Ted Ritzer: Gaeaidealog

ZON Dollars Where the Virtual & Real World Collides for Good in the World

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 23:36:47 GMT

ZON DOLLARS CONCEPT-JAN 1, 2007

Dear Google Org, Amazon and Linden Labs People:

I submit this idea for your consideration:

It has been posted to the Internet via Google docs, its URL is:

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dcjvvpr5_2frhqm6

ZON Dollars Where the Virtual & Real World Collides for Good in the World:

The idea for ZON dollars has its roots in three things I read as the final moments of 2006 played out:

1. Allision H Fine's wonderful new book: "Momentum-igniting social change in the connected age.", which can be purchased at Amazon. 2. Amazon's new project that uses 37signals Ruby on Rails to build a new application called Unspun , which is based on an application Amazon has called the mechanical Turk. 3.An article called: "What is Second Life?" Of course, the reference to a virtual currency comes directly from Second Life's "The Linden dollar".

I guess the challenge delivered by Allision Fine in her book: "Momentum" is how do we harness technology and the economy to do good?

ZON dollars is my attempt at doing just that through the creation of a virtual currency that at its core involves both voluteerism and doing good throughout the world.

ZON dollars can only be earned by:

1. individuals or corporations donating to recognized charities(those that can issues tax receipts) for conversion into ZON dollars, for the sole purpose of motivating people to do good. through the use of those ZON dollars. 2. doing virtual work through participating companies like Amazon's Mechanical Turk Service, a portion, determined by the worker goes to charities in the form of ZON dollars, while the remainder goes to the virtual worker, to be used as they see fit. 3. corporations who are so confident of the worth of their product that they openly invite comparision by consumers, donate ZON dollars to encourge concensus rankings of their product using Amazon's new Unspun service. People are encouraged to vote on the best products i in those categories, and the ZON dollars are distributed to the charity that the sponsoring corporation names when they open the community concensus on their product category.

ZON dollars can be converted to:

1. real currency for use to purchase goods at Amazon.com or via Google's new ecommerce system. 2. they can be converted to Linden dollars for use in Second Life.

So I guess those are my inititial thoughts related to the ZON dollar concept, I will now publish this, and also email the concept to the above named entities that could actually implement the concept, a. Google.org, Amazon's Unspun & Second Life.

As Allision Fine's book title says, I wonder if this concept will:

'ignite social change in the connected age"

Sincerely

Gregers Ritzer-January 1, 2007

Fri, 25 Nov 2005 00:12:32 GMT

EcoModo - The Best of Treehugger.

This week at Treehugger: A Weapon of Mosquito Destruction: The Mosquito Magnet. A Hand-Powered Night Vision Monocular that allows you to see in the dark without batteries. Hewlett Packard decides that having toxic flame retardant on the outside of its laptop casings might not be such a good idea. Also, from the Crazy But Cool Department, a man builds a private island out of empty soda cans (can this be called a Do-It-Yourself island?), and finally, we have a look at how Google and PowerEscape fight runaway energy consumption.

The person who invented this cross between a barbecue and a motorboat really hates mosquitoes! Lucky for us, he or she also had a dislike for insecticide and these glowing traps that vaporize insect dust in the air we breathe. The way this "biting insect trap" works is by emitting a fake "breath" of CO2 with a scent that is attractive to the little vampires (mosquitoes locate their victims primarily with exhaled carbon dioxide). The device then sucks in the bugs in a radius of up to 1.25 acres (around 5,000 square meters) and dehydrates them (and then turns them into MREs?).

This device is a night vision scope, and quite fortuitously, it doesn't require any batteries. Instead, it's has a lever-activated power supply, so you can generate your own power ad hoc, and thereby see in the night, without fear of energy failure (that is, unless a sudden lassitude engulfs you).

Hewlett Packard has announced that it will remove a bromated flame retardant (BFR) from the outer case parts of all new products released after December of 2006. BFRs have been associated with endocrine disruption and impairment of mental skills, and have been found in women’s breast milk. Bromated flame retardants in electronics can also make e-waste more hazardous. For something that is supposed to make the product safer, it sure seems dangerous.

We couldn't make this stuff up: this man, Reishee Sowa of Puerto Aventuras, Mexico, apparently grew tired of trying to live self-sufficiently on dry land, and did what any of us would have done. He built his own island out of used pop bottles. 250,000 of them, plus some construction leftovers and bags of leaves, make up "his island," though he's quick to point out that it's technically not an island by traditional standards. "You see not even the president is allowed his own island in Mexico," he says, "but technically I don’t have an island, I have an eco space-creating ship."

