Moshi Monsters wins on Nintendo DS

Moshi Monsters the children's on-line game created by Mindy Candy has now taken over the video games market as their Nintendo DS game Moshling Zoo has taken over the No 1 spot, beating the previous holder Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training. Moshling Zoo has been No 1 for a record braking 15 consecutive weeks. This matches their music prowess as Moshi Monsters: Music Rox! reached number one in the download charts ahead of artists such as Madonna. The on-line game also has 60m users from around the world and in the UK around 1 in 3 children has a Moshi Monster. Michael Acton-Smith the CEO of Mind Candy is rising from strength to strength and everyone's waiting to know what's coming out next from the Mind Candy stable, rumours are that it's another on-line game, but aimed at all the family.

Adobe CS6 for hire

Adobe is allowing users of it's Creative Suite v6 (CS6) to 'rent' the software for $49 per month instead of purchasing it outright. A user can download a single copy for both Mac and Windows (currently this generally requires 2 licenses) and both are included in the rental price. If the user is upgrading from an earlier version (from v3 to v5.5) then the rental price is only $29.99 per month. Of course it's still possible to purchase the full suite for $2,600 which is around 5 years rental (by which time there's bound to be an upgrade). This also links into Adobe's Creative Cloud which offers tools like Photoshop Touch (the on-line version of Photoshop) and allows sharing of content.

May 1 - Vator Spark Get Game: Gamify your Start-Up

Clean Tech and Green Business News has featured Green and Gamification examples in several articles including last week's Gamification in Energy Reduction and in 2009's Green Software Unconference.

On May 1, Vator Spark is hosting: Get Game? How to Gamify Your Start-up, and Clean Tech and Green Business News as a Media Partner has a 15% discount code for you:
Use discount code "CTGB" at http://vatorspark.eventbrite.com

Here's a Synopsis of the event:
Gamification has ushered in new types of start-ups applying gaming mechanics to drive playful behavior that leads to predictable desired outcomes.
Vator Spark has for the first time gathered thought-leaders and investors behind these start-ups for a full-day learning event to explore how to incorporate the best practices around product design, marketing, fundraising and more.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Vodafone offers £1.04bn CW

Vodafone has made an offer of £1.04bn ($1.7bn) in cash for C&W (Cable and Wireless Worldwide). This works out at 38p per share which is considerably higher than the original expected offer of £700m. Vodafone is seeing vastly increased mobile data traffic and this may be a defensive move to lessen it's reliance on BT who provide most of their backhaul. Vodafone also wholesales several BT business services, which they'll now be able to offer in-house. C&W also run a broadband LLU service for other providers and again this could be directly used to sell broadband to Vodafone's consumer base. Vodafone replaced all their DSL connections at cell sites with fibre from BT, these can also all be taken in-house using the significant assets of C&W's fiber network that covers much of the UK and in places like Scotland they have better coverage than BT (due to the historical acquisition of THUS Plc which was originally Scottish Telecom prior to the acquisition of Demon Internet). There's sure to be many problems integrating the two companies, though in the long term they gain access to a enterprise and consumer solutions and should deliver long term costs savings

April 26: Clean Tech Mixer San Francisco - Win Tickets & 15% Discount

The CleanTech Mixer San Francisco, organized by pariSoma, is bringing together startups envisioning a cleaner, more sustainable future. Meet them.

Clean Tech and Green Business News is a Media Sponsor, and we're giving away 4 tickets (2 sets) to the event, and we also have a 15% discount code here.

To Win the Tickets:
Tell us on this Blog Post or on our Facebook Page what Green Actions your Company, Organization, Community, and/or Home is doing to celebrate Earth Day (Every Day is Earth Day).
Two people will randomly be chosen and notified by noon Tuesday April 24.
Good Luck!!

Clean Tech Forum 2012 | Solazyme | Energy Policy | Mayor Ed Lee | UK Clean Tech Entrepreneurs

Jonathan Wolfson, Solazyme

By Mary Vincent - Follow on Twitter @MaryVincent

During Clean Tech Forum 2012 San Francisco, Jonathan Wolfson Co-Founder and CEO Solazyme said: "We need a long-term energy policy 15-20 years out - that's the only way we can succeed and really be successful in the renewable energy space. I don't know the path to get there but it needs to happen."

