[Mesh] Script for garden mesh video

Sat Aug 12 10:27:24 PDT 2017

Hey y'all - 

Just got back from a 3 wk hike in Oregon wildernesses, so my response
to the script is a bit delayed.

Cool to see that gardenmesh project is active and developing in
sudoroom and CCL communities.

If I understand the script correctly, it roughly claims: 
(a) home gardening (similar to "victory gardens", https://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Victory_garden) is the solution to feeding 9 billion people 
(b) if low-cost sensors where available, you would enable the creation
of more "[...] sustainable home-use vegetable and community gardens in
food deserts across the US [...]".

Re: (a) - 
I'd at least expect a reference to Victory Gardens, a pretty successful
effort that, without any sensors of sorts, has said to have produced
about a third of veggies in the US during ww2 (via wikipedia, Kallen,
Stuart A. (2000). The War at Home. San Diego: Lucent Books. ISBN 1-
56006-531-1.).

Re: (b) - 
First, I have some doubt that a cheap sensors enables the creation of
victory gardens. I imagine that a lack of desire, willingness or skills
to grow your own veggies cannot be solved by getting a "cheap sensor".
Do you really think that a Garden Gnode in North India is going to help
create a sustainable community garden? 
Secondly, I think that the idea of a "cheap sensor" suggests that there
is a producer of cheap sensors and a group of consumers of those
sensors. To me, this no longer embodies the idea I liked about this
project in specific and sudomesh/sudoroom in general - a community
project in Oakland that brings folks together to openly educate each
other, socialize, experiment and get stuff working. In my mind, the
idea of "cheap", creates some expectation that this project competing
with other sensor producers (along the lines of Jehan's comment), which
would create a dynamic of "if it doesn't work, call customer service",
instead of, "if it doesn't work, come over, share what is going on and
help figure out how to fix it."
Also, if you choose to go for "cheap", I would like to mention that the
cost of a sensor is not just the cost of the hardware. It also
includes, software/hardware design and implementation, education,
production, communication, office space, legal, customer service, etc
etc. Taking into account these costs associated with traditional
commercial exploitation of a market, you might find that a $50 sensor
bought at walfart is not as expensive as you might think.

I hope my comments are somewhat constructive and I am curious to hear
thoughts of the community about this. 

