It’s been too long between posts, so I thought I’d pop in a few words. (Posting has been on the backburner with the million things I have to get done as well as the broken A/C in the house this week, going on day 4 of 90+ heat with no relief!)
Yesterday was the staff retreat for the agency I work at. This year we had a bit of fun with social media at the Indianapolis zoo. Instead of a traditional scavenger hunt, we had our resident pregnant lady sending us tweets for clues from back at the Riverhouse (she couldn’t do the walking, so she got the joy of being home base). The team leaders each were subscribed to her (protected) feed, and as they got clues remotely the teams were to take photos to match the clue and then upload them to flickr. All in all it was a very fun experience.
At the end of the day, my colleague working home base commented that it was fun to be back at control because she got to see what was happening in next-to-real-time as we uploaded and tagged our photos. She knew where we were and what we were doing, and got to watch the search unfold as we completed it. While I’m sure the scavenger hunt idea using social media isn’t new by any means, I think it serves as a great example of how social media can be used.
For instance, suppose you have multiple reporters in who agree to set up a single flickr account and then individually post to sets. Now you get to watch the story unfold from three different angles as it happens, and something that would otherwise be missed by a lack of personell or cooperation can be caught. Or maybe you’re lost and need help. You can send out images of where you are and can get immediate feedback if anyone can identify the landmarks. It’s very, very powerful when used creatively.
Dining Out for Life
No, it’s not one of those charmingly witty titles I know you all love and adore (right?)
No, this is something actually reasonably important, especially if you live in or around Indianapolis (although it applies to other cities who are participating). On Thursday, April 30th, Indy will host it’s 15th Annual Dining Out for Life. Loads of area restaurants will be donating a portion of their lunch and dinner bills to the Damien Center and hundreds of people living with HIV & AIDS in our area. These restaurants will be donating 25%-50% of your bill for a great cause. Afterwords, they are hosting the first “After Party” at forty five degrees to celebrate and announce who raised the most money.
This event is part of a large number of events over the next couple of weeks including the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on Saturday (downtown) and Relay for Life on Friday (at Ball State) as well as the Extreme Food Drive and Extreme Home Makeover the last couple of weeks. Indy is a beautiful, generous city and this is your chance to take part in another community building effort.
And, if the cause doesn’t drive you, perhaps some of the great locations will. My favorites on the participating list include Cafe Patachou, Adobo Grill and the Palomino. For a full list of restaurants and more details on the event, visit http://www.diningoutforlife.com/Indianapolis
Measuring Accuracy in the Weather
Living in Indianapolis, I’d be willing to say that we have some of the most unusual, unpredictable weather patterns around. We seem to sit within the 50 mile gap that the jet stream likes to ride, sometimes it goes just above, sometimes just a bit below. Whichever it chooses, however, we see dramatically different weather that you can expect within 25 miles north or south.
To illustrate my point, I look back to college. I went to Anderson University, which is within that range north of Indianapolis (It’s 26 miles from Indy, but not 26 straight north) Junior year we got between 6 and 8 inches of snow, while my parents got rain in Indy. The year before, I enjoyed a rainy Christmas in Indy, and then returned to a blacked-out Anderson that had the ice storm of the century. And then there are other occasions where we just barely get hit by really severe weather. It’s like it always goes just far enough to hit Indy, while sparing all of the southward areas.
Lately, however, the weathermen in the local area have gotten a bit…. willy-nilly. To say the least. We were supposed to get 1-3 inches of snow in the metro area on Monday. Well, it passed with a little bit of rain and a couple of very light flurries, but Tuesday was a sure thing. Okay, maybe Tuesday night. Well, let’s go for Wednesday. Yes, that’s it! And here we are after days of predicting accumulating snow and we have about half an inch (which is apparently a lot for Indianapolis drivers…. it took me an hour to make a 25 minute drive this morning)
So, in honor of our local weathermen, I’m providing a chance for them to redeem our trust and for the rest of us to enjoy a statistical show. For the next week I’m going to find and measure the accuracy of the weather reports put out today, and find out just how accurate the weather really is. For the test I’ll be keeping an eye on WTHR, WISH, FOX59, and the WeatherChannel as well as my Mac Dashboard reading. Maybe if I have time and you get lucky I’ll make it an interactive example!
And since this is a design blog, take note of how dramatically different they all render their online weather reports. I’ll write next about that, but I wanted to do the accuracy check first since it will take time and commitment to work on. And, for good measure, scroll to the bottom for a comparison chart of their predictions, it’s amusing.
For today, however, here are the forecasts:
WTHR
WISH
FOX 59
WeatherChannel
Dashboard
