Hamish Campbell

The is an issue with privatisation of open public space not only from company’s and government's but also from our fellow boater “community”. This can come from individuals working with The Canal & River Trust (CRT) to set-up for profit or even “community moorings” or people who find out of way spots and make them there “own” and then try and control these pieces of open public spaces as private spaces.

Of course with everything the is a balances of the good and the bad. CRT have an agenda to maximize revenue for the “public” spaces they own and this will be pushed over all agreed mooring projects so the is a clear danger here for us losing public mooring space to private mooring space even with “community mooring” projects and for profit moorings in “public” are always bad.

The DIY spaces can be good were people take responsibility for cleaning and caring and opening up a little used public space. But often go bad due to unsustainable use of the spaces opened up, piles of trash and anti-social behaver are common as are threats of violence often feed by drunkenness. This brings as bad a “closing” of a public space as more traditional state or private enterprise privatisation.

As boaters we currently have a some lee way to make things work better than they often do, lets see what happens.

Here is a list of components to get basic solar power working on a converted liveabord lifeboat.

Can get from here or here  for about £130 each, will need two.

Then you have a choices of 2 different type of charge controller, possibly unreliably but more efficient MPPT or a bog standard cheap PWM controller - to start out I would probably go for the cheap controller.

MPPT have to import from china here or here  for around £80

Or a very cheap basic controller here for around £12

Then you would need a length of 6mm cable and a pear of MC4 combiners

The boat currently has 4 starter battery wired up into 2 separate redundant 24V banks, I would re-wire one of these as 12v and use that for a while.

todo

Have to test a all the wires and find out what is 12v and what 24v

Have to find out which bank of battery is live

Fitting out

Then get some 3 way car cigarette splinters, good soled wire and 5m of LED lighting strip, more info here

 

 

 

 

Am planing to do workshops on “journalism with the tool in your pocket” and “solar power for everyone” over the summer at protest camps, festivals and conferences. Am working with a number of other people to do this. But... the is generally a but... 

For the Solar workshops I have a young man who is competent and has energy, but needs to learn the skills of organising, teaching and most importantly internalise the importance of simplicity, getting there slowly.

I have decided not to get involved in this activist tech gathering even though it is completely on the subjects that are core to my work. I had tried to interact but with no noticeable affect. 

The is a failer of imagination in almost all atavist tech that shapes a blankness in ideas and almost no real action. Its not that the ideas and campaigns are not important as some of them clearly are, it is more limited framework that these things are addressed with.

This gathering reminds me of the Rebellious Media Conference from a few years back which took up a lot of my time and had no affect what so ever. On balance the RMC damaged the declining alt-media by taking focus and energy, am worried that this gathering will lead to the same outcome.

If you wont to get involved in real alternative tech in action, and while doing thinking about the bigger picture try http://activisttech.org or the develoment side try this http://hamishcampbell.com/en/home/-/blogs/the-tech-manifesto-of-the-omn

We have been updating and renovating our websites, if you wont a bog http://blog.openworlds.info/ or traning in new media http://streetreporter.org/ lots more sites at http://openworlds.info/ 

If you are interested in alt-tec for activism http://activisttech.org/ or coding for a better internet http://springofcode.org/ these sites will help.

 

 

Training videos so far are about inviting people for tea. This is outreach to "normal" people to get involved in the camps.

#daneshill #fracking Alt-power at protest camps, we have a hour long intro in front of the main gate on solar power then Q&A. Followed by a practical workshop on setting up solar LED lighting in the kitchen. From http://activisttech.org

 

 

 

 

 

#Daneshill protection camp. Come and have some tasty food and help stop #fracking

I didn’t actually see the money just put it back it into visionontv expenses account...

Don't squeeze the last gas #FrackFree

With fracking companies circling the British Isles, it's now more important than ever to make a stand.

Ecotricity guarantees its gas is frack-free which, along with its 100% green electricity and ethical pricing, is a true alternative to The Big Six energy companies. 

http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/frack-free
http://www.facebook.com/ecotricity 
http://www.twitter.com/ecotricity

This is another liveaboard lifeboat conversion from the 1950's on the river Lea.