Task 1 – Ethics
Earth Care
- Weather Apps
There are so many different weather apps and meteorology sites that are able to tell us a reliably accurate 7-day forecast. These apps allow people to plan time in nature in an era where it is increasingly important to allot time for it.
- Yuka
Yuka is an app that scans barcodes of food/cosmetic products and decides how healthy it is based on the ingredients used. This is super helpful because there are so many chemicals in everything we ingest. I personally have no way of knowing whether a strange ingredient is just a type of sugar or if it’s going to give me cancer.
- Apple Watch
The Apple Watch has made it so much easier for so many people to monitor their help and be conscientious of it. It can track heart rate and step count and presents them in easy ways for the user to take them in.
People Care
- Depop
Depop is an online Flea Market. Individuals sell their own clothes and items, at thrift store pricing primarily, to other individuals. People are able to reuse clothing already made as opposed to purchasing fast fashion alternatives. They are also able to access brand name items they otherwise would not have access to. This cycle allows for the original consumer to regain some of the cost of an item and reduce their personal waste.
- Kickstarter
Crowd funding platforms like Kickstarter or GoFundMe are great for community driven funding. They are locations for people to reach out for those within their community, whether it’s local or remote, and receive aid or investment.
- RTD-DENVER
Many public transportation networks now have apps that hold bus and rail passes. These are extremely beneficial they totally relieve wait time at ticket purchasing stations, and people don’t have to rely on stationary maps in areas that are already unfamiliar.
https://www.rtd-denver.com/open-records/open-spatial-information/mobile-apps
Fair Share
- Duolingo
Learning languages is famously something that is very difficult to do exclusively through reading books. Duolingo, along with other language apps, has utilized microphones and speakers, and has trusted the digital literacy of its users to change non-instructor-based second language education. These features allow for the spread of language and more connectivity amongst different cultures.
- Google Scan
Google Scan is an example of tech that promotes Fair Share. Google has been a major search engine for a long time, and it has made its resources accessible through a photo. I have personally used Google Scan with friends identifying mushrooms in the woods. As opposed to typing out “red gangly fungus” and coming out with no real search results, we were able to find the name of it very quickly when we took a photo of it.
- Waze
Waze is a GPS app similar to Google Maps or Apple Maps. What sets Waze apart is that users actively update it as they pass road work zones, car accidents, or even police speed traps. This is only sustained by the community who uses the app. Members use information that is in surplus to them and then spread that information to other uses that otherwise would not have known about unexpected circumstances on the road.
