Abe Pazos's blog

My Bicycle is easier to park, right at my destination.

It doesn't burn gas producing toxic waste.

I don't have to pay any bicycle taxes.

No expensive insurance.

It doesn't make noise.

It's fun!

After 6 years as a freelancer, I work again in a company. It's fun. I missed working with other people. This is what we do: www.panfu.de (only German for now)

:)

“Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” Hermann Goering, 1946

Hello all,

You are cordially invited to the closing of my foto-experiment exhibition 'Neljäs Kerros’

On Friday, November 23rd  2007 from 8 p.m. on.

In Vierter Stock projektraum Berlin, Koloniestrasse 131, Hinterhaus 4th floor.

Exhibitions runs from October 26th to November 25th  2007


Connections: U8 Osloer Strasse, M13 Drontheimerstrasse

www.vierterstock-berlin.com

Would be fantastic to see you there! =)

Last week I was discussing two ideas with my girlfriend.

The first one came to my mind because I'm often thinking how this world we live in is unsustainable (math.berkeley.edu/~galen/popclk.html). There aren't just enough resources for everybody to have so many useless things most people in our societies own. One of the things many people could live without is a car. I see thousands of cars parked everywhere. Parking is so difficult in some cities. Most cars just sit there. The cost thousands of euros / dollars. The have thousands of pieces. They pollute, and a lot of pollution is also thrown into the air when each piece is constructed. And then they end spending most of the time in the street taking space, and are only used a small percentage of the time.

I tend to think different. I try to find how things could work in a different way. That means also thinking about utopical solutions. My idea is that cars should not be owned. But just be for everybody who has paid the 'car' service. Then, if you have paid for it, you could just go in the street and take a car and drive to see the doctor, or the bank, or your work. Later, maybe that car you used is gone, but you just take another car. Probably sounds a bit communist for some people who think OWNING is so important. Well I don't. If we would share things we would need twenty times less production. Because who is able to use the ipod, the pc, the car, the camera, and all your clothes at the same time?

Anyways, my girlfriend did not really like the idea. She found all kinds of problems, and thought it wasn't very useful. Then today, I read this:

"At one point, I was having a conversation with Will [Lark], and we wanted to find a solution to parking," said Vairani. "There's a huge number of cars in parking garages, on the side of the roads. They don't do anything for eight hours a day, and then they go a few miles, and then they don't do anything again. What if people didn't own them? What if they used them and then folded them up and stacked them away?"

That's from someone in MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
www.networkworld.com/news/2007/110807-mit-reinvents-the-wheel-with.html

Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all (ok, I didn't talk about folding cars, only sharing them :)

That made me want to post also the second idea for reducing the need for owned cars.

This one can almost be implemented today, without the need for special cars. It's based on people who own cars, who act as taxi drivers while going to their own destination, and requires the use of cellphones with GPRS technology, and a complex centralized server that coordinates thousands of participants.

The participants can be of two types: drivers, and drived people. They are all subscribed to the shared transportation community. Subscribed people are registered. The system knows their name, address and other data (for example ranking), so no unknown people participate in this. If you want to get somewhere and do not have a car, you use your cellphone to tell the system where are you going (typing the address or clicking on a map). The system then automatically notifies the cars that are passing the street you are waiting on, and going in a direction useful for you. Maybe they don't go exactly to your destination. In that case, the will drop you off in the point where your trips go in different ways. Then automatically the system will notify the next car that will take you closer to your destination. The most important thing here is the server, that knows where everybody is going, and can advise drivers to stop for someone, take one or another route, and calculate the trips of thousands of people in all directions at the same time.

If enough people would be in the system, it should be more comfortable than using buses or metros, because you don't have to walk to the stop, or wait much. It could be almost like calling a taxi and being taken to your destination, maybe having to switch in the middle. Drivers could be paid for their service. Those who use the service would pay a monthly fee, but less than the price of taxis.

A ranking system similar to that in ebay or other web sites would give points to drivers and drived people, kind of a trust system. You could rate your driver immediately after or even while the trip is taking place. Maybe an alarm button could send an alert from the cellphone in case something goes wrong (for people to feel safer while driving in someones car).

Why does this idea come from? well, if I go down to the street and look around, I see cars all the time going in every direction, and usually with only one person inside. They could be taking others to their destination without much trouble: only a few seconds to stop for someone. Since the system already knows where people are going to, no time is needed for talking about that. It's all precalculated, and the cellphone using a GPS kind of software can give instructions to the driver about where to stop or about the route.

This system works only if a sufficient number of cars is driving. Maybe it could work only during the day.

I know there are many people against cars being tracked in real time. But it would give a lot of advantages for calculating traffic, routes, and traffic lights, helping avoid traffic jams. It would be necessary for cars participating in this program.

Ok, there my strange idea for today :)

www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php

At Kolonie Wedding.

See vierterstock-berlin.com/projects.html

Using Firefox, GreaseMonkey and www.ipernity.com/apps/gm

Hi, have you heard about the crisis in Burma?

Burma is ruled by one of the worst military dictatorships in the world.  Last month Buddhist monks and nuns began marching and chanting prayers to call for democracy. The protests spread and hundreds of thousands of Burmese people joined in -- but they've been brutally attacked by the military regime.

I just signed a petition calling on Burma's powerful ally China and the UN security council to step in and pressure Burma's rulers to stop the killing. The petition has exploded to over 500,000 signatures in a few days and is being advertised in newspapers around the world, delivered to the UN Security Council, and broadcast to the Burmese people by radio. We're trying to get to 1 million signatures this week, please sign below and tell everyone!

www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/tf.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK
   
Thank you so much for your help!