Bill Hammack makes instructional videos about engineering in everyday life. In this episode he explains why the conflict mineral Tantalum is used to make cell phone capacitors smaller. Even though only 2% of the raw ore Coltan originates in the Congo, it is impossible to trace in its refined form, which means that the 40mg in your phone could play a role in the 5+ million murders in the region since 1994.

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While a full list of the features is pretty long, I wanted to just highlight two features that are interesting expansions for our code.

Support for additional map layers
We’ve added (through the widget located in the lower right corner of the map) support for additional layers of imagery, including (for example) the google satellite imagery shown below. We’ve also made the maps ’stretchy’ so they expand to fill the available space. We think these changes will make it easier to tell more compelling stories in the web map interface (the pictured map, for example, shows detail all the way down to the actual gold mine the gold is sourced from).

Support for processes and endoflife
For lifecycle maps, we’ve added support for adding processes and endoflife. This means that now, in addition to telling us a material and where that material comes from, you can say what has happened to it and where it is going to end up. For example, few products use virgin aluminum with no modifications. At the very least we would expect this to be milled and machined. Now you can make that clear. We’ve also added support for endoflife. You can let us know that something is going to end up in the landfill, incinerated or (hopefully) reused.

I’m looking forward to being able to announce the next release as soon as possible, but we have some interesting features in development. I’ll let you know more soon.

Our stack is primarily ubuntu running apache, php5 and postgres.

We need developers who are:

• Excited about generating markup with PHP5 in a model-view-controller framework (we use a derivative of codeigniter);
• Great at writing good javascript (we use jquery with a light object structure and events);
• Comfortable working in distributed teams using ticketing, wikis, and version control (we use subversion);
• Knowledgeable about sql and prefer that models do the heavy lifting (but can write some joins in sql);
• More likely to write clear functions, events and libraries than rely on documentation;
• Perfectionists and realize that if you don’t want your code to break, you should probably write a unit test for it;
• Responsive to users and
• Dynamic in work plans

We are particularly interested if you have experience in:

• Web geo work, particularly openlayers and openstreetmaps
• Modern web work, javascript design and semantic markup
• Styling, css and a general sense of design and aesthetics

If you’re interested:

1. Check out our code to get a sense of what we’re doing and where we are going (sourcemap.codebasehq.com)
2. Send us a a resume, a portfolio and/or links to past projects, a code sample in javascript and some markup generation language (PHP, Python or Ruby), and any initial questions you might have.

Developers will ideally work onsite at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, but remote collaborators will also be considered if they are exceptional candidates with a demonstrated proficiency in remote work.

We look forward to hearing from you!

We’re happy to announce the first Sourcemap spin-off in cooperation with visitSussex.org: a pilot study to improve local food sourcing by offering a Sourcemap embed to participants in the Sussex Breakfast campaign. The program rewards participating hospitality businesses who source 60% of their ingredients from with the region with extra visibility and a verifiable badge in the form of a Sourcemap embed (see above). These are early days, but we are already seeing some modifications: notice the incorporation of Food Miles and a revised set of transportation values. We look forward to seeing more businesses and farms on the map!

We created Sourcemap as a forum for public discussion around issues of social and environmental sustainability – that’s why we were thrilled to find our first journalism application in last weekend’s Globe and Mail – complete with a beautiful custom drawing and an intuitive barometer of carbon footprint. As more inquisitive journalists and researchers work to unravel the impacts of supply chains, we will continue to provide a transparent and scientific platform where together, we can fill the holes in our collective understanding and start working toward solutions.

Small and independent producers can benefit from the Internet’s Long Tail and on-demand manufacturing to find supply and demand for their products. Now, they can also count on radical traceability in the form of Myfab.com, a website that combines user-contributed design with the ability to follow each step in the manufacturing process once a product has been ordered. What next, webcams in factories?

Via Chrysarora

Thanks to Marc Alt for inviting Sourcemap to the CEA’s Greener Gadgets conference this past Thursday – the talk generated a lot of buzz; here is some of it:

Click to See Where Everything Comes From: Sourcemap.org from the MIT Media Lab documents the global supply chain of the things we use every day. [The Daily Green]

GREENER GADGETS LIVEBLOG: Inhabitat Reports Live From Greener Gadgets! Inhabitat

We finally settled on a version of Mar’s design for our business cards, and we decided to make a Sourcemap to decide whether to order half-sized non-recycled business cards or full-sized 100% recycled business cards from Moo. So, Matt and I made two different maps (spoiler: these are a sneak peak at our new interface), assuming the paper and plastic were made in Canada and shipped to Providence for printing. Surprisingly, the non-recycled cards have 33% less carbon footprint than the recycled cards (120 grams compared with 180 grams) – you can see from the graphs that this is because the of the additional paper outweighs the benefit of being recycled. What do you think? (Your opinion is especially important if you work for Moo)

The fashion industry is the poster child for un-sustainable practices, as we’ve already seen from the myriad of social and environmental problems plaguing the cotton trade. Fashion designers share the responsibility, because they are so remote from the means of production – usually outsourced to Southeast Asia, Africa or South America – that their designs reflect few of the practical concerns on the factory floor. Parsons’ Timo Rissanen is the proponent for a new form of sustainable fashion design: a “no-waste approach” that avoids altogether the 15% waste typical of the industry (read his paper here). Timo’s no-waste designs (above and below) show the creative potential of eliminating waste as part of the fashion design process. At heart is a humbling realization: “Fabric ought to be considered a precious resource once again.” Timeless designs like these only strengthen his argument.