themes:
related info.
Community–Linux Training Centre Project
Paul Mobbs
Mobbs' Environmental Investigations & Research
Contact & Background Information
Contact Paul Mobbs/
Mobbs' Environmental Investigations
As I travel often I'm rarely at home to take calls, and I don't
subscribe to the concept of the mobile phone either. For this
reason the easiest way to get me is via email:
mei@fraw.org.uk.
Or you can call an leave a phone message on: 01295 261864.
You can also write to me:
Paul Mobbs, 3 Grosvenor Road,
Banbury OX16 5HN.
Background Information
You'll find further information and an archive of my writings, articles and reports on-line via my web site: http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/.Biographic information
On a number of occasions I have been asked for a 'biography'. If
you'd like a quick review of who I am then I suggest that you read the
What
I Do section below. You can view this information as a
HTML file, or download it as a PDF file (click on icons, above right).Training, Events & Lectures
All information related to my standard repertoire of
training workshops and lectures is provided via the
training
and lectures page. If you would like to engage me
to speak or make a presentation on a specific topic then
please get in touch (as detailed above).Standard terms and conditions of business
It's a little officious but by setting out how I normally work now it saves
a lot of argument later. This document specifies the standard conditions
that I work to as part of being engaged in any activity. If you have any
queries these can be discussed when we agree the job you
require. You can download this information as either an
HTML or PDF file (click the icons on the right).What Do I Do?
Strange, but after nearly twenty years I still ask myself that same question! My professional work has evolved over the years to encompass many skills that I can employ as an when required – which it makes it hard to define what it is "I do". Over the last few years much of my effort has been centred around:- Forthcoming Events
- Writing and Lecturing
- Energy and Environment
- Planning, Waste and Pollution Control
- Information and Communications Technology
- Low-tech Engineering and Renewable Energy
- Free and Open Source Systems
Writing and Lecturing
Today most of my work involves writing. I have always written articles
and reports, but in 2005 I published my first proper book detailing my
researches on energy and peak oil,
Energy Beyond Oil
(to read the introduction of the book,
click
here).
Much of my writing work relates to documenting my own research and development work, and as 'scribe in chief' to the Free Range Network I oversee the production of the Network's information and educational materials. To access the publications of the Free Range Network goto their downloads section on the FRAW site.
I also write articles when invited, the most notable recent examples being short articles for both Chatham House and the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. As the editor of the materials provided via the Free Range Activism Website (FRAW) I can also provide short papers or articles based on material on the site, or provide a license for the commercial use of any publication on the site (since the publications are open licensed for non-commercial use only). If you would like to commission an article, or seek the rights to commercially publish any of the work published via the FRAW web site, please get in touch.
Energy and Environment
Much of my work at the moment is directly or indirectly related to
the issue of energy and the environment. After many years working
reactively as a consultant and campaigner I decided, in 2001, that I
had to work ahead of the agenda in order to create a greater impact.
The major environment and development issue which, at that time, was
not being given any serious attention in the environment movement was
peak oil
(or, in its broadest sense,
"peak
everything") – the peak of the globe's conventional
energy sources and the effect that the physical reduction in global
energy, resource and food supply will have over the next two to five
decades.
As noted above, in 2005 my book, Energy Beyond Oil, was published. But as well as writing and research I spend a large part of the year travelling Britain giving workshops and lectures on the themes that have been developed as part of my work with the Free Range Energy Beyond Oil Project:
- Energy Beyond Oil – a lecture and day workshop that encompasses the issues raised in the book;
- Less is a Four Letter Word – the research project that followed Energy Beyond Oil, and which, through various events, looks at the technical and practical restrictions on how we can reduce energy and resource use in the future (hopefully the much-delayed book will be out by 2010); and
- Liberation Gastronomy – a project run with the Free Range Network that examines the most critical human energy resource – food – and how we will have to change our lives in future to address the problems created by falling energy supplies, restricted resource production, climate change and the growing human population.
- The Great Outdoors – another Free Range Networks initiative examining the means to develop the skills of resilient living in order to manage the transition to a "post-energetic" society.
