Archive for the 'Environment' Category

Ideas About Ideas

Published by Jarred on December 20, 2009 in Advertising, Books, Business, Computing, Consumer Behavior, Copyright, Culture, Design, Environment, Google, Health, Legal Issues, Lifestyle, News, Politics, Privacy, Science, Social Networks, Space and Web 2.0. View Comments

The New York Times recently issued the ninth edition of its annual Ideas feature for its magazine. I’ve read through most of the entries and found several really fascinating; others were also interesting but neglected to surface other important angles. I thought I’d use this space to highlight both, seeing as Tropophilia is all about ideas that may bring about change in our world.

The Advertisement That Watches You - I’ll leave the details of this particular implementation to the article, but the essence of the technology is a billboard with a built-in camera that, through facial recognition technology, can tell when anyone within a certain radius of the advertisement is looking at it. This one, interestingly, changes to its main message when people are not looking. You can imagine, however, how this technology might develop over time: electronic ads could be powered off until it new there were passersby actually looking at the space. Facial recognition could also be used to power an impressions-based ads payment system, much like exists on the web: advertisers would only have to pay per “view” or elapsed “eyeball time” on the ad. Of course, such commercial use of facial recognition technology also raises enormous privacy concerns (How long are camera images kept? Would the technology eventually be used to identify people and serve ads based on their personal interests, or even the clothes they were wearing or the book they are reading at that moment?). It will be interesting to see how this area grows, if at all.

Bicycle Highways - I thought this was a cool idea, but I’m not sure I see it gaining widespread adoption outside of cities that have significant numbers of bike commuters. What I think is really clever is the possibilities raised with GPS and RFID technology that would allow for bikers to create on-the-fly pelotons, which in turn would be able to gain privileges for traffic lights and such: a mix between EZPass and carpool lanes. Throw in a custom social network for the city so you could plan your departures in order to meet up with a regular riding group, and this could be really great for those cities with big biking cultures.

The Counterfeit Self - I think this research has implications for the Web. There has long been a debate about authentication online: when writing a blog, posting comments, or joining a social network, is it “better” for users to have the ability to remain anonymous or pseudonymous, or should they be encouraged or required to use their real identity (obfuscated to whatever degree they prefer). Many argue that encouraging or requiring authentication would, for example, solve the problem evidence by the (often hateful and troll-like) comments of any given YouTube video. Opponents summon the right to free dom of speech as a defense of anonymous use of the web. Some governments, like South Korea, actually require what is referred to as “real name verification” for websites in their jurisdiction that surpass a certain threshold of users; users are required to authenticate against a national registry before they can interact with the site. Considering the idea of how behavior is influenced by fake identity could offer a fresh perspective in this debate.

Good Enough is the New Great - One aspect that this idea doesn’t cover (and I can’t remember anymore if the Wired article does or not) is information. Just as consumers are turning to cheap cameras, low-fi music files, and YouTube videos, they are also turning to Twitter for their information fixes. Many argue that in moving from mainstream to social media as our main source of information, we make a similar sacrifice of quality for convenience. I think that may be true in the short-term, but I’m hopeful that just like companies are starting to fit better and better sensors into those tiny Flip cameras, so will Twitter eventually recapture some of the fidelity of the “news” that it carries.

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New Urban Visions and Shortcomings

Published by Taylor on June 10, 2009 in Design, Environment and Sustainability. View Comments

I’ve spent the past few weeks studying for my upcoming LEED Accredited Professional exam. As a result, I’ve been ruminating on sustainable development generally and LEED in particular.

This is a very effective video argument for New Urbanism (HT: The Daily Dish):

I find this vision compelling: walkable communities, condensed necessities like grocery stores, schools, workplaces, and churches, large public parks and recreation spaces, and conserved natural areas. But it’s silly to have a conversation about New Urbanism or neighborhood revitalization as if it’s an intrinsically and universally beneficial trend. The fact is, I’m drawn to this vision because I’m exactly the demographic that stands to benefit from it: white, middle/upper-middle class, well educated. Part of the creative economy and able to work essentially anywhere there’s a wireless connection. Lover of overpriced “artisan” sandwiches and ratios of coffee products and steamed milk. I own a Kindle for crying out loud.

The uncomfortable assumption underlying so many of these New Urban dream-scapes is that what would make for a REALLY great community would be an exclusive bunch of people like…well…me. And that’s crap.

As much as I like to think otherwise, I’m a boring cliche. I’m a product of privilege (more of the “great public schools” variety than the “trust fund” variety, but I digress) and will have the luxury to find parks for my hypothetical future children to play in, take bike rides on greenways, and work from various coffee shops whenever I need a change of scenery. New Urbanism seems well-equipped to satisfy that lifestyle but, frankly, I’m not worried about people like me.

Because walking to work can’t just be the accepted ideal for those of us who set out daily to work in a brightly-lit office or take our laptop to the village green. The checkout clerks at the grocery store, the teachers in those great public schools, and the folks waiting tables at the neighborhood restaurant all must be a part of this vision. But thinking about those folks (not to mention the factory workers and farmers who are presumably at the margins of this type of scenario…theoretically manufacturing wind turbines and growing organic spinach) brings up all sorts of difficult questions about affordable housing and the costs of living in trendy, clean, sustainable communities.

So here’s my challenge to New Urbanists: prove that your ideal communities can be inclusive of all people. Show me a plan that includes affordable housing between the coffee shop and the grocery store. Factor in the carbon footprint (not to mention actual costs) of low wage earning commuters who can’t afford to live in newly-remodeled trendy lofts.

Some of this admirable, inclusive work is taking place, but I think it merits a larger role in the conversation about green building, sustainable communities, and New Urbanism.

Food for Thought (Sorry for the Silence)

Published by Taylor on April 9, 2009 in Culture, Energy, Environment, Lifestyle, Security, Twitter and Web 2.0. View Comments

Hey folks. I’m back after a long day-job-driven haitus. Things have been hectic, and the best way to jump back in seems to be some quick-blogging of items I’ve found intriguing over the past few weeks.

David Roberts at Grist offers a great primer on power grids, including the important distinction between a wide grid: “a new high-voltage backbone, with lines spanning the length and breadth of the country, able to carry electricity from anywhere it’s generated to anywhere it’s needed” and a smart grid: a transmission system that allows for distibuted production (think rooftop solar panels) and is capable of adjusting in real time to compensate for heavy usage, increased production, etc. This is a recommended read to get a basic grasp of what David describes as two key power grid issues:

[O]ne grid issue is getting more power (transmission lines to new places) and one is using power more efficiently(smarter distributions systems). The politics around those two issues are quite different

Related, also courtesy of David: here’s a list of articles on my to-read list related to smart grids.

Jason Calacanis sent a long and thoughtful email about the ways in which anonymity online can be harmful to the extent that it erodes our empathy for other people. Jason goes so far as to call this trend a “disease”–”Internet Aspergers Syndrome”:

This disease affects people when their communication moves to digital, and the emotional cues of face-to-face interaction–including tone, facial expression and the so called “blush response”–are lost.

In this syndrome, the afflicted stops seeing the humanity in other people. They view individuals as objects, not individuals. The focus on repetitive behaviors–checking email, blogging, [and] twittering…–combines with an inability to feel empathy and connect with people.

This is a provocative thought, and it does seem to me that the next big trend online (web 3.0?) will be authenticated identities driving the social media we’ve taken for granted. Calacanis mentions that social networks in South Korea require a social security number to sign up. There will inevitably be a tension between the norms that have developed in the web’s infancy and the changes that will be necessary to combat what is moving from a medium where goodwill and trust could be taken for granted toward an anything-goes medium where accountability is virtually (pun intended) nonexistent. How we choose to make that shift–requiring social security numbers, for instance, might be a bit invasive by American standards–is unclear, but I think many of us are starting to feel fatigue with unaccountable spammers and trolls ruining the web for everyone else.

I’ve come across a fair amount of criticism recently of URL-shortening services (like tinyURL, bit.ly, Digg, others). As TechCrunch explains:

Nobody really likes [URL shorteners], but they are a necessary evil. How else are you going to share links on Twitter without having the URL take up half the message?

