Activism

Greener Apple, Nokia Greenest

- Adam Clare 2 Comments

from Greenpeace
Greenpeace has released their fourth Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics. Apple has been working kinda hard to improve their previously dismal rating, whereas Nokia continues to hover in the top two places. You can see how all the companies rank.

The electronics ranking guide has been our answer to getting the electronics industry to face up to the problem of e-waste. We want manufacturers to take responsibility for the unprotected child labourers who scavenge the mountains of cast-off gadgets created by our gizmo-loving ways.

We’ve been happily surprised at how quickly many corporations have risen to the competitive challenge. It’s especially rewarding to see more than a few CEOs openly vying for the top green spot, and challenging their competitors to adopt industry-wide policies to reduce the problem of e-waste.

I need to get a new cellphone this week because my Motorola (ranked 6th) died, thanks to Greenpeace I know I should get a Nokia.

Fatworld is a Socially Aware and Awkward Video Game

- Adam Clare 7 Comments

fattyIan Bogost makes games, but not just any game – he makes games that try to raise awareness about how messed up North American society is. His next game is called Fatworld and Wired has the info on this impending game of fatness.

Remember you are what you eat, not what you play.

In his latest, Fatworld, players navigate a consumer paradise (A), rule their own empire of restaurants and convenience stores (B), and enjoy food allergies, diabetes, heart disease, and death (C).

You can play his early game Airport Security to get a taste of what kind of social commentary to expect.

Blogs for Empowerment

- Adam Clare

Information technology can be used for more than spam and this is a perfect example. Blogs for African Women uses blogging to communicate ideas and share resources with women to empower them.

Nine young women, activists in non-governmental organisations or community programmes in Lagos, will come together online and face-to-face to gain technical skills in blogging, podcasting and wikis over the next six months. Networking for Success is geared towards women who are already looking for ways that technology can help their work, who want to reach out to other organisations and collaborate more effectively.

Milblog Project

- Adam Clare

Voice-Activated Laptops for Our Injured Troops, known as Valour IT, tries to help wounded American soldiers psychologically recover from battle by blogging. Regardless (or irregardless if you’re Dubya Bush), of what you think of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and Terror, humans who are injured still need support to heal their wounds. You can read about the success the program has had at the MediaShift blog at PBS.

“It started last year when Army Captain Chuck Ziegenfuss injured both his hands and wanted to get back to blogging. His blog readers pitched in for Dragon Naturally Speaking software, and he and another blogger, FbL, put together Valour-IT and have raised more than $330,000 with two online Veteran’s Day fundraisers fueled by milbloggers.”

GoodSearch

- Adam Clare

This is a good idea that makes use of the everyday, well at least an everyday online activity. GoodSearch is a site that lets you designate a charity that you’d like to donate to and a portion of ad revenue made from your search goes to the charity you specified. It appears to allow only USA-based charities benefit for now.

From GoodSearch:

“GoodSearch is a search engine which donates 50 percent of its revenue to the charities and schools designated by its users. It’s a simple and compelling concept. You use GoodSerach exactly as you would any other search engine and it is powered by Yahoo! so you get proven search results. The money GoodSearch donates to your cause comes from its advertisers — the users and the organizations do not spend a dime!”

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