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OPEN Media Lab

Extra –or out of- curriculum activities for solutions to personal struggles that can be Media for progressing as society using what is OPEN.

Photo of Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez
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This is the draft version of an OPEN Media Lab where we - children or adults- can constantly get new skills. It connects Design Thinking, Entrepreneurship and System Thinking to leverage the impact of what is now OPEN. This is the draft version of an OPEN Media Lab where we - children or adults- can constantly get new skills. It connects Design Thinking, Entrepreneurship and System Thinking to leverage the impact of what is now OPEN.

We all have personal struggles. Children have struggles; young people -in and out school- have struggles; parents have struggles; managers have struggles; authorities have struggles. We also look for solutions, we learn, we find valuable insights, we find solutions (sometimes imperfect and sometimes better ones)… Since we constantly do a lot ‘experiments’, perhaps we can see society as a LAB -a Lab with a PURPOSE, a lab where our personal findings can be a Media for a solution for something bigger (inspired in the MIT Media Lab and its 'antidisciplinary' approach' ?

Moreover, since we already have a lot of OPEN opportunities aside of traditional education (or every other stage in our lives) we can leverage the positive impact of the increasing number of alternatives available.

We now have Open Source technology; we have Open Education (like MOOCs or other courses, articles, books...), we have Open Communities like Open IDEO, we have Open Data ... The idea is connecting all of this increasing number of opportunities, leverage their positive impact (and address the negative effects), learn from each other, make it all part of a Life-learning process that finds solutions along the way.

HOW TO CONNECT

All starts from a problem you care about and wants to solve (or a problem at the center, as @Joost  suggested in an feedback for first draft of the idea, which is a very good point). From Design Thinking, we have learned that we start by Empathizing if we want to find a Human Centered solution. We hear each other; we learn from each other; we find insightful stories, we extract insights that opens up a whole new world of opportunities: move forward for finding one solution (with mentors, peers, guidelines available of Design Thinking…), we realize that we need new knowledge and knowhow so look for it in and out of school with extra passion, we allows us to develop a necessary System Thinking (I'm just starting to learn System Dynamics , but concepts like feedbacks, stocks and flows,or  mental models, among others, have already opened my mind to new things and new points of view).

There is much we can do, if we think of this as a “lab”, as something that allows us to ‘experiment’. In the OPEN opportunities available we have insights to better prepare learners (of all ages) for the needs of tomorrow. For instance, I reimagine higher education, starting from leveraging what we do, when we are not school, and taking this as an opportunity to progress as society along the way.

Who is your idea designed for and how does it reimagine higher education to support the needs of tomorrow?

This idea is for ALL OF THE SOCIETY. It includes children, young people, adults, elders. This reimagines higher education to support the needs of tomorrow by having a purpose in the heart of a life-learning process that uses Open opportunities already available.

This idea emerged from:

  • An individual

What skills, input or guidance from the OpenIDEO community would be most helpful in building out or refining your idea?

I lack technical skills, but I know a platform could help me to better connect volunteers, Open alternatives (sharing MOOCs, having a repository in Github, connecting with - and translating to Spanish- challenges in communities like OpenIDEO... ) Also, experiences from the OpenIDEO itself would help me, to leverage the impact of alternatives like this on a local scale; for individually strengthen the 'hubs' in big valuable networks.

What early, lightweight experiment might you try out in your own community to find out if the idea will meet your expectations?

The early lightweight experiment would be using some of this OPEN alternatives to find one solution to one particular challenge, involve different relevant stakeholders, invite volunteers to document every step of the process, and refine how the process might look like.

Tell us about your work experience:

I'm a journalist, majored in business administration. I've finished +20 MOOCs. I was selected for the fist MITx Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp (2014) - after a selection process with MOOCs-; and, early this year, I was part of the pilot cohort of the Harvardx Disruptive Strategy course. Also, I'm part of Communities Global Shapers, an initiative of the World Economic Forum; and member of Acumen Corps, a community for its most dedicated students.
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Photo of Max Noble
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Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez  how is the Systems thinking class going?
Spelling error the fist MITx

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Photo of Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez
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I'm enjoying it ! ... I have found on it a valuable 'compass' for getting deep into System Dynamics, starting from a qualitative approach - which makes more sense than the more mathematical approach in modeling, because of my background. The first part is identifying the kind of problems that should be tackled from a systemic approach - called 'cloud' challenges (like education).

