Public Lab community newsletter 6.29.12

[Shannon Dosemagen]

Greetings! Lots of great news this week as we welcome a new Public Lab intern, begin hosting MapKnitter learning sessions via Skype, continue our hot pursuit for helium sources and wrap up the first field test of photostrips for sensing hydrogen sulfide. Enjoy!

1) Last call for Sunday kite workshop in NYC! Join Public Lab to learn about bamboo and tyvek kite and solar balloon construction in Brooklyn this weekend.

2) Pilot hydrogen sulfide photostrip test in Bayou Sauvage, LA. Last week Saturday, with me completely unaware of a tropical storm that was supposed to head toward Louisiana, Scott Eustis and I put out photostrips in film canisters at Bayou Sauvage during the first field test of the strips. You can read a research note here on the protocol Sara and I developed before the test (majorly modified once we actually got to the marsh), a research note on setting the strips out, and since we ended up not getting the storm, one on collecting them after four days had passed.

3) Welcome to Elaine Choi! Elaine will be working as an Intern with Liz Barry during the summer. She is currently a student at Parsons New School for Design in the Integrated Design Program under the Urban track. She is interested in learning about Public Lab design processes and how to approach and find solutions to existing design problems with Public Lab tools.

4) Get help learning to use MapKnitter. Stewart Long will be offering Skype sessions on using MapKnitter, whether you need a quick introduction or help on a specific project.

5) Locating helium in your community. There has been alot of conversation recently about where to find helium (and I feel like I spend a great amount of time advocating for party supply stores) so we put together a page on the website where people can list places that they get their helium tanks refilled or where they can rent tanks. If you have information for your area, please help out your fellow mappers and contribute.

6) Public Lab participation in Understanding Risk Forum. I'll be traveling over the next week to Cape Town, South Africa to participate on a panel with folks from a number of different organizations including OpenStreetMap Humanitarian team and Ushahidi.

7) Grassroots Modernism article from Public Lab now available. Public Lab staff wrote an article for the Grassroots Modernism issue of the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest. Copies are now available for purchase or you can read the full length article on their website.

8) Last, but not least, research notes from the past week:

New map from Nags Head Beach, North Carolina (posted by gonzoearth, map by Gena Wirth)

Alaska Range balloon mapping (posted by cfastie)

FABAoutfit derivative KAP rig (posted by jbreen)

Pictures of balloon mapping in Union Square NY (posted by C_Eich)

Amsterdam Kite Satellite (posted by keimpe)

Have a great weekend everyone! As always, if you have additional news to share, please email it out to the listserve, post a research note or send it to sha...@publiclaboratory.org for inclusion in the newsletter next week.

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Shannon Dosemagen
Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science
publiclaboratory.org
@PublicLab