Hello, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us for this conference session on Empowering Small Businesses. My name is Brittany Morgan. I'm the Economic Resilience Director at the Miami Foundation, and it is a great deep privilege to present you with to Maida Owens and Milika Burgos Flores. I'm gonna pass the mic now, and would love for each of you to introduce yourselves, tell us a little bit about your organization, your role, and anything else that would help the audience get to know you a bit better. Maida, would you like to start? Certainly, yeah. I'm Maida Owens. I'm with the Louisiana Division of the Arts. That's the state arts agency. And I have been managing their Folklife program for, well, over three decades now. And more recently, I've been in a project that is very different than all the other projects that I have done over the years that I've been focused on the connection, intersection between culture and the environment. You may not know, but Louisiana along with Florida are really on the forefront of sea level rise. And so what we're trying to do is get, participate in the climate adaptation conversation. And I can go into more detail about that. That's excellent. That sounds so exciting. Milika, please help the audience get to know you and your role a little bit better as well. Yes, thank you so much for the invite. My name is Milika Burgos Flores. I am the founder and chief executive officer at the Alapada Collaborative CDC, place-based organization here in Miami, Florida. We are the only main street community in the city of Miami. Focused on implementing anti-displacement strategies to keep our community strong. Our mission is to implement place-making techniques to foster the identity, support wealth building and advocate for the equitable, comprehensive and sustainable community development of our community. In Alapada, we are a minority community about 79, 80% of the community is Latino. So it's been a marginalized community of color for more than 40, 50 years. And we're very happy to be able to work with the community and really bring a new fresh air where we can build more wealth equity within the community. I think that everybody talks about racial equity and we talk about economic justice, but all of that happens one time. All of that happens, making sure that we can root businesses and communities in place while preventing that displacement. Excellent. Thank you for sharing. Both of your work sounds incredibly important and we know that it's a very timely moment to be focusing on all of these issues. We'd also love to hear from the audience. If you don't mind putting in the chat where you're joining us from, your location and or your organization, we'd love to see where folks are joining us from. So now before we segue to our discussion, we're gonna spend a couple of minutes viewing a video that will really help ground our understanding in the issues that are facing small businesses, families and households, not just in Miami or Louisiana, but throughout the country. The goal of this film, which was produced by Oolite Arts and the Community Justice Project, is to give a very human face and context to the data that we all know far too well about small businesses, displacement, Main Street transformation, et cetera. The film does focus on Alapada, Miami. Meleka, is there anything else you'd like to share before we play the clip? Yeah, like you mentioned, Brittany, the reason why we wanted to share this video and really produce this video with Oolite Arts and Community Justice Project by filmmaker Ron Baez is because we always talk about displacement in data. And many of the things that we do are data points and power points. And we really saw the need to showcase that human story. And that's what I hope that people can see in this video. This is something that we honestly started working on in about 2016, but we didn't even have the solutions. We knew the problem, but we didn't have the solutions. And it took us so long because until we didn't find the solutions, we didn't want to put the information out there in this manner. But most importantly, we want people to see the human story of displacement and how this really affects people at a very personal level. Excellent, thank you. And so with that, we're going to roll the clip and we hope that you enjoy this film for the first few minutes of our session today. Well, my name is Fidel Acquino. Here they tell me that I was born on August 1st, 1950, in the Dominican Republic, in the East. And I came here without a family. February 14th, 2006. Alone, with God. When you arrive, you introduce yourself to reality. The age of the front, the friends of the past that you saw. But when you come here and last a week, there are other things, your weight. You move forward because you have a country of opportunities. You have to move forward and work. I had two machines to cook. I saw a man who had a workshop. And as I knew how to dress, I went with him. Then he sold it to me. The space, you can see it, was where my wife was and where they were. From there to there. And that was where I lived. I had no other choice. I had to give up. When you have a service vocation and a desire to move forward, and you have a partner, your partner, that has been the support of God and her. She has always pushed me. My name is Quintina Tirado. I am here as assistant. Helping you in whatever is necessary. I did a lot of social services in my country. I also enjoy it here with all and every one of the people who come to this business. And I have it with kindness. She gives me, she gives me. For the future, for the future.  That is the best. I say that the only thing that appears in nature is the woman, her blessing of God. So rioting, vandalism, and burning forced public safety director Bobby Jones to establish curfews in two predominantly black sections of the county. A North Thade from Northwest 95th Street on the north, I-95 on the east, the Miami River on the south, and Northwest 37th Avenue on... And today we're talking with S-band member Maleka Burgos Flores, who is the founding executive director of the Allapada Collaborative CDC in Miami. Welcome Maleka, thanks for talking with us. In the, in 1980, May of 1980, we had an unfortunate event in our community. It was, it was riots. The death toll now stands at 11 with more than 120 persons injured in the riots, looting and fires of last night and today. This is a gentleman called Arthur McDuffie. Arthur McDuffie was a friend of mine at one time with my next door neighbor. That gentleman was a black gentleman in a motor school by white police officers. I'm a defendant, Michael Watts, as to count for all the information, activated battery, not guilty. And right after that, these riots destroyed a lot of our community. One merchant estimates that this 20 square black area that's mostly black, will be set back some 10 years. Bob Jackson, Channel 4 News and Allapada. And what happened after that is that no one would insure these business. Furniture dealer Fausto Fernandez is no longer insured against riot damage. Fernandez is now concerned that he will lose his business. I need government help also because this is a big job we're talking about. But I'm doing my own now. I owe money to the bank. I got to pay interest. And since that day, the children coming and fooling around don't pay me. The immigrant community that was coming in took upon the risk of opening up this door front and starting a new economy. Slowly but surely, since the early 80s until late 2000s, it became a microeconomy that sustained itself. Investors and even renters looking for affordable properties in Windwood can't find them. So they go west of 95 to Allapada and they have a crop of affordable housing. The biggest concern is that this rent has steadily been going up since past five to seven years. Rent always goes up and that's understandable, but it's the pace and the amount of the rent that's going up. The next 10 to 15 years, Allapada will be transformed and booming much like Windwood. Affordable properties in Windwood can't find them. Allapada will be transformed like Windwood. What do you hear these small business owners saying to you about this? What are their concerns? What are their needs? There's no reason to go up at the level they have. So it's more about speculation, the whole rising of the rent. It's really concerning for that reason because it's like a forced change. Maybe that service is geared towards a community or maybe not. Because sometimes the people from the community are not able to afford that level of rent. So it's people that come from elsewhere and now the demographic starts changing and the services that community actually are now available because of this whole situation. So it's challenging. And I don't care about that. What I care about is their number, their capital, their interest. That's what matters. Their interest. Let's go this way. But I don't care about the community, I don't care about the culture, I don't care about the culture of their money. That's what matters to them. If the capitalists were from our community, from one way or another, they would be more sensitive. I consider them to be. When communities push them to leave, you know that what's coming is new people, new people that you're not going to return there because you don't know who they are. So it's better for them to change for good, for the positive. It's not like we're going back. No, because everyone wants to move forward. But what we're here for is also part of that change. We need support from people who are more relevant, more strong, who have the authority to come in favor of the community so that the businesses that exist here can be maintained. And can they be? Don't worry. There's nothing you can do to your grandson. Hey, that was the leg. There. There, they had a business. And where did your grandfather have it? Look, it's not that hard to not even see it. But there's something you want to register. And he said, look, your grandfather had a business there. And who followed him? A grandson. Because he was his own. The solution is the owner. And don't get tired of fighting. The fight is long. But we have to be unified. Counting on you. And united. I'm sure we're going to have it. Be the owner. Period. Give him the money. I'm going to you. What an incredible, very, very moving film. Thank you so much for sharing with us, Milleca. So I'd love to ask our both of our panelists, what resonated for you in that? What was most similar or different from your experiences in your respective communities? And how are you feeling following doing that film? Milleca, you want to start? OK, sure. I thought it was so compelling, so wonderfully presented. And it really shows how important small businesses are in any community's sense of place. They often are gatherings of places and help create the downtown or the nexus of people that binds us together. But sense of place is so important. And the small businesses are a vital part of that. So without them, it will definitely affect a community. Yeah, aside from the obvious business story, I think of