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Interview 12: Al Tepper

Jonathan Melhuish — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 23:18:27 +0000

Al Tepper has a background in publishing, where he focussed on how to create value in a world where an infinite amount amount of information is available free of charge. More recently, he’s been working with Natural Collection, an ethical online retailer, to launch Ooffoo.com, a community marketplace.

I asked Al to share his thoughts about how publishers and retailers alike can benefit from building an online community. You can download an Mp3 version or subscribe to the the podcast feed to get the audio of these interviews as soon as they’re published.

Interview 11: Shopping for a Better World

Jonathan Melhuish — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:48:42 +0000

Here’s an interview with Dr John Tepper Marlin from New York University. John told me about his wife’s involvement in the “Council On Economic Priorities” and their publication “Shopping for a Better World“. He went on to talk about her current organisation, Social Accountability International, which seeks to establish an international standard for improving working conditions.

You can download an Mp3 version or subscribe to the the podcast feed to get the audio of all these interviews as soon as they’re published.

Interview 10: Better World Shopper

Jonathan Melhuish — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:32:49 +0000

This interview is with Dr. Ellis Jones of the University of California, author of the Better World Shopper guide. Now available in iPod and dead-tree versions, this guide seeks to give shoppers a simple, practical guide to which high-street brands are the most ethical and which to avoid. Due to the pocket-size format, there’s not a lot space for references or explanation in the guide, but Dr. Jones gave me a glimpse into how the ratings are calculated. He’s interested in using the web to allow greater transparency and more global coverage.

Download the Mp3 audio version or subscribe to the the podcast feed to get these interviews the moment they’re published.

Interview 9: CarrotProject

Jonathan Melhuish — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:17:08 +0000

In my ninth interview I spoke with Jake de Grazia from CarrotProject. He told me about their plan to approach subject experts and academics and ask them to contribute their opinions, then ask the community how much they trust each expert’s opinion. I think this approach mirrors what happens on Wikipedia, where most of the content seems to be created by a small number of specialists. Using the community as a trust filter is a thoroughly Web 2.0 re-take on the peer-review process.

You can download an Mp3 audio version or subscribe to the the podcast feed to get all these interviews as soon as they’re published.

Untitled from Jonathan Melhuish on Vimeo.

Interview 8: GoodGuide

Jonathan Melhuish — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:31:17 +0000

My latest interview is with Dara O’Rourke, CEO of GoodGuide, a slick web site (and iPhone app) that profiles the impact of 60,000 everyday products on health, the environment and on society. They have an impressive team of specialists leading the research, as well as inviting user reviews.

You can watch the interview below, get the Mp3 audio file or subscribe to the the podcast feed to get all of these interviews as soon as they’re online.

I recommend also watching the short demo video and accompanying article on TechCrunch, both of which provide a good introduction to GoodGuide.

Interview 7: Buy It Like You Mean It

Jonathan Melhuish — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:13:34 +0000

This time I talked to Clay Ward from Buy It Like You Mean It. I guess many of you will already know Clay as it’s thanks largely to Clay’s contact list that we could start this collaboration. Clay told me a bit about their approach and his interests in collaborating.

Download the Mp3 audio version or subscribe to the the podcast feed to get the interviews as soon as they’re published.

Interview 6: Citizens Market

Jonathan Melhuish — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 20:05:01 +0000

Today I interviewed Stéphane de Messières from Citizens Market. He told me about their focus on the content creation process, their nine-strong team of volunteers and his thoughts on collaboration.

Download the Mp3 audio version or subscribe to the the podcast feed to stay up to date with the interviews as they’re published.

Interview 5: Ethical Consumer

Jonathan Melhuish — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 16:06:15 +0000

Annesley has interviewed Rob Harrison from Ethical Consumer (although no podcast this time, sorry).

Ethical Consumer have the most comprehensive high quality researched company information database in the world. They have been going for 20 years using a subscription model, magazine and extensive B2B work and are extremely well known and connected in the UK. They cover 50,000 companies, take articles from over 50 publications and use around 10 researchers / investigators.

Rob Harrison, a founding member of Ethical Consumer, has now stated that they are “genuinely considering moving into a Web 2.0 model with free content (for not-for-profits and non-commercial use), community contributions (continuing with the researchers as well) and commercialising around the data”. And furthermore that they are “extremely interested in joining with an international Web 2.0 collaboration on ECIS”.

Interview 4: Nate Greenslit

Jonathan Melhuish — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:24:12 +0000

My fourth interview is with another academic who is conducting research highly relevant to ethical consumer information, Nate Greenslit from the MIT Media Lab. I asked Nate to talk about his current research project, Accountability, which provides consumers with ethical information about the companies they buy from and investigates whether this knowledge influences their future spending behaviour.

Download the Mp3 version or subscribe to the the podcast feed to get all future interviews as soon as they’re online.

Interview 3: Terry Newholm

Jonathan Melhuish — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:45:55 +0000

My third interview isn’t actually with an ethical information system project but with somebody very involved in the field who is keen to help. Dr Terry Newholm is a lecturer in Marketing at the University of Manchester in the UK and a co-author of the book “The Ethical Consumer“.

I asked Terry to give a brief history of ethical consumerism, and problems that it faces, such as the “words-deeds inconsistency” and whether a purchase is really a vote. I also got him to talk about his current areas of research and give some advice on how we can encourage consumers to shop ethically.

Download the Mp3 audio version or subscribe to the the podcast feed to get all future interviews as soon as they’re online.

Interview 2: Consumer Gadget

Jonathan Melhuish — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:48:33 +0000

In my second interview in this series, I interviewed Wesa Aapro (in Finland) about his work on Consumer Gadget. After an ambitious attempt to build a barcode-scanning device for providing ethical guidance to shoppers, Wesa is currently focussing more on the design of data formats for ethical information. In January, he’ll lead an exciting project with students of Tampere University to look develop a browser plugin for delivering ethical information, building on the existing KnowMore and EasyEthical plugins.

Download the Mp3 audio version or even better, subscribe to the the podcast feed and get all future interviews as soon as they’re published.

Interview 1: EasyEthical

Jonathan Melhuish — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:45:24 +0000

In order to give a bit of background to the various projects that are looking at how to provide ethical information to consumers, I though it would be good to do a series of interviews and release them as podcasts and online videos. I don’t know about you, but I spend almost all my days reading and writing, so I always appreciate when I can get a break from that. Plus I think seeing an interview can communicate a lot more, including styles and personalities, which can help in future collaboration.

The first interview is, naturally, talking with Annesley about our own project, EasyEthical. I also mention the CarrotMobs that we’ve organised. It was recorded in a noisy cafe with my digital camera but hopefully the audio is clear enough for you to decipher our ramblings. The video was shot using Annesley’s Microsoft webcam on his Windows laptop, which probably explains why it randomly stopped recording for about a minute

Video version is below (feel free to embed elsewhere / re-distribute). Alternatively you can download the mp3 audio version for your portable listening pleasure. Even better, subscribe to the podcast feed and you’ll get each interview as soon as it is published.