hi everyone, looking forward to the Q&A on Wednesday, See you there!

I will be there, thanks for the Invite.!  See you then

See you guys there

Just to confirm with you guys.  The 12:00BST start is 12:00 British Summer Time?  If thats the case, here in Finland we are 2 hours ahead of Britain, so will start at 2pm for me.  Someone correct me if Im wrong please.  Thanks

@Micky - the session actually starts at 1700BST, 1200 EST, 0900 PST, so will be 1900 for you in Finland. See you later

Oh right, glad you confirmed for me.  See you later on then.  I have set my alarm on my N97 so I don't miss out.

A big hello to everyone

Waiting for the event !

Hi,

We thought it would be good to share a few details before we start, just so we can get right into the chat at 1700 BST, so have a read of the below if you can and get your questions and comments ready!

PEIR (Personal Environmental Impact Report-http://peir.cens.ucla.edu) is an innovative tool which measures a person’s impact on the environment via their mobile device. Currently in its trial phase, PEIR was born out of a research collaboration project by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Nokia Research Center (NRC) Palo Alto.    

In the next hour, you will be joined by the team behind PEIR: Martin Gutierrez from the Go Green Foundation, John Shen from Nokia Labs, Jeff Burke and Mark Hansen from UCLA. They will provide more in-depth knowledge of and insights into this tool/technology as well as answer any questions you may have.

It seems I signed in at the right time! Thanks for the invite!

big hello to everyone

Im here, been reading quite a bit today from the Nokia PR last year, and from the PEIRs website too

Hey hey y'all !

Hi all, hope everyone is well! I'm going to be 'moderating' today, and we'll hopefully kick off as close to time as possible (allowing for some late stragglers!) when we'll kick off with some intros from those invovled with PEIR and then we'll jump into questions...

Hi Robbie..

Hi Rob, CJ, Dan, and Vai.!

Hey @all!

Hi everyone.

Hi everyone!

good morning... um, evening?

Evening!

hi everyone

Early evening here in Finland

Hi All

5pm here in the UK

Evening

Hi all, let's get this started!!

Karen and John from Nokia. Karen is responsible for comm for our Corporate Development Office. John heads up the Nokia Research Center in Palo Alto.  

SHall we have some intros from Nokia, Go Green, UCLA? (John beat me to it!)

Hi Karen, and John

Jeff Burke - I'm one of the area leads for urban sensing at CENS.  I was involved in coming up with the concept for PEIR and co-managing the development along with Deborah Estrin, Mark Hansen (who's on the chat), and Ruth West.  I've also been coordinating the GoGreen pilot with Martin & co.

(CENS = NSF Center for Embedded Networked Sensing at UCLA, http://urban.cens.ucla.edu/)

and i'm part of the peir team... i'm also a professor in the department of statistics at ucla...

and then we've got Martin too, where are you hiding?!

I am the co-founder of Go Green Foundation, we are a non-profit organization that provides an advocacy platform for young people (primarily 14-22) to have a voice and find solutions for climate change.  We launched a pilot program in San Francisco, CA using PEIR as a tool to demonstrate how mobile phones and applications can provide actionable data to motivate teens to make choices that leave a smaller carbon footprint.   http://www.gogreenfoundation.com

Brilliant. So that's the team that we have here today to answer your questions. I know most of you have already had a chance to read through some of the links posted and info that is out there on the projects, so feel free to jump straight ion

If you want some time to check the links and get more info before asking anything however, please do

Hi Martin, I was looking at the companies page on your website where you have ranked corporations. May be you have mentioned it on the site, but how do you come to the rankings? http://www.gogreenfoundation.com/companies/44

How can we get started using the PEIR client?

I'll try to answer this but as I'm typing, can you let us know where you're located and what kind of device you have?

You mention on your site Sensing the World with Mobile Devices, about Mobile applications for Nokia handsets, are these in the OVI Store yet? If not, where can we download them to try out for ourselves, and recommend them?

