unplug now

Unplug Nowtwitter.com/unplugnow

Stanford University CS377P

Daisuke IizawaKeng-Teh Min

Enrique Allen

Greg Schwartz

1 simple action

Unplug any unused appliance near you today

Why?

• According to PG&E, if everyone in the United States unplugs his or her unused electronic appliances, it's like taking 8.5 million cars off the road

• Wow… we can save energy and prevent unnecessary global warming with one simple action

Antecedents to Peace

• People working together• Interconnectedness• Energy sustainability

Process

• Facebook week-long event• Twitter account• 100 HITs on Amazon Mechanical

Turk paying users $0.2/per uploaded picture of unplugged appliance to Facebook event

Tweet “@unplugnow [appliance]”

Update Facebook status

“unplugnow [appliance]”

OR

Step 1

Step 2

*HITs upload picture of unplugged appliance

Metrics for ATPs

• How many people join Facebook event• How many people follow Twitter account• How many people actually unplug

something- based on public tweets and Facebook status message updates

• Estimated carbon emissions avoided

Results• “Attended” Facebook event: 35 (12.9%)• Twitter followers: 4 • HITs completed: 2• Unplugged appliances: 22• Estimated carbon emission avoided in 1 day:

~2 kg• Hypothetical carbon emissions avoided

yearly: ~726 kg if constant participation rate*According to E-Day, unplugged phone charger when not in use = annual saving of 10 pounds and 33 kilograms of carbon emissions off of your annual CO2 total

What worked?

• Exchanging comments on Facebook invite wall

• Sending mobile photos with twitpic.com

Limitations

• Did not scale beyond personal ties• No feedback loop after status update • No tweets despite rsvp to attend

Facebook event• No spontaneous followers on twitter• HIT required Facebook account • No scalable analysis of Facebook

status

Lessons Learned

• Must use cue to trigger behavior change- eg SMS reminder to unplug

• Facebook group has more potential for continued engagement

• Must engage lead Twitter users and actively follow other users

• Make HIT simpler• Provide feedback/progress for

participants- X amount of carbon emissions avoided today

Unplug Nowtwitter.com/unplugnow

Stanford University CS377P

Daisuke IizawaKeng-Teh Min

Enrique Allen

Greg Schwartz