family. I think of the fact that it's a family business. It's run by the husband and the wife. And how at least in Miami, about 79% of businesses in Miami are family owned. And how this is so meaningful to every single family. And the support they receive and how we may see a business. But behind that business, there's so many families attached. Their livelihood and the future of that family is so attached to how that business does. That's right. Those are such incredibly important points to consider. And make sure that we keep front and center when thinking about these issues. We'd also love for the audience to weigh in. Please feel free to share a few words in the chat. Let us know what was most resonant for you in that film or how it strikes a chord with anything you might be experiencing in your local community as well. So now that we're grounded in these issues, and like Meleka said, the lived experience of the families who are truly behind some of these challenges, let's discuss potential solutions and the path forward. So to start, how do you feel it is most possible to empower and truly involve community members so that they feel that they are engaged in these processes of rebuilding and anti-displacement versus feeling like it's happening to them? And we'd love for you all to share with the audience some specific examples of how you're accomplishing this. So Meleka, would you like to begin? Okay, well, again, I'm working at a state level, so not in a specific community. And what we decided was that we really needed to participate in what's called community resilience conversation and to get culture added to that and historic preservation. And when I say the word culture, I mean as the broadest definition and not a narrow one at all. But what we really have to do is influence policy. And so what we did is started gathering. We simply started the conversation and we had, we've been having Zoom gatherings once a month for the last year and identifying people who felt the same way. And so we have been working with environmentalists who thought the human dimension needed to be highlighted more. And then we started attracting state agency people and they've been watching us and actually FEMA and we have all kinds of people who drop in on us to see how we're articulating this. And they've said that they're looking for different ways to engage people. But it really boils down to changing the policies, getting community members involved in all stages of planning at all levels. That that's the only way it's gonna be. It can't continue to simply be plans that are practically finished and then get some community input. So that's been our focus in Louisiana. And we call this the Bayou Culture Collaborative. The Louisiana Folklore Society is the hub of this activity. And I participate, my state program participates in that. Yeah, that's incredibly important. Miliko, how about you? What does this process look like? Yeah, my dimension's something so vital and that is done as a practice from the top down. And it's creating a plan and asking the community about it after. Not including the community from the get-go. And I think that it just doesn't make any sense if you really go back to the core and say, if these are the people that are gonna be using the service, the streets, this ecosystem, this community, they should be the one, their culture, their needs, the way that they interact with each other should be the one that informs how the urban planning happens, how those funds are being dispersed. I think that the community should be center stage. We do pride ourselves in making sure that our community is center stage to everything that we do. That's why we use the Main Street approach. Main Street has been an amazing partner in teaching us how to use the four pillars of Main Street to make sure that we keep the community engaged, that we have the economic vitality, that the streetscape and the design of the area, the historic preservation works for us, but also that we are able to promote the area and the businesses. So the Main Street approach, like having that framework to work from is one of the ways. The other way is to make sure that they understand why they are engaged. They're why it's really important because they're why is not the storefront. They're why is that they wanna put their kids through college. They're why is that American dream. They're why is because they want to make sure that they reach a specific business goal or family goal. So every single time they start a business it's because they have a goal. I mean, aside from putting food on the table, there's more behind that. So there's an economic freedom that they may be searching. There's a lot of different reasons and mistake that we try not to make is assume that every business wants to grow to be a multinational corporation or have number of different branches. Not every business wants that. We start there also. We meet the businesses where they are and we ask them, why do you start the business and where do you wanna go? So making sure that we have that at the core is important. The other thing that we do is that we educate them about the problem. It's not what it's one thing is to live experience. And the other thing is the data, is the information, is the programs, is how did we arrive at this location? Alapada was redlined. If you look at pictures of Alapada in the 1950s and the 1940s, there were many places where you can get a loan where you have access to capital in a way. But then after it became a community of color, all of that went away. So there's a history to these things. We can never forget a racial past. We can never move forward without addressing it. And I always bring that up because we really wanna move forward and do great, but let's look at the past and let's clean it up. Let's clean it up. So right now we are a big desert. We barely have it in our community. So that is something that is that is systematic. And we wanna make sure that our community understands how those systems work. So we educate them about the problem, but we also educate them about the solutions. We're not victimizing people here. They're not victims. They are in a great opportunity to be part of the transformation of their community. So that's what we wanna make sure that we do. And last but not least is that we look always for the community unity. Like something that was really striking during, when we started doing a lot of these programs, especially during the pandemic, is that there's people that were two blocks away that would never, they had never spoken to each other. They have seen each other. They could say hi, but they never had a meaningful conversation. So making sure that we kind of host and have that platform for them to be in community, in real community, and be able to share with one another and have a compromise and a goal for themselves that fits into the goal for the community. And that's, I always say to them, you're either at the table or you're on the menu. So if you're not showing up, you're on the menu. And if you're on the menu, you're on the menu, or you could be at the table making the decisions. So it's making sure that they don't only have the access, but they also know what to do with that access. Yeah, that's great. That's great. I love the themes that both of you touched on in terms of inclusion, right? And participatory and whether it's the Zoom groups that your organization has facilitated, made us statewide, or Malika that's even bringing one business owner to befriend another down the street. I think that type of connection is so invaluable. You know, our next question that we'd love for you two to explore is kind of driving the connection between the preservation of buildings, of businesses, versus the preservation of families, business owners, and the people who underlie those buildings. You started to touch on that, Malika, when you talked about the main street approach, you know, at times we can be so concerned to preserve places. How do we also make sure that we're preserving people and their livelihoods? And so I will take this first question to Mayda again. And what is your approach? How do you think about these intertwined issues? Oh, well to me, it's all, it is all intertwined.  And most of the attention is on the science of it and not, you know, what they call the human dimension. And I think it's real important for everybody that's involved in these issues to become more familiar with the climate adaptation world and understand their jargon and so that you can participate. And it is quite a learning curve. I started diving into this about four years ago and it took some work to figure out sometimes what they were talking about because they were often using the words that you know but they have a very different meaning for them. And a good example of that is what they refer to as the community resilience conversation. And to me, when I hear community resilience, I think of the individuals, the businesses, the strength of the connections, that vital sense of place in a community that is so tied to a place, all the relationships. That's not what they're talking about at all. They're in Louisiana, they're probably talking about planting mangroves to slow down a storm surge. And I have a feeling that there are very few people in this room that would have immediately thought of mangrove planting when you say community resilience. So part of what I have been doing is giving workshops, introducing people to this and that's something I'll be more than happy to dive into more, but it's a vast topic. I think it's really critical though because if you're at the table, you have to be prepared to talk. That's right. And so you really need to get us, since you're the one that wants to get to the table, you've got to learn their conversation too.  