Cesare Montresor held an open discussion about Opensource Hardware & Community FabLab, a follow-up to its presentation of Opensource Hardware in order to explore (together) with the Auroville community the requirements and opportunities for the creation of a Community FabLab. Creating a community oriented FabLab would enable the Auroville community to dispose of a communal space where to learn, experiment and eventually build their own goods with sustainable materials, thus reducing the costs of production and their impact on the environment.

Cesare Montresor presents a different way to access to goods and technology, getting the inspiration from the world community. "Opensource Hardware", "Community FabLab" and the "Do It Yourself" philosophy are the main concepts to enable a high quality, local and flexible production while providing a public infrastructure for knowledge, creativity and continuous learning. By enabling aurovilians to produce their own goods, a community fablab would on the long run become a way to grow toward a more self-sufficient and sustainable community. Read more

The project of Lilaloka, 'the place to play' in Sanskrit, was founded thanks to the determination of five women with educational background. Neither school nor airy center or nursery, Lilaloka goes further, offering a new educational approach centered on the joy and the game. The future center will offer various activities for all children, promoting self-learning and avoiding the competition and judgment. Yvelise, one of the project holder, explain the meaning and the organization of Lilaloka. Contact: lilaloka@auroville.org.in Read more

Starting with the first word fascination, and dwelling into many, which are commonly use in our daily lives when we're talking on certain subjects-that was Prof. Edwin Zappe lecture on The Fascination of Words yesterday in Unity Pavilion in International Zone. Zappe's lecture was fascinating to the audience, has took us to our thoughts reaching further, beyond the mental understanding of particular word. The new world has opened in front of our eyes.The joyful way of displaying the vast knowledge of Prof. Zappe has brought smiles on the faces Read more

Nishtha has translated all main and sub-hymns to Sarasvati in the Rig-Veda. In this first lecture Nishtha brought back the rhythm and tone that was used originally in Sarasvati. So instead of having the dry mechanical tone and rhythm we now have the chants by the Rishis in beautiful poetic sounds and rhythms. Participants also had the chance to join in the chants to the Goddess Sarasvati (the flow of Divine Inspiration) as was heard originally in the vision and spiritual experience of the Rishis of the Rig-Veda. Read more

Last night event organized by Africa House and Windarra Farm at Unity Pavilion in International Zone was initiated by Isis, volunteer from Benin, currently working with several NGO's, on Agro Ecological Federation of Benin, at Family Jah - Rastafari Community. As Isis has soon found out that in Auroville the presence of African Culture is very poor, she shared with the community pieces of African culture from West Africa. With Windarra Farm team she has put all her energy to provide the dinner, and Yemadas concluded the night with world music. Read more

What have started as invitation to an African Night on Friday 1st of February at Unity Pavilion in International Zone, extended into an open interview about many topics. Isis a volunteer from Benin (former Dahomey) will share within Africa House, Pavilion of African Culture, one of the introductory insights in the form of a talk on "Lost Kingdoms of West Africa". And as she says, when there are Africans is the sharing of festivity and joy, so the evening will continue with sharing of West African meal, and conclude with music. Read more

With a great support of the children of the kindergarten, the Auroville Press and SAIIER released this week proudly the book “Building with blocks at Auroville Kindergarten” by Odile Fouldaoux. Besides illustrating and showing how children develop by the way they build with blocks and how their social skills evolve it is a book about children development through a beautiful playful instrument like natural wooden blocks in specific dimensions. Read more

In this presentation Martine gives an overview of world heritage sites and how they got their status. Which criterion Auroville fits to and the process to get recognition. If the Auroville would get the World Heritage site status from UNESCO that would bring world wide recognition from 190 countries. Along with many benefits it will also provide Auroville with land protection. Some negative aspects would be in influx of tourist. The presentation concludes with a question and answer session. Read more

This has been the fifth year running that communication and political science students from the American University of Paris have been coming to Auroville for their undergraduate practicum. Also for the past few years they have been joined by students from Linneaus University in Sweden. Auroville provides a perfect platform for the students with all the different projects and activities they can get involved in. To round of their 2-3 week visit they all gave a presentation of the work they have been doing in Auroville. Read more

