links for 2008-04-30

• Twitter and real life (AKA: Why I don't use Twitter)
  Laurent Haug (and originally Kara Swisher) on early adopters tools and media vs mass tools and media: "the intense obsession with the hottest new services like Twitter and FriendFeed, in the echo chamber of Silicon Valley, and no one else cares yet".
  (tags: twitter facebook interesting)
• Why Bother?
  Great essay by Michael Pollan in the NYT Magazine on the immense disproportion between the magnitude of the climate change problem and the apparent inconsequence of individual "solutions" (change light bulbs etc), and why we must act anyway.
  (tags: climatechange sustainability mustread)
• Open access to scientific research
  In an historic vote, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard moved to make the articles that its members publish in scholarly journals freely available to anyone online. (Thx Susan for the link)
  (tags: Harvard openaccess research science)
• Cool Personal Footprint Calculator
  The Global Footprint Network has put a new calculator on their website. For now it only covers the US and Australia, but more countries will be added. Push the button on top right to make the calculator fill the screen.
  (tags: environment sustainability footprint footprintnetwork)
• LIFT Asia conference topics announced
  LIFT Asia will take place in South Korea 4-6 Sept 2008. Themes: Beyond the Web we know; Networked cities; Near future; Virtual money; Green tech; and more. Registrations will open soon.
  (tags: LIFTconference)