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Go! Safecast 3 year Anniversary on March 15-16, 2014 in Tokyo

Safecast Office window, Shibuya, Tokyo. Photo by Michael Glenn
My friend Sean Bonner, a long time Bujinkan student, is organizing the Safecast 3 year Anniversary on March 15-16 in Tokyo. He asked me to extend an invitation to any Bujinkan members who live in Japan, or who will be in Japan on those dates.

Safecast is a volunteer organization started a week after the 3/11 earthquake and resulting tsunami that caused the meltdown at the Fukushima power plant. Since there was a absence of reliable information for residents of Japan that really needed it, Safecast began,
"working to empower people with data, primarily by mapping radiation levels and building a sensor network, enabling people to both contribute and freely use the data collected. After the 3/11 earthquake and resulting nuclear situation at Fukushima Diachi it became clear that people wanted more data than what was available. Through joint efforts with partners such as International Medcom, Keio University, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and GlobalGiving, Safecast has been building a radiation sensor network comprised of static and mobile sensors actively being deployed around Japan – both near the exclusion zone and elsewhere in the country."

Watch a short Safecast documentary: http://vimeo.com/51823402

The 2-day anniversary program will consist of  both talks and hands on events, including:

  • Beginning Saturday evening and running until late Sunday evening we’ll host a global hackathon,
  • Presentations, discussions, and reception at Tokyo University
  • a bGeigie Nano workshop. Build your own award-winning radiation detector with assistance from the designers, and learn how to contribute radiation data you’ve collected to our public database. 
Here's a great vid (in Japanese and English) about one of these workshops:
http://youtu.be/1vZUg1HEKI4

I know all of us Bujinkan members are hands-on people who take action. This is a great opportunity to do that and connect with other people in Japan and around the world who are already in action making the world a bit safer.

If you'd like to attend, please contact Sean Bonner for more info (you have my permission to punch him when you see him).

Oh, if you're not in Japan, they will probably be live streaming the anniversary activities on safecast.org

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