SusHack project ideas

[omgmog]

If you've got any ideas for things to work on on the day, feel free to add them here!

More information about SusHack, http://sushack.co.uk/

[priteau]

Extract air pollution data from Oxford Airwatch (http://www.oxford-airwatch.aeat.co.uk/) and/or UK-AIR (http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/) to offer better visualisation tools (their graphs are truly terrible).

Maybe it could even be developed in a platform that sends alerts when pollution reaches a threshold, to invite people to cycle or use public transport.

[omgmog]

I've been playing with my 'duino a lot lately, so my ideas are all targeted at that and nodejs/johhny-five:

• Presenting daily pollen information using Arduino.
• Using LEDs to represent current UV level as per BBC weather RSS, using Arduino.
• Using an LCD display to output readings from Oxford Flood Network sensor data.

Sidenote: Currently BBC Weather RSS doesn't contain this information (though the site does!), but I hear they're working it into an upcoming sprint.

I'll be bringing along some hardware for myself, but people are welcome to tinker too!

[jpstacey]

Our local sustainability group needs a way of tracking and processing requests from members of the public, to have their house thermally imaged. It helps people to decide on any quick wins they could make to help with e.g. fuel poverty, high bills, reducing carbon footprint:

http://sustainablewitney.org.uk/2014/03/10/reminder-thermal-imaging-feedback-meeting-tomorrow/

There are other groups in the area that might also benefit from it going forwards - I know of Eynsham and maybe Charlbury - so it wouldn't just be for this one group.

Right now requests come in via a dedicated email address, get processed into one Google spreadsheet, then added to another Google spreadsheet once the house has been imaged, with notes of the images etc. It's been tricky to make sure all images are uploaded to Dropbox (we nearly lost 40-50!), to ensure people provide all the info we need (an address helps!) and to track who's been invited to / attended an end-of-season meeting where they can meet an expert to review the photos.

I'm looking at an end-to-end Drupal-based solution to as many of these problems as possible: Drupal so it's maintainable by someone close to the project (me), and flexible going forwards. I'm happy to sit and build it on my own, as my own group could use it!

[jpstacey]

@omgmog did any other suggestions come in on the hello@sushack.co.uk address? If so, would it be worth either adding them here or pinging whoever suggested them?

[omgmog]

@jpstacey Just what @priteau already shared. I'll update the text on sushack.co.uk to say to come here also.

I will think of a way to utilise this thread on the day, rather than using a whiteboard.

[omgmog]

Tentative item: If the folks from Oxford Flood Network (@thiseldo, @crouchingbadger, et al) make an appearance to this SusHack, there will undoubtedly be some flood sensor stuff to work on.

More information about the Oxford Flood Network here:

• http://oxfloodnet.co.uk/
• https://github.com/oxfloodnet

However, last time everybody worked on the Oxford Flood Network, so it would be nice to have people working on their own things too!

[benfoxall]

I'd like to make something that is a "do list". Kind of like a todo list - but something that you want to keep on doing (that ideally has a positive sustainability impact).

You'd have a page where you could make a list of things that you want to do more of, like "cycle instead of drive", "choose locally sourced produce", etc.

[benfoxall]

also, rather having one issue that we are adding ideas to - would it make sense to create a github issue tag and have a new issue for each project? That way we can flesh out projects and assign them to people.

[omgmog]

That's crazy talk @benfoxall!

This thread can serve as an index if you like, feel free to raise issues for your idea fleshing :D

I've added a flag for project ideas, so you can use that

[skinofstars]

News articles often glorify a problem, but never provide a call to action to as to how you can help. This misses an opportunity to convert slacktivists to activists. Not sure how this is translated in to a project...

How about article text parsing that returns links to relevant movements, campaigns or charities. Could maybe wrap it up in a browser plugin.

[benfoxall]

@omgmog done! (#19) Can't add the label myself (one of the only negative things about github issues)

[benfoxall]

I really like @skinofstars idea - I'd love a news site which is "bad news that you can do things about".

[thiseldo]

I've stuck my name down. I'll bring along the latest Oxford flood network sensor for people to have a look at as it has progressed since Sushack 1. We've even had field trials under a bridge in Oxford which was valuable in progressing the development of the sensor.

I'd vote for working on something else to give another project a similar start.

Some things I've been looking at lately is using Twilio for SMS and voice control/responses, Node-RED flows and the Network rail data feeds as well as development of the river level sensor hardware.

Cheers

[omgmog]

Come up with a way to mash together Fitbit API data and Vidonn API (or device) data to compare the accuracy of pedometer tracking from both devices.

I'm now wearing a Fitbit Flex and a Vidonn X5, would be nice to see how much they deviate from each other over the day.

Would be cool to present this information on some sort of dashboard, perhaps based on Dashing?

[LuRsT]

You talking about https://github.com/LuRsT/datdash @omgmog?

[omgmog]

@LuRsT I mean, datdash, yeah. :sunglasses:

[simonredding]

Mashing up Environment Agency data (oxfordshire river levels) with oxfloodnet would be interesting. Here's an air quality link.

[edent]

Not sure if I can attend yet, but I'm interested in solar panels in Oxford. I've set up https://twitter.com/edent_solar which displays how much power my panels have generated each day. I've also got https://twitter.com/OxfordSolarLive which tweets a picture of the sky above my panels every minute.

Thought it might be interesting to see how much solar power is being generated in Oxford each day. I certainly see a lot of panels about!