Medialab Prado

From New York State comes a story about a notable struggle involving citizen science. In the early 2000s a global cement plant announced that it would build a $350 million coal-burning cement plant in the historic Hudson River Valley. Although announced as “inevitable” and favored by economic and political elites, the plant was opposed by thousands of local citizens who used the knowledge of local ecosystems and the action resources of the Internet. Who won in the end? What lessons can be drawn from this episode? The talk will emphasize the looming confrontation between authoritarian ¨corporatocracy¨ and a democratic, open source society.