From Colalife to the American Embassy in one step
October 30, 2008 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
I just got a tweet from Julian (right!) to say that he and Steph (aka Georgia Wonder) will be playing at the American Embassy on election night. Why is this significant? Well the last job Julian did was the sound effects for the ColaLife video. Oh, and before that they were supporting Mick Hucknall. Thanks again Julian.
PS: Try and weave in a ColaLife mention into your set if you can!
Coca-Cola invites ColaLife to Dar Es Salaam!
October 25, 2008 by Simon Berry · 16 Comments
Image credit: Rory McCann
Following on from last week’s excitment around our application to Google’s Project 10^100 and the associated ColaLife video, there is another significant development.
True to his word, Salvatore Gabola of Coca-Cola has invited me to a 2-day stakeholder meeting in Dar Es Salaam on 25-26 November to discuss the findings of their research into their distribution network which Adrian Ristow has been reporting on here. The meeting will make recommendations for the pilots* that will be carried out based on the research findings.
This is hugely significant. I’ve re-arranged my diary and suspended my no-fly pledge for this trip. Like the original interest and coverage from the BBC, this would never have happened if we hadn’t all been able to get together here, on the Facebook Group, in the Flickr Group and using Google Group Mailing List.
At this stage I only have limited information on the meeting, there’s been no agenda issued yet. But I do know that about 20 people have been invited, mostly local stakeholders. International invitees include DfID and Oxfam and someone from Harvard (who were involved in the research) will be facilitating the meeting.
Anyway - I need help with the planning. I’m going to stay on for a couple of days after the meeting to gather information and materials the ColaLife campaign needs. Your thoughts please! What should be on the to-do list?
* The main idea of the pilots is to see how the growth of Coca-Cola’s distribution network could be done in a way that maximises the impact on poverty reduction. This means we are going to have to work hard to get the ColaLife idea as part of the pilots but that’s our objective.
ColaLife Video for Google’s Project 10^100 Goes Live
October 19, 2008 by Simon Berry · 4 Comments
Here it is, the 30 sec video to support the ColaLife submission to Goggle’s Project 10^100 (10 to the 100th). Please go and look at it on YouTube. It’s a thing of beauty! Please can I also ask you to comment on it on YouTube and rate it (highly?). It’s worth clicking the ‘watch in high quality’ link to appreciate the detail.
After watching, commenting and rating - that should only take 2 minutes - can I ask you to do one more thing? Please send a link to this page to 10 of your friends and ask them to do the same? Very many thanks.
I want to thank the following people who have dedicated a significant part of their lives over the last 3 days to pull this together: Luke Berry (artist); Sam Berry (Animator); Julian Moore (Sound); Simon Cohen and Howard Lake for creative suggestions.
There’s still time to comment on the text of the application if you can.
Onwards and upwards!
Application submitted to Google’s Project 10^100
October 19, 2008 by Simon Berry · 7 Comments
At 19:15 BST the ColaLife idea was submitted to Google’s Project 10^100.
What happens next?
Google will now select 100 of the ideas they receive and publish these on 27 January 2009 and ask everyone to vote for the ones they like to see supported. The top 20 will then go to a panel of experts who will choose the five that are funded.
You can register for a reminder to vote here. Go on, do it now!
Fingers crossed.
Genius begins to emerge . . .
October 16, 2008 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Here’s a preview of the bottles and faces to be used in the video. Luke’s avoided using the classic Coca-Cola shape to avoid copyright problems. In the final version all faces will be different (and they will be exciting in other ways too!). Watch this space.
ColaLife Google Video: The dream team gathers . . .
October 16, 2008 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
I always say that “The Genius is in the Network” (but wasn’t the first to say it) and I’m proved right time and time again. Last night I scribbled a storyboard for the ColaLife Google video in the train. When I got home I put it on this blog. I put a message out to the Google Mailing List and I emailed a few friends and family.
