Why Twitter?

I know that the IGSS community will be able to take advantage of the powerful Twitter community during the next school year. Here's a very nice blog post by Harold Rheingold (self-proclaimed "online instigator") who explains the benefits:

Twitter Literacy (I refuse to make up a Twittery name for it)

"Post-Oprah and apres-Ashton, Twittermania is definitely sliding down the backlash slope of the hype cycle. It's not just the predictable wave of naysaying after the predictable waves of sliced-breadism and bandwagon-chasing. We're beginning to see some data. Nielsen, the same people who do TV ratings, recently noted that more than 60% of new Twitter users fail to return the following month. To me, this represents a perfect example of a media literacy issue: Twitter is one of a growing breed of part-technological, part-social communication media that require some skills to use productively. Sure, Twitter is banal and trivial, full of self-promotion and outright spam. So is the Internet. The difference between seeing Twitter as a waste of time or as a powerful new community amplifier depends entirely on how you look at it - on knowing how to look at it." Read more....

Dot Earth blog mentions School of Sustainability at Arizona State University

I usually follow the Dot Earth blog because of the great visuals and interactive media. Today I learned that where Obama was speaking about encouraging a new "green revolution" 13 students were the first to graduate from the School of Sustainability, a multidisciplinary field which combines environmental, social and economic policy. Read what the students think about the program.

Find a great set of links on their website to global, university, governmental and other sustainability resources.

You can also subscribe to GRIST: “The Sustainable Sun Devil” is a biweekly email newsletter created for Arizona State University by Grist.org, the nation’s leading online source of news on sustainability and the environment.

10 Ways to Change the World Through Social Media

Max Gladwell, social media expert states:
"For most of us, social media has changed our lives in some meaningful way. Collectively it is changing the world for good. Given the pace of innovation and adoption, change has become a constant. Every so often we find the need to stop and reflect on its most recent and noteworthy developments"...

See the following list.
His list presents intriguing opportunities for students to get involved with environment, health, social equity, consumer advocacy, and service.

City of Chicago Climate Action

The City of Chicago has developed a series of programs and resources to help Chicago’s businesses improve their energy use, reduce waste and increase recycling rates, prevent pollution, conserve water, and stimulate economic growth. See the top 10 Things Businesses can do.

Read about strategies and goals outlined in the Chicago Climate Action Plan, which are planned to make Chicago a stronger and more resilient city. For more information on the research supporting the Chicago Climate Action Plan, visit the Research Reports page. It is chock full of fact sheets, projections, baseline and mitigation options, and adaptations to changes already occuring.

Take the $800 Savings Challenge!

NASA on Twitter

April 22, 2009

NASA scientists have proposed an ingenious and remarkably resourceful process to produce "clean energy" biofuels, that cleans waste water, removes carbon dioxide from the air, retains important nutrients, and does not compete with agriculture for land or freshwater. Read more....

Ad for Oceans