Weighing the Cloud by David Bellona

Weighing the Cloud Thesis work of David Bellona Class of 2012

MFA Interaction Design School of Visual Arts

Front Cover: Clouds over Lake Ontario.1 Back Cover : Microsoft Data Centre, Dublin, Ireland.2

“The planet is fine. The people are fucked.” – George Carlin

Contents

Primer

Inspiration

Statement of Purpose

Starting Out

Initial Statement of Purpose

Summertime

A Three-Month Detour

Squidfingers Twitter Mention Shelving Unit

Detour Statement of Purpose

Thesis Presentation to Frank Chimero & Liz Danzico

Back to What Matters Most & Early Explorations

Outlining the Issues

Going Back to the Future, or to July 2011

Understanding Server Farms, Data Centers, and Cloud Computing

Seed Cloud and Read Cloud Projects

Determining the ‘What’

Research

On Emerging Themes of Digital Production and Consumption

Interviews

User Survey

Defining an Audience

Adjacent Entities for Competitive Analysis

March 2011 – July 2011

August 2011 – October 2012

November 2011 – January 2012

January 2012 – March 2012

97 Concept & Experience Development

February 2012 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; April 2012

102 Emission Bricks Prototype 116 Carry Your Cloud Prototype 130 Defining Features, User Stories, and a Name 132 The Problem Space 134 Coal Button 137 Canary 140 Concept Map 152 Wire Flows 154 Wireframes 164 TAP Prototype 166 Final Designs & Use Cases 177 References & Influence 183 Thanks

March 2012 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2012

Primer “Thesis is process”, I’ve been told. In my persistent approach to a consistent idea [sic], I discovered that the cloud (p.46) is an awesome invention that I absolutely love. I assume you do as well. It allows ubiquitous and convenient access to nearly all world knowledge and an ability to communicate with our friends and family at any moment.

There is an unsaid promise of the cloud: as we move

from physical to digital products and documents, our environmental impact is lighter. However, our production of digital content is exponentially increasing every day. To house this growing data, we are building a vast physical infrastructure that depends on non-renewable energy resources.

This infrastructure comes in the form of data centers

– the factories of the Information Age. Similar to the massive structures of the Industrial Age, we are again building systems that are out of balance with the amount of energy this planet has provided. We have an opportunity to create our supporting physical infrastructures sustainably and utilize renewable energy resources. Yet we are missing that opportunity.

One challenge is the transparency of the IT industry to

report fully on energy and CO2 emissions, and establish a set of standards that they and we can build a sustainable system upon. With continued pressure by Greenpeace, recent literature on the physical infrastructure of the Internet and the paradox of efficient consumption, I have hope that we are moving in the right direction. The work contained in this book is only another step.

Sunset at Donahue Pass on the John Muir Trail, Yosemite National Park, California. September 18, 2006

Inspiration

In 2005, I went for my first solo hike in Haleakala National Park on the Hawaiian Island of Maui. I had hiked a few three-day loops with my Dad in New Hampshire and Vermont, but this was my first time solo. I stayed at the Paliku campsite in the Haleakala crater and from my tent, I could look south over the Kaupo Gap with distant clouds passing by at eye level. Observing the landscape, I was able to see a history of how the earth beneath me formed, slowly eroded, and allowed for plants to take root. As night fell, clouds rolled over the top of the cliffs behind me to cover my tent; when morning came, the clouds dissipated and a daily cycle was renewed. In a simple moment, I saw the macro and micro systems of this planet we inhabit.

In the years since, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve sought these simple moments

in nature, going on solo hikes in Montana, California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, and soon on the Long Trail in Vermont. I, along with others Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve met along the way, have found inspiration and mused at the most basic of landscapes, wondering how a pile of large rocks, setting sun, or falling water can be so damn beautiful.

Statement of Purpose I’m investigating the environmental effects of our overfed

As users, we are comfortable with not knowing the sys-

data diets, in particular the disconnect that we as produc-

tems that house our data, specifically how much data

ers and consumers of digital content have with the physi-

we actually have amassed, where it is actually physically

cal infrastructure of the computing cloud. To frame my

located, and that the government can access our data

hypothesis, I asked the question. “Does demonstrating the

regardless of 4th amendment protections.6 As producers

correlation of cloud-based computing with carbon dioxide

and consumers of massive amounts of digital content,

emissions lead to a decrease in digital consumption?”

we are growing more and more distant and dependent,

on vast systems that we increasingly do not understand.

I’m talking about the environmental impact of our

data, specifically, the carbon footprint of bytes (kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes) which requires infrastructure and energy to transmit and store. These bytes exist in large data centers, some powered in part by renewable resources with energy efficient architecture, while many others receive all their energy from non-renewable resources. Globally, data centers accounted for 1.5% of total electric-

The goals of my thesis are threefold: • To educate users of cloud-based media about the physical structures supporting online interactions. • To facilitate environmentally conscious behavior in the production and distribution of digital content.

ity use and 2.2% of energy use in the US in 2010. These

• To pressure the providers of digital services to

figures increased 36% (globally) and 56% (US) from 2005;

conduct and build their businesses in an environ-

research estimated in 2011 that global electricity use of

mentally sustainable manner.

data centers increased by 19%.1

I’m not the first to look into the environmental ef-

fects of cloud-based computing. The work of Greenpeace and Mike Berners-Lee, author of the Carbon Footprint of Everything, has calculated the carbon dioxide emissions (CO2e) of a text message, Google search, email, and the world’s data centers which weigh in at a staggering 130 million tons of CO2e per year.2 Google has also calculated the carbon footprint of a search request at 0.2g CO2e.3 The amount is seemingly small, but with an estimated 200 million to 500 million search queries per day, 1.3 million tons of CO2e are produced per year just from Google searches.4

Notwithstanding any explanation of environmen-

tal consequences, this issue may seem to be too small to bother. After all, there is an inherent efficiency and environmental benefit that comes with digitization. But as we exponentially produce more data, we encounter a phenomenon called the rebound effect: as technology allows faster and easier access to a resource, the cheaper that resource becomes and the faster it is used. The consequence is a low-carbon interaction resulting in a high-carbon lifestyle simply because we do it more.5

More notably is the cloud computing phenomenon. 11

Starting Out March 2011 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; July 2011

Thesis Preparation class with Liz Danzico

Buying a 50 lb bag of sand at Home Depot for our framework assignment.

Benjamin bravely volunteering to build a drizzle castle in class.

March 22, 2011

Success! Water + sand = framework.

Initial Statement of Purpose A few terms immediately come to mind in brainstorming

frameworks of individual decision making and as David

a thesis: nature, sustainability, green, climate change,

Foster Wallace describes, our inability in, “being able truly

materials economy, renewable, permaculture. Before

to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over

placing these terms on a cartesian plot of past/future

and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.”8

and environment/moment, there are seven other terms

not typically associated with the aforementioned: shock,

zeitgeist and recent advent of cloud-based computing,

denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing, and accep-

creates a curious relationship. Cherished physical objects

tance. These terms are the seven stages of grief, reserved

such as photos no longer need to be carefully stored and

for breakups or passing of a loved one, but when applied

documented. In great excess, we can consume digitally

the looming energy and environmental crisis, ring true to

at near infinite levels which (I postulate) further removes

our emotion and psyche surrounding the subject.

us from the consequences of our actions. The removal of

Rather than portend the current trends and shifts, let

meaning from the actual object offers another opportu-

us turn our attention to a term that overshadows much

nity for investigation on how we consume and ultimately

of the environmental movement and is a pillar of our

experience these virtual forms.

economy: consumption. Consumption is an interchange-

able term describing how we, the consumer, use energy,

architecture and frameworks, the second is a study on

food, and goods. Strict definitions aside, we are in the

the construction of current consumption (energy, food,

midst of an enormous shift in economy, world politics,

goods) behavior. These two approaches will be informed

environment, and energy. It all requires a sea change in

by inspiration from previously and soon-to-be read books

how we perceive, discuss, and participate in our consump-

during the summer, interviews with workers in energy,

tion. It’s what Bruce Mau calls “massive change”and is a

infrastructure, food production, and product design in-

seemingly impossible, all-encapsulating wicked problem.

dustries, as well as ethnographic research with individuals

and in group settings.

Consumption as convenience has been established

This concept, coupled with the current consumption

While the first approach involves a study of choice

and fortified over the last half of the 20th century. Government initiatives to develop the middle class in post World War II America as well as banking innovations such as the credit card expanded purchasing power to the masses. Through the removal of these financial barriers, we are given the freedom of more choice to consume. How we express this freedom – either through consumption or conservation – is an interesting opportunity for investigation. Environmental concerns aside, how individuals

Feedback

April 21, 2011

“How can you design interactions to be both a positive experience and reduce consumption and/or affect behavior? Or, can you at all?” - Liz Danzico

decide to use their purchasing power can be applied to small localities to more macro situations.

By focusing on the behavior of an individual, the

choices we make everyday allow for more granular opportunities. However, it is not as simple as Bill Hicks suggests as a choice, “between fear and love”,7 but rather understanding the spectrum of choices, whether active or passive, that are presented to us every time we consume. This idea lends itself into a first approach, exploring 15

Summertime Reading The majority of my reading was done on the subway or in

from my statement of purpose as well as find inspiration

Union Square Park during my lunch break from my intern-

in the thoughts of David Foster Wallace and Bob Dylan.

ship at Case Commons. I wanted to explore relevant topics

(No notes taken)

“ Trust (is) time based, not tech based.” “ The opportunities for service innovation are endless if only we shift focus of innovation from work to everyday life.” “ The design task is to make information digestible, not to keep it out.” -John Thackara

“ Privacy is something you can sell, but you can’t buy it back.” “ Happiness isn’t a road to anything, Happiness is the road.” -Bob Dylan

“ While our information technology may be digital in nature, the human beings interacting with it will always be infuriatingly and delightfully analog.” “ Focus on the task, not the tool.” “ Graceful degradation.” -Adam Greenfield

Summertime Thought Phrases Based on my reading, conversations with friends and family, and daydreaming, I wrote in my Evernote journal what my buddy Steve calls, “thought phrases”. It helped to quickly get my ideas down without self editing to formulate a foundation for thesis. Brevity and spell check not included. Note: In this section and throughout the book, moments of clarity and breakthroughs are highlighted pink in notes, emails, blogs, and sketches.

Evernote Entries /

an environment in which a person

way of eliminating some clutter,

On Systems & Service Design

moved fro place to place easily.

maybe also for a park directing

#intro

The challenge in designing a

people for different events.

#service_design

service or system is in the

#system_design

research of the problem, namely

7/21/2011

with my initial topic ‘consump-

The idea of designing in a

tion’. What type of consumption

smaller system that represents,

should I focus on? Why are we

microcasim, of a larger system

driven to over consume?

of behavior. Take for instance

7/18/2011

9/4/2011

The idea of a service being able

Chris Fahey’s design a human

to know who you are and adjust

assignment. again hinting the

your experience to your prefer-

analogy of the emergency services

ences or past behavior for an

button in a train/subway station.

interaction designed just for

Given the facts on what we know

you why isn’t this done with

in energy consumption, economy,

ATMs? Greenfield talks about

rather than targeting the effi-

hotel rooms in the Mandarin that

ciency of a consumer’s lifestyle

are preset for you on check in,

in information processing and

same with car seats.

sorting, how we communicate with

#thesis #thought_phrases 7/10/2011 Although I keep coming back to the design of objects, making things with my hands, playing around with an arduino board, the larger impact of my thesis lies in the design of a system or service. When I was in undergrad, I had an urge to redesign signage and way finding systems for airports and public transportation. I think this was rooted in a new discovery of typography and my fascination with Swiss design. I liked the idea of a framework, not just the appeal of designing an icon or typographic system, but rather

one another, (this has become 7/19/2011

the primary role of interaction

The idea of programmable way

designers, they have been rele-

finding in a stadium, city (see

gated to this role and am curious

GAUDI) seem like a promising

of the similarities to semiotics 17

used by graphic designers. to

the seamlessness of ubiqio-

“wet the whistle”.

merely create efficiencies in how

tuos computing by Greenfield,

we communicate or flow through

and Berg’s ice berg analogy of

into the data or cloud, so that

a process regarding information

the amount of hidden activity

the object itself has lost

exchange) seek out inefficien-

required to provide a service.

importance or meaning, that

cies, etc the daily jobs of

Over the course of our first

the data we are accessing has

gov’t workers, janitors, garbage

year, we have covered the idea

more importance than the actual

collectors, etc.

of smart objects, “the inter-

object. Furtehrmore, it is that

The idea that a human’s job

net of things”. These object

access to that data that we now

can be mapped into a serious

carry with them touch point or

place emphasis on, the effcie-

of yes/no statements is disin-

different interface than that

iny ,intuitiveness, etc. Why not

genuous to the process of human

of a digital screen, and some

create object that can display

behavior, ie digital versus

do embody one data point. The

this data, the data that is most

analog. If the human specifica-

interesting and fascinating to

importance to us in an ambiance,

tions are followed to the T, that

notion is the objects ability to

or passive sense.

process would be successful in

surface data, process, function-

“The hallmark of such services

it’s function. however, a number

ality that was otherwise lost

(self-service) is that they take

of issues, discovered by in the

in the cloud. An object that

place with little or no human

field research, interviews, etc,

places more emphasis on a piece

contact; the customer does the

reveal multiple issues in the

of data so much so that other

work once done by an employee.”

ability for the human speci-

types of data patches or fixes

Thackara, p.219

fication to be successful. In

are not required to be layered on

finding those pain points and

top. of the old data to increse

fallacies in the flow, create

it’s functionality. it harkens

Evernote Entries /

a solution that targets that

back to the idea of time, the

On Natural Design

issue. In the case of a grbage

idea of creating efficiency, the

#ideas

collector, the daily decision

layering of design solutions on

process is governed by the ease

top of one another that only add

#intro

of that decision, the weight

to the complexity rather than

of that cognitive load. The

simplify the problem, or merely

creation of change in that work

offer a different perspective

flow can be facilitated by the

on the solution outside of a

injection of q service, object,

digital one.

solution that changes the weight

of that cognitive load, makes

the metaphor further in how

it lighter, tips the scale so

a natural cloud functions and

to speak, so that the behavior

how a computing cloud func-

is shifted and the work flow,

tions. Water vapor, packets,

efficiency, is changed. Perhaps

are combined and the gain more

this is what is meant by being

weight so much so that they fall

intuitive - where the “right”

to earth in the form of rain

decision has a lighter cognitive

droplets, data. Getting infor-

load that the “wrong” one, and

mation from the cloud, rain,

the path of least resistance

downpour, lightning. (Also, find

presents itself or lends itself

the passage of wanting only some

to the work flow that makes the

simple content, water, but we as

systems successful.

consumers are drowned in a sea

Thackara talks about the

of info formation ,when all we

disappearance of computing,

were asking for is a drink to

Cloud computing. Taking

App objects. we have windows

#system_design #thesis #thought_phrases 7/19/2011 The other day, I was reading ‘Everywhere’ by Adam Greenfeild. In an early thesis, he was talking about ubiquitous computing being invisible to behavior, computing that the user is unaware of - but benefits from - it’s ability to do computation, data collection, regulation, information processing, etc. He began to allude to and then talked briefly about the misnomer that ubiquitous means natural, and that technology is in fact separate from nature. (p.28)

But I am wondering about

different traits and see what

service. While that service may

how ubiquity, placing sensors

happens, but do this millions of

not be “natural”, an obtuse,

into object that basically

times over thousands sometimes

regimented way of interfacing

collect data and information

millions of years. The result

with a service through a computer

to be fed into a larger data-

is a highly evolved animal that

is eliminated by creating an

base and then be reinterprted

can be aware and conscious of

experience with that service,

by another system, screen that

nature’s process.

not an experience with the form

will change our behavior is a

of that service.

hope for computing to be more

this consciousness, the abil-

like an environment.

ity to recognize nature’s bounty

8/1/2011

In ‘In The Bubble’, Thackera

in whatever form and manipulate

In urban design, “In the Bubble”

talks about speed being a tenant

it. Only now, we are beginning

p.94 talks about how certain

for better design, talking how

to see for the first time in

areas of a city, namely Belgrade,

our modern way of life has

history the consequences of our

is unplanned and allows it’s

created burdensome efficiencies,

actions - pollution, extinction,

citizens to fill in, create,

speedy processes that compound

climate change, etc. With this

make, design areas of a city that

exponentially over time, driv-

realization, we are beginning

have been vacated. he coined the

ing us further away from the

to modify our design process

term “urban genetics”

natural, undulating cycle that

to create objects, services,

the earth provides, especially

systems that are returning to

9/4/2011

when it comes to agriculture,

the natural rhythms of nature.

“Networks and systems in nature

p.33 (dolce farniente mean-

But there are opposing forces -

generally start out small and

ing sweet doing nothing, p.35)

albeit man made ones - that are

develop during a process of

Furthermore, he mentions another

slowing down the shift, namely

gradual growth. That’s also how

thought phrase I had about how

economic systems, political

we should design man-made ones:

nature designs things through

systems. I wonder what systems

Act lightly, sense the feedback,

evolution, ie. a slow, agile,

can be created that while they

act again.” Thackara, p.215

iterative design process.

are in some ways governed and

guided by the aforementioned,

Theory: With the sustainable

Perhaps, we wrestle with

movement, green, environmental,

that

et al, permeating our marketing,

designed more holistically, to

can

strengthened,

materials, behavior, and design,

trump, out compete, change the

Design is moving towards a more

larger systems. QUESTION: what

natural way of prototyping,

are those systems that provide

designing, building, produc-

opportunities for a more massive

ing, computing. This can also

change?

be construed as “humanizing the

machine” or “making an experi-

approaching?) situation of peak

ence more natural”. The way we

of natural resources, carry-

8/3/2011

communicate through devices is

ing capacity, etc. that would

Reading “Everywhere” by Adam

being patched together and fixed

make the more agile, “natural”

Greenfield on the morning commute,

by hundreds of smaller startups,

systems a viable choice, a sound

he talks about the “discourse of

most of whom will die before

economic choice, and advanta-

seamlessness” (p.137), and how

maturation, to find or evolve

geous political choice.

seamlessness erases the bound-

a better way of design. Sex is

In ‘Web Form Design’ by Luke

aries of interactions from one

one was that nature has come

Wroblewski,

“gradual

experience to the next. This,

up with a very simple way for

engagement” as a way for people

in conjunction with Thackera’s

variety in it’s experiments.

to interface with a form or

writings on Situation, namely

Combine two things together with

signup by actually using the

airports, can lead to a person’s

Insulating against the (fast

using

Evernote Entry / Time #intro #seamlessness #thesis #thought_phrases #time

disorientation in space and

why would i care about the other

- closed vs. emergent

time, giving them no sense of

tasks done by others as long as

- artifacts vs. behaviors

place or what time frame they

it doesn’t impact my own abil-

- predetermined vs. present

are in. This type of discon-

ity to complete”? These situa-

* How can you design interac-

nect/removal from time refer-

tions where this is apparent is

tions to be both a positive

ence can be not only detrimental

HD television viewing (becomes

experience and reduce consump-

to a person’s psyche, but also

artifacted), capping bandwidth

tion and/or affect behavior? Or,

to their connection with other

for internet surfing.

can you at all? - feedback from

people, places, nature, smaller

liz, april 21, 2010

and larger systems. As a result,

television in terms of sense of

this could fortify a state of not

place? What is the experience of

i have not yet explored yet i

knowing, and subsequently not

travel? What is the experience

have a gutteral reaction to,

caring about, the consequences

of the work day?

deep down.

of their actions., aka, Eloi.

Also to note, thought on

MacColl introduce the notion

determined by distance and inti-

how devices are a window to a

of beautiful seams so the user

macy level of the interpersonal

world of data, and interaction

knows when they are moving from

relationship of the two people.

design in about the design of

one interaction to the next.

Letter, call, email, text, chat.

the experience with accesses,

space design within an experi-

location of call (on the street

filtering, consuming that data/

ence

vs. in the home) new ways of

What is the experience of

Matthew Chalmers and Ian

Communication frequency is

information. The importance

creating, organic, agile. what

of form of the object takes a

is the necessity of gesture?

backseat to the experience that

Evernote Entries /

the user is having with their

On Praxis or Sketching in

face: side-to-side/forward-back

information. Also, the gravity/

Hardware, Lingua Granca

button vs. swipe.

weight of their information,

#gestures

in consumption and covet, is lightened/lessened as it becomes digitized. I no longer have to rescue photos from a burning home as they are stored in the

#intro

On Cities

#thesis

#cities

#thought_phrases

experience.

8/12/2011

Lingua franca

Appropriation as ownership

example of espn iphone inter-

Evernote Entry /

#object_design

#ideas

cloud, the impetus is on the

#intro #research #thought_phrases

of a piece of technology, but

taking my thesis to a place

only if the user knows to an

8/21/2011

extent how the technology works,

“Manifesto for Agile Development

9/2/2011

knowing how the system works.

Individuals and interactions

After watching the 8-part series

If the user is left in the dark

over processes and tools

on New York, my perspective on

or doesn’t know how technol-

Working software over compre-

cities shifted from my ideals of

ogy works, subsequently doesn’t

hensive documentation

a livable streets, multi-modal

care, and just wants “it” to

Customer collaboration over

transportation, remove cars,

work, there is an unappreciation

contract negotiation

mixed use buildings, buildings

for the system at large, or the

Responding

impacts of their own behavior on

following a plan” p.111

what all those things entail. I

the larger system. “I am only

also, the structure of Clas-

knew all these when used meant

concerned with my own task at

sical as being a closed frame-

a better city to live in. I

hand, and b/c my concentration

work and Jazz being an emergent

can bike everywhere, not have

is only on that task at hand,

framework.

to maintain a car, close to

change

over

of old and new, csa’s to actually

cultural events, walk places,

turing away.

friends all around, exchange

ideas. But over the last month

a destination not of living. Of

- especially triggered by a

having conversations with shop

throughout phrase when looking

keepers, etc. These ideas are

at the Grand Army monument - all

romanticized in many people of

these separate things began to

my generation, where European

come together, encouraged by the

cities are for more “livable”,

doc I watched, and now affirmed in

or just more conducive to being

reading “In The Bubble” by John

a home. My Grand Army monu-

Thackara. He states “a sustain-

ment realization sparked when I

able city... has to be a working

looked at the monument, seeing

city, a city of encounter and

the fine craftsmanship, intri-

interaction - not a city for

cacies, imaging the grandeur

passive participation in enter-

when it was just built, all

tainment.” p.75

now contrasted by the swaths of

The NYC doc talks about our

pavement, noisy traffic, spiral-

view of cities and what they

ing exhaust. It looked more like

are. I sometimes wonder about

a memorial to the past rather

the opinions of urbanites from

than a war memorial. The origi-

ancient times, or even just

nal intent of the memorial was

before the industrial devo-

lost/forgotten, and seemed to

tion. and even at the begin-

shift to a memorial to an age.

Point is: we view cities as

ning of the industrial revolution. Did people think a city as home? With neighbors, families, gossip, local stories, jobs, short commutes, conversations with strangers and shop keepers? I think about a statement from a friend of mine, more offhand comments about the safety of a city, and how they were basically very dangerous, more dangerous than a suburb, implied. Could this have stemmed from the economic downturn of cities in the 1970’s? The flight from cities to the burbs and exurbs formed a crater of density, a volcanic eruption whereby the population densities oozed out into open, available land. This was enabled, predicated? encouraged by the housing policies in the new deal, GI Bill, loans, economic stimulus through “community” real estate development, pushing manufac21

A Three-Month Detour August 2011 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; October 2011

Squidfingers Twitter Mention Shelving Unit I wanted to create a shelf for my studio desk that could

Arduino, I plan on lighting up the center panel with LED’s

hold my books, work, and pictures as well as a public

every time I get mentioned on Twitter, publicly notifying

extension of my Twitter account. I’ve always admired

myself and others.

Squidfingers’ set of patterns for web use, and use pattern #108 for my Twitter account background. For the

Note: I never wired up the shelving unit, the time involved

shelving unit, I extended the pattern to use on a physical

and project became a distraction, but in the end, I had

display, etching it into the center acrylic panel. Using an

additional storage for supplies and books.

Finished shelving unit at my desk.

Process & Details

September 17, 2011 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; October 8, 2011

Squidfingers pattern #108.

Cutting and sizing up the pieces at my parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; home.

Samples from the laser etching vendor.

Setting up shop in the chat room at school.

Spraying fixative on the laser etched pieces.

Re-assembling and gluing the shelving unit.

Adding the trim and sanding at the SVA sculpture studio.

Painting in the chat room.

Side panel detail.

Back panel pattern details.

Routed space under acrylic panel for the LED strip.

Back view of the shelving unit.

Detour Statement of Purpose “Our windows to the digital world have been confined to flat rectangular screens and pixels – ‘painted bits’. But while our visual senses are steeped in the sea of digital information, our bodies remain in the physical world. ‘Tangible bits’ give physical form to digital information, making bits directly manipulable and perceptible.” 1 – Hiroshi Ishii, Founder, MIT Tangible Media Group

Information Appliances & New Nows

Dr. Ishii is proposing an exploration in an area of com-

ing rather than recognition. This impacts the library of

puting foreign to the mainstream use of the personal

gestures that a designer can assume his/her audience pos-

computer. Through graphical user interfaces (GUI), we

sesses, and is reflected in the limited way we interact with

access digital information via a desktop or laptop com-

our touchscreen devices. Symbolic, gestural languages

puter as well as mobile device. The narrow framework

such as sign language and semaphore provide a platform

and office-centered metaphors we are conditioned to

for rich communication, but as Jun Rekimoto, Director of

reinforce interactions that limit our ability to meaning-

the Sony Interaction Laboratory, states, gestures, “should

fully communicate and access information. Currently,

be mimetic rather than symbolic”.2 This means our ges-

however, other methods are being implemented and

tures should be learned through imitation, mimicking

explored to shift our perspectives from the keyboard and

the behavior of others. In pursuing newer methods of

desktop metaphor toward gestural and haptic interfaces.

interactions with computers, there are opportunities

for reshaping and repurposing established gestures of

With the recent implementation of touch screen

technology in consumer electronics, gestures allow open

interaction – especially those with physical objects.

up new tangible channels for us to communicate with a

computer. However, our hands have become nothing more

affordances have been limited to instructional buttons

than giant meathooks [sic], arching down onto a device to

rather than physical items and tools whose interactions

simply push a digital representation of a physical button.

are inherent and self-evident in form. Gestures involved

In many touchscreen interactions, we are simply following

with using these objects include twisting, turning, pull-

instructions to “play”, “delete”, or “reply”. Furthermore,

ing, pushing, and lifting. Through the study of past forms

gestural futures typically default to lofty user journey

and rituals, namely in interpersonal communication

videos or science fiction movies, most notably Minority

mediums, juxtapositions with forms and rituals of con-

Report.

temporary communication may lend new insight into

As a seemingly faster way to access information, an

physical interfaces that affect perceived speed, value, and

established set of gestures require recollection of mean-

experience of sending and receiving messages. In this

In the contemporary consumer electronic landscape,

pursuit, the possibility of discovering what Fiona Raby

methods used to parse received message, the value and

and Anthony Dunne call “alternative nows” – “how things

meaning of this information can be imbued through social

could be right now if we had different values”3 – rather

objects in the home. These social objects or physical sig-

than casting some future state.

nifiers can create instances that bridge a communication

gap, promoting triangulation – serendipitous moments

These “alternative nows” can be represented by an

object or series of objects that give a user an analog or

brought on by a shared interface.

physical interface, instead than graphical, to interact and access digital information. The end format will be an ecosystem of Jef Raskin’s “Information Appliances”, computers that are designed for a specific purpose and used only in context.4 By utilizing rapid prototyping techniques, physical prototypes will be produced to pilot form and interaction with users. In this way, a praxis of ideas, based on initial research, can be implemented to test the affects of physical, haptic interfaces on value of filtering data and receiving messages.

We access digital content and engage in interpersonal

communication through all-in-one electronic devices, e.g. laptop or smart phones, and have little time to ponder the affects this interaction has on information and messages. In pursing a thesis with possible physical artifacts as its outcome, there is an opportunity to shift digital content away from a their current format to new forms of physical mediums. Through a broad study of digital content and 27

Blog Entry : 10/2/2011 Talkin’ Thesis Revisions Before I continued to revise my thesis proposal, I wanted to bounce a few ideas around to get the writing wheels turning. I talked with my classmate Allison Shaw about thesis while I was sanding my new studio shelving unit. Two main themes began to emerge as I explained what I wanted to do: + Create physical objects, namely physical displays, that allowed users to get digital information from a single source. + Study past forms of interpersonal communication to discover opportunities for new methods of send-

Blog Entry : 10/12/2011

ing and receiving messages, or accessing data.

Got my touchatag reader today and immediately

Allison asked some tough questions, namely on

almost a pure plug-n-play, had to download two

how I was going to innovate both on the sending and receiving, and if my thesis was more about receiving and filtering. She also had some great insight and suggestions about knowing the readiness of a system, inserting bumps or roadblocks into a “seamless” experience to facilitate mindfulness,

and referring me to recent graduate

Eric St. Onge’s thesis project on distraction.

opened it up. The install was really easy, drivers from the site, launch the touchatag application, and start using their online platform for building one-task applications. I set up two tests: one to send a tweet and the other send an email. The email test went well, sending an email within seconds of the RFID tag being read, but the Twitter test was a fail, bouncing back “Not Authorized” and “Bad Gateway”. seems like the Auth is not working on the touchatag side so I reached out to support for answers. I’m hoping they’re responsive, am really excited to build some quick RFID-enabled prototypes.

Sketchbook Entry : 10/18/2011 Subsequent Blog Entry : 10/22/2011 When I think of interpersonal communication, I see a gap being bridged between a sender and a receiver. For example, distance is a gap. If you are sitting right in front of me, it is fairly easy, fairly quick to send a message to you (I say “hi”). The gap gets more and more difficult to bridge as the distance increases. I can’t just send you my message by yelling if you’re a few miles away - I have to figure out a way to get my message from A, where I’m located, to B, where you are located. 28

Back in the day, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m talking way back

in the day, distance could only be bridged by a person transporting a physical or memorized message. This took more time as distance increased. It could be days, even weeks, before you would receive my message. Ingenuity and technology have of course bridged that gap, â&#x20AC;&#x153;bringing us closerâ&#x20AC;? as the saying goes with any cellphone company. But we have more recently seen development of communication technology that moves away from utility, and move closer to fodder. I believe the way in which we develop communication technology is like spilling a glass of water on a table - filling all cracks and crevices, covering the entire table.

In a recent article by Scott Jensen, he

is concerned that as we create utility to fill the small cracks and crevices, we only create a greater need for technological solutions to quell cognitive overload and calm user anxiety. Gaps in time and space are being filled without much thinking about the consequences of the bridges being made, or if there is need for them at all. New channels, such as Twitter or Instagram, facilitate an ability to communicate information immediately about experiences as they happen to a mass audience. Arab Spring aside, I question the utility of subdividing my interests, friends, and experiences into more subdivided categories that are filled with apps and bookmarklets.

Thesis Presentation to Frank Chimero & Liz Danzico Presentation Slides

October 24, 2011

Thesis

Devices are not evil + Laptops + Netbooks + Digital music players

+ E-readers + Tablets + Smart phones

What of clocks and coffee tables? Public Space

Home

Opportunity

+ How does the digitzation of content and communication effect our expectations, experiences, and sharing of information in the home?

+ Focus on creating digital products that filter, share, and manage digital content. + Fixated on the idea of robust and ubiquitous mobile communication. + Context of the home is forgotten.

Approach + Study at past forms and rituals of communication and household social objects for opportunities. + Alternative Nows – how things could be right now if we had different values rather than casting some future state. + Internet with Things

Purpose + Discover new forms of social objects in the home. + Create physical signifiers for digital content and communication. + Use discursive design to explore solutions.

Pitch For a household, who need to access digital content and engage in interpersonal communication, these physical information appliances are social objects that facilitate shared experiences. Unlike current mobile computing devices, these products are social signifiers.

Thanks

Feedback

October 24, 2011

“ Simply interesting explorations of an interaction design student.” - Liz Danzico

Sketchbook Entry : 11/1/2011 Subsequent Blog Entry : 11/3/2011 Digital-to-Analog Display A sketch for an analog display of one’s online data. Consisting of acrylic and wood layers, the display could be mounted to a wall in a kitchen, living room, or office. Core idea is to communicate data central to the user to other occupants of the room, but with specific quantity ambient referenced. The display would not have any controls, only an ‘on/off’ switch, with controls through a smart phone interface.

Blog Entry : 11/11/2011 They are but improved means to an unimproved end. — Henry David Thoreau

Back to What Matters Most & Early Explorations November 2011 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; January 2012

Sketchbook Entry : 11/7/2011

Blog Entry : 11/11/2011

Why, Who For, What, When, Who By, How exercise

What’s the carbon footprint of email?

in Thesis Workshop with Rachel Abrams. (right)

Today, my fellow classmate Catherine Young passed along a link to an article directly relating to my thesis. (did I mention I pivoted? I pivoted). It begins to address the seemingly impossible task of quantifying an individual’s carbon dioxide output from using the Internet, most notably email. Apart from a rough estimation, the article mentions an important concept - the rebound effect. The rebound effect is a consequence of our evermore efficient technology; as technology allows faster use of a resource, the more of that resource is used. (This might explain our lament of having no time.) When applied to our increased use of computers, the result is, as the article states, “a low-carbon technology resulting in higher-carbon living simply because we use it more.”

Blog Entry : 11/13/2011 Headline from the future (ongoing) Online point system created to increase awareness of one’s digital consumption habits with environmental impact.

Blog Entry : 11/15/2011 Thesis question v.27.1 I’m getting closer to a solid thesis question that encapsulates the “why?” with the “so what?”. Here’s the latest iteration (oh yea, I pivoted): “Does demonstrating the correlation of cloud-based computing with carbon dioxide emissions lead to a decrease in digital consumption?”

Sketchbook Entries : 11/19/2011

Going Back to the Future, or to July 2011 An Alternate 1985 In the movie Back to the Future Part II, the main charac-

Plunging into the Shonash Ravine

ter Marty McFly commits the ultimate snafu by leaving

Staying on the Robert Zemeckis’ riff, Back to the Future

a sports almanac in plain sight of an aged version of his

Part III finds Marty stuck in 1885 with only one way to get

arch nemesis, Biff, in the year 2015. Old Biff then hijacks

out: get a locomotive to push his time-traveling Delorean

the time-traveling Delorean to travel back to 1955 to

up to 88 miles per hour, thus enabling time-travel (duh)

give his younger self the sports almanac from the future.

to send him back to 1985. The kicker, apart from getting a

Over the next 30 years, Biff uses it to amass a vast sum

locomotive to go that fast, was the Shonash Ravine cutting

of money from gambling on sports, always knowing the

off extra miles train tracks, leaving little room for accel-

winner. When Marty arrives back to 1985, he discovers an

eration and error. Marty’s sidekick, the slapstick genius

“alternate 1985” where Biff is his step-dad, mayor of his

Doc Brown, calculated a point of no return whereby they

hometown Hill Valley, and owns just about everything.

must commit to reach 88 mph or plunge into the ravine.

Way to go, Marty.

Spoiler alert: Marty makes it back to 1985.

By comparison, Fiona Raby and Anthony Dunne

from the Royal College of Art camp put forward the idea of “alternative nows”, offering visions of “how things could

done so much damage to the environment that human

be right now if we had different values”. Excluding Biff’s

beings can no longer inhabit the planet. Doc Brown knew

iron fist, their work remains in the noir, suggesting, for

the exact point of no return on the train tracks, but unfor-

example, a reality where children grow meat to power

tunately, we cannot agree when or what that point of no

their television. Notwithstanding Guy Montag 2 knock-

return is for our planet. Bill McKibben, outspoken author

ing on your door right now, I’d like to imagine a current

of The End of Nature, offers a number of 350 parts per mil-

state where the Knowledge Navigator3 actually caught on

lion of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere as the marker,

and gestural interfaces – rather than a mouse – were our

and has founded a non-profit around the concept. As of

means of interacting with a computer.

October 2011, we are currently at 388 PPM.5

Coupled with a growing momentum behind the

So are we going to plunge into a metaphorical ravine?

internet with things, these themes formed an area of ex-

Yes and no. The ability for our air, land, and water to ab-

ploration of my thesis for about four months. The notion

sorb pollution and then provide its bounty is debatable.

of creating new forms of internet-embodied objects as a

Moreover, our behavior, particularly around consumption

graduate thesis is very appealing; rants about the need

of natural resources, is so far removed from the extrac-

for more tangible interfaces along with explorations by

tion, production, distribution, and disposal processes

firms such as Berg are evidence that interaction design

that we have difficultly measuring our collective impact,

can extend beyond the screen. Earlier sketches of my

let alone an individual one. Lester R. Brown of the Earth

thesis included a built shelving unit that glowed when

Policy Institute summarizes, “We are crossing natural

I got mentioned on Twitter (I’ve got 78 followers so not

thresholds that we cannot see and violating deadlines

that often).

that we do not recognize.”6

But as I focused more on the making physical objects,

it became apparent that I needed to go beyond, as our chair Liz Danzico put it, “interesting explorations of an interaction design student”. I decided to shift my focus from investigations in academia to what I had outlined in July 2011 – consumption. 42

Among many environmentalists, there is a consensus

that a point of no return exists for Earth, where we have

Back to July 2011 Earlier this year, I drafted a thesis proposal that outlined my exploration for the summer. It stated: “In great excess, we can consume digitally at near

infinite levels which (I postulate) further removes us

the location and design of new facilities, many others, old

from the consequences of our actions. The removal

and new, still run on greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels.

of meaning from the actual object offers another

opportunity for investigation on how we consume

of our consumption. How much power does it take to

and ultimately experience these virtual forms.”

send an email? Consequently, how much carbon dioxide

To put it plainly, the further removed from the con-

sequences of our actions, the more we will engage in those actions. Pertaining to our digital consumption habits, there are little to no barriers to produce, save, share, and consume digital content. It’s even the M.O. of internet-based services to make sure our digital lifestyle is seamless and without barriers.

As we shift our content and communication chan-

nels to a digital format, we begin to loose sight of exactly how much data we amass. On a personal computer, it’s

Now for July 2011, thinking about the consequences

is produced when I do so? Thankfully, research has been conducted around this question, and Mike Berners-Lee, founder of Small World Consulting, even wrote a book on the topic, How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything. But do we keep building more data centers as our data cloud exponentially grows? What happens in 10, 20, 50 years? Are all my pictures and sent emails saved in a virtual shoebox forever? These questions and others help lay the groundwork for my thesis as I move forward with my research, and I can’t wait to get started. Again.

easy to notice how much hard drive space we’ve filled, but do you know how much data you have in your Gmail account? Facebook? Flickr? What about all of your online content collectively? One New York based startup, Dispatch, is looking to bring all your cloud-based content into once place; a benefit for those who need to manage their content, but not for those who want to know where their content is physically located (Note: this is nearly impossible with cloud-based computing). As John Thackera puts it, “These technologies are supposed to give us a clearer image-but by sanitizing the subject, they prevent us from knowing reality itself.”7

This brings me to server farms or data centers or

whatever they’re called. They make cloud-based computing possible and can be found in the form of a small stack in a work closet or come by the thousands, housed in a massive building in Oregon. What’s curious about these (we’ll call them data centers) data centers is they consume vast amounts of power. In 2010, global data centers “accounted for between 1.1% and 1.5% of total electricity use.”8 The industry recognizes the monetary and environmental costs involved with powering and maintaining such large facilities; With recent advances, companies are making data centers more energy efficient, however, as more extreme “green” measures are taken in 43

Sketchbook Entry : 11/20/2011 Understanding the Materials Economy and data centers. (above) Meeting notes with Rachel Abrams in Thesis Workgroup. (opposite) 44

Understanding Server Farms, Data Centers, and Cloud Computing A few weeks ago, I headed up to my old stomping grounds in Cambridge to celebrate my buddy’s Ryan’s birthday and have an early Thanksgiving dinner. Ryan is a Sloanie (MIT) and now works for the big boys at Intel. I had the chance to talk shop with his co-worker, Greg Lord, and his friend, Joe Swanson, a network engineer for the Federal Reserve. Having a fresh perspective on my thesis topic, I wanted to inform my ignorance around server farms, data centers, and cloud computing. Greg and Joe were graciously up to the task. This is what I gleaned. Over the last 15 years or so, the terms “server farms” and “data centers” have become interchangeable. For the most part, the guts of each are similar; there are a collection of computer servers, usually clustered in stacks, forming rows and rows of servers depending on the size of the facility. Minus a monitor and audio jack, an individual server is made of the same components as your computer: central processing unit (CPU), hard drive, processor, memory, fan for cooling, and famously in Google’s case, a battery (I’m told the speed of a CPU is not as critical for servers).