I'm in San Francisco California and have a Nokia N95-3

We are working in collaboration with ClimateCounts.org, a non-profit that provide an environmental scorecards on various industry sectors, companies, and brands.

Im in Finland, and own N95's, N82, and N97

Is there a PEIR client for Nokia's Symbian devices ? coming soon ?

Let's pause with those questions for a mo until we get the answers

We have clients for Symbian OS 3rd Ed, Windows Mobile 6, Android (soon), as well as supporting various trackloggers

It will run on your N95.

Our geographic coverage is limited in the current version of the system - outside of Southern California, you will get transportation-related carbon impact feedback

Darn no 5th edition then

Currently this is still a research pilot and not yet in Ovi store, which would be the place for it when we go to a broader launch.

In So. Cal you get particulate matter impact and exposure, and fast food exposure.

Same as Micky N82, N97 - UK based not near an 'urban town' (7 miles away)

We're working on an architecture this summer to increase the geographic coverage of all the models, and to add models (mark could talk more about this)... And we'd love to then go wider as well as add other client support, and are pretty actively working to find a way to do a larger launch

We also have an interface to Nokia Simple Context

..this may now be ported to 5th edition, I'm not sure - John/Karen?

E75 and a 6120 are what I use.  Based in a small town 'Torquay' in the UK

Looks like the PIER client is in closed Beta.  Will we be getting access to it today?

For those that are interested, you can email to <bettad@cens.ucla.edu> and cc me <jburke@ucla.edu> and we'll do our best to get you set up.

Thanks Jeff:)

that would be great thanks

My question is to Karen. For a company like Nokia what are the benefits of going green, apart from may be the goodwill and saving on packaging costs a bit.

Hi. For Nokia, participating in meaningful ways in the community is part of our Nokia Values. There are benefits in goodwill and packaging/savings as you point out as well. It is just good business in general to do so.

What about costs then?

lol @ green text for "going green"

Yes, cost savings are good but things like having a universal charger means few chargers need to be created/bought so overall that is less waste.

Universal chargers will be a great thing in the long run i think.  Finally you can buy a phone with no charger in the box, just buy one IF and WHEN you need one, not just get for no reason

Have you considered not supplying a CD/DVD in future devices packaging, as this in almost all cases, out of date when reaching the buyer/end user, and the latest version can be simply downloaded online anyway.

Can you give us an estimate of the cost Nokia has to bear as part of its effort of going green?

Maybe start to implement a credit card sized mini DVD?

the same as Micky said and what about downloadable manuals?.  They are all online anyway and not everyone needs/wants one

HI Karen, Like World of Nokia said, why doesnt Nokia consider customized packing so that the consumer can decide what he/she wants in the package?

Yeah, I'm not fond of that and don't know the plan for that. But back to the PEIR project, how do you think this will impact people's behavior?

The best thing would be to simply load the software/manuals onto the phone's memory card. I even saw this done on the E75 I think.

My PowerMonkey charges up from the solar panel - 4 hours strong sunlight charges up an N82 for free - great for Hiking/Camping too

As Karen says, be interesting to hear all your views on using a set-up like PEIR and how it can make a difference?

Yes, given the memory capacity available, putting manuals on phones is a good idea.

When is Nokia launching a solar powered unit? Samsung and SonyEricsson have done it in the past and there are some third party solar chargers available in market today

@Karen, I would say that The PEIR Project needs a lot my publicity before it will start to even make a mark.  What the people will benefit from for participating for example needs to be made clear.

Sincerely speaking, environmental awareness is still pretty low in real world terms, so a wonderful concept like PIER will take a little more time to actually penetrate the minds.

We've actually found that the public has responded very well to the concept, but there are three challenges...

I'd like to hear more details of how the PEIR client can be used for reporting pollution sources and hoew that data is used.

