Thursday November 6

Todd finalized the website today. It looks very professional.

Now, we will all be able to go over it and add any last minute suggestions in class on Friday.

Update: Friday morning, there were already several suggestions for Todd only on Facebook. Claire Rock messaged everyone telling them to get on and look and send suggestions to either Todd's email or to post it on the Facebook page.

Some examples of the communication:

Kate Brearley wroteat 8:38am
I think it's overwhelming to have huge paragraphs of info on the web...I am on the team and I don't feel like reading it- what if we put all the info on a tab that ISNT the front page of the website to entice people to look around more instead of leave?Most importantly: I think the "How Trashcot Mascot Works" should be easy to find, follow, and understand. With neither video explaining the process of the competition, it should be in large font and presented CLEARLY. Thoughts??
Report

Claire Rock wroteat 8:15am
the tab for the extra info on the homepage could read: "The Process" ???
Write on Claire's Wall - Report

Claire Rock wroteat 8:02am
hey todd! here are a few things i was thinking could be small improvements:-i agree with you that the mission statement should be alone on the homepage. I also think on the homepage could be our group number and blog site link? also, one of the pictures of the dogs made out of recyclables could look like it's on the jumbotron (like you did with the video). and above the picture it could say something like "This week's Trashcot Mascot winner from the University of Georgia.."-with the pictures link, i think that not only should the pictures be the same size but maybe you could separate pictures on top with the headline "Tailgate Recyclables" and some underneath that have the headline "Creative Ways to Recycle...Get Inspired!" or something like that. That way there are two groups of pictures scrolling. -Could you make all of the type a little bit bigger? And separate the links a little bit on the links page?-On the contacts page I think it should say "Contact Group 6"

Wednesday, November 5

Dustin Harper went ahead and fixed all the links for the research group so they would not have to go through the confusion of splitting them up. He put all of the links into categories, got rid of some links that didn't work or were irrelevant, and added some new ones. He also did the title of the webpage, the purpose, and a link for each one so it is more clear and makes sense. He wrote about 2 paragraphs at the top to explain what the links are for and why they are important.

Greta Barker is putting together some flyers and promotional stuff to put in the presentation to illustrate the type of advertising we would use. She also proposed that we find a way to incorporate recent articles in the Red & Black about UGA students not cleaning up at their tailgates in Florida, and remembers UGA tailgaters being in the paper for being messy is not a one-time incident. We could use these articles as part of our reason why we need this program, because obviously some people aren't recycling or even picking up after themselves.

After class, the presentation group compiled a lot of good information for the front page of the Web site. Here is what they came up with:

