The Global Ideas Blog

Peer-to-peer power with IBM

We've covered peer-to-peer technology and developments from the early days, as an example of a powerful social invention in process (see Freenet, for example). We've also covered various incarnations of the use of peer-to-peer to combat disease and facilitate research, be it SETI search for extra-terrestrials, or the more worthy types of Fight Aids At Home.

Now, as detailed in a New York Times article, IBM, in collaboration with the WHO and the UN, are launching the same kind of thing but on a massive scale, and in a more focused way. It will focus on research that helps tackle disease through scientific research, and will be known as the The World Community Grid, presumably providing a central focus for the myriad of other projects already in place. Another example, also, of how the collaborative power of the internet (and ideas that start with 'amateurs' or small, specialist groups) makes its way into the mainstream.

Public Library of Science

The Independent has a report today on the official launch of the Public Library of Science which is a non-profit alternative to the Lancet, BMJ and all the rest. Or, to use the PLoS' own words, "The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource."

This is an idea we've given exposuure to in the past, during its campaign. Alongside the emergence of greater publishing of negative results, and the emergence of non-profit pharmaceutical companies, the world of science seems to be taking innovation and social enterprise models on board. Let us wish them every success....

Non-profit pharmaceuticals

This is fairly awe-inspiring stuff: a non-profit pharmaceutical company whose aim is to "identify undervalued chemicals or drugs that were created by academics or pharmaceutical companies but are not being developed, match them with very important diseases in the developing world, put them through clinical trials, get regulatory approval, and distribute them to the people who need them". Read an interview with the founder, Victoria Hale, in the New Scientist.

This is an area which is attracting more and more attention from people: we've had several ideas on the subject sent in to us:

- Solving the costs of pharmaceutical research by companies grouping together, saving development costs.

- Taxing pharmaceutical ads to fund independent 'truth' ads

- A webpage for every prescription drug with information...and for discussion by users...

- A futures market for drugs: reducing the cost of medicine

...to name but a few. One World Health, the first pharmaceutical non-profit, leads the way forward.

Salad dressing fuel

On a more cheery and less cynical note, could sunflower oil hold the key to a sustainable, renewable fuel future? Well, possibly, according to this Guardian story which I missed a little while back. I'm always slightly hesitant to post up stuff about fuels of the future, because I seem to have written about so many different types, none of which has ever come to fruition (see the Science and Energy section of the Global Ideas Bank for more). Still, this seems to have potential: "a hydrogen generator that uses only sunflower oil, air and water vapour", with the 'secret' being down to "two catalysts, one based on nickel, the other on carbon". Worth having a dry salad for, indeed.

Solar lanterns for your village?

Something in the Hindu Times arrives in my newsbox (via World Changing) about a local government scheme in Bangalore which is providing 660,000 houses in 1,000 villages with solar-powered lanterns. It is called the "self-village energy security programme", which may or may not be a slightly dodgy translation. You get the gist, though.

The project, which is particularly targeting remote villages, is 90% funded by the various agencies involved (to the tune of $20m), with the villagers having to pay the equivalent of $1 a month for the supply (average wage is about $400-$500 a month). It's a wonderful project, and once again shows how much government intervention can achieve when not constrained by pressure groups and bureaucratic red tape. Also reminds me of another organisation, Greenstar, who we featured a while back HERE.