Let me guess, geographical diversity is one?

Cool - I think mark can speak to that and I'll type up the list of the three challenges?

@Mickey, agreed. As a pilot project we haven't begun the really large effort on what sensors can do such as PEIR. This project with Lonely Planet is a start.

Ok, go for it Jeff

@Karen, Lonely Planet is a very good start, as this is pretty much well know around the globe.

Do you have more on the Lonely Planet collaboration?  A link perhaps?

...yes, the first is scalability - building out the system to handle a large number of users across a wide range of locations (using a combination of geographically specific models and others that provide less precise results but over wide geographic areas), as well as including new environmental models... the user scalability is a fairly standard problem, but integrating models to cover a wide swath of the globe is a little more challening.

@WapReview, We've partnered with Lonely Planet to showcase the impact of projects like PEIR on users. The project will Lonely Planet will feature 6 or more such projects. By September-ish, a joint site will be made live with videos and information about these projects. We've just finished filming the first two projects, PEIR and our Mobile Millennium project (enhanced community traffic using phones as sensors).

at the moment, peir draws mainly on user-contributed gps data. these data are then fed to four modeling services... we apply models commonly used for planning purposes to estimate a person's impacts and exposures. right now, the tool serves what might be called a self-analytic practice. that is, people examine their own choices. participants can also compare themselves to other members of their social network, with the hope that they consider relative differences and possible reasons why one person might have a higher number than another... eventually we see people posing challenges on the network... reduce impacts by 10% say... we are working now to open up the modeling services side so that richer impacts and exposures can be added, ultimately engaging users as possible service providers as well

we are also looking at simple campaigns that allow for more direct documentation of pollution sources... i would like to see these woven into peir also...

...the second challenge is the best business model to support that scalability -- this isn't a simple app, and to reach the potential we see requires not just R&D but computational capacity on the server side to process user data through the models and so on.  Feedback from showing this at NextFest is that many people would use it if offered in their area, and we continue to hear that.  We have a few different ideas on the business model, that range from sponsorship from those with aggregate health interests (municipalities, insurers)  to the standard free + premium model that many internet services are trying...

and as jeff said, we are working this summer on (1) calibration, using actual monitoring devices donated from various companies and (2) rearchitecting our server-side systems so that the model extension (both in variety and geographic extent) is possible.

Have you thought of the solid-state gas sensor in the device (Cell/Mobile Phone) as used in Thailand? http://www.gisdevelopment.net/application/environment/air/ma04307abs.htm (last paragraph) to record measurements, location and time.

When people sign up to participate in the PEIR project, will they get a user profile, which shows a unique badge on their profile showing that persons own footprint on the planet gained from being apart of the project?  This would help other members, of the site, and forums(?) to know who is exactly emitting/using more fuels etc

@mapperz - Yes, we have seen sensors like that and also similar work by Eric Paulos @ CMU.  For now, we are focusing on using location (processed through models) because of the massive scalability it offers in the future with no added device cost.  (The sensor-on-the-phone approach is pretty cool, and it's definitely the sort of thing we're following, but PEIR takes a different tack for now)

As a blogger what can I do to support PEIR?  Should I encourage readers to sign up for the Beta at bettad@cens.ucla.edu or is it too early for that?

Are there plans to pre-load this application on Nokias? An app that calculated the environmental footprint and encouraged users to donate money to offset it was pre-loaded once. It never took off for obvious reason, but the model Mark has suggested might just work.

@WapReview - Too early for a wide pilot (and Betta would be upset with me but every mention helps!!

@Vai, remember we-offset?  Is this not the same?

we have been working with specialists here at ucla to identify an appropriate range of measurement devices for this calibration. we're looking at three small but accurate devices that have been epa certified.

interestingly, in talking to these specialists, it seems that there are plenty of effects that could help in assessing one's exposure that are not in peir but could be. things like what lane you drive in or the kinds of vehicles you follow.

in the vein of self-analytics, all of these pieces of data can help make people more conscious of choices they are making... or rather that there were choices to be made. in part peir is about noticing...

