Greenish Projects on java.net and APIs For YOU

Developers - do you ever get the green blues? Feel like you are stuck in a possibly challenging, maybe exciting technology job that is, alas, brown as mud and of dubious importance in the face of global climate change? Maybe you feel like pitching it all and joining some hippie save the earth group, except you aren't sure that would be particularly effective, so you stay put. And of course, being a developer, you are always curious to learn new things.

In your copious spare time, consider learning about one of these projects. Get involved and light one small candle (hmmm, turn on one CFL lightbulb??) against the darkness, make a minor yet non-zero contribution to the green revolution, have some fun and learn some new technology skills all at the same time. For the purpose of this wiki page, think of green in the broadest sense. Anything eco goes.

Green java.net Member Projects, either hosted or linked

In no particular order - please add to this list any projects that you find on java.net that might be described as green.

• https://greenfire.dev.java.net/ - is a Java EE 5 based, heating management and monitoring system. Intelligent heating control saves not only energy (30-50%), is environmentally friendly, but increases the living comfort as well.
• https://solarenergy.dev.java.net/ - The City and County of San Francisco (Department of the Environment) and Marin County are collaborating with the City of Oakland Public Works on an effort to assess and promote solar power opportunities in our communities. The City and County of San Francisco and Marin have been doing digital assessments. We are collaborating with the City of Oakland to transition from a paper-based approach to a web-based approach where much of the effort is delegated to the client/server.
• http://openeco.dev.java.net/ - This project will host the source code, under Apache 2.0, for the tools found at http://www.openeco.org.
• https://yggdrasil.dev.java.net/ - The purpose of this project is to develop a framework for Sun SPOTS employed in ecological data gathering. There are currently two projects underway that will use the technology developed by this project: Real time ecological data gathering at the Cocobolo Nature Reserve, Panama and Light intensity monitoring under the canopy at Warren Wilson College. Much of the technical goals of this framework are driven by those projects.

Green Opportunities: APIs for YOU

Please add to this list any open APIs that you find to access eco data or tools. Use these APIs to create open source projects that mine the data available on the web in new and useful ways, whether for education or action or merely for your own programming experience or a class project. And if you find such a list elsewhere, please link to it from here, don't copy it. No need to reinvent the wheel if someone else has already collected green open APIs.

• AMEE is a web-service (API) that combines measurement, calculation, profiling and transactional systems. Its algorithmic engine applies conversion factors from energy into CO2 emissions, and represents data from 150 countries.
• https://www.openeco.org/developer - not to be confused with the source code in the openeco project hosted on java.net, this developer page points to how-to information for creating modules and mashups with openeco data and APIs.
• Carbon Monitoring for Action has an API that provides REST-based access to data available on the CARMA site and an example mashup.
• See also this carma blog entry about DNA for More API Mashups.

-- MarlaParker - 04 Jun 2008