The criticisms focus on a number of issues:

URL shorteners obscure links, which opens unsuspecting users to spam attacks;
shorteners, to quote the founder of del.icio.us, “add another layer of indirection to an already creaky system” and slow the web;
some shorteners, like Digg, deny direct traffic to sites by using a frame instead of directing clicks to the original material (Facebook users will find this familiar, since shared items are framed in a similar fashion);
all shortened links are dependent on the continued existence of the proponderance of shortener start-ups AND the perpetuity of their terms of service (in other words, the guarantee that your tinyURL will not be reassigned or disappear)

I worry about the Digg/Facebook model gaining traction, since “link juice” for original material is what feeds the web’s content producers. But I think in the future you’ll see more of this type of functionality: an interim landing page where visitors will see a full URL before continuing to the source material. If content aggregators (I’m looking at you, Digg) can add value by previewing pages and layering social rankings or other features, this could be a win-win-win proposition: People clicking shortened links are protected from spam; the URL shortening service has an opportunity to advertise and lure visitors to other material; the content provider receives a direct traffic boost.

That’s all for now, though I should be blogging regularly again next week.

The Overlooked Ground Zero for Sea Level Rise

Published by Taylor on February 24, 2009 in Environment. View Comments

If I asked you to name the three areas of the US most vulnerable to sea level rise, what would you say?

The first two are fairly obvious. The Mississippi Delta? Correct. Southern Florida? Also spot on. But the third? You might guess the Chesapeake Bay or the Gulf Coast of Texas (close, it comes in at 4th). The answer is actually a region that receives relatively paltry national attention in the discussion of sea level rise: the Albemarle-Pamlico region of North Carolina.

I was fortunate enough to spend some time last weekend in beautiful (and distant) Duck, NC for a meeting of the Foundation’s Advisory Panel. We heard from a number of experts–from the North Carolina Coastal Federation, Environmental Defense Fund, Audobon North Carolina, and local municipalities–on the challenges facing this changing landscape.

: Image Courtesy of NOAA

Many folks have heard of the NC Outer Banks–that thin strip of island land between mainland North Carolina and the Atlantic Ocean. Hatteras Island, the 42 mile long, northernmost island in the outer banks chain, stands between the open ocean and the Albemarle and Pamlico sounds. Beyond those sounds, moving inland, are estuaries that form a backbone of vital ecosystems. The Outer Banks are a highly developed tourist destination, with beachfront rental homes and condos rising out of the fragile dunes. Inland, the Northeastern counties closest to these sounds and estuaries are some of the poorest in the state.

And it’s all extremely vulnerable to sea level rise.

In my next post, I’ll discuss what a few organizations, municipalities, and homeowners are doing (or could be doing) to prepare for and adapt to sea level rise. But first I want to make two quick points about sea level rise:

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Here’s What I’m Thinking About

Published by Taylor on December 5, 2008 in Business, Consumer Behavior, Environment, Philanthropy, Politics and Social Entrepreneurship. View Comments

Taking a page out of Ezra Klein’s playbook (and continuing our trend here of shamelessly copying features from other blogs…ahem), here are a few things I keep meaning to write about:

The NC legislature commissioned a study report by a few of the best environmental and public policy academics in the state to look at water quantity and allocation. The report, currently in draft form (PDF), is very well done and a nice synthesis of policy and science. Water quantity is not the sexiest issue, but after recent severe droughts I think more folks are starting to give water policy the attention it deserves.
The Acumen Fund invests in social enterprises around the world–businesses, generally operating at a below-market return for investors, that have as central tenets to their mission alleviating a social problem or improving lives of vulnerable populations. A recent think piece by Acumen’s Chief Investment Officer, Simple Measures for Social Enterprise (PDF), is a good reminder for social investors and philanthropists alike that sometimes just capturing consistent and reliable data can lead to greater improvements than the thorough impact assessments we all think of as ideal.
I’ve been meaning to write about Nate Silver (creator and whiz behind fivethirtyeight.com) for a while. Even though the election is long past, this NY Times profile is worth a look.
Speaking of the NY Times, this piece from the Magazine about the Netflix recommendation engine and the “Napoleon Dynamite problem” is fascinating (apparently Napoleon Dynamite is a love/hate kind of movie, and it’s nearly impossible to consistently predict whether someone will like it based on their other movie preferences).