Mission Statement: College students are especially wasteful! In an effort to decrease pollution and increase awareness about the ease of recycling, Trashcot Mascot begins by showing students how to start small on college campuses and still have a large, positive effect on the environment. Tailgating is a fun, friendly atmosphere where recycling can foster a world of change. Trashcot Mascot allows college universities to interactively engage in a national competition aimed at reducing the negative environmental impacts of wasteful behavior by encouraging creative recycling habits, starting at tailgates. How Trashcot Mascot Works:-The process of the competition begins by students sending in a picture text (MMS) or video from their mobile phones to Trashcot Mascot at 55561 showing how they creatively recycled at their tailgate. -Each week, the top 5 pictures or videos from each college or university will be displayed on the jumbotron at the start of the football game (or basketball game if they do not have a football team) after a promo video is shown. -Attendees of the game will be able to text their vote for the most creative recycling display during the first half of the game. -In an extra effort to encourage recycling, those fans who text in a vote during the first half of the game will receive a return text explaining how they can vote for their school's winner in the nationwide contest on ESPN.com. Those fans will also receive a return text with a recycling "fun fact."-At halftime, the campus-wide winner of the contest will be announced.-Each week, the winners from each school will get prizes in addition to being featured on the ESPN website in addition to the Trashcot Mascot website to then be voted on nationwide. -All of the nationwide winners from each week during the season will be compiled at the end of the year. After a final text vote, the winner of the most creative way to recycle during a tailgate captured by photo or Is there anyone else doing it?At the University of Georgia, groups such as the GoGreen Alliance and the UGA Odum School of Ecology's Ecology Club have implemented programs in an effort to increase recycling on campus; however, as far as we know, no organization has taken recycling to a competitive level nationally. Also, Trashcot Mascot is different in that we are specifically targeting college students, a large demographic that will continue to recycle for years to come, teaching their children to recycle as well. Does this system depend on acceptance?Very much so. We will get people to adopt by spreading the word across campuses through advertising and PR volunteers in the organization, showing sponsored promotional videos at the beginning of the season and at the start of each football game explaining our organization and our purpose, and through the ESPN website (which would have a link to our website). The video provides recycling tips to let people know how they can personally help the cause. Cost/dollar figures:-Txt Messaging: 1) There are two different companies that cater to what we are trying to accomplish with communication via text messaging. These companies are SmartSMS ™ and FireText. SmartSMS ™ works on all the cell phone service providers to reach the greastest number of people who enjoy participating in contests and PROMOTIONS. They typically cost less than a dollar per message, and they support fundraising and community service projects. 2) The FireText Text Message Voting System is designed for sponsorship and also to make money for the organization. The majority of customers make a large profit using FireText at their events. The video screen templates can be customized with the organization's and the sponsor's logos. In addition, FireText features live results displayed on the screens which will give the organization more Advertising Real-Estate for sponsors. Also each text message sent from the FireText system can have a sponsor name written along the bottom allowing for further exposure of your paying sponsors.-Advertising: This will depend on sponsorship! What it will take to get Trashcot Mascot going:-The support of ESPN, College Game Day, or local stations' support-College or university athletic programs to support putting the video on the jumbotrons at the beginning of the game and at half time in addition displaying the winning photos and encouraging texting. -Incentives for winners: BCS giving two tickets to the national championship, sponsors offering hotel accommodations, local sponsors giving away various items. -A volunteer-based advertising or PR committee within the colleges and universities to get the word out about the competition Challenges:-Awareness: college/university websites, press releases, college newspapers, advertising-Sponsorship to get onto the jumbotron What's the point? Trashcot Mascot gets college students (and family and friends) to better our environment by encouraging having fun while recycling. This system uses incentives to get students excited about recycling as well as facts to shock people into realizing how important a part they can play personally in helping the environment.

The Past Two Weeks: Presentation Group

The presentation group has been working hard to compile a powerpoint and a compelling presentation to deliver to the class. They have met several times and have been collecting pictures and graphics to use on the display.
On Wednesday, October 15, they met to discuss the presentation itself. They decided it would be creative to set up a mock tailgate with recyclable items, food, and more. Also, for the one page handout, the presentation group decided that each member of the group would buy a 12 pack of canned drinks. Before the presentation, we would tape our handout to them on recycled paper and give a can to each member of our class. The can would have a fact about how recycling one can has such a huge impact (we are currently looking for information so we can list just how big of an impact recycling one can makes, or maybe how big of an impact it would make if each person in the class recycled their can). The paper will also describe what Trashcot Mascot is and give our website and group number. The presentation group pitched this idea to the rest of the group at the next in-class group meeting, and everyone loved it. We all decided to buy our own cans and print out the text for each can on our own. Each person will be responsible for bringing 12 cans with the handout already taped to it on November 19.
On Monday, October 20, during the in-class meeting, the presentation group made the Trashcot Mascot promotional video outside of the SLC (aka the MLC). Kaitlin and Stephanie worked all week to get shots of athletes to put in the video. Blakely finalized the video: editing, cutting, and making the video run smoothly and in an interesting way.
On Wednesday October 29, the presentation group met and began building the powerpoint. They used the information they had compiled in response to Dr. Shamp's questions as the backbone of the presentation. After actually working with the powerpoint, they were able to pinpoint certain areas of research that were still missing. They forwarded these questions (which were mostly financial and sponsor questions) to the research group, who completed the research that next Monday.

