The Global Ideas Blog

10 ideas that are changing the world (and 6 that might)

Time Magazine currently has a special feature on the 10 Ideas that are Changing the World. If you want to know what Synthetic Authenticity and Reverse Radicalism are, then this is the place for you: interesting stuff.

At a more micro level, Social Innovation Camp (which unfortunately I'll miss, despite working in the office below) has announced its shortlist of 6 ideas to be given a thorough going over in a couple of weekends' time. So if you want to know what Barcode Wikipedia and Stuffshare might be, go check it out; (could be) interesting stuff.

Spring wisely and go Camp

A couple of things that might be of interest to readers from the tail end of last year (happy new year, btw: it was a very busy 2007 at the day job, but hopefully more GIB-related activity this year).

First up, the mighty Springwise and their "daily fix of entrepreneurial ideas" bring you the top 10 eco / sustainability ideas of 2007; personal favourites for me include Product Life Story Labels and Incentive-based Recycling, both of which have appeared in different incarnations over the years on GIB (particularly the latter, which could have its own microsite if necessary....).

Secondly, Social Innovation Camp is coming to, well, Bethnal Green in East London. Was chatting to Paul Miller and Anna Maybank about it earlier, and it sounds like it could be a good event, focusing particularly on using new tech to solve social problems. Here's how you can contribute....

More on the latter to come nearer the time. Happy ideating....

User-led (social) innovation?

A long, long time ago, I remember stumbling across Eric Von Hippel's "Democratizing Innovation" and having a light-bulb moment of connection with what the Global Ideas Bank is all about....user-led social innovation. The book outline is still in the drawer, but good to see others pushing this agenda. Most recently, NESTA, who are increasingly interested in this terrain, invited the erstwhile Mr Von Hippel over to discuss this very topic.

David Wilcox was there, and posted about the event (including a video interview with the man himself): "he confirmed for me that celebrating and encouraging bottom-up ways to improve products is one of the best hopes we have for the future"...and, one might add, non-product social inventions as well. Although that raises a whole different range of issues over IP etc.

NESTA themselves, in the form of Richard Halkett, posted about the event: "How do we build policy to support user-led innovation?", to which one might reasonably say "Surely the question should be 'how can we best support those users to lead innovation?' " Anyway, interesting stuff here as well: "if users are often innovators, it’s good for all of us if the state doesn’t prevent them from doing more of this in the future"...and amen to that.

The Alzheimer Screensaver

Great idea, great social invention. This idea combines a screensaver and a social network to aid Alzheimer's sufferers. As the inventor, Said Dajani, explains:

"The screensaver is a virtual scrapbook - a carer and person with dementia can work together to upload pictures, video, text.

We have found that an offline scrapbook has been of real benefit to both and we want to extend this to the digital world. It puts people in contact with their memories."

Combined with a social network to facilitate secure and shared discussions, the site will now be built: the prize for winning the design competition. Superb use of new technology....

Which type of innovator are you?

Global Ideas Bank was at the Skoll World Forum of Social Entrepreneurship the other week, under our alter ego. One of the themes was 'social innovation' which meant, in this context, discussing different routes to achieving social change (rather than just the route of the social entrepreneur). It was interesting stuff, with Geoff Mulgan of the Young Foundation giving his take on this, and then David Galenson, who I found pretty interesting.

Essentially, his research has shown him that there are two types of innovator: the conceptual, genius innovator (eg. Mozart) and the incremental, experiential innovator (eg. er....Clint Eastwood, Louise Bourgeois etc.). The Wikipedia link above has most of the detail, but it's an interesting reminder that innovation comes in different shapes and sizes, particularly as it tends to be viewed as conceptual most of the time, rather than incremental. Indeed, in some areas, it has almost come close to being viewed as novelty (see the initiative-itis of a lot of governments who are impatient and not prepared to incrementally tweak and refine).

There's also a neat article on Galenson in Wired, which puts him firmly in the 'experimental' camp....whether this idea merits two books, I can't say, but let me know if you've read either.

