Pardon the shaky camera as you tour the amazing Bucketworks in Milwaukee. Then hear from founder, James Carlson. The clip is a bit over 8 minutes.
Author: TomTee
Make Your Own Schoolhouse
From The New York Times: “ON a recent Monday night, a gaggle of 20-somethings crammed into a former Curves fitness center along the industrial edge of Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn. The storefront gym had been carved into two classrooms. In one, a rugged blond man, Brandon LeNoir, was teaching a class called “Let There Be Light.” A dozen students, huddled at long butcher-block tables littered with wires and scissors, learned how to make a simple lamp. “Don’t worry about neutral and live wires,” said Mr. LeNoir, 34, an interior designer by day. “It doesn’t matter for us.”…It was just another school night at the Brooklyn Brainery, a hipster schoolhouse started by a pair of underemployed polymaths, where students can learn abstruse subjects like the secret lives of bacteria, taught by teachers with few teaching credentials. Tuition is $5 to $30, enrollment takes place online and PayPal is accepted.”
Maker Spaces – Re-doing Education (and Democracy)
Watch this ten minute video and you will get the what and why of The CivcLab. We are part of something very cool, very important and very much needed. The speaker is James Carlson, the founder of Milwaukee based BucketWorks and the director of the School Factory.
Take Brief Online Survey On Civic Activities
Got three minutes? Take our quick online survey about your civic engagement activities and help us understand how people get involved in public life and why. We’re trying to make participation in civic engagement activities easier and more compelling.
Go to http://tinyurl.com/CivicLabSurvey or scan this QCode: 
CivicLab @ Occupy Midwest
CivicLab founder Tom Tresser will be at the Occupy The Midwest Regional Conference on March 16 and 17. He’ll be presenting two workshops on Saturday – one on the No Games Chicago campaign, and one on “Community Organizing 101.” You can view both these presentations here. He will be conducting a survey of participants and asking them to complete a short online survey about their civic engagement activities. The results will be posted here.
What Is The Commons
We’re researching background data on the Commons. Most of the work of the organizer of CivicLab over the past few years has been about defending the Commons and fighting privatization. A great web site for information on the Commons is OnTheCommons.org.
Conference Called “It’s Not Privatization” Lays Ground Work for Massive Privatization
On June 24, 2011 at The Hyatt Lodge on the corporate campus of McDonald’s in Oak Brook, the other wingtip dropped.
It was there that a very oddly named conference took place. “It’s Not Privatization: Implementing Partnerships in Illinois” was organized by The National Council for Public-Private Partnerships and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce with assistance from the Metropolitan Planning Council. The conference revealed the corporate sector’s designs on the commons in Illinois.
Tom to Teach “Community Organizing 201” via CommuniTeach
CommuniTeach is a new online P2P learning exchange. You want to teach? You want to learn?
Chicago is the home of modern community organizing. It’s happening here and all over the world – witness the uprisings in The Middle East. This session, on July 13, will be for people who’ve taken my earlier classes or for people currently involved in organizing work. Participants – bring a specific problem relating to a current campaign and we will brainstorm ways to help. Sign up here – http://communiteach.com/learnit.php?glid=337
The presenter is Tom Tresser, one of the organizers of No Games Chicago.
We’re Just Getting Started
The CivicLab is just getting organized! We are busy forming our Board of Directors and filing required paperwork. Meantime, we are already hard at work on our first project – The TIF Report!