Welcome to the Cquestrate blog

  • Cquestrate needs legal advice

    Posted on September 15th, 2008 by Chris Unitt in General

    There are two exciting and innovative legal aspects to Cquestrate.  The first is the creation of an ‘anti-patent’ space around the project to allow unfettered development.  This has been done before in other areas such as software development (Linux being a shining example) but, as far as we know, never in a chemical, industrial or environmental area.

    The second is the challenge of addressing environmental regulations that didn’t forsee introducing large quantities of chemicals to the oceans as being beneficial.

    The questions

    We believe the questions around intellectual property are pretty much answered.  However, the environmental law issues are trickier.  We need to know:

    1. What legislation (whether it be international, EU/a similar organisation or national) prevents large quantities of chemicals (calcium oxide and/or calcium hydroxide) being added to the oceans?
    2. What steps have been taken to relax those laws to allow the addition chemicals that would have a beneficial effect?

    What we need

    We’ve contacted some excellent lawyers who have provided a quote for their services in answering these questions.  Unfortunately Cquestrate’s initial funding (provided by Shell) won’t cover this cost.

    We are looking for:

    • An environmental lawyer or team of lawyers; and/or
    • A pro bono group who are concerned with climate change/the environment

    to take this on as a pro bono opportunity to be conducted in the open-source spirit that Cquestrate has adopted.  We can only offer recognition as a valuable contributor to a project that may just address one of the biggest challenges of our time.

    If you’d like to be a part of this project please contact us at contact@cquestrate.com.

    Also, f you know anyone who could help us, please ask them to get in touch with us.

    One person has left a comment so far, why not join in the discussion?

     

  • Conversations about Cquestrate

    Posted on August 6th, 2008 by Chris Unitt in General

    Cquestrate launched just over two weeks ago and we’ve already seen a great level of discussion on the website.  Some of the comments and contributions have started to move the project forward in encouraging ways.

    However, discussions about Cquestrate aren’t restricted to this website and it has been fascinating to read, and contribute to, what has been going on elsewhere.  Here’s a very small sample:

    When I come across anything useful I use del.ici.ous to ‘tag’ the page.  Links to these tagged pages are collected automatically on our links page for all to see.

    Unfortunately, it can be tricky to find all of these conversations.  However, it’s important we do our best to follow them  - we don’t want to miss out on some potentially valuable information.

    If you are part of a community that has discussed Cquestrate or if you’ve blogged about the project, please let us know in the comments below.

    One person has left a comment so far, why not join in the discussion?

     

  • Getting ready for launch

    Posted on July 17th, 2008 by Chris Unitt in General

    With a couple of days left before the website launches we’re just finalising content, producing explanatory videos and making sure that everything is working properly.

    We’ve had to move very quickly to ensure that everything is in place as soon as possible. With the first phase of the website almost complete it’ll soon be a case of making sure that word goes out to the people who can help further this project.

    The scope is so large that we need a wide spread of expertise - if you, or anyone you know anyone, can help in any way then we look forward to your input. Have a look at the questions we need to answer and leave your comments on the relevant pages.

    Nobody has left a comment so far, why not join in the discussion?