This is a peace program for children, youth and adults, about how they can solve their conflicts peacefully. This is for creating awareness at every age in order to create peaceful surroundings.Be True Not Violent is a violence prevention programme for schools and social institutions. The curriculum is structured in a way so that it can be used internationally: for children in trouble spots, in developing countries and also in a daily environment in the western context.It was written by Rita Erben, Astrid Kummer and Emanuele Scanziani. Read more

Jean Fracois Noubel made a presentation on the 8th of January at the MMC. "Today many humans follow the perilous journey of inner transformation and awakening. They want to build a society that embodies the consciousness that animates them, hence they invest themselves in pioneering projects like new cities, new enterprises, new collectives. New vessels get rigged to reach the shores of the next humanity. We already know a certain number of things about this new world. Some have reached the shores a long time ago and have lived there. Read more

Yes, AurovilleRadio started with first streaming on Internet exactly eight years ago - on December 5th 2004. In this interview is Andrea reflecting on past events, how the radio was evolving, how many passionate and dedicated volunteers contributed for the project to become the reality... Despite the troubles and obstacles Optimism, and deep faith in The Dream is always present, and the passionate service for the community with the radio is going on. At the end of the day the thought to warm ones heart is appreciation of the listeners. Read more

Whole day event of the Africa House-Pavilion of African Culture at Unity Pavilion in International Zone was dedicated to Ethiopia. After simple, yet very delicious, and spicy dinner cooked - supervised by Haimanot Alemu and Taher, community had a chance to learn a bit about Ethiopia. Vani on the behalf of AVI team which organized last year AVI Meeting in Addis Ababa shortly introduced the conference. Evening was concluded by one of Haimanot's film on personal relationships, and invitation to a Shakespeare's play 12th night (7.12. Bharat Nivas)

A new initiative aligning with the time-Auroville Intergral Sustainability Institute, and following is interesting interview with Lalit on it. Institute is intended to evolve as a platform which would work towards bringing various interlinked branches of "integral sustainability" together through documentation, research, information, dissemination and publication. Suitable collaborative associations are expected to develop with other activities, institutes, centers and individuals. They hope that Institute will play a role in further education. Read more

Whole day event for the Africa House - Pavilion of African Culture in International Zone was dedicated to Ethiopa. Remembering on this country we cannot avoid coffee. The morning started with aromatic smell of it, burning incense and fresh pop corn - Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony. This was followed by interesting film with some facts and history on coffee. The event is one of the first events which will follow for 12.12.12 , and this one was first presentation on pavilions activities presented in Unity Pavilion in International Zone. Read more

IS Auroville an Eco-Village? This question is not a new one, but twice a year a group of students from North America come to Auroville to study on the university program Living Routes. They come each time fresh and curious, wanting to see what Auroville has to offer and struggle to understand the complexities alive on the ground here in Tamilnadu. Listen in with their lecture/discussion with Bindu and B, who were invited to discuss the topic with the students. Listen in for some critically-supportive academic discussion.

Meeting of International Zone pavilion groups brought into focus some of the pending subjects, and in this recording you can listen to the minutes of it. Since it is obvious that progress cannot happen if there is no water in the area, pavilion groups spent quite some time talking on the loop proposal of water pipe lines from the well trough International Zone. Sore point in the area is also constant encroachment form the side of the Tamil villagers, and some propositions and ideas on how to tackle the issues were mentioned. Read more

In this session Herbert Girardet explains how there is a need for governments to link the energy policies to minimising green house emissions. He describes an example in germany of how, over the past ten years, the government has given generous incentives for people to generate electricity using renewable energy, and how this has brought considerable positive changes. To download the presentation click here. Co-Founder, World Future Council. www.agp.aurovilleconsulting.com/speakers Read more

