Brainstorming project aspects re: the drought in Calif.

drought-project-ideas.md

"Gaming the drought" aka Drought Tracker

Our pitch is to create a "data-driven" narrative game that allows a user to assume a role, work their way through scenarios related to the drought, water conservation and water consumption, learn from their choices and share their results with their network of friends.

####Flow of the game

1. User would choose a role and answer two or three questions that would further personalize the role
   • Ideas for roles:
     • Homeowner
     • Owner of an industrial business
     • Farmer
     • Restaurant owner
     • School superintendent
   • Goal of the questions is to arrive at a particular archetype:
     • Conserver
     • Waster
     • Compromiser
   • Example questions:
     • Number of employees, students, customers
     • Type of crops planted, food served, etc
     • Zip code/neighborhood/location
2. User is faced with a choice in a scenario:
   • Example choices:
     • Use water sparingly
     • Use water excessively
     • Make a compromise in another area
   • Example scenarios:
     • Mandatory rations are in place. Choose how to spend your water allotment
       • Similar to a state budget slashing interactive.
     • Your business is offered a discount if it can reduce its water consumption by 30 percent. Where do the cuts come from?
     • What "water usage" activities will you do today:
       • Based on answer user sees how much it costs
       • Shower for X number of minutes
       • Run X number of loads in dishwasher
       • Wash X number of loads of laundry
3. As the user works through scenarios we offer links to resources, conservation tips from experts, facts about water usage, anecdotes and methods to participate in a discussion about water use in Los Angeles.
   • Historical water use in zip codes will allow people to see how they compare to their neighbors
   • Tips from expperts could be personalized based on the scenario
   • Ideas for resources are below

####Ideas for sources of data

• Academics who create data values for how much water is consumed for each use: toilets, sink tap running, large load of laundry
• Solicit our audience to keep a water usage diary
• Gather and clean data that shows historial water use by zip code
• Crowdsource selected data points from user water bills

####Ideas for complimentary resources

• A user's guide to understanding the water bill
• A user's guide to what happens when… you flush the toilet, run the dishwasher, use outdoor sprinklers
• A mechanism to share water conservation tips with others
• A water conservation council

####Designing a Game

• Make your game fun
• Your game must have an objective
• The result of the game should not be predetermined
• Give people a reason to play again.

####Inspiration

• Budget Hero
• Budget Puzzle: You Fix the Budget
• The Candidate
• Income Upshot
• Hairnet Heros
• Heartsaver
• Creating Games for Journalism
• John Osborn's Newsgame Directory

One observation that we learned from Income Upshot (and as a corollary, from our Who Gives? philanthropy project: http://www.marketplace.org/sites/default/iframes/philanthropy/ ...

If you're going to gamify, you almost want to make it a way for a user to find out more about themselves -- or their neighbors/friends -- not as a way to 'play a game'.

So, here its almost like you want to ask people questions about:

• How much they mow their lawn
• How much they shower/bathe
• How many people in their household go to the bathroom how often.
• Etc etc.

And then tell them where they fall in the spectrum of water users. (maybe current and past)

And then give them tips about how to improve their standing.