It's tricky. And part of the problem is it's so many of the agencies don't have anybody on staff that really understands what they call the human dimension. And that's a real important concept that everybody needs to become more familiar with if you're not already. Because that's all the cultural issues that we've been talking about the small business, but it's also mental health. Land use is considered the human dimension. And that's huge in what y'all are talking about, what's happening here. Because what's really needed is that the land use policies be changed. And that is something the local people have a certain amount of power over. The municipalities and further the state are the ones that are gonna influence what can and cannot be done. That they just have the power to say no to a multinational corporation. So important, so important. I love this interplay between the built environment and the people who inhabit it. They're not mutually exclusive. They definitely interplay with one another. Mika, what would you add to this conversation? The question reminded me of what Quintina, the wife of Fidel said in the video. She said, when displacement, when people leave, they don't come back because the people that they knew are not there anymore. And it's basically the lack of connection, the lack of connectivity that displacement creates into a community and not just its residents but the people that come to that location. For example, in Alapara, that's what's known in Miami as Little Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic. That's where the community gathers and where we have all the bodegas and so on. So once they're not there anymore, Dominican from all over Miami may not come to the area because that store is gone. We have an example of one of those stores that has been displaced three or four times. And it's other business owners that kind of catch them and say, you need to remain in the community. And they have really moved because of displacement because where they were the first time, got demolished and then they moved to another location and that location got demolished and they moved to another location and then they moved literally, they moved like four or five times. But it was the community that understood that the importance of that cultural asset that we have that we couldn't let it go. So at the end of the day, place is at that container where everything happens. And that's what they important because they're that container. What really makes us stick is that culture. The culture is that thread, that fabric, that unites us all in that whole day identity of that community together. So that's why culture is so important. And I'm glad that people are now seeing in the preservation conversation, they're not just talking about preserving buildings. They're really talking about cultural preservation because that's when you talk about customs and traditions and heritage and things that are passed down from one family to the next. And that is really beautiful. And that's what makes places unique. And we have that opportunity to continue to keep that. The alternative is to have places that look the same all over. So that's something that I wanna make sure that people really pay attention when we have this preservation conversation. Do we really need to have a landscape that looks just like anywhere USA? Excellent. That's an excellent note to end on, Meleka, especially when we think about urban planning and land use. So excellent. We already have some really fantastic questions coming in the chat. I wanna make sure we have an opportunity to answer those. So I'll leave you all with our third and final panel question before we open it up for discussion. And this is on the topic of crafting really effective interventions for systems change. We know that there's a role for public policy. There's also a role for programmatic interventions. What do you see in terms of the respective roles of policy versus programs and any specific examples you'd like to share with us when it comes to systems change using these two different lovers? Meada? Well, again, that's what we've been focused on. I've already addressed some of this, but I wanna point out that respecting the agencies of every individual to decide whether to stay or go. And then helping those who do want to go move together in some connected way. And that's what my priority, my personal priority within the Bayou Culture Collaborative is to figure out ways to help communities move together because the moving your business four or five times is not at all uncommon. And we'll be increasing because the migration that's gonna be accelerating even more in this next decade, but trying to figure out how to sustain the community, the connections. It's one thing to try to do this online, that a lot of diaspora groups have very strong connections with online platforms, but what if they could move together? What if they knew where people were going? But I wanna emphasize that I'm not advocating that people need to move because moving is not necessarily the right decision for everyone or right now because so much of this depends on when. The people who decide to stay also need to be supported and enabled to do this. And instead of just letting a multinational corporation raise your neighborhood. Totally agree with you, Myla, but I would actually tell you that what's happening at least here in Miami, and I know it's happening across the country, is a push for displacement where people don't really have a choice to remain in the community where they go to church, where they have their children in school, where they maybe have grown up, where they know and they trust and they have their neighbors and they feel comfortable leaving their children outside because the neighbors across the street or next door are able to watch them as they play. So not having that opportunity to remain in a community because a large development was built and now rent rolls $3,400 overnight is the issue that we are focusing on at least here in Miami. And bottom line for us is that we need to create policies that protect the renters. That needs to happen because the reason why we have this massive displacement happening across America is because renters are not protected. Some states are more prepared than others. Here in Florida, we don't have that luxury just yet. We need to have more capital at the ground level for these businesses. The same way that we have home ownership programs, we could have commercial ownership program for businesses that have been in place for more than 10, 20 years because these are legacy businesses. They are part of the fabric of that community already. And then programs like the ones that we have that are preparing these businesses to be owners and preparing these businesses to really kind of streamline their operation so they can actually have the cash flow and the sustainability to remain in the community even through employee-owned co-ops. So making sure that they're able to do that. And again, being the access to that capital for them to own. And I think that Brittany can talk a little bit more about that later, but I wanna make sure that that's one of the things. The other thing when it comes to protecting is understanding the problem and the game. It is not that people that live, like we both live in states that are almost cities that are very climate prone with the storm surge and so on. And we see a lot of people moving from the coastal sides into the inland. And many people wanna say, well, people are moving from, let's say Miami Beach into Alapada. That's possible, but the real game is not that people from the coast are moving inland. The game is that multinational corporations are acquiring massive plots of land. They're holding it for real estate speculation. So a building that was probably $300,000 in 2012, 10 years later is $2 million.  That level of growth is ridiculous. And that is what's driving that. The other thing that's driving that is poor zoning loss. The fact that we have zoning that was just plotted in our community without any type of community information or input. That's another thing because now the potential for that plot of land is way beyond what a historic building can bear. We should have different zoning for historic properties because if we wanna protect that, preserve the history of that location, it shouldn't be zone for a 25 story building, right? So those are specific things that we can do locally at the state level and in that, whichever level is possible to truly, truly protect not only the communities, but also the renters. Last but not least is opportunity zones. Everybody's going crazy with opportunity zones. But what that has created is a lot of people coming into our neighborhoods and not investing in the businesses. They're just grabbing land and letting us sit. So how effective is that truly being in our community? So it's things that have a good intention, but they are falling short of their aim. Excellent. No, thank you for walking through all of those dimensions. And some of the questions that we've received in the chat are actually very specific and tactable as they relate to these ownership and acquisition strategies. So I'm gonna start to run a couple of those by our esteemed panelists and get your thoughts on some of these issues. And so one of the first questions that we received, it looks like a big strategy is to purchase buildings and to keep them for local small businesses. Can you tell us more about the strategy, how it might be funded and how it works? Yes, I think that something that has been mentioned in the chat, Brittany, is that they couldn't fully read what the text was saying. I'm gonna read it for you. Just so you guys all understand what the text was saying is said, between 2020 and 2021, the Alapara Collaborative CDC assisted dozens of businesses securing over 3.2 million in access to capital for small businesses in Alapara. Alapara CDC has since launched the Thriving Place Fund to root these legacy businesses in the community as a solution to displacement. The funds is seeking partners to achieve this goal in the Alapara Main Street Computer known as Little Santo Domingo. As of July 2022, Aquino and his wife can still be found working under storefront in Alapara's commercial corridor. They both continue to believe in only one solution to the threat of displacement, ownership. So I just wanted to share that very quickly. And again, what was your question, Brittany? Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's incredibly powerful. And I think that the movie helped elicit some questions from our audience around ownership and around the practicalities of that. So I'll combine that last question. You know, they wanna understand how this ownership strategy is funded, how it works. Another question would like to know the examples of legacy business owners acquiring property. Do you have any examples or ways that you've seen not just in our community, but throughout the country? What are some effective ownership models that are feasible? Yes, I think that there's a lot of great examples in California. There's an amazing organization called Meda Mission Economic Development Agency that has done an amazing, amazing job at ownership in their community. So what we are doing in Miami, the way that we see it is that, yes, ownership is the goal because we wanna make sure that we can root these businesses in place. The way that we are working on achieving that is number one, preparing the business owners for ownership. But the way that we also wanna do that is through shared equity models. We are not kind of helping a business to be a sole owner of a property. What we are really focusing on is on shared ownership where, for example, a community land trust where we can hold the land because now buildings are millions of dollars. So it's impossible for one person to truly buy a whole, like a property on their own. But if we're able to own the land and be able to lease or sell the improvements, like a condo, if you just think about a condo, maybe that's a good way to illustrate and kind of simplify the way that we wanna do this. Where they become the owners of their storefront and we collectively work to upkeep the building and keep everything together. Who is funding it? We are doing that. The businesses themselves are doing collaborative. So they're collaborating and saving those