Blogs

Papyrus device could boost student learning

Magnus Hølvold — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 11:13:18 PDT

It's no secret that we at EcoGeek are fans of the e-ink display technology. The low battery consumption and superior readability compared to laptops and other mobile devices, not to mention the thin form factor, all combine to bring us closer to a digital literary future. With Amazon's Kindle doing the rounds in the U.S. and the Bookeen Cybook constantly running out of stock, e-ink toting devices are inching their way into the public's hearts.

I still think that e-books have a ways to go before I'd personally get one, mostly in terms of price and features, and I have had a few of my own ideas on what would make a good reader.

However, the group of thinkers and designers over at The Greener Grass have gone and created a concept that I could wholeheartedly get behind: The Papyrus.

The Papyrus is a concept for an education-centred e-reader device that would focus on making participation in courses easier and more interactive. The concept calls for a colour e-ink touch screen and presumably a Wi-Fi connection to connects the devices of all the students together. Collaboratively, students can tag, highlight, and annotate their reading material and remotely help each other understand the text and find the important parts in it.

As a first-year university student who hadn't read a single academic text since the turn of the millennium, I can say I would have greatly appreciated such a feature in my textbooks, not to mention saving the space and weight of all those books as I cart them around.

As far as pricing goes, they're setting their sights on a hundred dollars. This seems unrealistic, but they are convinced it could be realised with the removal of unneeded hardware features (audio, for example) and the help of publishers. These publishers would subsidise the device and could sell their textbooks directly to the students through a subscription service.

The concept also makes a case for the interactivity of lectures. Many students are afraid to ask questions when there's something they don't understand. If they could just shoot the lecturer a quick private message rather than pipe up in front of a hundred other students, the idea is that lecturers would be much more aware of whether or not they are getting through to the students.

I suspect that if this device is to actually be made, the price tag will go the way of the OLPC and the Eee PC and end up at least double the initial goal. Even so, it would be a fantastic device in an increasingly digital world.

If the resolution of e-ink screens get a bump up, the prices a bump down, and the features a polish, I welcome a transition into a fully digital student life. There's still something to be said for the feeling of opening a book and reading it on the couch or in bed, but at least e-ink is getting us one step closer to that feeling without killing trees every time there's a new book (or, more likely, a very slightly altered new edition) to be published.

Via Engadget

New "Dune" movie explores green themes

Hank Green — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:55:34 PDT

Frank Herbert was definitely an EcoGeek. He understood humanity's ability to live and even thrive in partnership with its environment. The only way to survive severe resource shortages is through powerful vision and powerful technology.

With our own resources shortages on the way, including desertification and water shortages, Herbert's vision is more important than ever.

Paramount Pictures has just announced that it will be making a film version of Herbert's classic sci-fi novel Dune (the third movie, by our count) and that "the filmmakers consider [Dune's] theme of finite ecological resources particularly timely."

We're really glad they put that in there, because it gives us an excuse to write about it. But I'm a believer in science fiction's ability to shape the real future of our world.

So now all us EcoGeeks have an excuse to go see this movie when it comes out in 2010.

Via TreeHugger

Interviews with Environmental Defense's Fred Krupp

Sheryl Canter — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:49:15 PDT

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

I recently wrote about the TreeHugger interview with Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn about their new book. Earth: The Sequel is an engaging look at emerging technology in the fight to stop global warming.

Fred has been getting around quite a bit lately. This week he also was interviewed by Forbes, Newsweek, and Mercury News. Each had a slightly different focus. Here are some excerpts:

On why a carbon tax wonât work, from the Forbes interview:

Thereâs no example of an air pollution problem anywhere in the world that has been solved without a cap or legal limit on how much of that pollution can be dumped into the sky. A cap gives you that legal limit, where a tax allows people to potentially keep on paying a modest amount and keep on polluting.

On biofuels, from the Newsweek interview:

I think weâve come to understand that the current generation of biofuels has problems and that we need a whole new generation. In the short-term, turning sugar into fuels other than ethanol would have many advantages, given the infrastructure problems ethanol creates. In the long-term, we are much better off when entrepreneurs develop ways to turn wood and fiber, not food, into energy.

On the power of markets, from the Mercury News interview:

Last night, we were up on Sand Hill Road. Somebody told me he had been walking around in a kind of funk, a depression. But, he said, now that heâs seen this future, heâs already starting to feel better. Itâs not a message that we can disengage. Itâs not a message that technology can solve it. It is a message that if government does the right thing, and if we put that entrepreneurism to work in service of a new profit motive thatâs been designed to create the very things we need to have a future, wow, watch what happens, such as a $1.9 billion order for Applied Materials to make solar cells.

Read all about it

Trystan L. Bass — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:57:46 PST

Are you still wondering what the "Omnivore's Dilemma" is and if you're suffering from it?

When summer blockbuster movies come out and everyone says "Wow, that just wasn't as good as the book," do you fake it? Or sheepishly admit you missed that novel too?

BookMooch makes it easy to hit the pages and do a little creative recycling and reusing at the same time. Best of all, the service is free.

Sign up with this nifty site, list books growing dusty on your shelves, and swap them for books you want to read with other folks online. No money exchanges hands, only books.

The re-reading has been going on since August 2006 with nary a hitch. Wondering how it all started? Find out in this interview with founder John Buckman on Yahoo! Picks Profiles.

What's up with Amazon's Kindle?

Hank Green — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:51:55 PST

Amazon's little bit of kindling set off a wildfire last week, as suddenly every blog on the Internet had to have its story. I decided to hold off, let the opinions come in, and then decipher for myself. Since I don't have my hands on one of my own, I'm going on the statements of others (and my experience with other readers).

People simply aren't 100% impressed with the device. Some folks continue saying that traditional books can never be replaced, while others bemoan the less-than-Apple design and the surprisingly high price ($400) of the thing. And, well, they're right. It could be prettier (the current Sony Reader certainly is), and it could be cheaper.

But while it's not as pretty as Sony's Reader, Niel Gaiman summed it up for me: "It's not an ebook, it's a library."

For two reasons -- first, because you can store hundreds of books on the thing. But second, because the EV-DO wireless broadband lets you download books anywhere, whenever you want one. This is a vast improvement over Sony's Connect Store.

While it's easy enough to plug in your Sony Reader, there is nothing easier than getting a new book for the Kindle. That's what sets it apart, hands down ... and that's why I kinda want one.

One other thing sets it apart, actually, and that's the marketing. Amazon is showing a commitment to the Kindle that Sony has never had to its offerings.

Handing out free versions to best-selling authors across the world (with no idea whether or not they would actually like the thing) was risky and bold and results in some really awesome advertising videos at Amazon:

Amazon has done a good thing here. And while it's definitely a first-generation device, it's hard to listen to the above folks talk about the Kindle without starting to think that this could indeed be the future of the printed word.

If anyone can do it, it's Amazon. But I'm going to wait and see if they can do it in a more refined (and less expensive) package in the next generation.