sustainability
SureLifts - the Mobile Community LiftClub
Sustain Wisdom
Imagine a web space that lets every scholar see related researchers doing similar work. The site suggests cross-disciplinary relationships between different writings. Sustainability would be referenced for every area of scholarship. As an example, how does research into literature have sustainability implications?
For example, a microbiologist studying a species of frogs in the Amazon may not know that a similar research is happening and the results are similar. By constantly searching and matching keywords, categories, related subjects, GIS information, and other factors, the map could be geo-local and based on subject matter. The website would have different ways of exploring how a given research idea relates to other research subjects. You could then contact those individuals or create online groups using simple social networking features. The system would constantly be pushing cross-disciplinary perspectives of research.
Here is a list of features in the site:
-instant online groups (select up to 10 researchers for an instant group that lasts up to 4 week after the last activity)
-share documents in a virtual space
-share desktops
-video chat
-schedule seminars online for interested students, other researchers, or for the public
-instant message
-idea mapping (see how your ideas are related to other research ideas)
-idea reporting (see where subject areas have deep research and where it is shallow)
-idea journey (explore how ideas relate to each other and read summaries)
-research to reality check (see how media is covering a subject area being researched)
-top of the food chain (explore who are the leading scholars in different areas)
The biggest benefit would be an online space where cross-disciplinary projects are encouraged using ‘information similarities’. The search tools would constantly be exploring how subject areas relate to each other. When scholars sign in and explore the site, they would be given ‘colleague tips’ that present visual maps of their subject in relationship to others. Every subject would be presented with sustainability relationships for their subject matter.
The truth is that sustainability must become a conscious raising exercise. This can happen through the systematic promotion of sustainability in every academic environment.
In time, the site would be used by grade school teachers to see the relationships that their subjects have with sustainability.
As a professional, one would go into the system and look for a set of experts that may be at a local university, or contact a set of researcher to provide information on a subject.
I have developed websites for Ed.org, and jsut founded OneGreener.com which used marketing methods and technology to move people toward a more sustainable lifestyle.
Technical programming assistance; promotional assistance across university systems.
Agri Mashup: Updated
Agri Mashup is a strategic tool to increase data utilization for creating new economic opportunities and will have a considerable impact on facilitating access to information and knowledge for the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) segment.
This project also present opportunity for visionary companies looking for new markets to increase competitive advantage while helping BoP communities meet their basic needs but also accelerate economic growth, reduce inequality and poverty.
Agri Mashup consist of five major components:
- A person-to-person microfinance tool that will attract socially responsible investors (based on Network for Good API). It allows borrowers and lenders to connect, collaborate and manage their investments and loan request online. A reputation tracking system and verified membership could contribute to investor confidence. The objetive is bridging the financial gap to rural economies.
- An easy to use GIS interface that allows users to search, browse and find out Where, How and When.
- A Data Visualization tool that allows users to compare, contrast, find and project trends.
- A Collaboration tool that allows users to manage their social networks and sharing information with their partners.
- A large set of content for inclusive and sustainable business development (forms, how-to documents, directories, other tools)
Agri Mashup is an initiative of Nutri Pro Salud and Quantum Solutions. Nutri Pro Salud is a Peruvian nonprofit entity that assists vulnerable groups in Peru, primarily in underprivileged areas, through health, nutrition and social entrepreneurship activities. Quantum Solutions is a Peruvian business incubator. It promotes entrepreneurship in rural communities by developing and providing solutions for starting and growing enterprises. Its products and services range from appropriate technologies and technical training to microfinancial services.
Since our existing team is made up of people with backgrounds in health and agriculture, we are seeking specialists from other fields complement us: Usability and Software engineer, Visualization and Graphics specialist, BoP entrepreneurship expert, SMEs clusters expert.
They will help us examine various inclusive and sustainable models and technologies for rural micro-enterprises. They will be part of launching a social venture with the potential to create substantive social and economic benefits.
We are looking for additional funding to complete and launch the project.
Data sources from Peru are: public agencies, local NGOs, development organizations, local universities, regional governments and private organizations.
Agri Mashup is a flexible and dynamic tool that allows users to develop localizated versions.
Avatar Action Education Network
The Avatar Action Center, a project of the Tides Center, has been producing interactive educational events and materials in Second Life (SL) for more than a year. We are now expanding our ability to fulfill our mission of raising awareness of sustainability issues and getting people to take action in their real lives outside the virtual world with the launch of the Avatar Action Education Network (AAEN).
While our exhibits, events, and classes have been effective in broadening people's understanding of issues including alternative energy, climate change, peak oil, economic globalization, and others, we want bring more activists and subject-matter-experts into the conversation who are not necessarily part of the SL community.
