The 2007 NetSquared Conference (N2Y2) brought together 21 projects that hope to leverage the web for social change (and hoped to get some to cash to help them do so).  It ended yesterday with the awarding of money to three strong projects.  Though none of the winners fall under the scope of THD, ~15 of the projects do, and they were there pitching their projects to foundations, technologists, and other social entrepreneurs. It was a very constructive and supportive atmosphere and hopefully the projects will be able to put the advice to good use soon.

There were many interesting projects but I was most impressed by Kabissa.org. With a large network of NGOs and what seems to be the technical expertise to bring web 1.0 and 2.0 infrastructure to them, they have great potential.

You can contribute to both the 21 featured projects as well as the larger list of 150 projects.

Video of the conference should soon be available on FORA.tv

Video is really starting to take off, here is more in the way of video outlets (see our previous post on this here), this could be good if done right: “The Global Health Council announces the launch of Global Health TV, a new web-based video site bringing brief news clips from experts and civil society on the major health issues faced by people throughout the world.

The Global Health TV website, http://www.globalhealthtv.com, will bring viewers three streams of information, including news and global health policies, highlights of international conferences, and voices from people working on health issues at the community level.”

It is time for another reality check (I post these occasionally). I try to focus the blog on solutions, ideas, and how various sectors/disciplines are impacting the global health arena. I am not particularly fond of re-hashing intellectual and armchair debates, you can read plenty of that elsewhere. However, once in a while, a dose of cynicism and a reality check is needed.

In light of the NYC exhibit and NY Times coverage, Design for the OTHER 90%, I thought it would be good to post another perspective that I originally saw at Small Shift. It is great that this exhibit has been brought to the public and equally important it is necessary to discuss why some of these amazing technologies may never be used to their full potential (infrastructure problems, poor design, politics, disconnection from the end users, etc. etc.). Kenyan author, Binyavanga Wainaina has written a scathing opinion about “pure products” that are meant to save the world and how they eventually fade from sight/use. The most relevant excerpts (reprinted in Harpers magazine) are below:

“Biogas. A windup radio. A magic laptop. These pure products are meant to solve everything. They almost always fail, but they satisfy the giver…I am sure the One Laptop per Child initiative will bring glory to its architects… To the recipients, the things have no context, no relationship to their ideas of themselves or their possibilities…”

“Freeplay Radios still exist. You will find them among new age fisherfolk in Oregon; neoblue collar sculptors working out of lofts in postindustrial cities; Social Forum activists and neoGrizzly Adams types everywhere. Angst-ridden victims, all…They are the only people who can find nobility in a product that communicates to its intended owner: you are f#@ked.”

Source: Small Shift on “Glory” by Binyavanga Wainaina

“With a network of over 11 million professionals spanning the globe, LinkedIn is an immensely powerful platform. A few of us here decided that we should be doing more to leverage the network to promote positive social change, and LinkedIn For Good is our first step in that direction.” (via a new blog I discovered, Small Shift)

“Each October, more than 550 convene in Camden, Maine, to explore the social impact of innovative technologies, breakthrough scientific discoveries and original approaches to tackling humanity’s toughest challenges. Pop!Tech’ers include preeminent and emerging leaders in science, technology, business, social entrepreneurship, the arts, culture and media…All come together to peer into the future, find inspiration and discover connections to create positive change in the world. ”

“Haiti Innovation is a 501(c) 3, volunteer organization that helps development organizations in Haiti obtain funding for projects by linking them to our network of aid donors through the world wide web.”

“Hot Ideas/Cool Projects is a blog about Global Development Marketplace, an annual competition hosted by the World Bank that awards grants to the best innovative small-scale development projects around the world.”

I am back into town after having been on the interview and conference circuit and it is time to clean out my inbox. Enjoy the links below.

• Linking consumers to social causes, link

• Untapped potential of non-profit brands, link

• Mobile Phones
  - CDMA, SIM, GSM: a review of basic Cell phone terminology, link
  - Low cost cell phones, link

• Seven innovations case study (will be added to case study page), link

• Blogging from Darfur, link

• Blogging popularity increases – UNC Health System CEO from S.Africa, link

• Beter late than never, PBS is officially on the social entrepreneurship bandwagon (via social roi), link

Business for good / Business for development stories

• Sign up for the 2008 social capitalist awards, link

• OLPC vs INTC (Negroponte-Intel throwdown), link

• Harvard Business School case studies
  - Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition: Successful Models, link
  - PSI: Social Marketing Clean Water, link

• World renowned IT giant, Infosys, supports social entrepreneurship, via, link

• MBAs for good & NYU Stern on social entrepreneurship, link 1, link2

• Executive on a mission, link

• Tangentially related – Growth of emerging market companies amongst the Fortune 500, link

• Tangentially related – Google and gene mapping, link

• More on Gates Foundation impact on Seattle, link

The NY Times ran a story on BoGoLight today ["Solar flashlight lets Africa's sun deliver the luxury of light to the poorest villages"] . Solar-powered flashlights may sound excessive until you try buying decent batteries for your flashlight on a typical villager’s income. The BoGoLight project sells two of their lights for $25 – one to the purchaser and the other for a short list of secular and religious charities and US military missions. the BoGoLights are also sold in Whole Foods.