Google vice president of operations Urs Hoelzle told us in a TG Daily article a little about Google's energy efficiency problems and how it tries to solve them, and this post is about PowerEscape Insight, a way to optimize software so that the hardware it runs on requires less power. It can of course be applied to computers, but also certainly to all kinds of electronic that might run software that makes chips run hotter than they should.

Treehugger’s EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

[Gizmodo]

Sun, 20 Nov 2005 05:33:45 GMT

Millions face glacier catastrophe. Science: As the result of global warming, Himalayan glacier lakes are filling up with more and more melted ice. [Guardian Unlimited]

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 14:45:48 GMT

ADVT: Sun Launches Eco-Initiative. Sun is making a call to the industry to deliver more eco-responsible computing. Leading the way is Sun's new chip that maximizes capacity with dramatic energy efficiency and cost savings. [internetnews.com]

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 02:00:40 GMT

Water Blogs Update.

In winding my way through email from the past few weeks, I find that several people sent URLs to help Linda in her quest to find blogs devoted to the topic of water and the environment. Amazingly, out of the eight emails I received, there was only one duplicate URL. Major score to the blogosphere, and muchos gracias to everyone that responded!

For the Google cache record, here are the links folks sent in:
http://www.wilsdomain.com/blogs/environmental-blogs.html
http://earth-info-net.blogspot.com/
http://www.badlani.com/blog/weblog.php
http://www.oceanjournal.org/
http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/waterlib.html
http://radio.weblogs.com/0101170/categories/coloradowater/
http://northwestwatch.org/
http://cascadiascorecard.typepad.com/blog/
http://www.eco-portal.com/blog/
http://www.waterconserve.info (particularly http://www.waterconserve.info/blog/)
http://www.polizeros.com/categories/thePoliticsOfWater/
http://www.rtumble.com/
http://www.keepersofthewaters.org/

[The Shifted Librarian]

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 01:57:17 GMT

BBC: Blog picked as word of the year. Slow news day. [Scripting News]

Google Local is sooo cooool

Thu, 02 Dec 2004 03:17:57 GMT

Google Local. Better than the yellow pages [Cool Tools]

like the man says, my wife and I like East Indian food, typed in that put in our city, Edmonton, Alberta and bingo bango a map with a list of East Indian food restraunts.

I will never let my fingers do the walknig again!!!!YAHOO FOR GOOGLE LOCAL!!!

nixMoneyMachine-Sticking it to the Status Quo!

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 18:16:36 GMT

nixMoneyMachine-sticking it to the status quo!

this new category, came about as a direct result of my disgust with a recent headline about Microsoft releasing a product which has been called an iPod Killer! Fuck it, I have had with this kind of BS, where monopolies that don't have an innovative fiber in their being, watch the market and wade in after an innovator like Apple creates it out of nothing, and then ends up losing it, just because of the monoolie's sheer size and money reserves!

Microsoft did this against the Mac, then against Netscape! Do we as consumers have to keep supporting greedy monopolies!

I remember when Mosaic first came out and for me the Internet was a place where the little guy could innovate and create a decent living, and in some cases create fortunes based upon creativity, hard work and luck! The iPod Killer headline is so cynical, and it assumes that the only thing the consumer cares about is money, and that the only thing the producer concerns themselves with is money too!

Well how bout this, why don't we come up with some truly innovative business models that put the power in the hands of the content producer, and in the process create cheaper content, get more people producing digital content, and get more developing nations into the digital economy as well!

Accoring to Robert Young found of Red Hat:

"You can't compete with a monopoly by playing the game by the monopolist's rules."

Well fuck the old models, the old rules and the old approach to operating systems, software and digital content!

I have just had it with this bullshit, and this is what nixMoneyMachine is about, proposing new economic models to stick it to the status quo!

Stay tuned!

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:43:47 GMT

Mexico Breaks Ground on Sustainable Tourist Destination [GreenBiz | News Center]

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:35:22 GMT

Smiling makes you happy.

An interesting theory that facial expressions affect blood-flow to the brain and are not just results of emotions. The assertion is that these blood-flows affect our emotions. So SMILE! :-)

Zajonc, R. B., Emotion and Facial Efference: A Theory Reclaimed, Scince, 1985, 288, 15-2

He also asserted that elation follows the smile, not the opposite. The blood flow changes caused by contracting the facial muscles in the smile alter cerebral blood flow and cause an emotional change. He extends this reasoning to account for all kinds of other bizarre facial habits associated with emotions -- wrinkled forheads, rubbing one's eyes, hand on forehead, pulling earlobes, licking lips, etc.