I think that the course content will allow me to have a new vision for the structure of the system we're in, in order to help strengthening public trust, and through that help building public welfare ( the wide vision of foundations like the Knight Foundation have inspired me: http://www.knightfoundation.org/statement-of-strategy).

How is the Future School - Update: User Engagement Path, Feb 011 going? ... Where do you need help? What has been particularly difficult in this refinement phase?

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Photo of Max Noble
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Sounds cool! I wish I had more time...thinking about dropping my APP Development Mooc to join you.

When you are doing your mooc, think about future school and media lab. How can we find similarities to sync the 2 ideas. Are there opportunities to network them together in ways that benefits both of them?

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Photo of Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez
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We share concerns, and we both dream with a new education (a future kinder garden, a future school, a future university...) . I will keep education in mind when I work on the structure of the system -as part of the course, and in the future. Count with it !

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Photo of Billy Korompilias
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Andres you have definitely created here a very good structure of what has to be done. Your idea expresses a framework which can be the base of educational resources and a platform for collaboration and new discoveries I believe. I strongly recommend the use of Cybernetics as a resource of models for architecting such a mechanism like your OMLab, the Viable System Model is always the best canvas to use when designing almost anything. (If you do not already know about it you can have a first look here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPSBJwGKRsw )

The importance of physical contact and practice is 50% of your whole design even if it sometimes seems
that the freedom which technology gives us today can liberate us eventually but it won't.

I also saw the other day something really incredible as a technology which I surely wish to use for the project of my team, and it can help very much yours as well. It is called the WOW Room and you can see what is it about here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGEknY6FTLU (I advice you to see all the video)

Media is a Language my dear Andres, it is one of the three basic elements of any intelligent system (The other two are maps and tools according to the science of Cybernetics). It is our attempt to explain-express-experience life and from my perspective when it reflects higher intelligence it takes the form of the most noble art, beauty, higher education as it should be. From the way I see it, the creation of this kind of reflections is not only the future of education but also our main purpose in life after survival; to evolve through teaching and helping one another.

Surely as you already understood by your comment Intelligence Circles - Investigating Capsules (IC) can work together with the Open Media Lab as I can see very clearly the common elements we both share in our design.

With Appreciation,
Billy.

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Photo of Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez
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Thank you so much Billy Korompilias !! ... Priceless feedback.

I will carefully study what you suggested, so many insights and paths to follow to open my mind!

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Photo of Naman Mandhan
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Hi Andros!

I love this idea and how powerful a tool it can be for the problem solvers of tomorrow. Having a space where someone like you and me can come and experiment with a variety of solutions is something that society can definitely benefit from. A no consequence, fun approach to learning while embracing the design thinking ideology of failing early and often is something that I definitely see happening at this space.

As you have already read in a couple of my ideas, I believe in the power of community and society to bring people together for a common purpose. How do you think your background in journalism could help drive the social aspect of this idea? Do you think that there's potential for using your experience in journalism to dig deep into local problems that are small scale but have the potential to grow bigger, and using these stories to drive the purpose inside the OPEN lab?

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Photo of Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez
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Thank you Naman Mandhan !

From journalism I have learned priceless skills, skills I learned without even noticing it (asking questions, listening, empathy, curiosity, connecting knowledge and people...). Nowadays, I've learned that many of the things I have learned are recommended as must-to-have skills in entrepreneurship, for instance. Just think on the Empathy, or think about the insights finding in Design Thinking ...

A few years ago I decided to learn without boundaries, to learn new tools, new methodologies, and taking the most from them (usually by blending them because all can be useful at different stages of your ideas). Now I have realized that I need more skills like coding, more work as a 'social scientist', more diverse teams, in addition to what I have learned so far if I want to crate solutions so I'm working on it, and this Open Media Lab is just a 'medium' for acquiring skills, a lab that I want it to be open for all (because that way all can get a better outcome).

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Photo of Max Noble
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"reimagining a higher education, and a society at the same time." - @Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez

This is how powerful a force we are playing with. Keep it OPEN and point it at global sustainability. And enjoy the ride. Cause my guess is 168 years (6 more generations+-gen) to get to full (99%) planetary stable.

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Photo of Max Noble
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Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez , I think the OPEN platform is great. Its a great foundation for growth. But I wish it were more "aggressive" in relation to the current economy. The current economy is target number #1, its destroying our biosphere. That's some major competition for world domination.

