Communities of Practice: When do they succeed?

Posted by & filed under Climate Services, CSAG Blog, Frontpage.

Anna Steynor, Katharine Vincent (Kulima Integrated Development Solutions), Katinka Waagsaether and Tracy Cull (Kulima Integrated Development Solutions) The establishment of a “community of practice” (COP) is an idealised vision that is often expressed as a desirable outcome of research projects.  The successful establishment of a COP is seen to embody the notion of extending the… Read more »

Spoke or wheel?

Posted by & filed under CSAG Blog, Frontpage.

A couple of weeks ago, a spoke in my bicycle snapped. I took the broken one out, got to the bike shop and handed it to the shop assistant. “What wheel is that?” he asked. “26 inch road bike’s” I answered confidently. He wasn’t satisfied: “Well, what type of wheel?” “Uh… round one?” He was… Read more »

Okay, now it’s personal

Posted by & filed under CSAG Blog, Frontpage.

Usually I try to take an objective angle to my blog posts, supported by scientific evidence, rigour etc etc.  But this time, it’s personal.  So no facts, (well few facts) and more a reflection on a personal crisis I find myself in and I’m sure I’m not the only one.  I have started to ask… Read more »

Water Harvesting Toolkit Launch

Posted by & filed under Climate Services, CSAG Blog, Frontpage.

Written by Rodger Duffett   The Water Harvesting Toolkit is an extension to the Climate Information Platform (CIP) that was funded by the South African Water Research Commission (WRC) under the SmartWater Fund initiative. It provides a link between climate data stored in the CIP and a practical application of the data. The toolkit was… Read more »

His brow furrowed, as if he’d just been listening to his own voice and hadn’t understood it.*

Posted by & filed under Climate Change, CSAG Blog, Frontpage, Modeling, Uncategorized.

(*T Pratchett)  The subtitle to this blog is: “Is it time to panic yet?” Following COP21 in Paris the world seems to be frantically pushing for climate change actions.  In CSAG we talk about it; we have arguments about whether scientists should engage in activism, or if we are putting too much of our research… Read more »