Overnight I had comments on the storyboard from one of the best PR brains in the business; ideas on a soundtrack from one of the most talented miusicians out there; an offer to do the drawings and another to do the animation.
I downloaded the above ‘animatic’ on the train this morning. It had been produced by my son, Sam (Blue-Zoo), so that the musician (Julian Moore - Georgia Wonder) can get on with the soundtrack while artist (son Luke) and animators do their stuff. Thanks also to Simon Cohen of Global Tolerance for ideas and words.
Storyboard: ColaLife video for the Google 10^100 application
October 15, 2008 by Simon Berry · 3 Comments
How about this for a storyboard for the video to support the Google 10^100 application? Thanks to Howard lake for getting the creative juices running! I am now going to contact all the animators and musicians I know to see if they can realise this. Click on the image to see it full-size.
More ideas for the pilot phase
October 12, 2008 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Adrian Ristow writes:
During my time in New York in September I took advantage of the influx of leaders from the development community to meet with a few potential partners and advisors for the MDC project. There are lots of ways to use this growing network of Manual Distribution Centres. As well as piloting the use of the network to meet a social need, as in Simon’s Colalife idea, some other key opportunities are also emerging. These include the potential for improved micro-finance support and a broader education and training offering. If each person associated with the MDC network finds their skills growing all the time even beyond just this business that’s a real win and contribution.
It also becomes clearer to me how important it is to get development experts and other interested stakeholders together for the brainstorming session to assist our project team. We need to translate the broad findings of the research into practical and manageable solutions which not only stretch our thinking, but also protect distributors’ incomes. As has been previously found, one of the critical success factors of the distribution network is that everyone in the chain is able to generate some form of income from it and this principle has to be considered at all times.
We are at an advanced stage in planning for this next critical step in the project. The stakeholder convening is targeted for Dar-es-Salaam in late November. This meeting will be facilitated by an independent development expert and we hope to emerge from the session with some practical ideas to test in the pilot phase. More on this in my next message….
Catch you soon.
Adrian
ORS / ORT at the heart of new Unicef campaign
October 12, 2008 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
My neighbour and ColaLife fan, Ruth, came around this morning with a mailshot she’d received from Unicef. She’s a Unicef supporter. Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) and Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) were at the heart of the Unicef campaign, helping to make the point that so much can be done with so little money.
The leaflet that came with the Unicef letter had a great set of before and after pictures:
Images by Unicef
There are more before and after photos in a previous post.
As well as the leaflet, the mailshot included an empty ORS sachet. The ingredients are:
- Glucose anhydrous (Food Grade) 13.5 g
- Sodium chloride BP 98 2.6 g
- Trisodium citrate dihydrate BP 98 2.9 g
- Potassium chloride BP 98 1.5 g
- Total net weight: 20.5 g
This is sufficient to make up one litre of solution which is sufficient for an infant for 24 hours but the treatment must continue until the diarrohoea stops. Older children will drink one litre over an 8 to 24 hour period.
Actual size scans of the sachets are shown below:
DRAFT submission to Google’s Project 10^100
October 11, 2008 by Simon Berry · 8 Comments
Here is a first go at answers to the questions asked by Google’s Project 10^100. We’ve posted them here so others can comment and make the submission better. The answers are in bold. Please comment or send suggestions to sxberry[at]gmail[dot]com. Thanks.
All this information will appear on the public site as part of your submission.
Your idea’s name (maximum 50 characters):
ColaLife
Please select a category that best describes your idea.
Community: How can we help connect people, build communities and protect unique cultures?
Opportunity: How can we help people better provide for themselves and their families?
Energy: How can we help move the world toward safe, clean, inexpensive energy?
Environment: How can we help promote a cleaner and more sustainable global ecosystem?
Health: How can we help individuals lead longer, healthier lives?
Education: How can we help more people get more access to better education?
Shelter: How can we help ensure that everyone has a safe place to live?
Everything else: Sometimes the best ideas don’t fit into any category at all.
What others are saying about ColaLife- ColaLife on Flickr
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