Sourcemap Tells You Where It's Made and What It Contains

So you've finally plunked down a few of your hard-earned Benjamins on that brand-new handheld gadget that mows the lawn, takes out the garbage, brews your morning coffee and -- surprisingly -- still has enough silicon brain-power to make phone calls. Fresh out of its cardboard and plastic sarcophagus, it looks clean and innocent -- but do you know where it's made and what's actually in the thing?

Neither do most people, we just like how they amuse and entertain us.

Thankfully, at least for those of us who can't ignore the ecological and economic impacts of our digital lifestyles, MIT's Media Lab has constructed a nifty application called Sourcemap. It uses a visual map (see the demonstration video at the Sourcemap home page) to show users where each component of a given electronic widget comes from, in addition to the ingredients and carbon footprint of each.

The application is meant to be used by manufacturers, business owners and consumers, according to the "info" page at Sourcemap's site:

"Our site is a social network where anyone can contribute to a shared understanding of the story behind products. You can simulate the impact of manufacturing, transporting, using and throwing away products using our Life-Cycle Assessment calculator. This web-based tool uses linked data from geological and geographic resources."

It's still quite early in the beta launch, otherwise I'd share an example, but interested folks can register for free to get started.

Photo courtesy of Kprateek88, via Wikimedia Commons