This week in the Public Lab community newsletter, check out upcoming events in Philadelphia, NYC, New Orleans, Menomonie (Wisconsin) and read about work Organizers are doing around the Alberta tar sands and on the Coqui water monitoring tool. Enjoy!

Announcements

The Public Lab nonprofit is happy to announce two years of funding from Open Society Foundations to support the launch of our Data Advocacy initiative.

Public Lab’s Homebrew Oil Testing Kit is a semi-finalist in Engadget’s Insert Coin competition: http://insertcoin.engadget.com/

Upcoming events

As part of The Hacktory’s fall workshop series, Sean McGinnis will be leading a workshop (in Philadelphia) on October 18th on the basics of balloon, kite and pole mapping and using Raspberry Pi as a sensor base while mapping.

Reserve your space today for the Decolonized Skies workshop at Apexart in NYC on October 18th: http://publiclab.org/notes/liz/10-12-2014/decolonized-skies-at-apexart

Join Public Lab Organizers for a mapping trip to Dead Horse Bay in Brooklyn this Sunday, October 19th: http://publiclab.org/notes/bronwen/10-16-2014/last-minute-dead-horse-bay-expedition

Thursday evening, October 23rd in New Orleans, participate in a map stitching session at Propeller using images collected during the recent Urban Restoration Mapping Blitz. Email stevie@publiclab.org for more information.

Join Public Labbers in Menomonie, Wisconsin for DustHack on October 27th to brainstorm techniques for dust sensing: http://publiclab.org/notes/stevie/10-17-2014/dusthack-event-menomonie-wisconsin

During the International Conference of Crisis Mappers in NYC, November 6-9, join Public Lab for two workshops: http://publiclab.org/notes/liz/10-12-2014/public-lab-workshops-at-international-conference-of-crisis-mappers

The Fall Public Lab Barnraising will be November 14-16 in Cocodrie, LA. Save the date and sign up today! http://publiclab.org/wiki/barnraising

Mark your calendar for the next Toolshed raising Saturday, December 6 at Parts and Crafts in Somerville, MA, featuring short presentations, open working time, and workshops on Public Lab projects and anything related. RSVP here: http://publiclab.org/notes/Hudonnoodles/10-10-2014/toolshed-raising-on-saturday-december-6

New and ongoing projects

Check out Public Lab organizer Ann Chen’s first blog post on National Geographic about her mapping/documentary research project on the Albertan oil sands and pipelines.

Write up from GeraldMC on mapping during the Urban Restoration Mapping Blitz in New Orleans: http://publiclab.org/notes/geraldmc/10-13-2014/urban-restoration-mapping-trip-bayou-bienvenue-wetland-triangle

Hot off the press, Don Blair has posted a couple notes on the Coqui water monitoring tool progress: http://publiclab.org/tag/coqui

Visualizing Riffle-ito data from Lily Bui: http://publiclab.org/notes/lilybui/10-16-2014/visualizing-riffle-ito-data

Check out a concept for “Pollution-to-Solution” by epongrat in Massachusetts: http://publiclab.org/notes/epongrat/10-14-2014/research-note-1-10-14-14

Read the latest on the Homebrew Oil Testing Kit and what’s next for the project: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/publiclab/the-homebrew-oil-testing-kit/posts/1020256

Research Note highlights

• Coqui conductivity detector proves reliable during SoBe King Tide (posted by mastfiubbc)
• Quantifying reflector brightness assistance (posted by warren)

Hot topic on the mailing lists

Benjamin Sugar’s been replicating and troubleshooting his version of the Homebrew Oil Testing Kit (http://publiclab.org/wiki/oil-testing-kit) in preparation for a presentation at Chicago Ideas Week: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/plots-spectrometry/OaWMDrunj3U

Public Lab in the media

Check out Public Lab Organizers, Michelle Schmitt and Sean McGinnis at Ignite Philly: http://publiclab.org/notes/manetomapping/10-16-2014/ignite-philly-talk-on-balloon-mapping

If anything was missed please post a research note or email the lists. Have a great weekend everyone! Shannon

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