In the class meeting today, after spending time analyzing what was needed for the Web site, the presentation group was left in charge of developing text for the home page that will give readers more information about our program.

The Past Two Weeks: Website Group

Now armed with all of the information from the presentation and the resarch groups, members of the Web site group have been busy developing the site.
They have been communicating via Facebook to determine the best design and layout for a project such as Trashcot Mascot.
A template was finally perfected; it uses a pretty, green background that suits a site for a group dedicated to making the Earth more "green". They also decided which subpages to include: Home, Video, Facts, Pictures, Links, Contact Us. The Home page introduces and describes Trashcot Mascot by outlining the mission statement, how it works, the cost, the challenges, and the overall purpose. The Video page contains a link to a video made that illustrates UGA students recycling and is a resource for readers to learn more about what Trashcot Mascot really does. The Facts page provides dozens of interesting facts about recycling. The Pictures page is not yet finished, but the group plans on posting pictures of people recylcing in interesting ways, examples of what is acceptable to send in for the competition. The Links page contains hyperlinks to sixteen websites where readers can learn more about recycling. The Contact Us page lists each group member's name and contact information.
The web site group experienced some technical difficulties at first, but now have it under control. They had the URL posted to our Facegroup message board on Tuesday night so that the rest of the group members could have a chance to see it before the in-class meeting on Wednesday.
During the group meeting, members of the presentation & research groups gave suggestions on how to improve the site. We decided that more information was needed, more fonts, and more pictures. The website group took down all of the suggestions and are making improvements accordingly.
The research and presentation groups were given more assignments to help the website group acheive the goals we set out in class.
The website is on track to be completed before the deadline this Friday, November 7.

The Past Two Weeks: Research Group

For the past two weeks, we have been spending a lot more time in our individual focus groups. Each group (research, presentation, website) has been meeting throughout the month and working to complete their specific assignments.
Today, November 5, we had an in-class group meeting where we converged and discussed the progress made by each group and what lies ahead.

Here is what the Research Group has been working on:

Everyone was charged with researching recycling on the web, condensing the information they found, and then sending it to Geneva Whitmore, who would further condense all of information eliminating the redundancies, and then send to the presentation and website groups.

Here is what the research group came up with during that session:
Helpful Recycling Tips and Interesting Facts
When you smell a dump, what you actually smell is the paper in the dump!
More than 20,000,000 Hershey's Kisses are wrapped each day, using 133 square miles of tinfoil. All that foil is recyclable, but not many people realize it.
Results for 2007 Georgia Gameday Recycling by the pound: Oklahoma State 1,700, South Carolina 2,200, Western Carolina 1,300, Ole Miss 2,100, Troy 1,800, Auburn 3,500, Kentucky 1,500. (All results are from college gameday recycling during the 2007 Georgia football schedule.)
There was a 12% increase in amount of material recycled in Athens from the fiscal year of 2007 to the fiscal year of 2008.
UGA and the ACC Recycling Division have a strategic partnership to encourage recycling on campus during Gamedays. They have been doing this since 2005, they try to educate the public about recycling & collecting the recyclable materials.
The Athens government thinks recycling is important. They recently passed a policy for all ACC properties requiring that all events held by ACC or on ACC property must provide the opportunity for recycling.
Reuse your water bottles instead of throwing them away. Americans throw away 25,000,000 plastic beverage bottles every hour!
During the time it takes you to read this sentence, 50,000 12-ounce aluminum cans are made.
An aluminum can that is thrown away will still be a can 500 years from now!
If you had a 15-year-old tree and made it into paper grocery bags, you'd get about 700 of them. A supermarket could use all of them in under an hour! This means in one year, one supermarket goes through 60,500,000 paper bags! Imagine how many supermarkets there are in the U.S.!!!
A modern glass bottle would take 4000 years or more to decompose -- and even longer if it's in the landfill.
New Jersey has the highest recycling rate of all the states--56%!
The U.S. is the #1 trash-producing country in the world at 1,609 pounds per person per year. This means that 5% of the world's people generate 40% of the world's waste.
The US population discards each year 16,000,000,000 diapers, 1,600,000,000 pens, 2,000,000,000 razor blades, 220,000,000 car tires, and enough aluminum to rebuild the US commercial air fleet four times over.
Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct!
A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.
Each year, Americans throw away 25 billion Styrofoam cups.
We use over 80,000,000,000 aluminum soda cans every year.
A 60-watt light bulb can be run for over a day on the amount of energy saved by recycling 1 pound of steel. In one year in the United States, the recycling of steel saves enough energy to heat and light 18,000,000 homes!
Every month, we throw out enough glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper. All of these jars are recyclable!
Instead of throwing away plastic bags, use them as bin liners.
Re-use washed zip lock bags for sandwiches and snacks rather than using plastic wrap.
Wrapping paper, bows, ribbons, and boxes can be used to wrap someone else's presents.
Unneeded printouts can be cut and stapled to make notepads.
Rubber shoe soles can be recycled to make basketball courts and soccer fields.