May be it could even be integrated with Sports Tracker, which itself is pretty popular among users. That will give people even more motivation to compete.

@Micky - yes, we're doing something like that with the Facebook widget... were you thinking of a social community within PEIR itself?

@Jeff, yes, exactly

Integrating with Sports Tracker makes sense.

Facebook widget is good

yes I use Sports Tracker daily - good point vaibhav.sharma

Micky, that's the one. But I think the purpose on this is a little different. As the PIER website says, it moves beyond measuring the carbon footprint.

Sports Tracker was what I was also thinking of

Some good stuff here! Glued to the screen... Just a quick reminder we've got until 6pm (i.e. 17 more minutes) so make sure you get any questions in you want before then...

Yes, Sports Tracker would make sense and is pretty doable, though of course we'd love to encourage use for even people that are not fitness focused...

@v.s that's right. this is why we are expanding our model set, imagining more elaborate participation models, but grounding the work in good research. it's a lot to ask for... and right now funding is key!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/apps/application.php?id=6733471126&ref=s In case anyone missed it

thanks Micky

@Jeff, the best thing about sports tracker is that only a few use it as a fitness module. Most use it to record drives, trips, because it shows where you took photos and stuff, a better Nokia Vine alternative.

Nokia vine was based on the sportstracker app, there could maybe be a peir app on the same grounds

Ah - perfect.

Link not working for me even copying full url.

Sports Tracker already has a large user base adding PIER to a new version would promote it 10 fold.

ah, used Firefox instead and can see the page now

Its just a link to PEIR Project on Facebook

@Mark, I am sure Nokia would keep the funds coming. Plus, if you integrate into sports tracker it will involve much less cost as the maps, gps, handset compatibility is already there.

@Micky - to close the thread on the user community, it's a great point and we've definitely considered it, it's mostly a question of development cycle limits...

@v.s i am sure you're right in terms of sportstracker. i had a student looking at data from them already... it's pretty straightforward to have peir process the traces. with our extended modeling, we'll be in good shape

An older version of the facebook widget for GoGreen looked like this:

Thats really good to hear!

Has anyone else got anything that they'd like to bring up?

Got any laptop stickers?  Be good to advertise PEIR Project at Nokia World later this year

dont tease Micky  

Don't know what happened to the font there..

stickers !

Or T Shirts of course, need to get the word about

thank you for taking the time to talk to us if you have any further questions you can send email to jeff or myself...

@v.s. - if you could share <peir-info@cens.ucla.edu> then it'll go to a group of us who respond to public queries...  will be a faster response... you can also send to us individually, too...

@Clinton go print one yourself. Sending them across the oceans will have a pretty large carbon footprint!

Well, apart from stickers, t-shirts and the like (!) it looks like we might be rolling to a natural end - thanks to everyone who's come along today, it's been a really good session!

Ok, thanks everyone for your time, and for answering out questions, we look forward to hearing more about you guys in the near future

Thanks for your time guys

Thanks to Nokia & 1000heads for setting this up...

yes, thanks.

@Jeff thanks! I'll share the peir-info address.

Thanks to all.

Yes, thanks everyone for joining in!

Thanks to all of you for this highly informative session.

lool @ vaibhav

thanks guys !

thanks for the invite, good luck with PEIR

thanks!

thank you to everyone for the Q&A.  Thanks to WOMWorld for the invite, thanks to the people who took time out to chat with us today and thanks to everyone for your great questions.... there is a lot to think about with all the information that came out of today

thanks everyone!

Have a lovely day / afternoon / evening / night depending on where you are in the world, and thanks again for coming along - until next time...

Until next time!

Thanks for the useful Q&A and looking forward to using PEIR.

Thanks you for your detailed answers