Conservation 101: the Compete to Conserve Blog

photo credit: pedroelnegro [ in love with dark side ]

Apple’s iPhone is the greatest invention ever.  Apple’s iPhone is destroying modern civilization as we know it. After reading an October 10, 2008, LA Times article about tech publisher Tim O’Reilly (he challenged web entrepreneurs and engineers to “get serious”), I started to think about my iPhone.

I’ve been waiting for its arrival since I started my first real job in 1995. I remember my first few years playing lawyer, going to court, scheduling future hearings, motions and trials – all with a paper calendar.  And then I would return to my office and input that very same information into some computer-based calendaring system. Even after I no longer had to calendar court hearings, my addiction to a paper-based system remained.

But this story really starts in 1988.

Music:  I love music. I remember how necessary it was to bring with me – 3,000 miles away from home – my entire music collection. I couldn’t imagine a night in Philadelphia without that one song, so important that I can no longer remember the name (that’s not entirely true, but the song’s identity has nothing to do with global sustainability). So twice a year, those CDs and cassettes (my only rule was I didn’t travel with vinyl) racked up thousands of membership miles.

Friends and Photos: I have always been good about keeping in touch with friends (lately, however, this category has also fallen into the “less is more” genre). I kept meticulous contact information on each and every friend from birth. When my paper phone book needed an upgrade, the transition from one paper version to another was cathartic and meticulous. Equally important was the ability to identify these friends through the photographs that, much like the music collection, traveled thousands of miles each year.

Phone Calls: Every once in a while, or as often as I was instructed, I’d call home.  Dorm phone, pay phone, friend’s phone, miscellaneous phone in the student area of the University Hospital – all served a vital part in facilitating the necessary communication with friends and family around the country.

Little by little, technology started to evolve, making some of these critical life elements much easier to manage. Personal computers started to collect and store information about my friends. The same PCs even provided a useful and semi-reliable basic calendaring system. Cell phones also made communication much easier, but in the early days they had little use but for making phone calls. In fact, the added features found in most antique cell phones were often ignored, making the smallest cell phone the most practical, even if reception was less than optimum.

While these changes in technology developed throughout college, I still had to pack up my entire music collection when I left for law school. Really, that music collection never left my side, staying with me through college and well into my professional career. Even with the introduction of MP3 players and digital storage devices for music, it just didn’t compare to a physical library of music.

And then one day everything changed. It started with the original iPhone. While quite functional, the phone’s storage was inadequate and could hardly host a fraction of the important music to which I needed immediate access at all times (naturally). After some time, finally Apple created the iPhone 3G.  Sure, its deployment was a total disaster, but at the end of the day (two or three software upgrades later) it may very well be the perfect device. The phone wirelessly syncs with Microsoft Exchange for contacts and calendar items. It can support up to 16 GB of storage. It really is the one-stop technological device I have yearned for my entire life.

So now I have it all:  my music; my contacts (updates sync wirelessly); my calendar (again, updates sync wirelessly); and a lifetime of photographs at my fingertips. I’ve returned all of my CDs to Amoeba Records. My photographs exist electronically. Basically, my life is complete, and more and more clutter-free each day.

There is, however, just one problem:  “Let Em Play.”  Let Em Play is a music entertainment application.  The program lets you choose from different locations and songs to combine up to six musicians simultaneously. There’s a drummer, a trumpeter, a bassist, a saxophonist, a pianist and a guitarist.  Usefulness aside, it’s really cool. Sure, it doesn’t help identify traffic within a 30 mile radius at the touch of a button, but I’m not cutting Let Em Play from my rotation anytime soon.

On the practical side again, it’s nice to be able to access Twitter, LinkdIn, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr and Tumblr from a solitary button on the iPhone. Somehow, though, I always get sucked into SpinArt, which is based on a favorite childhood craft.  When in “Spin Mode,” swipe your fingers across the canvas to spin at varying speeds.  Then switch back into paint mode (the multicolored splat button), and choose from a trio of brush sizes and color from the palette, then use your finger to splat some paint and watch the amazing patterns emerge.

Technology has the potential to advance society in ways we could never imagine, including but not limited to culture, social interaction, health care, education, compassion, and most importantly, sustainability. Tim O’Reilly questions if the current trend in technology, and iPhone applications in particular, are causing more harm than good. Noting that the “Web 2.0 generation has a reputation for indulgence and narcissism”, O’Reilly wants to inspire this generation to use technology for positive causes which can lead to an enormous impact on society, and not just virtual beer and milk applications on an iPhone.

That’s where we come in. Compete to Conserve is not going to promote (at least not officially) the entertaining but not-so-focused-on-global-sustainability advances in technology. I love my iPhone, and I love the senseless, mindless applications. But the effort to conserve energy and preserve natural resources comes from practical, mindful, realistic information that individuals, real individuals (and not the band from Let Em Play) can apply on a daily basis. Our website, using high-tech concepts and social networking at its finest, is designed to solve basic, low-tech problems. It’s hard to avoid making a statement sometimes, but at Compete to Conserve, we’d rather just make a difference. And today is Sunday. Don’t forget to take that blue garbage can outside if Monday is “collection” day in your neighborhood.

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