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Environmental Software

Founder of Wikipedia Launching Environmental Wiki

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia and owner of Wikia, just went all ecogeek on us. Wikia focuses on creating deep-diving wikis in particular subjects (usually extraordinarily dorky subjects, like Star Wars or World of Warcraft.) But today Wikia launches a whole new wiki devoted to and only to the environment at green.wikia.com.

When we talked to Jimmy yesterday, he seemed genuinely excited about bringing Wikia's power to the environment.

When we think about star wars, star wars is geek culture. They can debate five points very plotholes. At the same time Star Wars is obviously a very mass market phenomenon. It's the uberfans writing for the normal fans.
I think the same thing is going on in the green space. Not only do some people think it's the most important thing, but they're motivated excited and involved. So we want to give these people a place where they can write about it with mass market and mass appeal.
 

Zimride Takes Carpooling to Facebook

If you’re on Facebook and want to access a carpool, you might check out Zimride, a new carpool community that has its own Facebook app so that you can learn who it is you’ll be sharing close quarters with on your daily commute.

The app allows users to get to know the personalities (sort of) of who they’re riding with, so they can make informed decisions about compatibility. This way, you can somewhat more safely and sanely make friends while cutting down on your carbon footprint.

Additionally, Zimride is going to be available on the Android phones this fall, with an app that hooks up with Android’s GPS system so users can connect with carpoolers while on the go. It’s getting just so much easier to not have to own a car…

Via AtuoblogGreen, Zimride

 

Intelligent Lighting

Use the phrase intelligent design and there is often a sinister intent. But as an eco-geek, I’m a big fan of all the smart designers out there around the globe who are coming up with intelligent ways to use technology to reduce strain on the environment.

One neat idea is the Stimuli 3.0 Intelligent Lighting by designer Chris Natt, a graduate of Brunel University in the UK. The project took three years to complete and this is the result. The lighting system reacts to the environment around it. For example, at dusk, illumination gradually increases as natural light recedes. At the heart of the system is a three axis gear box which enables subtle alteration of lighting through changing the shape of the device.

The design was based on an earlier model that Nat had done using a gear box designed to allow the chosen shape to enlarge and decrease size on three different axis, providing six different directions, all 90 degrees from each other. Natt will be exhibiting the Intelligent Lighting at the Papadakis showroom in Shepherds Market during the London Design Festival which runs September 13-23.

Via Yanko Design, Chris Natt

 

eBay Launches Green Shopping Site

There’s no shortage of feel good websites where you can buy stuff that is eco-friendly, or stuff that isn’t but you buy it in an eco-friendly way. From etsy.com to hippyshopper.com, from huddler.com to buygreen.com, you’ve got some options.

eBay wants to get in on this kind of action, of course, so they’ve launched WorldofGood.com, which sells products that keep the earth in mind…at least, mostly. Basically, with people growing conscious of the need to be green, but not wanting to let go of consumerist ways, the “green” shopping industry is worth about $206 billion a year. eBay wants some.

"We have an opportunity to drive large-scale consumer demand by helping consumers make more informed choices about the products they buy, and doing so in a market that's historically been inefficient," said Robert Chatwani, eBay's general manager of the project.

So with WorldofGood.com, you’re getting a whole lot more info about where the products are from, what’s in them, how they’re made, their impact on the environment, and so on, so you can make a highly informed purchasing decision. The prices are fixed, rather than auctioned, and the roughly 20,000 listing to start off the site are from over 70 countries.

For now, only US folks have access, but they’re expanding to Europe and then worldwide as it takes off. One of the best shopping decisions we can make is to not buy something, or if we do, to buy it locally. With even big box stores providing greener items, going at least a little more local is getting a bit easier to do. But when those aren’t options, WorldofGood.com could be a pretty rockin’ resource.

Via cnet

 

Siemens EcoPhones a Big Maybe

Feast your eyes on these cool phones. But that’s as close as you’ll be getting to Siemen’s eco-taunting of how green a cell phone can be.

Siemens, the German engineering giant, commissioned design firms to come up with the ultimate in green phones. Formwelt and Hans-Henning Brabänder dreamed big and envisioned something bold and green.

The Leaf is made of raw recyclable materials of eco-plastic and liquid wood and plant-based fiber. The invisible OLED display is embedded in the translucent casing which gives the phone a futuristic look.

The Solar is the high-end phone and uses solar cells harnessing sunlight as a natural energy source. The phone has detachable materials like metal, plastic and eco-glass. The neatest component of the solar is its eco-index, a touch pad that breaks down how environmentally-friendly the phone is, from its 92% recyclability to its organic LED.

There’s no word if Siemens will ever actually make these phones.

Via Treehugger, Yanko Design, MobileWhack

 
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