Solazyme pioneered an industrial biotechnology platform that harnesses the oil-producing ability of microalgae. They use standard industrial fermentation equipment to efficiently scale and accelerate the microalgae's natural oil production time to just a few days. Their platform is feedstock flexible and can utilize a wide variety of plant-based sugars, such as sugarcane-based sucrose, corn-based dextrose, and sugar from other biomass sources including cellulosics. By growing their proprietary microalgae in the absence of light using fermentation tanks to convert photosynthetic plant sugars into oil, they are in effect utilizing "indirect photosynthesis."

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee also received the “Cleantech Capital of North America” award on behalf of the city in a ceremony at Justin Herman Plaza on the City’s Embarcadero.
Here's an excerpt of Mayor Ed Lee's speech, and a video of his speech is below:

"We want to leave this city better than it is today.. I'm going to use my time to make sure that every aspect of the city whether its waste, compost recovery, energy efficiency, solar, or business itself  that we measure ourselves by how we've improved and that takes alot of effort.  You know when we're setting a goal that we want to be 80% below our 1990 levels by 2050, and that we're already today at 12%, that means alot of great effort. That means that when I get in my car every morning, even though it's a Chevy Volt now, that I can at least say the first 35 miles are without a drop of oil.. and I'm proud of that.  I'm proud of being part of that culture .. that the next step is to get to 100% and it is my job as part of the investor confidence is to make sure that we set the groundwork for the 100% electric vehicles so we don't use a drop of oil because ultimately that's going to save our planet; it's going to save our city."

The Cleantech Group cited many factors that contributed to the City’s recognition as the “Cleantech Capital of North America.”
* San Francisco is home to 208 cleantech companies and cleantech investors – one the largest and most concentrated cleantech clusters in the world. This number does not include cleantech partners, sustainable construction and other green companies.
* Eleven companies in the Cleantech Group’s Global Cleantech 100 have locations in San Francisco, the most of any city: Adura Technologies; AMEE; Harvest Power; Heliatek; Mission Motors; Nexant; OPower; Project Frog; RelayRides; SCIenergy; and SunRun. Seven of these cleantech firms are headquartered in San Francisco.
* In the San Francisco Bay Area, from 2006-2011, Cleantech companies raised $12 billion in venture capital and accounted for 640 deals – more than double the activity in the second most active metropolitan area – Boston.

Simon Daniel CEO Moixa & Mary Vincent

Sixteen of the UK’s most promising clean technology companies were in Silicon Valley as part of Clean and Cool Mission 2012.  This select group was visiting the U.S. to showcase unique green technologies and develop new business in the US by connecting with investors, customers, suppliers and partners.

The companies chosen for the mission were recognized as having high growth potential in Cleantech areas including energy storage, energy efficiency, and carbon reduction. 

The companies were selected for the entrepreneurial trade mission to San Francisco through a competition organized by the Technology Strategy Board, The Long Run Venture and the Cosponsorship Agency, supported by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) and other private sector sponsors with the aim of opening up their businesses to the U.S. market.   

“What we’re trying to do with this mission is help companies that are ready to expand their operations in growing areas of clean technology, by going where the action is in Silicon Valley,” said Richard Miller, Technology Strategy Board’s Head of Sustainability.  “A lot of the money being invested in clean technology around the globe is coming from California and by taking people here they have a chance to pitch to investors, meet business partners and customers and find out the characteristics of  the market.” 

As well as helping to accelerate these UK cleantech businesses, other goals for the Clean and Cool Mission are to boost Britain’s growing clean technology sector and drive investment into the UK.  With more than $180 million USD raised in private finance by companies attending previous missions, and more than 20% of the selected companies now with a US subsidiary, it has proven to be a successful strategy. 

The winning companies were congratulated at a reception held on March 14th at the London Stock Exchange, home to more than 70 listed cleantech companies.

I had the opportunity to meet with the following people, and videos discussing their work are below.
* Richard Miller, UK Technology Strategy Board’s Head of Sustainability
* Simon Daniel CEO Moixa, a USB power company hoping to shift the world to more universal DC (Direct-Current) power for electronics and lighting. Its Smart DC system develops higher power (variable voltage) USB sockets that avoid wasteful AC/DC adaptors and its local DC networks make distributed battery storage viable for shifting demand to off-peak or renewable resources - providing valuable grid balancing services.
* Emma Gibson, Operations Manager Highview Power Storage

I enjoy meeting entrepreneurs and visionaries working to address the significant energy challenges we face. What are your thoughts on the technologies, government initiatives, and entrepreneurial initiatives in this article?