as one of the factors. We have different programs that are helping us and maybe Brittany can talk about that a little. And then we also are going to different foundations that are truly focusing on preventing displacement and the economic justice and the economic equity and so on. And I'm glad that I arrived at this point about economic justice and equity because after the pandemic or during the pandemic, after the George Floyd incident, everyone is promising all these dollars for social justice and equity. And you cannot do equity without access to capital. You cannot do equity without access to assets. If we want the BIPOC community to move forward, let's build assets with them. Not for them, with them. They need to be at the table building their assets for themselves and for their families. They have to have a little bit of skin on the game at the point that they're able, but the resources need to be available for them to truly own their storefront, their homes, for them to have bank accounts, for them to be bankable, for them to be able to have better credits. We have a system that has kept them kind of hostage and behind. We need to catch them up. That's excellent. Thank you for walking through those different dimensions, Meenika. I can contribute a little bit, at least from the funder and the foundation side about those types of investments in commercial real estate. But I'd love Meida to hear if there's anything that you would like to respond to with regard to our audience questions. I would like to add that most planning is colorblind. And if you take a colorblind approach, you simply replicate the injustices of the past. And so this is a challenge within the whole planning field is getting to the point where they can let go of that colorblind approach and address equity. That's excellent. That's an excellent ad Meida. And we've seen kind of the perverse outcomes of race, neutral and colorblind policies. I will share just briefly one of the things that we're exploring at the Miami foundation through our open for business fund to support historically underserved small businesses is commercial real estate acquisition through shared equity models. Meenika spoke briefly about a community land trust model. We're in a nonprofit agency or a government agency stores the land as a nonprofit landlord instead of a profit motivated for a profit developer, for example, some of those stalls or sub components of the property can be subdivided into shares much like a co-op would. What we're finding is that small businesses are already paying in a monthly lease what they could afford in a mortgage. They just need that upfront capital. So we as the foundation from our fund are providing that down payment assistance upfront to collaborators who can go through the purchase process. But we're also seeing a lot more frequently is program related investments coming out of foundation. So those are not necessarily grants. Those are investments that will return some sort of financial gain in the future. But a lot of foundations increasingly are broadening their impact investing portfolio. The returns from investments in real estate are actually increasing their overall endowment and finding that PRIs are a much more win-win way to invest in organizations versus grants. And so there's a whole body of work out there.  And so just another way that foundations and funders can really use their financial assets to further ownership and specifically shared ownership models. And so thank you both. I did want to remain a panelist for most of this engagement, but I would be remiss to not speak about our commercial real estate ownership efforts that we're trying to foster across by mid-aid. And so I'm looking at the chat. There are a couple more questions around the specifics of land ownership. One person has asked, what would it be called? What would be called a business opportunity in real estate when the business owns the storefront and someone else owns the land? Milgo? Yeah, Milgo. A commercial community land trust. And it's been done. It's been done in, I think, California, Arkansas. There's a few states that have done that. And I can definitely share more information. Absolutely. I also, I attended a community land trust training from Grounded Solutions Network. They offer community land trust trainings for anyone who wants to operationalize that in your community. We're seeing it often in the housing space, but I do think there's more room for preservation of small businesses. You know, we didn't talk too much about the climate. We started to dive into kind of the climate dimension of this work, but how do both of you think that the climate crisis will either accelerate or hinder some of these preservation tactics? How can we make sure that those issues are intertwined and that we keep both the preservation of our environment and the resilience of our community members at the forefront? Milgo, would you like to take that? Oh, sure. I'm not quite sure what, I'm not that involved in historic preservation, so I'm not quite sure I'm the one to answer that. But I do think that all the climate issues are simply gonna amplify what's going on. It'll be more and more pushing on priorities. I think one of the hardest things is gonna be determining what can be saved and what can't be. Right now we're talking about commercial structures and they have access to resources and such that some of the others public historic sites don't. But figuring out what should and can be saved versus not evading that issue, I guess is a good way to say it, is because there will be, there is never gonna be enough money to save everything. And so at some point people are gonna have to say, and communities are gonna have to say, okay, this will be abandoned to the water and this will not, and what does that mean? It's so sad, but it is what our future is gonna be, is identifying our priorities. And that can only be done by the community. That's a community process, and anyone? Yeah, I really agree with you with the word evasion. We need to make, there's three words that I'm thinking about as you asked that question, Brittany. One is the word that might have mentioned is evading, right? The other word is intention, and the other word is data. So I'm gonna start with data. We need to know the data. We need to know the data when it comes to historic preservation and the meaning of places and locations in our community, understand what needs to be saved and really do the work to preserve those locations. That needs to happen, whether it's location, cultures, communities, that preservation work needs to be done. When it comes to evasion, especially in a state like Florida, we have a big insurance issue. And we like to evade, we like to evade the preservation because of the opportunity of development. In the moment that you turn something into a historic preserved location, that's another site that you cannot redevelop. And we evade the conversation.  It really affects our economy. If people know that Miami is gonna be in this situation by 2060, why would I invest here, there or whatever, right? So that's something that we keep evading rather than facing, you know? So I think that we're evasion, it's important because we need to stop doing that. And we need to start confronting our realities. So we can have proper insurances. So we can have proper adaptation and proper mitigation of the things that need to be adapted and mitigated. And last but not least is the word intention. We need to be intentional. We need to be intentional about what we want in our communities, and we need to include the community in that master plan. It is unacceptable for a city, for a state, for any type of municipality or group or community to have a master plan that the community is not involved in. Any type of urban planning, any type of mitigation effort that the community is not educated about and involved in. So I think that that intention of making sure that you serve the people who are there needs to be at the forefront. Excellent. Yes, I have to add to the issue of intention. We strong, the bio-culture collaborative focuses on intention quite a bit. And the idea is that, well, we try to help people start thinking like future ancestors. This is an indigenous concept that's found around the world. Indigenous people generally have a very different relationship with the environment and see themselves as stewards. So in our workshops, we frequently ask people, what will your great-great-grandchildren wish you had done? And is that about, it doesn't matter if you're staying, you're leaving, or somewhere in between, you're moving five times a block away. But what would your great-grandchildren wish you had done? Great question. I love that. And also it connects the human dimension that we've spoken about, the underlying land itself, as well as being intentional for the future. And so with about three minutes left, we have one final question from the audience. What are the best ways to get people involved in that master plan? We paid, we hit the pavement. We just canvassed, we canvassed and we do outreach. I mean, a lot of people use social media, but I'm in a more traditional neighborhood where access to technology is not a highlight. So we just hit the pavement and we do the flyers and unfortunately kill some trees, but we make sure that people know that this is happening. We make it public, we make it at the library, at the public park and we collaborate with universities. We collaborate with local government, we collaborate on profits. As her name says, Alapada Collaborative, our main goal is to collaborate and not reinvent the wheel. So if someone has already done it in the past, we don't wanna do it again. We just wanna work with them so we can do it in a better fashion and something that's adaptive to our community. So the best way to include the community is to let them know that this is happening and let them know why they should, why it matters to them. I would encourage everyone to simply start the conversation. Yes. When I started doing online, it was during the pandemic so we shifted from in-person gatherings to online. And we didn't know now. I didn't, for sure, what we know now. We didn't know then what we know now, but don't let that stop you. Is simply put it out there, start the conversation, find your allies. And I was amazed at how many of the environmentalists and policy people sought us out because we had simply started the conversation. That's excellent. And I think that that's something that we can all continue to do now that long beyond this session, we've started a lot of great ideas. You both have shared some very, very practical tactics and if I guess there's one thing we all can continue to do now is just to start the conversation and keep it going. And so I thank you both for representing your organizations, the Bayou Cultural Collaborative, the Alapada Collaborative CDC. We've put a lot of links and resources in the chat and we appreciate all of your time, both to our panelists and to the audience for being with us today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.


