Wood's Words for 9/4/08
Perspctv is just what we all need with the election season upon us and this site will blow you away with its use of pie charts, poll results, widgets and how often it’s updated. It aggregates traditional media stories and all the blog talk too. As one report of this site said, “We have seen the future of news, and it is so two seconds ago.”
Traceable Retail
”Today’s global economy has given consumers an endless variety of products and services to choose from. With no real personal connection to the companies and brands creating such, a new generation of consumers that demands more information about their purchases is growing. They want to know how a product was made, where it was made, who it was made by, and how it was transported to them. In addition, information regarding the company’s carbon footprint, fair treatment of labor workers, and distribution methods is important to them as well.” Examples include:
- “Love, Earth,” a line of fine jewelry sold at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club, allows shoppers to enter each item’s batch number online to reveal a ‘chain of custody’ - a documentation of locations the item has traveled, from its country of origin clear through to the store it was purchased in.”
- “Icebreaker,” a sustainable merino wool clothing company, provides shoppers with a special tag that features a Baacode. Consumers can enter the code on the Icebreaker site to read about the exact sheep that provided the wool in the garment, meet the sheep farmer, and follow the garment along the supply chain from sheep to finished product. Providing an in-depth look into the lifecycle of a product before it hits the shelf gives consumers vital information they can’t usually access, as well as some reassurance that the process in which it was made and how it came to be in their hands was a positive one.”
This site is still in beta but you can “use this site to find out if you can convert your house into a completely solar-powered energy hub. RoofRay uses a variety of resources, such as Google Maps, to evaluate and determine solar panel models for homes and businesses. Solar potential could soon hold higher value when it comes to real estate decision making, and RoofRay is getting an early start in the game by making it easier for consumers to access information on how to reduce their carbon footprint and lighten up their lives with some solar strength.”
“Exploring the theory of color symbolism, this new website tracks the feelings, moods and emotions of people based upon their real-time perceptions of certain colors. The site’s blog provides a lengthy explanation about the history of color psychology, as well as cultural discrepancies and behavioral implications around color association, but per its mission statement, the website exists primarily to help designers make more appropriate color choices to achieve the “desired emotional effect” when creating new products and services.”
Thanks to Gail for this one. “Heather Armstrong’s wickedly funny blog about motherhood, Dooce, is more than just an outlet for the creativity and frustrations of a modern mother. The site, chock full of advertising, is a moneymaking machine — so much so that Ms. Armstrong and her husband have both quit their regular jobs. The site boast 850,000 readers, mostly women, who avidly follow Ms. Armstrong’s adventures. Although Ms. Armstrong will not disclose exact numbers, Dooce’s revenue this year is on track to be seven times its size in 2006, according to Federated Media, which sells ads for the blog.”
“BeCounted is a Facebook application that is currently near the end of its development stage. Once released, BeCounted will dramatically change the voting landscape for college students. It will facilitate the voting process by directly linking young voters to the information they need to register, to request absentee ballots, and to ultimately, cast their ballots on time. BeCounted will eventually accrue large quantities of statistical data that will reshape the way that college voter registration drives are done. It will be a comprehensive tool for campus political activists and everyday students alike. Find out more about us and join our Facebook group in the meantime at our website given above or feel free to contact me via email. Once the application is out, we will send you a link to our Facebook application through a simple message. We are excited and, hopefully, you are too- spread the word.”
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