Back in June, we announced the release of a free multitouch application that combined NOAA oil spill data, visitor contributed Flickr photos, and Google Maps. (You can see that blog post and video, BP Oil Multitouch Map Mashup.) The application was developed exhibit using our own GestureWorks multitouch framework for Adobe Flash.
This application is still available to educational organizations such as science centers and aquariums. Since then a few different museums and aquariums across the globe have expressed interest.
Just this week we got our first photographs back from Petrosains Discovery Centre in Mayalsia. The exhibit is in their Hot Science exhibit area.
McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama will be including the exhibit as part of their Science of an Oil Spill exhibition opening October 2, 2010. We hope to have pictures very soon.
Just like everyone else over the last two months, we’ve watched the continuing oil spill in Gulf of Mexico with a sense of helplessness and despair. Not only did has this unnecessary accident taken the lives of 11 people, it continues to impact millions more. From an environmental standpoint, it it is nothing short of a complete catastrophe.
To help educate the public about this unprecedented event, we’ve decided to release a free version of our multitouch-enabled Google Map and Flickr mashup application to educational organizations such as science centers and aquariums. The Google Map and Flickr mashup combines oil spill and fishing restriction data from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association) with eyewitness photographic and video accounts from the Gulf of Mexico. You can check and and join the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico Flickr group; it includes some amazing photographs of the crisis.
Here’s a video of the application in action.
The exhibit software requires a multitouch system. We are offering it for clients who have multitouch tables. We will be building a version that is optimized to work with the 3M 22″ multitouch monitor, a lower-cost system. If there is interest, we may offer a single touch version or Web version of the application later this summer. Please email us for details about this software.
The oil spill mashup application is similar to a Google Mapping and Flickr mashup exhibit that we developed for the California Science Center. In that application, we used a number of KML data overlays to show various features of the LA Basin. You can learn more about that exhibit, L.A. Zone Multitouch, Multiuser Table, on the ExhibitFiles website. That exhibit and the new Oil Spill mashup were both developed using GestureWorks multitouch software for Flash & Flex.
Finally, with reports that British Petroleum (BP) continues to try to block media coverage, we hope that this exhibit helps in some small way to better inform the public about this disaster.
Just a couple weeks ago our small company quietly passed a significant milestone-we exceeded 100,000 pounds of carbon avoided. Back in May of 2006, we made the switch to wind power for 90% of electricity needs. A month later, we became a completely carbon neutral company. We calculated all of our carbon usage and began to purchase credits from NativeEnergy. Each June since, we recalculate our carbon production including travel for business and to and from work. We’re now entering our third year as green company.
This year I won’t detail all of the calculations (you can see how we offset our carbon production in previous years) but interestingly, even as the company has grown to twice the number of staff, our carbon production (and offsets) have remain steady. Much of the credit for this lack of growth in carbon production has to do with the fact that many of us ride our bikes or carpool to the studio. Carlos, our system administrator has even made the move to an electric scooter. The Vectrix has a range of about 30 miles, enough to get to work, and after a quick charge, back home. Sixty miles-per hour and no tail pipe!
To see more on how and why we became a climate neutral company, visit our climate neutral page.
A new and improved version of KQED’s QUEST Website, which we helped to develop, is now live. QUEST is an ambitious project utilizing all of KQED’s platforms to not only broadcast science and nature programming, but to also build a community supporting further exploration in the area. Ideum worked with KQED to design a website promoting community participation via an interactive mashup-driven website.
The most recent version of QUEST includes a number of improvements intended to simplify the navigation of the site’s ever-expanding content. With nearly 100 television broadcasts and around 65 online radio broadcasts, the initial sort features (time based) became difficult to use. The radio/television tab can now be filtered by topic and type and the main map features the latest five items instead of search features.
You’ll also notice that blog posts are now displayed as items on the main site’s map – a feature we were able to implement using data from the geopress plugin for WordPress. This feature means that all of KQED’s great content can now be available within the Google Map Mashup. Since the purpose of KQED QUEST is to explore “the stories behind Bay Area science, nature and environmental issues,” this addition makes perfect sense. Take a look at the KQED site or check out KQED Quest in our portfolio to learn more.
In 2005, we helped design the Nevada Clean Energy website. The Nevada Clean Enerby Coalition is devoted to finding alternative energy sources and opposing the massive Granite Fox power plant, which was to be built in Northern Nevada. Last year, Sempra Energy decided to try to sell its interest in the plant. Just today we found out they’ve given that up as well!
Here’s a copy of the “Withdrawl of Application” presented to the Public Utilities Commision of Nevada.
This is a great victory for all of us in the West who are concerned about our energy future. It shows that a small but dedicated coalition can make a difference, even when they’re up against a multi-billion dollar company (Sempra’s revenues in 2006 were $12 billion). We hope Sempra will pursue sustainable energy production, rather than dirty coal-fired power. Congratulations to the Nevada Clean Energy Coalition and people of Northern Nevada!