My work here on YouTube is supported by viewers Please take a look at the link in the description below and visit my page at 50th Street where you can become a sponsor Here it is April 7th a full week into the month, and I'm only just now recording my Wrap-up for the month of March. I did the same thing that I did last month. I actually did some recording at Sakura Khan in the Seattle back last weekend and on March 30th my intention was to record my March reads video at the convention and Just like last month. I forgot I just plain forgot. I was on the bus ride back Back here to where I'm staying And that was when I realized I did it again. I just plain forgot so I've spent the last week sleeping My health has been really terrible of the last few months The place I'm staying South of Seattle now. I've been here for a little over two months. I've had food poisoning twice It's been rough But but I did a lot of reading. I didn't buy a lot of books Well, I bought a small stack of books and I'm gonna show those to you now and I have some other Surprises for you to first of all almost all of the books that I bought in March came from The local libraries here 50 cent and a dollar books and I want to say again. I always say this when I bring up Buying books at libraries if you're not looking at your local library Looking at their thrift store or their gift shop or whatever they have You're making a mistake because there will be great deals there The two books that I did not buy at the library. I got In Seattle the last week of March when I visited a store called third place books and Apparently it's a famous local bookstore, but I had not heard of it and I was just walking down the street and I found it. That's how I have found the best bookstores, honestly I'm just walking down the street In the neighborhood or in town for some other reason and I decided to go look for bookstores And I always find great stuff. Okay, the two books I bought at third place books were this first one if the stars are gods by Gregory Benford and Gordon Eklund and I posted this picture and Becky Tells me it's a good book. So I guess I made a good find the other one was called the six fingers of time It's an anthology of classic science fiction at a great price. I couldn't pass it up I took a lot of pictures at third place books and I've and I have a whole collection of pictures that I need to put together Into a slideshow and upload for you all. I know you like those and here's a slideshow of the rest of the books I bought This past month at the library There's some paperbacks some hardbacks Books that you would have heard of What World War Z in the fifth wave? And Aragon so again stuff that I normally wouldn't buy But it was so Inexpensive why shouldn't I? Two of these books are nonfiction one of them called the beak of the Finch is a science book about evolution The other one is a collection of essays by Sarah vowel. I I noticed the book because of the name Sarah vowel so many People whose opinions I respect talk about how much they like Sarah vowels books But it wasn't until I looked at her picture on the back of the book that I realized I know who she is She's one of the funniest people on the planet Look up the name Sarah vowel on YouTube and look for her appearances on talk shows. She is Amazingly funny. She is also the voice of violet in the Incredibles Amazingly enough and then I did something I almost never do anymore. I found a local comic shop Nearby and I went in and I bought some comics those of you who have watched my odd comic series will recognize That title hillbilly I was very impressed with that one issue of hillbilly that I bought and I was waiting for the Graphic novel collection to come out and there it is I'm really looking forward to that The other interesting thing the surprise that I wanted to show you is the place that I'm living now most of the space is being used for storage and There are boxes of books and a couple of boxes in the living room I saw on the top were some classic science fiction. So I went digging in there and there was more Lots of classic basic stuff lots of Azamov lots of Clark Some Heinlen and then these vintage movie adaptations here some J. R. R. Tolkien some Ian Fleming The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy box set and this really interesting stack of anthologies These again are not my books But they they are going to allow me to read them. So As for books that I read in the month of March Just this past week I read binti by netty okara for I've been wanting to read this for a long time And it had to wait until I found a good deal on an e-book. It's Not a novel. It's barely a novella really just a short story, but man was it good great science fiction and Again it being netty okara for it has a very striking non-western Ethos to it. I also finished reading a leaf the unseen which I've mentioned a few times recently I'll be reviewing that I'm in the middle of reading a funny little Sci-fi fantasy from 1920 called the girl in the golden atom Funny little book. That's all I can say. I'll review it when I'm done and I'm most of the way through echoes of the well of souls Which is the first book in? Jack Chalker's 1990s sequel series to his 1970s Five book series called the well of souls. I know I read this back in the day when it came out Most of it doesn't seem familiar to me I'll definitely let you know and I downloaded a 19th century Maybe 18th century. I can't recall right now a utopian sci-fi novel called her land by Charlotte Perkins Gilman who wrote the yellow wallpaper? Which is one of the best horror stories of its day if you've not read the yellow wallpaper you should and that's about it as far as Books I do need to upload a number of Bookstore and library slideshows that I've that I've recorded and have not edited I need to edit and upload the interview. I did with Phil Folio The interview I did with Adam Hughes. Those would both be for my odd comics Series I need to edit and upload The material I shot at Emerald City and the stuff that I did last week at Sakura con there's so much material that I haven't got to Because I've been feeling so poorly. I'm definitely not going to be doing as many videos as I did Last month.  Yeah, that's not gonna happen. I Have recorded two more episodes of the 32nd half hour with the owner of Ada's technical books here in Seattle the first one of those will go up tomorrow and Then the next one the following Sunday and after that I should have more episodes of The 32nd half hour in the can So there's plenty of stuff coming. I would like to thank my Sponsors I still have my four regular sponsors here. They are Thanks guys and for those of you who are not sponsors, please consider Becoming one you can follow the links in the description below to the 32nd sci-fi Page at 50th Street. You can pledge a monthly amount. You can make a one-time donation and If you become a sponsor at the $20 a month level You will get the sci-fi book bag, which is a book in the mail every month from me I'm still waiting for someone to take me up on that please give this video a thumbs up and please make some sort of comment below and Do me a favor and go back to my other videos and start putting thumbs up on my other videos. I always need more thumbs up Anyway, please subscribe and come back for my next video. Bye Thank you for watching Please subscribe to my channel here on YouTube and please be sure to press that thumbs up button That's how videos get recommended and seen and please take a look at the link in the description below and go to my 50th Street page where you can become a sponsor


There's six different activities or skills involved in any kind of work. Let's talk about the model and what these six characteristics are. First working genius is called wonder. And this is somebody that loves to naturally sit around and ponder things and think about things and ask questions like, why are things like that? It's the second genius, which is called invention. There are people who wake up every morning and love to come up with new ideas, even if it's not necessary. After invention comes the next one, which is called discernment. This is people that have good gut feel, instincts, intuition. They're good at pattern recognition and what you call integrative thinking. It's not based on expertise, specific knowledge or data. They just have a good gut. So after that comes galvanizing. Galvanizing is people who wake up in the morning and love to rally the troops, keep them pushed forward, keep inspiring them. The next genius is enablement. Some people wake up every morning and say, if somebody would just ask me to help them, I would be the happiest person in the world. The last, this is called tenacity. These are people that wake up in the morning and say, please let me finish something.