- Limits to Tech. – the result of my latest research, developed in association with the Free Range Salvage Server Project, on the implications of resource depletion on modern society – especially our use of cheap consumer electronics.
If you would like to host a lecture or a day workshop then you can find details of all the current events we run in the training and lectures page. As well as these 'off the peg' type events, we can also customise events to suit your particular needs.
Planning, Waste and Pollution Control
I have a love–hate relationship with planning, waste and
pollution control issues. For over twenty years, both as a volunteer
and a professional consultant, I've travelled the length and breadth
of Britain seeing wonderful places and meeting interesting people –
only to discover sometimes horrendous things which I have to help them
put right! (see my
publications
archive for examples of my past work on these issues).
Thankfully, after ten years of working on toxic factories,
contaminated land, landfills and incinerators these problems take up a
lot less of my time. Occasionally I am available to assist communities
with planning and pollution problems, although these days I tend to
concentrate on helping communities fight public inquiries. However,
with the new Planning Bill perhaps becoming law by the end of
the year, even this activity may be curtailed as the government tries
to exclude the public from the decision making process over these
types of development.
Information and Communications Technology
My work with computers has also developed over the years. From
being a tool I used myself to achieve tasks that were beyond
the capabilities of many grassroots campaigners (computer
modelling, databasing large quantities of information, etc.)
today I also use information and communications technology as
teaching tool, both by showing people how to use them but also
how to recycle junk equipment into something useful (see
below).
Over the last decade I have undertaken a number of
international collaborations using computers and communications
technology, and I have also worked on global projects –
most notably working with
APC
to develop the
Internet
Rights Toolkit for use by journalists, campaigners and human
rights workers around the globe. More recently I have begun to
specialise in teaching the use of recycled technology as a means
to develop community computing resources (see 'engineering' and
'free software' below).
I have also developed information and resources related to
using the Internet as a campaigns tool – most publicly, my
work with the international campaigns around the WTO's Seattle
summit in 1999 and the FTAA conference in Quebec in 2001. I have
worked with campaign groups in the UK and abroad to both devise
strategies for using electronic media to develop their capacity
to work, to distribute information and training, and also to
develop information security and resilience strategies that
cover the more unusual problems that community groups in many
countries face today – threats from the state and security
services (see the
Internet
Rights Toolkit publications for details). If invited, I still
lecture on the use of electronic tools and electronic networks
as a means of organising, and also the general issue of Internet
rights (the extension of civil rights to protect our social uses
of information and communications technology).
Commercially, what I teach tends to focus on the practical use of ICT for specific ends related to community organising and campaigning. If you'd like details of my ICT-related events see the training and lectures page.
Low-tech Engineering and Renewable Energy
I come from a family that nurtured practical skills, and I worked
in the engineering industry – and although I don't get many
opportunities to do it these days engineering is still my favourite
occupation. As I specialise in working with community groups my
work has had to develop ways to operate with minimal resources. As
part of this, for more practical projects, I have developed a number
of means to recycle redundant technology (or as it's more commonly
called, trash tech.) to solve problems, and teach those
involved these skills so that they can maintain the systems after
I have left.
Today most of my work relates to solving problems related to mobile
computing projects, protest camps and outdoor events, and developing
small-scale renewable power systems. I undertake small design-build
projects, and I also can run training events on themes related to
trash tech. engineering and renewable energy. At the moment the FRAW
web site does not have a lot of information on this strand of my
work, but within a year or so the Free Range Network will be
undertaking a project specifically related to trash tech. engineering
and renewable power systems as part of the
Salvage
Server Project.
Free and Open Source Systems
Today, as well as training people to use Gnu/Linux systems I specialise in teaching the recycling of old IT equipment to produce standalone and networks of computers for community uses (e.g., The Container Project in Jamaica). I also, working with the Free Range Community–Linux Training Centre (which I designed) and Salvage Server Projects develop tools and resources for people to develop their own information and communications technology skills using Gnu/Linux.
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