The research group met again to answer several financial questions facing the project. They made phone calls to different organizations to see who might be interested in sponsoring a program such as ours. They also researched the plausability of sending mass texts to those who participate and found a couple of companies who might be able to help. The information was compiled and sent to the presentation group, who condensed the information for the powerpoint (you can find this information in a future presentation blog).

Here are some of the facts the group compiled during that meeting:

Costs of advertisements on ESPN's website vary from ad to ad based on content (image, video, or text) and placement. In addition, ESPN charges a minimum CPM (cost-per-thousand) bid for a placement-targeted ad and a minimum CPC (cost-per-click) bid. The median CPM cost is $.025 and the median CPC cost is $.01. These advertisements can link directly to your website. Deals are negotiable, but generally ESPN does not offer free ad space.
Average costs for advertising:
Newspapers – $1,300 per week for 2" x 2" adTelevision – $200,000 for one 30-second commercial (during prime-time)Direct Mail - $1,500 for 1,000 4x6 postcards (includes postage)Radio - $90 to $120 per week on a rotator (prices higher if time slots for ad are selective)Magazines - $1,200 to $5,000 per month or per issue (depends on ad size and demographics)Outdoor (billboard) - $3,000 to do artwork and install media on billboard; rates depend on impress level, ranges from $5,000 to $500,000 (the higher the qualify of the artwork and the larger the demographic group, the higher the price); minimum contract is 16 weeksOnline - $0.60 pay-per-click or $1,200 - $1,800 a month for aggressive campaigns (does not include search engine optimization) or $200 to $1,200 per year per banner ad on websites

At the group meeting today, the research group decided to elaborate on the links they provided. Group members think that each link should have a subhead so that readers will know what they are clicking on, so the researchers are dividing up the links and coming up with short one-liners to describe the website.

Week of October 13th-17th

The presentation group met after class on Friday to take pictures.
Claire Rock sent out an email on behalf of the presentation group outlining what they discussed and what they needed from the other groups. They had discussed the questions that Dr. Shamp posted on the powerpoint, and Claire typed up the answers the presentation group came up with.

The research group was asked to call ESPN, UGA Athletics and other associations to talk about funding and ask if they would sponsor a program like ours. They were also asked to research other costs and where to get equipment.
Both the research and website groups were asked to take at least five pictures at the UGA Homecoming game of people recycling in creative ways. These pictures will go on the webpage and in the presentation to give people an idea of the types of pictures we are asking for in our competition.

We have an in-class meeting on Monday, and each group has various duties.
The research group was asked to go ahead and start researching the information stated above so the entire group can start discussion Monday.
The website group was asked to bring a laptop so the rest of the group can see how the site is progressing so far and can make suggestions.
The presentation group was told to wear green so they can make the video.

Other dates that have been set:
Sunday, October 26th: the presentation group is going to meet at Jittery Joe's in the SLC at 2 p.m. to begin working on the powerpoint.
Monday, October 27th: the research group needs to be finished with figuring out all of the costs.