Via Jonas

By Joichi Ito joi_nospam_@nospam_ito.com. [Joi Ito's Web]

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:30:43 GMT

I gotta say that this title, about a Microsoft iPod Killer for me is depressing, in that wherever there is a market created by a true innovator like Apple, that Microsoft is able to through its sheer size and market dominance, steal that market away from the ture innovator!

Think Mac vs Windows, think Internet browser, Mosaic then Netscape.

The only ray of hope I can see on the horizon is Open Source Business Models, that create new opportunities for innovators!

Microsoft's iPod-Killer: Portable Media Center?. securitas writes "The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Todd Bishop reports on what's billed as an iPod-killer: the Microsoft Portable Media Center line of digital ... [Slashdot]

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:24:12 GMT

ListenIllinois Goes Live!.

Thank heavens I can finally announce it! As many of you know, I've been trying to get a group purchase of Audible content for my libraries for more than two years, and I am thrilled to finally be able to say it has happened! It's been a difficult road to get it off the ground, but we leap-frogged many of the normal startup problems we would have faced thanks to the fine folks at the NOLA Regional Library System in Ohio.

NOLA has been running the original Audible group purchase since October, 2001, at ListenOhio, and I've been tracking their project for some time. Last year, NOLA offered to let Illinois libraries join their program, and I jumped at the chance before they even finished the first sentence. It's taken six months to get to a point where we could go live, but the day has finally arrived and you can visit the ListenIllinois web site to see what I mean.

We currently have 12 Illinois libraries in ListenIllinois, 11 publics and one high school. Right now Wheaton Public Library is the only library circulating titles/players to patrons, but we expect the others to go live this month. To give them full credit for their foresight, the 12 are:

Thanks to NOLA, we start with a catalog of 1800 titles, and we collectively purchase pretty much every title that Audible releases each month. Right now, each library is circulating Audible Otis players and patrons use the ListenIllinois web site to browse and choose titles. Of course, the overall goal is let patrons download files directly from online catalogs onto their own players, but for us this is the first step in that direction. In fact, I hope that one of Illinois' contribution to the project will be MARC records for everyone's catalogs.

I'm pretty sure that this collaborative group purchase across two states means we're the largest library buyer of Audible content, and personally I hope we can use that clout to push publishers to release more material in this digital format. Once the dust settles a little, I plan to pursue circulating titles to patron devices and I want to contact publishers directly to prove to them this can work. The time for being scared is over, and we need to move forward now.

I'll provide periodic updates for ListenIllinois, especially once we start getting some concrete numbers. The initial opportunity to join was open to only three Illinois Library Systems - Suburban (me!), DuPage, and Heritage Trail. My own kudos to DLS and HTLS for their willingness to take this to their members! However, in a few months, once we have all of the kinks worked out, we'll open it up statewide to any Illinois library that wants to join. I can't provide details here, but trust me... it's an incredible deal. If you're interested in joining when we get to that point, feel free to email or IM (cybrarygal on AIM) me.

[The Shifted Librarian]

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 07:50:09 GMT

Audubon International Certifies First Eco-Friendly Community Developments [GreenBiz | News Center]

Sat, 27 Dec 2003 20:29:09 GMT

Consumers prefer locally grown food, survey says [Environmental News Network - ENN.com]

Sat, 27 Dec 2003 20:28:31 GMT

ëTis the Season to Bar Sexual Orientation Discrimination [GreenMoney Journal]

Fri, 26 Dec 2003 18:17:16 GMT

Rules Regulating Gasoline Mileage Face an Overhaul [Global Exchange : Latest News]

Fri, 26 Dec 2003 18:11:39 GMT

Calculate Your Ecological Footprint

Fri, 26 Dec 2003 18:09:30 GMT

i buy differnet!

Fri, 26 Dec 2003 18:07:33 GMT

15 Things You Can Buy or Do To Make a Difference!

Wed, 24 Dec 2003 17:54:48 GMT

Merry Christmas from the Accordian Guy worth repeating:

Stole this file from the above site, cause I think it really does capture some of both the frustration and the joy of Xmas.

All the best from WIFLblog and enjoy the Accordian Guy's Christmas story, and don't forget to visit his site:

the Accordian Guy Christmas story now follows:

Merry Christmas, and I mean it in the nice sense of the phrase

by Joey deVilla on December 24, 2003 12:13PM (EST)

This is from last year (with a little polishing up), but it's worth repeating.

