ColaLife entered for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge
October 31, 2009 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
I am rather embarrassed by this video which accompanied our entry, but the people at the Buckminster Fuller Challenge (BFC) were very strict about what you should say and I found it very difficult to follow a script! So apologies, but I think it gets the message across. We only had two minutes.
Thanks are due to ColaLife supporter Maria Ana who drew the challenge to our attention, to Sam who did the AidPod animation within the video and Luke who had the unenviable task of taking the many takes and putting them together to meet the BFC specification. And finally to Jane who did most of the work filling in the online form with very strict word counts.
I know I’m biased, but I think ColaLife matches what the BFC is about. Pay particular attention to the ‘trimtab’ bit:
Winning the Buckminster Fuller Challenge will require more than a great stand-alone innovation. If for example, your solution emphasizes a new design, material, process, service, tool, technology, or any combination, it is essential that it be part of an integrated strategy dealing with key social, economic, environmental, policy and cultural issues.
The winning solution should exemplify the trimtab principle. Trimtabs are small steering devices used on ships and airplanes which demonstrate how relatively small amounts of leverage, energy, and resources strategically applied at the right time and place can produce maximum advantageous change.
Entrants must put forward a bold, visionary, tangible initiative that is focused on a well-defined need of critical importance. Proposed solutions must represent a preferred state model - one that aims to optimize conditions from inception in order to create the most desirable, sustainable, future outcome. Entries should be regionally specific yet globally applicable, and backed up by a solid plan and the capability to move the solution forward.
Fingers crossed.
Verifying delivery and paying for it
October 25, 2009 by Simon Berry · 3 Comments
Following on from my post of yesterday pointing out that if ColaLife is going to succeed it needs to recognise and respect the profit motive of its potential hosts (ie all those involvled, post bottling, in the Coca-Cola distribution system), I have contacted Ken Banks of FrontlineSMS fame and Benjamin Lyon of the significant off-shoot: FrontlineSMS:Credit.
FrontlineSMS is a neat system that allows people without a connection to the internet (like the majority of people in Africa) to do the things that those of us with a connection take for granted . . . with a basic mobile phone. Its developer, Ken Banks, has made it freely available and people are downloading it and using it to do amazing things. Benjamin Lyon is collaborating with Ken and using FrontlineSMS as the foundation for the development of a system to bring financial services to anyone with a basic mobile phone.
So why is this important? Well, if ColaLife is to embrace commercial principles it will need:
- A mechanism for registering the delivery of aidpods
- A mechanism for paying for this delivery
And ideally:
- You’d need a mechanism for inventory control: “Here is Mpika we need more aidpods containing diarrhoea kits”
I think that FrontlineSMS combined with FrontlineSMS:Credit could do all of this using very basic mobile phones.
Is wealth creation the new philanthropy?
October 24, 2009 by Simon Berry · 4 Comments
An AidPod’s view of a Coca-cola crate - so much unused space!
Preparing for the Rotterdam conference has served as a reminder that the private sector is there TO MAKE MONEY. People outside the sector say to me, over and over again:
“But why wouldn’t they [Coca-Cola] just do it [ColaLife]?”
The answer is that they will not do anything that interferes with the money making machine.
You can debate the rights and wrongs of this as long as you like but ColaLife is not a debating society! We are trying to work with what’s already there and put things together in new and creative ways to solve an age old disaster that unfolds in developing countries every single day.
So what if the Coca-Cola distributors who took aidpods in their crates made more money than those that didn’t? We’ve always said that this is a possible model but perhaps it should be THE model.
Coca-Cola always say that their bottlers and distributors are ‘independent’ businesses, which is technically true, but I have seen the look of panic on the face of an ‘independent’ distributor when you put an aidpod in one of ‘their’ crates of Coca-Cola.
The fact is that Coca-Cola is very powerful and the livelihoods of most of their small distributors depend on a strong relationship. Distributors would not want to do anything that would jeopardise that relationship. So Coca-Cola would have to agree, or even encourage, their distributors to increase their income by carrying aidpods in Coca-Cola crates.
So perhaps our strategy, in terms of our relationship with Coca-Cola, should be simply to get them to agree to, and ideally promote, the notion of their distributors carrying aidpods in their crates and getting paid for doing so.