Video: Technology for Good in Environment and Health, Bhutan and Nepal Visit by GHRF.org

I have mentioned to Erica Weirich MD, Director, Global Health Research Foundation www.ghrf.org and Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine Stanford University School of Medicine, that she will win a Nobel Prize someday.
In this video, you will see her recent visit to Bhutan and Nepal sharing the 'Patient Outcomes and Environmental Monitoring System', a community-based program bringing straightforward and culturally appropriate mobile technology tools to Ranger and Health partners in Nepal and Bhutan. This project is a collaborative effort - Global Health Research Foundation is providing tools, World Wildlife Fund and the Ministries of Health and Agriculture, as well as the community providers, are providing infrastructure and oversight. There is a description of how pesticides affect mosquitos, frogs, small animals, and the few remaining tigers as well as cost-saving examples of using these mobile technologies.

In Nepal, even though there is significant deforestation, the villages are committed to keeping their Valley Poacher-Free. There are only 3,200 Tigers left in the wild (there are more Tigers in captivity then in the wild today). The Government has taken a creative measure by paying Poachers more as a Tour Guide using their tracking skills, then what they would be making as Poachers.  Mobile devices are also being used to alert people if there are Poachers in the area.

There's a Women's Foot Patrol Group whose sole purpose is to keep their sacred wildlife alive. Per the Video: " It's so important for people to see how interconnected Health and the Environment really are: that's what our purpose here was. In Nepal we saw not only the best of Nature, but of Human Nature as well. When people take care of Nature, Nature takes care of them."
I was lucky to visit Nepal in 1999, including Chitwan National Forest where we saw protected Rhinos and learned more about the Tigers' plight due to poaching. 

Enjoy this Powerful Video produced by 19-year old Madeleine Traver.

Mundio seeks an injunction against EE

Mundio Mobile is a pan European Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) that operates using the T-Mobile Mobile Network Operator (MNO) network. Mundio operates the MVNO under the Vectone brand in the UK. T-Mobile combined with Orange in the UK to form Everything Everywhere (EE) in 2011 and after the merger they decided to consolidate operations and remove excess network infrastructure (such as radio masts) which should give them savings of around £3.5 billion by 2014. Mundio Mobile gained a low power GSM license in the UK through it's acquisition of Mapesbury Communications several years ago, which gave them a full GSM license (and entry into the GSMA). Now Mundio is seeking an injunction against EE to stop the consolidation ahead of a full trial next March to determine who is liable for any service disruption, and whether EE will be held to “specific performance” guarantees the court could impose. Mundio say the consolidation has caused it's users to receive poor or no coverage. EE wouldn't comment as the case is a current 'legal matter'.

50% Off Earth Month Special - April 18 Webinar: Building a Gamification Program, Tony Ventrice Badgeville

Our International Digital Commerce Training Series is pleased to have Tony Ventrice, Senior Game Designer at Badgevillle, a lifelong game designer with a knack for applying game-design techniques in emerging markets, speak at our Wednesday April 18 Webinar: "Building A Gamification Program to Engage and Reward Customers"
I've talked about Gamification being a Trend in Energy Efficiency for a few years now, and a popular example is the Toyota Prius Energy Monitor impacting driving habits. Also see the latest U.S. White House announcement that 15 major electrical utilities will be supporting the federal government’s “Green Button” initiative. The 15 utilities together will make energy usage data available by download for an estimated 27 million U.S. households.
Join us and save 50% on Eventbrite Registration. 

 http://greenstaridcbadgeville.eventbrite.com/

Intel introduces NAND SSDs

Intel has introduced it's 313 series solid state drives (SSDs) based on their single cell NAND design (which are longer lasting and more reliable than existing multi-cell SSDs. The drives are only available in 20GB and 24GB variants and are designed to complement existing hard drives for faster boot up or hibernation. The 20GB drive can sustain 220Mb/s while reading and 100MB/s for writes, while the 24GB drive supports 160MB/s and 115MB/s with pricing of $109 and $139 respectively. Though SSDs are cropping up everywhere they do have long term issues (most consumer SSDs will only support around 5,000 write cycles per cell, but the disks are optimised to minimise writes and cells are switched between blocks as to minimise actual writes per cell) whereas hard drives last for much longer, so hybrid drives may be the optimal solution. here Intel have just removed the SSD cache into a separate disk.

