I meant to write about this some while back, but it slipped down the agenda. There's a really interesting article about using Hi-tech DIY to solve local problems on BBC online, which is very much in keeping with the ethos of the Global Ideas Bank: solutions to problems from people on the ground, the people who know them best. MIT are helping facilitate this process with the creation of what they are calling Fab Labs, which provide people with the impetus, some of the knowledge....well, the possibility, really, of creating technology rather than just buying and using it.
Would that we could achieve something similar for social invention: a social Fab Lab that gives people the tools to do some 'personal (social) fabrication', which is not lying about your identity, but, would be, according to a twisting of your MIT bod's words, "ordinary people creating social inventions, rather than using them".
There's definitely a need for this that goes beyond planning 4 communities tools, and beyond creativity in schools workshops, and even beyond social entrepreneurship; it's about a mix of all those things, giving people the room and belief to act.
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