans of relocation.
anyway its a very interesting mess and there are some urbanists and architects who are working in very interesting projects with the people and try to coordinate the “development process” like al athar lana
there is also some interesting researchs about cairo like cairofrombelow where I am a volunteer translator
There was even a constitution proposal for urban rights made by some researchers .
actually i think urbanohumano was a partner in Ecosistema Urbano which was responsible for the dreamhamar project .
Wait a minute… are you saying people just went out with shovels and built an unplanned exit from a ring road? I really want to know this story! Anyway, what you say about informal settlements is really interesting. Everyone thinks shantytowns and slums are a critical piece of the future and a nexus of innovation à la Jane Jacobs. I am sure STF would really appreciate a thoughtful blog post about what is happening in informal settlements in Egypt.
And yes, I think both [urbanohumano] and [immaginoteca] were involved in DreamHamar.
On a different note, here is how you tag people in Edgeryders: [USERNAME(CASE_SENSITIVE)]. For example [ Hazem ] with no spaces between “[”, “Hazem” and “]” will risolve in [Hazem] and send you a notification (you have been mentioned!). More instructions on the User manual.
[Alberto] yes they really did it . it was constructed professionally with the help of a CBO and engineers from the neighberhood. I think u can find more info about in this publication under case studies : road side development .
So no, they did not make one informal ring road exit – they made four. It’s on page 54-56 of the publication you linked – thanks, by the way, it’s a great catch. On page 62 there is a precious witness: one of the al-Mu’tamidiya community leaders points out that the community had been wanting to build a ramp for vehicles to access the ring road for a long time, and when the security apparatus collapsed following the revolution they had their chance. “The community meticulously documented the process of construction and presented it in a dramatic video”… where do I find that video?
Talk about the wiki city! These guys are way more edgy and innovative than we are. I can’t wait to find out more about them.
back to general talking about the project (not only urban situation :D)
there are alot of hacker spaces in cairo and an active growing community of enterpreneurs ,here are some other places that could colaborat or host the project
fablab eg - elmaqar an active coworking space where lots of entrepreneurs meet - mesaha another coworking space which host different events.
some spaces have a very broad network and others have specific target groups (electronics - DIY - …etc )
Thanks again, [Hazem], we are extremely interested in reaching out to the hacker scene. A good chance is the Spot The Future workshop to be held in Cairo in a few weeks. [gazbee sorour] is scouting locations and has suggested some possibilities here. Would you be up for leaving her a comment giving us our opinion, and maybe suggesting the spaces you mention above as an alternative?
yes [Alberto] it is amazing how they did that .and Cluster was the lab who made this reasarch and contributed to other publication as well, u can check their website
the video was uploaded on a small facebook page for al-Mu’tamidiya community it’s in arabic ofcourse I will search for it now hope I can find it .
and reading [gazbee sourour]s post will leave my comment their soon
one of the signs in the video states " on the cost of the honorable men of al-mu’tamidiya --under the supervision of "al-mu’tamidiya baladna (our country) " committee.
what was ironic that they actually invited the local authorities to come and open this road in the video in order to add some legitimacy or something (that was right after the revolution and local authorities had almost no real powers)
anyway when we think about it these examples is what we knew about as planners or researchers but surely there are a lot of other interventions that were not mapped
Hazem, would you be interested in writing one of the paid articles? Or even collaborating with a tandem based in Egypt to drive the Egyptian leg of the project? We need someone to be based in Egypt and have a large local network to be able to do this, but you obviously know a lot about interesting initiatives. I have been listening in on the various conversations apply for the online community builder positions and have written this post: we are trying to do and how we want to go about doing it.
her is what I can do to contribute in this project .
I can write an article mapping the local initiatives and underground movments that are related to the 8 focus areas for egypt mentioned in the mission briefs ( are these briefs finished or not and if not how can I contribute to them ?) I might have nothing in the “uncontrolled population growth” and a little on “discrimination by gender and religion” . so the article wouldn’t address all topics but could cover alot of different initiatives in different fields which I didn’t mention above as I am already interested in connectiong these dots together .
but by the end of the article there should be a call for action , do u mean for the tour and for adding stories and engaging in this platform only ? or for the physical workshops that would happen in the tour ?( and if so what would be the title of these and when /how would u decide ?)
and for the tour what I can do from here “Berlin” is to coordinate with hosts like CILAS ,MEGWARA and FABLAB because I have direct contact with them and I can work with someone from cairo to coordinate with . (or try to coordinate with other potential places )
If the physical job for the community builder is to coordinate the workshops only and then everything is on the online platform ? I can go back to Egypt for a week to make the call for the workshops in local hubs and organize the rest with a tandem based in cairo ( If I got paid for the job as I am still looking for scholarship for accomodation in berlin if not I am can still help with connecting the community builder with contacts to organize everything )
or should the article be pointing out 2 initiatives and make the call for others to share their story , then collecting these stories together afterwards
So we are looking for two separate but related entries
Articles: Solution Centric Essays (I write more about this below)
Online community building: I write about this in a separate comment so as not to confuse things.