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Photo of Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez
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Hey Max Noble  I think you could particularly like this article: https://joi.ito.com/weblog/2016/12/02/report-from-mar.html

Enjoy! (and I recommend you to learn about Behavior Change, for instance look for Dan Ariely ... Could be insightful).

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Photo of Max Noble
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Thanks for the article. I've learned learned a lot from Dan's books and talks.

Those top 4 intervene mechanism are tough. But I think I have then solved. Don't intervene in the system... Just build a better system.

I studied organizations behavior. The most important thing I learned was that the bigger a system grows the slow it's ability to change. However, this is the result of humans behavior. Computer descion making is not bound by this constraint.

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Photo of Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez
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Interesting point... One of the things I'm learning in my studies about System Dynamics is actually computer modeling, but I'm an amateur, jeje.

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Photo of Bo Li
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Andres,

Your idea is awesome - it's a vertical for OPENIDEO or the OPENIDEO community can start forming sub communities and one would be your idea!

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Photo of Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez
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Thank you !!

The idea is leverage the positive impact of great things that are already existing by working on creative ways to connect. From OpenIDEO (and some other communities I'm part of) I have found valuable insights that I want to use, not for copying what they have done but for potentiating on a local scale global communities ...

... Since this is Open (and I constantly meet outstanding people like the ones in this challenge), we can think on reimagining a higher education, and a society at the same time.

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Photo of Max Noble
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Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez , Bo Li . I don't know the details of IDEO's structure, but it seams to be a great structure model. I come from a background of the FabLab structure. Which is very similar.

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Photo of Joost Schouten
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Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez is there a way i can send you a visual feedback?

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Photo of Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez
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Of course! ... my email is andresfvera@gmail.com

Thank you !!

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Photo of Joost Schouten
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Great, i have just emailed you!

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Photo of Michael O'Sullivan
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Hey Andres!

Very good idea, and thanks for pointing out the potential links between this and my idea Combining VR, recommendation algorithms, MOOCs, trials & shorter courses to creative a more personalized, adaptive learning environment 

As a designer, I love your broad design thinking approach, it's really refreshing to see open, somewhat 'blue sky' ideas like this. I agree with others in the comments that it may be difficult to get off the ground as a whole, but could be achievable in stages.
In Ireland, all the components mentioned work in silos rather than collaboratively, and so while a system like this might take some years to get fully working, I think it is vital that young people in particular begin to grow up in a more integrated system. I would agree that some type of platform may be the best way to begin to realise this goal, and it could even tie in with the proposed platform in my idea.
I would think that the biggest challenge to you is trying to get people on board with your broad level of design thinking, and getting them to understand your vision. Perhaps some visuals would help your pitch?

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Photo of Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez
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Thank you so much !!!

You're totally right about silos! ... This is one of the reasons why I focus on Open alternatives, but a better understanding of the necessary stages would be needed.

I will work on the necessary details of the platform. Also, I will work more on the visuals (I'm already a user of a process like the one described in the graphic, so I'm taking a course in Skillsshare, jeje).

Kind regards,

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Photo of Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez
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Learning from the initial comments, I made some changes to the initial post (I hope this is OK, because this is my first challenge at OpenIDEO). Thanks for your valuable connections, feedback, comments and questions Kate Rushton , Leah Edwards , Ezra Weller , Isaac Jumba , Mozah , Joost .

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Photo of Joost Schouten
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Hi Andres, just a quick braindump here;
first of all its a great idea! if i am not mistaken, it would work much like OPENIdeo, you even mention it yourself. Would that be something? to have local OPENIdeo for higher education? Perhaps with a little more guidance on open resources, or connect open resources such as MOOCs to a particular "challenge"/ business problem/ curriculum?

If OPENIdeo provides the structure/ platform, local OPENIdeo community managers/ offices could work on getting many problems into the platform? Then you can connect open networks/ communities, and open sources such as MOOCs. The role of the teachers/ tutors would be to guide students in their collaboration efffort and navigating these communities and resources available.

