Grass Commons blogs

Wagn 0.8

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:46:26 -0700

We’re pretty stoked about the latest release of our Wagn software. It takes a big step in the direction of making Wagn feel less like a nifty nerdy data tool and more like a living website.

Check out user profiles or release notes on Wagn.org or browse around company profiles on Hooze.org and you’ll see what I mean.

Wadget - A Wagn widget for any webpage

Fri, 04 May 2007 15:33:56 -0700

Check out these notes on Wadget that I included from Wagn.org just by entering a few lines of code into my blog entry:

Zooming way out

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 12:20:45 -0700

or, how to become a piece of a pixel.

If tax season and spring cleaning got you too focused on the nitty gritty, and you’re wanting a step back, here’s a lovely route out: The Home Galaxy offers some of the most stunning images (both static and movies) of our planet and well beyond I’ve ever seen.

Not one of the most serene offerings on the site (there are many), but I liked Tornadoes on the sun.

Wallet Mouth

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 14:24:06 -0700

Hooze.org contributor, Friend-of-Grass-Commons, and all-around-groovy-person Bronwyn Ximm has started a new blog on ethical purchasing and related topics at WalletMouth.com. Check out her take on what’s being done now and can be done in the future to bring a deeper consciousness of our impacts to bear on our daily economic choices. Only complaint so far: we want more owls.

Green for Green, Tools for Schools

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 19:52:15 -0700

Finally! Heartstrings! We aren’t planning any emotional promotional videos any time soon, but after all our talk of data and economics and infrastructure, we welcome a little sympathetic resonance:

Green Schools. Healthy children. Healthy buildings that foster healthy children. Kids learning about sustainability, and even using online tools to judge the greenness of the buildings and communities they spend their days in. All of this accelerated by collaboration, sharing, and cooperative education.

This is the passion of Grass Commons director Shari Aaron. And now, thanks her efforts and a grant from the Connecticut Green Building Council, we will be starting work on a Green School Toolbox: a Wagn website devoted to means, methods, and metrics for helping schools lead the way towards a developed world that reflects developed wisdom.

Great thanks to Shari and CTGBC for their foresight.

Wagn 0.5 released

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 00:12:55 -0700

Wagn 0.5.0 was released into the world a few days ago. You can try it out online or download it and try it out on your own server. We've already found a few bugs, but you can help us out by reporting others; if your exploration sparks any feature requests we'd love to hear about those too.

New features since 0.4 include datatypes, a new look, permissions, improved administration, and much more. Read on for the details...

Grass Commons turns 3!

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 16:49:06 -0800

Grass Commons turned three today, and supporter Erika Lunkenheimer surprised us with a cake to celebrate! Lewis is visiting the San Francisco Bay Area, so we called and sang happy birthday to him, and promised to save him a piec-, uh, pictures. One’s visible to the right here, and we took a few more.

Almost in time for this celebration, we’re working full steam ahead on Wagn 0.5 and expect a release within a couple of weeks. It’s always good to have more reasons to celebrate.

Off and on: drawing the line

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 20:22:39 -0800

So wouldn’t it rock if while you were reading online about carrot gloves you could see they’re on sale a few blocks away at Wabbitmart for $4.50 — 3 pairs left on the shelf? Not the sort of thing that sounds ridiculous these days (product aside), but it’s not close yet. Certainly not among anyone other than large retailers, and even they haven’t deeply integrated their online and offline stores. Why not? Why are the two worlds so far apart?

Well in part because brick and mortar retailers aren’t wild about signing up for direct comparison with e-commerce. And in fact, they’re already finding their role in comparison shopping unsavory.

back on the WagN

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 17:44:50 -0700

Sometimes programmers, at least us pathetic ones, feel little parental about our programs. After the pregnancy of design and the labor of mock-up, there’s the moment when you get the first little glimpse of your code doing what it’s ultimately supposed to do. Programmers with emotional problems, if you’ll excuse the tautology, have reported hearing the sound of a baby crying.

Well young WagN has given its parents considerable joy recently by reaching a number of milestones. Most importantly, the kid’s getting to be fun.

We’ve been using the WagN for keeping track of contacts, minutes, agendas, todo lists, bugs, and goals (in addition to researching companies and products), and it’s way better of a time than any of those things should be. The neat part is that you can essentially structure and restructure information organically, which is where all the unintended uses are coming from.

