NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2018 in Tartu

Space Apps is a two-days international hackathon that occurs in cities around the world, globally coordinated by NASA. It is an annual event that pulls citizens together regardless of their background or skill level to address challenges we face on Earth and in Space. Project teams were formed to work on specific topics that they either developed themselves or were suggested by sponsors, the panel or ourselves. The teams' results were then presented and judged by a panel at the end of the event. Overall it can be concluded that this was a very successful event: the teams developed substantial solutions and got engaged with industry and entrepreneurship; inter-departmental and inter-sectoral networks for the research institutes have been strengthened in particular between the organising institutes and with the Tartu Science Park/ESA Business Incubator and several leading innovative (geospatial) software companies.The Department of Geography, the Institute of Computer Science and the Tartu Observatory jointly organised and hosted a 48h hackathon event as part of the 2018 International NASA SpaceApps Challenge. This global event happened on the weekend 19.-21. October 2018 at more than 200 locations, 75 countries, world-wide over the course of the weekend, with Tartu as the only Estonian location. The main goal was to provide a safe platform for motivated students from various backgrounds to work together on real problems in a hackathon event, while at the same time learning the benefits of interdisciplinary work, combined team work with different skills. The second goal was to foster networking between the research institutes and the geospatial industry in Tartu, and expose students to the field of geospatial and Earth Observation (EO) applications

International Space Apps Challenge 2019 in Tartu

Space Apps is a two-days international hackathon that occurs in cities around the world, globally coordinated by NASA. It is an annual event that pulls citizens together regardless of their background or skill level to address challenges we face on Earth and in Space. Project teams were formed to work on specific topics that they either developed themselves or were suggested by sponsors, the panel or ourselves. The teams' results were then presented and judged by a panel at the end of the event. From overall 69 registrations initially, we eventually had 8 teams formed from 50 participants. This year Earth Observation was the main topic. We aimed to encourage the hackathon participants to use ESA and NASA satellite remote sensing and other global data as an ingredient to solve problems that matter. Like last year, we wanted to provide a safe platform for motivated students from various backgrounds to work together on real problems in a hackathon event, while at the same time learning the benefits of interdisciplinary work and combined team work with different skills. The second goal was to foster networking between the research institutes and the geospatial industry in Tartu, and expose students to the field of geospatial and Earth Observation (EO) applications.The Department of Geography, the Tartu Observatory and Tartu Science Park jointly organised and hosted a 48h hackathon event as part of the 2019 International Space Apps Challenge. This global event happened on the weekend 18.-20. October 2019 at more than 225 locations, 80 countries, world-wide over the course of the weekend with more than 29.000 participants, and with Tartu as the only Estonian location. We are organising this event in Tartu for the second time, after the debut in 2018. Overall it can be concluded that this was again a very successful event: the teams developed substantial solutions and got engaged with industry and entrepreneurship; inter-departmental and inter-sectoral networks for the research institutes have been strengthened in particular between the organising institutes and with the Tartu Science Park/ESA Business Incubator and several leading innovative (geospatial) software companies, such as CGI, KappaZeta and Datel

Neglect paves the way for dispossession: The politics of “last frontiers” in Brazil and Myanmar

A convergence of factors creates a worrisome contemporary pattern of resource dispossession of local populations in developing countries. Growing market demand for commodities, states’ interest in expanding their fiscally fertile territories, and environmental conservation pressures have promoted resource frontiers, where locals all too frequently lose access to land, water and livelihoods. To add momentum and legitimize outsiders’ agendas, such locations are sometimes framed as “last frontiers” – the final places of possibility. While various forms of resource “grabbing” have gained increased attention, we argue that a crucial dimension of frontier dynamics – neglect and its role in facilitating dispossession – warrants further study as it tends to be overlooked. Drawing on the frontiers and political ecology literature, this article analyzes how neglect by state authorities, markets, and environmental organizations paves the way for dispossession in those landscapes. We compare two cases: the Matopiba soy frontier in the savannas of Brazil\u27s Cerrado and the Chin Hills of western Myanmar. Our results show how neglect is critical to imaginatively frame regions as “empty” places of possibility, excluding local actors economically from development and politically from governance initiatives. We argue that neglect not only precedes but is an enduring feature of resource frontiers, and identify four consecutive phases: (I) pre-frontier abandonment, (II) selective support to outsiders, (III) overlooked harms to communities, and (IV) socially exclusive sustainability agendas. As environmental concerns gain increasing global salience, Phase I sometimes leaps to Phase IV as international actors pounce to control what they regard as “last frontiers” for conservation. We conclude that external actors’ inaction enables local communities’ dispossession as much as their actions. This raises critical policy and scholarly questions about actors\u27 responsibility and accountability, not only for harms done but also for systematically failing to heed local actors’ aspirations and needs

