Blog Posts About: green

A couple of weeks ago, we announced The Common Craft Store.  It was a pretty soft roll-out, but was a huge moment for us.  Not only did it mark the end of a lot of preparation, but a new business model.  So far, so good.  Plus, the more-ready-for-prime-time Store will soon be coming to an Internet near you.

A big part of preparing to open the Store was making new versions of each video in both Windows (.wmv) and Mac (.mov) formats.  This gave us a chance to make improvements across the library - especially to our first few videos, which has sound and color issues.

The first example is a major update for the "licensed version" of RSS in Plain English video, which is only available in the Store.  We recorded a new voice-over and re-edited it to be more efficient and have improved color. The content is nearly identical to the original, free version. Below is the updated, licensed version:

Click to play

The second example is CFL Light Bulbs in Plain English (formerly New Light Bulbs in Plain English).  When we originally published it, it did not contain a warning about mercury and disposing of the bulbs properly.  This new version of the video contains a mercury warning. This updated video is now available in both free and licensed versions. Below is the updated, free version:

Click to play

We're so excited about this new direction.  We'll be providing all future Common Craft Show videos in free and licensed versions - and the licensed ones will be displayed in full length in the Store.

You've likely seen it before, you come home to find a bag of useless phonebooks on your porch. I realized recently that I haven't used a phonebook or yellowpages in years - I take them straight to recycling. They are dinosaurs.

This got me thinking - shouldn't I be able to opt-out of automatic delivery? Wouldn't there be a significant impact if everyone stopped receiving phonebooks and yellow pages? Apparently the major players pumped out 540 million directories this year.

This is insane and wasteful and I want people to know they can opt-out. Below are the numbers to call for the major distributors of phone books and yellow pages (none have online forms as far as I know). Simply call the numbers and tell them you want to opt-out of delivery - it takes a few minutes. I called all the ones below myself.

AT&T/YellowPages (formerly SBC and Bell South):

1.866.329.7118

Verizon (Idearc):

1.800.888.8448

Dex:

1.877.243.8339

Yellow Book:

1.800.373.3280 or 1.800.373.2324

The major players use a tactic called "saturation distribution" that means that you may get books even if you don't have a land line.

PaperlessPetition.org is one of the only resources I found who is working on this issue. From their site:

...expedite an end to this needless environmental waste, educate consumers on free and easy alternatives, and shed light on the growing inaccuracy of readership statistics that drive advertisers to still invest in this antiquated medium.

If you're interested, you can get a badge here.