Welcome! This repository documents my participation in the Green Digital Skills program, where I learned how digital technologies impact the environment and how to build solutions for a sustainable future.
This initiative taught me to:
- Audit digital carbon footprints (e.g., energy consumption of apps, websites, and cloud systems).
- Implement green tech practices like low-energy coding, sustainable UX design, and eco-conscious data management.
- Advocate for sustainability in tech workflows, from development to deployment.
- Digital Carbon Footprint: Measuring hidden environmental costs of data centers, network traffic, and device usage.
- Sustainable Coding: Writing energy-efficient algorithms and minimizing server load.
- Green Web Practices: Optimizing images, reducing HTTP requests, and using renewable-powered hosting.
- Behavioral Change: Encouraging users/teams to adopt eco-friendly digital habits (e.g., deleting unused data, limiting video streaming quality).
- Digital Transformation: Exploring the intersection of digital transformation and environmental responsibility.
- Impact Tracking: Quantifying energy savings from optimized digital workflows (e.g., reduced data storage/transfer).
- User-Centric Design: Balancing technical rigor with accessibility for organizations and end-users.
This workspace will evolve into actionable tools and open-source applications to:
- Replace resource-heavy workflows with local, energy-efficient alternatives (e.g., offline file compression).
- Track environmental impact of digital projects (e.g., CO2 saved via reduced data transfer/storage).
- Build Carbon Footprint Calculators and Eco-Plugin Libraries for developers.
The tech industry contributes ~3-4% of global CO2 emissions (equal to aviation!). Small changes in how we design, code, and use technology can collectively reduce this impact. By transitioning to more eco-friendly digital solutions, we can:
- Reduce resource consumption
- Empower organizations and people to meet sustainability goals
The Capstone project is an opportunity to apply my new Green Digital Skills knowledge to making a change in the real world. Adopting solutions provided in the course content, consider a digital product, service, or process that I could improve to reduce its digital carbon footprint.
My project tackles the inefficiency of sharing large files. It's a free, user-friendly application for compressing images, PDFs, and videos. This local tool empowers users to reduce file size significantly without sacrificing quality. This translates to faster uploads, smoother webpage loading, and secure file sharing – all without relying on limited online services.
Existing file sharing methods often struggle with large files. Online compression tools often have usage limits, forcing users to upload and download files repeatedly until the user reaches the desired result, and raise security concerns about sensitive data. This creates a gap for a secure, local application that can reduce file size without sacrificing quality. This promotes a greener approach to file sharing by minimizing storage needs and associated energy consumption.
My project tackles the environmental impact of large files by developing a free, user-friendly application for local file compression. This application empowers users to significantly reduce the size of images, PDFs, and videos without sacrificing quality.
- Reduced Energy Consumption: Smaller files require less energy for storage on personal devices and servers, leading to a lower carbon footprint for online activities.
- Minimized Data Transfer: By enabling efficient compression locally, the application reduces the amount of data transferred during uploads and downloads, further lowering energy use associated with internet traffic.
- User Awareness: The user-friendly interface promotes conscious file management, encouraging people to consider file size before sharing. This fosters a more sustainable digital lifestyle.
This local application prioritizes both user needs and environmental responsibility, offering a secure and efficient solution that contributes to a greener digital world.
Have you ever wanted to send an attachment or upload a file on a website that had a size limitation? Have you ever struggled with a photo or document that was just too big to share easily? You're not alone. This frustration fueled my project, which is driven by a vision of a developer with sustainability.
Our overflowing inboxes and sluggish websites highlight a hidden cost: the environmental impact of digital clutter. By empowering users with a secure, local compression tool, we can significantly reduce file sizes, minimizing energy consumption and promoting a more sustainable digital future.
This project aims to deliver a free, user-friendly application for local file compression on various operating systems. Here's a breakdown of the key deliverables:
- Functional Prototype: A fully functional prototype of the application allowing users to compress images, PDFs, and videos.
- Intuitive Interface: A user-friendly interface that guides users through the compression process with clear instructions and options for customizing compression levels.
- Offline Functionality: The application will operate entirely offline, eliminating the need for internet connectivity and ensuring user privacy.
- Compression Quality: The application will offer various compression levels, allowing users to find the optimal balance between file size reduction and quality preservation.