While I do believe that some traditions should be put to rest, I also believe that a lot of tradition-bashers are poor-impulse-control cases. Having abandones any actual tradition or culture of their own, they fill the void with a couple of < href="http://www.utne.com/">Utne Reader platitudes, a mild revulsion for anything even vaguely Judeo-Christian, even if it aligns with their beliefs, a pro-pot slant and a half-formed belief in eye-for-eye karmic payback.

Standing for almost nothing, they tend to fall for just about anything.

Chris Baldwin's summed it up pretty handily -- and perhaps unintentionally -- in a Bruno comic from last year:

To borrow the line about Klansmen and Martin Luther King Day: C'mon, Bruno, how hardcore a secularist must you be to not want a day off?

Of course, those of us who celebrate Christmas would argue the exact opposite: here we took a beautiful Christian holdiay and destroyed it through corportization and "We're white, we're straight, we're sorry!" guilt.

(There's a Randroid who would take another tack and say "here we took a beautiful commerical holiday and destroyed it in usual religious fashion." Haven't we developed some kind of Ayn Rand repellent yet?)

In the end, I believe that intent counts.

I'm certain there is no malice, no implicit "convert or die" message and no forcing of one's beliefs on others when someone wishes someone else a Happy Chanukah, Eid, Diwali, Kwanzaa, Saturnalia, Tet or even Festivus, the actions of certain vicious zealots notwithstanding. Balanced minds do not see any implied Hitler overtones at Oktoberfest nor Hirohito/Tojo insinuations at the sushi house, and neither do they see the Crusades in Christmas.

When people say "Merry Christmas", most of them are really saying "Happy Holidays, and I'm celebrating them Christmas-style. You do your thing, and I'll do mine. Come by for drinks."

That what I'm really saying, anyways.

No matter what you believe, enjoy the break from the hustle and bustle of 21st century life. Be nice to each other. Hug someone you love.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Wed, 24 Dec 2003 06:10:11 GMT

Norway to put nature before oil [panda6x3y613]

Wed, 24 Dec 2003 03:20:00 GMT

Diesel soot is big factor in global warming [Environmental News Network - ENN.com]

Sun, 21 Dec 2003 23:59:58 GMT

Real Goods

This is such a great place to browse for planet friendly products!!

Well worth checking out if you are at all interested in using things that are gentle on the earth!

http://www.realgoods.com/

Sat, 20 Dec 2003 05:18:32 GMT

Thanks Dave I was getting so depressed reading meaningless drivel, and than I came to Dave's Blog that had a do not shop at these stores list, I liked it so much I pasted into my blog!

Thanks, Dave

THE BOYCOTT LIST

As promised last week, here is the current list of especially responsible (socially and environmentally) and irresponsible businesses, provided by Responsible Shopper and vetted by The Better World Handbook. The documentation provided to support the company ratings is extensive and all available oline. The Responsible Shopper recognizes the fact that large companies almost always get accused of doing something wrong, and in their detailed profiles of each company, they give credit for each company's social and environmental programs, and balance these positives against the negatives in coming up with their ratings. The company profiles also list brands and subsidiaries of each company (bet you'll be surprised how broad the reach of these companies is).

I've simplified the ratings and categories, and omitted pure business-to-business companies (like mines) that we as consumers don't deal with directly. I've also omitted the many companies that get a neutral rating from Responsible Shopper.

You can help make business, and society as a whole, more socially and environmentally responsible by avoiding, where you have a choice, the purchase of products and services from the companies in the right column, especially the worst offenders marked with an asterisk. The companies on the left are mostly small and have limited product range, but in case you want to check them out I've provided links to their sites. Most of them sell over the Internet.

As noted on my How to Save the World scorecard, my wife & I have stopped buying products & services from the companies on the right. Hope you'll see fit to join us.