Week of October 6th - 12th

The research group has compiled a bunch of data on recycling, and has passed the information along to the other groups so they can start working on their portion.

The presentation group met on Wednesday at 5:00 at Jittery Joes. They wanted to take pictures at this time to put on the website and the powerpoint, but it was raining all day. Instead, they discussed the questions Dr. Shamp posted on his powerpoint in class and began prepping themselves and each other for the presentation. They also discussed their plans for the future.

The website group is working on a general outline for the website. They now have some more information to go by since the research group has posted info. They are waiting for more pictures to come in so they can really figure out the design of the site. Several group members have already been taking photographs, and the website group is asking for anyone who has anything to contribute to please email them in.

We have been working in our individual groups a lot and will meet back up on October 20th during class to discuss how far we've come and what still lays before us.

Week of Sept 29th

Our group met on September 29th and discussed each group's progress.
The presentation group had composed a short film over the weekend at the Georgia/Alabama game. It featured students and fans recylcing and talking about how important it is. The presentation group showed it to the rest of the group, and everyone was very happy with it. Some of us were able to get pictures while tailgating, and the website group asked us to send them the pictures so they could begin designing pages.

The Website group had already started the main layout of the site, but can't do much more until the research is in.

The research group met on Sept 16th at Jittery Joe's at the SLC. Members of the group have also been doing research on their own for the past couple of weeks. We decided that the reseach should be in by Monday, October 6th. We are all emailing it to Geneva Whitmore, who will condense it to a shorter document for the presentation and website groups.

We hope to be able to start work on the website and presentation by the next scheduled group meeting in class on October 20th.

Aug 8-Sept 18th

On Aug 27th, our group met for the first time. We discussed possible topics and talked about each of our suggestions. Claire Rock made a Facebook group for us to communicate on. Throughout that week, members posted their ideas and commented on suggestions they liked or felt weren’t feasible. On the wall, we were able to narrow down the best three or four topics.

On Sept 8th our group met in class again. We discussed what had been posted to the Facebook wall and were able to find a topic we all agreed on. We tried to get it as specific as possible while in class, and decided to research the subject more on our own and discuss it over the Facebook wall.

On Sept 19th We divided our group into mini groups: presentation, website, and research. The research team was charged with coming up with pertinent info and compiling it for our presentation and website groups. The website group planned to get a general outline made up so it would be ready once the information was ready. The presentation group discussed what should be included in the presentation. One thing suggested was a short film showing people at Georgia tailgates recycling and talking about the importance of recycling. We also decided that we would all try to take pictures at the next tailgate (Alabama) so we could use these pictures on the website. We also decided to create an official blog to supplement the Facebook wall.

Blog for the Research Group

Hey Y'all!

I made this for the research group. This way you can keep in touch, and the rest of us can kind of see what you are working on so there can be a little more collaboration. You can place or find comments about the website part of the project here, just click Comments.

As of Sept 8th, that was

Duston

Danielle

Chris D.

Yousuf Ahmed

Whitney Skeeters

Geneva Whitmore (Team Leader)

Courtney Crosby

Adriana Jaar

Blog for the Website Group

Hey Y'all!

I made this for the website group. This way you can keep in touch, and the rest of us can kind of see what you are working on so there is some collaboration.  You can place or find comments about the website part of the project here, just click Comments.

As of Sept 8th, that was:

Todd Maher (Team Leader)

Sarah Chadwick

Lauren Mullins

Geneva Whitmore

Stephen Taylor

Greta Barker

Blog for the Presentation Group

Hey Y'all!

I made this blog for the presentation group, in case you need to post/discuss anything. You can place and find comments about the presentation part of the project here! (Just click on Comments)

As of Sept 8th, that was ...

Stephanie

Caitlin

Claire

Kiel

Blakely McKnight

Posts from the Research Group

For some reason, it is not letting me post links on the site right now, so if you want to access the links, check on the facebook group. I will try to upload the links again later.