The NYT article immediately brought to mind other non-battery powered flashlights: the shake flashlight and the wind-up flashlight ($8 and up and $5 and up on Google Products). I found the wind-up flashlight available for 25,000 Ugandan shillings (US$14.70) last summer when a traveling salesperson brought them by the Mbarara University. Pricing still leaves these lights out of reach for many and the designs leave something to be desired if they are to serve as regular indoor lighting rather than handheld lanterns. Maybe carbon credits could help subsidize the cost?

There are numerous implications for health and health services: reduced indoor soot, fewer carbon emissions, improved nighttime health services, and many additional applications rich countries take for granted.

If anyone has information on product durability for solar, wind-up or shake flashlights, let us know.

For readers who happen to be in New York, the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum has an exhibit running May 4 to Sept. 23 on designs for development. FrogDesign and SmallShift have more on the exhibit. Everything from the $175 laptop and KickStart’s MoneyMaker Pump to water filters, food coolers, energy systems, and the Jaipur foot prosthesis. From the exhibit’s webpage:

Designers, engineers, students and professors, architects, and social entrepreneurs from all over the globe are devising cost-effective ways to increase access to food and water, energy, education, healthcare, revenue-generating activities, and affordable transportation for those who most need them. And an increasing number of initiatives are providing solutions for underserved populations in developed countries such as the United States.


Encompassing a broad set of modern social and economic concerns, these design innovations often support responsible, sustainable economic policy… These designers’ voices are passionate, and their points of view range widely on how best to address these important issues. Each object on display tells a story, and provides a window through which we can observe this expanding field.

Only time for a quick post, I will be traveling for the next week. While doing some homework of my own on the biotech industry I ran into the following cool set of articles:

“Scientists from around the globe use biotechnology to improve the developing world, from new crops and medical treatments to biofuels and adding diversity to the research community. The following profiles introduce some of the lesser-known leaders.” Full set of articles here.

There’s been a buzz about MicroPlace, a startup firm in microfinance, designed to compete with Kiva, Prosper and Zopa – which THDblog posted about back in November. The MicroPlace story was scooped in March at Auctionbytes which noted that eBay had acquired MicroPlace with the goal of “maintaining a web-based, eBay-like marketplace to connect ordinary people (with investable assets as little as $100) with microfinance entities that need capital”. Although the micro-loans are philanthropic in the immediate foreseeable future, eBay’s move to develop the mechanisms for greater p2p transactions has potential single bottom line implications for the lucrative remittance services markets ($230 billion in 2005) in addition to making socially minded loans – a market itself estimated at $300 billion in the next 10-20 years (PSDblog).

With the sponsorship and coordination of the Packard Foundation, KfW, and USAID/India, Tania Dmytraczenko and Mursaleena Islam at PSP-One organized the “Vouchers for Health” conference held outside of New Delhi April 12th and 13th. They agreed to a THDblog interview about the conference’s impact.

BEN: What was the inspiration behind the conference? Could you describe the conference goals?

TANIA & MURSALEENA: Several new voucher programs are being considered or have recently started in a number of Asian countries and the sponsors felt that it was good time to share experiences with other existing voucher programs in health. Although voucher programs are increasingly being funded in developing countries, there has been little dialogue between different implementers on the success and limitations of these programs. The goal of this technical workshop was to provide a forum for discussion and exchange of innovative ideas on voucher schemes to improve health service delivery.

BEN: Looking back, what lessons or key points emerged that ought to be carried forward?

TANIA & MURSALEENA: There were several issues that came out of those two days in Gurgaon.

– Demand-side financing options, such as voucher schemes, provide an important alternative to traditional supply-side financing: vouchers can be used to target underserved populations and voucher redemption rate provide one quick feedback about their use.

– Vouchers can be used to stimulate demand for important but under-consumed services and can be used to engage private-sector providers. Note that in developing countries, many poor seek care in the private sector and pay high out-of-pocket payments.

– Vouchers for a needed service may not be sufficient to increase utilization if there are other barriers to accessing that service. For example, distance and transport costs may be a significant factor and thus the voucher may need to cover transport costs as well.

– Ensuring quality of care is important and often difficult when contracting with providers for a voucher scheme.

BEN: From your perspective what important points or issues remained unresolved?

TANIA & MURSALEENA: There have not been enough rigorous evaluations of existing voucher programs for us to learn about what works and what does not work. We encourage more rigorous evaluations and are waiting for results from some recently-started voucher programs. Many of the voucher programs we learnt about in the workshop are pilot programs – there will be challenges in taking these programs to scale and lessons learned from scaling up will need to be shared.