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An idea I think originally from @jflasher and something we discussed in UB a long time ago but could actually be done in RT using OpenAQ :) -

Build a booth that lets you experience real-time air quality (or historical) for various places around the world for a few minutes. I was told by a lawyer that we would need to get individuals accessing the booth at all to sign a waiver.

Another idea that a colleague proposed was rather having a screen up that changes opacity. So, if done on the DC Mall, for instance, you'd see the Capitol Building crystal-clear through it, if the screen were displaying typical AQ for DC. If the AQ changed to a more polluted place, the opacity would change accordingly.

From an email conversation with colleague:

I suggested that you consider publishing CAP alerts for air quality conditions on a routine basis. As I mentioned, CAP alerts are generated routinely by EPA and posted as "EPA Air Quality Alerts".

You can find a brief flyer about CAP, focusing on online users, here.

Please do let me know if you would like to pursue this. I think you will find it is a straightforward task with huge benefits in terms of reaching people worldwide.

Attachment: OnlineAlerting (1).pdf

Note: This is a project that OpenAQ itself would likely not build, but would support others building on top of our API.

This tool would need to be on top of our system and not something we would want to do to our dataset itself. We need to maintain the data as it is shared from its originating source with no assumptions attached.

Multitude mentioned this would be useful for them: openaq/openaq-data-format#7 (Question 9)

Hey guys, I don't know if anyone has done this before but I hacked a little telegram bot that shows openaq data when send a location or address.
If you have a telegram account you can check it out here https://t.me/DontPolluteMeBot
What you think? Want to get the repo in here?
Any way great project! Definitely going to explore a little more.
Cheers

This issue provide specifications for building a US EPA-like* AQI Wrapper on top of the OpenAQ Platform for a single pollutant, such as PM2.5. This is also a community wish list item, which can be found here.

1. Access hourly PM2.5 data (or create hourly data from sub-hourly measurements).

2. Use the following equation for a given hourly value:

Above is from Page 11 here.

3. The breakpoints for the equation are:
   

Above is from Page 13 here.

4. An example (with ozone):
   

5. You can double check your work by using this simple calculator that converts back and forth from physical PM2.5 (in ug/m^3) to AQI.

*Important notes and caveats:

• There are many types of Air Quality Indices that vary from country to country and are sometimes created by non-government entities, like app development companies. This focuses on a US-centric approach. Read more about AQI here.

• This outline explains a single-pollutant calculation of AQI. See here. if you want to do multi-pollutant calculations for a US EPA-like or a US EPA AQI. An AQI system that takes a different approach to combining pollutants' health effects is the Canadian AQHI.

• This outline explains how to convert raw, physical station-level data into a an hourly AQI based on hourly data, as calculated using US EPA methods, but not using the NowCast or full AQI that use the last 12 and 24 hours of data, respectively. This is done for simplicity's sake and timeliness. The NowCast method is not simple to calculate and less transparent what precisely what one is viewing. The normally-calculated AQI for PM2.5 is based on 24 hours of data, which is less timely though is based on health impacts. This method of calculating the 'hourly' AQI is not used by the EPA, though it is used by the US Embassy and US Consulates in China (see here)

• For more information on calculating the NowCast AQI, see this explainer) for calculating the US EPA AirNow NowCast method for PM2.5 and O3.

This idea is a bit more vague, but: What the data could be used in conjunction with real-time air quality data to observe how air pollution affects the lives of people daily? Intuitively, I would think in places that experience high pollution levels periodically (so there is a swing of 'clear air' days vs smoggy ones - e.g. Beijing as opposed to Delhi), air pollution may impact how people transport themselves, if they go out or watch a movie, go to a restaurant/eat in, how much foot traffic a tourist attraction gets, etc. But who knows? It'd be interesting to explore.

Could be built with open AQ data: In light of the recent NO2 violations in London*, it'd be interesting to make a real-time map of how close (or how over) locations around London (or elsewhere) are to violating AQ (NO2 or other pollutant) levels for the year.

*http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/08/london-takes-just-one-week-to-breach-annual-air-pollution-limits?CMP=share_btn_tw