Riverkeeper's Paul Gallay: Gas Industry Spin Can’t Cover Up Air, Water Problems Caused by Fracking

Paul Gallay Credit: Riverkeeper

During the 2012 Wall Street Journal ECOnomics conference, there was a March 22 Fracking-specific CEO panel, including Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon. Comments were made from the panel that downplayed Fracking risks.

During Q&A, Paul Gallay, President and Hudson Riverkeeper stood up and shared the facts he's seen regarding Fracking.

I followed up with Paul after he shared his facts, and asked if he would be writing a Formal Response, and I would share it with Clean Tech and Green Business News Readers. Here's is Paul's Formal Response. What's happening in your city and community relating to fracking?

Gas Industry Spin Can’t Cover Up Air, Water Problems Caused by Fracking
by Paul Gallay, President and Hudson Riverkeeper

It’s like some in the gas industry are living in a different universe from the rest of us, when it comes to the risks from shale gas extraction via fracking. Call it the “Spin Zone.”

At a Wall Street Journal conference last week, Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon told attendees he’s unaware of any problems resulting from the thousands of fracking wells drilled in Fort Worth, Texas in recent years. McClendon peevishly referred to the fracking-related air pollution concerns I raised at the conference as “environmental nonsense.”

Well, read on. Then decide who’s talking “nonsense”:

• In December 2011, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) reported that oil and gas operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth region emit more smog-causing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) than all cars, trucks, buses and other mobile sources in the area combined. This wasn’t true before the fracking boom: TCEQ’s data shows that VOCs from oil and gas production have increased 60% since 2006.

• Ozone, a corrosive gas that can exacerbate asthma and other respiratory diseases, is created when VOCs from petroleum operations mix with heat and sunlight. In 2011, Dallas-Fort Worth violated federal ozone standards on more days than anywhere else in Texas. Dallas-Fort Worth is a “particularly extreme” example of higher air pollution in Texas, according to David Allen, a chemical engineering professor and state air-quality program director.

• In 2010, TCEQ found elevated levels of benzene around 21 gas fields out of the 94 it tested in the Barnett Shale. According to TCEQ toxicologist Shannon Ethridge, their monitors in the Barnett Shale pulled up “some of the highest benzene concentrations we have monitored in the state.”

• In Texas, which had about 93,000 natural-gas wells in 2011, up from around 58,000 a dozen years ago, a hospital system in six counties with some of the heaviest drilling, including the Barnett Shale region, found that “children in the community ages 6-9 are three times more likely to have asthma than the average for that age group in the State of Texas.” According to Baylor University, in 2009, childhood asthma rates in the Tarrant County area of the Barnett were more than double the national average, prompting a new study to evaluate asthma and pollution sources.

Up north in the Mountain States, the problem is just as serious:

• According to a 2012 study from the Colorado School of Public Health, cancer risks were 66% higher for residents living less than half a mile from oil and gas wells than for those living farther away, with benzene being the major contributor to the increased risk. This same study reminds us that chronic exposure to ozone, prevalent at gas production sites, can lead to asthma and pulmonary diseases, particularly in children and the aged.

More about Paul Gallay:
Paul Gallay is an attorney, educator and non-profit executive working to protect community character and improve environmental sustainability. After a brief stint in private law practice, Paul served for a dozen years in the New York State Attorney General’s Environmental Protection Bureau and at the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, helping to close Fresh Kills landfill, raise standards at NYC wastewater treatment plants and bring hundreds of corporate and government polluters to justice. After leaving public service, Paul spent over a decade as an executive in the land conservation movement in New York and Maine, protecting thousands of acres of sensitive land, expanding the constituency for land conservation and promoting sustainable development practices. Now, as President of Riverkeeper, Paul fights for a cleaner Hudson and safer drinking water for over nine million New Yorkers. Paul received degrees from Williams College and Columbia Law School. He was a visiting professor of environmental studies at Williams from 2004 to 2007. Paul lives in Ossining, New York.

Ofcom extends deadline to EE consultation

Ofcom has extended the deadline for stakeholders to respond to the consultation on whether to allow the variance on Everything Everywhere's (EE) 1800MHz license to allow WiMAX and LTE technologies. EE already have to give back some of the 1800MHz spectrum as part of the merger between T-Mobile and Orange and this could be used by another licensee for LTE/WiMAX services. There have been vocal complaints from other Mobile Network Operators (MNO) that this would give EE an unfair advantage by them being able to launch LTE services ahead of all the other UK MNOs. The deadline for respondents has been extended to May 8th 2012 and can be seen here.