Introducing our new rural Living Lab
A unique innovation centre that will be a reference on the application of new technologies in rural environments
We have been working for a while in our rural Living Lab and we would like to present it to our Telos audience. As we think it is a very interesting and promising initiative for the use of third generation blockchains. And also we are sure that our voters will like to know a little bit more of our lives and history.
CTIC RuralTech is born from a history that is very common in the rural areas of the north of Spain, the immigration to America. To give some context to this phenomenon, between 1881 and 1959 almost 5 millions of Spaniards migrated to new continent. This is a huge demographic event, as the total population of Spain by that time was of 20 millions.
This migration was mainly due to the over population of the rural areas in that period. Thanks to advancements in medicine, the population of this regions was steadily growing, but there were no opportunities of development for the ones staying there. This combined with the need for workforce in the American countries, cause that there were even professionals of recruiting, that travel through the small villages looking for adventurers.
One of this adventurers was Ramón Álvarez de Arriba, who emigrated to Cuba in the 19th century. Like many others, he was able to find fortune. Those who did were called “Indianos” and were very respected in their home countries. Often they returned, giving back to their families and villages. This translated into a rich cultural heritage, full of stories of patronage and even a specific architectonic style, typical of the homes they built at their comeback.
In the case of Ramón, he left in inheritance an arable farmland and money to create a foundation. The propose of this foundation was to bring the innovations in agriculture that he witnessed in Cuba to is home village of Peón, in Villaviciosa. For this he ordered the construction of a pioneer school that focused in practical knowledge, to enable the rural entrepreneurship. Still to this day the school educates the local children.
Many years have passed since the construction of the School, and the proposed activities by Ramón have been carried out by the foundation that carries its name during that time. But recently, the foundation saw the potential of donating the land to CTIC, our parent organization. We, as foundation, are bound to utilize the terrains for the original propose that they were conceived. In consequence we have officially founded CTIC RuralTech where we will apply our knowledge in new technologies to the rural development.
At the time of writing we have already moved up part of the team to work in the facilities. And four members of the Telescope have already enrolled and are working from here!
In the following photograph you can see both the rural school in the left and the building where we are based.
And what are we going to do here and why it is important to the development of blockchain technology? Well, we believe that the rural world has been declining for too long. In the context of an industrialized Europe, rural areas have been slowly losing population, going to cities in the search for a future. In parallel, the conservationism of natural spaces has neglected the knowledge and status quo created by rural societies. This has converted the once full of life natural spaces, with an intricate circular economy that respected its environment, into abandoned ecosystems that are feeling consequences such as forest fires or invasive species.
Our focus is to use our technology to solve this systemic problem. We want to empower the rural citizens with new technologies. Not only to make their lives easier, shortening the differences between rural and urban services, but also improving the economic structure. We need rural areas that take care of their territory, benefiting from their value, at the same time that they modernize to be economically viable.
To achieve this, we have been developing for a long time rural innovation projects. Some of them that you may know of, such as the cider and cheese traceability, or the blockchain monitoring for an autonomous vehicle for agriculture labour. Others include the application of AI and sensors to cattle monitoring and cheese production, smart cameras for wildlife detection, digital twins of natural heritage and a long etc. This projects are developed and tested in CTIC RuralTech, to have a deep connection with the challenges we are trying to solve.
We also have in mind that this challenges have an important social component, and as such we are committed to implement projects that revitalize our environment. For example we are in the midst of a telemedicine pilot, working with the people of Peón and Asiegu, a small village located in the “Picos de Europa” mountains. This gives a 24/7 attention by video call to local population for free. We are also starting our podcast, based here, that will talk about new technologies and rural development, so we can generate engagement and debate around these topics.
As you can see The Teloscope is a can full of surprises, and we hope this initiative sparks the imagination of the Telos community. We believe that Telos should be not only cutting edge in the technology, but also applying it to people. And we are showing that blockchain technology is ideal for rural innovation, as it can act as a decentralized coordinator in an environment full of small related actors.
So if you have any questions, or future proposal for applying Telos technology please reach us! We would be glad to show any applications from the Telos ecosystem in our Living Lab.
This article has been produced by members of The Teloscope team. You can also check previous articles from The Teloscope.
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