Inspiration to learn about yourself

During the #openfood campaign and hackdays in Lausanne and Zürich in Switzerland, I heard / read / saw relatively little about people working on hacking / rethinking / improving farming. There was one initiative, though, that I found fascinating: OpenFarm, using which you can see on a map where local food producers are located. Read more about it here   and here . In this posting, I would like to offer some more  inspiration on farming innovation - in terms of research I have done on the topic.  What interests me is not least how we can use technology to create more value in farming / agriculture.   Just so you know it, I grew up and have lived in cities for most of my life, so I have relatively little experience with farming / agriculture. In other words, please go a little easy on me when / if you give me feedback ;-) Happy reading.

At the open food hackdays in Lausanne and Zürich on February 10th and 11th, more than 300 people with many different backgrounds will work on developing new solutions for a transparent, efficient and innovative food industry based on open data. To learn about what is going on and participate, you can, for example, use the hashtag #openfood . I learned that to help make innovation happen - including developing applications and innovative projects aimed at improving people's diet - the openfood.ch database can be a helpful tool . In this regard, knowing more about what we are buying / eating can help us develop more healthy eating habits. Think, for example, about how you may change your buying habits / food consumption habits when it is easy for you to get information about how much sugar there is in various cereal products. The open database openfood.ch includes data on more than 14,000 barcoded food products sold in Switzerland. The database is programmatically accessible t...

With the development of the Internet of Things, nearly every object you can imagine will be connected to the Internet . That means that, globally, billions of things will be connected to the Internet. In this posting , this posting , and this posting , I read that, increasingly, we can use our smartphones / tablets / notebooks to, for example, turn lights on and off, lock and unlock doors ,  roll the window blinds / curtains up and down, increase and lower room temperatures, get a notification if the refrigerator door is open after x seconds or if the stove is still on after y seconds - even if no pan / pot is on the stove. get a notification when someone rings the doorbell. find out - due to sensors in lights - how much and how a space is being used.  With this information, technology can help us, for example, turn off lights in locations that are not being used or inform us where, in particular, we need to use the vaccuum cleaner and mop to clean. In  this ...

At a #makezurich event the other day at Impact Hub Zürich , I had a fascinating talk with a couple of people from India. They had some brilliant ideas, I think, related to recycling. I understood that they wanted to measure, for example, when containers at the recycling spaces / "Sammelstellen"   are ready to be picked up. During a short brainstorming session right in front of boxes with different sensors in one of the workshop rooms at the event space, we ping-ponged a few ideas about what sensors would be relevant to use for the task. One person had an idea to use some kind of a light sensor that measures when things, that people put in the containers, have reached the top of the containers - meaning that the light from one side of a container to the other side of the container would be permanently interrupted / blocked. Another had an idea to use a sensor measuring weight. As we chatted about this idea, we talked about that that would probably work quite well for glass....

At nextzürich I noticed that a large number of ideas have been communicated about making Zürich a more bicycle friendly city. So as I saw this invitation   to the event Nextsalon Velocity ,   I decided to participate to help contribute to making Zürich a more bicycle friendly city. At the event , I found it very interesting to share ideas with other participants about what we can do to improve conditions for everyone moving from a to b in Zürich. I found it fascinating that the event was complemented by work on the internet, for example on nexzuerich.ning.com , Facebook , nextzuerich.ch , and on ronorp.net. In this blog posting , I read that to be an innovator, you have to be a relentlessly curious anthropologist and a keen-eyed ethnographer, so with a mobile electronic device, I walked / cycled / drove around the city to take photos of the areas in Zürich where I have experienced there is a strong potential for making conditions better - not least for peop...

Some ideas for cities that want to become more bicycle friendly. What would you add?

An update to a report / e-book with ideas for hospitals.

Reading this  article  and this  article , I learned that Hamburg is working on a plan that, over the next 15-20 years, is going to expand the number of green spaces considerably. The  hamburg green network  will connect parks, recreational areas, playgrounds, gardens, and cemeteries through green paths. These changes are not least being made, as I have understood it, to respond to  environmental changes  such as increasing temperatures and sea levels and - more generally - to make the city a healthier and more pleasant place to live.  Digital technologies contribute to changes that are going on in the way people get from a to b. Via  betahaus hamburg , I learned, for example, about  citeecar . What I like about the solution of citeecar is, for example, that it is simple to understand - and a  relatively inexpensive transportation solution . In short, it seems to be a carsharing solution for the average joe. Studying other t...

At Niederhorn , about 2,000 meters above sea level in the impressive swiss mountains, I was positively surprised to see a relatively large number of solar panels installed on the roof of a building. What also surprised me was that I did not see any wind mills up there. Although I'm far from being a wind energy expert, there seems to be a potential for generating quite a lot of energy from the wind blowing on / in the mountains. For more information about renewable energy development, please feel welcome to visit this group .

What effect will changes happening in the business environment have on how companies, you work for, will respond? What will you do? PESTEL

In a recent posting ,  I noted how  Renault-Nissan  is strongly moving forward regarding electric vehicles. And in this very interesting  McKinsey interview   with Mr. Alan Mulally, CEO of  Ford ,  I read for example this: "..we believe there is a social consciousness that is developing where people really want to consider alternative energy sources that are more sustainable and good for the planet." And towards the end of the interview with Mr. Mulally, I read this: "So we might be part of connecting different modes of transportation - bicycles and waterways and cars and buses and subways - all as part of the vision of enabling movement and bringing people together." The strong  development of renewable energy  and electric vehicles are interesting trends that help create more value for more people around the world. Another interesting trend are technologies / apps that enable people to share, for example, cars and parking space...

Via this tweet  I came across this article  in which I read that Renault-Nissan has sold its 100,000 th electric vehicle. Reading the article, I also learned that the Renault-Nissan Alliance has sold more zero-emission cars than all the other major car manufacturers combined. Being interested in renewable energy, which I work on in, for example, this Google group , interested in transportation innovation about which I developed, for example, these slides as well as these slides , and admiring the leadership of Carlos Ghosn , I have been curious to try out a Renault-Nissan electric vehicle for some time. As Mobility launched acampaign featuring the Renault Twizy   a great possibility arose to try out one of the agile, electric vehicles that Renault-Nissan has developed. I was possibly surprised about the driving experience and found the vehicle handy for getting around in / around a city. That the small vehicle, which measures 2.3 m . x 1.2 m ., is equipped with h...

Transportation innovation

With a group of people of more or less all ages, I went out listening to birds last Sunday morning. Starting towards the end of Dorfgasse in Langenthal, Switzerland we passed through a forrest and went by a beautiful lake on the way. Listening consciously to birds for about 3½ hours was a new experience to me. Among things I learned were the following: Learning experience # 1 Around 5 o’clock on this Sunday morning, just at it started getting light, I heard most birds singing / whistling . It was quite amazing to experience that the bird concert got louder and more diverse, as it became lighter. Learning experience # 2 The variety of bird signals / calls / singing surprised me. In this regard, it also surprised me a lot to read that there are around 10,000 living bird species. Learning experience # 3 I learned that birds have a great sight and are also really good listeners. It struck me that we can learn a lot from birds when it comes to listening. In this regard, here are so...