This post was written by Rob Reed. He is the founder of MomentFeed, a location-based marketing, strategy, and technology firm.
Location technologies are transforming how we experience, navigate, and ultimately better our world. From the global to the local, here are #10Ways geolocation is a positive force for good.
Social media has changed the world. It has revolutionized communications on a global scale, and the transformation continues with every status update, blog post, and video stream. The global citizenry has become a global network.
Since becoming widely adopted just a couple years ago, social media has supercharged social action, cause marketing, and social entrepreneurship. Indeed, the true value hasn’t been the technology itself but how we’ve used it. Today, a second wave of innovation is defining a new era and setting the stage for change over the coming decade.
Mobile technologies will extend the global online network to anyone with a mobile device while enabling countless local networks to form in the real world. We’ve decentralized media production and distribution. We’re doing the same for energy. And we’ll continue this trend for social networking, social action, and commerce.
The combined forces of smartphones, mobile broadband, and location-aware applications will connect us in more meaningful ways to the people, organizations, events, information, and companies that matter most to us—namely, those within a physical proximity of where we live and where we are. Can location-based services (LBS) change the world? Here are #10Ways:
At the recent Taste of Ki eco-chic product showcase, I was lucky enough to be able to take a test-ride on a very nice electric bicycle, the A2B Metro, made by Ultra Motor.
What I discovered was an entirely new class of vehicle: an electric bike that is just as easy to pedal as it is to ride motor-only. While the bike itself appeared to be a well-constructed, well-designed and well-thought-out piece of personal transportation, I wondered exactly who would be buying it, given its whopping $3,000 price tag. The answer may surprise you.
The nice people at EarthSite liked our tweets so much, they’re offering discount tickets to A Taste of Ki, happening in Sonoma on Wednesday, May 19th. This is going to be a really fun event, featuring all kinds of eco-chic and innovative products. Taste of Ki is a preview of the showcase event, The Ki, in August. You can get the 50% discount by registering at EventBrite, and using the code “earthsite“. If you sign up by this Saturday, it will apply to the early bird rate.
A huge thanks to everyone who helped make the first GreenGarage event, hosted by PariSoma, a huge success! There was some very lively discourse on how to use mobile phone applications to achieve social good, from three companies that have all released the first versions of their apps. If you didn’t get to attend the event, you can watch a video of the entire discussion below.
“When explaining the motives behind why one would want to take some free beer, the evil man responsible for dumping the beer, Joe Priesmeyer said, ‘Beer is a popular product.’”–Treehugger article about three landfill employees who “rescued” fifty cases of beer that was slated to be destroyed.
Amen, brother Joe. You are a true American Hero.
We are never going to solve serious problems like climate change or peak oil while governments focus on silliness like this.
“My goal for the next decade is to try to make it as easy to save the world in real life as it is to save the world in online games,” — Jane McGonical
In her inspiring TED talk, game designer Jane McGonigal throws out a very interesting statistic: young gamers spend approximately 10,000 hours playing online games by the time they reach age 21. While this number may not seem significant, at first, it happens to be about the same number of hours a child will spend in school between 5th grade and high school graduation, and, according to Blink author Malcolm Gladwell is the magical number of hours one needs to spend learning a particular skill in order to become a “virtuoso”.
The Atlantic has an interesting article outlining how the Grateful Dead discovered innovative marketing secrets almost 40 years before they became mainstream, specifically, one that is hotly contested today: giving away content and making money off of ancillary items. While some large organizations, such as the mainstream music and publishing industries, continue to sue their most loyal customers, the Dead were one of the first to realize that huge sums of money could be made if you simply cater to your core audience and give them what they want.
From the article: “They famously permitted fans to tape their shows, ceding a major revenue source in potential record sales…the decision was not entirely selfless: it reflected a shrewd assessment that tape sharing would widen their audience, a ban would be unenforceable, and anyone inclined to tape a show would probably spend money elsewhere, such as on merchandise or tickets. The Dead became one of the most profitable bands of all time.”
