In my last post I postulated that social software could be used to capture people’s lifestream information and that this could be used by companies to help calculate their carbon footprint.
The case I put forward was more suited for the increasing numbers of people working from home. However, I neglected to point out another painfully obvious example – Dopplr.
Dopplr markets itself as the travel serendipity engine –
Dopplr lets you share your future travel plans privately with friends and colleagues. The service then highlights coincidence, for example, telling you that three people you know will be in Paris when you will be there too. You can use Dopplr on your personal computer and mobile phone. It links with online calendars and social networks.
However, potentially far more useful is how Dopplr have teamed up with AMEE (the world’s energy meter) to produce a chart of your travel-related carbon footprint (see the chart above of my travel footprint).
This ties in completely with my earlier post about the potential synergies attainable from combining lifestreaming software and the requirements of carbon accounting.
Can you think of any other use cases for the intersection of lifestreaming and carbon accounting?
I think SAP just put a press release out about 2008 SAP Developer Challenge competition in which two green projects that seem to be along the similar lines.
I am sure their site would have more details, but I think one project highlighted was relatively similar: Facebook-based carpool sharing and performance monitoring. The other one is less “social”, I think: a set of interfaces to evaluate the impact of online purchasing decisions.
great stuff Tom. nice follow up.
vuk – interesting news regarding the SAP challenge- we’ll have to look into that. thanks!
We need to leverage increasing connectivity to provide social encouragement, not just tools to do the right thing. For example, some new electric meters being installed in homes are increasingly connected with both remote ( broadband over power line ) and local ( zigbee ) connectivity.
Leveraging that could include things like a cheap zigbee connected fridge magnet with green, yellow, and red lights. Can you imagine the kitchen conversation that starts with the child saying to the parents, “Why is it red?”.
In the mobile space with the advent of 3G, WiMax,4G and bluetooth, it is not hard to imagine people carrying a mobile device that is connected all the time, to the net, and through the net to their homes. Bluetooth or Zigbee from the “always with you device” could drive a lapel pin showing energy use.
Making it cool and visible to be green could help.