[chisigmail] IDG Seminar: SmartGardenWatering - Building An Online Community to Encourage Sustainable Water Use

[Daryl Ku]

(Apologies for cross posting)

You are cordially invited to an IDG Seminar.


PRESENTER:      John Murphy, Wally Smith & Jon Pearce, Department of
Information Systems, University of Melbourne

TITLE:          SmartGardenWatering - Building An Online Community to
Encourage Sustainable Water Use

VENUE:          University of Melbourne, IDEA Lab, Level 4, 111 Barry
Street, Carlton

DATE and TIME:  Friday 20 Mar 2009, 3-4 pm


ABSTRACT:
SmartGardenWatering.org.au is a web application developed during 2008 to
provide the public with advice about how much water to apply to their
gardens. It presents the culmination of two years of horticultural
research by Connellan, May and Denman at the University¹s Burnley campus.
Our challenge was to present this work in an engaging and interactive
manner that would allow gardeners to model their garden, explore the
impact of various factors (location, soils, mulches, plant types, watering
systems, etc.) and obtain an optimal monthly watering schedule. We have
also incorporated a water tank modelling feature that simulates the
performance of a water tank over a year.

In this seminar we will present the results of this project. We will also
present our plans for extending the project during 2009 to create a
vibrant social network of gardeners modelling, sharing and comparing their
gardens online. We will use the expertise of this seminar audience to
react to ideas of how such a community might be established. For example,
in what way might some of the following technologies be utilised to
support a gardening community: FaceBook, Twitter, SMS, fora, Google maps,
tagging, email, real-time meteorological data, and mobile apps?

Both of these projects are funded by the Smart Water Fund.

We look forward to an engaging discussion!

BIO:
John Murphy is an HCI consultant who has a long history of research
involvement with the Department of Information Systems, University of
Melbourne. Jon Pearce and Wally Smith are both senior lecturers in the
Department of Information Systems, University of Melbourne. Jon's research
interests are in the areas of engagement and online learning. Wally's
interests are in the design of socio-technical systems.


Please forward to others if interested. All are Welcome.
http://www.dis.unimelb.edu.au/research/groups/interactiondesign/seminars.html

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Daryl Ku
PhD Candidate; Interaction Design Group Coordinator

Interaction Design Group
Department of Information Systems
The University of Melbourne
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