I say “famously” because until a few years ago, Google

was extremely hush hush about their server architecture.9 You can’t blame them; servers are a multi-billion dollar industry10 with tiny advances in engineering creating substantial competitive advantage. Unlike other companies, Google designs and builds their own servers (kinda badass if you’re a nerd). Google remains secretive; however, they have offered up some larger operational and structural schematics to highlight a few innovations. For example, they moved the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) battery from a separate unit to the server itself. This creates efficiencies in AC/DC conversions from the power grid to a server.11 But I digress.

While similar, server farms are intended for serving up

data, not necessarily storing it. Data centers on the other hand do both. They have rows and rows of server stacks 46

as well as extensive cooling systems, a control center,

this very question and responded by renting out their

telecommunications, security, and tons of redundancy.

server space, creating Amazon Web Services. They provide

Redundancies are backups of server components includ-

the server backbone for Foursquare, Netflix, and Yelp

ing power supply, network connections, and data storage.

among others, and even host projects for Harvard Medi-

If one source fails, no problem. It’s backed up. “The more

cal School and NASA to run complex analysis models.

redundancies, the better”, says Joe.

Currently, Amazon Web Services owns one-fifth of the

Typically, servers follow a “one to many” or model,

where components have at least one backup. Extending

cloud computing market, becoming a major player in providing cloud-based content.13

this concept beyond power supply and data connection, innovations in optimizing and creating redundancy

Epilogue

for data storage, i.e. virtualization, have allowed cloud

This is my basic understanding of how all this works

computing to happen. Depending on who you talk to,

without delving into the infinite details of information

virtualization is an over-arching term that allows us to

technology. I’d like to thank Greg and Joe for talking about

put our data virtually all over the globe and access that

server farms, data centers, and cloud computing. I should

data faster by serving it up locally.

let it be known that we did not talk about nerdy topics for

the entire time, only most of it.

Imagine for a moment you physically divided you

computer’s internal components and placed them at multiple locations around your neighborhood. You still have your keyboard, monitor, and audio jack, but the guts are all over the place. However, this all doesn’t matter to your computer. The operating system (OS) keeps purring along as if nothing happened, and you can merrily go about your day using your computer, accessing your data as if it were all located in one place. This is basically how netbooks or ultrabooks function.

In the world of servers, technology such as storage

area networks (SAN) and redundant array of independent disks (RAID) abstracts where information is held and allows data to be replicated. By spreading the data and traffic load across multiple servers in different locations, data centers optimize their physical real estate. Back in the day, companies overbuilt their servers to make room for data expansion and to protect themselves against large spikes in traffic. I like to think of this method as a giant mall parking lot; every mall has built a parking lot that accounts for the maximum amount of visitors on the biggest shopping day of the year. For the other 364 days, there are scores of spaces being unused.

But why pay for inactive server space? Amazon asked 47

Sketchbook Entry : 12/11/2011 Initial drawings for the Seed Cloud (below) and Read Cloud (opposite) projects.

Seed Cloud Project A discursive design approach that makes the act of uploading data to a cloud-based service perceptible to others. The Seed Cloud generates steam relative to the upload size: the larger the upload, the more steam produced. The user connects the Seed Cloud to his/her computer via USB, fills the device with water, and can activate it through the Seed Cloud website.

Finished Seed Cloud.

Process & Details

December 13, 2011 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; December 18, 2011

Seed Cloud logo.

Mocking up the smokestack in foam core.

Measuring the foam core model for smokestack angle and hinge placement.

Setting up the files for the laser cutter.

Adhering acrylic pieces together to build the base and smokestack.

Scouting hardware at various stores.

Cutting the screws for the smokestack hinge.

Sanding down the smokestack for the proper base angle.

In progress at the SVA sculpture studio.

My desk mid-fabrication at the IxD studio.

Final assembly.

Applying the decals.

Read Cloud Project A product that measures data stored in your cloud. By installing an a browser extension and plugging in the Read Cloud, a user can measure the mount of data he/she had produced on various social media sites, measured by the day, week, month, and all-time use. If users were given feedback about how much data they produce, would it have an impact on how they produce/consume digital content?

Screens from the Read Cloud Demo Video. http://vimeo.com/33872944

Process & Details

December 13, 2011 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; December 18, 2011

Read Cloud logo.

Picking up some lumber at Home Depot.

Planning out the day for fabricating and video shoot.

In progress at the SVA sculpture studio.

Painting the exterior.

Inserting the device button.

My desk mid-fabrication at the IxD studio.

Attaching the USB cable.

Sketching storyboards.

Camera mounted on a mini-boom for the video shoot.

Lighting setup for the video shoot.

Post-production in AfterEffects.

Send or receive Internet content Send 50KB photo

Socket Unix

... checks if the data packet has the correct IP address, is in the proper order, and is complete.

TCP/IP Stack

requests for data to be sent through the...

received by

Socket Unix

converts data into

My Laptop

87 IPv4 Data Packets

Disruptions Dropped connection Power outage

Router

Modem ISP Server Network

A Cybernetic Model of TCP/IP Protocol.

Destination Server

Determining the ‘What’ To the left is a cybernetic model14 of TCP/IP protocol in the

Protocol version 4) data packets and then sent out across

context of sending or receiving a 50 KB photo. The TCP/

the Internet. The TCP/IP protocol checks if any packets are

IP protocol functions as a comparator - a component of

missing, request packets from the sending computer, and

a closed-loop system that compares information coming

notify the sender that the transmission is complete. This

from a sensor to the system goal. In the case of TCP/IP,

operation of error checking is called “cyclic redundancy

the protocol checks if a data transmission (divided into

checking” and used by networked devices when sending

packets) is complete and assembled in the right order.

and receiving transmissions.

Anything less, the protocol can request for parts of that

data to be transmitted again.

and take time (think of a landline phone call), is an ob-

Direct transmission of data, which can be inefficient

This model seeks to determine the ‘what’ of my thesis,

solete method of transmission for the Internet. However,

the content; it does not necessarily refer to the overall

due to the non-linear nature of the IP protocol, a Google

topic, but the actual category and detail of content so as

search request for example is not handled by one server,

to define the ‘why’, ‘how’, ‘who for’, ‘who by’, ‘where’, and

but by several, to give faster, more relevant results. There

‘when’. This exercise is not a linear process where defin-

is actually a carbon footprint estimated by Google for

ing ‘what’ first is necessary, rather to grasp exactly what

the average search request: about 0.2 grams of CO2.16

is being studied, however granular.

Along with the power a laptop consumes, Mike Berners-

On pursuing a thesis about the environmental effects

Lee estimates a Google search creates 0.7 grams of CO2.

of cloud-based computing, I need to better understand

Multiply that by the 200 to 500 million search requests

what I am measuring as well as the infrastructure (so I

per day, and Google searching actually accounts for 1.3

can determine ‘where’ and ‘when’ is the best point for

million tons of CO2 emissions per year.17

intervention). The ‘what’ in my case is data - little bits of 0’s and 1’s that live on your hard drive, and are subsequently stored and transmitted by remote server(s). The more data, the more energy consumed by the server.

Data is measured in bits and bytes (8-bits); you’ve

most likely seen the data on your computer in megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB). When you send any type of data over the Internet such as an email, photo, or gchat message, your data is divided up into packets. On average, the size of these packets are 576 bytes or 4,608 bits,15 and consist of a header and trailer, with the data in between. You may or may not know that your computer has an IP (Internet Protocol) address - a unique numerical identifier for every device on a network. Even websites have IP addresses. The header of each data packet would contain information on the origin or sending IP address, destination or receiving IP address, and total size of the packet. The trailer of each data packet would contain information on how many packets there are and in what order to reassemble them back into the original data.

If I were to send a friend a 50 KB photo, the photo

would be broken up into approximately 87 IPv4 (Internet 55

Visualizing Rob’s Tweets Over winter break and into the second semester, I was still wrestling with the idea of visualizing the invisible. Stuck on the idea of signifying tweets (p.24), I experimented with a different technique: dropping all 1,660 of Rob Giampietro’s tweets from 3 feet (as of 1/2/12). I quickly set up shop in the studio, counted Rob’s tweets, hand punched each one, and captured the result in epoxy. The act of taking something ephemeral and making it permanent in a physical snapshot was an enjoyable exploration, but further pursuit will have to wait until after graduation. Note: Rob is a principal at Project Projects, a design studio in New York. As of 4/30/2012, he has 1,790 tweets.

Process & Details

January 10, 2011 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; January 13, 2011

Setting up the dust shield.

Lining up the cone for the tweets.

Detail of the cone and the trap door cover.

Initial drop test.

3rd drop test.

Prep work ready for the final drop.

The final drop with Mod Podge coating to help the tweets stick.

Attaching the USB cable.

The result.

Sketchbook Entry : 1/24/2012 #meta Reviewing thesis process book formats from the Class of 2011. (opposite)

Research January 2012 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; March 2012

On Emerging Themes of Digital Production and Consumption Over the past months, I’ve been reading several books on

our various communication devices, are we loosing our

consumption, culture, design, and the environment. Be-

ability to be satisfied with our current place in life by

fore I close out the bulk of my secondary research, I want

chasing digital bits of potential affirmation?

to highlight a few emerging themes regarding our digital production and consumption habits. (I still have to read

II. Seamlessness and Time

The Information by James Gleick and Glut by Alex Wright)

A longtime priority of interaction designers has been to erase the boundaries between experiences with technol-

I. Either Never Satisfied or Always Curious

ogy, i.e. create a seamless experience. This can range from

“Our inventions are but improved means to an unim-

how easily a user can charge or sync an iPod with his/her

proved end”, as Neil Postman paraphrases Henry David

computer to the consistency of content design across de-

Thoreau in Technopoly. A lofty statement, but one that

vices (phone, tablet, computer, television). A fundamental

addresses a fundamental question underlying the torrent

promise of technology: save the user from the drudgery

of technological advancement in the last 20 years - where

of tasks and make the ones required of them easier.

is all this headed? While some believe the innovations in

In Everywhere, Adam Greenfield points out that, as

technology are leading to a singularity as futurist Raymond

does computer scientist Mark Weiser, seamlessness can

Kurzweil proposes, other thought leaders question the

make experiences, “hard to tell when one thing ends and

insatiable demand for new information and our dissat-

something else begins”.6 Think of it this way: where and

isfaction with the here and now.

when can you check your email? text or call a friend?

John Thackara, author of In The Bubble, illustrates

Practically anywhere. With this ubiquitous power, our

our growing dissatisfaction with the analogy of a boy,

divisions of time – work time, family time, play time – are

sitting under a tree, looking out over a landscape. In one

removed. Thackera also warns that even the design of our

case, the boy exists before the invention of the Internet,

spaces can make our bodies, “physically desensitized from

cellphones, pagers; the other case describes the boy exist-

its sense of time”.7 Moreover, Postman laments that the

ing now. Which boy is more thoughtful in the moment,

promise of technology is to give us more time by accom-

satisfied with the solitude of thought? Those not part of

plishing tasks faster, “Time, in fact, became an adversary

the Millennial generation relate to the latter. Some, such

over which technology could triumph.”8

as writer Clive Thompson, argues otherwise, saying the

boy is actively seeking inspiration to share rather than

and task completion begets more space for other activi-

waiting for some serendipitous apple to drop.3

ties; this space however is often filled with more of the

With his analogy, Thackara references the Italian

same activity – a consequence described as the rebound

concept of “dolce far niente”, describing one’s ability to

effect. The concept explains as technology allows easier

find pleasure in idleness, literally meaning “sweet doing

access and faster use of a resource (time), the more of that

nothing”. Elizabeth Gilbert also writes about the con-

resource is used. The effect leaves us wondering where

cept in her book, Eat, Pray, Love.4 Both authors question

all our time went.

Our attempts to create efficiencies with technology

whether we can enjoy a moment to ourselves without being able to communicate that feeling to others. In On

III. Information as Metaphor: Water, Garbage, Food

Paradise Drive, David Brooks criticizes Americans who

Open access to a seemingly infinite amount of informa-

have never been satisfied with what they have and who

tion is often framed as metaphor. In The Middle Mind,

are constantly pursuing the next best thing. Applied to

Curtis White describes the abundance of information as

a deluge, leaving us to drown in sea of entertainment and

Seemingly irrational, our digital lifestyle has become a

communication when all we wanted was a drink. Postman

paradox of loss aversion, a decision theory determined

moves up the pessimism scale, declaring, “Information

by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. Loss aversion

has become a form of garbage”. Beyond subjectivity, his

states that we can make decisions based on our desire to

point is reinforced with the advent of content farms –

avoid loss rather than acquire gains; fears of loosing our

creating content on a mass scale as quickly as possible

digital information forever can be alleviated by storing that

to seed hundreds of websites for daily use, only to then

information in the cloud. In his classic routine, George

be forgotten and “thrown away” into a far off database.

Carlin jokes that our homes are just places to store all our

The most consistent metaphor used is information

stuff.14 I would argue that our cloud-based services are

as food. Douglas Rushkoff quotes Shakespeare in his

not only means to access our content anywhere, but are

Frontline report, Digital Nation, saying “we are consumed

actually digital attics where we can just store all our stuff.

by that we are nourished”. The more quickly we snack 11

on tiny morsels of information [sic], the more our ideas are shaped into bursts of disconnected thought. In his report, Rushkoff points out as undergraduate college students produce and consume information through endless multi-tasking, their ability to defend a thoughtful, consistent argument in an essay is diminished. Gone are the days musing by Walden Pond.

Exploring similar themes in his new book, The Infor-

mation Diet, Clay Johnson states, “information consumption is as active an experience as eating”, equating our cravings for salt, fat, and sugar in cheap foods with our desire for affirmation.12 By quickly viewing and sharing information, we fall prey to our desires of affirmation and recognition (as many media companies have learned), resulting in “information obesity”. Similarly, this rapid, cyclical behavior leads Microsoft researcher danah boyd to describe social media as being the “psychological equivalent of obesity”.13

Way back in 2001, David Brooks wrote Bobos in Paradise, which described a new upper class of now grey-haired bohemians who express their values with a bourgeois budget. It’s not enough to eat “morally neutral sausages”; Bobos must eat sausage made from local, free-range pork using a recipe passed down through the generations, costing far more than any offering from Jimmy Dean. “Shopping, like everything else, has become a means of self-exploration and self-expression”, he writes.15 Through conspicuous consumption, we display our values and beliefs.

It is now 2012. Our consumption as communicating

success has shifted to boasting through production of content. We are all our own PR firm and with the tools of social media, we can broadcast our lives and interests with a simple click or tap. This sentiment is echoed by Kickstarter co-founder Yancy Strickler and entrepreneur Zach Klein in a recent blog post,16 pointing out that con-

IV. The Cloud as a Virtual Attic and Digital Hoarding

spicuous production is now our means for transmitting

While Postman describes information as garbage, more

values. With every upload and post, we are not only show-

and more it seems to be something we can stash away

ing the world what we have or what we find interesting,

in our cloud. Given the amount of storage available for

but we are also searching for affirmation. I doubt anyone

various cloud-based services (generally advertised as

would continue to post content without feedback from

being “unlimited”), producing and saving information is

friends, family, or strangers.

effortless. We are no longer limited by available storage

on our computers and devices; we can save our digital

he mentions the ancient Greek concept of thumos,17 the

content on nearly infinite levels. For example, as of today,

human desire for recognition of one’s own existence.

I’m only using 88 MB of 7,671 MB available to me on my

With today’s social media tools, our ability to fulfill our

GMail account. Why delete an email when I can just have

own personal thumos is for the taking (or clicking); but

it on hand?

the question remains – if everyone is seeking recognition,

can we all respond to one another despite the cacophony

To me, this is a form of hoarding – saving items of little

or no utility for the chance of possible use in the future. 64

V. Conspicuous Consumption vs. Conspicuous Production

In another book by David Brooks, The Social Animal,

of requests?

VI. Starting to Lean Back Apple founder Steve Jobs, in addressing a conference, said, “We think basically you watch television to turn your brain off, and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on.”18 What Jobs is referring to is the notion of “hot” and “cool” media, a concept first introduced by the late theorist Marshall McLuhan (also recently covered by Paul Ford in our Content Strategy class). “Hot” media are highly defined mediums which engage one sense of the viewer and require very little participation. On the other hand, “cool” media are low definition mediums that demand more viewer participation and require more attention.19

Another closely related classification of media are

“lean-forward” and “lean-back” mediums. Television is a “lean-back” medium where viewers want to be entertained and are in a relaxed, passive state. In “lean-forward” mediums, the Internet, for example, viewers are more engaged users of the medium and are in a more active state. But as Eli Pariser points out in The Filter Bubble, the Internet is becoming a “lean-back” medium.20

Increasingly, we are watching more video content

online. In fact, nearly a third of all Internet traffic is from watching movies and shows on Netflix.21 Both YouTube and Vimeo have recognized this trend and designed LeanBack and Couch Mode features respectively, so users can watch content on a television or by simply “leaning-back” in a chair. Never mind online video content, our Internet tools and apps allow us to sort through and parse vast amounts of information, easing the burden of search. This does not sound bad at all, but Eli Pariser warns, “as personalized filtering gets better and better, the amount of energy we’ll have to devote to choosing what we’d like to see will continue to decrease.”22

INTERVIEW : Deena Rosen, Senior Manager of User Experience, OPower Notes (opposite) 1/24/2012

INTERVIEW : Stephan Von Muehlen, Co-Founder, Energy Hub Notes 1/31/2012

DISCUSSION : Allan Chochinov, Chair, SVA MFA Products of Design; Partner, Core77 Notes (below) 1/31/2012

INTERVIEW : Don Carli, Founder, Institute for Sustainable Communication Notes 2/10/2012

INTERVIEW : Steve Berry, User Experience Designer, Efficiency 2.0 Notes (opposite) 2/15/2012

Blog Entry : 2/14/2012

closer to the average (using more energy). However,

#interviews

if I’m given a qualitative measure - “Great Job,

#summary

Dave!” - then I will most likely maintain that

#findings

lead. Conversely, if I’m falling behind the group, qualitative encouragement will not work. Given

Interviews n’ Making In late January, I spoke with two Deena Rosen, Senior Manager of User Experience at OPower, and Stephan Von Muehlen, co-founder of Energy Hub. Both companies are redesigning our relationship with utility companies by giving customers realtime and historical data of their energy consumption. I first talked with Deena, who described how OPower’s product platform is rooted in cognitive psychology, in particular the work of Dr. Robert Cialdini. Researching the motivations behind energy consumption, Dr.Cialdini found that across all financial and environmental reasons that the only true motivator was what he called normative comparison.

Normative comparison is a concept where we

compare our status and performance to people similar to ourselves, and we want to “normalize” our behavior with others. As individuals, we do not want to do any worse than a larger group in our energy consumption. In discussing this with Stephan, he mentioned that people also don’t want to do any better. He described a paradox of normative comparison, pointing out that we tend to take advantage of quantitatively “doing better” than others; if I’m conserving more energy than the majority of people I’m compared with, I will use that lead as an allowance and end up moving 74

quantitative data, I would treat my consumption like a game and try to conserve energy more.

In my conversations with Deena and Stephan,

we covered many topics around methods for encouraging behavior change. Don Carli, director of the Institute for Sustainable Communication, has a different approach in working towards a sustainable future. Don is a fascinating character. He worked as a production artist for Robert Motherwell and others during the 1970’s in the New York art scene, and he helped develop standards for inkjet printer technology in the 1980’s. Now, he is advocating for industry standards on sustainable communication. Pursuing large companies with massive advertising budgets such as Proctor & Gamble and Unilever, he hopes to establish a series of measures that: identify the materials used to advertise/market a product, define them in a lifecycle, quantify those materials so as to track them, and then have companies make informed decisions around those agreed upon measures. In doing so, he hopes to prevent “greenwashing” in corporate communication and disclose resources used in advertising and promoting products/services.

