The environmental and social impact of a project
Assessing from the specification what a piece of software costs the environment and society: life cycle, weight of devices, rebound effect, functional sobriety, accessibility, inclusion and privacy.
- 23 cards
- 4 topics
- Free
The outline, topic by topic
Each topic is weighted the way the exam weighs it.
- Concepts
- Questions
- Sort and link
- The numbers
A few cards from the deck
Life cycle of a digital service: what is it?
Show the answer
The sequence of stages from the manufacture of the equipment used to its end of life, through its transport and use.
A life-cycle assessment counts all impacts at once. For a device such as a smartphone, manufacturing weighs most, well before the electricity of use.
A video-call app cuts the data per call by 30%. Six months later total traffic has risen, because calls are longer and more frequent. What is this phenomenon called?
- The rebound effect
- Functional sobriety
- The digital divide
- Life-cycle assessment
Show the answer
The rebound effect
Each call became more efficient, but usage grew more: total impact rises. This is why the impact of a whole service is assessed rather than that of one operation.
The main stages of a device's life cycle are …, transport, … and ….
Show the answer
The main stages of a device's life cycle are manufacturing, transport, use and end of life.
Extending the lifespan of a device spreads the impact of its manufacture over more years: it is often the most effective move.
Rebound effect: what is it?
Show the answer
An efficiency gain that increases usage so much that it partly or fully cancels the expected saving.
A service that uses half as much per video, but encourages watching twice as much, saves nothing. The total impact is measured, not the unit impact.