Companies to Support	Companies to Avoid (*Boycott)
Airlines:	Airlines: American Continental United
Appliances & Electronics: Real Goods Trading	Appliances & Electronics: GE* Toshiba* Amazon.com Eastman Kodak Hitachi Honeywell Lucent Motorola Sanyo Sony Whirlpool
Automotive:	Automotive: BMW* Ford* GM* Hyundai* Isuzu* Mitsubishi* Daimler Chrysler Goodyear Nissan Toyota (the only major car makers not on the 'avoid' list are Honda, Mazda, Subaru & Volkswagen)
Banks, Insurance & Financial Services:	Banks, Insurance & Financial Services: Citigroup* JP Morgan Chase* Allstate American Express Bank of America Bank of NY CIGNA Fannie Mae Fleet Boston MBNA Mellon Financial Merrill Lynch Morgan Stanley Dean Witter National City Prudential SunTrust
Brewers, Distillers, Tobacco:	Brewers & Distillers: Altria (Phillip Morris)* BAT (British-American Tobacco)* Brown Forman
Clothing: Patagonia Real Goods Trading Two Star Dog	Clothing: Dillard's* DuPont* (Lycra) Gap* JC Penney* Kohl's* May's* (Robinson May, Lord & Taylor) Wal-Mart* Big Lots (Pic'n Save) Costco Federated (Bloomies, Macy's, the Bon) Fruit of the Loom J. Crew Jones Apparel KMart Lands' End Levi Strauss Liz Claiborne Nike Phillips Van Heusen Reebok Sara Lee (Playtex, WonderBra, Sheer Energy) Sears Target Victoria's Secret (Limited Stores)
Cleaning Products: Abundant Earth	Cleaning Products: Dow Chemical* DuPont* 3M Bristol Myers Squibb Clorox Colgate Palmolive Dial Kimberly Clark Procter & Gamble Sara Lee (Behold, Endust, TyDBol)
Computer Products:	Computer Products: Advanced Micro Devices* Intel* Toshiba* Canon Computer Associates Eastman Kodak Gateway HP/Compaq IBM Lucent Microsoft Motorola National Semiconductor Sanyo Sony
Drugs & Health: Abundant Earth	Drugs & Health: Abbott Labs* Monsanto* Rite-Aid* Tyco* Wyeth (American Home Products)* Aetna Alberto Culver Astra Zeneca Baxter Becton Dickinson Bristol Meyers Squibb CIGNA CVS/Arbor Drugs Eli Lilly Glaxo Smith Kline Hannaford Bros Humana Johnson & Johnson Kimberly Clark Merck Pfizer/Pharmacia Rite Aid Schering Plough Warner Lambert
Entertainment/Media/Accommodation: Childsake Uncommon Goods	Entertainment/Media/Accommodation: Disney/ABC* MCI Worldcom* Amazon.com American Express Barnes & Noble Bell South CBS Comcast Harcourt Books Hasbro Hilton KB Toys Mattel Qwest / US West Sanyo Time Warner Toys 'R' Us
Food Products: Coffee Traders Counter Culture Coffee Dean's Beans Equal Exchange Green Mountain Coffee Max Havelaar Thanksgiving Coffee	Food Products: Altria (Philip Morris)* Chiquita* ConAgra (Beatrice, Butterball, Hunts, Redenbacher)* Equal/Nutrasweet (Monsanto)* Smithfield Foods* Tyson Foods/IBP Meats* Archer Daniels Albertson's Campbell Soup Coca-Cola Dean Foods Dole Hannaford Bros HJ Heinz Interstate Bakeries Kroger Stores McDonald's Nabisco Nestle Purina Pepsico Procter & Gamble Publix Supermarkets Safeway Sara Lee Shoney's Warner Lambert Winn-Dixie
Gas & Oil:	Gas Stations: Exxon Mobil* Chevron Texaco* Royal Dutch Shell* Tosco* Unocal* Amerada Hess Conoco Phillips Halliburton Occidental Pennzoil Quaker State Sunoco Valero Ultramar Diamond Shamrock (the only major company not on the avoid list is BP)
Giftware, Household & Personal Products: Abundant Earth Body Shop Global Exchange Seeds of Change Tweezerman Uncommon Goods	Giftware, Household & Personal Products: Abbott Labs* Dow Chemical* (Saran Wrap) DuPont* (Teflon, Silverstone) GE* Tyco* Alberto Culver Bath & Body Works (Limited Brands) Bristol Myers Squibb Colgate Palmolive Dial Glaxo Smith Kline Johnson & Johnson Kimberly Clark Monsanto Owens Corning Pfizer Procter & Gamble Sara Lee (Dim, Brylcreem, L'eggs, Vapona)
Hardware & Home Improvement:	Hardware & Home Improvement: Dow Chemical* (Styrofoam) DuPont* (Tyvek, Mylar) Interfor* Doman Industries Domtar Fiberglas, Spacesaver (Owens Corning) Home Depot Sears Sherwin Williams
Office Equipment, Supplies & Furniture: Dolphin Blue	Office Equipment, Supplies & Furniture: Boise Cascade* Georgia Pacific* 3M Domtar Fort James International Paper Jefferson Smurfit Kimberly Clark Louisiana Pacific Mead Westvaco Office Depot Staples
Pet Foods:	Pet Foods: Colgate Palmolive (Science Diet) HJ Heinz (Gravy Train, Kibbles 'n Bits, KenLRation, Nature's Recipe) Nabisco (Milk Bone) Nestle Purina (Ralston Purina)
Utilities:	Utilities: Enron* American Electric Power

Generally, it's also environmentally (less transportation) and socially (support local labour) responsible to buy local whenever possible, and especially to avoid buying products and services from countries that aren't free (where sweatshops are generally common and environmental standards are usually low).