Moving forward, I plan to incorporate

two core concepts uncovered from my interviews: normative comparison and established measures.

User Survey Being Online and the Environment

Being Online and the Environment

I. Intro

*8. What steps do you take to save electricity?  Turn off lights when I leave a room    

This survey is conducted by David Bellona, an MFA candidate in the Interaction Deisgn program at the School of Visual Arts. The survey is for academic purposes only. David will be the only person viewing your answers and your privacy will be respected for all responses. The survey will take approximately 15-20 minutes. You will be entered for the chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.com. Winner will be announced on 2/17. Questions 1-6. For the first section, you will be answering some general questions about who you are and where you live. Cool? Cool.

 Installed energy efficient lightbulbs    

 Other (please specify)    

 Added insulation around my home/apt (electric heat)    

 Updated my appliances    

Not important

Somewhat

Very important

Overall Cost

    

Cost per kWh

    

Usage (Power

    

Consumption)

*3. What is your gender?

Damage to the

environment

*10. Do you know where your electricity comes from?

 Non-renewable energy resources    

*4. What is your age?

 Renewable energy resources    



 Both    

*5. Where do you live? (city, state)

*11. How concerned are you about the carbon footprint of your electricity consumption?

II. Electricity and the Environment

 I have no idea    

6. What do you do for work?

Not at all

Somewhat

    

Very concerned

    

*12. Would you pay for a service to offset the carbon footprint of your electricity

consumption?

Questions 7-17. The following 10 questions are about your electricity consumption and the environment.

 Yes    

*7. Do you know what a kilowatt hour (kWh) is?

 No    

 Yes      No    

 Installed motion sensors for certain lights    

 Unplug certain appliances or turn off power strips    

2. What is your email address? (optional but needed for the raffle)

 Female    

 Installed timers for certain lights    

*9. Which of the following concerns you about your electricity bill?

1. What is your name? (first and last name, optional but needed for the raffle)

 Male    

 Turn off lights when I leave my home/apt    

 Maybe    

 Kinda    

13. Why or why not?

 

Page 1

Being Online and the Environment

*22. How frequently do you use the following services? Facebook

Page 2

Don't use

Not that often

Weekly

Daily

All the time

    

*26. How do you backup files on your computer?  External hard drive      Dropbox    

Google +

    

Twitter

    

 iCloud    

Foursquare

    

 I don't back up my data    

Yelp

    

Flickr

    

Instagram

    

Path

    

Tumblr

    

Gimmie Bar

    

Snip.it

    

YouTube

    

Vimeo

    

*23. Would you use a service that helped you keep track of the amounts of your online

content? (pictures, videos, comments, etc)

 Other (please specify)    

*27. What cloud-based applications do you use?  Google docs    

 Google calendar      Gmail    

 Other email service (AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo)      iCloud    

 Evernote      Dropbox    

 Maybe    

28. How would you define 'cloud computing'? 

24. Why or why not?





*29. How concerned are you losing your online files? (uploaded pictures, videos, emails,



IV. Your Files and Cloud Computing

etc)

Not at all

    

etc)

Not at all

Very concerned

    

 Yes      No    

 I have no idea    

    

Page 5

    

Flickr photos)

*25. How concerned are you losing your files on your computer? (pictures, documents,     

Very concerned

    

*30. Do you know where your online files are physically located? (ex.Facebook content,

Questions 23-32. The following 10 questions are about your files and cloud computing. (You're almost done!)

 Other (please specify)    

 Yes      No    

Page 6

Being Online and the Environment

*14. Have you ever calculated your own 'carbon footprint' using online tools/calculator?

 Yes      No    

 Desktop Computer    

 Laptop Computer    

 Can't remember    

 iPad    

 iPhone    



 iPod Touch    

Yes

 Other Smartphone (ex.Android)    

*16. Do you believe in man-made global warming?

 Other Tablet (ex. Samsung Galaxy)    



 No    

 Ultrabook Computer (ex.Macbook Air)    

15. How would you define 'carbon footprint'?

    

*19. What device do you use the most to access the Internet?

*20. What device do you use the most to share content?

 Not Sure    

 Desktop Computer      Laptop Computer    

17. Why or why not?

 Ultrabook Computer (ex.Macbook Air)    



 iPad     

III. Online and On The Go

 Other Tablet (ex. Samsung Galaxy)    

 iPhone    

*18. How frequently do you use the following devices?

 iPod Touch    

Don't own

Not that often

Weekly

Daily

Nonstop

Desktop Computer

    

Laptop Computer

    

Ultrabook Computer

    

(ex.Macbook Air) iPad Other Tablet (ex. Samsung

    

Galaxy) iPhone

    

Other Smartphone

    

 Other Smartphone (ex.Android)    

Questions 18-24. The following 7 questions are about your electronic devices and online services you use.

*21. When visiting a website, how do you share/post the content you are using? Don't use

Not that often

Weekly

Daily

Nonstop

'Like' button

    

'Tweet' button

    

'Retweet' button

    

'LinkedIn' button

    

'Email a friend' function

    

'Digg' button

    

'Reddit' button

    

(ex.Android) iPod Touch

Page 3

Page 4

Being Online and the Environment

*31. How concerned are you about the physical location of your online files/content? Not at all

    

Very concerned

    

*32. Do you know how your online services are powered?  Non-renewable energy resources      Renewable energy resources      Both    

 I have no idea    

*33. How concerned are you about the carbon footprint of your online behavior? (posting videos, commenting, tweeting, 'liking', etc) Not at all

    

Very concerned

    

*34. Would you pay for a service to offset the carbon footprint of your online behavior?

 Yes      No    

 Maybe    

35. Why or why not?  

Page 7

environmental impact of data centers. A few even noted they would rather change their behavior than pay extra money. + People use Facebook. Not a typical “Eureka!” moment of clarity, but as affirmation, 80% of 21-45 year olds surveyed use Facebook on a frequent basis (weekly, daily or ‘all the time’). Also, 21-30 year olds use Facebook as their primary means of sharing information on the Internet. Facebook was by far the most used online service, with Twitter a somewhat distant second. Nearly half of 21-30 year olds use Instagram and over 75% of those 45 or older use Google + (yep). + We’re just not that into data. A majority of Blog Entry : 2/18/2012

the digerati might be obsessed with the quantified

#survey

self, but many people surveyed don’t think it’s

#summary #key_findings After little convincing from my classmates Allison and Cooper (“It’s incredible”), I dropped $25

that important. Merely tracking the amount of one’s online content is not enough to change consumption habits – people need a reason and connection to a benefit or consequence. Many wouldn’t know what to do with just straight data; it needs context.

and signed up for SurveyMonkey; it absolutely destroys Google Docs survey. I set up my survey into 4 categories: demographics, electricity and the environment, online behavior, and file management and cloud-based computing. Over the course of two weeks, I had a great response, 102 people, with the majority of respondents in the range of 21-45. A few insights from the survey: + We do care, just not sure what about. The majority of people are concerned with the carbon footprint of their electrical consumption in the home, but are not worried about the carbon footprint of their online habits. It should also be noted that 92% of respondents had no idea how their online services are powered. A key quote , “I don’t have a method of easily understanding what my current carbon footprint is and how to reduce/offset it.” + Transparency is key. Many people would pay for a service that would offset the carbon dioxide emissions of their electrical consumption. 60% also noted that they would be willing to pay for an offset of their cloud-based data. In both cases, this depended on how and where the money was being spent, as well as information on the 78

Sketchbook Entry : 2/17/2011 Survey summary notes. (opposite)

Defining an Audience Psychographics Rather Than Demographics For my thesis, I am focusing on the production and distribution of social, fluid, ephemeral content. This includes the reuse of pre-existing content on the Internet as well as the subsequent saving of this content. When I say “saving”, I am referring to the automatic storage of short-lived content that is quickly forgotten by the producer – rather digitally disposed – after a few days. In this regard, these behaviors represent a linear process of consumption, recreating tiny, rapid versions of the Materials Economy millions of times per day. The Materials Economy Made digestible through her video, The Story of Stuff, Annie Leonard explains the Materials Economy: the vast, linear system that is the basis for our consumer culture.23 It consists of five general phases: extraction, production, distribution, consumption, disposal (ref.1). For example, the MacBook I am writing this text on contains dozens of materials - precious metals, glass, plastic - that were

Sketching out model iterations on the blackboard.

infrastructure powered by non-renewable energy resources can have a huge impact on the environment. In fact, carbon emissions from powering the world’s data centers are about the same as produced by the airline industry, or even a medium-sized country.25

processed, manufactured, and assembled in factories all

Dividing the Cloud

over the world. In the case of my laptop, it was shipped

Because the term “the cloud” has become a catch all for

from a factory to a distribution center, then loaded onto

everything dealing with data centers, I need to determine

a truck and delivered to the Apple store in Chelsea. I

specific data center transactions I am targeting as well as

purchased my laptop there and eventually will hand back

user behaviors. Cloud computing is nearly synonymous

over to Apple for “recycling” aka disposal.

with the Internet. Amazon Web Services powering the

This linear process has been critiqued again and

likes of Netflix and Yelp; the ubiquitous access to Gmail;

again, most notably by Ms. Leonard, and William Mc-

Apple’s iCloud service for device syncing; dozens of social

Donough and Michael Braungart.24 What is fascinating

media services such as Facebook and Instagram – all fall

about the Materials Economy are the vast systems involved

under the cloud.

with creating our everyday objects, from my MacBook

or the shirt you’re wearing. We do not to think about this

streaming media (music, tv shows/movies, live events),

massive infrastructure on a day-to-day basis; it simply

work related communications such as emails and file shar-

would not be practical. However, shifting from tangible

ing, and services used for backing up digital content. For

to virtual products, we are completely unaware of the

instance, online services Backupify and Dropbox are for

physical infrastructure that support our digital systems.

general consumer use, but do not share similar behavior

As consumers, we are setting a dangerous precedent if we

patterns with the consumption of physical products as

are moving forward in the adoption of digital products

do Tumblr or Instagram.

Aspects of cloud computing I will not address are:

with, “It just works”

While the movement towards everything online (i.e.

Consumption vs. Production vs. Distribution

“the cloud”) has the potential to be more environmentally

Pre-Internet days we expressed ourselves in the real world

sustainable than current practices, a growing Internet

(IRL) through the products we bought. Clothing, shoes,

(ref.1)

(ref.2)

(ref.3)

Model of the Materials & Virtual Economies

jewelry, furniture, cars, books, music – these objects served

ourselves sharing and distributing massive amounts of

as signifiers that communicated who we thought we were

content through rapid click or tap cycles, leaving us won-

in the eyes of others. Our consumption of physical prod-

dering where the last 20 minutes of our day went.

ucts, “has become a means of self-exploration and self-

expression”, writes David Brooks in Bobos in Paradise.

are given allow for this behavior. Without limits of cost

We still buy physical products, but we also have

or material, we can produce/curate/distribute seemingly

shifted self-expression and affirmation to the production

infinite amounts of information. More often than not, we

of online content (ref.2). We broadcast our feelings through

do just that. For instance, Facebook handles approximately

comments and ‘likes’; reblog, repost, or retweet images

200 million photo uploads per day.27 Furthermore, we are

and ideas we find interesting; upload first-person views

redistributing existing content through social curation.

of our world through various social media tools (ref.3).

According to Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress,

Most of our online behavior is reinforced by red circles

for every one piece of content on Tumblr, there are 9 cop-

with white numbers - tiny confirmation alerts that our

ies of that same content being reposted.28 As a collective,

friends, family, and strangers are paying attention. These

our behaviors require a rapid expansion of the physical

mini feedback loops give us hits of dopamine, enabling

infrastructure of the Internet.

Right or wrong, the online and mobile tools that we

ephemeral highs that can be terribly addictive. We find 81

Adjacent Entities for Competitive Analysis

The competition.

I have divided up “the competition” into six categories:

sought to bring awareness around CO2 output, using

Frameworks/APIs, Incoming/Outgoing Data Manage-

540 of black balloons to illustrate an individual’s carbon

ment, Environmental Visualizations, Backup & Cloud

output per day (62 pounds). Carbon Bytes is an iPad app

Management, and Electricity Consumption. They are

exploration of Mr.Murray, tracking personal online habits

charted along a Physical/Digital spectrum paired with

and consequences, such as hours online, downloads, and

six verticals: Practical vs. Abstract, Social vs. Individual,

CO2 output.

Real Time vs. Summary, Expert vs. Layman, Stationary vs.

Mobile, Commercial vs. Residential. My thesis projects

petitive analysis nor fully inclusive of all products/services

are added on each of the six main charts to illustrate their

in any given category. Furthermore, this study is a soft

attributes as well as identify opportunities in different

science, and is an exploration of adjacent industries to

markets. I also performed an audit of consumer labels (e.g.

determine mediums, audiences, techniques, and func-

WindMade) and offset programs, but these categories are

tionality that may apply to my own thesis projects.

It should also be noted this is not a traditional com-

not mapped as they do not fit the selected cartesian axes.

Of the few dozen entities, there are two projects that

Note: I refer to a potential thesis project, Cumulus Alpha

can be considered “direct competitors”, both student

in this analysis. This project eventually became Canary,

projects and in the Environmental Visualizations category:

but at the time, was only a placeholder and representa-

Mark Nystrom’s Carbon Emissions Project (2005) and

tive of certain qualities born from this exercise. Also, the

Elwyn Murray’s Carbon Bytes (2011). As a public installa-

At Capacity project was scrapped and became part of the

tion at the RISD MFA show, the Carbon Emissions Project

Carry Your Cloud prototype.

Process

Using sticky notes to plot out the competition on one of the studio blackboards.

I plotted out four axes at a time, documented each session, then rotated to the next set.

February 28, 2011 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; February 29, 2011

After plotting all sets, I brought the photos into Illustrator to cleanup the analysis.

Practical vs. Abstract

Practical

Backup & Cloud Management Cumulus Alpha

Electricity Consumption

Emission Bits

Green Button

Environmental Visualizations Read Cloud

Frameworks/APIs Practical

Electricity Meter Incoming/Outgoing

Utility Co. Monthly Bill

Efficiency 2.0 Reports OPower Paper Report

Smart Meter Data Management

Eco-Eye Monitors Thesis

Practical Energy Score Cards

Utility Co. Efficiency 2.0 Website Dashboard OPower Dashboard Utility Co. Email Physical Lucid Design Group OPower/Facebook Dashboard Social Energy App Simple Energy Social Game Energy Hub Dashboard

Energy Hub Project Devices

Ambient Devices

Nest Thermomstat

Physical

Digital

Carry Your Cloud

Gilles Belley Energy Saving Adaptor

Gilles Belley EDF Semaphore

Changers Social Solar Power

Digital Neighborhood Score Cards

Physical

Elwyn Murray Carbon Bytes

Physic

Digital

Coal Button REALiTREE

Seed Cloud Mark Nystrom Carbon Emissions Report

At Capacity Natalie Jeremijenko STATIC! Power Aware Cord

Abstract Abstract

Abstract

Practical vs. Abstract Practical

Natalie Jeremijenko creates Practical amazing projects that expose

Practical

the mystery of natural systems and use theirCisco process to

Dispatch.io

IOS NetFlow

Dropbox Tumblr Backup

External Hard Drive

illustrate our impact on the environment.Apple While a few Activity Monitor

are conceptual and abstract, they serve as entry points Tout Email Management

to discussions around our relationship with nature. The purpose of my abstract projects are also to serve as a

Institute for Sustainable Communication

Tendril

of storage and bandwidth, Carry Your Cloud on storage as Digital

digital attics, Seed Cloud on signifying data creation, Your Flowing Data and

Brighter Planet TripSquare AMEE Location Footprinter Clean Web Hackathon Digital

Physical

Tweets

2 Martin the Coal Button onAmy CO emissions from digital behavior. Bloom Email

Physical

Silke Hilsing Weight of Data Christian Gross Paper Plane SMS

Abstract

Backup & Cloud Management

Abstract

Backupify Gimmie Bar

Green Button Project

gateway around related topics: At Capacity on limitations Physical

AMEE

Digital

Physic

Electricity Meter Electricity Meter

Practical

Practical Energy ScoreEnergy Cards Score Cards

Practical

Utility Co. Utility Co. Smart Meter Smart Meter Monthly Bill Monthly Bill Eco-Eye Eco-Eye Energy Hub Energy Hub Monitors Monitors Efficiency 2.0Efficiency 2.0 Devices Devices Reports Reports

. Abstract

p& nt Management

city umption

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s Project Physical

Utility Co. Utility Co. 2.0Efficiency 2.0 Efficiency Website Website Dashboard Dashboard OPower OPower Dashboard Dashboard Utility Co. Utility Co. Email OPower OPower Practical Practical Email Lucid DesignLucid Group Design Group Paper ReportPaper Report OPower/Facebook OPower/Facebook Dashboard Dashboard Ambient Devices Ambient Devices Social EnergySocial App Energy App Simple Energy Simple Energy Social Game Social Game Cumulus Alpha Cumulus Alpha Energy Hub Energy Hub Emission Bits Emission Bits Dashboard Dashboard Green Button Green Button Nest Nest ThermomstatThermomstat Read CloudRead Cloud

Physical

Digital

Physical

Gilles Belley Gilles Belley Gilles Belley Gilles Belley Energy Saving Energy Adaptor Saving Adaptor EDF Semaphore EDF Semaphore Physical

Digital

Physical

Changers Changers Social Solar Power Social Solar Power Electricity Meter Electricity Meter

Practical

Utility Co. Utility Co. Smart MeterSmart Meter Neighborhood MonthlyNeighborhood Bill Monthly Bill Eco-Eye Eco-Eye Score Cards Score Cards Energy HubEnergy Hub Monitors Monitors Efficiency 2.0 Efficiency 2.0 Devices Devices Reports Reports

Elwyn MurrayElwyn Murray Energy Score Energy CardsScore Cards Carbon Bytes Carbon Bytes

Utility Co. Utility Co. Efficiency 2.0 Efficiency 2 Website Website Dashboard Dashboard OPower OPower Dashboard Dashboard Utility Co. Utility Co. Email Email OPower OPower Lucid Design Lucid Group Design GroupOPower/Facebook Paper Report Paper Report OPower/Faceb Dashboard Dashboard Ambient Devices Ambient Devices Social Social AppEnergy A Physical Digital DigitalEnergy Simple Energy Simple Energy REALiTREE REALiTREESocial GameSocial Game Energy HubEnergy Hub Dashboard Dashboard Mark Nystrom Mark Nystrom Carbon Emissions Carbon Report EmissionsNest Report Nest Thermomstat Thermomstat Physical

Digital

Natalie Jeremijenko Natalie Jeremijenko Gilles BelleyGilles Belley Gilles BelleyGilles Belley Energy Saving Energy Adaptor Saving Adaptor EDF Semaphore EDF Semaphore

STATIC! STATIC! Power AwarePower Cord Aware Cord Coal ButtonCoal Button

Carry Your Cloud Carry Your Cloud Seed CloudSeed Cloud Abstract

Abstract

Practical

STATIC! STATIC! Abstract Abstract Power Aware Power CordAware Cord

At Capacity At Capacity

Electricity Consumption

Environmental Visualizations

Abstract

Practical Cisco Cisco IOS NetFlow IOS NetFlow

Abstract

Practical

lanet

Abstract

Practical

Tout Tout Email Management Email Management

Practical

Physical

DigitalPlanet Digital Planet Brighter Brighter Your FlowingYour DataFlowing Data TripSquare TripSquare Tweets Tweets Amy Martin Amy Martin AMEE AMEE Bloom Email Bloom Email Location Footprinter Location Footprinter Clean Web Clean Web Silke Hilsing Silke Hilsing Hackathon Hackathon Weight of Data Weight of Data Digital Digital

Christian Gross Christian Gross Paper Plane Paper SMS Plane SMS

Backupify Backupify Gimmie Bar Gimmie Bar Cisco Cisco IOS NetFlowIOS NetFlow Apple Apple Activity Monitor Activity Monitor

AMEE AMEE Tendril Tendril Institute for Institute for SustainableSustainable Communication Communication Green Button Green Project Button Project Physical