I'm still a twerk of the town Talking to the sisters, I'm hooking them down I'm rich with the smiles and the frowns again The only person that can judge me is Homie above me in a spot drinking 40 cc Hello Yeah, yeah, yeah So for the people that don't know, tell the people where you from From the floors, I'm from Canarsie, Brooklyn Brooklyn again Canarsie, so you represent Canarsie How you feel about how Canarsie looking right now Canarsie, it's on fire right now Super lit, super tough Okay, okay, so how did your brand name come about Roll was wrong I had a few names, but the Roll was wrong You stuck with it?  I'll switch it up now I'll match with my little Stado and I'm gonna join it some, but You know, yeah, Rolls Okay, okay, so how did you get into music? How did I get into music? My first little How can I say it? Running with music, I did Street scene from Motown A lot of people don't know that I did street scene from Motown back in the day I was like one of the lost boys with lead I missed the cheeks rapping, I missed the cheeks A and C, I didn't know the older guys When I was younger, yeah Just seeing it and rapping at the lunch tables How many friends got on the roof? I felt like 13 Alright, so who was you listening to from growing up, man? From Motown? Of course a Jay-Z fan A few others from Brooklyn A lot, of course New York based So who do you feel influences you in your music much? That varies It just depends on the movie, right? Yeah, it depends on the big suit It depends on the tracks on the suit I can get all my LA shit I can get all my devil shoes But not all of them Alright, so Who would you say is one of your biggest supporters traveling? Who would support you every step of the way doing music? My producer Okay, so He started with you? When you first started rapping you do freestyles and makeovers But the real production The real beat produced for me Yeah, it started with GQ Okay, okay So you started the album Rose Gold Why was the music behind it? Of course it was with you A little bit of that But my clove line is something that is parallel to what I'm doing The name of the clove line is Rose Gold I just want to put it all together Just for branding People get familiar with the brand It's all about that rose Okay, so what can people find for merch?   Okay And what would you say is the most slept on song? What's someone to say? People gotta really listen to what I'm singing I would say Check Yeah, I would say check What's your favorite song? Just the beat, just the flow Everything on the bars is real Everything's authentic People kinda get lost in the vibe But you gotta pay attention to the lyrics Okay, okay So I'm sure it's not your first project Right What's your answer to it? It is my first project It is This is the first official project I put out singles and all that So it's like body to work That's why it's gonna go crazy Stream that right now Rose gold prepack It's lead, it's dead, Flavor Get the bag, Hellcatch It's healthy How do you feel like you improve musically? When you first started rapping At the beginning of the scene How do you feel like you improve musically? I think just content Like the things I touch on Like I said in check Just thoughts Just content Just the variety of stuff that I'm able to do I think that's the main thing So content, definitely And then you also have a feature with Chris Brown Not a lot of people have that So tell us how did y'all meet How was that? I had a friend from LA That was cool with Chris And when they came to New York for the party tour They called me to pull up to the studio They're platinum pull ups Boblin, Boblin Super lit Or else my new year song And they put the beats on And he heard I jumped on one of the joints and he heard it And he wanted to look the beat immediately And that's just how it happened Money and a lot of things All organic That's Boblin So what's something that's on your musical bundle Is what's something like Yo, I wanna accomplish this It could be this year or it could be long-term But something like y'all got to do Is in music to fill I wanna number one Single Billboard number one I just did I want the whole world to know And hear my music and appreciate my music And we want it to be number one Top of the top That's a good one Can't be like ordinary music Yeah, that should be cash We're getting a million dollars Right, so What advice would you give to an upcoming artist An artist that's on the ground right now Time's getting hard We're just trying to pull it What's something about to give to artists Don't be afraid to put your money in your mouth You know what I'm saying Don't be scared to take risks Of course, healthy risks Get a team It's not really fucking true for you That's for Bob That's a team Bob Don't be afraid to invest in yourself Also nobody will do it for you unless Until you get to that point No silver spoons Okay, so what's next For you What's number 14 21 Put these numbers up Get this bag Get this check Put some flavor out Put the numbers up Get this shit on But definitely the videos for all of you So numbers going up You gotta come out soon I'm out So tell us if we would have found you We would have found you Rolls wrong on Instagram Double Laws R-R-O-S-E-R-O-M-E On everything Facebook, Twitter, Instagram Double Laws up What's gonna happen


Nun folgt der Vortrag mehr schlecht als recht, Grauzone Sicherheitsforscher mit Dominik und Fabian.   Danke. Fabian und ich sprechen hier. Warum sind wir hier? Das hat etwas zu tun mit den Legalen. Wir sind keine Rechtsanwälte. Wir sind keine Lawyer. Ich muss auch dazu sagen, sie sind nicht nur wie beide betroffen gewesen. Und auch ein weiteres von TU Eindhoven. Er hat ihn dann ignoriert. Aber es ist okay. Er hat nicht viel geblasen.    Warum sind wir zwei Gruppen, und das ist, weil das Erklärung hier in Deutschland ziemlich weit versammelt ist. Wir haben das letzte Jahr angeschaut. Wir haben hier ein paar Publikum, hier in der Süddeutsche, auf der linken Seite can be seen the timeline. Blue is an FAU and Green the TU M. Wir haben das reportiert. Und zwar nicht mehr Details. Wir haben hier ein Artikel. Ein Monat später haben wir das Gespräch in der Konferenz. Wir haben hier ein paper, Wir haben hier ein paper, ein scientifisches Paper, das wir dieses Jahr an DIMVA präsentiert haben.  Und das war ja unsere Sache, und dann war es fertig. Vielen Dank, Dominik.   Wir hatten einen Freund von mir, der die Elster-App angeschaut hat. Er hat gemerkt, dass wir schon gesagt haben, dass es 34 C3 gibt. Und als der Paper an DIMVA war, war er konditionell akzeptiert. Und also, dass wir unsere Analyse auch auf das Paper angeschaut haben.  Und wir wollten das Weitbox-Krypto anschauen. Wir wollten es in der Akademik-Kanz Texte analysieren. Und dann haben wir versucht, ein Paper auf den Usenix-Workshop. Wir haben es auf den Usenix-Workshop von Offensive Technologies 18. Und wir haben es konditionell akzeptiert, über ein Jahr später. Wurde wir uns das wirklich anrufen? Und dann waren wir ein bisschen überrascht. Wir haben uns für das erste Mal überrascht. Ein paar Wochen nach der konditionellen Akzeptierung, haben wir eine E-Mail von der CTO von der Klammung getroffen. Mit der Subjekt-Responsible-Exclosure-Violation. Und wir waren ein bisschen überrascht, weil wir uns mit der reverse-Engineering keine Sicherheits-League oder Eröffnung erinnert haben.  Wir haben uns über verschiedene Aspekte des Papiers mitgeteilt. Ja, Überraschung. Ja, Überraschung. Wir, wie ich vorhin gesagt habe, dachten wir, dass das fertig war. Wir wollten nicht mehr mehr machen. Und dann haben wir das offizielle-seitige Ding geteilt. Zuerst mit E-Mail und dann mit der Snail-Mail. Bitte beantragen. Wir haben das usually-called-Warning-Liter. Das war eine E-Mail von einem Lawyer, der uns die Eröffnung eröffnet hat.  Wir hatten nur zwei armen Tage, um das zu beantragen.  Und wir haben auch Wir haben uns für eine Kompetition gemacht, und sie wollten uns eigentlich nicht mehr den Software von der Klaventur machen, und nicht mehr eine Protektionsmeasure zu verwenden. Wir sind nicht mehr allowed mehr zu machen, weil das natürlich mit ihnen eine perfekte Protektion hat. Und wenn es verbindet, dann ist der Protektion perfekt, natürlich. Und keine Publikation über es und nicht eigene Software haben, die das tun, was wir tun. Also, und nie tun, was wir tun, für Leben.  Und Legale Konsequenzen werden auch verabschiedet. Auch wenn du das verabschiedest, kannst du das noch tun. Und du kannst noch Legale Konsequenzen verabschieden. Und glücklich war ich nicht in der Universität. Und ich bin ein Forscher. Und ich habe unser Legale Konsequenzen verabschiedet. Und die Legale Konsequenzen haben gesagt, dass es kein Problem ist, dass wir das tun. Und mit der Konsequenzen habe ich es gemacht. Und ich bin mit diesem Gespräch auch fertig, weil ich nichts mehr mit dem Gespräch zu tun habe. Und zurück zu Fabian. Das wäre schön gewesen. Das wäre schön gewesen. Das wäre schön gewesen. In Munich haben wir auch diese Letter von E-Mail, eine prälimine Version, auf der Freitagabend. Wir waren noch in einer Meeting, bei meinem Professor, meinem PhD-Mentor.  Und die Universität, vielleicht ...  Und eigentlich war noch jemand da. Und ich habe das auch verabschiedet. Und sie haben gesagt, oh, der Herr so und so ist nicht mehr da. Ich werde ihn auf dem Montag sagen, das erste Mal am Morgen. Und er ist ein kleiner Calendar, um zu zeigen, wie nah das war.  Bis dann sollten wir es senden.  Vielleicht sind es mehrere Legale Konsequenzen. Nichts passiert auf dem Wochenende. Und wir mussten warten, den Wochenende, ohne alles zu tun.  Und sie wussten nicht, was passiert war. Und was war wrong.  Wir hatten ein paar Diskussionen mit ihnen. Und wir haben ihnen das Papier erzählt. Wir haben ihnen das Papier, eine Primilimerie von dem Papier. Und wir haben auch die und sehen, ob wir vielleicht Damage haben müssen oder so.  Und das ist das Wort für die Lawyer der Verabschiedung und wir fragen für eine Ausstattung der Todeslinie, bis zu Juli. Und das wäre eine Woche mehr gewesen. Und wir haben eine Ausstattung von einem Tag bekommen. Ja, danke dir. Okay, also... Wir müssen irgendwie mit dieser Rechtsabteilung... Also, wir müssen das mit unserer Legaldepartement klären. Wir müssen mit ihnen reden. Und sie haben wirklich legaler Artikel geguckt. Und ein paar Tage später war es ein anderer interessantes Ding.  Und wir können das nicht beantworten. Da ist dein Name auf der Lette. Und du musst das beantworten. Und die Universität ist nicht der Partei des Prozesses. Also musst du das persönlich beantworten. Wir konnten das nicht wirklich verstehen. Und wir haben das wirklich beantworten.  