Michael Miovic gave a lecture and presentation (at Savitri Bhavan) with title - The seven Jewel-Centres of Mother Earth. Sri Aurobindo, in his short essay "The Supreme Mahashakti", mentions the seven Jewel-Centres of Mother Earth which are locked in the hardness, darkness and inertia of the material Inconscience. To restore the Earth Mother to her own divinity and the earth-existence to its native light and bliss, these centres have to be liberated. This is the task of the Suns of the Supermind. What and where are these seven centres? Read more

Third talk sponsored by ICITI, which tries to create opportunities for interaction with experts to explore potential linkages and deployment of new tolls in Auroville, was a talk on Collaboration in Research and Education by Stefan Listrom. At NRENs (National Research and Education Networks), they are dedicated to provide services in research and educational networks, they try to disseminate information and results in better ways, in order to help students and researches all around the world. Questions followed the presentation. Read more

What is NREN - National Research and Educational Networks, what does it do and how is that connected to Auroville? were questions asked Stefan Listrom. As he told us NREN have been founded about 30 years ago but in last decade became more active.Stefan will present his work on Tuesday 7th of August at 3.45pm at Conference Room in Town Hall with the talk on Collaboration in Research and Education. Team of NREN is driven by making a better future, better world where information and education are available to all via network with its conectivity

After almost two years of intensive research and study David Stein yesterday presented a Green Belt Plan - Draft . That plan should help us to deal with issues relating to land use, encroachment and the role of the green belt to water in Auroville and the bio region. In his presentation David Stein indeed emphasized awareness of interconnectedness, and vital role of water. Water sources should be preserved and kept in the area by proper measurements to supply Auroville and its bio region. Numerous questions followed the presentation. Read more

We have interviewed five students who have been doing the community service this year. The community service is a program thats run by Future school. In this program the first year students have to do three weeks of participating in three Auroville units and services. The idea of community service is for the children to have some experience working in Auroville units and not getting paid!!! While interviewing these children we realized that most of them liked this experience and found it useful. Read more

There are about 500 children in Auroville, and most of them are studying in Auroville schools. My friend Atchuthan and I (Seraphina) thought of interviewing some children in different schools and asking about how they feel studying in an Auroville school, rather than elsewhere. We visited Deepanam, and there we interviewed the 8th grade Unicorns class, and later went to Transition to interview some random graded students. Read more

I just went to Transition School to make a short interview of Joan. He is the ATB class teacher ( Awareness Through the Body ). He talks about his time in this school as a teacher. and also a bit about his life unrelated to school work. He began working in Transition School in 1992 in the month of July, which means it has been exactly twenty years now! He is considered the an important teacher in Transition by the students and it would be terrible if he was to leave Transition School.

Future plans from Future School.. We interviewed some students who are graduating now. Their feedback about Auroville is that they feel like they have much more freedom, and they can move towards their own interest. They have wide range of subjects and the students can choose based on their motivation. Auroville education is the best education to them. The graduated students planned to move out of Auroville for their further studies because Auroville does not have University Education with certificates, and might return some day. Read more

Yesterday afternoon TLC or Traveling Learning Community shared with the wider community what they have been doing throughout the school year. Afternoon was sunny and hot but children presented with joy, and lots of laughter pieces of history through historical figures in the play. Languages were presented, recited and sang poems, and the fun part was English grammar given to children through the cake testing. If last year was focused on Big Bang or the beginning of our home planet, this year they have "zoomed" in and focused on the insects. Read more

Many of us might not be aware that we got another school in Auroville for over a year already. In interesting interview with Anne, who hails from Mexico, and was educated since her early age trough Montessori schools until she became a teacher herself, and with Sangeetha we discover which are the benefits of Montessori education, and how it can be apply within the integral education. At the moment they run pre creche and kindergarden for over 60 children, mostly form the nearby villages, with eleven teachers and some volunteers. Read more

For his homeback after couple of years Rolf prepared concert on 21st of April at 8pm at Sri Aurobindo Auditorium, Bharat Nivas, Pavilion of Indian Culture in International Zone together with Matt on piano, Suresh on drums and Mishko on bass. Sooner or Later he named the concert which will be consisted of his compositions, and as such would be a highlight of his musical career. Going trough changes and transitions he also decided to change his area of work, and started to teach math at Transition School. Read more