Dispatch.io Dispatch.io Dropbox Dropbox Tumblr Backup Tumblr Backup

External HardExternal Drive Hard Drive

Apple Apple Activity Monitor Activity Monitor

Practical

Physical

Tout Tout Email Management Email Management Digital Digital

Physical

Digital

Amy Martin Amy Martin Bloom EmailBloom Email

Digital

Your Flowing Your Data Flowing Data Tweets Tweets

Silke HilsingSilke Hilsing Weight of Data Weight of Data

Abstract

Frameworks/APIs

Abstract

Christian Gross Christian Gross Paper PlanePaper SMS Plane SMS

Abstract

Incoming/Outgoing Data Management

Social vs. Individual

Social

Backup & Cloud Management Electricity Consumption Environmental Visualizations

Cumulus Alpha Green Button

Emission Bits

Frameworks/APIs Social

Incoming/Outgoing Data Management Thesis Project

Social OPower/Facebook Social Energy App Simple Energy Seed Social Game

Coal Button Cloud

Neighborhood Score Cards

Physical

Lucid Design Group Gilles Belley Dashboard Energy Saving Adaptor

Gilles Belley EDF Semaphore

OPower Paper Report

Changers Digital Social Solar Power

Natalie Jeremijenko

Physic

OPower Dashboard

Energy Hub Devices Ambient Devices Eco-Eye Energy Hub Monitors Dashboard STATIC! Power Aware Cord Nest Thermomstat

Physical

REALiTREE

At Capacity

Efficiency 2.0 Dashboard Digital

Smart Meter

Physical

Mark Nystrom Carbon Emissions Report

Carry Your Cloud

Digital

Read Cloud

Energy Score Cards Efficiency 2.0 Reports

Utility Co. Website Utility Co. Email

Utility Co. Monthly Bill Electricity Meter

Individual

Elwyn Murray Carbon Bytes

Individual

Social vs. Individual

Social

Social For my main thesis project, Cumulus Alpha [Canary], I

Social

want it to be easy-to-use, mobile, practical, and social; Berlin-based Changers and stateside OPower are doing all four. Changers is an innovative startup that sells portable solar panel units that can power personal electronics. Us-

Clean Web Hackathon

Institute for Sustainable Communication

Christian Gross ers can broadcast how much energy he/she has created as Paper Plane SMS Silke Hilsing well as CO2 prevented from being released onCisco their social Weight of Data

Physical

IOS NetFlow

networks. Likewise, OPower uses normative comparison Digital

Physical

Digital

whereby we compare our status with people similar to

Gimmie Bar

Tout Email Management

ourselves (friends, family), and want to â&#x20AC;&#x153;normalizeâ&#x20AC;? our

TripSquare

Physical

behavior by comparison. Already implemented Your Flowing on Data their Tweets

Apple Activity Monitor

use normative comparison in their upcoming app, in

Backupify Tumblr Backup External Hard Drive

Amy Martin Defense Council (NRDC). Bloom Email

AMEE Individual Location Footprinter

Individual

Backup & Cloud Management

Individual

Dropbox Dispatch.io

paper reports and online dashboard, OPower will also partnership with Facebook and the Natural Resources

Digital

Physic

Social

Social OPower/Facebook OPower/Facebook Social EnergySocial App Energy App Simple Energy Simple Energy Social Game Social Game

dividual

p& nt Management

city umption

nmental izations Physical eworks/APIs

ing/Outgoing g Management t

s Project Physical

Social Social Lucid Design Lucid GroupDesign Group Gilles Belley Gilles Belley Dashboard Dashboard Energy Saving Energy Adaptor Saving Adaptor Gilles Belley Gilles Belley OPower OPower Energy Hub Energy Hub EDF Semaphore EDF Semaphore Dashboard Dashboard Devices Devices Ambient Devices Ambient Devices Efficiency 2.0Efficiency 2.0 Eco-Eye Eco-Eye Energy Hub Energy Hub Dashboard Dashboard Monitors Monitors Dashboard Dashboard Cumulus Alpha Cumulus Alpha STATIC! STATIC! Physical Digital Physical Digital Green Button Green Button Power AwarePower Cord Aware Cord Emission Bits Emission Bits Nest Nest ThermomstatThermomstat OPower OPower Paper ReportPaper Report Smart Meter Smart Meter Seed CloudSeed Cloud

Coal ButtonCoal Button

Physical

Digital Digital Energy ScoreEnergy Cards Score Cards

Efficiency 2.0Efficiency 2.0 Reports Reports At Capacity At Capacity Utility Co. Utility Co. Monthly Bill Monthly Bill Electricity Meter Electricity Meter

Physical

Neighborhood Neighborhood Score Cards Score Cards Natalie Jeremijenko Natalie Jeremijenko

Social

REALiTREE REALiTREE Social

Changers Social Changers Social Solar Power Social Solar Power

OPower/Facebook OPower/Facebo Social Energy Social AppEnergy A Simple Energy Simple Energy Social GameSocial Game

Lucid Design Lucid Group Design Group Mark NystromMark Nystrom Gilles BelleyGilles Belley Dashboard Dashboard Carbon Emissions Carbon Report Emissions Report Digital Physical Digital Energy Saving Energy Adaptor Saving Adaptor Gilles BelleyGilles Belley OPower OPower Energy HubEnergy Hub EDF Semaphore EDF Semaphore Dashboard Dashboard Devices Devices Ambient Devices Ambient Devices Efficiency 2.0 Efficiency 2 Eco-Eye Eco-Eye Energy HubEnergy Hub Dashboard Dashboard Monitors Monitors Dashboard Dashboard STATIC! STATIC! Physical Digital Digital Power Aware Power CordAware Cord Nest Nest Thermomstat Thermomstat OPower OPower Paper Report Paper Report Smart MeterSmart Meter

Utility Co. Utility Co. Website Website Utility Co. Utility Co. Email Email

Energy Score Energy CardsScore Cards Elwyn MurrayElwyn Murray Carbon BytesCarbon Bytes

Efficiency 2.0 Efficiency 2.0 Reports Reports

Carry Your Cloud Carry Your Cloud Individual ReadIndividual Cloud Read Cloud

Utility Co. Utility Co. Monthly Bill Monthly Bill Electricity Meter Electricity Meter

Electricity Consumption

Individual

Social

Environmental Visualizations Social

Social

Individual Individual

Social

Utility Co. Utility Co. Website Website Utility Co. Utility Co. Email Email

Individual Individual

Social

Christian Gross Christian Gross Paper Plane SMS Paper Plane SMS Silke Hilsing Silke Institute forHilsing Institute for Weight of Data WeightSustainable of Data Sustainable Communication Communication Physical

Clean Web Clean Web Cisco Hackathon Cisco Hackathon IOS NetFlow IOS NetFlow Digital

Physical

Digital

Physical

Christian Gross Christian Gross Paper PlanePaper SMS Plane SMS

Tout Tout Email Management Email Management

Physical

Your Flowing Your DataFlowing Data TripSquare TripSquare Tweets Digital Tweets Digital

Physical

Digital

Physical

Silke HilsingSilke Hilsing Weight of Data Weight of Data Physical

Cisco DropboxCiscoDropbox IOS NetFlowIOS NetFlow

Physical

Digital Dispatch.io Digital Dispatch.io

Apple Apple Activity Monitor Activity Monitor

Tout Tout EmailBackupify Management Email Management Backupify Tumblr Backup Tumblr Backup External HardExternal Drive Hard Drive

Your Flowing Your Data Flowing Data Tweets Tweets

Amy Martin Amy Martin Bloom Email Bloom Email Individual

AMEE AMEE Location Footprinter Location Footprinter Individual

Digital

Gimmie Bar Gimmie Bar

Individual

Apple Apple Activity Monitor Activity Monitor

Amy Martin Amy Martin Bloom EmailBloom Email Individual Individual

Frameworks/APIs

Individual Individual

Incoming/Outgoing Data Management

Commercial vs. Residential

Commercial

Backup & Cloud Management Electricity Consumption Environmental Visualizations Frameworks/APIs Commercial

Commercial

Incoming/Outgoing Data Management Thesis Project

Physical Gilles Belley EDF Semaphore Eco-Eye Monitors

Digital

Green Button

Lucid Design Group Dashboard Energy Score Cards

Physical

Natalie Jeremijenko Digital

Physical

Electricity Meter

Emission Bits At Capacity

Energy Hub Devices Ambient Devices Efficiency 2.0 Reports OPower Paper Report Utility Co. Monthly Bill

Digital

Simple Energy Social Game

Smart Meter

Gilles Belley Energy Saving Adaptor STATIC! Power Aware Cord Energy Hub Dashboard Nest Thermomstat

Physic

Efficiency 2.0 Dashboard OPower/Facebook Seed Social Energy App

Coal Button

Neighborhood Score Cards

REALiTREE Cumulus Alpha Changers Social Solar Power

Read Cloud

Cloud Carry Your Cloud OPower

Elwyn Murray Carbon Bytes

Utility Co. Dashboard Email Utility Co. Website

Mark Nystrom Carbon Emissions Report Residential

Residential

Commercial vs. Residential Commercial

The focus of my thesis is an individuals ability â&#x20AC;&#x201C; based Commercial

Commercial

on environmental impact â&#x20AC;&#x201C; to consciously produce, distribute, and dispose of digital content. In doing so, all of my projects and prototypes are under the Residential

Institute for Sustainable Communication

AMEE

category. Features such as normative comparison and real time feedback from physical devices areCisco distinctive IOS NetFlow

attributes that I will include in Cumulus Alpha [Canary]. Tout Email Management Physical

Digital

Physical

Digital

Tendril Brighter Planet Digital

Physical Apple Activity Monitor

Silke Hilsing Weight of Data Christian Gross Paper Plane SMS

Amy Martin Bloom Email

Dropbox

Clean Web HackathonTumblr Backup

External Hard Drive

Backupify

Your Flowing Data Tweets

Gimmie Bar

Green Button Project Residential

Residential

Backup & Cloud Management AMEE

Location Footprinter TripSquare

Dispatch.io

Residential

Physic

Commercial Commercial

ntial vs. Residential

p& Management nt

city mption

nmental zations l Physical works/APIs

g ng/Outgoing tanagement

Commercial Commercial

CommercialCommercial Gilles Belley Gilles Belley EDF Semaphore EDF Semaphore Eco-Eye Eco-Eye Monitors Monitors

CommercialCommercial

Lucid DesignLucid Group Design Group Dashboard Dashboard Energy ScoreEnergy Cards Score Cards Digital Digital

Physical

Simple Energy Simple Energy Social GameSocial Game

Smart Meter Smart Meter Electricity Meter Electricity Meter

Project

et l

Physical

Digital Digital Physical Energy Hub Energy Hub Efficiency 2.0Efficiency 2.0 Devices Devices Dashboard Dashboard Ambient Devices Ambient Devices OPower/Facebook OPower/Facebook Efficiency 2.0Efficiency 2.0 Gilles Belley Gilles Belley Social Energy Social App Energy App Green Button Green Button Reports Reports Energy Saving Energy Adaptor Saving Adaptor OPower OPower STATIC! STATIC! Utility Co. Utility Co. OPower OPower Power AwarePower Dashboard Dashboard Cord Aware Cord Email Email Paper ReportPaper Report Energy Hub Energy Hub Utility Co. Utility Co. Dashboard Dashboard Website Website Utility Co. Utility Co. Nest Nest Monthly Bill Monthly Bill ThermomstatThermomstat Coal ButtonCoal Button Emission Bits Emission Bits Cumulus Alpha Residential Residential Cumulus Alpha At CapacityAt Capacity

Electricity Consumption Seed CloudSeed Cloud Carry Your Carry CloudYour Cloud

Natalie Jeremijenko Natalie Jeremijenko Physical Gilles Belley Gilles Belley EDF Semaphore EDF Semaphore Eco-Eye Eco-Eye Monitors Monitors Neighborhood Neighborhood Score Cards Score Cards

Digital

Lucid Design Lucid Group Design Group Dashboard Dashboard REALiTREE REALiTREE

Physical Smart Meter Smart Meter

Energy Score Energy Cards Score Cards Digital Digital Changers Changers Social Solar Power Social Solar Power Simple Energy Simple Energy Social Game Social Game

Electricity Meter Electricity Meter

Elwyn MurrayElwyn Murray Carbon BytesCarbon Bytes Mark Nystrom Mark Nystrom Energy HubEnergy Hub Carbon Emissions Carbon Report Emissions Report Efficiency 2.0 Efficiency 2. Devices Devices DashboardDashboard Ambient Devices Ambient Devices OPower/Facebook OPower/Facebo Efficiency 2.0 Efficiency 2.0 Gilles Belley Gilles BelleyResidential Residential Social Energy Social AppEnergy A Reports Reports Energy Saving Energy Adaptor Saving Adaptor OPower OPower STATIC! STATIC! Utility Co. Utility Co. OPower OPower DashboardDashboard Power Aware Power CordAware Cord Email Email Paper Report Paper Report Environmental Visualizations Energy HubEnergy Hub Utility Co. Utility Co. DashboardDashboard Website Website Utility Co. Utility Co. Nest Nest Commercial Commercial Monthly BillMonthly Bill Thermomstat Thermomstat

Read CloudRead Cloud

Commercial Commercial ResidentialResidential

ResidentialResidential

CommercialCommercial

Institute forInstitute for SustainableSustainable Communication Communication

Cisco Cisco AMEE AMEE IOS NetFlow IOS NetFlow Tout Tout Email Management Email Management

Physical

Digital

Physical

Digital

Physical

Digital

Physical

Digital

Cisco Cisco IOS NetFlow IOS NetFlow

Web hon

Digital

Tendril Physical

Tendril Brighter Planet Brighter Planet Digital Digital Apple Apple Activity Monitor Activity Clean Web CleanMonitor Web HackathonHackathon

Physical Silke Hilsing Silke Hilsing Weight of Data Weight of Data Amy Martin Amy Martin Christian Gross Christian Gross Paper Plane Paper SMS PlaneBloom SMS Email Bloom Email

Physical

Tout ToutDispatch.io Dispatch.io Email Management Email Management Dropbox Dropbox Digital Digital

Physical External HardExternal Drive Hard Drive

Tumblr Backup Tumblr Backup Backupify

Your FlowingYour DataFlowing Data Tweets Tweets Green Button Green Project Button Project Silke Hilsing Silke Hilsing Weight of Data Weight of Data

Residential Residential AMEE AMEE Location Footprinter Location Footprinter

Backupify

Gimmie Bar Gimmie Bar

Residential Residential Amy MartinAmy Martin Christian Gross Christian Gross Bloom Email Bloom Email Paper Plane Paper SMS Plane SMS

Apple Apple Activity Monitor Activity Monitor Your Flowing Your Data Flowing Data Tweets Tweets

TripSquareTripSquare

ResidentialResidential

Frameworks/APIs

ResidentialResidential

Incoming/Outgoing Data Management

Real Time vs. Summary

Real Time

Backup & Cloud Management Electricity Consumption

Seed Cloud

Cumulus Alpha

At Capacity

Environmental Visualizations

Green Button

Frameworks/APIs Real Time

Real Time

STATIC! Incoming/Outgoing Power Aware Cord Data Management Smart Meter

Gilles Belley EDF Semaphore

Coal Button

Lucid Design Group Dashboard Thermomstat Gilles Belley Energy Saving Adaptor Physical

Eco-Eye Thesis Monitors

Project Nest

Read Cloud Digital

Energy Hub Devices Ambient Devices

Emission Bits

Energy Hub Dashboard

Electricity Meter

Physic

REALiTREE Physical

Digital

Physical

Simple Energy Social Game OPower/Facebook Carry YourApp Cloud Social Energy Energy Score Cards Efficiency 2.0 Dashboard Efficiency 2.0 Reports

Digital

Natalie Jeremijenko

Elwyn Murray Carbon Bytes Changers Social Solar Power

Neighborhood Score Cards

OPower Dashboard Utility Co. Website

OPower Paper Report Utility Co. Monthly Bill

Utility Co. Email

Summary Mark Nystrom

Carbon Emissions Report Summary

Summary

Real Time vs. Summary

Real Time

Real Time when compared to electriUnique to online behavior

cal consumption, we have the ability to track usage in Cisco

Real Time

Clean Web Hackathon

External Hard Drive

IOS NetFlow

real-time. With cloud-based service providers utilizing

Dropbox

Dispatch.io

virtualization, they can determine if a server is about to Apple that load crash due to a spike in online traffic and shift Activity Monitor

to other servers. This capability is a dream for utilities: Amy Martin

we all crank our air conditioners during Tout peak-hours on Bloom Email

Tendril

Email Management

Physical

hot summer days, leading to potential blackouts. While Digital

Silkehold Hilsing the promise of real-time electricity smart meters

TripSquare

Physical

Brighter Planet Digital

Physic Tumblr Backup

Many of the physical devices such as Giles Belleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Backupify

EDF Semaphore and Energy Saving Adaptor signify electrical Christian consumption in real time. While they are conceptual Gross Paper Plane SMS

pieces, their abstract nature is surpassed by the practicality and function. In developing Cumulus Alpha [Canary],

Institute for Sustainable Communication

Summary

while being aesthetically pleasing.

AMEE Location Footprinter Summary

I hope to create an interface that offers real time utility Backup & Cloud Management

Summary

Digital

AMEE

Weight of Data

Yourthe Flowing Datahave management, only 13% â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 18% of homes in U.S. Tweets

them installed.29

Gimmie Bar

Green Button Project

Physical

y. Summary

& Management ent

Real Time Real Time STATIC! STATIC! Power AwarePower Cord Aware Cord Smart Meter Smart Meter Lucid Design Lucid GroupDesign Group Eco-Eye Eco-Eye Dashboard Dashboard Nest Nest Monitors Monitors ThermomstatThermomstat Gilles Belley Gilles Belley Gilles Belley Gilles Belley EDF Semaphore EDF Semaphore Energy Saving Energy Adaptor Saving Adaptor Real Time Real Time Energy Hub Energy Hub Devices Devices Ambient Devices Ambient Devices Electricity Meter Electricity Meter Seed Cloud Seed Cloud

ity mption

mental zations Physical al works/APIs s

Real Time

Energy Hub Energy Hub Dashboard Dashboard Cumulus Alpha Cumulus Alpha

At Capacity At Capacity

Green Button Green Button Digital

Physical

Digital

Physical

Real TimeReal Time STATIC! STATIC! Power Aware Power Cord Aware Cord Smart Meter Smart Meter Lucid Design Lucid Group Design Group Eco-Eye Eco-Eye DashboardDashboard Nest Monitors Monitors Nest Thermomstat Thermomstat Gilles Belley Gilles Belley Gilles Belley Gilles Belley EDF Semaphore EDF Semaphore Energy Saving Energy Adaptor Saving Adaptor REALiTREE REALiTREE Energy Hub Energy Hub Physical Digital Devices Devices Ambient Devices Ambient Devices

ng/Outgoing ng nt anagement

Project

Utility Co. Utility Co. Monthly Bill Monthly Bill

Utility Co. Email

Carry YourCarry CloudYour Cloud

Summary

Elwyn MurrayElwyn Murray Carbon BytesCarbon Bytes Digital Digital Changers Changers Social Solar Power Social Solar Power

Simple Energy Simple Energy Social Game Social Game OPower/Facebook OPower/Facebo Social Energy Social App Energy Ap Energy Score Energy Cards Score Cards Efficiency Efficiency 2.0 2.0 DashboardDashboard

Utility Co. Website

Utility Co. Email

Mark NystromMark Nystrom Efficiency Efficiency 2.0 Emissions 2.0 Report Carbon Carbon Emissions Report Reports Reports Summary

Summary

OPower OPower Paper Report Paper Report

Electricity Consumption

Utility Co. Utility Co. Monthly Bill Monthly Bill

Real Time

External HardExternal Drive Hard Drive

Cisco Cisco IOS NetFlow IOS NetFlow

Summary Summary

Real Time Utility Co. Utility Co. Email Email

Summary Summary

Amy Martin Amy Martin Bloom Email Bloom Email Physical

Digital Tendril

Digital

Gimmie Bar Gimmie Bar Physical

Apple Apple Digital Activity Monitor ActivityDigital Monitor

Physical

Tendril

Green Green Project Button Project YourButton Flowing Your Data Flowing Data Tweets Tweets AMEE AMEE Brighter Planet Brighter Planet TripSquareTripSquare Digital Digital

Physical Physical

Dropbox

Cisco Cisco IOS NetFlow IOS NetFlow

Tout Tout Email Management Email Management

Silke Hilsing Silke Hilsing Weight of Data Weight of Data

Dropbox

Real TimeReal Time Apple Apple Clean Web Clean Monitor Web Activity Monitor Activity HackathonHackathon

