This week in the Public Lab community newsletter (hang in there folks, it's a long one!), we’re happy to introduce you to our new team members, invite you to Virtual Contamination Meet-ups and the June tool Barnraising, as well as give you updates on projects from monitoring sand frac mining to the Open Water project. Enjoy!

Announcements

Welcome to our new Public Lab nonprofit team members, Stevie Lewis and Molly Danielsson! Stevie is joining us as Outreach Manager and will be based in New Orleans. Molly joins us as Layout Editor based in Portland. Read more about Stevie and Molly on our team page: http://publiclab.org/wiki/plots-staff.

We extended the deadline for the Civic Kits Initiative Manager position. If you’re interested in working with our community design teams to bring small runs of kits to researchers and large kit runs to market, please apply by May 2nd.

We’re happy to announce a new project on Indoor Air Quality monitoring in manufactured housing with generous support from the Passport Foundation.

We’ll be organizing a series of Virtual Contamination Meet-ups, the first series focused on water contaminants. We’ll be announcing dates and times tomorrow. If you aren’t on the water monitoring list and would like to participate, you can contact stevie@publiclab.org for more information.

Upcoming events

We’re happy to announce our first, tool focused Spring Barnraising! It will be held over the course of three days in Massachusetts. Please visit this page for more information: http://publiclab.org/wiki/potential-2014-northeast-tool-focused-barnraising

Tomorrow, April 28th in Richmond, California, join Public Lab and the Earth Journalism Network for a Kite Mapping workshop: http://publiclab.org/notes/Willie/04-24-2014/earth-journalism-network-kite-mapping-workshop

On Tuesday, April 29th, join Public Lab and El Puente for mapping community gardens in Williamsburg, Brooklyn: http://publiclab.org/notes/AnushaV/04-22-2014/hope-in-bloom-in-the-southside-of-williamsburg

Join the Flushing Bay (NYC) Friends and Family Day on May 10th! http://publiclab.org/notes/carmelfromson/04-25-2014/invitation-to-friends-and-family-day-flushing-bay-may-10

New and ongoing projects

A number of notes have been posted on the Barataria Bay, Louisiana mapping project: http://publiclab.org/notes/eustatic/04-20-2014/barataria-2014-february-27th, http://publiclab.org/notes/eustatic/04-20-2014/barataria-2014-march-21st, http://publiclab.org/notes/eustatic/04-20-2014/barataria-2014-april-19th-southwings-10-sites.

The Open Water Project team posted a FAQ so that you can get involved! http://publiclab.org/notes/kanarinka/04-15-2014/the-open-water-project-faq

Check out a new pesticide data monitoring website: http://publiclab.org/notes/silverhammer/04-14-2014/pesticide-monitoring-data

An update on the sand frac mining project with research from Mathew Lippincott on silica and particulate sensing: http://publiclab.org/notes/mathew/04-22-2014/frac-sand-mining , http://publiclab.org/wiki/particle-sensing , http://publiclab.org/wiki/silica .

View successful Thermal Fishing Bob maps: http://publiclab.org/notes/Sara/04-23-2014/successful-thermal-fishing-bob-maps

Check out a series of research notes from Chris Fastie on: Mobius and NIR, Mobius filter-o-matic, Mobius IR conversion, Mobius NDVI, and Mobius white balance.

Don Blair has posted a number of notes on the Open-Lux work that he is doing: Open-Lux Rev-F: “Neo-Pixel” Fiesta, Full circle and Open-Lux Rev-Q.

Thermal Flashlight REVA reading changes over distance: http://publiclab.org/notes/sekjal/04-15-2014/thermal-flashlight-reva-reading-changes-over-distance

And a follow-up on the above note, “Meter stick REVA: Lights, buzzers, particulate matter, oh my!” http://publiclab.org/notes/donblair/04-23-2014/meter-stick-reva-lights-buzzers-particulate-matter-oh-my

A note from Pat Coyle on the Cal Poly Pole Aerial Photography mapping for India project: http://publiclab.org/notes/patcoyle/04-21-2014/cal-poly-ewb-pap-pole-aerial-photography-mapping-for-india-project

An update on the Delta St. John (Louisiana) restoration site plantings: http://publiclab.org/notes/eustatic/04-23-2014/delta-st-john-continued-plantings

Research Note highlights

• New Kap n’ Hook (posted by cfastie)
• RIFFLE: conductivity and adhesive updates (posted by donblair)
• Low cost non-destructive whole fruit analysis (posted by Ethan)
• Cool It (posted by baskotasusan)
• Pierre’s plastic picavet (posted by cfastie)
• Speck particle monitor (posted by chrisbartley)
• RIFFLE: confronting confusing corrosion conundrums (posted by donblair)
• WheeTrometer 2.0 (posted by bhickman)
• NIR and white balance (posted by cfastie)

Public Lab in the media

Infragram was featured in the April 2014 print version of Wired, get yours today!

If anything was missed, please email the list or post a research note. Have a great week everyone! Shannon

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