Evening all, I’m still alive……..oi, I heard that. My attempts to write the recent tech news have been early successes that soon succumb to the worry about looming coursework deadlines and have stopped my creative juices flowing – which shows you just how exciting my coursework is that I needn’t be creative. Luckily, my writing for Spark*, something I take as seriously as coursework (otherwise I’d never write), means that I am forced to spout some form of tech-news related writing every fortnight, which will keep me on my stylistic toes until I’m free enough to start regular posts again. Here’s my latest article that I’ve submitted to Spark*, Roya (mentioned and quoted in the article) is my flatmate and I should also mentioned that I’ve been asked to take the position of deputy editor of the science/tech section of Spark after the summer.
Eye on Earth
They say that when something is out of sight, it’s often out of mind; that could certainly be said of climate change. Our narrow perception of our surroundings out of wider context makes it hard to see how much we contribute to global warming. Now, a joint venture between the European Environment Agency (EEA) and Microsoft seeks to show everyday web users exactly what’s happening to their planet, which they’ve dubbed Eye on Earth.
Eye on Earth may sound like the title of an Orwellian nightmare, but, in fact, it’s a website showing an interactive map of the 32 EEA member-countries, upon which users can enter information on the air and water quality using set descriptions such as ‘good’, ‘irritating’ and ‘clean’, alongside official data, all for the site’s visitors to see. The hope is that users will investigate and contribute to the map, allowing them to see precisely how their area compares with other towns, cities or even countries and appreciate how their own carbon footprint can have a visible impact when put into the wider context. The venture is in its infancy at the moment, but those behind it intend to expand the data displayed on the map to include other key indicators of environmental health, as well as provide tips on going green.
Eye on Earth is, itself, eco-friendly, the entire site utilises ‘cloud computing’, outsourcing the storage and processing power required to the servers of ‘cloud’ companies, which would be running at the same energy-output with or without the inclusion of this site. Taking in user-data in this manner is known on the web as crowd-sourcing, where an organisation uses their audience to gather and process information in a fraction of the time it would take to do it themselves. An example of crowd-sourcing includes the MP expenses scandal – when Westminster released 500,000 claim forms, instead of wading through the documents, The Guardian enlisted readers to review unchecked documents online for something news-worthy (i.e. poultry real-estate) and flag it for the journalists to review and print. Eye on Earth, then, is so green it recycles people.
With crowd-sourcing and the publicity that involving Microsoft will bring, those in support of the project feel that this is the ultimate twenty-first century way of raising awareness, including campaigners around the Reading University campus. Green Week representative, Roya Shahrokni, said, “I think it’s brilliant. Seeing something like this will help to raise awareness of the damage that’s being done to our environment and, hopefully, encourage people to start pulling their weight in the fight against climate change.”
The scheme has drawn its fair share of criticism, however, as some feel that this method of data collection is unreliable, relying on the perception different people without clear qualification to discern air or water quality. Though few are criticising how this scheme will raise the public consciousness, there is vocal opposition to this scheme as a source of information, fearing that the presence of official figures will be overlooked due to the higher volume of potentially inaccurate user data.
Eye on Earth is available online at: http://eyeonearth.cloudapp.net/