PW2 Web Blog

Thriv’Ability: Books Ngram Viewer

Contributed by Rick DeVan on September 23, 2011 at 8:00 pm ET

Resource: Books Ngram Viewer at Google Labs and soon to be at Google Books.

When you enter phrases into the Google Books Ngram Viewer, it displays a graph showing how those phrases have occurred in a corpus of books (e.g., “British English”, “English Fiction”, “French”) over the selected years.

An interesting tool for academic research into word usage over time.

Filed under Life, Work, and Society, Thrivability

Tags used: Books, Google, Thrivability —

Comments and discussion are welcome on the PW2 Web Facebook Page up to four weeks after publication date.

Thriv’Ability: Made In A Free World / Slavery Footprint

Contributed by Rick DeVan on at 8:00 pm ET

Resource: Made In A Free World / Slavery Footprint.

With the Made in a Free World app, you can check in at stores, asking brands about slavery in their supply chain as you shop. Please use it to encourage brands to look into where their raw materials are coming from. Then share your check-ins so your friends will also help. Earn Free World points when you get the app and use it to counteract your slavery footprint.

You will be disturbed at how many slaves or forced laborers may be working for you simply by the fact you are reading this. Now you have the power to do something about it.

Resource via How Many Slaves Are Working For You? at

Filed under Life, Work, and Society, Thrivability

Tags used: Made In A Free World, Slavery Footprint, Thrivability —

Comments and discussion are welcome on the PW2 Web Facebook Page up to four weeks after publication date.

Thriv’Ability: A Liter of Light

Contributed by Rick DeVan on at 8:00 pm ET

Resource: Isang Litrong Liwanag – A Liter of Light project in the Philippines.

Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light), is a sustainable lighting project which aims to bring the eco-friendly Solar Bottle Bulb to disprivileged communities nationwide. Designed and developed by students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Solar Bottle Bulb is based on the principles of Appropriate Technologies — a concept that provides simple and easily replicable technologies that address basic needs in developing communities.

Resources via How water bottles create cheap lighting in Philippines at the BBC.

This is a start. Hopefully, electricity, running water, those sorts of things, are next.

Filed under Life, Work, and Society, Technology, Thrivability

Tags used: Isang Litrong Liwanag, Liter of Light, Thrivability —

Comments and discussion are welcome on the PW2 Web Facebook Page up to four weeks after publication date.

Media: The Diaspora* Difference

Contributed by Rick DeVan on September 16, 2011 at 8:00 pm ET

Resource: Diaspora* is making a difference

We’re thrilled to say we’ve built the first stage of a new social web, one better than what’s out there today: a place where each of us owns our own information, where each person controls his or her own privacy, where no-one is a product, and where we all control our own destinies.

Filed under Media

Tags used: Diaspora —

Comments and discussion are welcome on the PW2 Web Facebook Page up to four weeks after publication date.