What: The Water Hackathon is a collaborative effort between Pachube, Ushahidi, and Public Laboratory -- and is open to all comers! Where: Parsons the New School for Design 6 E 16th Street, 12th Floor When: March 23-25, 2012

Meetup Page: http://www.meetup.com/iotnewyork/events/50617532/ Meetup Description: Come hack water with Pachube, Ushahidi, and PublicLaboratory.org. We will be exploring how we can crowdsource water quality information, connect real-time data and citizen observed reports with a Pachube<->Ushahidi linkup, build our own investigative tools, and contribute to social issues affecting our local area here in NYC.

Schedule: We will start with an evening mixer on Friday night to form groups and talk about projects, hack through Saturday and Sunday, and show our work in a public session on Sunday afternoon.

Ideas: The Public Laboratory community will be bringing some water quality related tools/parts/ideas to hack on, for example, a hand-held near-infrared spectrometer that can identify commonly found contaminants like polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), a turbidity meter featuring an inexpensive light sensor and LED to create controlled lighting conditions, and a thermal “fishing bob” which changes color depending on the temperature of the water it touches.

Support: We are seeking sponsorship for materials and supplies from Pachube and Future Electronics/Melexis.

Smartphone Turbidimeter: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1Z8tmVe19cu3z0X4PzvXQA7228orwcwIWU8alSdFUt20/edit