So what does Dave buy? I confess I haven't bought from many of the companies in the left column yet, but here's who I do buy from:

Airlines: I fly WestJet when I absolutely have to fly. I've cut my travel by 70% in the past year, and want to cut it further as soon as videoconferencing improves (and my new business Meeting of Minds will be helping it improve).
Appliances & Electronics: Haven't bought any in several years, since my Creative Nomad Jukebox MP3 player.
Automotive: I drive a Honda, and my next car will be a hybrid.
Banks & Insurance: I buy Canadian. I may move from my bank to a credit union.
Brewers/Distillers: We buy Canadian, favouring the local microbreweries and wineries.
Clothing: I buy Canadian, and buy nothing from the companies on the list above.
Cleaning Products: My wife outvotes me in this category, since she does most of the work. She does buy from some of the majors, but buys environmentally friendly alternatives when she can find them, and refuses to buy any disposable products (wipes etc.)
Computer Products: I drive a Dell. My wife doesn't use one.
Drugs & Health: We don't use or need any, touch wood.
Entertainment: We buy books from a great indy store McNally Robinson. We get lots of channels and music by satellite and internet, so we rarely buy CDs or DVDs. And we live in paradise so why would we need to go somewhere for a holiday?
Food: We buy Canadian, especially in the produce section, whenever possible. We buy premium no-name for almost everything else ( 'President's Choice' brand is cheaper and as good as the brand names, and almost always locally made). When we eat out it's at locally-owned restaurants and I continue to increase my vegetarian intake. We're not coffee drinkers.
Gas: No BP in Canada, so I buy from Sunoco, the least of the evils, or from some of the independents as long as I'm sure they don't buy from the Esso (Canadian Exxon) refinery. Work from home 3 days a week and hope to increase this further with the new business. Usually fill up twice a month, still too much.
Giftware, Household, Personal: Almost all our gifts are locally made crafts. My wife buys Avon products, and I buy Jason, great, organic cruelty-free products, or Body Shop stuff.
Hardware & Home Improvement: The new 'radical simplicity' house will be built with natural straw-bale insulation and be extremely energy- and space-efficient, using recycled materials when possible. Finishes will be local, natural woods, and will be spare and utilitarian. With a wilderness view on three sides, why would we need to decorate?
Office Equipment & Supplies: Paper from Grand & Toy, 100% recycled fibre. Toner in recycled, and recyclable cartridges. That's all the supplies you need for a 'virtual' service business.
Pet Foods: Chelsea eats Performatrin, a US-made house brand sold by Pet Valu, a Toronto-based chain of pet food stores that helps local pet rescues and does not sell animals.

I'm sure it's just a coincidence that the top 20 donors to George Bush's campaign are almost all on the 'avoid' list above, for either social or environmental irresponsibility.

(Pictured: Patagonia's fleece hiking jacket made entirely from post-consumer recycled materials)

Sat, 20 Dec 2003 03:01:01 GMT

Down As She Goes MP3

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 15:48:59 GMT

Free software to aid poor doctors. Free, open source software could help doctors and save money in poorer countries. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 06:28:48 GMT

911 Attack was preventable

Thu, 18 Dec 2003 23:34:28 GMT

Holocaust Survivors Traced Online. New World War II databases and the Internet are helping Holocaust survivors to track down and reconnect with their loved ones across the world. [Wired News]

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 19:57:49 GMT

New Lisa Rein song online. Lisa Rein has begun to post the recordings from her musical showcase. Her first track, "In the Spirit," is up now. It's her first anti-war song. Link [Boing Boing Blog]

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 04:06:33 GMT

Development Gateway Foundation

from its website:

The Development Gateway Foundation is an enabler of development. We help improve peopleís lives in developing countries by building partnerships and information systems that provide access to knowledge for development.