My education at Maastricht Univesity was based on Problem Based Learning. Effectively like yoru suggestion. I believe it is a really good way to learn, however what i did in the late 90s is totally archaic compared to what is now possible. We just to study business cases which were old, and have to find out answers from scrutinizing the two or three books which went with the course. The tutors would even suggest which chapter to read :)

the principles of it however are still relevant and with your idea, you could really turboboost the learning, setting everyone up with an opportunity to showcase real skills, put it on their CVs if they contributed successfully and have many chances.

regarding the assessment of skills etc. Essentially your idea doesnt have to be bound at all by any institute at all. Also pupils from disadvantaged areas could participate, and perhaps a virtual support network instead of physical classroom teachers could help these students to meaningfully participate?

there is a company called "Aspiring minds" which has as its mission to give anyone the chance to validate their skills to get jobs, rather than being dependent on a university degree. They focus initially on language skills and coding skills, but also entertain bespoke assessments for companies. They offer this using AI, and all the candidate does is some online tests (using face recognition etc to ensure it is the candidate actually taking the test.

such a company could potentially develop certification outside the university for those students who cant participate in organized education. Or for those brave enough from organized education, do they dare measure themselves against everyone, rather than depending on the status of their institute?

as you reacted to my idea, i believe that EduFlix could be simply one of many resources, which can contribute to the overall experience of this community, and be part of your "look for knowledge" :)

kind regards from abu dhabi!

btw, i would put the problem/ challenge at the heart of your circle, and leave the media comment in the explanations.

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Photo of Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez
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Thank you so much Joost !

I will take into account all your valuable feedback, all the comments I have received, and I all I have learned from great ideas like your to improve this first draft. The idea of the challenges at the heart of the circle it is very interesting ( one of the things I'm trying to make is a more compelling graph that shows a never ending process with constant feedbacks)

Kind regards from Colombia.

All the best!

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Photo of Mozah
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I love it! it might be the way Issac and I can have our idea work with! you can have a platform where companies register as a client, universities register as the work group, students will register for their work group and then the companies can post their problems either public post or privately for certain workgroup then the magic begin!
I have contributed this idea to the challenge, check it out, I'm sure it will make sense to you when you read it :-)
Connecting higher education institutions to the job market

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Photo of Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez
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Thanks Mozah !

The idea of Connecting higher education institutions to the job market  is very important, and needed. I'm glad you have seen the connection of this Open Media Lab with your idea because both point in the same direction: building capacities (for solving bigger challenges, as society).
Kind regards from Colombia,

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Photo of Isaac Jumba
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Hi Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez I like your thinking of having the society as the Media Lab. I do agree that when the individual components (schools, governments, businesses, the local community) are interlinked together, we will sure have a lasting solution.

I however feel that having all those components in place at once is something hard to achieve at the beginning. I could think of starting with few components such as getting a school to work with the local community, then later bring on the businesses. Have you heard of agile development (http://agilemethodology.org/) or lean methodology (http://theleanstartup.com/principles) in coming up with products? Maybe we could dig deeper and come up with light experiments to get started on part of the Open Media Solution.

Congrats on your great achievements so far. Keep up!

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Photo of Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez
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Thank you much Isaac for your valuable feedback!

I agree that coordinating all of these different stakeholders at the beginning is the hardest part; but actually the idea of this Media Lab is creating ways/tools to better coordinate schools, governments, business, local community and internacional community in order to leverage their individual impact.

I find useful to have a wide long-term representation, but every link of this cycle will require particular work and particular coordination so I will look more about Agile Development because it will valuable for all the individual solutions that will be needed.

By the way, I think the Job To Be Done theory (from Clayton Christensen) and the MIT methodology of Disciplined Entrepreneurship might be particularly valuable for you (In Edx there are MOOCs about it: https://www.edx.org/course/?search_query=Entrepreneurship&school=MITx%3A%20Massachusetts%20Institute%20of%20Technology)

Kind regards, and congratulations for your work and your inspiring idea.

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Photo of Isaac Jumba
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Thanks. I'm checking out "Job To Be Done" theory. Thanks for recommending

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Photo of Ezra Weller
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Hi Andres!

The idea of OPEN source media seems really cool, but I wonder what this idea would concretely look like. When you say the first step might be creating a basic platform with links, do you mean just a curated list of links to related media projects? Surely some things like that already exist?

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Photo of Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez
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Thank you so much Ezra for taking the time to look at this! (your question makes me think deeper on a way to better explain myself).

I know the word "media" might confuse, but when I mean Media Lab, I'm thinking on the MIT Media Lab (https://www.media.mit.edu/). On this Media Lab, the word "media" is something that allow us to do new things, to solve bigger challenges. That's what I want; using and connecting with a purpose and a structure everything that is already OPEN.