Adriana Jaar wroteon Sep 10, 2008 at 8:43 AM
This is a very useful link... It points out how much energy you save as well as resources when you recycle certain materials. *link here*
Post #2
Geneva Whitmore wroteon Sep 11, 2008 at 12:29 PM
Thanks Adriana! I would just like to remind everyone of the meeting time and location for the research group next week at 6pm at jittery joes in the SLC.Again if anyone has any ideas that they would like to present please don't be a stranger to doing so.See you all next week!

Post #3
Geneva Whitmore wroteon Sep 11, 2008 at 1:21 PM
It would be a lot easier if we all had each others contact information. So here's my cell number 404-935-1021

Post #4
Adriana Jaar wroteon Sep 13, 2008 at 2:03 PM
Adriana : (706) 206 05 65Tuesday right?

Post #5
Danielle Kraselsky wroteon Sep 15, 2008 at 11:16 AM
danielle 678-571-0618

Post #6
Geneva Whitmore wroteon Sep 15, 2008 at 6:02 PM
Yeah we are all meeting at Jittery Joes in the SLC at 6pm on Tomorrow.See you there!

Post #7
Adriana Jaar wroteon Sep 16, 2008 at 3:39 PM
More sites .... *link here*

Facebook Wall Posts: Sept 3rd-16th

Whitney Skeeters wroteat 2:52pm on September 16th, 2008
OUR BLOG: trashcotmascot.blogspot.com

Kate Brearley wroteat 1:27pm on September 15th, 2008
Question: I wasn't at the last group meeting (last Monday) and was wondering if I can join the web design team. Objections? Is the web team going to meet before Friday...?

Lauren Mullins wroteat 8:32pm on September 9th, 2008
In case you didn't already notice, Dr. Shamp edited the calendar on WebCt. The next group meeting day got switched. Our next meeting time is on Friday the 19th.

Greta wroteat 11:03am on September 9th, 2008
This is Greta:I was just thinking that maybe before each video plays the video could be sponsored by some company and they could be like the following video is sponsored by whoever. I'm not really sure if this idea fits in but i just thought it might be a way to make money for somebody. i'm not sure though

Stephanie Friedrich wroteat 4:43pm on September 8th, 2008
Other Ideas to Include: - EPSN Gameday promotional video/advertisement- PSA's on college campuses to promote involvment- Large PR/Advertising involvment to get the word out about competition Feel free to post any more ideas of ways to incorporate the media!

Stephanie Friedrich wroteat 4:41pm on September 8th, 2008
Main Ideas for Project: - Trashcot Mascot - Change behavior of individuals to impact a greater good- Individuals/groups will take photos or videos of creative ways to recycle on their college campus- Pictures/videos will be sent into our website- These pictures/videos will be played on the big screen each Saturday during football season, fans will have the opportunity to text in their vote for which picture/video they think is the most creative (picture/video will be shown and voted on at the beginning of the game, with results reported at half time) - The winning picture/video will receive the campus prize and be entered into the national contest - Each college campus will submit their single winning picture/video to the website - People will have the opportunity to go online to the website and vote for a particular picture/video - One final winner will be selected nationally and rewarded some kind of prize

Stephanie Friedrich wroteat 4:36pm on September 8th, 2008
Hey! We went over alot today in class so I am going to type it up here: Groups: Our next in class group meeting is next Monday, September 15th, it would be great if the research team could meet sometime before that to get us all started. Other groups should try to meet atleast once in the next two weeks. Our project isn't due for a while, but as we all know, due dates sneak up fast... Presentation Group - StephanieCaitlinClaireKielBlakely McKnightWebsite: Todd Maher - Team Leader Sarah ChadwickLauren Mullins Geneva Whitmore Stephen TaylorGreta BarkerResearch: DustonDanielleChris D.Yousuf Ahmed Whitney SkeetersGeneva Whitmore - Team Leader Courtney CrosbyAdriana Jaar

Kiel Voight (University of Louisville) wroteat 2:09pm on September 8th, 2008
I do like the recylcing idea at the tailgate. but i also agree with what lauren said if we could dull it down a little bit maybe not inventing amaching but just using technology we already have it would make it easier. we could still use the telephone numbers and give awards away that would be a great idea. I think it would create a buzz around recycling and encourge people to do it more often.