Why buy nigh?

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 15:07:03 -0700

Buy local?? Isn’t that like mercantilism? Haven’t you nutters ever heard of comparative advantage? Frankly, nobody’s ever asked us that, but the rationale for buying local can make for a good dig. And the bone worth digging for contends that there are good reasons for local purchasing, particularly of raw goods, that anyone but the most devout worshippers of price can respect.

Saying “the rationale” is already a feint, since reasons abound from all over of the political spectrum, especially the extremes. NAFTA made pillow partners of Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader, and many of the same sentiments have hippies and ultraconservatives dancing around the same buy-local may cross. Is “buy local” just a happier, less riot-to-mind-calling way to say “anti-globalization?” Well, no not just.

An Inconvenient Truth

Sat, 17 Jun 2006 10:00:53 -0700

I saw Al Gore’s movie on global warming last night. The basic message wasn’t news to me, but the potency of the presentation made a deep impression. This is more than a movie- it’s arguably the reference presentation of one of the defining issues of our times. It should be seen by any citizen of the world in the 21st century. We can help it reach it’s deserved place as part of our common culture by seeing it and encouraging friends and acquaintances to see it and spread the word.

Expensive Oil = Catch 22 for Planet

Wed, 17 May 2006 15:59:57 -0700

How do you feel about high gas prices? If you have a car not very good. If you’re a biker…well the rest of us could use a touch of sympathy. But how does Mother Earth feel about high gas prices? Not so clear.

On one side of the barrel, conservation is up. Folks pay more attention to their vehicles mileage and show interest in alternative energy sources. On the other side of the barrel, more $ means more incentive to drill and it gets harder for environmental advocates to protect wild places. How will the public feel about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge when gas is $5 a gallon?

And what about the Oregon Coast. Pressure is picking up to drill offshore thanks to a combination of the 2005 federal energy bill, high oil prices, and an Oregon ban on offshore drilling that expired in 1995.

Ice Cold Beer + Red Hot Politics

Wed, 17 May 2006 15:04:36 -0700

Here in the Northwest we’ve been known to take our beer seriously. And this blog is no exception. But with dozens of porters, ambers, pale ales, stouts and blondes on tap why not drink, or overdrink, from a bottle that suits you. Here’s a summary since 2001 of political giving of seven western breweries with tasty brew:

Deschutes Brewery (Mirror Pond, Black Butte): $8,000 to their Republican Senator and Congressmen. $2,000 to Democratic Senator
New Belgium Brewery (Fat Tire): $0 to Republicans. $26,000 to many Democrats for congress, senate, plus John Kerry
Widmer Brewery (Hefewiezen): $0 to Republicans. $1,100 to Democratic Senator and Oregon’s Democratic Secretary of State

Hain Celestial deserves closer look

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 09:15:41 -0800

A few more thoughts about the Organic Industry Structure sheet we have been circulating on behalf of Cyber-Help for Organic Farmers. Hain Celestial is included because Heinz owns 17% of this company. This ownership gives Heinz influence, but not control.

Hain Celestial exclusively works with organic and natural foods. This is important as many other large food companies buy organic companies only to diversify their portfolio, or to capture growth opportunities. But Hain’s core strategy is to own organic and natural foods; that is what they will keep on doing even if organics go out of style. (I don’t think organics will actually go out of style but people will eventually try to say they have…take recent attempts to pronounce environmentalism dead as an example).

Replacing Jumbo-Corporate Organics with Independant Organics

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 08:48:32 -0800

The Organic Food Industry ownership chart got me thinking, so I came up with a preliminary list of independent organic food producers (see my comment above for detail). For those who want to go with independent organics here are some suggestions:

Rather than Odwalla Juice (Owned by Coca-Cola) try Columbia Gorge Juice
Pass by Ragu Organic, Muir Glen (General Mills) and Seeds of Change Pasta Sauce (M&M Mars); go with Rising Moon Organics Sauce and Annie’s Homegrown Pasta.
Say goodbye to Kashi (Kellogg), and hello to Barbara’s and Peace Cereal.
Satisfy your yogurt craving with Nancy’s instead of Stonyfield Farm (Danonn)