(I nabbed the source code off their site to embed this below, you can also view it in full screen on Flickr here)

I’m not sure how I feel about this fan art. On the one hand, her stark, black ink dominated panels are associated with Iran for many people after the success of her novels (Persepolis, Persepolis 2, Embroderies) and film (called Persepolis and covering the content of 1 and 2). And it worked for attention, getting Boing Boing coverage.

But they used her characters, which are her family and herself as a child, to portray a modern story that is directly related to her own work. She’s still living in Paris and producing, so it seems a bit like beating her to the punch. My searches didn’t turn up any response from her.

Ok, so the image is not the snazziest thing you’ve ever seen, but I don’t even have Photoshop on this computer at work, so I made this with a program called Pixelmator, which is free and has all the basic gadgets and gizmos as Photoshop.

For our July newsletter I wanted to create fun, original content, because we’ve really been lacking in that lately. I’ve been so busy with the research and writing of the 2010 books (6! Portland, Seattle, Twin Cities, Berkeley/Oakland…and new this year Silicon Valley and Denver!) that I’ve had little time to write and create new pieces. It was high time for some original editorial content.

Social pressure is a big motivator, we know this, and much of that is self imposed based on observation. In Portland, a prime example is called the Yellow Bin Effect. When bright yellow recycling bins were introduced, people started using them more. Then additional people started using them, and as more people saw them on the curb, that made them recycle more, too. Everybody’s doing it, keeping up with the Jones, eco-guilt, etc, whatever combination it was, it worked.

Now Portland has one of the highest recycling rates in the nation. They’ve even upgraded the yellow bins to large blue roll bins, we’re that good at recycling. You see similar influencing with reusable shopping totes. How much of a scarlet letter is the plastic bag for a certain set?

But not all beacons of green living are going to be curbside and fluorescent. Many of the serious carbon footprint reducing improvements, like increased home insulation, are things you’ll only hear about when the homeowner invites you over for dinner.  So I did a small experiment, and set out with my bike and camera to survey the SE neighborhood for these items:

• Solar panels (photovoltaic or hot water)
• Eco roof
• Community garden
• Rain barrel
• Clothing line
• Compost bin
• Home vegetable garden
• Chicken coop

To my total surprise, the solar panels were the easiest, at a home just around the block. Now, I must pass that house weekly, and I’ve never once looked up and noticed their solar panels. They also had a rain barrel, the only one I saw, but I would have needed to climb into their yard to get the shot. Even with the big PACE flag on the door, I didn’t want to test their hospitality. Finding a community garden was a snap, and it was also gorgeous to photograph. All that lushness!

I snuck some raspberries too. A clothesline was the only thing I never encountered.

It was a good activity for learning about my neighborhood, mostly because it’s not as clearly eco savvy as I expected. So, I created this scavenger hunt for our readers, but the twist is that it also incorporates submitting the photos to our Flickr sustainable living pools for each city. Initially I created those thinking they would take off, but people are reluctant to submit pictures, and I’m struggling with why. They’re happy to approve pictures I request to join the pool though, so I’m plugging away at that.

For fun, I added these scavenge items:

• The coolest bike
• Public art that’s lesser known
• A photo from inside a form of mass transit
• Greywater system

I admit I was particularly pleased with myself for thinking of the transit photo from the inside. And good luck on the greywater system. It’s legal here and many places, but the Office of Sustainable Development has done like, one case study.

Photosharing is such an underutilized social media tool. There’s lots of opportunity there for presenting information about lifestyles through photos, and yet it’s pretty much untouched by all the big green media companies. One of my primary goals is to combine Flickr photos with green living tips, to make us stand out and also because I can’t read one more paragraph about the merits of composting. They’re all the same. And I write these things. But show me a set of five different types of compost bins, and I’ll be curious. Show me five in my neighborhood and I might be compelled to get one.

We’re still working on prizes, but the scavenger hunt will appear in the next newsletter. Would you do it? Can you name any of these things near you now? I’m not sure how much to request of people as far as tagging goes. The city for sure, and the neighborhood seems like a good idea, but is that asking too much?

One page each of sketchbooks from group members. Makes me want to go home and draw. Pretty Sketchy. From this post, via swissmiss.

By the looks of it, they throw amazing weddings with fantastic party favors. All photos: Sapex. Each photo is linked so you can check out the rest of the party. I love Flickr!

SWSW Interactive 2009, in Sketchnotes on Flickr. The blog is here.

Flickr is one of the most underutilized web 2.0 sites out there. While right now it’s mostly limited to photos, I see it really taking off with written, detailed information like this. Beyond images, it allows for visually interesting ways of relaying information in text. This is bound to be used by marketing soon, but on the creative side what I’m really hoping for is narrative.

Evolving news stories could be told in the form of Flickr sets with images on some slides, notes on the next. Creative stories could be told collectively, with image pools serving as a common source. From there I’d like to see people use image and text from Flickr to create and pass projects, like in an exquisite corpse.

Tags are almost a form of communal storytelling, a way of linking individual information between events and people. But they’re limited by their greatest strength, being user created. There’s too many variations, too many mispellings, to find and follow threads of information between sources. But limiting users to a set number of tags could limit conversation to those topics. What do to?