According to Wired Magazine writer John Barlow, the concept, which goes directly against traditional business models, is based on the notion that it is not scarcity that creates value: “in the information economy,“the best way to raise demand for your product is to give it away..What people today are beginning to realize is what became obvious to us back then—the important correlation is the one between familiarity and value, not scarcity and value.”
Solar cells could make fossil fuels virtually redundant if they were cheaper, but their use of rare elements and complex manufacturing processes makes them expensive. – PhysOrg.com article “IBM develops promising contender for cheaper solar cells”
KurzwielAI.net is a very interesting blog maintained by Ray Kurzwiel, artificial intelligence expert and inventor of the electronic synthesizer. The blog highlights cutting-edge technologies that are information-based, such as medical and computing advances, and recently featured four neat scientific breakthroughs that could potentially change the face of cleantech.
Many people dispute the ability of high technology to provide substantive replacements for our oil-intensive lifestyles. Mr. Kurzweil has proposed a compelling reason why technology will, in fact, make a huge difference: the accelerating nature of information-based technologies. The logic goes something like this: any science or technology that is built upon information and information technologies will grow at an exponential pace (detailed analysis here). The following are a few examples of just how fast the pace of science and technology is currently advancing.
I just discovered this clean energy podcast by Tom Raftery of Spain. At about 11 minutes, in Tom makes some comments on my hydrogen article. He mostly supports my debunking of the hydrogen economy, although he does give a good example of how hydrogen creation can be useful in certain situations, such as storing excess power generation from wind production.
“The conceit that corporations must be treated identically to natural persons in the political sphere is not only inaccurate but also inadequate to justify the Court’s disposition of this case.” – Minority Opinion by Supreme Court Justices Ginsburg, Breyer and Sotomayor.
News outlets and the blogosphere are abuzz with reactions to Thursday’s Supreme Court decision that will allow corporations to fund political campaigns. The ruling, which overturns decades of legal precedent and legislation limiting the ability of corporations to influence the outcome of elections, may have broad implications for the political process in the U.S. News of the decision has drawn criticism from both the right and the left, many voicing the opinion that dramatically increased rights for corporations will significantly diminish the ability for individual citizens to have their voices heard.
In his weekly address, President Obama said, “I can’t think of anything more devastating to the public interest,” he said. “The last thing we need to do is hand more influence to the lobbyists in Washington or more power to the special interests to tip the outcome of elections.” Congressman Alan Grayson (FL) has already introduced legislation to combat the policy change. His “Save Our Democracy” Reform Package contains several strong measures, including a 500% excise tax on corporate contributions to political committees, and on corporate expenditures on political advocacy campaigns.
Although some claim that this most recent ruling will have only a limited effect on the political process, the decision certainly re-confirms the doctrine of granting constitutional rights, originally reserved for flesh-and-blood U.S. citizens, to corporate entities, which have held the dubious status of “legal persons” with rights since 1886, when another Supreme Court decision accorded it to them. This unexpected action by the Court re-opens the debate about about the wisdom of affording corporations such rights, and what effects this all has for sustainable business.
@EnviroBooty No, no....I love it!!! It reminds me of my '85 CRX Si. But just put an electric motors...and you can "indulge" all you want!!! 11 mins ago
"responsible indulgence" RT @EnviroBooty: 2011 Honda CR-Z hybrid is a sporty #Eco-activist - this car is hot! http://bit.ly/9I21zH17 mins ago
Interesting last 8 hours or so: Up late debating EV startups with ex-GM execs. 3 hrs sleep. Flat tire on the way to San Jose. #plugin201021 mins ago
Chad Bell--Best Buy believe that neighborhood EVs are an under-served market #plugin201019 hours ago
Chad Bell, Senior Dir. of Emerg. Biz--Best Buy will take leadership pos. in EVs by educating customers of the benefits. #plugin201019 hours ago
At the recent 
“The conceit that corporations must be treated identically to natural persons in the political sphere is not only inaccurate but also inadequate to justify the Court’s disposition of this case.” – Minority Opinion by Supreme Court Justices Ginsburg, Breyer and Sotomayor.