Und wir senden es zurück zu der Verabschiedung. Einmal, einfach beantworten. Ich habe es komplett vergessen. Es war nicht genau so, wie es war. Sie haben gesagt, es war dein Name. Und du musst es beantworten. Und du musst wirklich ein Lawyer sprechen. Und wir haben nichts mit dem zu tun. Und das war wirklich wundervoll. Das war wirklich toll. Also, das Legal-Betrag. Fabian, bitte. Was folgt jetzt? Wir wussten nicht, dass wir das damals nicht wussten. Das ist einfach was, was wir nachher gefunden haben. Und alles, was in diesem Gespräch kommt. Wir sind nicht Lawyers. Und wir wussten nicht, was das Problem ist. Wie lange wir verstehen. Für unsere Analyse der Software haben wir verschiedene Methoden aus der Reversen-Engineering-Toolkit. Das ist grün. Das ist z.B. de-compiling. Differenzatik-Analysis-Methode. Man kann z.B. es in einem Emulator erheben. Nicht direkt auf der Hardware. Man kann es in ein Emulator sehen und dann sehen, was das ist. Man kann es in ein Debugger erheben. Man kann sie in den Registr-Values verändern. Ein Debugger kann das machen. Legale Analyse, man muss sich nie de-compile. Es ist verbitten. Es gibt verschiedene Artikel in dem Copyright-Law Es bedient, welchen Lawyer man fragt. Vielleicht ist es auch, dass es eine Law über die Konpetition ist. Man kann nicht von einem Kompetitor von der Zeit kommen, dass man das Testen erlaubt. Und all that's in the middle in between testing and decompiling, we don't really know according to which articles you read, legal articles you read. We asked and nobody was really able to tell us, we had really talked to lawyers ourselves and they also said we don't really know, it hasn't been clarified. Und according, regarding decompiling, there's one exception, if you have to create interoperability, then you can do that. And there's an API and you want to connect to that. And there's one interface and for reasons of remaining competitive, you may perhaps do that under certain conditions. Und executed in an emulator, we asked our lawyers and it's probably rather forbidden. So you have to really look at that. So the idea is maybe, yeah well then the program isn't executed in its natural environment anymore. So yeah, it's difficult. In static analysis we also sometimes, some are of your opinion that disassembly is already forbidden disassembling. And if you really just use the tax codes and then have the op codes in your mind, that's allowed. But if you use a tool for that, for disassembling, that's forbidden perhaps. And our goal was really, we really wanted, we had no, we really weren't looking for a struggle. We weren't looking for a fight. But what can we do without compromising our scientific integrity and to really make it more acceptable to the claimant. And we just, we talked to them and some formula, some sentences we took out maybe. And we couldn't really say, we struck out something that we couldn't, well in the end we really retracted the paper. So we, that's a consequence of our acceptance of the cease and desist declaration really. And then we went on holiday and hoped that the storm was over. So we had a weekend of calm and quiet. Here we have an unboxing video of what came in the next week. So yeah, it's not really reusable, but a lot of content.  That was the letter from the court. And they wanted here a preliminary injunction, but the court said this is a very complex topic. So, yeah, and there's a large sum of money involved here. And the court can just accept that the injunction. Or the court says, yeah, we want to have here a real process here with lawyers. And people need to be there personally. So after a lot of communication, we wanted to go there and see what happens. But there was a lot of writing to the court to show that the opposing side was kind of talking out of their behinds. And then we met in the courtroom and was pretty full. And they never had such a full civil process. Es war sehr interessant. Es war ein sehr interessantes und langer Prozess. Unsere Lawyer dachten, es wäre zwei Stunden, und in dem Ende waren es sieben.  For example, the lawyers of the claimants said things like the security of the software of our client cannot really be guaranteed if we discuss this security in public. So, that was interesting. The court did their job pretty well. So, they actually looked into the whole topic. And the court writer went home at some point because she was done with her shift. And seven hours later, the third person in the court, they wrote down that we had here a responsible disclosure. A process and that was what we told them. And in return, we were able to actually publish our findings and with this responsible disclosure procedure. We were told them, oh, we want to publish something and we give you X amount of days and then they could answer and say, ah, yes, we have some comments here. Maybe wait a little bit and we will patch something. But yeah, we were able to actually keep the right to publish and that they would actually pay for any court costs. And yeah, afterwards we had also some press echo here. So, yeah, did we get to our end goal? So, yeah, we had a lot of stress for eight researchers. With a lot of things that we could never really dream of. We never really could answer these legal grey area issues. So, yeah, about the compilation, for example. And the paper of the Technical University Munich is still not published. So, lessons learned. So, don't panic. So, just a standard thing. I didn't panic enough while it's weekend and on Monday the university will take care of it. No, not really. And don't sign something blindly without knowing what it is. If we had just signed it, we just could have stopped doing our job, right? University Lawyers, legal experts are not IT experts. So, it wasn't easy to explain to them what the problem was. And the FAU was a lot better, their legal department. Yeah, whatever. Don't overdo it, don't exaggerate in publications. Maybe we sometimes tend to exaggerate and if we put in things that may be legally not quite correct, then if you put the name of the company in it or something like that, that may be a problem. And of course, do never ever use a decompiler, not at all, not ever. And you just can't do that here in Germany. But the burden of proof is on the claimant in that case. If someone accidentally uses it and never ever write it in the paper. And of course, there can be demands by the claimant or something, but never ever decompile. So, and there are some questions that have come up and we like to answer those. So, before we come to the end, of course, during the process, we had our questions ourselves and got questions from other people and we are going through the best of the questions right now. So, the judges during the hearing, they really let us look into how they saw it. So, please tell the claimant, you cannot be successful with your claims here with this court. So, why did we settle in the end? So, what we got was there was a preliminary injunction and we got this warning letter and we rejected it. And because there is a preliminary injunction that goes to the state court and into revision in the upper state court and there is a decision, but then there is another proceeding about the injunction proper. And in Bavaria, you have to do that within one month after you know it and then you can't get a preliminary injunction because it is no longer urgent and but you can also try to get the same things done in the proper injunction proceedings. So, where were we? There was this five-step thing here, we ignited that and we were at the state court and maybe a sentence would have ended in our favor. And the lawyers of the Technical University of Munich, they knew in our team, they already knew that most companies don't really want to discuss the security of the software in court proceedings, in a court of law. And in this case, that wasn't the case in our case. And with the settlement, there's a compensation clause and they can't ever do anything with that, they can't go into revision. And those four additional stages, they can't go through the other instances and it doesn't work and we don't have to do it and the claimant also doesn't have to do it. And maybe we wouldn't have been able to go the long way. And so maybe for us the settlement was the better way for us and we really wanted to do responsible disclosure. In this case maybe it wasn't so good and we are sorry for that, but perhaps a mistake, but we could also ask experts in the court and there are deadlines to be observed and we didn't want to be sitting on a ticking bomb. And the next problem is, can an IT-Researcher be silenced by legal means? That's hard to say, maybe, maybe not. So it didn't work in our case. We fought for our rights to continue our research, especially at the University of Munich. So we can still publish it. We have no non-disclosure agreement. We can talk to you about it and we do that and raise awareness for this problem. So that hopefully you don't have to suffer the same thing. On the other hand side, we have a feeling that nothing has really been clarified or the nuances of the analysis. That maybe you can always construct a reason for legally reasonable reason. That maybe they have a point with this claim. And maybe if you don't want to go through all the courts, then they can still effectively silence the researchers and the pressure is really enormous. And that was really maybe the most stressful summer that I've ever had. So, who represents university security researchers? So people asked me, you are dependent researchers from the university. Why doesn't the university take care of that? And why that works, I can't really tell you from a legal perspective. There's a Bavarian state employee law and some paragraphs. I don't exactly know what that is for Bavarian civil servants. And I don't know really what it is. And we have no final answer. And maybe the Bavarian Ministry for Science has to work on that. In the case of our university, that hasn't been clarified, finally. So, how do you work with your side jobs, if you do other jobs besides your university employment, pentesting or something like that? How do you deal with that? In this warning letter, it could happen that they say, oh, they have a company, it's a competitor and a much stricter rule supply for them. And that is quite a critical point. And luckily the judges didn't bring that up and didn't say that. Do they make a competition product? No, they don't, but maybe the danger is still there. So, what would we have liked to have? It would have been very cool if we could cover this risk of being sued by a company. So, if the worst case actually comes to pass, if there is no settlement, or if we have to go through all these five instances that we don't have to pay that ourselves. Maybe, yeah, you can get some money back again if you actually win in the proceedings. And, yeah, you can also lose. So, would be cool if there is some sort of insurance for that. And then, yeah, this is a copyright thing. So, copyright is usually not included because of this file sharing that has happened. And if you get sued for impinging on the competition, then, yeah, that's also not really included. So, yeah, those are the two things that aren't really covered. So, yeah, would be cool if there's some kind of insurance policy for that. Then the research institutes, if we could get some support there. Because we didn't quite... There were a lot of people there who actually made an effort and they really tried. But in the end, yeah, there