Physical

Utility Co. Utility Co. Website Website

Dispatch.io Dispatch.io

Real TimeReal Time

ect

OPower OPower DashboardDashboard

Environmental Visualizations Real Time

Web hon

et al

Utility Co. Website

Digital

Energy Hub Energy Hub DashboardDashboard

Electricity Electricity Meter Meter Simple Energy Simple Energy Coal Button Coal Button Social Game Social Game Natalie Jeremijenko Natalie Jeremijenko OPower/Facebook OPower/Facebook Read Cloud Read Cloud Social EnergySocial App Energy App Energy ScoreEnergy Cards Score Cards EfficiencyDigital 2.0Efficiency 2.0 Physical Physical Physical Physical Digital Dashboard Dashboard Neighborhood Neighborhood Efficiency 2.0Efficiency 2.0 OPower OPower Score Cards Score Cards Reports Reports Emission Bits Dashboard Dashboard Emission Bits OPower OPower Paper ReportPaper Report

Real Time

Amy Martin Amy Martin Bloom Email Bloom Email Physical Physical Silke Hilsing Silke Hilsing Weight of Weight Data of Data

Tout Tout Email Management Email Management Tumblr Backup Tumblr Backup Digital Digital Backupify

Backupify

Your Flowing YourData Flowing Data Tweets Tweets AMEE AMEE Christian Gross Christian Gross Location Footprinter Location Footprinter Paper Plane SMS Paper Plane SMS Institute for Institute for Sustainable Sustainable Communication Communication Summary

Summary

Christian Gross Christian Gross Paper Plane Paper SMSPlane SMS

Summary Summary

Frameworks/APIs

Summary Summary

Incoming/Outgoing Data Management

Expert vs. Layman

Expert

Backup & Cloud Management Electricity Consumption Environmental Visualizations Frameworks/APIs Expert

Expert

Incoming/Outgoing Management

Electricity Meter Data

At Capacity Seed Cloud

Thesis Project Smart Meter

Physical Energy Score Cards

Utility Co. Monthly Bill

Ambient Devices

Physical

Physic

Digital

Eco-Eye Monitors

Utility Co. Energy Hub Email Lucid Design Group Devices Dashboard Energy Hub Dashboard Nest Thermomstat

Efficiency 2.0 Reports

OPower Paper Report

Digital Utility Co. Website

Emission Bits

Gilles Belley Energy Saving Adaptor

Digital

Cumulus Alpha

Natalie Jeremijenko

Elwyn Murray Carbon Bytes

REALiTREE

Carry Your Cloud

Coal Button Green Button

Mark Nystrom Carbon Emissions Report

Efficiency 2.0 Dashboard

Read Cloud

OPower Dashboard

Changers Social Solar Power

Simple Energy Social Game OPower/Facebook Social Energy App

STATIC! Power Aware Cord

Gilles Belley EDF Semaphore

Physical

Neighborhood Score Cards

Layman

Expert vs. Layman Expert

The majority of the entities Expert I audited fall into the Layman

Expert

category, as many are for residential use. Those in the Cisco

IOS NetFlowsuch Expert category are APIs; enterprise-scale software

as Cisco’s IOS NetFlow; and the Institute for Sustainable

AMEE Tendril

Communication, creating a framework of standards for the advertising industry. Meaningful change can occur Apple Activity Monitor

Institute for Sustainable Communication

from the top-down or the bottom-up, and I because prefer Physical

Hilsing the latter,30 I Silke hope to create awareness and provide tools Weight of Data Digital

for individual users toMartin become advocates for sustainably Amy

Green Button Project Clean Web Hackathon Brighter Planet

Physical

products such as OPower’s Social Energy App and Simple

Digital

External Hard Drive

Your Flowing Data

Tumblr Backup

Energy’s Social Game are accessible with a Facebook Tweets

Dropbox

Connect, intended for the majority. My abstract concepts

Gimmie Bar

intend to follow the STATIC! Power Aware Cord’s simplicity.

Layman

AMEE Layman Location Footprinter Backup & Cloud Management

Layman

Digital Backupify

Bloom Email

Tout powered services and products. Christian cloud-based Gross Email Easy-to-use Management Paper Plane SMS

Dispatch.io

TripSquare

Physic

Expert

Electricity Meter Electricity Meter

Smart Meter Smart Meter

ayman

Expert

p& nt Management

city mption

nmental zations l Physical works/APIs

Expert Energy ScoreEnergy Cards Score Cards

Utility Co. Utility Co. Monthly Bill Monthly Bill

Physical

Expert

Electricity Meter Electricity Meter

Smart MeterSmart Meter

Ambient Devices Ambient Devices

Digital

Physical

Utility Co. Utility Co. Eco-Eye Eco-Eye ng/Outgoing g Website Website Monitors Monitors Management t Utility Co. Utility Co. At CapacityAt Capacity Energy Hub Energy Hub Email Email Project Seed CloudSeedDevices Cloud Lucid DesignLucid Group Design Group Devices Dashboard Dashboard Efficiency 2.0Efficiency 2.0 EfficiencyDigital 2.0Efficiency 2.0 Physical Reports Physical Reports Digital Physical Energy Hub Energy Hub Dashboard Dashboard Dashboard Dashboard Nest Nest OPower OPower ThermomstatThermomstat Dashboard Dashboard OPower OPower Simple Energy Simple Energy Paper ReportPaper Report STATIC! STATIC! Social GameSocial Game Power AwarePower Cord Aware Cord OPower/Facebook OPower/Facebook Gilles Belley Gilles Belley Social EnergySocial App Energy App Gilles Belley Gilles Belley EDF Semaphore EDFEmission Semaphore Bits Emission Bits Saving AdaptorCumulus Alpha Energy Saving Energy Adaptor Cumulus Alpha Carry Your Cloud Carry Your Cloud Layman

Layman Read CloudRead Cloud

Electricity Consumption Expert

Coal ButtonCoal Button Green Button Green Button

Expert

Layman

Expert

Physical

Digital Energy Score Energy CardsScore Cards

Utility Co. Utility Co. Monthly Monthly BillJeremijenko NatalieBill Jeremijenko Natalie

REALiTREE REALiTREE Ambient Devices Ambient Devices Mark Nystrom Mark Nystrom Physical Carbon Emissions Carbon Report Emissions Report

Digital

Layman

Expert

ct Web hon

Tendril Physical

Physical

Digital DigitalData Your Flowing Your DataFlowing Tweets Tweets

Physical

Digital

Cisco Cisco IOS NetFlow IOS NetFlow

Apple Apple AMEE AMEE Activity Monitor Activity Monitor Tendril

Silke Hilsing Silke Institute forHilsing Institute for Green Project Button Project Weight Sustainable of Data WeightSustainable of Data CommunicationGreen Button Communication Physical Digital Digital Clean Web Clean Web Hackathon Hackathon Amy Martin Amy Martin Bloom Email Bloom Email Tout Tout Brighter Planet Brighter Planet Christian Gross Christian Gross Email Management Email Management Paper Plane Paper SMS Plane SMS

Elwyn MurrayElwyn Murray Carbon BytesCarbon Bytes

Utility Co. Utility Co. Eco-Eye Eco-Eye Website ChangersWebsite Changers Monitors Monitors Social Solar Social Solar Utility Co.Power Utility Co. Power Energy HubEnergy Hub Email Email Neighborhood Neighborhood Lucid Design Lucid Group Design Group Score Cards Score CardsDevices Devices Dashboard Dashboard Efficiency 2.0 Efficiency 2.0 Efficiency 2.0 Efficiency 2 Energy HubEnergy Hub Reports Reports Dashboard Dashboard Dashboard Dashboard Nest Nest OPower OPower Thermomstat Thermomstat Layman Layman Dashboard Dashboard OPower OPower Simple Energy Simple Energy Paper Report Paper Report STATIC! STATIC! Social Game Social Game Power Aware Power CordAware Cord OPower/Facebook OPower/Facebo Environmental Visualizations Gilles BelleyGilles Belley Social Energy Social AppEnergy A Gilles BelleyGilles Belley Expert Expert EDF Semaphore EDF Semaphore Energy Saving Energy Adaptor Saving Adaptor

Cisco Cisco IOS NetFlow IOS NetFlow

Digital

Dispatch.io Dispatch.io Physical

Physical

Digital

Backupify Backupify Apple Apple Activity Monitor Activity Monitor Tumblr Backup Tumblr Backup Physical

External HardExternal DriveSilke Hard Drive Hilsing Silke Hilsing Weight of Data Weight of Data

Physical

Digital Dropbox Digital Dropbox

Amy MartinAmy Martin Bloom EmailBloom Email Christian Gross Christian Gross Paper PlanePaper SMS Plane SMS

Gimmie Tout Tout Bar Gimmie Bar Email Management Email Management

Your Flowing Your Data Flowing Data Tweets Tweets Layman

AMEE AMEE Location Footprinter LaymanLocation Footprinter

Layman

TripSquare TripSquare

Layman

Frameworks/APIs

Layman

Incoming/Outgoing Data Management

Stationary vs. Mobile

Stationary

Backup & Cloud Management

Seed Cloud

Electricity Consumption

At Capacity

Environmental Visualizations Incoming/Outgoing Data Management Thesis Project

Emission Bits

Read Cloud

Physical

Green Button Coal Button Digital

Phy

Carry Your Cloud Cumulus Alpha

Mobile

Stationary vs. Mobile Many of the traditional forms for electricity and data

Stationary

monitoring and communicating environmental impact are stationary. However, traditional forms such as the Christian Gross

electric bill are highly portable, but are a summary of SMS Paper Plane activity. Recently developed applications from OPower, Efficiency 2.0, and Simple Energy can be access through a smart phone, but the content - electricity use - is still in a

Silke Hilsing Weight of Data Amy Martin Bloom Email

summarized format. One new product on the market, the Nest thermostat, allows for users to control heating and

Cisco IOS NetFlow Apple Activity Monitor Your Flowing Data Tweets

cooling from a mobile app. While a few of my prototypes and projects fall in the Stationary category, my main projPhysical

Digital

ect will be mobile allowing for remote access and action.

Tout Email Management

Mobile

Phy

Stationary

Electricity MeterElectricity Meter

Mobile

& Management

ty mption

mental ations

Physical g/Outgoing anagement

Smart Meter Smart Meter STATIC! STATIC! Gilles Belley Gilles Belley Power Aware Cord Power Aware Cord EDF Semaphore EDF Semaphore Stationary Stationary Gilles Belley Gilles Belley Eco-Eye Energy Eco-Eye Saving Energy AdaptorSaving Adaptor Monitors Monitors Energy Seed Cloud Seed CloudHub Energy Hub Lucid Design Group Lucid Design Group Devices Devices Dashboard Dashboard Simple Energy Simple Energy Ambient Devices Ambient Devices At Capacity At Capacity Social Game Social Game Energy Hub Energy Hub Utility Co. Utility Co. Dashboard Dashboard Website Website Nest Nest Energy Score Cards Energy Score Cards Thermomstat Thermomstat Physical Digital Digital

Neighborhood Neighborhood Score Cards Score Cards Mark Nystrom Mark Nystrom Carbon Emissions Carbon Report Emissions Report Stationary

Stationary

Natalie Jeremijenko Natalie Jeremijenko Electricity Meter Electricity Meter

Physical

Efficiency 2.0 Efficiency 2.0 Dashboard Utility Co. Utility Dashboard Co. Project Email Email OPower/Facebook OPower/Facebook Emission BitsEmission Bits Utility Co. Utility Co. SocialGreen Energy App Social Energy App Read Cloud Read Cloud Green Button Button Monthly Bill Monthly Bill OPower CoalOPower Button Coal Button Efficiency 2.0 Efficiency 2.0 Dashboard Dashboard Physical Reports Physical Reports Digital Digital Physical OPower OPower Paper Report Paper Report

Smart Meter Smart Meter STATIC! STATIC! Gilles Belley Gilles Belley Power AwarePower Cord Aware Cord EDF Semaphore EDF Semaphore Gilles Belley Gilles Belley REALiTREE REALiTREE Eco-Eye Energy Eco-Eye Saving Energy Adaptor Saving Adaptor Monitors Monitors Digital Physical Digital Energy Hub Energy Hub Lucid Design Lucid GroupDesign Group Devices Devices Dashboard Dashboard Simple Energy Simple Energy Ambient Devices Ambient Devices Game Social Game ChangersSocialChangers Energy Hub Energy Hub Social Solar Power Social Solar UtilityPower Co. Dashboard Dashboard Utility Co. Website Website Nest Nest Energy Score Energy Cards Score Cards ThermomstatThermomstat Physical Digital Digital Utility Co. Email

Utility Co. Utility Co. Monthly Bill Monthly Bill Efficiency 2.0Efficiency 2.0 Reports Reports OPower OPower Paper ReportPaper Report

Carry Your Cloud Carry Your Cloud Cumulus Alpha Cumulus Alpha Mobile

Mobile

Elwyn Murray Elwyn Murray Carbon Bytes Carbon Bytes Mobile

Electricity Consumption

Efficiency 2.0Efficienc Dashboard Dashboa Utility Co. Email OPower/Facebook OPower/Fac Social EnergySocial App Energ OPower OPower Dashboard Dashboard

Mobile

Environmental Visualizations Stationary Mobile

Stationary Mobile

Mobile

Stationary

Tumblr BackupTumblr Backup External Hard Drive External Hard Drive Stationary

low

Stationary Backupify

nitor

Data

Physical

Christian Gross Christian Gross Paper Plane SMS Paper Plane SMS Silke Hilsing Silke Hilsing Weight of Data Weight of Data Amy Martin Amy Martin Bloom Email Bloom Email Physical

ment

Dispatch.io

Backupify

Dispatch.io

Tumblr Backup Tumblr Backup External HardExternal Drive Hard Drive

Cisco Cisco IOS NetFlow IOS NetFlow

Backupify

Digital Digital Apple Apple Activity Monitor Activity Monitor

Backupify

Dispatch.io Dispatch.io

Your Flowing Your Data DataBar Gimmie BarFlowing Gimmie Tweets Tweets Physical

Digital

Physical

Digital

Physical

Digital

Tout Tout Email Management Email Management Dropbox

Mobile

Gimmie Bar Gimmie Ba

Dropbox

Mobile Dropbox

Mobile

Digital

Mobile

Incoming/Outgoing Data Management

Mobile

Dropbox

Mobile

Backup & Cloud Management

Concept Development February 2012 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; April 2012

Initial Concepts + Consumption Dashboard or Bookmarklet in browser + Green Like button for earth day, user can From Competitive Analysis Mobile, social, practical, layman, real-time, social, residential

choose to click either green or blue to donate a penny (think March of Dimes) + Defining a set of standards to establish carbon credit trading for IT industry + Consumer labeling system for websites or services, similar to ‘organic’ or ‘energy star’ + Green uploader or green-cloud hosting service + Balloon limiter: user only has an alotted amount of uploading capacity per day, in the form of the balloon volume + Carry your cloud: physical component of your cloud, must carry it with you at all times just as you have your a data always available

Prototyping for Possible Features EMAIL: 2/10/2012 TO : Adrian Westaway, Vitamins #prototyping #design_research Hey David, Thanks for getting in touch, it sounds like you’re back in the thesis zone pretty quick! The energy thing sounds interesting, and I love the idea of IFTTT, it’s awesome. Have you seen pachube? and shodan? One’s a way of collecting loads of data from things and the other is a way of searching for those things. I don’t use them but they could be useful? I’m insanely busy this and next week, but maybe we could try to chat the following week? As for tips I would say - don’t be scared of going out and talking to people, try to design a journey to take them on that will inform where you want to go, be happy to chuck the [plan out the window if it doesn’t work because at the end of the day it’s about you connecting with them and trying to see things from their point of view, and document everything beautifully! Speak soon, and good luck! Oh and please say hi to Liz from clara, duncan and me!

Blog Entry : 2/20/2012 #behavior #prototype #design_research #Emission_Bricks I’m designing and building my first prototype, with some inspiration and advice from Adrian Westaway 100

of Vitamins. When designing for design research,

their dashboards first thing in the morning. For

Adrian suggested, “try to design a journey to

the remote testing, I set up an opt-in Tumblr

take them (participants) on”. Yesterday, I created

blog and Twitter feed so participants can follow

6 Gmail accounts, 5 ifttt accounts, 50 ifttt

their own and others’ statistics. The prototype is

tasks to send emails from 5 of the newly created

going really well, but am finding that keeping all

Gmail accounts to 1 “master” Gmail account (This

the data up-to-date is terribly time intensive.

sentence could’ve been written in code). For the second week of testing, I’m trying out a All the repetition set up a prototype that tracks

few different approaches with individual users:

participants’ production and distribution of public

+ Tash (User 1) will receive an SMS everytime she

digital content. Using the collected data, I plan

checks-in at a location on Foursquare, alerting

to publicly display behaviors such as amounts of

her of the CO2 emissions of that behavior. I chose

tweets, uploaded photos, and status updates with

Foursquare as it is her most active social media

Legos. Yes, Legos, a physical embodiment of data

account, even though it has one of the lowest

and my childhood. With insight from my survey, I

totals of CO2 emissions.

will also be equating each behavior with a CO2

+ Cooper (User 3) will receive an SMS at the end

emission, updating up the totals daily to the

of the day summarizing the total CO2 emissions

physical display as well as an online component.

of all his daily social media activity. + Jess (User 5) will receive an SMS every time

With this prototype, I hope to test a few biases/

she takes a photo with Instagram stating, “The

assumptions:

Instagram photo you just took released 17 grams

+ The quantified feedback should positively impact

of CO2 into the air. That’s the same as driving

participants’ production and distribution of

1/13th of a mile!” (I’m trying out comparisons

online content.

to behaviors that we all can relate to).

+ The public display will create a “shaming”

+ All participants must subscribe to the Twitter

effect: first with the sheer amounts of content

feed, updated once a day with running totals.

being produced by each participant and secondly with the subsequent creation of CO2 emissions.

With Emission Bricks, I’m tracking a running total

+ By observing each participants display, non-

output of social media behavior and subsequent

participants will have an increased awareness of

CO2 emissions. In different approach (if given

their own online habits and CO2 emissions.

the time), I should test for limiting behaviors.

+ Incentive to conserve does not have to involve

Right now, there are no ceilings for how much one

monetary motivation, and can be based solely on

can use Twitter or Facebook. However, setting a

normative comparison to similar groups of people.

fixed allowance that a participant may use for the week, say, “Only 10 tweets per week”, would hypothetically result in different behaviors.

Blog Entry : 3/6/2012 #behavior

Both approaches are very different, but valid,

#prototype

and can inform how I choose to build key inter-

#design_research

actions later in the design process.

#Emission_Bricks #Carry_Your_Cloud After a week of user tracking and documenting, I’m at the halfway mark testing out my Emission Bricks prototype. I’ve got into the daily routine of logging all the user behaviors and updating

101

Emission Bricks Prototype With Emission Bricks, I wanted to test my main hypothesis

amount of energy needed to transmit and serve up digital

(p.11) as well as normative comparison: the concept that

content. For purposes of this prototype and wanting to

states we compare our status and performance to people

avoid over estimating CO2 emissions, I assumed that a

similar to ourselves, and we “normalize” our behavior

Google search was only 1 kilobyte (k) and a tweet was 100

with them.

bytes (.1 k). From this assumption, 1 k = 1 kj = .02g / CO2

emissions. Estimates for other interactions are below:

Each participant had their Facebook, Flickr, Four-

square, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, Vimeo, and YouTube accounts connected to IFTTT.com, which triggered an email sent to a prototype Gmail account for each interac-

• Vimeo Movie ≈ 240g / CO2 emissions • Instagram Photo ≈ 17g / CO2 emissions

tion (Tweet, Check-in, etc). I would then log each email

• Facebook Photo ≈ 17g / CO2 emissions

into a spreadsheet for each participant and update a

• Tumblr Post ≈ .4g / CO2 emissions

physical Dashboards using legos to visualize the data. Each Dashboard would also be published on Tumblr and Twitter. CO2 Emission Methodology My estimates for CO2 emissions of digital interactions

• Facebook Link ≈ .2g / CO2 emissions • Facebook Share ≈ .1g / CO2 emissions • Foursquare ≈ .1g / CO2 emissions • Twitter ≈ .02g / CO2 emissions

are based on the work of Mike-Berners Lee as well as estimates from Google and Twitter. For example, Google estimates that a search request requires 1,000 joules (1 kj) of energy or 0.0003 kilowatt hours (kWh)1 ; a request that is spread across thousands of servers. The consequence of generating enough energy to power this tiny request is the release of 0.2 grams of CO2 into the atmosphere.2

I based my estimates on the size of the interaction

in kilobytes (k-size), equating a larger k-size to a larger

Emission Bricks Tumblr feed. http://legotracker.tumblr.com

102

Emission Bricks Twitter feed. http://twitter.com/#!/emissionbricks

Process & Details

February 21, 2012 – March 11, 2012

Calculating Lego size with energy, data, and CO2 equivalents.

