OpenSpimes: Turn your cell phone into a monitoring tool of your own local climate
From Bruno Giussani’s blog:
Question: how much do you know about the quality of your own, personal, local climate? Do you know the concentration of CO2 in the air you’re breathing, in the air that people are breathing in your neighborhood or city?
I’m pretty sure your answer is “no”. These data aren’t collected at that micro scale, and even when they are collected (by public authorities, research entities or private firms) they aren’t generally made easily available.
That’s the premise behind my friend Leandro (Leeander) Agrò’s OpenSpime idea, which he and his small team at WideTag Inc in Turin, Italy, are turning into both a product and, hopefully soon, a movement.
A “spime” (the word — a contraction of “space” and “time” — was coined by sci-fi writer Bruce Sterling) is an object that, thanks to GPS and sensors, is aware of where and when it is, and can record and communicate these data. OpenSpimes are designed to allow everyone to record and visualize environmental (or other) data, to store them, publish them, blog them, compare them, mix and mash them up.
More info here.
