By Andres | In Say Wut?

So last week I managed to sneak a few hours in at the Oregon InnoTech conference, and by far the best session I attended was the ‘Green Software‘ session.

Now before y’all start chiming in about how cliché it is to write about ‘Green Software’ on Earth Day, let me just say that I meant to post on this subject last week, but didn’t manage to find the time to write until today…and oh yeah, in case you didn’t know, ummm, here in Portland, every day really is a true Earth Day…yup, the real deal…none of that diluted put a cute green logo on your site for a day stuff…fo shizzle.

Okay, back to my original topic. So while I sat in on this session at InnoTech I was horrified to learn that I had underestimated the carbon footprint of the world’s collective IT infrastructure…in fact, I hadn’t pondered the issue as much as I wish I had.

According to one of the speakers, the world’s collective IT infrastructure has a carbon footprint equivalent to the world’s airline industry; and personal computers account for roughly 40% of that footprint (yes, as in the computer you are using to read this post). As always, information and ‘facts’ have to be taken with a grain of salt.

Here are some links if you want to read along.

• Computer server ‘as bad’ as SUVs for climate
  
• The Internet’s Carbon Footprint - Server Farms vs Your Desktop PC
• IT Carbon Footprint to Outpace Aviation
• Do you run a green machine?
• The carbon footprint of that computer (short and sweet)

Technology has all kinds of environmental impacts that are regularly discussed, from the heavy metals used in circuit boards leaching into the soil to the link between cell phones and disappearing gorilla habitat, but it seems that the IT carbon footprint discussion hasn’t really received as much attention as it should (perhaps because it’s not ‘visible’ or ‘tangible’?).

So what can you do to minimize your IT carbon footprint? Well, there are all kinds of suggestions and recommendations floating around in the ether, including here,  here, here, and here. Whether you actually decide to take action-well that’s up to you. But I sure as hell hope you do.

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By Andres | In Say Wut?

Finally getting a small window of time to post this week, and I figured I would take the opportunity to synthesize some thoughts that lately have been drifting in and out of my itty-bitty reptilian brain. So you may be wondering about the title of the post: the Calvin Sticker? Read on and it may make sense (I hope).

It wasn’t too long ago that I saw a jacked-up 4×4 Ford pickup truck race past me on the highway. As the truck made its way past me, I didn’t think much about the name brand of the truck although I did notice the somewhat-now-defunct sticker of Calvin peeing on a Chevy sign. (I also did wince thinking about the horrendously bad mileage the truck gets as well as my personal safety being in a much smaller car, but that’s a post for another day). Wow. Ford and Chevy have done an unbelievably good job of building brand loyalty if someone is willing to put up a sticker like that. Then I think about how a farmer in Nicaragua doesn’t care what kind of truck he/she is driving, as long as the truck can haul goods from Point A to Point B.

It wasn’t too long ago that I overheard a conversation between two self-professed geeks talking about how they couldn’t believe that anyone still uses Windows instead of Mac OS X. It seemed a bit foolish to me. People use computers for a variety of tasks, communication, and in some cases, entertainment. Some people may prefer one operating system over another, but who’s to say which one is best. Perhaps someone is using an older computer that was donated which just happens to have Windows, or Linux, or Mac OS 7.x, or whatever loaded on it…are they getting utility out of it? Then I think about a small co-op in central Mexico where a computer running Windows 98 helps members keep track of their inventory.

The same could be said about the merits of ASP.NET vs PHP vs Ruby on Rails. Well, you get where I’m going…

It wasn’t too long ago that I started feeling this factional vibe in some geospatial blog posts, comments, and other web media, trying to draw a line between the “neo” and “paleo,” between the “die-hard GIS expert” and the “recreational geo-noob masses.” Perhaps it’s just me, but I find it a bit tiring and ultimately counterproductive for people to draw these lines (or to try to draw them). And yes, I believe that it is valuable to identify and describe different/varying techno-philosophical perspectives and knowledge…but I don’t think it’s valuable to draw lines that ultimately create this factional vibe.

I’ve read (and heard) comments from folks referring to “the ‘idiots’ that use Google Earth to find airplanes” to discussions about how “the old school GIS folks are a dying breed.” I would say what about the environmental activists using Google Earth to track humans rights abuses in Burma? Do we propose that they shell out the time, money, and effort to implement an in-house solution? Or what about the GIS analysts conducting high-end watershed modeling to mitigate non-point source pollution? Do we propose that they rely solely on open-source, web-based geospatial tools or a web mapping API?