Sorting the studio Lego collection as well as my own.

Figuring out placement for the Dashboard.

Setting up triggers in IFTTT.com to send an email to my prototype Gmail account.

Spreadsheet of each participant’s digital production and CO2 emissions.

Jess’ Dashboard a few days in; she was the only fully-remote participant.

Tash’s Dashboard at her studio desk.

I ran out of black Legos (CO2) so my Mom had to mail some backup from my collection.

Recording the daily tally and counting out Lego amounts for each participant.

Documenting each participant’s Dashboard for the Tumblr and Twitter feeds.

103

Participant 1 Daily Dashboard / Week 1

February 27, 2012 – March 4, 2012

Name / Tash Wong Location / New York, NY Occupation / Graduate Student Exit Interview

“Nobody thinks of tweets as being an actual thing; it’s ephemeral.” “(The Dashboard) made me feel guilty that I wasn’t doing more. There’s this push in our class that I need to publish it more, and felt anxiety to produce more.” Final Dashboard After Two Weeks

104

March 11, 2012

Week 2

March 5, 2012 – March 11, 2012

Digital Content Production Total Interactions

Interactions per Day

127

9.1

Key

Tweets per Day

Vimeo Movie ≈ 240 g / CO2 Instagram Photo ≈ 17 g / CO2 Facebook Photo ≈ 17 g / CO2 Tumblr Post ≈ .4 g / CO2 Facebook Link ≈ .2 g / CO2 Facebook Share ≈ .1 g / CO2 Foursquare ≈ .1 g / CO2

3.6

Went to SXSW 2 Photos 4 Check-ins 9 Tweets

1 Movie Upload 10

Most Used

Foursquare

Twitter ≈ .02 g / CO2

Week 1

Week 2

Total CO2 Emissions Total CO2 (grams)

Daily Median CO2 (grams)

553.8 17.9 Total CO2 Equivalent to

Daily CO2 from Twitter (grams)

2.4

Miles Driven by a Car

0.071

Total CO2 Could Fill

Largest CO2 Source

Instagram

700

600

1 Movie Upload

Went to SXSW

500

400

300

200

100

12" Party Balloons Week 1

Week 2

105

Participant 2 Daily Dashboard / Week 1

February 27, 2012 – March 4, 2012

Name / Tom Harman Location / New York, NY Occupation / Graduate Student Exit Interview

“I felt it had the opposite effect, made me want to do it more because I got more legos.” “I didn't think about other people looking at my dashboard.”

Final Dashboard After Two Weeks

106

March 11, 2012

Week 2

March 5, 2012 – March 11, 2012

Digital Content Production Total Interactions

Interactions per Day

5.1

Key

Tweets per Day

3.5

Uploads 2 Movies Over Next 2 days

Participates in 24-Hour Design Competition 10

Most Used

Twitter

Twitter ≈ .02 g / CO2

Week 1

Week 2

Total CO2 Emissions Total CO2 (grams)

Daily Median CO2 (grams)

720.4 17.1 Total CO2 Equivalent to

Daily CO2 from Twitter (grams)

3.1

Miles Driven by a Car

0.07

Total CO2 Could Fill

Largest CO2 Source

Vimeo

700

Uploads 2 Movies Over Next 2 days

600

500

400

Participates in 24-Hour Design Competition

300

200

100

12" Party Balloons Week 1

Week 2

107

Participant 3 Daily Dashboard / Week 1

February 27, 2012 – March 4, 2012

Name / Cooper Smith Location / New York, NY Occupation / Graduate Student Exit Interview

“I never really thought about this shit before, at all. I put stuff online so I can save space on my hard drive, but I never think of other people having to store that.”

Final Dashboard After Two Weeks

108

March 11, 2012

Week 2

March 5, 2012 – March 11, 2012

Digital Content Production Total Interactions

Interactions per Day

231

15.5

Key

Tweets per Day

7.8

“Spring Break” Working at School 2 Photos 2 Photos 1 Post 1 Link 5 Check-ins 22 Tweets

Most Used

Twitter

Twitter ≈ .02 g / CO2

Week 1

Week 2

Total CO2 Emissions Total CO2 (grams)

Daily Median CO2 (grams)

425.3 26.4 Total CO2 Equivalent to

Daily CO2 from Twitter (grams)

1.8

Miles Driven by a Car

0.56

Total CO2 Could Fill

Largest CO2 Source

12" Party Balloons

Facebook Photos

700

600

500

Spring Break Working at School

400

300

200

100

Week 1

Week 2

109

Participant 4 Daily Dashboard / Week 1

February 27, 2012 – March 4, 2012

Name / Erin Rouston Location / New York, NY Occupation / Graduate Student Exit Interview

“Looked at everybody’s (Dashboard) and compared myself to others, gauging my own activity and seeing the emissions of others.” “The Dashboard was in my Tumblr to check as well. The emails, not so much, I get a thousand and it’d get lost.” Final Dashboard After Two Weeks

110

March 11, 2012

Week 2

March 5, 2012 – March 11, 2012

Digital Content Production Total Interactions

Interactions per Day

110

7.9

Key

Tweets per Day

2.7

Returns to New York City 1 Photo 1 Post 1 Check-in 2 Tweets

Traveled to Cleveland 1 Photo 3 Check-ins 2 Tweets

Most Used

Foursquare

Twitter ≈ .02 g / CO2

Week 1

Week 2

Total CO2 Emissions Total CO2 (grams)

Daily Median CO2 (grams)

538.2 18.1 Total CO2 Equivalent to

Daily CO2 from Twitter (grams)

2.3

Miles Driven by a Car

0.054

Total CO2 Could Fill

Largest CO2 Source

Instagram

700

Returns to New York City

600

500

Traveled to Cleveland

400

300

200

100

12" Party Balloons Week 1

Week 2

111

Participant 5 Daily Dashboard / Week 1

February 27, 2012 – March 4, 2012

Name / Jessica Lord Location / San Francisco, CA Occupation / Code for America Fellow Exit Interview

“It did make me think about it per Instagram, but I Instagram a lot less than the people I follow.” “The text alerts for each Instagram were kinda annoying.”

Final Dashboard After Two Weeks

112

March 11, 2012

Week 2

March 5, 2012 – March 11, 2012

Digital Content Production Total Interactions

214

Interactions per Day

Tweets per Day

17.8

Key Vimeo Movie ≈ 240 g / CO

Instagram Photo ≈ 17 g / CO2 Facebook Photo ≈ 17 g / CO2 Tumblr Post ≈ .4 g / CO2 Facebook Link ≈ .2 g / CO2 Facebook Share ≈ .1 g / CO2 Foursquare ≈ .1 g / CO2

6.9 Most Used

Twitter

Returns to SF from Georgia 2 Links 2 Check-ins 2 Tweets

Twitter ≈ .02 g / CO

Week 1

Week 2

Total CO2 Emissions Total CO2 (grams)

Daily Median CO2 (grams)

560.4 35.5 Total CO2 Equivalent to

Daily CO2 from Twitter (grams)

2.4

Miles Driven by a Car

0.14

Total CO2 Could Fill

Largest CO2 Source

Instagram

700

600

Returns to SF from Georgia

500

400

300

200

100

12" Party Balloons Week 1

Week 2

113

Emission Bricks Insights & Opportunities Insight #1

Insight #4

Participants were aware of others in the prototype study,

Frequent messages from the system (SMS) were annoy-

but compared themselves to friends and colleagues out-

ing to the participant. A daily summary was more gentile

side of the study, especially in online services they were

and effective, but after a few days, participants defaulted

most comfortable with and used frequently. They nor-

to messages from social media services they were most

malized behavior compared to their own groups, not the

comfortable with.

group dictated by the system.

Opportunity #4

Opportunity #1

Integrate messaging into touch points of an online or

Create a product or service that integrates with the online

mobile service. Default to weekly summaries of use, driv-

services and social networks of the user, rather than create

ing the user to the website for a deeper dive into data as

a separate destination for the user.

well as surfacing preferences.

Insight #2

Insight #5

Participants had a difficult time remembering their own

Participants unfamiliar with ‘grams’ as a unit of measure

production levels when looking at other dashboards.

as well as pounds.

Opportunity #2

Opportunity #5

Need side-by-side comparison. Show a summary of other

Need to use familiar units of measurement for describing

similar users or friends content production/CO2 emissions

CO2 emissions. Devise a universal measure that is relat-

next to the user’s own production.

able to a variety of users.

Insight #3

Insight #6

A few participants noted they use social media for their

Some participants are willing to change their behavior, but

career, namely Twitter and Vimeo. They did not want to

not necessarily pay money/penalty/’offset’ as motivation.

feel guilty for publishing what they saw were necessary communications.

Opportunity #6 Set default goals based on users social groups and similar

Opportunity #3

users. Allow users to set own personal goals.

Allow users to opt-in to specific online services they wish to track. For instance, Facebook could be a strictly social service for all users whereas Twitter could be, in part, for professional use.

115

Carry Your Cloud Prototype

Blog Entry : 3/19/2012 #digital_attic #prototype #design_research

Blog Entry : 2/17/2012 #digital_attic

I’m testing out my assumptions for two potential

#prototype

features in my final product with the Carry Your

#design_research

Cloud prototype. For the last 5 days, I asked a few participants to either: carry around a physi-

On Tuesday, February 14th, I ordered all 1,566

cal representation of their tweets (I’ve been

photos on my Flickr to be printed as 4”x6” photos

carrying around all my my Flickr photos) or carry

and shipped to the SVA Ixd studio. On Friday

a “wallet” with tweet coins to cash in each time

(that was fast), they all arrived in a somewhat

they tweet. As users of cloud-based services, I

smaller box than I had expected. This was the

want to know how aware we are of amassed data that

first step for a series of prototype experiments

we now store in our digital attics (aka tweets

dealing with cloud-based services as a digital

from 2 years ago, forgotten and in the cloud). I

attic. Apart from myself, I intend on recruiting

also want to test the concept of placing limits

participants to carry around physical embodiments

on an unlimited resource and understanding our

of their own cloud.

digital activity as currency.

Carry Your Cloud packages, Twiiter container, and journals.

116

Process & Details

February 17, 2012 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; March 25, 2012

Carry Your Cloud logo.

Printing all 1,566 of my Flickr photos.

Receiving the all my Flickr photos by mail, about 11 lbs worth.

Wrapping up the packages with kraft paper and twine.

Adhering acrylic pieces together to build the base and smokestack.

Divvying up the Twitter coins for each container.

Twitter container and journal.

My Flickr package.

117

Carry Your Cloud Invisible as Visible

Carrying my cloud for a week around New York.

118

Barbara’s Twitter package.

Barbara at her studio desk.

Participant 1 Name / Barbara Eldredge Location / New York, NY Journal Entry

“Brought my cloud to yoga. No one seemed to think it was odd.”

Josh’s Twitter package.

Josh opened his Tweets! Need to write better instructions.

Participant 2 Name / Josh Silverman Location / Providence, RI Journal Entry

“Makes me think differently about the physical aspects of my digital life. Much in the same way when there’s a series of threaded replies & responses.”

119

Carry Your Cloud Tweets as Currency EMAIL: 3/13/2012 TO : 5 Participants #prototyping #design_research #Carry_Your_Cloud #Tweets_as_Currency dear participant, you have two items: a 6-part container and journal. the container has the days for the prototype testing, wednesday - sunday, filled with 2 legos

David Brahler’s Twitter containter at the end of the prototype session.

(tweet coins) per bin as well as an empty one with a twitter logo (depository). please take a picture of the container contents before you start on wednesday and when you’re done on sunday for documentation.

during the testing time, carry your twitter

container where ever you go! think of it as an accessory to your mobile phone.

you are limited to 2 tweets per day or the

amount of tweet coins you have in each bin. each time you tweet, you spend a tweet coin and place it in the depository. if you’ve spent all your tweet coins for the day, no more tweets for you! however, if you have any left at the end of the day, you may transfer any remaining tweet coins to the next day. for example, if you tweet once on thursday, you may transfer your coin to friday.

Kezra Cornell’s journal at the end of the prototype session.

you now have 3 tweets for friday!

at least once a day, record what you are

feeling (musings, thoughts, ideas, complaints, etc) in your journal. one word, a haiku, or a few paragraphs, whatever is comfortable. this prototype is about placing limits on an unlimited resource and understanding our digital activity as currency.

when you are done, please mail back your

journal next week. i did not enclose prepaid postage (and should have) but i can get you back on paypal (shop@eloicollective.com) or venmo. just charge me. Michael Yap’s Twitter containter and journal at the end of the prototype session.

120

Participant 1 Name / Jeff Kirsch Location / New York, NY Journal Entry

“Oddly, I’d say the prototype made me tweet more than I would have. Which may seem odd, but I tweet very little.”

Participant 2 Name / David Brahler Location / Cleveland, OH Journal Entry

“It affected my content creation but did not affect my content consumption… I just became my own personal Twitter editor or social network strategist.”

Participant 3 Name / Kezra Cornell Location / Milwaukeem WI Journal Entry

“I’m hesitant to tweet, as my tweets seem more valuable now. Limiting the quantity of tweets = increasing the value & content of a tweet.”

Participant 3 Name / Michael Yap Location / New York, NY Journal Entry

“Started prototype late, got an extension. I only have 8 tweets, hard when you have new knowledge you want to share.”

121

Carry Your Cloud Insights & Opportunities Insight #1

Insight #3

Increased awareness around the amount of data and

Did not affect content consumption, just content

data production.

production.

Opportunity #1

Opportunity #3

Prototype was physical and this insight may be a fallacy.

Focus only on digital content production, not on browsing or consumption.

Insight #2 For those who typically tweeted below the allowed

Insight #4

amount, they felt compelled to use up the remainder of

A few participants noted they use Twitter for their career.

their allowance. For those who tweeted more than the

They felt hindered by the limit and had negative feelings

allowed amount, they felt constrained, but also were

about the experience.

more careful and selective of the content they published.

Opportunity #4

Opportunity #2

Allow users to opt-in to specific online services they wish

Set default limits based on users social groups and similar

to track. For instance, Facebook could be a strictly social

users. Allow users to set own limits.

service for all users whereas Twitter could be, in part, for professional use.

123

CONSULTATION : Jonathan Berger, Engineering Manager, Pivotal Labs Sketches & Notes (opposite) 2/10/2012

124

125

unapologetic cynic, but also an optimist, and he makes his audience realize that we can be both as well. When he asks, “Why are we doing this?”, he wonders why we waste our attention on trivial distractions when the world is filled with awe and wonder.

Fuse these guys together. Boom - you get

my thesis brand personality. Postscript: My classmate Allison Shaw had a great point about selecting Louis CK: he makes us laugh at the shame we feel for doing stupid, idiosyncratic behaviors. However, I don’t want to make people feel ashamed; by internalizing shame, we set ourselves up for freezing discussion around Blog Entry : 2/27/2012

why we feel

#design_persona

it. laughing and discussing shame: good. feeling

shame and not doing something about

ashamed: bad. Emotional Branding Working from Aaron Walter’s design persona template, fellow classmate Cooper Smith and I began to develop the personality, traits, voice, and visual lexicon of our thesis projects. Design personas are similar to user personas in the sense that they are a representation of a personality -

a mindset - to be used as a guide for design-

ing an experience. Starting off with the quesiton, “If your thesis was a person, who would it be?”, Cooper and I began to define the emotional framework for our thesis’ brand.

When brainstorming for my thesis, two

people immediately came to mind: Marty Stouffer and Louis CK. Marty Stouffer produced Wild America for PBS in the 1980’s and early 90’s. His inviting, honest, informative delivery of content became a standard for nature programs. He had the authenticity of a new anchor, the honesty of Mr.Rogers, and the soft spoken adventurous spirit of John Muir.

On the other hand, Louis CK is a self-

deprecating comedian who has the innate ability to rattle off humorous truisms. He is an

Brand Traits from whiteboard session.

Sketchbook Entry : 3/7/2012 Initial interface sketches for choosing an offset amount and offset project. Am starting to believe a mobile app is the way to go. (opposite) 126

127

Sketchbook Entry : 3/24/2012 Sketches for displaying and scrolling charts on the iPhone. (opposite) After reviewing my competitive analysis, feedback from my Emission Bits prototype, and discussing with classmates, I decided to design a mobile app for the iPhone.

128

129

Defining Features, User Stories, and a Name Blog Entry : 3/17/2012 #features #user_stories Thursday, 3/15 More process book work. Met with “the band” (Cooper, Chris, and Tina) for two hours to review one another’s work. Outlined Cumulus Alpha’s [Canary]features and got great feedback. Will be flushing those out more as I review my user story cards and brainstorm around 2-3 key feature with Cooper on Saturday, 3/17. Left the studio late night feeling like a million bucks and couldn’t stop smiling. Wrote a post on the subway ride home.

First sketches of Venn diagram and logo concept from sketchbook. March 23, 2012

Blog Entry : 4/1/2012

sensor”. After an inspired breakfast in the park,

#branding

out came Canary - the original gas sensor.

#design_persona

#coal_button

the name did have some negative implications and

Some classmates of mine warned me that

was a bit dramatic. But Michael Yap encouraged A Trip to Central (Way Upstate) New York It’s currently day 3 of my visit to my parent’s home in good ol’ Oneida County. I consider the opportunity visit one filled with home cooked meals, sleeping beyond the usual 6 hours per night, and of course, gettin’ work done.

While I’m developing a narrative to pres-

ent my thesis, I’ve been outlining the features I wish to highlight of my recently branded product, Canary.

Having multiple meetings with Cooper,

Sera, and a few first-years, I came away with a few great ideas to guide my branding process, namely (pun intended): including the word of what is being measured, bytes; using action words; and playing with encouraging words of creation, more specifically around Nike Fuel’s efforts eg: Nike Fuel is to Calories what (my product) is to

me to redefine old words with updated definitions for modern times, stating “Words are containers: you can empty existing meanings and fill them with new ones.”

With a name under my belt and branding

sketches drawn on my train ride heading upstate, I sketched out concept maps for both the problem space as well as the Canary product. This laid the groundwork for my current workload: finalizing features and wireframe development. Taking a peek at my schedule of deliverables, I will spend the next 4 days flushing out user flows and wireframes while developing the website shell for my product launch. This development work (which by the way I’m starting to love front-end coding again, HT to Zeldman, Jason Santa Maria, and schoolmates) is also part of another project I’m about to launch, The Coal Button.