Weaker Party and Consumer in E-commerce

Slabší strana a spotřebitel v e-commerce Abstrakt Mezi vůdčí zásady soukromého práva patří zásada rovnosti a autonomie vůle. Pro uzavírání smluv v e-commerce je, vzhledem k takřka výlučné adhezní povaze kontraktace, vysoce relevantní právě otázka přístupu ke smluvní svobodě. Faktická nerovnost a omezení smluvní svobody zmíněné zásady narušuje, přičemž jednou z funkcí právního řádu je vzniknuvší asymetrii v postavení osob vyvažovat, o což i zákonodárce, zejména ten evropský, dlouhodobě usiluje. Ambicí tohoto pojednání je nejprve pomyslně poodstoupit a díky vlastní právní specializaci v oboru úsilí zákonodárce kriticky zhodnotit, což činím uceleněji v kapitolách č. 4 a 5. Pro tyto účely zasazuji relevantní právní úpravu (do které řadím i právní úpravu nepřímé ochrany spotřebitele jako je např. GDPR nebo ePrivacy směrnice) do širšího společenského kontextu světa e-commerce. Přitom postupuji systematicky. Nejprve se věnuji otázkám jako je pozice e- commerce v ekonomice, digitalizace a automatizace práce a v neposlední řadě dojde i na otázky datové ekonomiky. Následně rozvádím legislativní cíle ze strany zákonodárce a na základě zjištěných dat, obohacených o vlastní praktické zkušenosti, vyhodnocuji, zda se zákonodárci podařilo tyto cíle naplnit a zda přijímáním vybrané legislativy postupoval dle principů...Weaker Party and Consumer in E-commerce Abstract The guiding principles of private law include the principles of equality and autonomy of the will. The question of access to freedom of contract is highly relevant for contracting in e-commerce, given the almost exclusively adhesive nature of contracting. Real inequality and restrictions on freedom of contract undermine these principles, and one of the functions of the law is to balance the resulting asymmetry in the legal position of persons, which is something that the legislator, particularly the European legislator, has long sought to do. The ambition of this dissertation is first to take a notional step back and, thanks to my legal specialization in e-commerce law, to critically evaluate the legislator's efforts, which I do more comprehensively in Chapters 4 and 5. For these purposes, I place the relevant legislation (which includes indirect consumer protection legislation such as the GDPR or the ePrivacy Directive) in the broader social context of the world of e-commerce. In doing so, I proceed systematically. First, I address issues such as the position of e-commerce in the economy, digitization, automation of work, and, last but not least, the data economy. I then elaborate on the legislative objectives of the legislator and, based on the data...Katedra občanského právaDepartment of Civil LawPrávnická fakultaFaculty of La

Addressing climate vulnerability and farming system challenges with local agroecological knowledge

Landslides and floods in the aftermath ofextreme weather events are already achallenging reality for rural communities innorthern Chin State and Sagaing Region andwill likely be more common in the future – ineffect of global climate change. Many ruralcommunities in Myanmar were devastated bythe impacts of extreme weather events duringthe 2015 monsoon season. These eventscaused the loss of lives, and destruction ofvillages, rural infrastructure and croplands ofsmall scale farmers. Already poor and foodinsecure households were thus thrown intocrisis.Rural development actors work to address thesechallenges; supporting communities to recoverfrom natural disaster impacts, reducevulnerabilities and thus build long-termresilience to climate change. But to designsuccessful development interventions,initiatives require detailed insight into therealities of rural livelihoods and farmingconditions in target communities. Targetedproject activities need to build on detailedknowledge about local social, economic andenvironmental contexts, climate vulnerabilities,and farming system challenges. Yet, suchknowledge is not often readily available todevelopment actors in Myanmar. Instead,organisations have to find rigorous and efficientapproaches to generate the required informationthemselves.This brief presents such an approach, andinsights from a research collaboration betweenAr Yone Oo – Social Development Association(Myanmar) and Chalmers University ofTechnology (Sweden). These organisationspartnered in 2017, to document lessons from ArYone Oo’s STRONG project activities fordisaster affected communities in northern ChinState and western Sagaing Region [3]. Theinitiative also conducted participatory research,to assess climate vulnerabilities and farmingsystem challenges that project beneficiariesencounter. Insights from this collaboration can inform inter-organisational learning andknowledge sharing for rural development and agroecological initiatives in Myanmar, andacross the region