In the Public Lab community newsletter this week we have announcements for three exciting upcoming events, updates on the spectrometer Kickstarter, new maps (including one called Hello Pluto Goodbye Kitty) and notes on the entertaining practice of livestreaming dance floors at NYC warehouse parties. Enjoy!

1. Save the Date for the 2012 Public Lab Barn Raising! Public Lab will be hosting the second annual barn raising in Cocodrie, LA at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium facilities from November 2-4, 2012. More information coming next week, but mark your calendars if you're interested in coming!.

2. LEAFFEST 2012! Public Lab organizers, Chris Fastie and Ned Horning, have posted an open invitation for folks to come camp at Chris' house in Salisbury, Vermont over the weekend of September 22 and 23 to do some work on "low elevation aerial flights for earth sensing technology" (hence the name LEAFFEST). There are already a bunch of people planning on going, if you're interested please sign up on the Google form or email Chris directly.

3. Kickstarter update. First, thanks everyone for your contributions and for helping with outreach! New this week with the Kickstarter-- we've committed to an iOS version of the software (tell all your iPhone/iPad lovin friends and family!), announced a Spectral App Platform goal, a place to share analysis ideas, and new intro videos at SpectralWorkbench.org. Also, the Kickstarter has brought dozens of new members on to this mailing list (welcome!).

4. Public Lab NYC space now open! And they did it with a nice big lab warming party (don't worry, more coming that we'll let you know about if you missed this one). Check out Oscar Brett's report back from live streaming over the dance floor in the lower levels of the warehouse during the party.

5. Berkeley, CA events. Next week Tuesday and Wednesday is the Urban Systems Symposium that Public Lab organizers, Liz Barry and Lela Prashad will be participating in. Take a look at a quick note from the folks who attended the Berkeley Kite Festival (cool octopus kite image included).

6. New maps in the archive. An interesting art project and map, Hello Pluto Goodbye Kitty, Ein-Karem, Jerusalem and Yaffo23, Jerusalem.

7. Open Science Challenge. Of interest to some... the NY-NJ-CT tri-state Open Science Challenge competition was recently announced for citizen scientists and bioartists. Deadline is Oct 19, 2012.

8. Research Notes

First experiment analyzed (posted by megan) Easy ways to make precise maps (posted by megan) [Putting together H2S test kit]9http://publiclaboratory.org/notes/megan/9-6-2012/putting-together-h2s-test-kit) (posted by megan) Thermal imaging with RH workshop's camera (posted by mathew) A cheap picavet for shooting any angle (posted by mathew)

Have a great weekend everyone! As always, if I missed anything, please email the list, post a research note or email shannon@publiclaboratory.org for inclusion in the newsletter next week.