How the platform would look like?, It might look a lot like this Open Ideo platform, unless a group in Facebook might work as well in the beginning. The platform is just the needed space to connect - and finding teams-, with the possibility to share content (MOOCs, repositories in Github, Articles, Invitations...). the platform is important but not the most important part, the core of it -and the hard part to achieve- would be having an ever growing community (as I told you, we are going in the same direction). Physical activities - or offline activities- would be key.

To be more clear, let me try to describe a process with an example:
1. A social and experiential activity might be taking the Metro -or using Facebook /Twitter in teams- (after knowing one of the Open IDEO guides for defining challenges, and with experts from different backgrounds).
2 & 3. ... different people might get different insightful stories, and different insights. For me, one valuable insight is that people are willing to spend hours on Facebook, but just minutes in a newspaper website; and that in my city the Metro is full of people at the same hours because of Office hours and where we live vs where we work.
4. MOOCs with guidelines might be helpful for learning about the possibilities of open source tools or the view of newspapers, from the point of view of the reader (which is sometimes hard for journalists...)
5. An Open Media solution might be creating an open source tool for connecting news from different sources and create your own stories (as the Newsfeed in Facebook).
6. Since other people might feel connected with your idea, you may find someone with more technical skills to create a team.
.... This is just the early steps of the process, but I hope this example is more clear of what I would like to accomplish with this Open Media Lab which is just a complement for many things that already exists, but are disconnected, like our education, our news, and those we like to do when we are not studying (but when we might be learning as well).

Kind regards from Colombia (and a Happy New year).

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Photo of Leah Edwards
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I like the idea of complimenting Open Education with Open Media. Open Education and lifelong learning can build skills as well as some information about the world around us.

But an Open Media Lab could provide deeper, richer, more current information about needs and opportunities for people to apply their education and skills to.

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Photo of Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez
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Thank you so much Leah Edwards . By looking at Legacy media -or social media- and education from what we suppose to do (instead of what we have done) we have a whole new ocean of opportunities... This view of an Open Media Lab just wants to connect what is already open and look for ways to leverage positive impact.

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Photo of Kate Rushton
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Hi Andres

Thank you for sharing your idea.

Thinking of 'The starting point: Open Invitations for experiential and social activities for finding challenges in the city ...', What sort of challenges are there in your city? What organisations would be able to give access to the information to solve these challenges? Could this be incorporated into higher education with higher education students solving the challenges in conjunction with the wider community?

Have you seen these ideas - A Global Classroom: "International Show & Tell" IDEEDU and Solve4Work Challenge ? I think there may be potential for collaboration / shared learning.

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Photo of Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez
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Awesome !!! Thank you so much Kate Rushton 
When I say Social And Experiential activities it can be as simple as taking the Metro (with a guide like the Open Ideo's guide for refining challenges in mind) or something more structured as a Hackaton or a Bootcamp. The idea is constantly trying new things, and connecting with others.
This year I was part of the core team of a Latin American summit of Global Shapers (an initiative of the World Economic Forum with +6000 outstanding young leaders in over 450 hubs worldwide). We visited 5 different parts of the city - 5 experiences of resilience-, and we had a joint effort with Community Leaders, the Local Administration, the Resilience Office of the City (initiative of the Rockefeller Foundation), and the Global Shapers in the city and Colombia. We had good results, but lacked methodology and long term vision, that's why I've been thinking on a process like the one described in the graphic, which is open to constant improvements.
In a city like Medellin we have some sort of challenges (as a journalist, I see them everyday); that's why I see my city as Lab - and every city I've seen is the same-; with some milles of distance you may find the poorest neighborhood in Subsaharan African and 'Silicon Valley'.

And thank you so much for sharing me these great ideas (I will look at them in detail to exchange insights and learn).

For now, from the A Global Classroom: "International Show & Tell" idea, I loved the idea of "Students from K-12 need a clear bridge to comprehend what is really happening in their microcosm, unique microcosms outside of themselves and the greater macrocosm of global issues", and from Solve4Work Challenge  I like a lot the idea of "interdisciplinary collaboration among the students in the schools (and the view of the last year of school as early steps in Entrepreneurship)".

Kind regards from Colombia; and, once again, THANK YOU for your valuable feedback.

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