Early vision for The Billion Seconds Institute
Our vision for The Billion Seconds Institute started in late 2019 with the publication of The Everything Manifesto, a collection of thought experiments and hypothetical questions, as a proposal for (re)designing tools and systems to better understand the complexity of the interrelationships and interdependencies between the digital economy and the environmental emergency.
First public presentation of the manifesto at PRIMER EU Conference in Madrid. October 2019
We presented and discussed it in multiple cities and events, hosted workshops and ran courses inviting different groups of people to ask:
What if we imagine a billion in terms of time, life, attention, instead of understanding it only in terms of money?
This shift had an expansive effect on our collective imaginations. It empowers us to think long-term and large-scale, opening doors to the mindsets and approaches we need to address a crisis with the scale and complexity of the environmental emergency with critical hope.
This big question became the foundation for The Billion Seconds Institute.
This big question became the foundation for The Billion Seconds Institute.
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Getting Kickstarted
In March 2021, we launched a Kickstarter campaign to get everything started and thanks to the support of 175 backers, including the more than 100 Founding Members and Patrons, we reached our funding goal just 370,800 seconds after launching!
This amazing kick-off also was an early demonstration of the power of collective action when using the internet(s) as networks of solidarity, as we were able to achieve this without paying ads or promoted posts on Facebook or any other big data extraction corporation.
With every mention, RT, DM, post and email hundreds of backers and supporters helped us break the algorithmic borders of social feeds and share our vision with hundreds of people around the world!
After a few weeks we were ready to officially start a billion-second long journey...
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Opening Ceremony: Earth Day 2021
The Billion Seconds Institute was officially activated on Earth Day, April 21, 2021 at 18:00 CET, with a remote opening ceremony, where founding members and patrons gathered for the first time to witness the activation of a billion-second countdown to achieve our mission that will go until December 2052.
Watch the introduction video below:
Watch the introduction video below:
We opened the digital doors of our Campus in May, which is a tool, a context and, in many ways, a representation of a shared mental space where members and collaborators are learning together how to become intercitizens.
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The first 10 million seconds
10 million seconds sound like a long period of time and in many ways it is, but it is a very small fraction compared to the scale of one billion seconds.
They stand for almost 4 months or 16,5 weeks between late April and late August 2021. Below is a recap of our first season of activities:
- We've hosted the first four sessions and podcast episodes of The Internet(s) of Everything, part of our public programme in collaboration with partners as Somerset House Studios, SPACE10, Are.na and Logic Magazine.
- We've also hosted four What if? Salons on topics as time, energy, identity and the IPCC report, where our members gather for collective discussions around hypothetical questions.
- We published five issues of Intercitizens Weekly, an editorial experiment/newsletter exploring monthly themes based on each of the hypothetical questions proposed in The Everything Manifesto.
They stand for almost 4 months or 16,5 weeks between late April and late August 2021. Below is a recap of our first season of activities:
- We've hosted the first four sessions and podcast episodes of The Internet(s) of Everything, part of our public programme in collaboration with partners as Somerset House Studios, SPACE10, Are.na and Logic Magazine.
- We've also hosted four What if? Salons on topics as time, energy, identity and the IPCC report, where our members gather for collective discussions around hypothetical questions.
- We published five issues of Intercitizens Weekly, an editorial experiment/newsletter exploring monthly themes based on each of the hypothetical questions proposed in The Everything Manifesto.
What's next?
Latest update: September 5, 2021
- We are starting this month a year-long process with the Intercitizen Council to co-create a proposal for a declaration for intercitizenships.
- We are going to Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, where we will host a panel discussion titled 'Intercitizenships and the Internet(s) of Solidarity and Care' for the Branch Magazine Symposium.
- We are preparing the upcoming season of The Internet(s) of Everything with session presented in collaboration with our friends from Stack Magazines, CRACK, Ignota Books, Canal180 and NEW INC!
We'll keep updating this timeline every 10M seconds and invite you to join us in this inspiring journey and support our mission by becoming a member of The Billion Seconds Institute today!
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