I’ve been doing the “5 Things on Friday” thing for several years (on and off) and I was just thinking to myself, the New Year would be a great time to revive it. And so, let me start off the year by sharing 5 cool things that you might want to check out; including, a cool tree map, visual marketing tips, a mobile printing solution and more.
Seattle Treemap
Seattle is part of the Open TreeMap Community – OpenTreeMap is a collaborative platform for crowdsourced tree inventory, ecosystem services calculations, urban forestry analysis, and community engagement. This amazing web service enables users to locate trees, update tree records and add trees to the inventory. Tree are organized by species and photos are also provided. The Seattle Tree Map is part of Canopy Connections, a project by the Seattle Audubon Society. See the Seattle TreeMap HERE
Polaroid Zip Photoprinter – print and share images anywhere, using your mobile
The Polaroid Zip photoprinter brings the Polaroid experience into the mobile age allowing users to quickly and easily print and share their favorite photos anywhere. The Polaroid Zip photoprinter features a free app for iOS and Android and connects to mobile devices via Bluetooth 4.0 or NFC. Learn more at Photojojo.com and online at B&H Photo (bhphotovideo.com), and internationally on Amazon. See more info here
Algalita Research – How much plastic is entering the ocean?
I’ve been a huge fan of the Algalita Research Foundation ever since I had the pleasure of listening to their execs at a special presentation here in the PacNW discussing the HUGE issue of plastics in the Oceans and the efforts that the group is going to address this Global problem. Recently, they shared details of a study that looked more precisely at the amount of plastics that are entering the oceans from the land surrounding them… the results are astonishing! They note, not surprisingly, that “the quantity of plastic in the global ocean’s five accumulator gyres has reached a level that is destroying their fragile ecosystems.” Read more HERE

Plastic in Oceans (Image Credit: islandguardian.com)
Awesome Things to do in Denver
Denver, Colorado is home to many GeoGeeks and loads of awesome technology. Chances are good that at some time in the year you’ll have a chance to visit the city of Denver for a business trip or GeoTech conference. So what will you do? I’ve never had a tough time locating great things to do in my spare time in the mile high city (particularly when my Rockies are playing at home) but the folks at the New York Times have just released an amazing article with some awesome things to do and places to see – these aren’t the typical, touristy sights, rather, these are hand-picked, local favorites… great stuff here and ideas to keep you busy for 36 hours from Friday through Sunday!
Hubspot is an information-rich resource with loads of great stuff for anyone in need of tips and tricks to kickstart their marketing and social marketing efforts. Recently, Hubspot published a paper that shared 17 stats that you need to know about visual content marketing. The paper explores some of the trends that have emerged in visual content marketing and have resulted in lead conversion rates – handy stuff here!