Come With Us - A Manifesto

What is Garbologie?

We want to create a world without waste. 

The Elite of a Connection Economy

The week has been a little frenetic, and I've missed a couple of posts here. It is to be expected with various other deadlines looming. But they are now resolved.

One thing that I did a week ago was write a post directly into my Google+ stream. I wanted to see how it would go, see if it might attract any attention. As it turns out, it got some nice attention (for me) being +1'd some 30 times, reshared 9 times and, most importantly, attracting some really interesting discussion that traversed fantastic terrain.

What I also learned is that Google+ posts have a habit of streaming by and being lost after a few hours or a day. If it isn't picked up as it rolls by, it won't be picked up. Nobody is likely to stumble upon the post now unless they were really trawling or did some unusual search. The lesson is that meaty posts don't belong in Google+, not unless you have an army of fans who hang after your every word and will spread the gospel to the corners of the earth.

So, for the sake of posterity, for the sake of sharing my thinking about the world in general, I will repeat the post here. It is unchanged (except spelling and to change the picture which I disliked almost immediately after it was posted and could no longer change). In the future I would love to explore some of the discussions that erupted from the post, but that would make this FAR too long.

The long tail of mediocrity. Source:  Robyn O'Neil

Waste in Space

Space is extreme, and the problems it presents require extreme solutions. These solutions are often translated into application on Earth.

In the case of waste, space travel confronts the particularly interesting dynamic that a spaceship's ecosystem is so small, so extreme. The ecosystem makes the saying "there is no away" immediately and always apparent.

Luna 24 site on moon, about 5,800 kg

To date, space exploration has either dealt with waste by leaving stuff where it finished up (hence 170 tonnes of artificial objects that have been left on the moon, and an estimated 5,500 tonnes of space debris)

NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are both supporting significant research to do better.

Garbologie Unveiled

Today was a good day.

Have you ever played Grand Theft Auto San Andreas? Among many, many fine tracks, there is a great track that I hear when I'm on song: It Was a Good Day, by Ice Cube (and, err, be careful listening if you're easily offended).

That was me today.

I met with a potentially significant customer. I refined the business model. And the Garbologie brand was unveiled.

Should we target people to fix litter?

Today sees another guest post from Alex Serpo, editor for Inside Waste published by the Business Environment Network, Australia's leading waste journal.

As I did with Alex's last post "Reality stranger than fiction", I will present this unedited other than resolving a couple of hyperlinks. I will then offer a rounding out comment.

Litter at Cottesloe Beach, Western Australia. Source WA Today