Wattsup? Motivating reductions in domestic energy consumption using social networks

This paper reports on the design, deployment and evaluation of “Wattsup”, an innovative application which displays live autonomously logged data from the Wattson energy monitor, allowing users to compare domestic energy consumption on Facebook. Discussions and sketches from a workshop with Facebook users were used to develop a final design implemented using the Facebook API. Wattson energy monitors and the Wattsup app were deployed and trialled in eight homes over an eighteen day period in two conditions. In the first condition participants could only access their personal energy data, whilst in the second they could access each others’ data to make comparisons. A significant reduction in energy was observed in the socially enabled condition. Comments on discussion boards and semi-structured interviews with the participants indicated that the element of competition helped motivate energy savings. The paper argues that socially-mediated banter and competition made for a more enjoyable user experience

Competitive carbon counting: can social networking sites Make saving energy more enjoyable?

This paper reports on the design, deployment and initial evaluation of “Wattsup”, an innovative Facebook application which displays live data from a commercial off-the-shelf energy monitor. The Wattsup application was deployed and trialled in eight homes over an eighteen day period in two conditions - personal energy data viewable and friend’s energy data viewable. A significant reduction in energy was observed in the socially enabled condition. The paper argues that socially-mediated discussion and competition made for a more enjoyable user experience

Lightweight Electronic Camera for Research on Clouds

"Micro-CPI" (wherein "CPI" signifies "cloud-particle imager") is the name of a small, lightweight electronic camera that has been proposed for use in research on clouds. It would acquire and digitize high-resolution (3- m-pixel) images of ice particles and water drops at a rate up to 1,000 particles (and/or drops) per second

The Climate of the Great American Desert: Reconstruction of the Climate of Western Interior United States, 1800-1850

Historians have concluded that two conceptions of the West were held during the incipient stages of settlement of the plains region of the Western Interior (sensu latu). They have labeled these conceptions the myth of the desert, supposedly prevalent during the first half of the nineteenth century,l and the myth of the garden, a notion widely held during the latter decades of that century. It has been assumed by students of the American frontier that the former-in its extreme form the concept of the Great American Desert-was derived from the notions of a few men rather than from the probable reality of the environmental conditions. In a sense the reality of the desert has not concerned western historians. Some have undoubtedly assumed that the environment was described accurately by first-hand observers before 1850. Others have assumed that plains of the past environment was no different from that of recent time. Others would seem to feel that the geographic reality is identical to man\u27s contemporary conception, agreeing with Morton that geography ... is man\u27s concept of his environment at any given time. 4 While others may assume that the geographic reality of the plains before 1880 is unknowable, these and other assumptions about the past reality of the plains environment have rarely been questioned by the writers who hold them. They have been the building blocks for most, if not all, interpretations of plains history and past geography. And yet each of these assumptions appears to be false

The Cicadellidae of Kansas

A dissertation submitted to the Department of Entomology and to the graduate faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosoph