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.