Kim Barrington – St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.
Everything I’ve done on a civic basis this last year has been influenced by the MOOC courses I took in Spring of 2013, especially Technicity, which put me on the path of advocating for open data, open mesh networks, micro grids, implementing a crowdfunding effort to establish a Citizen Disaster Response Hub but then being an active and instrumental member of OpenDataSTL largely getting the group onto social media in such a way that it’s become a tour de force within the city, & then hosting the National Day of Civic Hacking weekend in the city, Build4STL, spanning a weekend while incorporating a dozen more collaborations throughout the city into it at the same time. I’m now onto working with a newly formed Downtown Neighborhood Association to establish a dog/sculpture park for area residents and helping to implement pop up art exhibits in abandoned buildings in the heart of downtown. All for the purpose of supporting the future of our city.
The MOOC Technicity showed me all the ways I could as a citizen help to influence what was happening in my city for the good of all those concerned using advanced technologies and thought processes that I had no idea existed if not for the course and for the often stimulating dialogue that takes place in the accompanying online forums. You get a global perspective on things too since the course attracts students worldwide. And because there is a lack of discrimination you also get the same kind of diversity you are looking to establish within your own community. MOOCs are the greatest thing since sliced bread, and they’re, for the most part, FREE!
For most of my life I’ve sought out alternative education while managing to cobble together a BA in media communications with an Associates degree in apparel design. My professional career however carries much more weight as I go beyond the limits of my education in every way, always. For example, right now I am launching a solution to oil spills by creating a fabric that replaces steel. This is no easy feat and I’ve been working with scientists with specialties in things like micro fluidics and oceanography, materials science and nanotechnology and even former NASA collaborators. The world we live in is so complex it’s no longer possible to be the lone innovator…..being able to collaborate and learn from others who can be just as passionate and knowledgeable as you are but in different ways doesn’t always happen when you are in a formal classroom setting….working in MOOCs, however, seemed to allow this kind of working and creativity to happen spontaneously!
I turn around and bring those happy accidents back into my own community and make things happen. It’s a transformative experience.