At the beginning of last summer, we decided to make Ideum carbon neutral. (See We’re a Climate Neutral Company or our Climate Neutral Page.) Since then we’ve been using wind power and purchasing credits to offset our carbon production. As of today, we’ve avoided nearly 50,000 pounds of carbon, the equivalent of planting over 2,000 trees.
Just today, I’ve renewed our effort and have adjusted our carbon usage. For example, last year at this time we had five employees and now we have ten (although two are part-time). 90% of our electricity still comes from wind, but some of the other factors have changed. Here’s how are carbon usage was recalculated.
Electricity (the remaining 10% from fossil fuels): 1,742 lbs of carbon, an increase of 20% from last year. Lots of new computers. (Calculated from the Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program)
Travel to work: 26,660 lbs of carbon (13.3 tons). 10 employees, 240 working days, 145 total daily miles= 35,525 miles annually. Some of our employees bike, walk or car pool, and this has kept the figure down, although it is still higher than last year with double the number of employees. (Calculated from An Inconvenient Truth > Carbon Calculator)
Natural Gas: 3,200 lbs of carbon. The same as last year. (Calculated from the Carbon Footprint, had to convert English pounds to US dollars)
The total amount of carbon that we needed to off-set was 41,300 pounds, up from 32,052 pounds last year. Today we purchased 21 one-ton “RECs,” or renewable energy credits, from NativeEnergy. Our cost is $252 a year to off-set our carbon production. If you add in the extra $12 a month for electricity from wind, our final cost is a nominal $396, just over $1 per day.
Perhaps this weekend’s Live Earth concert will inspire other companies to examine their carbon footprints and consider becoming climate neutral.
Since Ideum became “climate neutral” back in June, we’ve avoided 10,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. This is the equivalent of removing 517 cars from the road or planting 764 trees. As we mentioned at the time, the cost of zeroing out our carbon emissions was relatively inexpensive and the process was simple. We have a page that explains more about becoming carbon neutral.
The Google Maps mashup we developed for the City of Torrance, “Where to Recycle,” is featured today on Google Maps Mania. (The permanent link is here.) This blog is the “unofficial” authority on everything Google Maps. The review briefly explains how our mashup works and ends with a very positive statement, “In my view, this kind of mashup should be present in every city website!”
We’d like to see that happen, too. As I mentioned before, the key motivation for developing the site was to make recycling easy and to make it happen more often. The goal was to help visitors to find out where they can recycle a product in the fewest number of steps and then guide them to the location.
I think most people know recycling is the right thing to do, but it needs to be more convenient. Our hope is that “Where to Recycle” does just that.
Over the last two months, we’ve been working on our first Google Map Mashup using the Google Maps API. Our client has given us permission to release the site to solicit feedback. The application is (of course) in “Beta.”
Where to Recycle in Torrance, California allows city residents to easily find recycling centers based on the items they wish to recycle. The concept is simple: the easier it is to recycle, the more recycling will happen.
We conducted a card sort and worked with the City to try to come up with logical categories for items. In addition, we added a “Find As You Type” search function.
An extensive administrative back-end allows the City to easily update locations and items (see image below). We’ve made extensive use of Ajax for both the front- and back-end of the application, making tasks simpler and improving usablity.
Where to Recycle will be part of a larger web presence focusing on recycling in the city, to be released in the Fall. In the meantime, please feel free to try out Where to Recycle, we’d appreciate any comments you might have.
Last month we announced that we reduced our carbon emissions by switching our electricity over to 90% wind power. Today, Ideum has taken the final steps and have become completely carbon neutral.
The process was relatively simple and inexpensive. As I mentioned in the last post, switching over to wind power for our electricity costs us an additional $10 a month, and it required a phone call to our electricity provider. To figure out our complete carbon footprint we needed to look at other activities and services that generate carbon dioxide. Here’s what we found and how we calculated our carbon dioxide emissions.
Natural Gas: 3,200 lbs of carbon (Calculated from the Carbon Footprint, had to convert English pounds to US dollars)
The total amount of carbon that we needed to off-set was 32,052 pounds. We planted 4 trees around the studio which reduced the number by 52 (13lbs each, calculated from figures found on the Colorado Trees website) leaving us with 32,000 lbs of carbon.
Today we purchased, 16 one-Ton “EarthCooler” Blocks from NativeEnergy, a Native American majority-owned company which helps build “Native American, farmer-owned, and charitable purpose renewable energy projects that create social, economic, and environmental benefits.” NativeEnergy helped make Syriana the first major motion picture to be “climate neutral.”
The cost to off-set the carbon we produce was $12 per ton for a total of $192.00 for our 16 tons of carbon dioxide. Our total cost per-year to be carbon-neutral is about $320 a year, less than $1 day to do our part to reduce global warming.
In 2005, we helped design the 
At the beginning of last summer, we decided to make Ideum carbon neutral. (See 
The Google Maps mashup we developed for the City of Torrance, “
