Free Change

Black Cloud Sensor Locations

Originally uploaded by gregoniemeyer

This map shows an overview of all of Black Cloud’s sensors (green dots in white countries). The gray countries show all the places where Cloudy McPufferson did not try to place a sensor. The countries in dark gray refused to have their air measured: Egypt and Russia. Both of them anecdotally have heavy pollution issues, but they prefer not to have that data online in real time. So Cloudy did not prevail. Of course, air knows no boundaries. The Nation-state concept misses the point, and outlawing air quality measurements seems quaint.

The idea behind Black Cloud was to measure the air quality experiences of humans, not nations, anyway. On that front we made many experiences with sensor approval as well.

Whenever we approached someone asking if we could set up an air quality sensor and that person said: “I better check with my manager” or worse “I have to check with Corporate Headquarters” the answer was always “No”, with the notable exception of an Internet Company who preferred to remain unnamed.

This is perhaps because the larger an enterprise is, the more paranoid it is about information. Hotels seemed to dislike the idea of having their air quality studied, because, as one manager told me, “If people know it’s bad, we lose business”.

The opposite is true: Who would blame a hotel for poor air quality? It is a choice we make when we decide to say near an airport or near a park, and often air quality is reflected in the room rate.

So all hotels should disclose air quality. The hotels that do not measure air quality are the one that should be avoided: They must have something to hide.

Museums, galleries and art organizations, especially Swissnex and Pro Helvetia, were generally very supportive of sensing. Their sensing habits go back to the Hygrometer, which tracks humidity (bad for paper).

Schools likewise did not mind air quality sensing, although the air quality of classrooms (including UC Berkeley’s) frequently seemed to be rather poor. Here’s to better ventilation in Schools!