In the Public Lab community newsletter this week, make sure to take advantage of back to school discounts on kits, check out the new MapKnitter annotations and join Public Labbers in Vermont, New York and Louisiana during upcoming events. Enjoy!

Announcements

MapKnitter Annotations: first live release! The first pre-beta of the new MapKnitter interface is live. Try it out at test.publiclab.org:3000. Thanks to justinmanley for his work during Google Summer of Code!

Now through September 30th, take advantage of the Back to School sale on all Public Lab kits! Enter discount code ###BACK2SCHOOL at checkout for a 20% discount.

Upcoming events

Join Public Labbers in Vermont for the annual LEAFFEST gathering September 13 and 14. Camp, cook and work on open science projects! Here’s an update from event organizer Chris Fastie: http://publiclab.org/notes/cfastie/09-04-2014/the-leaffest-line

On September 18th, join grassroots mappers in New Orleans to work on mapping techniques and create mapping rigs for upcoming Fall projects: http://publiclab.org/notes/stevie/08-26-2014/new-orleans-training-event

NYC World Maker Faire September 20-21. Join us for meeting fantastic teachers, technologists, and activists from all over! Join the thread and sign up in the schedule.

The Fall Public Lab Barnraising will be November 14-16 in Cocodrie, LA. Sign up today!

New and ongoing projects

Read an update from Indonesian partners on the DustDuino project around creating a mobile sensor: http://publiclab.org/notes/Willie/09-02-2014/testing-the-mobile-dustduino

Public Lab Organizer, Cindy Regalado, led a family oriented kite mapping workshop in the United Kingdom. Read her notes and reflections on the workshop structure here.

Mathew posted work related to testing oil fluorescence using gelatin caps: http://publiclab.org/notes/mathew/09-05-2014/using-gelatin-caps-for-oil-fluorescence

Testing out embedding Google Maps on PublicLab.org in preparation for making a collaborative map of water conductivity with journalism students: http://publiclab.org/notes/kanarinka/09-06-2014/testing-google-maps-embed

Research Note highlights

• RamanPi - the 3D printable Raspberry Pi raman spectrometer (posted by FlatCat)
• Soap bubble mapping in Prospect Park (posted by Eymund)
• Attaching soil moisture to the PhotosynQ platform (posted by gbathree)
• Setting up MapKnitter (posted by justinmanley)
• Comparing #2007 vs #74 (posted by fliperbaker)
• Getting a high altitude balloon back (posted by mathew)
• Water quality testing with a robot in the Gowanus Canal (posted by jeff)
• North Brooklyn Boat Club reporting increased oil sightings (posted by liz)
• [reference] Redfish report on South Shore Lake Pontchartrain (posted by eustatic)
• Bean variety trials in North Dakota (posted by gbathree)
• [reference] West Bay USGS aerial photography for land change analysis (posted by eustatic)
• Optimal white balance tentative (posted by fliperbaker)

Public Lab in the media

Odyssey Magazine ran a piece on balloon mapping geared towards kids: http://publiclab.org/notes/warren/09-03-2014/odyssey-magazine-piece-on-balloon-mapping

Eymund Diegel was featured for his work at the Gowanus Canal in the New York Times and Vice.

If anything was missed, please post a research note or send a message to the list. Have a great week everyone!

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