Jamil Shariff

I am:

a technology and communications consultant tending towards the environmental side of things

My outlook on design/technology::

There is always a greener side, or a more efficient way to do something, but that isn't ever even half of the story. How people use a design or piece technology is at least as important as it's environmental impact, or lack thereof. As the environent gets to be a more pressing issue, social and environmental evaluations of design are going to becoming common. These ideas inform many of my thoughts on design and technology.

I work at using technology in environmental ways and for the benefit of environmentally and socially aware causes. I am particularly interested in exploring the environmental and social benefits of applying open source ideas to green technologies, as well exploring the environmental and and social credentials of using open source software.

About me:

I was born in Ottawa but moved to Alberta before I could walk. My father instilled a waderlust in me a young age by taking the family to Tanzania for the summer when I was ten. I left the prairies as soon as I could drive for the coast, and kept moving, across Canada, then to the States and further.

I have been working mostly in communications and technology since I graduated from my Arts degree, and usually fiddling with some other piece of eco-kit on the side. I have a fascination with old technology getting a new life and wondering why some things are so popular and others not.

I recently finished a graduate degree in the UK on energy and the environment in architecture, and am in the process of finishing a book for McGraw-Hill titled Green Projects for the Evil genius, out later this year. I used to teach a class on Stirling heat engines in the UK and if you get me started I'm hard to stop.

latest blog post:

Jamil Shariff

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