Kate Brearley wroteat 12:19pm on September 8th, 2008
I have a terrible cold; not coming to class today. I would love to hear what y'all accomplish in the meeting today. And let me know my assignment! Thanks :)

Lauren Mullins wroteat 11:40am on September 8th, 2008
I like the tailgate recycling idea, but the can crushing machine seems like an complicated piece of machinary that we'd have to "invent." I don't know how in depth we wants us to go on the plausibility of the projects. I think that is something we could use but work with to make it less complex.

Danielle Kraselsky wroteat 2:01pm on September 5th, 2008
i like the tailgate recycling idea!

Kate Brearley wroteat 9:51am on September 5th, 2008
I've had another idea since our last meeting, too. If everyone's on board with the texting thing, then don't bother with this. But I was thinking on a smaller scale, how many coke/beer cans and water/beer bottles are thrown away during college campus tailgates. What if we designed a recycling system that gives rewards? I was envisioning something similar to a newspaper stand with a garbage bin attached to the bottom of it. You would open the door and place your beer/coke cans on the plate. The machine would crush them and send them into the bin. Every time you recycle something and close the door, you enter your telephone number on a touchpad. At the end of gameday, five numbers are chosen from all the numbers. There would be five rewards-- donated iPhones, per say. And five people would receive a text that they won the phone! There could be an advertising campaign for it with cool slogans and colorful posters. Just a thought... may be too complex.

Kate Brearley wroteat 9:43am on September 5th, 2008
I think we need to be careful about the voting text message idea. I like it in general because I don't feel like young people care/are informed about political issues. However, the danger would be finding an organization that can do an unbiased job at informing youth about issues. Politics in America via network news is targeted to boost audience ratings, hence are biased sources of info. Another thing that we should think about is that youth may get bothered by texts... I know that I don't want my cell phone to become public information so that I start getting "junk mail" coming via texts just as much as they crowd my inbox. Not dismissing the idea, I think it's a good one! Just some things to think about...

Greta wroteat 1:30pm on September 4th, 2008
This is Greta... I really liked the idea that people will be more in tune with local politics too... but do we need to have something that will make a profit for a company? And the only other thing is that maybe we can come up with something a little more innovative because obama already did the text message thing? i dont know what though.

Adriana Jaar wroteat 8:59pm on September 3rd, 2008
I really liked Stephanie's idea about rewarding if they visit websites after receiving the text mes. I think I would vote for the text mes. although I really like the one where u conserve resources by not using the plastic bottles and going online instead of buying an actual newspaper.

Stephanie Friedrich wroteat 8:02pm on September 3rd, 2008
I really like the political info text messaging idea. I think it is a great way for especially younger individuals to stay in-tune with national and local candidates. Many people won't take the time to read newspapers or articles regarding certain issues, but if they could get a direct response sent to their mobile phone explaining their specific quesiton, they would probably be more receptive to learn about particular views. I also think linking this to a website to engage the reader into further research and information about the candidates would be helpful. This system to also help voters learn where and when to vote as well as stay up to date with key debates and meetings in the political scene. If we could also think of some kind of reward system for participating that might enhance participation.

Geneva Whitmore wroteat 4:50pm on September 3rd, 2008
I also like the idea of the political info being received text message. I think that there would have to be a group within this group that just handles the research associated with the candidates on both the national and local front.I also like the idea that Lauren presented.

Blakely McKnight wroteat 1:52pm on September 3rd, 2008
I think the political information is the most creative. I think we could jump start it using the 2008 campaign and then continue it to cater to local people

Courtney Crosby wroteat 1:20pm on September 3rd, 2008
I think the political info text message idea sounds the best so far also. Maybe when new voters register to vote,they have to give their cell numbers, and when old voters go to vote, they have to give their numbers. So the texts could reach as many people as possible

Stephen Taylor wroteat 12:24pm on September 3rd, 2008
I like the political information via text. Maybe we could make it part of some sort of brief candidate information package that would be mandatory for newly registered voters.