Solution-centric essays…
that personalise the perspective and encourages us to discuss our own experiences. The aim is to help one another build a deeper understanding of the issues at hand at a granuar level. Why did this person or group of people choose to take this approach? How did they go about realising the initiative? What did they/you learn from it? What does it tell us about how we do things in our own lives and environments?
The approach we want to take is to discover and get to know creative and inspiring initiatives and then together through discussion here on the platform figure out what they tell us about one or more of the 8 focus areas. Perhaps an article comparing two different approaches? The road-hacking above and another initiative?
The ending: just a call for people to share their thoughts and experiences in a comment to the essay (they need to be signed in to post), or as a new post. A number of people will be offered a place at the workshop in Cairo in April 25-26 [link coming soon], after which some will be selected for paid travel slots to present at an International Conference in Tblisi [link coming soon]
I would ask for this essay in two versions: English and Arabic for a renumeration of 200 USD. Idealy to be produced within the next week.
1.The contractual details: For various reasons we need someone who is based in Egypt to be accountable for results, ie. to be the person we contract. We have 1200USD budget for the work and can only hire one person to do it. But if you can collaborate with someone on location (can be one of the people who applied in this group, can be someone else from your personal networks) and agree on a fair arrangement that works for you I am open to well thought through proposals. But this has to be finalised within the next day or two.
2. The actual work:
Basically it’s engaging people doing interesting work in Egypt outside the mainsteam to sign up on edgeryders.eu, submit their own solutions oriented stories, and share their own experiences as comments and posts on the stories submitted by others. In Egypt and in different parts of the world (the community consists of almost 2000 individuals in 40+ countries). The idea is to discover one another’s approaches, and get a deeper, shared understanding around the different themes. And then to we get collaborating on shared solutions, or helping one another develop/strengthen/ scale existing projects, during the physical workshops. Without the online interaction it is difficult to collaborate, p2p, with people all over the planet. Or even the person around the corner who it is difficult to interact with because of invisible barriers.
The other part of the work is preparing all the communications materials in Arabic and use social media to draw people into edgeryders.eu. This includes producing mission briefs: engaging calls for submissions of more solution centric essays, and commenting the ones that already are online from an Egyptian perspective. It also involves a lot of work reaching out to people and networks and draw them into signing up on edgeryders.eu and participating in the conversation on the platform. T
Why do we keep online discussion in the Edgeryders platform?
We use social media to spread the word about the initiative, highlight great people and projects discovered in Spot the Future and share news. However we use those channels only to share links back to places on the edgeryders platform. Why?
Edgeryders is designed to support and foster solutions oriented discussion, knowledge sharing and collaboration. The environment is designed by and for people who want to get things done together with other. Not discuss what others should or could do.
there is a critical mass of great people and initiatives already here to connect with
good environemnt to get to know one anothers projects and challenges before workshop so we make effective use of our time together
allows people to participate in project remotely
to document workshop results and continue exchange/collaborations after
does not exclude people who don't use FB or Twitter for different reasons
platform is free, open source, and evolved by its community members needs.
content here doesn't disappear and you own your own data.
ok for the article am working on it now . will try to upload an english version in a couple of days in order for other members to comment and add or give feedback to adjust the final version
and for the community builder am coordinating with a partner in cairo and will give u an update tomorrow
sorry for the delay I had some problems with my internet connection
for the article expected this evening I just need to make a skype conversation with someone who had a homeschooling experience in Egypt
and for the community builder [Ahmed m rabie] can work with me from Cairo . he is involved in different interesting stuff . he will introduce himself in a comment (still waiting for the verefication email)
This ahmed from cairo, I’ve went through the conversations you guys had before, some really interesting stuff there. we seem to be interested in the same stuff. plus this project seems to be super interesting. as Hazem said, i’m involved in Cairo Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences and Megawra as well. and that give me the chance to coordinates many workshops and events that have to do with the development and social change and educational events and initiatives weather in the brainstorming phase or organising the thing or just video documenting events. and that takes me to the things that i am interested in which is mostly documentary filmmaking and storytelling in general. i love to know more about the workshop and topics of the events you guys want to conduct in cairo so that i can help in a more efficient way.
Sorry for the typos and the mistakes, I’m writing on the phone and I’m new to these “smart” devices
In Egypt we’re particularly interested in groundbreaking initiatives making it easier for young people to make a living with meaning, getting away from labeling them under the unemployed, the excluded, the poor etc. Another topic of interest is environment and preventing degradation of commons, anything that falls under creative activism… Makes sense? Follow the links in the event page to learn more.
If you’re working on something else entirely we’d also be interested to learn about it - just introduce yourself and tell us a story like others are doing in Arrivals.
We’re hosting the event with Ice Cairo, @Muhammad Radwan is on board…
and there is also a lot of informal settlements where there is a strong and somehow connected community and sometimes stick together against plans of relocation.
- searching for the video