Cowbins: greening the land

Sometimes all it takes is one stroke of genius: a wind-up radio, an open university, a car that runs on electricity and.....painting bins to look like cows. That's right, in Lewisham they've trialled a project called Feed the Cows which painted  large recycling bins to look like cows. Or  as they put it:

"[the partners] have turned ordinary recycling bins into a look-alike herd of cows, set in a look-alike tranquil field, in the heart of the hustle and bustle of New Cross."

Or, as the mayor of Lewisham calls it in his quote, "Moo Cross". Bad puns and mockery aside, though, sometimes the most effective ideas are the simplest. According to this article, the project has increased recycling by 61% in just three months, and Hackney Council are ordering in 200 more....a veritable herd.

Unfortunately, my council prefers the stick to the carrot, and is putting cameras in baked bean tins to tackle persistent waste offenders. Complete madness, of course, but at least it led to the inspired headline in one paper this morning of "Beans Means Fines"....

[thanks to Jake for spotting the cows....]

Zipcar: entering my world

On wet and windy Tuesday mornings, my focus is not always 100% as I wander from bus to tube. But this morning, I was roused from my torpor by the sight of people with ZIPCAR on their jackets in bright green writing. It's always nice when something you write about becomes a reality in your world....and this morning brought back memories of having covered Zipcar and Flexcar in articles on the Global Ideas Bank 7 or 8 years ago. In fact, it seems amazing that it has taken it this long to really hit the UK in any concerted way, but is now a genuinely viable option for Londoners to take advantage of (as well as those of you reading in Boston and Chicago).

Basically you pay an annual fee, and then get charged on an hourly or daily rate on top. Including insurance and everything though, it is cheaper than hiring a car a couple of times a year....though I wonder if there is a scrum around particular time of the year (Christmas). Particularly for the Minis or BMWs ;0)

Also interesting to see how they've split it definitively for personal and business use, the latter being a distinct option for (smaller) companies wishing to retain flexibility but also tick green boxes and not have to adminsiter a company car fleet. Will be interesting to see if it can take off here....

TED / Doors of Perception

Couple of big, hairy interesting events on at present, namely:

- TED 2007; you can read all about it via the TED blog of course. They are bringing together "FIFTY REMARKABLE PEOPLE" (in capitals, so they must be remarkable) who are icons, geniuses and mavericks. They include Edward De Bono, Jeff Skoll, Jaime Lerner, Lawrence Lessig, RIchard Branson and...er.... Tracy Chapman.

Day one wrap; day two wrap....which do sound pretty thought-provoking...

- and the lesser-known Doors of Perception in Delhi; this genuinely looks AMAZING (justified capitals!); there is enough in the participants and their projects to blog about for the rest of the year...so check them out; we will be revisiting several of these projects soon, and have no doubt there will be some interesting conversations coming out of the event (on Worldchanging and elsewhere)

Happiness Mappiness

Great post over at WorldChanging which goes through happiness maps in some detail. The guy who originally mapped it all (at the University of Leicester) reckons there is a strong correlation between happiness (or life satisfaction as it is often called in happiness science circles) and health. Or is it wealth? Ethan Zuckerman here looks at the data and reckons there are three groups of countries: the understandably happy, the understandably unhappy, and the surprisingly unhappy. There's very few in the surprisingly happy camp.....

GIB has covered this area quite a bit in the past (see happiness-related ideas here) and it's amazing to me that we still measure progress in primarily economic terms, despite there being no discernible upturn in life satisfaction/happiness as a result of more money. But perhaps that's because it's a long-term shift: looking at the rise of work-life balance on the agenda, at the priorities of new graduates/job-seekers, at ethical consumerism and social enterprise and venture philanthropy....we can see a gardual turn to a society that values more than money, and is beginning to understand what makes it happy.

Sticky ideas podcast + art/innovation

Just a brief note to say that Chip Heath, author of Made to Stick, which we talked about on the blog previously, features in a podcast on the subscription-worthy Social Innovation Conversations....See more detail of the show here and download for the Friday commute home...

Whilst on the subject of interesting reading and listening, also check out an article on "Art and Social Innovation" by Larissa Sansour on the Kaos Pilots website. Really interesting sweep of the intersection between those two concepts, covering everything from Palestine to Jean-Luc Godard to the internet revolution.