Making waste visible: Uniblue Local cooling

Just read about this today... It's an application that claims to optimise your PC's performance by using a more efficient power save mode. Apparently, They say

If just 100 million of us optimize the efficiency of our computers’ energy consumption, we could prevent over 300 billion kg of CO2 gas emissions, equivalent to over 1.8 billion gallons of oil, in just the first year alone.

Some more information about PC power consumption here.

What's interesting is that they provide a way to make the savings visible with this little widget so you can see the effects of your actions, thus reinforcing your behaviour.

Another event: Futuresonic Environment 2.0

The annual Futuresonic event is coming up in Manchester in May... this one includes a strand called Environment 2.0, blurb below:

Environment 2.0 is a new international initiative seeking to explore the sustainability of future arts and technologies.

The project will seek to minimise the environmental impact of the Futuresonic festival and also to explore broader issues connecting Futuresonic's interest in mobile and social technologies with the new urgency surrounding climate change.

In Environment 2.0 two worlds collide. When the environment is mapped, tagged and digitised it becomes navigable, computable and manipulable. How can this approach to environment, one which is iconic for our times, be reconciled with the need to address climate change? Environment 2.0 will also explore Open Source Energy, looking at low cost and free ways that people can generate energy locally.

This mirrors some of the concerns of this blog-- what happens when information about our environment is easily available through digital means? Will we change our behaviour? How can this information be made available? Who will control it? Participatory Urbanism points to a future where citizens will be able to access and create this information, but is this valid for all situations? How will the political context adapt to coopt or corral this movement?

It sounds like a very interesting meeting-- unfortunately (again) I can't make it, but keen to hear about it from anyone who can...

Participatory Sensing

This follows on from yesterday's post... an event called Snout in London next Tuesday 10th April to explore the idea of 'participatory sensing'. They will use wearable environmental sensors to collect data and visualise pollution information. It's a collaboration between Urban Tapestries, inIVA and Birkbeck College School of Computer Science and Information Systems. Looks very interesting. I don't think I can make it but would be very interested in hearing from anyone who does...

Participatory Urbanism

I read about this today on the Urban-Atmospheres mailing list, how mobiles could shift from communication devices to measurement devices, enabling us to process and share data from our environments. This could enable citizens to be more active in monitoring and controlling their environment. One of the examples they give is monitoring air quality in a particular part of the city, and contribute to a better overall picture of air quality across the city. People could then act on this information to campaign for better air quality (for example) or take evasive actions. It would be interesting to see how something like this would work. Would people become more engaged in democratic process? or would they vote with their feet?