Kill-A-Watt

Shavanna, Kseniya, and I have been working diligently researching ways that the residents of Barnard and Columbia can help the university become more efficient. Our first thought was to use posters and brochures to promote our project. However, we soon realized that this approach had many disadvantages. Students are bombaded with flyers, handouts, and mail that are not of interest to most of them. Any useful literature that we produce could get tossed in the recycling bin without a second glance.

We decided to use this blog, specifically my postings, to convey information to the student body. We avoid wasting paper by using the blog, which saves energy. The blog is also much less static than any paper literature we could produce. We can update as often as needed. The internet provides us with a much larger audience than any other medium as well.

But we still need a way to publize our work. Obviously, we cannot wait for people to randomly stumble upon the site. We need a way to point people in the direction of the blog. If only there was a website that almost every student at Columbia willingly visits on a regular basis. Some sort of social network where you could communicate with others at your school. Did someone say Facebook.com? The website on which we all waste hours instead of studying for that chemistry midterm is usefull for something other than stalking after all!

We have created a Kill-A-Watt group on Facebook.com that contains a brief mission statement and a link to the blog. We hope that as students browse Facebook, they will find our group and click on the link. When people join the group, it is displayed on their profile, and our project will get more publicity. It's procrastination with a purpose!

Thanks for reading! If you haven't joined the group already, please do! We promise that we will post weekly updates, including ways you can help conserve energy and other interesting news.

-Jen