was some kind of restriction and they couldn't quite go the whole way. And, yeah, there's this feeling that, yeah, there was some kind of resistance here in the system that they didn't quite want to stand by. For example, external, also researchers, students. And also, yeah, some kind of legal protection here. And if they also, if they can also be sued for your research or not. But, yeah, so we thought about that, but we didn't quite want to pursue that avenue. Then would be cool a legal basis for security research, which would ideally allow all kinds of analyses, including decompiling. Because, yeah, we had this copyright issue. In the DMCA, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, since 2016 there is an exception for security research. And if we had such an exception, then maybe many legal questions here could be quenched. And we had a more security concerning this issue. Because, yeah, legal people can't not really judge all of these technical issues. And that was our talk. Now it's time for questions. Vielen Dank erstmal für diese Vorstellung. Yes, thank you very much for this presentation of your suffering. It's really scary. And now we have a Q&A. Whoever has a question, please come forward to one of the microphones. And I really think questions 1.0. There's one sentence with a question mark at the end. So, get close to the microphone. Don't touch it, but click it close. Whoever has to go now, please keep quiet, so you don't disturb the rest. Please microphone number 2. Thank you for this exciting story. Who talking about the costs, that is not normal, that one side bears all the costs. Could you please give an indication how high the costs were, the costs of the court? So, there is here like a lawyer cost table that probably doesn't, is not called like that. And that's just how the costs are calculated. And it was like 200.000 euros in the end. And that's just like the initial cost estimate. But that's not necessarily what is actually due in the end. And then in the end it's just the costs for the court and the lawyers. Yes, mark number 1. One question that you could answer with yes or no. Were there consequences for one of you with your employment? Yes. Yeah, we are two different teams and one of eight, definitely. There were consequences, but not for us too from a professional perspective. But psychologically seen, yes, also definitely some consequences. I personally am glad that I actually did that and I'm also quite happy. Hey, three. Did your lawyers ever answer the question if what was there in the legal text as decompiling was that really the same thing that we think of as technicians when we use decompiling. Is just pressing a five or is it just change the compile program into another form? Yeah, this is why it's a gray area in security research. That's why we had this figure, because many things might actually fall under decompilation. There is this decompiling paragraph in the law. It actually says yes, it's decompiling and there is no further details on what is actually understood as decompilation. So I cannot really answer what a lawyer would say as decompiling. So disassembly could also be interpreted as that. And that's why a court needs to decide that. So we could only say, yeah, we don't really know if there's any pre pre existing decisions here. So that's something that should really need to be cleared up legally speaking. All we can say is, yeah, opinions and every judge can can decide differently here. Is the question from the Internet. The question is that students and researchers have a right to an insurance and it's not really a clear question. So, everyone has the right for an insurance if they use their own software for looking for security problems. Yeah, it would be really nice if there was an insurance company that could actually insure against these risks. So we had this legal protection insurance. They wouldn't have paid for that exact case, because we did it afterwards. And we informed ourselves. But yeah, we discovered that even if we had that legal protection insurance, maybe we would have had the same problem, because those issues are not covered by the police. And yeah, you should really be able to look at it yourself. But yeah, that law should maybe be changed. The CCC also does something like that, if someone finds data or obtains data one way or another, that they also support them. Did you contact the CCC and how did that work? Yeah, we have different experiences here. I had close contact with CCC. We also got our lawyers recommended from CCC. And yeah, two thumbs up for that, if you have something like that. But we thank people from our side. I don't want to denigrate CCC here. Maybe we had some miscommunication. But yeah, we didn't quite get as much support as we maybe would have liked. The Nuremberg Research Group was represented by one lawyer, but that lawyer didn't want to represent us. And although that was maybe completely detached experiences here with another exact same case, but the lawyer didn't want to do it because of conflicts of interest. So yeah, there was that. Nr. 1, please. Yes, thank you very much for the presentation. And the question with the un clarified parts and the wouldn't it have been nice to really get a sentence of precedence and not just settle in my opinion. In the end, we could have only proven that it's not provable that we didn't decompile. So that is probably the only thing that would have resulted in that process. And maybe we could have lost and that would have sucked. So yeah.   Ja, das Problem mit diesem Problem ist, dass wir acht Forschern, die auch busy mit anderen Dingen zu tun haben. Und wir haben auch noch einiges mit der Technologischen Universität geöffnet. Und dann hast du diesen langen Prozess, zwei oder drei Jahre. Und wir wollten nur, um das zu treffen.  Und auch eine große psychologische Presse. Und mit Korprosythinzen, du willst nur die Lohang-Fruit bekommen. Und du gehst nach den kleinen technischen Dingen, wie ein Missing-Paragraph, in einem Dokument. Das Dokument ist nicht kohäriert formalerweise. Und so du startest nicht mit dieser, was ist die Kompellation? Und wie wird es beteiligt? Wir beginnen mit, dass deine Lieder nicht korrekt sind. Also in dem Ende, wenn wir eigentlich mit der Stich-Kompilation herkommen, ist es komplett open. Okay, die Zeit ist auf. Sie haben noch Fragen.  Ja, und das war legally bad. Grey areas in security research. Your translators were choppy.


Hi, I'm Jason Ren from Princeton University. I'm a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Associate Director at the Ellinger Center for Energy and the Environment. The LET conference is really one of my favorites because it always brings thought leaders from all over the world and you can learn from them the cutting edge research and technology development. In addition, you also get to know many young talents and their exciting works. So I look forward to seeing you very soon. Recently, I've been thinking and working with collaborators on how to decarbonize our wastewater sector, but also requiring resources for circular economy. We've made many progress including an open access book, quite a few articles, and certainly many partnerships with academia and industry. I hope to share the experience and offer my thoughts and findings so we can work on this important topic together. Thank you.


Ever wondered how NEON ensures that its observational field sampling data are high quality, accurate, and consistent? Let's follow the journey of NEON ground beetle data through the NEON data pipeline, from collection at a field site all the way through publication to the NEON data portal. Field Ecologists use tested and standardized protocol methods to carefully collect observational data on a preset schedule throughout the year. You can find these on the NEON data portal or choose to receive them with the data you download. Instead of using traditional field notebooks, they record data on tablets using custom-built mobile apps. These apps allow for controlled data entry by providing selectable lists for categorical data, restricting ranges on numeric values, and pre-populating location data and sample identifiers. On a set schedule, data are automatically pulled from the cloud and sent to NEON headquarters. For samples that require external lab analysis, like beetles for the NEON DNA barcode data product, specimens are carefully packaged up and sent directly to a contracted lab for analyses. The analytical results are then returned to NEON headquarters and interpreted by the NEON OS Pursor. The parser carries out basic calculations, like time zone and temperature conversions. It also directs incoming data traffic so that the data are stored in the correct file location while also performing automated quality control checks for validation. For example, DNA barcode data can be checked against sample identifiers of collected beetles. This enables the parser to create a link in the database between different types of beetle data. If a matching sample can't be found in the NEON database, the data will be rejected. If the data are rejected, a NEON scientist is automatically notified to review and fix the issue. Data validations are defined by machine-readable instructions, written by NEON scientists for each protocol. You can find these rules in the validation file that accompanies your downloaded observational data. If the data are rejected, a NEON scientist is automatically notified to review and fix the issue. The parser then delivers this raw, or Level 0 data, to the Process Data Repository. Both Level 0 and Level 1 data are stored in this repository. The process of transitioning observational data from Level 0 to Level 1 consists of adding spatial information to the data tables, bringing in related sample information, adding additional taxonomic data, and obscuring the identification of any threatened or endangered species to protect them. After the data are transitioned to Level 1, another set of machine-readable instructions are used to publish data. Data from the database are formatted, compressed, and tagged with the publication date. If the data are reprocessed, the publication date is updated. Finally, the data are delivered to the NEON data portal for you to search and download freely. Have more questions? Send an inquiry to our team.