Another posting from guest bloggers Liene Vanaga and Pavel Rodin.
Today is the World Usability Day 2012. Since 2005 the whole world celebrates the day that could not be imagined even few decades ago. Handy and easy-comprehensible technologies make human life more comfortable and increase its quality in different part of the world. And as outcome the usability increases equality in the world.The motto of the World Usability Day is “Make it easy!” And the whole idea with the new Commute Greene Facebook app was to make it more easier in everyday usage for commuters going to and from work. We believe that the idea of human progress in its core is based on improvements, achieving results and get benefits from that.
But simplification doesn’t affect the whole idea of greener way of life. Hard to believe it? Try it yourself! And it would be great if you could share your experience with us. Put out your stories on Facebook and read how other people Commute greener. It’s fun to commute greener together with your friends or some new people from your city! And dear to challenge them! And since it is the World Usability Day, please give us feedback how the usuability could be can be even better.
It is easy to Commute Greener! And even easier with Facebook app!
Finally it’s successfully launched – the Commute Greener Facebook app! The application got a total makeover. Besides a complete new look and feel, the usage does increase engagement with “gamification” innovations. The idea is to collect points and badges by making improvements in your commuting behavior and to compete with your friends to be a Top Performer – Bicycle Hero, Public Star or why not the overall winner of the Leaderboard?
The Commute Greener Facebook is optimized for iPhone, Android, Firefox, IE9 or equivalent.
Welcome to have fun with you Facebook friends and contribute to a sustainable future - try it out!
I don’t know why, but this reminds about Roxy Music’s hit from the seventies… Let’s stick together!
Was it 20 years ago on an Interrail through Europe? Was it on a t-shirt? Is it attributed to an Australian article on outdoor sports written at the turn of the millenium? I wonder… The fact is as I was just making a search on Bing and Google no hits were found. Let’s change that! It is a great expression since it encourage: courage, curiosity, creativity and a possibility to expand on what is possible.
Of course, we need to do keep on the path to sustainable transport solutions (at least in the context of developing Commute Greener!). At the same time inspiration may come from several angels and levels, here are some:
Sustainability focus as a market maker, to be a leader rather than a follower. A blog post refering and giving examples from IT companies and a World Economic Forum business case.
Dr. Seuss can inspire to go beyond the assumed… Hmm…
The worlds first serial produced electromobilty enabled waste truck (talk in swedish but video shows several features) by Renova.
Innovation capability, a scientific way to increase new value and we are contributing to a certain start at Luleå University of Technology.
In short, relate to ‘your edge’ and: Set your target. See the progress. Share experiences.
One of the things I can really enjoy with being in Sweden this time of the year is that it is getting cold. Strange? Well, actually not. If you get the opportunity to breath crisp and clear air it nurtures inner energies to think straight and get into movement.
I love skiing, part of why I work on delivering a positive climate change is to be able to ski and share the great experience of feeling close to zero gravity. This is also why I want to bicycle to work more often, and of course it then becomes more joy to Commute Greener!
Arriving this morning in the heart of Lindholmen Science Park I came to meet some EV enthusiasts, they are converting the city chic Fiat 500 just outside Go:teborg and turn them electric:
Towards the eveing it is also possible to see a magic sky, the large bronze statue ‘Women by the Sea’ is also a remider how the daily commute have shifted for many of us. The mirroring image is somewhat depicting myself inside the office at Volvo IT Innovation Centre:
All the best and to see another clip from nearby surrounding just click, but please rather send us your favourite clip. Most welcome to Commute Greener!
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The world’s first TravelHack was concluded yesterday, and as co-organiser in the ISET-project Magnus Kuschel, the always enthusiastic founder and manager of Commute Greener, presented the Volvo Pimp Commute Greener Award. The happy winners are Team Code Monkeys, their TravelHack contribution was “Find me a Ride“. The prize includes a unique developer contract within the global Commute Greener open innovation community – congratulations and welcome Tommaso, Ali and Hamid!
The winners of the grand prize, The Best Prototype Award, consisted of several Volvo IT employees under the team name of Green bITs. They presented a novel gamification of smarter commuting to “stay cool on the way” and below you see: Robert Valton, Fredrik Westman, Gustaf Nordin and Karl Risenfors.
To see more of the show, like already >1000 persons have done, follow the WebTV channel here.
The world’s first travel-jam West Coast TavelHack 2011 runs this weekend, on 8 and 9 October at Lindholmen Science Park in Göteborg, Sweden. The competition is organized as a 24 hour jam and started around lunch today and will be closing around lunch time tomorrow. Twenty teams and about 80 developers, designers and creators have taken on the challenge to develop, design and implement the most innovative digital service for sustainable everyday travel.
Erik Hjalmarsson, Event Manager, opened the jam dressed in lederhosen, since over fifteen teams were registered…
The vision with TravelHack 2011 is that it becomes a fun, lively, productive and creative live jam – within the fields of sustainable mobility, public transport and intelligent transport systems. The core resources in the competion are traffic, travel and environmental data. Commute Greener, as a co-organizer, has contributed with data regarding commuting pattern and CO2 emissions for different transport modes.
The teams are competing for awards totaling around SEK 100,000 (€10,000) while gaining wide exposure to their work. A “Pimp Commute Greener” Award will also be announced tomorrow, including a unique developer contract in the Commute Greener team.
It is great to have tried Powerbocking at the Göteborg go:teborg culture festival. I can imagine to come through a congested area in an innovative way and contribute to a positive climate at the same time. I wonder if I can find someone to Ride Share with? It shall certainly also give Zero Emission Miles in the log to Commute Greener!
Imagine that at the COP17 in Durban decision makers gets connected and sets a needed agenda with actions for sustainable development. Sustainable development is the way to get back on track. They will meet in 105 days and we invite all of them to use our last innovation and find a trusted ride share. Thank you everyone that contributes on the way & Commute Greener!
In Friday’s blog entry about ISET, a central piece was the question of how do we use IT solutions to make a everyday travel more sustainable. Information on where the bus is, when it will arrive and which other options there are may very well become more and more important for the commuter in the future, and may be important to convince avid drivers to look towards other options. Well, I have a treat in store;
Cool, don’t you think? While this is a demonstrator (at least to my knowledge) it certainly paints a pretty picture. Easy to access information about travel routes and several modes of transportation with estimated times and environmental impact. Not only that, being able to hook up with friends on the way is a nice feature as well. Then add in the Commute Greener! features that is already a reality, with measured footprint, Zero Emission Miles, public transportation distance and ridesharing as well as the Health Index to become wider used with the next release, and we are looking at a lot of useful information and attractive action.
A green commute should be as easy as getting in the car is. Whether it is car-pooling, biking, using mass transit or walking, there are possible solutions to make it easier. Wouldn’t having access to all this make it easier to see the possibilities? If nothing else you would be able to see that another route is possible, or that another mode of transportation is available if the bus is late or the car has broken down. While that doesn’t happen often, it always turns the atmosphere frosty. Having more information makes it easier to get around obstacles like that.
It wouldn’t be THE solution to bring everyone to a greener commute of course. Habits can be hard to break and all the information in the world can’t change that. It may be compared to that we still have a tobacco widely sold and that fast food is a bit too easy to over consume. But even if one don’t believe in the ongoing changes in the climate and peak oil, we all live in the reality of rising fuel prices and increasing traffic congestion, and more and more people will eventually have to look towards alternative options. IT solutions and innovation in this area could very well help change the way we travel.
