If you know us, you know we're never satisfied with the status quo, so we’re testing out a new ad server program that’s kind of fun. If you look to the right sidebar, you’ll notice a 50x50 pixel gray square – it’s not standard ad size or anything, but that’s why we like it. We think people will look at it and, curious about what the box is, they’ll click it and find you. But this is entirely speculative and exploratory, so we can’t be sure.
Hey, Happy New Year! It's hard to believe an entire year just flew by, but it did. On this day last year, we identified Five Green Trends to Watch in 2008 -- actually, the trends were specifically related to green building rather than the environment in general -- and you'll probably agree that we were right on. I guess that means we'll take another stab at predicting the future in these unpredictable, turbulent times. Keep an eye out for our next green trends article for 2009 ... update, here it is:
See Seven Green Trends to Watch in 2009.
Image: Times Square LED Ball.
If you read tech blogs, you may have noticed that Facebook Connect is spreading like crazy. We're happy to announce that the commenting system that we use, Disqus, is now supporting Facebook Connect. Unfortunately (and as is always the case), this new feature is kind of in beta: there are two glitches. First, if you already have a Disqus profile and you've linked up Facebook in your Disqus profile, your Facebook Connect comments will be under a different profile. Second, posting comments on Jetson Green may, in the future, allow you to publish the same in your Facebook profile news feed, but not for the time being. The Disqus team is working on these features. If you want to start commenting with Facebook Connect, here's how:
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the crew here at Jetson Green. Stay safe, chill out, and enjoy family and friends. We'll be around, but a little slowish due to intermittent access to internet.
Photo by kevindooley.
Update - 12/18/08 - the response has been huge! I'm sorting through everything and will be in touch shortly. All contributor positions, for the foreseeable short term, appear to be filled. Thank you!
In a little over a year's time, this site has grown like indigenous landscaping rooted in fresh, fertile soil. We're seeing three times more readers and feed subscribers. Emails have gone through the roof! To be honest, the team right now just can't write about all the great content worth writing about. So we're looking for contributors. We're not looking for junk stories and we're certainly not interested in adding to the blogosphere echo chamber -- this is a magazine and we like to spend time gathering images and information to appropriately tell a unique story. Doing so takes some time and collaboration, but the rewards are many and diverse. These are some of the areas we could use contributors:
Hope you're all enjoying this fine autumn holiday and hanging with friends and family. Not to get all historical and such, but Thanksgiving has some interesting roots. It's my understanding that the holiday we now recognize harkens back to when the colonists and natives got together and had a meal of thanks in celebration for the harvest. Imagine all the work and sweat and travail that went into the harvest. Imagine those years when the harvest was slim. When the harvest was abundant. Life is crazy like that.
I certainly have nothing to complain about and want to shout out to you for your readership, comments, emails, and friendship. Let's turn this thing up another notch over the next year and meet back. And just so you know, posting on this end is going to be a bit slower because I'm with family and, well, wireless internet is sort of non-existent.
Image credit: Nature_photonutt.
Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to sit on a Greenbuild panel with four other respected and popular bloggers: Lloyd Alter of Treehugger, Willem Mass of Green Home Guide, Stephen Del Percio of Green Buildings NYC, and Leigh Stringer of The Green Workplace (moderator). In preparation for the panel, we sent out a survey and the basic results of that survey are embedded above. Click through it, you may see some interesting information. The panel raised several interesting issues, and some of those have been discussed below. I also wanted to clarify my thoughts on things like Twitter and PR because I think my perspective may not have come through adequately. First, let's check out the interesting survery stats:
Pardon the interruption, but this is for a good cause. In mid-November, I'll be on a panel at Greenbuild called "Green Blogs and the Built Environment" with industry leading bloggers from The Green Workplace, Treehugger, Green Buildings NYC, and Building Green TV. The general idea of the panel is to discuss how the environmental movement is using blogs to collect information, share ideas, and collaborate in new ways. In preparation for the panel, we've developed a very short survey to ask you how blogging impacts the built environment. It'll take no time really, but the information is seriously helpful and we'll discuss the results during the panel. Thanks in advance for you time and we'll see you in Boston!!
Google has just announced a new project: Project 10^100 (pronounced "Project 10 to the 100th"), which is a global call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. Here's how it works. You submit your idea by October 20th. Google will cull through everything and post 100 ideas. Starting on January 27, 2009, the world starts voting on those to choose 20 semi-finalists. From there, an advisory board will choose 5 finalists. Then, Google will spend at least $10 M implementing those final 5 ideas.
How about kicking out a shout to the newly established blog by EcoSteel? I was emailing with EcoSteel's Kelvin Findlay about their new projects and the blog came up. So I start looking through the first few posts and, of course, this Venice Live/Work home caught my eye. I mean, how can it not? Apparently the home is ready to go in California and EcoSteel is bidding out the contractor work at the moment.
