Geeking Green

Here at ShapingCode we like to think of the environment when making both our business and personal decisions, to think and work green, but we are also gadget freaks...so how can we deal with this potential conflict?

Our good friends at Google have created something that will allow us to geek out and be green. Many of you have received information recently from your power companies notifying you that you have a new power meter or that one will be installed soon. This is true for both businesses and residences. So, how does this relate to Google and more importantly to being green? Google is working with various power providers and device manufacturers to provide a software service called PowerMeter. In conjunction with these new smart meters, PowerMeter will allow this data to be processed and displayed in ways that should look very familiar to current Google Analytics users. Initially Your iGoogle page will be the place to interact with your usage statistics, but soon after there will be a PowerMeter API using the publicly available Google data API Specification (both for using and supplying the data). This API will allow inspired developers to come up with many was to analyze and display this data and to suggest ways in which the end user can optimize their usage. Many businesses advertise themselves as ‘Green’ why not put some data behind that, show it off, make it a part of your homepage. The same goes for your personal usage, why not make it a part of your blog or any social media tool you use?

"My apartment is in the basement near the building's shared washer and dryer. After installing Google PowerMeter, I saw very large spikes that I could not correlate with any of my activities. Eventually I realized that my electric meter included the building's washer and dryer - I was paying for all the laundry done in my building! Without Google PowerMeter, I never would have figured this out." – Lindsey, Google Program Manager

If we have learned anything from Google Website Optimizer and Analytics tools, it’s that with all of the information neatly organized, the user WILL take action…in this case that will be saving energy and that’s pretty contagious. We are looking forward to integrating Google PowerMeter into blogs, business dashboards, iPhones and of course using these tools to change our own habits.

Google Wave

I just got my Google Wave invite. I'm inviting friends and hoping to start actually seeing the magic!

ShapingCode Blog Launch

ShapingCode website and blog launch! http://www.shapingcode.com and http://shapingcode.blogspot.com are up and running. Interesting tidbits will be posted that we think our clients will find some value in and also any project news that is worthy of sharing.