thx,
-jorrit

On Sat, 2017-08-12 at 03:07 -0700, Divine Adesida wrote:
> Rough Script:
> Hi All,
> 
> Sorry, this is late. I had Jury Duty for most of the week.
> 
> Everything I re-wrote/edited is in Italics and bolded.
> I also deleated a few things.
> Please feel free to use whatever you'd like.
> 
> Cheers,
> Divine
> 
> Script:
> 
> > > Cell 1: My name is Mario Gabiati, I'd like to share an idea that I
believe will help us feed the 9 billion and growing number of people
across this globe.
> 
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Cell 2: (we were planning to show some poorly producing community
garden plots here as b-roll while I talked more about the program).
Feeding 9 billion people on 100% industrialized agriculture is
impossible and unsustainable, but that is the path the global
agricultural industry has been on until recently, with studies
showing that more and more people are turning to home gardening as a
way to get fresher, more nutritious foods in their diets. In the
U.S., the popularity of community and home gardening has increased
over 200% since 2008 (link), and now over a third (Where does this
statistic come from? Please cite your data) of US households are
growing home-use vegetable gardens. Now with the growing trends of
home-use vegetable gardens, how can we feed the 9 billion plus people
across the globe? By learning to feed one. For me, this issue hits
home as I have my own home-use vegetable garden and have always had
trouble sustaining vegetable growth. I'd always wonder if I was using
the right soil, if my vegetables had enough water or if the soil was
receiving enough sunlight. Basically, I needed help or my vegetable
garden wouldn't survive. I began looking for monitoring devices that
would analyze the data I needed from my garden and be easily
accessible when I needed it, say to buy the next batch of garden
soil. Unfortunately, everything I found sold in stores or an Amazon
was too expensive, ranging anywhere from 50-100 dollars! Imagine,
however, if one could monitor these home-use vegetable and community
gardens with nothing more than a $5 sensor and a smartphone? 
> 
> > > > > > > > > > > > > Cell 3: (M: now that I'm writing this out, we may want to change the
order - the intent was to briefly touch on the world-wide
implications of this technology, and our desire to bring it to
nations where home gardening may mean the difference between
surviving and starving. D: This isn't a bad idea I've kept it in
because of the way I structred the above. ).  That very low price to
build our sensor means affordable technology in building sustainable
home-use vegetable and community gardens in food deserts
across the US and Western & Eastern Europe. This technology could
also be brought to places where growing one's own food means the
difference between survival or starvation; places like Northern India
and China, areas of the world where agriculture is the backbone of
the economy and a high percentage of the population use cell phones.
> 
> > > > Cell 4: (this will be b-roll of us installing the prototypes at East
Bay Vivarium on Friday and/or lush community garden plots with our
sensors in them). Incredibly easy to install, just activates and
place - already I'm receiving real-time data.  
> 
> > > > > > > > Cell 5: (Info-graphic - yes!).  This technology requires no
configuration, it simply begins serving data as soon as it's
installed, giving an individual real-time access to their garden's
data. Eventually, with the permission of each sensor's owner, our
team would aggregate all the data received from every available and
active sensor to begin building comprehensive micro-climate maps that
give suggestions on the types of plants and vegetables that grow best
in each sensor's specific region.  
> 
> > > > > > > > Cell 6: (closure, a reiteration of the feeding 9 billion theme)
Feeding 9 billion people isn't such a huge problem when it begins
with learning to feed one. Would you buy a sensor for $10 if you knew
a sensor just like yours would be given to a family in India, Yemen
or Rwanda? (I picked countries that have a high % of their population
that usages cell-phone, but also have a high agricultural backbone
would actually use the technology) Please visit our website below to
learn more!
> 
> 
> > > On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 6:53 PM, Mario Gabiati <mgabiati at gmail.com>
wrote:
> > Hi Divine, 
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Thank you for getting in contact, YES, I am very interested in your
help! We were busy at the lab making the prototypes, so I apologize
for not getting back to you then!  Here is a link to the gardenmesh
video I showed you in the meeting (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
WJJiGtuPJF4).  This version doesn't have any of the text overlays
that you saw but I think it's helpful anyway. I have copied my
cameraman Vassil, and the sudoroom listserve so we can all benefit
from your wisdom!
> > 
> > > > > > I obviously have no professional tools, but to help visualize what
we want to put together, I've made a little 6-pc storyboard,
nothing is set in stone though.  
> > 
> > > > > > > > > > The main points we want to make in the video about the idea are 1)
the very cheap price, 2) the access to your own real-time data
without any configuration, 3) our plan to build philanthropy into
the business model - buy one, give one to a needy community, and 4)
how this data can be used to make better choices 
> > 
> > > > In order to clench the NatGeo grant, we have to make it all pertain
to feeding 9 billion people.  
> > 
> > Rough Script:
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Cell 1: Hi, I'm Mario Gabiati, and I'm here to tell you about a
great idea that will help us feed 9 billion people, which sounds
like a big problem, but it starts with feeding just one.  I was
having a lot of trouble feeding myself from my own garden because I
was guessing all the time; guessing what plants would do well in my
garden, guessing they'd be okay when I left for work or on
vacation.  I wanted to find something that would let me monitor my
garden when I was away or sleeping, but nothing on the market could
monitor everything I wanted, and were much more expensive than I
wanted to spend; anywhere from 50-100 dollars!
> > 
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Cell 2: (we were planing to show some poorly producing community
garden plots here as b-roll while I talked more about the
program).  Feeding 9 billion people on 100% industrialized
agriculture is impossible and probably unhealthy, and studies show
that people are turning to home gardening as a way to get fresher,
more wholesome food.  The popularity of community and home
gardening has increased substantially, and now over a third of US
households are growing food! But what if we could grow even more
food in our homes and community gardens using nothing more than a
$5 sensor and our smartphone?  
> > 
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Cell 3: (now that I'm writing this out, we may want to change the
order - the intent was to briefly touch on the world-wide
implications of this technology, and our desire to bring it to
nations where home gardening may mean the difference between
surviving and starving).  The very low price to build our sensor
means that we can bring this technology out of the US and bring it
to places where growing your own food may mean the difference
between survival and starvation or malnutrition.  Would you buy a
sensor for $10 if you knew a sensor just like yours would be given
to a family in Venezuela or Yemen?  
> > 
> > > > > > > > > > Cell 4: (this will be b-roll of us installing the prototypes at
East Bay Vivarium on Friday and/or lush community garden plots with
our sensors in them).  Incredibly easy to install, just activate
and place - and already I can receive real-time data about my
garden.  
> > 
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Cell 5: (Info-graphic? white-board animation? i can use all the
ideas you have!).  This technology requires no configuration, it
simply begins serving data as soon as it's installed, giving you
real-time access to your garden's data.  With your permission, we
can aggregate this information with all the other sensors on earth
and begin building comprehensive micro-climate maps that can help
give you suggestions on what kinds of plants and vegetables to grow
in your specific area.  
> > 
> > > > > > > > > > > > Cell 6: (closure, reiteration of the feeding 9 billion theme)
Feeding 9 billion people isn't such a huge problem when it's fun
and easy to grow a percentage of your own food and these sensors
make growing your own food much easier at a price that brings it
into the reach of billions of people! Please visit our website
below to learn more information, and lets mesh!
> > 
> > 
> > > > Anyway, this is what I've got so far, let me know what your
thoughts are!  Thank you!
> > 
> > -Mario
> > 
> > 
> > > > On Sun, Aug 6, 2017 at 3:51 PM, Divine Adesida <divine.adesida at gmai
l.com> wrote:
> > > Hi Mario,
> > > It's Divine.
> > > 
> > > > > > We discussed that I would help with the script for the video this
afternoon.
> > > 
> > > Did you want to send me what you had?
> > > 
> > > Cheers,
> > > Divine
> > > 
> > > -- 
> > > Divine Adesida
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Divine Adesida
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> mesh mailing list
> mesh at lists.sudoroom.org
> https://sudoroom.org/lists/listinfo/mesh
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://sudoroom.org/lists/private/mesh/attachments/20170812/566dc9d9/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.png
Type: image/png
Size: 349177 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://sudoroom.org/lists/private/mesh/attachments/20170812/566dc9d9/attachment.png>