Monday, January 2, 2012

Collaborations

Recent & Upcoming events

Low altitude aerial photography meet-up in LA- Sunday (Mathew)- only kite flyer there, also bringing balloon to try it out

Fundraising

• Launching Kickstarter? Amazon payments messed us up for launching- need to click on it to launch- run while kids getting back from winter break- this week or next- Wednesday this week- talk to Manpriya- social media push right when we launch (SD email her)- Mathew make form letter that we can each customize

• kit updates- set up SKU with Amplifier (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvhkyHiIJbp0dHJ6OEhHS1haUHY2TURGeWs3Q0R5X1E&hl=en_US#gid=0), need to order the other pieces, assembled before end of Kickstarter? Breadprig/cross-promotional, do workshops with full kit available- rubberized gloves (flying gloves), RJ rubberbands, liability disclaimer- write up full instructions for the kit as assembled- ready with kits, Mat will take on- main piece of info we need- how to close off one of the balloons - revamp balloon mapping page- Stewart write in a step by step process, Mat check as well.

• EPA Urban Waters grant - assembling Gowanus partners (Eymund, Hans, Ray of Dredgers, Jordan of Atlas Scientific) for using NY as pilot site. Mathew brought up DIY potentio-stat (cheap-stat, instructions) ~$100 for doing heavy metals testing via conductivity -- has circuit boards printed, but needs to assemble, published open source tool that we can adopt. Also there are existing open source tests for arsenic and copper that are already published. General grant pitch - how tools (ours and others) can be used in order, develop a timeline, water kit.

Public Archive/Publications

• MapKnitter archive connection announcement- blog about interaction of taking work to archive, first time we took project that wasn’t ours and added it to the website, make an announcement to the mailing list- bringing over a lot more of these projects- put something on Map Knitter so that we don’t have to ask permission every time. Jeff is adding a button on Map Knitter that says “open source” then will announce it.

MISC

• Erin Brochovic “peoples map” - Google project, peoples map- reporting on pollution- couple different activities on our website- send them an email?

• global balloon air quality day - column monitoring: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WlCVRlSdhE1Jo3VSMOhQKGRcz0kW_Cc0n_u63kBJ3_M/edit?hl=en_US

• Antipiode full abstract in

Web

Organization

• Update on insurance forms Bookkeeper- vote on amount to pay Staff meeting spring- would like to have a longer staff meeting (Mat)- 3-5 concentrated days of working together- no onsite projects/conferences- aim for April- Mat waiting to hear back about one talk he might give in April- ecoHack day, weekend of April 20-22, not alot of people have these dates down- need to figure out a location, 4-5 day period second week of April

• Tool Review - Schedule time in January- set up specific meetings- outcomes/evaluation reviews of 2011, set a day where we could do this- week of the 16th- half day, produce a write up, open ended discussions, etc. Site by site and tool by tool- research done and wrap up of where we’re at with aerial access imagery- where we are going to go- reflection on tools and development process- come back to community- do reflections and come up with development timeline- goals, leads, more than each one of us presenting research and getting feedback- get volunteer teams together with tasks that we can give them.

Field work this week