Over the last year, a lot has changed in how we access social and environmental information about the products we purchase. A small but growing army of mobile apps have flourished that now help consumers make more informed and "green" decisions. What makes mobile apps so innovative in this space is their potential to help consumers access crucial data at the point of purchase. The idea behind mobile apps is that you can just whip out your cell phone, look up a product while you shop, and make more informed purchase decisions.

These apps raise a lot of interesting questions around best approaches, collaboration, and potentially the limits of mobile technology. Before we dive into the questions, though, let's review some apps!

Part of keeping abreast with what's going on at the intersection of your organization and connective technologies can be conference-hopping. I see conferences as a necessary, enjoyable evil that are often like magazines in that they feature 40% topical, tangental content and 60% advertising (but unlike magazines, the advertisers/sponsors at a conference often get you drunk). While a conference is often a nice place to hang out and hook up with like-minded folks, all of the "we're so cutting edge" self-congradulation can get a little daunting and stale after a few days.

This post is based on a proposal I created for MAPLight.org in early April '08. The mockups are also dated to that time.

Firefox extensions have a huge, largely untapped potential for social change. By changing the way we interact with the web, a browser extension can highlight issues, expose relationships, and raise awareness as people browse the web. More specifically, a Firefox extension could help illuminate the connection between money and politics when and where that connection is often most needed -- when people search for and visit legislators' websites.

Thank you kbaird for the photo!

Interview with Tom from KnowMore.org

I spent some time last week helping out a group of folks to get a Firefox extension up and running for Knowmore.org. It was a great experience - a testament to the power of distributed volunteer software development as well as how Firefox as a platform can enable such groups to rapidly build and deploy world-changing tools. As officially announced on Knowmore.org today, the extension is live! For screenshots and details, check out the wiki page, and you can install it here (still sandboxed, login is required).

I'm writing this while I sit in the passenger seat of a giant, white cargo van careening up the East Coast on route 15, so if I seem a bit distracted in tone, that's probably why. I could wait the four hours until I'm safely in the confines of my computer chair, but I don't want to lose the ideas while they're there. Well, that and I'm sort of melodramatic...

Hello everyone!

My name is Tom and I'm going to be part of the team representing Knowmore.org at the Netsquared Conference. I've been volunteering for Knowmore.org since its creation in 2005, and I'm excited to meet everyone at the conference and share my enthusiasm about our project, the Knowmore.org Firefox Extension.

I've been going through a lot of corporate profiles on Knowmore lately, and helping out where I can to make sure the right data is available to our *ROCK STAR* development team. The problem is.. I've been looking at these profiles for so long, not leaving my house, and today I ran out of some basic essentials. So, I headed down to Target to pick up some supplies, so I could return and finish my work.

 Something strange happened. First, it only started happening for a few products...

 

A few weeks ago, Asa Dotzler of Firefox wrote a post about our featured project and quest for developer support. The same day, Bernard Dolan made a shout-out to the Strange Famous Records Forum. Over the days that followed, a number of talented developers from all over the world sent emails offering their help & support. Wow!

The KnowMore.org Firefox Extension is currently seeking a volunteer Firefox extension developer to help us develop a beta in time for the NetSquared Conference (May 27-28th).