The AAEN will offer the world a creative and engaging mixture of educational and news content in two ways. The first is a weekly podcast "filmed" on a set inside SL. The content of these podcasts will be composed of reports on both SL-based groups whose work addresses sustainability issues and real world sustainability news. They will appeal to viewers ranging from young adults through middle-agers who will find the content informative and the delivery technique innovative. Broadcasts will be delivered in a news-reporting format with video annotations, and will include interviews with people working in the sustainable living arena to keep it timely and engaging. They will be made available on our web site, iTunes, and YouTube to reach the broadest possible audience and break out of the virtual space.
The second part of AAEN is our Education Station system, a web-based course management system we created to centralize our content on the web and be able to serve it anywhere in SL. Having this content be browser-based will provide visitors to our web site the chance to use our materials without going into SL. We also recently started mashing it up with Moodle, an open-source course management system that a group of people are adapting for use in Second Life as “Sloodle.â€
The Education Stations run people through a program of courses that expose them to the broad spectrum of issues that sustainability encompasses. Once a person completes a designated number of courses by passing quizzes based on the presented materials, she will earn a Certificate of Sustainability Awareness.
Both of these components will debut at our second annual Earth Day event on April 19th in Second Life.
People will interact with this project initially by viewing the podcasts we release, but they will also be invited to participate in coversations about the materials on the AAC web site, which is built in a wiki and therefore encourages sharing and collaboration.
The Avatar Action Center has been an active educational project since late 2006 producing interactive materials in a virtual world to raise awareness about global sustainability issues in the real world and encourage people to take action.
Those who were involved in last year's Netsquared competetion may remember our project entry at that time. Since then we have: held several large events combining live music performances with educational presentations on a broad range of sustainability topics; partnered with real-world organizations, including the Sustainable Living Roadshow, to bring more dynamic content into our space; created an educational delivery system to award a Certificate of Sustainability Awareness to those who complete a program which runs them through a series of different sustainability topics, and; became the first project started in Second Life to gain official nonprofit status in the US as a fiscally sponsored project of the Tides Center.
We could use help 1) integrating podcast support and video components neatly into our web site with the capability to collect comments from viewers, and 2) creating an XML-based web service from our php/mySQL-based Education Station back end so we can offer it as an interactive education service on others' web sites.
Our tools are young and not all quite ready for prime time, but we do have a development area set up where we will be moving our work to shortly: http://sloodle.avataraction.org. This page also has a link to our Moodle area, where we have recently started working with SLoodle (http://www.sloodle.org) to further enhance our delivery tools.
THREAD
THREAD is a web tool that ties action to social and environmental impact through relevant content so visitors can make informed choices about their daily actions.THREAD will create an online community focused on sustainability and social responsibility from the individual viewpoint. Individual actions become part of a community network, providing a trustworthy, peer-to-peer generated forum for advice and knowledge sharing in regards to the impact of products and services. The model provided by sites such as Yelp.com proves the viability and impact of peer-to-peer reviews in influencing consumer behavior on a local level. THREAD will take this concept to the next level – a global community of engaged people providing context and guidance in the macro consumer decision-making process. Syndicated news content will be aggregated in a searchable dataset system and tagged to allow users to make connections or “Threads†to everyday actions – purchasing objects, joining groups, digesting media. Users can personalize this knowledge tree by viewing it through different filters: “gender issuesâ€, “politics†or “businessâ€. Connections will be recorded along a timeline so users can see when different actions/objects were connected and the sequence in which connections were made. Although various sites attempt to provide guidance on spending decisions, they focus on niche areas vs. a more holistic view of the multi-facets that comprise any product on the market. By incorporating user preferences based on a variety of factors (including labor practices, corporate responsibility, human rights, environmental impacts, health, etc.) THREAD creates a centralized site where people can go to find information on socially-conscious living. Mobile technology will allow the content to be accessed anywhere, anytime. In revealing the complicated web of interconnections between products, choices, and sustainability from a consumer perspective, THREAD will revolutionize the process for consumer decision making.
Information in this consumer mashup will be aggregated and catalogued from a variety of sources – news organizations, consumer groups, environmental groups, corporations, research organizations, and user inputs/reviews. Combining the information provided by a range of sources will provide a concise, holistic view of specific product types, and allow for driving deeper to specific brand names and corporations. Search capabilities will allow sorting by product type, corporation, issue, brand name, and geography – providing people with a complete picture of the social impacts of various products, companies, and/or actions. Peer-to-peer interactions will enhance the factual data with opinion based ratings of products, services, actions, and companies. Users will be encouraged to provide links to information not captured by other sources – their personal knowledge and reach becomes a component of the overall mashup.