Facebook Wall Posts: Sept 2nd-3rd

Whitney Skeeters wroteat 12:16pm on September 3rd, 2008
i wasn't there on group day and i had an idea but it isn't as good as the others on here, so I dont want to waste time, but I like the homeless gift card idea and the voter text ideas. Maybe we can scale them down a bit if they get too confusing and unworkable, but I think that the text idea is especially feasible and will bring a lot of good because the texts will reach out to the younger generations and get them involved in political issues. We should also have a website link attached to the bottom because we wouldn't be able to fit a lot of info on a small text.

Lauren Mullins wrote at 11:35am on September 3rd, 2008
I had another idea that I didn't share the other day. People usually have to pay a premium to upgrade their cell phones early. It is the price to pay to have the newest hottest phone. Cell companies make huge profits on early upgrade fees. If some of this money were to go to a worthwhile cause (like feeding children in Africa or whatever else), technology would be helping the world. So by being "techknowledgable" a person is not only fulfilling their need for technology but also helping someone in need. We could have a particular cell phone company that pioneers this idea.

Lauren Mullins wroteat 11:30am on September 3rd, 2008
My idea was being able to get voter registration info by text message. A person could send in a text to recieve a voter registration card by mail. Also, they could send a text in about a particular topic and get both candidates positions on that topic sent to their phone. For example, if they want to know about alternative fuels they could send in a text saying "alternative fuels" and get a message back with both candidates position on that.

Yousuf Ahmed wroteat 9:26am on September 3rd, 2008
and i ran out of room, but yeah, my idea is that in a nutshell

Yousuf Ahmed wroteat 9:26am on September 3rd, 2008
my idea was actually kind of like the amazon kindle:you have a sheet of clear material that's the same size as a piece of paper and is flexible. it comes with a stylus (the pen's that people use on palm pilots) and you can write and draw on the piece of electronic paper. you can also use the stylus to kind of "scroll" through different things a la the iphone's feature of flicking things around. what the device does is this: you can download and save books to the device and scroll through them page by page; using the stylus you can make notes, highlight, do whatever. you can also subscribe to different magazines. all of these will be delivered to the e-paper via wifi. students can use it to cut down on paper usage and reduce cost of books; it can be recharged using solar energy; it's mobile media because it's small and manageable enough to carry around and you can get different types of media on it (magazines, books, you can draw/send/receive pictures)

Claire Rock wroteat 7:55am on September 3rd, 2008
here is duston's idea that he emailed me:I wasn't sure if I was supposed to send this to you or stephanie! I was just going to ellaborate on the recycling with the reward system thing. I thought that was a good idea. Maybe you could have a card that the garbage men could scan at each house that they get the garbage at. The people with the most can get rewards based on who has the most recycling cans. That is why I thought was the best idea and what I got from the group was that recycling was the best idea. So that was my ellaboration and let me know if this is the wrong person to send it too!Thanks,Dustondharp@uga.edu937.470.3997 cell

Claire Rock wroteat 7:53am on September 3rd, 2008
I like that idea danielle! My idea was a repeat of one said during our meeting. I liked the idea about getting cell phone numbers from public schools and texting young people information about elections (national and local). they could text links to voter registration, info websites, even a phone number they could call to get the candidate talking about issues or something.

Danielle Kraselsky wroteat 10:55pm on September 2nd, 2008
but... my idea was that there could be a little business card type of thing people could have and it could have an amount of money put on it with your phone. So people could hand it to homeless people or whoever so that they knew the money would go to someting beneficial like food, and the giver would get a text message asking if the money could be spent on the item the poor person was trying to buy. That way drugs and alcohol wouldnt be spent with the money you gave away. This would help in urban cities, because many people are worried their money will just go to drugs or alcohol.