A Wider Net

Scott Walker, CTS-D, LEED AP, wrote a terrific article in Systems Contractor magazine about finding our green inner selves and applying to our jobs. He included a wise and witty top 10 ways to tell if you are a Greeny. I love this list at a personal level, and I may make a new one later this week tailored more for businesses.

From the article:

“You Could Be A Greeny If…

10. You believe global warming is the largest threat facing mankind, and we need to do all we can to solve it.

9. You believe the current model we’ve built for our civilization is unsustainable as the global population zooms past six billion people.

8. You’re alarmed by the increased asthma rates in today’s children, perhaps even within your own family.

7. You’re an avid outdoorsman or sportsman whose soul is replenished by spending time in nature; and from your exposure to it, you understand nature’s delicate balance.

6. Your spiritual beliefs have led you to an understanding that we have a moral obligation to be good stewards of this wonderful creation we call Earth.

5. Your family budget has been repeatedly and negatively impacted by high prices at the pump, and you’ve begun to consider alternate or public transportation.

4. You’re a businessperson who can see a money-making opportunity in this whole green thing.

3. You believe the nation’s security interests are paramount and dependency on foreign oil from the Middle East makes us less safe.

2. You don’t like Hugo Chavez and believe we can stick it to him if we were truly energy independent.

1. Or, like me at age eight, you just think it’s stupid to needlessly waste our finite resources when we have all the tools necessary to conserve energy and improve efficiency with little or no sacrifice in our quality of life. “

A post from the DemoBlog talks about a solar-powered web hosting company called Greenest Host.

A great story, and an interesting alternative if you have any non-mission-critical sites you’d like to host. I suppose your site could feature a little badge like the “made with recycled paper” badge found on almost all printed materials these days, but used to mean something.

Apparently the founder sold his SAAB convertible to buy servers - not save gas - but I still think this company has a cool idea.

I’m thinking I could make a killing with an environmentally-conscious solar-powered tanning booth

Continuing the topic of extending live events across the web, I thought it may help to list some of the essential elements of live face-to-face meetings and some technology solutions that can be deployed to allow remote audiences to experience those elements. To be clear, I include attendees as remote audiences, because they are only on site for a short while. Before and after the event they are part of the remote audience with everybody else. This is an important distinction because I find that many people assume that online components of an event, such as video archives, are directed exclusively at non-attendees.

Pre-Event

Networking: Social Networking. Examples: BD Metrics, Leverage Software, Ning, Intronetworks

Audience Alignment: Blogging. Examples: Lotusphere

Making a list of things to see: Social Networking and User Rankings. Example: Ning

During the Event

Conference and General Sessions: Webcasts. Examples: InAAU, Demo

Product Demonstrations: Video On Demand. Example: YouTube, Engadget

Team Building: Gaming (online and through kiosks) - couldn’t find an example…

Swag: e-Swag. Examples: Widgets, Desktop Wallpapers, Screensavers, E-certificates

Buying your client drinks: Buy Your Friend a Drink.com

Asking Questions: Webcasts, Webinars, Chat Sessions, Blogging

Post-Event

Measurement: Online polling. Example: Survey Monkey, Zoomerang

Course Credits: Webcasts with CE credits

Memories: Photo Sharing, Video Sharing. Examples: DragonCon on Flickr, DragonCon on YouTube