We exploit powerful and affordable information and communication technologies (ICT) that were previously unavailable to:

Increase knowledge sharing;
Enable aid effectiveness;
Improve public sector transparency; and
Build local capacity to empower communities.

The Development Gateway is an independent not-for-profit organization. It was conceived by World Bank President James Wolfensohn and initially developed in the World Bank. Operations began in July 2001.

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 17:28:05 GMT

Foundation opens door to Net and knowledge. Amid all the talk about bringing computers and Internet access to the digital "have-nots" during the global Net summit in Geneva last week, one group was showing participants how it's already delivering the goods. [InfoWorld: Top News]

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 17:27:20 GMT

Bush Signs First National Anti-Spam Bill Into Law (Reuters). Reuters - President Bush signed the first national anti-spam bill into law on Tuesday, outlawing some of the most annoying forms of junk e-mail and setting jail time and multimillion dollar fines for violators. [Yahoo! News - Top Stories]

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 17:24:20 GMT

Green Building Information Centre

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 17:18:27 GMT

Sustainble Bulding Database

The SBIS system is designed to provide users with non-commercial information about sustainable building around the world, and to point or link the user to more detailed sources of information elsewhere.

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 15:47:32 GMT

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation:

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is building upon the unprecedented opportunities of the 21st century to improve equity in global health and learningóbecause the life and potential of a child born in one place is as valuable as that in another.

The foundation was created in January 2000, through the merger of the Gates Learning Foundation, which worked to expand access to technology through public libraries, and the William H. Gates Foundation, which focused on improving global health. Led by Bill Gatesí father, William H. Gates, Sr., and Patty Stonesifer, the Seattle-based foundation has an endowment of approximately $25 billion through the personal generosity of Bill and Melinda Gates.

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 15:45:14 GMT

The Markle Foundation:

Emerging information and communication technologies possess enormous potential to improve people's lives. The Markle Foundation works to realize this potential and to accelerate the use of these technologies to address critical public needs.

The foundation focuses its work in the program areas of Policy for a Networked Society and Information Technologies for Better Health.

Markle's policy program seeks to advance the policy foundation that will enable the public to benefit fully from information and communication technologies (ICT). We work on ICT policies to improve national security, stimulate development in impoverished nations, and enhance innovation. We also seek to establish ICT policymaking processes that are inclusive and accountable so that the results serve the public interest.
Markle's health program seeks to accelerate the use of information and communication technologies by patients and consumers to improve their health and healthcare.

The Markle Foundation pursues its work by drawing together an effective mix of people, ideas and resources from all sectors-public, private and non-profit-in order to create strategic, sustainable solutions. The foundation creates and operates with partners most of its own projects.

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 15:41:29 GMT

The Benton Foundation:

The mission of the Benton Foundation is to articulate a public interest vision for the digital age and to demonstrate the value of communications for solving social problems. Our focus is on leveraging media and technology in innovative ways as a means to strengthen communities. We envision a learning society where opportunities to expand peopleís potential exists at every citizenís fingertips and where access, equity and diversity have pride of place.

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 15:38:11 GMT

The Grameen Technology Center is working to eliminate poverty by leveraging the power of microcredit coupled with information and communication technology.

The Grameen Technology Center focuses on technology that:

makes the delivery of microcredit even more efficient
enhances income generating opportunities for the rural poor
provides poor communities access to information for better health and education.

The Grameen Technology Center is an initiative of Grameen Foundation USA, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1997.

Grameen Foundation USA empowers the world's poorest people to lift themselves out of poverty with dignity through access to financial services and to information.

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 15:33:26 GMT

Utilizing the provisions of copyright law that permit the reproduction of publications into specialized formats for the disabled, Bookshare.org is a web-based library of scanned books, created and shared by members of the blind, visually impaired and reading disabled community.

Benetech Bookshare.org is an online community that enables members of the blind, visually impaired and reading disabled community to legally share scanned books.

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 15:30:23 GMT

Benetech is a non-profit venture that combines the impact of technological solutions with the social entrepreneurship business model to help disadvantaged communities in our society and across the world.


	The Benetech Initiative and Social Entrepreneurship Technology's Impact on Social Problems Current Projects New Philanthropic Option for the Technological Community Benetech's Origins ó The Arkenstone Story The Future ó Technology Serving Humanity

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 14:55:13 GMT

SERIS. SERIS is an inventory of national state of the environment reports. The database contains brief publications details for recent (1997 onwards) reports for countries included in the EEA's third assessment report. SERIS contains links to the reports and to [Recently approved feeds from Syndic8.com]

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 03:49:26 GMT

Source: Community Fiber:

http://communityfiber.blogspot.com/2003_12_14_communityfiber_archive.html#107150330161262213

Monday, December 15, 2003

Utah: "Cities dream of high-speed digital link called Utopia"
The Salt Lake Tribune is carrying another article on the proposed 18-city UTOPIA FTTH (fiber to the home) project.

