Innovate

This page is the beginning of the ultimate goal of this website:  A crowd-sourced Think Tank for a thoughtfully built world.

INTENTION:  Society has been very efficient at building inefficient systems.  I am looking for hackers to develop a skeleton platform for a civic think tank to innovate efficient energy systems (but could be applied to any system). This platform acts as a meeting room of networked thinkers and experts to innovate the relevant parts of a larger system to elegantly address pressing environmental and social issues.  As these collaborative improvements in logic build, the woven threads act as structure for inventions, policy, or businesses that become actions directed at citizen understanding, drafted policy recommendation, or investing.

FIRST STEP:  A template platform could be hacked where an individual or group opens a conversation around an issue, allowing others to build a collective idea stream out of single concept feeds. Each comment is categorized by Fact, Concept, Proposal, Alternate, Condition, (+/-)Editorial, News, Resource, Policy, and each comment is identified with an authored source. Each comment can be added upstream or downstream, and can break a stream into alternate streams. This system allows for an improv approach to innovation.  Using a “Yes, And” principle by contributors combined with cheering and booing by audience members, all ideas are vetted and good ideas float to priority stream position.
LONG TERM GOAL: The ultimate goal of this Innovation Tool is to layer micro innovations along a production stream that culminate in an improved macro process.  At any point in idea development, an individual can take any subsection of a stream to an action page.  That is, a summary document that is based on the linear flow created by multiple authors.  This action page can draft policy, develop business plans, instigate political action, or fundraise for more efficient and sustainable energy production and use.

EXAMPLE:
Category: Solar
Subcategory: Photovoltaics (PV)
Region: New York State
Arena: Policy

INFO:
(Steve)News:  NY State (NYS) thru the NYS Energy Research and Development Authority(NYSERDA, http://nyserda.ny.gov) has allocated $XX dollars from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (rggi.org) to solar PV installation.
(Ayca)Resource:  Solar maps of NYS are found here: http://www.nrel.gov/gis/solar.html

CONCEPT STREAM:
(John)Fact:  Peak electric load in NY City (NYC) is in the summer, when the sun is brightest and longest.
(John)Fact:  Peak electric load in upstate NY is in the winter, when there are fewer sun hours and panels are covered w snow.
(John)PROPOSAL:  NYS policy should prioritize RGGI funds for solar panel installation in NYC to stabilize peak load for the State as a whole and to generate the most electricity per NYS dollar invested on solar panels.
(Ellen)Condition:  If NYS targets NYC for installation of PV, all recipients of incentives should be required to paint their roof white to increase reflective albedo and reduce city warming in summer months.
(Chris)Condition:  If NYC is prioritized for PV, all upstate schools should receive PV with educational tools to compare the efficiency of panels at different locations.
(Raj)Action:  Draft policy targeting NYSERDA and NYS House and Senate for priority allocation of RGGI funds for PV to NYC to stabilize peak loads and to upstate schools as education tools.

EDITORIALS ON PROPOSAL:
(Maria)+ Editorial:  From a greenhouse gas emission, energy return on investment (EROI), distributed energy, and financial perspective, this is a very wise allocation of PV funds to NYC in NYS.
(Peter)- Editorial:  Allocating RGGI funds to NYC is not fair to interested upstate citizens which account for 1/2 NYS population.  

We have a dream of dreams.