At the end of the day, the tools, data formats, and end users may be changing, but the underlying needs for geospatial technology are not. I think it’s time to move past all of this and to focus on using geospatial technology in whatever context proves valuable for you and your community/end users. Otherwise, I fear we may end up with little stickers on our laptops, desktops, and servers with a little Calvin peeing on either a “neo” or a “geo.” Who knows, maybe that’s what some people want out of it.

Think I’m full of it? Chime in as you wish.

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By jackinthegreen | In

In this second installment of my green mapping series, we’ll examine theme-based and regional focused sites, and I’ll cite some notable examples of same. Whereas it is feasible, and sometimes even appropriate, for a green map to tackle the entire globe and it’s myriad environmental ills as subject (The coming Global Green Map for instance), most do tend toward a more narrow theme or scope. These themes fall into various categories, including resource type (water, forests, soil.), issue (global warming, sprawl, wilderness.), or are even promotional (eco-tourism, National Parks, green events..) . I’ve stumbled across quite few good examples and here are some of my favorites.

As resources go, fresh, potable H20 has to be high on anyone’s list. As they say, if you think oil is a globally contentious issue, wait till the drinkable water runs out; and by all accounts it is. Possibly the most impressive water focused green-mapping site I’ve seen of late would be the UNICEF’s Tap Project, a campaign with the goal of providing clean, drinkable water to children in developing countries around the world. The current figures on this issue are abysmal and slated to get worse, so a worthy goal indeed. UNICEF’s clever implementation of a zip code searchable GoogleMap locates participating restaurants that will accept donations of one dollar for water, the proceeds to go to UNICEF. The site is chock full of additional info and multimedia on the campaign as well, so worth a visit for sure.

As an example of effective issue focused green-mapping, the MapEcos Project is a stand out. The brain child of a group of college professors, it features EPA data on industrial polluting emission sources. That in itself is useful enough, but the innovative approach MapEcos takes is to allow the listed facilities to update their emissions data. As stated in the MapEcos Guide book:

MapEcos is a collaborative website designed to provide an evenhanded view of industrial environmental performance. It combines information on industrial pollution with information from facility managers about their environmental improvement efforts. In other words, MapEcos is the first public website to tell both sides of the story.

As an admitted, even proud, card carrying tree-hugger, I have my share of issues with more than a few corporate operations. But I also believe that everyone’s entitled to tell their side as long as the forum is even-handed. And if industrial polluters are in fact incentivised to “clean up their act” by this service, all the better.

And finally, regionally-themed green-mapping. And on this subject I have to again give a nod to the Green Map Project, and more specifically to the Cork GreenMap created by a group out of Cork, Ireland. They pretty much pioneered online mapping as a virtual alternative to what began as a conventional paper map initiative. But where paper maps can range up to wall size, online maps are challenged by the same layout and UI issues as all other web-based apps. Limiting the geographic scale to a greater urban area, though, allows for a wide variety of ecologically relevant location types to be mapped in a user-friendly way. And being part the Green Map project, the Cork map features an equally broad range of the project’s custom map marker icons for IDing a location’s category at a glance, by way of the included icon key.

So there’s a brief overview of just some of the themed maps and innovative implementations out there. I know there’s many more notable examples I could have added. If you know of some as well, why not post a comment with a link or two?

Cheers

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By Andres | In How To

Just ran across a post on O’Reilly’s Inside RIA by Moxie Zhang entitled “Flex GeoWeb with Yahoo AS3 Services.” Moxie discusses using Flex, Yahoo! Maps ActionScript 3 and ESRI’s new Javascript API for ArcGIS 3 (beta) to develop a sample locator application with a standard buffer as well as a minimum drive polygon.

Pretty darn cool. Doh, I promised myself I wouldn’t use the the term “GeoWeb” on Fridays…doh!…there I did it again!

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By Andres | In News

It’s easy sometimes to lose sight of the big picture…

I saw this post about a new ‘Global Awareness’ Google Earth layer on the Google Lat Long Blog and then made myself take the time to read, explore, and learn more about the tragic genocide in central Africa.  It has shaken my conscience to the core.

If you haven’t already done so, please visit these links and then take action, no matter how big or how small.

World is Witness (a geo-blog)

Five Things You Can Do (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)

Be a Witness - Mapping Initiatives (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Mapping Initiative)

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