We all know that eating local is not only more efficient, but also more delicious – unfortunately it can be hard to find the variety of foods we eat without resorting to a large supermarket. LocalHarvest is a web resource for finding local farms and farmers markets, including a map of all the farms and […]
Category Archives: conviviality
food map
This elegant seasonal food map on Epicurious shows what produce can be locally found in each state for a given month. Maps like this can make it possible to avoid the excessive shipping and stale flavors of commercial produce. In the future a map like this could have infinite granularity, to help people find the […]
Also posted in blogogracy, food
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do-it-yourself radio
Last night I met Quiddities‘ Margaret Rosas who was awarded a grant in the Knight Foundation’s News Challenge for Radio Drupal, a project to create open-source internet radio software for streaming and community engagement to be possible even for small, locally-based radio stations. The web is struggling to be democratic, in part because publishing content […]
Also posted in blogogracy, free & open
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water towers
In Chicago last weekend I took the Chicago Architecture Foundation‘s boat tour of the Chicago river – probably the most invigorating 90 minute experience of a city and its architecture I have ever had. Along the way the city reveals itself through an unexpected perspective, but nearly all the buildings – including some of the […]
Also posted in architecture, livingbreathing
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design for durability
The OLPC has driven important innovations in open software, hardware, universal design and environmental sustainability in order to be cheap and durable enough for widespread use in developing countries. At this week’s unveiling of new designs for second-generation laptops, I spotted this interesting exhibit on the design touches that make the OLPC stand out in […]
Also posted in children, customization, environment, fabrication, free & open, futurecraft, open objects, product design, supply chain, universal design, upcycling
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public objects
‘Products of Service‘ are an alternative to cradle-to-grave life cycles where consumers only temporarily rent goods from manufacturers so that their valuable components can be directly re-used. In lieu of such enlightened manufacturing practices, a social network has been introduced where anyone can rent out their own possessions to reduce waste: Zilok is a Zipcar […]
Also posted in energy, environment, futurecraft, marketing, open objects, product design, retail, supply chain, traceability
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homeless polluters
Despite the plethora of personal footprint calculators out there, I have always had the nagging feeling that personal choices make almost no difference on the environment – that the shift of responsibility for environmental woes to individuals is a corporate strategy meant to reduce pressure on producers and legislators to regulate radical improvements to industrial […]
Also posted in energy, environment
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local lamp
When is the last time you worried whether your furniture was locally produced? I saw this tag on a lamp at the Milan furniture fair, where the whole world comes to find which furniture to import. My favorite part about it is that the lamp was not only made in Italy; it was conceived there. […]
Also posted in fabrication, open objects, product design, supply chain, traceability
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