2009 - Q2 Barton Award winners. Students at SJA and CHS join to ...

Plastic power
Venture capital keeps flowing to thin film solar cell firms. The latest is Konarka, a Lowell,
Mass.-based firm that is named after a Hindu sun god. Konarka is offering a lightweight solar
cell that is flexible enough to be used on outdoor umbrellas and handbags. Konarka has converted
a shuttered Polaroid printing press to produce its cells. The press prints a secret polymer
ink that absorbs light and emits electrons. The product has a bright future. It could be
embedded, for instance, in windows to produce electricity for homes and buildings. Thin film
solar cells are cheaper, but silicon cells produce more energy. Other companies in the thin
film space include HelioVolt, Miasole and Nanosolar. •
Government works
As presidential candidate, Barack Obama set new standards for
online campaigning. Now his administration is set to remake government
use of technology. The president has hired Vivek Kundra
as the U.S. government’s chief information officer. In his previous
job as chief technology officer for Washington, D.C., Kundra was
known for making public data much more accessible over the web.
The hope among techies and good government groups is that he does the
same for the federal government. Helping him get a start was Wired.
com, which established a wiki site to gather advice for Kundra. And
the ideas came pouring in. Make data release the rule, rather than
the exception. Make the National Center for Education Statistics
data available in bulk download. Fund data reanalysis projects.
Kundra wants vast amounts of government data online at
data.gov. If it’s easy to use, the transparency should improve
how the government works. •
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Currents Q2 | 2009