Bytes. Despite our efforts, I was still stuck. Then, I remembered something Cooper wrote down on a whiteboard a few weeks ago, “service as 130

User stories based on four key features: track and compare, set targets, offset payment, and service contact. Developed late March. (opposite)

Feature Set System 0

Track 1

Actor

I want

so that

Priority

User User User User User

to connect a service to Canary to invite my friends to signup to customize my avatar to enter my email address to set my notification preferences

I can track my use of those services they may also track/offset their data production the world can see me as I see myself I can receive emails from Canary I will only receive notifications when I want them

1 5 5 3 3

User

I can be aware of the total data I have produced

I can know how much data I have produced over a specific time range I can be aware of how much data I have produced I can be aware of how much CO2 I have produced I can be aware of the total CO2 I have produced I can know how much CO2 I have produced over a specific time range I can know if my data production is excessive

User User

to view a summary of all my data production from my data production to view a summary of all my data production based on a time selection to view the data production from a specific service to view the CO2 production from a specific service to view a summary of my CO2 production to view a summary of my CO2 production based on a time selection to compare my data production with people similar to me to compare my data production with my friends to post my data production stats to a service

1 3

User

to post my CO2 production stats to a service

I can know if my data production is excessive I can show how much data I have produced to my followers I can show how much CO2 I have produced to my followers

System

to set the default of data production based on similar people to a user to set the default of data production based on a user's friends to customize a limit for my data production for a select service to notify a user that they are reaching a data threshold for a specific service to notify a user that they are reaching a CO2 threshold for a specific service to be notified of my data production as I approach a limit set by Canary to be notified of my data production as I approach a limit set by my friends

I can display a common limit for my user

I can adjust my behavior to a goal I am comfortable with I can let the user make a decision about their data production I can let the user make a decision about their data production I can adjust my data production is too much

I can adjust my data production is too much

I can offset my data production

I can pay an amount I am comfortable with I can pay my offsets easily I can offset my data production with a project I am familiar with I can make others aware of a project I care about

3 3 3

I do not have worry about paying incrementally

I can demand they use ecologically sustainable business practices I can demand they use ecologically sustainable business practices I can use a channel I am most comfortable with I can contact a service in the manner I am most comfortable with

User User User User User User

Targets 2

System User System System User User Offsets 3

User User User User User User

Contact 4

to select a sustainability project based on Canaryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recommendations to set my donation amount for my offsets to connect my PayPal account to select a sustainability project based on my own preferences to recommend a sustainability project to a friend or followers on a service to set my payments to automatic deduction based on consumption amounts

User

to contact a service

User

to select a service to contact

User User

to select the method to contact a service to choose to remain anonymous

1 2 2 2 1

2 2 2

1 2 4

131

The Problem Space The concept map below illustrates the problem space of my thesis exploration, namely the lack of feedback to the user from the production of digital content and subsequent CO2 emissions.

ONLINE SERVICES (FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, ETC.)

SERVICE

PRODUCERS

USERS

GENERATE

CONTENT (TEXT, IMAGE, VIDEO, ETC.)

ARE

CONSUMERS

ENABLED THROUGH

OBSERVE

VIEWED THROUGH

COMPUTER OR MOBILE DEVICE SERVICE

132

SOLAR PANELS

CAPTURE

INSTALL

HOSTED BY

DATA CENTERS

RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES

NON-RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES

USE

POWER

ENERGY UTILITIES

PRODUCE

CO2 EMISSIONS

POWER

133

Coal Button

In late 2011, there were 509,147 data centers worldwide, covering an area equivalent of 5,955 football fields.1

EMAIL : 4/5/2012 To : 101 Recipients #coal_button #project #key_findings #problem_space Hello, Today, I’m introducing the Coal Button http://coalbutton.com As part of my thesis work at SVA, I’ve been researching the promises, efforts, and missed opportunities of building an environmentally sustainable infrastructure to support and main-

Sketches of Coal Button site from sketchbook entry, 3/21/2012.

tain our digital lifestyle aka. ‘the cloud’. The Coal Button site is an entry point, albeit cheeky, into the problem space of my thesis project. Enjoy, and remember - behind every click there’s a little lump of coal. Dave

Button mockup from the Coal Button website.

134

Illustration of the problem space from the Coal Button website.

Huh?

W3Schools as well as ShareThis and AddThis, the Coal

Our Facebook profiles, YouTube videos, and Gmail ac-

Button has been featured on numerous sites, including:

counts are reliant on a computing phenomenon called

The New York Times, Fox News, Slate, A List Apart, and

“the cloud”. Made up of millions of servers, the cloud’s

Treehugger.8 Comparable to emission estimates for a

infrastructure is a multi-billion dollar industry, quickly

Google search, every click consumes 0.0003 kilowatt hours

growing to keep pace with our demand. In fact, Former

(kWh) of energy, or 1 kilojoule, releasing 0.2 grams of CO2

CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, estimates every two days we

into the atmosphere.9

generate as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003.3

These millions of servers are housed in data centers:

physical embodiments of the cloud. Some cost as much

The annual C02 emissions of U.S. data centers is 170 million tons, more than Argentina produced in 2010.10

as $1 billion to build, reach upwards of 300,000 square feet, and consume enough energy to power 80,000 aver-

CO2 Counter

age U.S. homes.4 To power these facilities, the majority

The IT industry has finally agreed upon a set of standards

of IT companies rely on coal for between 50% – 80% of

for measuring its CO2 emissions.11 The CO2 Counter uses

their energy needs. Consuming nearly 2% of all global

these standards to track all CO2 emissions of “one-click”

electricity and growing at a rate of 12% a year, total CO

interactions on the Internet - buttons that like, tweet,

emissions from the IT industry are equal to that of the

share, reblog, pin, and yes, exclusively produce CO2.

airline industry.

Greater demand due to efficiency is not a new issue.

tions on the web subsequently produce pollution; even

Jevons paradox describes the increase in coal consump-

a Google search produces 0.2 grams. With an estimated

tion due to efficient steam engines. Today, known as the

200 to 500 million search queries per day, 1.3 millions

rebound effect, it explains as technology allows for faster

tons of CO2 emissions are generated each year, just from

and easier access to a resource, that resource becomes

Google searches.12

cheaper and used more quickly. For instance, an email

has about one-sixteenth the carbon footprint of a letter.7

been estimated to be 0.02 grams of CO2.13 While this mi-

Over the past year, how many emails do we send versus

nuscule emission weighs 0.02 grams, by volume, it takes

letters?

up roughly 10ml of space. 50 tweets and enough CO2 has

The Button The Coal Button is a new type of interaction that allows us to simply pollute with every click. It does not like, tweet,

Research has shown that even the tiniest interac-

Even smaller are emissions from a tweet which has

been released to fill the lungs of an average human breath. Not to fear, the CO2 Counter can track even the smallest button clicks, including tweets.

share, reblog, or pin; it simply emits CO2. Endorsed by 135

Canary March 2012 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2012

Canary

Pitch For users of social media, who want to live an environmentally sustainable lifestyle, Canary is a mobile app that tracks and offsets your digital carbon footprint. Unlike TerraPass, Canary tracks CO2 emissions in real-time and enables voluntary, immediate donations to local offset programs. Four Key Features 1 Track and compare a userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s data production and CO2 emissions from Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Instagram with everyone, similar users, or friends. 2 A user can compare their own data production and CO2 emissions with default targets based on similar users or set his/her own targets. 3 Offset payments can be made voluntarily or paid automatically by month to a choice of three local, environmentally sustainable projects. 100g/CO2 = $0.10. 4 A user can share their targets with specific services via Twitter or email, communicating his/her conservation and demand for more sustainable business practices. More Information http://canaryinthecloud.com Canary profile screen with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram connected.

138

vapor vapor

vapor

canary

canary canary

canary

CANARY

Canary logo development.

139

Concept Map The concept map for Canary is a hybrid of a service blueprint model and traditional concept map, outlining the core interaction and four key features of the mobile app. The following pages are from a booklet that separates the different layers of the map, illustrating the components of the system. The full concept map is on the last page of this section. Note: Features #2 and #4 have been combined into the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Targetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; section for the final designs, but are still considered separate features. Also, offset projects described in feature #3 are limited to three regional options for the user in the final design. Offset project and payment selection are outlined in the wireframes. (p.162)

140

CONCEPT MAP FOR SERVICE / CORE INTERACTION / FEATURE SET

DAVID BELLONA / THESIS RESEARCH / SVA MFA INTERACTION DESIGN / APR.5.2012

141

CONCEPT MAP FOR SERVICE / CORE INTERACTION / FEATURE SET MAINMain ACTORS Actors 1 of 9

USER

CANARY

USERS

PAGE 1/9

142

CANARY SERVICE

EXTERNAL

ONLINE SERVICES (FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, ETC.)

DAVID BELLONA / THESIS RESEARCH / SVA MFA INTERACTION DESIGN / APR.5.2012

CONCEPT MAP FOR SERVICE / CORE INTERACTION / FEATURE SET USER UserACTIONS Actions 2 of 9

USER

USERS

CANARY SERVICE

OBSERVE

NOTIFICATIONS & INFORMATION COMPARE

SET

FRIENDS & SIMILAR USERS

TARGETS

FUND

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS

MAKE

CONTACT

PAGE 2/9

TO DEMAND

ONLINE SERVICES (FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, ETC.)

TO USE

ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS PRACTICES

DAVID BELLONA / THESIS RESEARCH / SVA MFA INTERACTION DESIGN / APR.5.2012

143

CONCEPT MAP FOR SERVICE / CORE INTERACTION / FEATURE SET CANARY KEY Key ACTIONS Canary Actions 3 of 9

CANARY IS TRACKED BY

CANARY SERVICE

CONNECTS WITH

GENERATES

IS TRACKED BY

ONLINE SERVICES (FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, ETC.)

GENERATE

DISPLAYED ON

CO2 EMISSIONS

VISUALIZE

NOTIFICATIONS & INFORMATION

SETS

BASED ON

TARGETS

SUGGESTS

BASED ON

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS

PROVIDES

CONTACT

PAGE 3/9

144

DAVID BELLONA / THESIS RESEARCH / SVA MFA INTERACTION DESIGN / APR.5.2012

CONCEPT MAP FOR SERVICE / CORE INTERACTION / FEATURE SET CORE CoreINTERACTION Interaction 4 of 9

USER

CANARY

CORE INTERACTION

IS OBSERVED BY

USERS

PAGE 4/9

EXTERNAL IS TRACKED BY

CANARY SERVICE

CONNECTS WITH

IS TRACKED BY

ONLINE SERVICES (FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, ETC.)

GENERATE

CO2 EMISSIONS

DAVID BELLONA / THESIS RESEARCH / SVA MFA INTERACTION DESIGN / APR.5.2012

145

CONCEPT MAP FOR SERVICE / CORE INTERACTION / FEATURE SET O FEATURE 1 / Track GENERATE ABOUT DATA PRODUCTION & CO2 EMISSIONS FeatureN#1: andINFORMATION compare user’s dataUSER’S production and CO2 emissions with other users 5 of 9

USER

CANARY

EXTERNAL

IS OBSERVED BY

USERS

CANARY SERVICE

ONLINE SERVICES (FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, ETC.)

GENERATE

CO2 EMISSIONS

FEATURE NO 1 OBSERVE

GENERATES

DISPLAYED ON

VISUALIZE

NOTIFICATIONS & INFORMATION COMPARE

FRIENDS & SIMILAR USERS

PAGE 5/9

146

DAVID BELLONA / THESIS RESEARCH / SVA MFA INTERACTION DESIGN / APR.5.2012

CONCEPT MAP FOR SERVICE / CORE INTERACTION / FEATURE SET O 2 FEATURE 2 / Set SET default DEFAULTtargets GOALS OF DATA & CO EMISSIONS FeatureN#2: based onPRODUCTION similar users and allow users to set their own targets 6 of 9

USER

CANARY

EXTERNAL

IS OBSERVED BY

USERS

CANARY SERVICE

NOTIFICATIONS & INFORMATION

FEATURE NO 2 SET

SETS

BASED ON

BASED ON TARGETS

PAGE 6/9

FRIENDS & SIMILAR USERS

DAVID BELLONA / THESIS RESEARCH / SVA MFA INTERACTION DESIGN / APR.5.2012

147

CONCEPT MAP FOR SERVICE / CORE INTERACTION / FEATURE SET O FEATURE 3 /Offset SUGGEST SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS TO BE FUNDED FOR OFFSETTING FeatureN#3: payment for environmentally sustainable projects 7 of 9 CO2 EMISSIONS

USER

CANARY

EXTERNAL

IS OBSERVED BY

USERS

CANARY SERVICE

CONNECTS WITH

ONLINE SERVICES (FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, ETC.)

GENERATE

CO2 EMISSIONS

TO OFFSET

TARGETS

FEATURE NO 3 FUND

SUGGESTS

BASED ON

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS

BASED ON

FACEBOOK INTERESTS & PERSONAL PREFERENCE ENCOURAGE

ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS PRACTICES

PAGE 7/9

148

DAVID BELLONA / THESIS RESEARCH / SVA MFA INTERACTION DESIGN / APR.5.2012

CONCEPT MAP FOR SERVICE / CORE INTERACTION / FEATURE SET O FEATURE 4 /Provide PROVIDEusers USERSwith WITHchannel A POINT to OF contact CONTACTonline WITH ONLINE SERVICE(S) FeatureN#4: service(s) 8 of 9

USER

CANARY

EXTERNAL

IS OBSERVED BY

USERS

CANARY SERVICE

CONNECTS WITH

ONLINE SERVICES (FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, ETC.)

GENERATE

CO2 EMISSIONS

TO OFFSET

FEATURE NO 4 MAKE

PROVIDES

CONTACT

PAGE 8/9

TO DEMAND

ONLINE SERVICES (FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, ETC.)

TO USE

ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS PRACTICES

DAVID BELLONA / THESIS RESEARCH / SVA MFA INTERACTION DESIGN / APR.5.2012

149

CONCEPT MAP FOR SERVICE / CORE INTERACTION / FEATURE SET SYSTEM Canary System 9 of 9

USER

CANARY

CORE INTERACTION

EXTERNAL

IS OBSERVED BY

USERS

IS TRACKED BY

CANARY SERVICE

CONNECTS WITH

IS TRACKED BY

ONLINE SERVICES (FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, ETC.)

GENERATE

CO2 EMISSIONS

FEATURE NO 1 OBSERVE

GENERATES

DISPLAYED ON

VISUALIZE

NOTIFICATIONS & INFORMATION TO OFFSET

COMPARE

FEATURE NO 2 SET

SETS

BASED ON

BASED ON TARGETS

FRIENDS & SIMILAR USERS

FEATURE NO 3 FUND

SUGGESTS

BASED ON

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS

BASED ON

FACEBOOK INTERESTS & PERSONAL PREFERENCE ENCOURAGE

FEATURE NO 4 MAKE

PROVIDES

CONTACT

PAGE 3/9

TO DEMAND

ONLINE SERVICES (FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, ETC.)

TO USE

ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS PRACTICES

DAVID BELLONA / THESIS RESEARCH / SVA MFA INTERACTION DESIGN / APR.5.2012

151

152

Blog Entry : 4/9/2012 Wire Flows Moving from concept map to wireframing, there seemed to gap in process. Cooper, Sera, and I have been discussing various mobile UI patterns for the iPhone (navigation styles, actions, pages, and sorting structures) and different techniques of wireframing/prototyping - figuring out a few approaches to fill this gap. For me, a wire flow exercise seemed to do the trick. Wire flows for the Canary iPhone app: highlevel wireframes outlining overall structure, global functions, key features based on my concept map, and user flows for common tasks. The intention is for these wire flows to inform my wireframes, which Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be working on and prototyping over the next 3 days. Version 1.0 of wire flows with notes.(shown)

153

Initial Wireframes I went through four rounds of wireframing during a very fast paced week in mid-April. I initially had the four key features â&#x20AC;&#x201C; track and compare, set targets, offset payment, and service contact â&#x20AC;&#x201C; as the main navigation items at the bottom of the app along with global navigation at the upper left. After meeting with Mari Sheibley, lead designer at Foursquare, and a few breakthrough meetings with my classmate Cooper, I made revisions and got a TAP prototype together (p.164) for some quick feedback. Note: The updates I made for later rounds were not included in the final wireframes (again, moving fast) but were implemented in the final designs. However, I did update my user signup flow and settings in the wireframes. (p.162)

Concept sketches of wireframes from a whiteboard session, late March.

Version 2 of wireframes with note from meetings with Mari and Cooper. (above, opposite)

154

155

Wireframes Signup & Add Launch AT&T

12:45 PM

AT&T

12:45 PM

Signup AT&T

12:45 PM

Canary Messages

Calendar

Photos

Hello!

Camera

Get started by connecting an account to Canary.You can always connect more services later on. Calculator

Maps

Stocks

Weather

Connect with Facebook

Canary Clock

App Store

Canary

Newstand

Connect with Twitter Loading... Social

Notes

Contacts

Already Have an Account?

Reminders

Mail

Safari

Music

Add Another Service Updated Profile AT&T

12:45 PM

AT&T

12:45 PM

AT&T

12:45 PM

Canary

Sera Koo

Sera Koo Since 10/1/2011

Since 10/1/2011

Daily Avg. g/CO2

Total g/CO2

2,054 32.6 This Week

Total CO2

34.7

is equal to

32.6

8,435 32.6

Connected! O

Connect with Twitter

could fill

326

Facebook

Add Another Service

10.4

Twitter

Add Friends

459

Instagram

Settings

Add Another Service

Interactions g/CO2

Connect with Instagram

Party Balloons

Facebook

Interactions g/CO2

Tweets

Pictures

g/CO2

Add Friends Settings

156

Total g/CO2

Connect with Foursquare

This Week

834.7

Miles Driven by a Car

326

Daily Avg. g/CO2

g/CO2

Connect more services to your account!

AT&T

12:45 PM

AT&T

Profile AT&T

12:45 PM

Canary

12:45 PM

Sera Koo

Join

Since 10/1/2011

Name

Daily Avg. g/CO2

Total g/CO2

2,054 32.6

Sera Cancel

Koo

Allow

Email Address

This Week

sera.koo@gmail.com Canary may post to this service on your behalf.

34.7

•••••• Confirm Password

is equal to

Password

About Canary Canary allows you to track your data production and subsequent CO2 production. It also allows you to offset your carbon footprint and contact this service to demand they build their business in an ecologically sustainable manner.

Total CO

32.6

Miles Driven by a Car

326

Facebook

Interactions g/CO2

•••••• Add Another Service

Join Add Friends Settings

Add Friends AT&T

12:45 PM

AT&T

Sera Koo

12:45 PM

Add Friends

Since 10/1/2011

Daily Avg. g/CO2

g/CO2

8,435 32.6

Phone Book Facebook

This Week Total g/CO

834.7

could fill

326

Facebook

10.4

Twitter

459

Instagram

Interactions g/CO2

Pictures

Instagram

Party Balloons

Tweets

Twitter

132 friends from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Rachel Abrams

g/CO2

Sarah Adams Allan Chochinov

g/CO2

Tony Chu

Add Another Service Add Friends Settings

157

Wireframes Track, Compare, Adjust Target, and Contact Service Select a Service AT&T

Select a Friend

12:45 PM

AT&T

12:45 PM

Sera Koo

Data

Daily Avg. g/CO2

g/CO2

8,435 32.6 O

This Week Total g/CO2

834.7

could fill

Party Balloons

326

Facebook

10.4

Twitter

459

Instagram

9 6

Pictures

This Week

S Share

29 5 31 16

Tom Harman Cooper Smith Jessica Lord Erin Rouston

g/CO2

Instagram

Sera Koo

g/CO2

Pictures

CO2

Pictures

Interactions g/CO2

Tweets

12:45 PM Data

Instagram

Sera Koo

Since 10/1/2011

AT&T CO2

Stats

Targets

Tom T Harman W

This Week

Pictures S S

press & drag

Pictures Pictures

Cooper Smith

Pictures

Jessica Lord

Pictures This Week

Erin Rouston

Offsets

5 31 16

Stats

Pictures Pictures Pictures This Week

Targets

Offsets

Add Another Service Add Friends Settings

Adjust Target AT&T

Share with Service AT&T

12:45 PM

Your Target

27 | 14 Pictures

459 g/CO2

Pictures

408 g/CO2

This Week

Pictures

158

Pictures

459 g/CO2

408 g/CO2

Share Target with Instagram

Targets

Your Target

27 | 14

Adjust Weekly Target

Stats

AT&T

12:45 PM

Adjust Weekly Target

Weekly Target This Week

12:45 PM

Offsets

Targets

This Week

Your Target

27 | 14 Pictures

459 g/CO2

Pictures

408 g/CO2

Adjust Weekly Target

1 Picture â&#x2030;&#x2C6; 17 g / CO2

Stats

Weekly Target

Offsets

Share Target with Instagram

Stats

Targets

Offsets

Compare AT&T

AT&T

12:45 PM Data

12:45 PM

Tom Harman

AT&T

Data

CO2

Sera Koo

Instagram

Adjust Time Scale 12:45 PM

CO2

Data

Instagram

Sera Koo

Pictures

CO2

Instagram

Sera Koo

Pictures

This Week

S Share

Cooper Smith Jessica Lord Erin Rouston Benjamin Gadbaw Stats

5 31 16 29

Targets

This Week

Pictures

Tom Harman

Pictures

Cooper Smith

Pictures This Week

Jessica Lord

Pictures

Erin Rouston Stats

Offsets

Targets

Pictures

S M