As an established non-profit online social network for youth activists YouthNoise is well positioned to develop this project. Our audience is eager to see informative news delivered in an innovative, relevant way. Our global reach and our ability to highlight local actions create a unique opportunity to build vibrant content that will resonate with people of all backgrounds while building lines of communication and understanding between them. THREAD will enhance our current content offerings with information that will aid in breaking down an increasingly complex world and creating visually stimulating connections between common actions and the multi-pronged consequences of these actions.
We need technical help in developing this concept to its fullest potential. We also need funding to make this idea a reality – our estimated budget is approximately $1.5 million.
Here are a few to begin:
My Green Map: Sharing your Sustainable Worldview
Since 1995, Green Map System has engaged communities worldwide in charting a sustainable future. Now, we’re taking the next step by merging local knowledge and our freshly updated iconography with a Google Map mashup to create an open interactive Green Mapmaking website that will inclusively help people worldwide quickly share their own selection of sustainability sites, pathways and resources online. The resulting interactive Green Maps will be viewable from our own and many other websites, starting in mid-2008. With open commentary, green ratings, multimedia elements, 'impacts index', mobile access, on-site markers and more, everyone will be able to get involved.
My Green Map (working name) will give a powerful voice to thousands and ensure that an enormous diversity of successful sustainability activities and critical issues are shared with the broadest audience possible. It will merge the booming ‘local first’ and green development movements with social networking and interactive mapping. It will draw from a rich data source: thousands of green living, nature, social and cultural resources already charted on 335 published Green Maps, used by millions both near home and while traveling.
Our network of 450 locally-led map projects in 50 countries will be the first to add sites to My Green Map. Each of their mashups will be linked to profiles and the locally-designed Green Maps already viewable at GreenMap.org. Once technical and financial barriers to participation have been overcome, we intend to phase in public mapmaking and behavior change assessment, mobile formats, thematic worldviews, and more. Thus, the N2Y3 Mashup Challenge can play a key role in promoting inclusive participation in sustainable community development around the world.
My Green Map will welcome people to a fresh green perspective of cities, towns and villages. In a familiar Google Map format, it will enable people of all ages to explore or share comprehensive citywide maps; theme maps, such as cycling routes & resources or social justice sites; mapmaking workshop outcomes and eco-tourism maps.
Color-coded universal Green Map Icons will connect people instantly with sustainable living, nature, culture and social sites, helping them make better choices as they shop, dine, commute, work and play. The mapmaker's site description will be openly discussed, updated and translated by the public – they can add a green rating, an image or video and a personal change testimonial that provides evidence of the site's – and the map's – real impacts on community well-being and our common future. Alongside the maps, this will inspire more personal, policy and culture change.
Because My Green Map's mashups will be linked to GreenMap.org's multilingual profiles, users will be able to delve into the motivations and methodologies behind this community-media movement, exploring how grassroots, professional and youth Green Mapmakers are empowered by our adaptable full-scale Green Mapmaking resources. These public interactions will expand local project networks, too.
From a social change perspective, My Green Map offers tremendous hope to people of all backgrounds and communities everywhere.
Since 1995, we have built strong relationships with hundreds of environmental and social equity advocates on 6 continents. Collaboratively, we have:
• developed our eco-cultural .ORG and adaptable youth and professional mapmaking tools
• published multilingual websites, books and DVDs
• produced mapmaker gatherings, public workshops, tours and presentations
• supported decentralized Green Map Hubs in Indonesia, Japan, Latin America and other places.
Our work has received special recognition and positive press locally, nationally and globally, as GreenMap.org's News section attests.
At the heart of it all is the set of Green Map Icons, which is thought to be the world's only universal symbol system for maps. Updated during a 5-year inclusive process, Version 3 of this living lexicon was just released. Viewable at GreenMap.org/icons, these 170 symbols will identify, promote and link My Green Map's sites.
Our small, flexible team includes digital developers, designers, social change agents and collaborators in NYC, Bucharest, Yogyakarta, Tokyo and Victoria BC. We have seed funds and capacity to move from the alpha site at GreenMap.org/ogm to a mid-year public launch, but the fully integrated self-sustaining vision - from mapmaking tool to encyclopedic Global Green Map – needs financial, infrastructure, Drupal/PHP, Google API and mobile developers, business, marketing and legal support.
By prioritizing practical ways to democratically involve many more people – from rural elders to OLPC youth to urban digerati – we can exchange crucial information that helps whole communities take action. Get involved! This synergistic mashup makes local resources for sustainable community development accessible to all, and has potential to truly revolutionize the way people from all over the world perceive and interact with their communities.
