DataPub: OpenLitterMap, Energy Conservation & Making the World a Better Place

NOTE: Please RSVP via this link to get the Zoom log-in details: https://tsdb.co/data-pub-RSVP

Agenda:

Speaker: Seán Lynch, founder of OpenLitterMap.com (more about the speaker below)
Talk: OpenLitterMap
Description: Open Data and Litter. During this talk you will learn more about why open data is important, how to use OpenLitterMap, how to download the data, and help us educate society about why open data is the missing link in the war on pollution.

Speaker: John Gorman and Matt Magoffin of Solar Network
Talk: Using TimescaleDB for Holistic Distributed Energy Management of the Future
Description: Founded in 2017, the SolarNetwork Foundation curates an 100% open-source project - the SolarNetwork platform - to provide developers with a rich, capable set of services via consistent
and coherent APIs for distributed, renewable energy management needs. Our partners deploy wide ranging networks of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) such as PV systems, EV Chargers, battery based inverters, kWh meters and more. SolarNetwork uses TimescaleDB to
provide an incredible array of services for PV aggregators, energy managers, educators and innovators all looking to power our economy and boost innovation using distributed renewable energy. In this presentation we look at the background and architecture of SolarNetwork and some of the amazing apps being created that illustrate TimescaleDB’s powerful features and are opening up new possibilities for a brighter future for everyone.

About the speakers:

Seán Lynch is the founder and developer of OpenLitterMap.com. He has a background in Geography including 2 Masters, with one in Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing and the second in Coastal & Marine Environments. Seán started studying litter mapping in 2008 after he was introduced to GIS and asked to write a dissertation for a BA in Geography. During his masters in 2013, he was introduced to OpenStreetMap. Shocked that there was not already a way to share data on pollution, he decided to apply the same principles of crowdsourcing and open data to plastic pollution and OpenLitterMap was born. However, it took a second masters in environmental studies to review all of the available litter mapping frameworks and evaluate that literature in the context of then current policy frameworks. After college, Seán began teaching himself how to code and OpenLitterMap.com finally launched as a web app in April 2017. Seán now works as a software developer by day and continues to work on OpenLitterMap and various other projects evenings and weekends. OpenLitterMap has attracted more than 3,000 users who have contributed more than 125,000 open data on over 120 pre-defined types of litter which have all been manually verified to remove ambiguity and increase data integrity for machine learning purposes.

John Gorman is a solar energy consultant with a masters degree from the University of Auckland school of Electrical and Computer Engineering focused on solar power data management. As a New Yorker with a background of being involved in software startups, John took an interest in how open-source software could assist non-profit organisations. He is
continually inspired by the potential of information and renewable energy to improve our experience of the natural world.
John lives in Auckland with his partner, two children, and small curly-haired dog.

Matt Magoffin’s work with SolarNetwork Foundation is an expression on his deeply-held commitment to environmental issues, and his desire to provide useful, flexible, open-access tools to address social and ecological problems. He retains a sense of delight at the possibilities
for play and experimentation which technology offers after more than twenty years experience architecting and developing enterprise-level applications, both in New Zealand and in the United States. Matt lives in Wellington with his partner, two children, and large shaggy dog.