Art 80F The Lunch Club Section H
Project 5: Networked Activism
Core Mission Statement / Network Goals
Network / App Site Map
The core mission of this app is to help people become more environmentally friendly and aware through the connection of users and organizations and information about their environmental impact. Through this app, we wish to make the world a greener place by uniting the users of the app and showing them how to reduce their carbon footprint. It can connect users to eco-friendly companies and environmental organizations so that people can take direct action by choosing where and what they buy and give them a place to learn about their environmental impacts and provide opportunities to donate and/or volunteer. It provides links to the websites of these organizations so that people can get more information. The app can locate and give directions to nearby recycling plants and other important locations that can assist in properly disposing your recyclables, trash, and e-waste. It can help measure the user’s own carbon footprint, and then compare that score to other users in the the area or worldwide on a scoreboard. The information on other users footprints will incentivise users to work harder and increase their score to rise on the leaderboards and also help people to connect and share with others. Since connecting directly with other people is also an important part of the app, forums allow people to ask and answer questions and give advice on being eco-friendly. The app provides information, advice, and connections to people and organizations to make it easier for people to take action.
Connecting With Other Users
The main feature that connects other users is the Carbon Scoreboard. Once your carbon footprint score has been validated, it will appear on the scoreboard, ranking your footprint based on the carbon footprints of other users in your area. The better your score, the higher you place on the board. When viewing the board, it will show you and your score and where you place; it will also show you the carbon footprint scores of others who rank similarly to yours. I.e, if you place 23rd in your area, you’ll also see the scores of 25th, 24th, 22nd, and 21st. You can then see the scores of the top ten users in your area. If you desire, you can also view the world leaderboard, and see the carbon footprint scores of other users across the world. This adds a slightly competitive aspect to the Carbon Footprint Score, incentivizing users to place higher by becoming more environmentally friendly. Its purpose is not to discourage users by seeing how much more green others are, but to persuade users to
strive to be make even better scores. We will also be implementing a forum, where users can contact each other, post questions, and offer advice. These two mechanics will allow users to connect and interact with others around them, sharing information and competing for higher carbon footprint scores.
Network Aspects
Measuring Carbon Footprint
The user would use the app to measure their carbon footprint by first conducting a quick survey to get the general idea of their environment and living habits. For example, the survey would prioritize four main components: household, transportation, home and food. Based on these components, the application can determine which ones that the user needs to work on, in order to lower their carbon footprint. For example, the household category would include how much income the user is making and how many total members are in their household. If the family members are also using the same application, the app can actively compare the carbon footprint of each member. While the transportation category would take into account the types of transportation would use on the daily, weekly and annually. In addition, the app will use a GPS locator that can track how fast the user is going to determine whether if the user is on a plane, car or walking. In order to determine their speed, the application will take their current location and will take the user’s location again to decide how long did it take for the user to reach their latest point. If the user does drive, the application is able to provide information about nearby gas station and their prices. However, in order to check out the prices, the application will want the user to check in, this is because the app is able to track the natural gases and fuels that the user uses. The type of natural gases that the average user uses is electrical, industrial, residential and commercial. Another way, the application is able to measure how much heating oil/fuel the user uses is by temperature. Based on the region of location, the application can determine if it is necessary to turn on the heating appliances. Water usage is a large part of everyone’s daily routine, but is wastefully used everyday. From the survey, the user will have to calculate how much water they use for bathing and hygiene. In addition, they will have to establish how much cooking they do on a daily. Another major component of cooking is the food that is used in it. Different types of food like dairy products, vegetables, grains, assortment of meat/fish, eggs, fruits and snacks are all part of daily meals. The app can use calorie counting, in order to control how much calories are needed for the user. The application will need to take into account, the user’s current weight, gender, age and height. It can also be used to track the amount of protein, carbohydrates and fats that the user has intake in the present day.
Finding Organizations / Companies
The app can be used to connect people to green organizations and companies. It provides ways for people to find information about and get in contact with environmental organizations. People are able to find organizations with various goals that they can then support. People would be able to donate to the organizations or find out what they could specifically do to help. The app also provides information about what companies are green and which are not, so people can choose how they spend their money. People are able to search for and find out how eco-friendly a company really is. There is also information about local farms for people to buy food from, volunteer opportunities, and local events the user could take part in. The app connects people to environmental organizations and eco-friendly companies to make the world a greener place.
Controlling Carbon Footprint
A way the network would give users a way to cut down on their carbon footprint would be using the database from the already existing app Farmstand to allow users to get farm fresh food at local farmers market. The app would include a tab which showed users where and when the next farmers market is as well as which farms and local businesses are going to be selling what. Another way that the app would help people cut down on their carbon impact is through a database of the local recycling centers as well as a list describing how to dispose of what waste materials. For instance, if a user wanted to dispose of some used motor oil, but wasn’t sure where or how to go about doing that, there would be a tab in the app which would have a matrix of disposal options for different goods. On that list would be motor oil with a location of nearby disposal.