- Compatibility: The application will be compatible with major operating systems (e.g., Windows, macOS, Linux) to ensure broad usability.
By delivering these specific features, the project aims to empower users with a robust and accessible tool to tackle the challenge of large file sizes and promote a greener digital environment.
Key stakeholders include:
- Users: They benefit from easy file compression.
- Developers: Build and maintain the application.
- Environmental Groups: Interested in the project's green impact.
The project impacts:
- Internet Usage: No more unnecessary uploads/downloads. Reduced page load time for websites.
- Cloud Storage (Indirect): Less storage needed for compressed files.
| Organizational (human desirability?) | This project is a personal project, so organizational support isn't a major concern. | 4 |
| Functional (viability?) | The core functionalities (compressing files) are achievable. Complex features might require more resources. | 4 |
| Technical (technical feasibility?) | Development skills can be learned or supplemented through collaboration or open-source tools. Leverage open-source libraries like FFmpeg (for video) or Pillow (for images) to streamline development. | 3 |
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Skill Development:
- Identify specific programming languages needed for the application.
- Utilize online tutorials or courses to bridge any knowledge gaps.
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User Interface Design:
- Consider collaborating with a UI/UX designer to create a user-friendly and intuitive interface.
- If designing yourself, research best practices for user interface design.
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Functionality Development:
- Prioritize core functionalities (image, PDF, video compression) for the initial version.
- Implement a modular design to allow for future integration of advanced features.
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Testing and Refinement:
- Leverage online testing platforms or communities to gather feedback on functionality and user experience across various operating systems.
- Use this feedback to iterate and refine the application throughout the development process.
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Open-Source Exploration:
- Research existing open-source libraries or frameworks that can support compression functionalities.
- Consider contributing the application itself as open-source to encourage community involvement and future development.
By focusing on these key strategies, the project can achieve its objective of delivering a functional and user-friendly local file compression application.
Functionality:
- Measurable: Percentage of successfully compressed images, PDFs, and videos.
- Target: Achieve a success rate of at least 80% for each file type at various compression levels.
Usability:
- Measurable: User feedback through surveys or in-app testing.
- Target: Achieve a user satisfaction rating of at least 4 out of 5 on ease of use and intuitiveness.
Compression Efficiency:
- Measurable: Average reduction in file size achieved after compression.
- Target: Achieve an average file size reduction of at least 50% without significant quality loss (as judged by user testing).
Offline Functionality:
- Measurable: Successful application operation without internet connection.
- Target: The application should function entirely offline, demonstrably processing files without requiring an internet connection.
Platform Compatibility:
- Measurable: Successful installation and operation on target operating systems.
- Target: The application should be successfully installable and functional on at least three major operating systems (e.g., Windows, macOS, Linux).
By tracking these measurable criteria throughout development and testing, the project can objectively determine if it meets its goals.
In 7 days:
- Research: Identify core programming languages and explore open-source compression libraries (Python’s Pillow for image compression or FFmpeg for video compression).
- Skill Development: Begin an online course or bootcamp to build foundational programming skills.
- Project Planning: Outline key functionalities and features for the initial application version.
In 14 days:
- User Research: Develop a user survey to gather initial insights on user needs and pain points regarding file compression.
- UI/UX Design: If collaborating with a designer, initiate brainstorming sessions for the application's interface.
- Prototype Development: Start building a basic prototype focusing on core functionalities like file selection and compression initiation.
In 30 days:
- Testing & Refinement: Conduct initial user testing with the prototype to identify usability issues and gather feedback.
- Development Iteration: Refine the prototype based on user feedback, focusing on improving usability and core functionalities.
- Integrate Compression Libraries: Begin integrating identified open-source libraries to handle image, PDF, and video compression.
In 60 days:
- Sustainability Metrics: Integrate a CO2 savings estimator based on reduced file sizes.
- Extended Features: Explore implementing additional functionalities based on initial user feedback and project scope.
- Cross-Platform Compatibility: Begin testing the application's functionality on different operating systems (e.g., Windows, macOS).
- Final Testing & Packaging: Conduct thorough testing to ensure application stability and prepare the application for distribution.
This project is open-source! Contributions to code, design, or sustainability metrics are welcome.
This project is licensed under the MIT License.
See the LICENSE file for more details.
If you find this script useful, consider giving it a star ⭐ on GitHub!
👨💻 Contributed by lvl-4.com