NYU ITP: If Products Could Tell Their Stories, Class 2 2010
Is consumer behavior an effective lever to change the system for better environmental outcomes? If Products Could February 1 2010 B from Jen van der Meer
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So, You Need a Letter of Recommendation
Dear former students and employees. I’d be delighted to write you a letter of recommendation. I’ll need you to do some work first. First – make sure this is not a last-minute exercise. I’ll need a few days for synthesis, and I frequently travel, so make sure you’re giving me a minimum of a week
NYU ITP: If Products Could Tell Their Stories, Second Batch!
Year 2 for the class that investigates how things are made, and how things can use their newfound technological innards to tell us how they got here. If Products Could Jan 25 2010 from Jen van der Meer Provocation: As creators, know what’s in the stuff you make. As interaction designers, create tools
Too Much Virtual Friend Making .NL
I’ll be posting at Core77 this year, starting with this observation about some of my favorite people and their addiction AND repulsion to social media: In her annual Christmas Message, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands warned of the dangers of too much virtual friend making. She encouraged people to put down their phones and laptops and re-establish
Clean Energy Funds for the Developing World Announced
At Open Forum for Inhabitat: With all of the climate talks, protests, and stunts during the Copenhagen UN summit on climate change, you may have missed an announcement about funds for clean energy in the developing world. Secretary Steven Chu of the US Department of Energy announced a $350MM from the Major Economies Forum to
What’s Your Foodprint?
At Open Forum for Inhabitat: Take a look at your meal. I’m looking at mushroom ravioli, parsley, olive oil, Italian bread, and parmesan cheese. But I can’t accurately tell you where these tasty food items come from, how far or wide reaching their impact. I do not know my meal’s “foodprint,” a concept discussed at
Entrepreneurs: Have You Foursquared Lately?
The post that made me realize that green business was not what Open Forum’s readers were seeking. My most popular Open Forum story, ever: Foursquare is open for business at the right price for mom and pop and larger businesses that want the benefit from a highly localized social network. For those that haven’t heard of
UNICEF Innovation: An SMS System That Saves Lives
Most non-governmental aid organizations like UNICEF rely on hand-written, hand-collected data and forms, sent to country capitols, and entered into national databases. Months pass before information is fully recorded and transmitted back to those who make decisions about critical food distribution, medicine, and other life-supporting help. UNICEF’s innovation team is changing the way governments and
The Million Baby Crawl: A Brand Takes a Political Stand
At Open Forum for Inhabitat: “We cannot stand, but we stand for something,” is the rallying cry for Seventh Generation’s latest marketing campaign, an effort to give babies a virtual voice in upcoming legislation about chemicals and kid safety. In a social media marketing effort, the company has partnered with Erin Brockovich and Safer Chemicals to draw attention to
The Darfur Stove Project
At Open Forum for Inhabitat: Every day in Darfur refugee camps, women leave to travel on six to seven hour missions to collect fuel wood for their meals, and every day these women increase their risk of violent attack. When Ashok Gadgil, a physicist at Lawerence Berkeley National Laboratory, visited Darfur to observe how families were