The article quotes a University of Denver academic, Ron Rizutto, who criticizes such systems on several grounds. The article, however, does not note his employment as senior fellow with the cable television industry's Cable Center.

One Rizutto criticism is that municipal systems duplicate existing private investments. This is not exactly true -- usually substantially exceed existing private investments. That's because they usually only get built in areas where the existing cable TV and telecommunication providers have done a poor job serving local customers and failed to invest in the plant upgrades necessary to offer affordable broadband.

A second criticism is that these systems "are not making money in the conventional sense" and just breaking even -- but isn't that the point of municipal ownership?

Rizutto also notes that some municipal systems are losing money but the article does not go into details. All broadband systems -- public or private -- lose money intitially as they are being built. From my own experience, I would expect that most municipal systems in the U.S. are breaking even after the first three or four years.
posted by Al Bonnyman 12/15/2003 07:22:47 AM #
Comment (0)

Sun, 14 Dec 2003 16:45:23 GMT

Canít find the perfect gift for someone special this holiday? Give them the gift of software freedom:

Download the free GNU Knoppix and burn some yuletide cheer! The CommuniquÈ is proud to offer the English edition ISO image of Knoppix 3.3 (2003-11-19), and as an added special bonus download a ready-made CD label in PDF for the 8694 format from Avery-Print (or you can do your own)

Knoppix 3.3 is a fully-functioning multimedia Debian-based GNU/Linux bootable filesystem on CD featuring:

Linux-Kernel 2.4.22
KDE V3.1 with K Office and the Konqueror browser
X Multimedia System (xmms) for MPEG-video, MP3 and Ogg Vorbis
Internet connection via kppp, pppoeconf (DSL) and isdn-config
Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) 1.2
Utilities for data recovery and system repairs, even for other operating systems
Network and security analysis tools
OpenOfficeô 1.1 office suite
many programming languages, RAD tools and libraries
over 900 packages with over 2000 programs, utilities, and games

In short, a complete GNU desktop demo that runs direct from the CD without disk partitioning or installation. They just insert the disk, reboot and enjoy!

note: other localized editions are available at The Knoppix Homepage where you can also download by BitTorrent.

Sat, 13 Dec 2003 07:18:15 GMT

Internet Summit Makes Call to 'Wire Up' the World (Reuters). Reuters - More than 170 countries approved an ambitious call to extend the Internet and the benefits of information technology to the poorest corners of the world Friday, but dodged some of the difficulties of doing so. [Yahoo! News - Technology]

Sat, 13 Dec 2003 07:17:32 GMT

'Cyber Oscar' for web project. A Cambodian project has won an award at the UN's digital divide summit for using technology to improve lives. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

Sat, 13 Dec 2003 05:49:42 GMT

Audubon Presents Special Issue on Global Warming - 12/2/03 [Audubon News]

Sat, 13 Dec 2003 05:29:07 GMT

Okay I can tell I'm going to watch this about 100,000 times. [Scripting News]

Tue, 09 Dec 2003 14:39:07 GMT

Nader Testing Waters. Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate who many Democrats accuse of handing the 2000 elections to Bush, is considering another run for president in 2004. [kuro5hin.org]

Tue, 09 Dec 2003 14:34:57 GMT

How many years does an Azeri have to work to buy a copy of WinXP?. Over at FirstMonday, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh has published a table showing how many years an average wage-earner in various countries around the world will have to work if they are to buy a copy of Windows.

Country GDP/cap PCs ('000s) Piracy WinXP Cost [3] Effective $ GDP months Albania 1300 24 n.a. 15196 5.17 Algeria 1773 220 n.a. 11140 3.79 Angola 701 17 n.a. 28184 9.59 Argentina 7166 3415 62% 2757 0.94 Armenia 686 24 n.a. 28806 9.80 Australia 19019 10000 27% 1039 0.35 Austria 23186 2727 33% 852 0.29 Azerbaijan 688 n.a. n.a. 28708 9.77

Link [Boing Boing Blog]

Tue, 09 Dec 2003 14:18:09 GMT

Cambodians share digital wealth. Poor or disabled Cambodians are finding jobs in the global digital economy thanks to a non-profit company. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]