Auction for Electricity
Imagine if utility companies were separate from utility vendors. Then imagine that those vendors fought for your dollar on the open market, in an auction. You could likely get electricity (and other utilities) a lot cheaper. That’s what Powershop envisions and is seeking to create. An arm of Meridian Energy, the largest electricity generator in [...]
SpectioNZ Converts Waste to Energy
SpectioNZ, a clean tech company based out of Wellington, New Zealand, has developed a process for converting organic waste (like human feces) and plastic into energy. Currently operating out of the business incubator CreativeHQ, SpectioNZ is testing a trial converter at the Paraparaumu wastewater treatment plant. At the treatment plant, dehydrated waste is mixed with [...]
WhipCar
Car sharing services like ZipCar have proven quite successful, now available in most major cities and on hundreds of university campuses. ZipCar’s model is to own, insure, and fuel its own vehicle fleet; users pay an annual membership fee and an hourly rental fee. And, as long as there’s a ZipCar near you, you’re set. [...]
Service Design Expert Birgit Mager: Building innovative service businesses
To improve the service sector’s innovative capacity, Innovative DigiTech-Enabled Applications & Services Institute (IDEAS) held a 2009 Taiwan Service Experience Engineering International Forum – Customer Value-Oriented Service R&D, inviting Dr. Birgit Mager, the founder of Service Design Network (SDN) and a well-known service design and experience research expert, to visit Taiwan to share her experiences. [...]
Mobilizing Education, Africa
In anticipation of the upcoming 5th annual conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training in Zambia at the end of the month, the online news portal eLearning AFria published an insightful interview with John Traxler, a leading thinker and proponent of mobile learning globally. For the purpose of this post, I have included the [...]
Quake Catcher Network
In the wake of the unlucky string of earthquakes around the world, I thought it would be appropriate to write about the Quake-Catcher Network (QCN). QCN is a collaborative initiative for developing the world’s largest, low-cost strong-motion seismic network by utilizing sensors in and attached to internet-connected computers. Share and Enjoy:
Matter of Trust, Hair Salons, and an Oil Spill
As you may or may not have heard, a BP oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010. This has, of course, wreaked havoc on maritime flora and fauna. Share and Enjoy:
Phone Booths Out, Charging Stations In
Telekom Austria, a private company, has come up with a beautifully efficient way to repurpose its unneeded telephone booth infrastructure: turn them into charging stations for electric vehicles. Share and Enjoy:
Cycletracks
In November 2009, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) unveiled a new app for the iPhone and Android systems called Cycletracks. Share and Enjoy:
Parklets: Reclaiming dead urban space
The City of San Francisco, California is in the process of implementing an innovative program called Pavement to Parks. In several locations across the City, Planners have teamed up with local neighborhood groups and advocacy organizations to turn unused or under-used urban space into “green spaces”. Share and Enjoy:
Living Labs Global Channel