ColaLife autumn speaking tour hits the trains
October 22, 2009 by Simon Berry · 3 Comments
Through a string of very fortunate coincidences, tomorrow I get on a train to begin a pretty high profile (although I say so myself!) ColaLife speaking tour! The first stop is Rotterdam for the 8th Annual World Food and Innovation Conference to give a plenary presentation on ColaLife to the big boys and girls of the food industry:
Then it’s back to London where Colalife is ‘headlining’ at TEDx London (4/11/09) - at least that’s how it was put to me! I think all the speakers there are also ‘headlining’. I want to use this to try a get a spot at global TED at some point in the future:
And then Colalife will one of the two short plenary sessions kicking off the wonderful Chain Reaction event in Canary Wharf (12/11/09):
This string of activities has inspired ColaLife supporter (and son) to put together a brilliant animation showing how the ColaLife AidPod works. This will go onto YouTube and this blog after the Chain Reaction event. Can I urge you to consider coming to the Chain Reaction event. It’s free if you are under 21. I guarantee you will have an inspiring day - the programme is simply amazing (ColaLife only gets 15mins!).
ColaLife makes the GOOD 100 list
October 18, 2009 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
A tweet from Charles Magnuson alerted me to this. ColaLife has made it into the GOOD 100 list from GOOD.is/magazine. This is great news but I’m not sure what happens next. My happiness would be complete if only the GOOD.is site would let me register!
They have created a graphic for all top 100 people/ideas/projects and this is the ColaLife one. Very nice. Click on it to see our entry:
I will keep trying to register and hope to be able to login shortly.
AidPods are go!
October 16, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Nick Langridge - “Day to day I am a 32 year old mild mannered computer programmer based in Royston, Herts. I’m not exactly Evil Kneivel, but I’ve taken road trips on two-wheels before in New Zealand and Norway, and always planned to do something more challenging and constructive.”
This campaign is full of surprises. It’s amazing the trouble people, I’ve never met, are prepared to go to to support a good cause. When I asked if anyone was going to Africa so that they could take some of the Mark III AidPods with them and send back photos, I didn’t expect an aidpod to be flying across South Africa on the back of a motorbike. But that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Nick is raising money for: UNICEF, Sentebale and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. He’s raised £5,000 so far and you can sponsor him here. This picture was taken this morning (16/10/09) just as Nick set off. We sent the T-shirt and AidPod by special delivery yesterday.
Thanks Nick. Have a good ride - no more broken collar bones please!
CALL TO ACTION: Please email WHO and/or UNICEF
October 14, 2009 by Simon Berry · 2 Comments
The World Health Organisation (WHO) published this report today and it provides us with a unique opportunity to get the ColaLife concept on their agenda. It is an excellent fit with what they propose.
Please take a moment to email any (or all) of these three people to ask them to look at what we are doing here - suggested text is given below:
In New York
Brian Hansford
UNICEF
Telephone: +1 212 326 7269
E-mail: bhansford@unicef.orgIn New York
Kate Donovan
Media, UNICEF
Telephone: +1 212 326 7452
E-mail: kdonovan@unicef.orgIn Geneva
Olivia Lawe-Davies
Communications Officer, WHO
Telephone: +41 22 791 1209
Mobile: +41 794 755 545
Email: lawedavieso@who.int
Suggested text (but make your own up if you like!):
Dear <you choose>
I’d like to welcome the publication of your report: ’Diarrhoea: Why children are still dying and what can be done’. This issue is of great concern to thousands of us, members of the ColaLife campaign - http://colalife.org. I was particularly struck by this statement as this is precisely the solution the ColaLife campaign is trying to deliver:
“UNICEF and WHO recommend that all children with diarrhoea have access to this new ORS formula; making it widely available to children in need will require innovative delivery strategies.”
The key partnerships are now in place for trials to move forward and anything you can do to raise the profile of the Colalife idea to make it a reality would be gratefully appreciated.
Yours sincerely
etc
Thanks.
Anyone going to Africa?
October 12, 2009 by Simon Berry · 5 Comments
We are desperate for decent pictures of the Mark III ColaLife Aidpods in a crates of Coca-Cola in Africa. I spent yesterday afternoon making these models for this purpose. Now I just need someone travelling to Africa to agree to take one or two and send back hi-resolution pictures like this one BUT with Coca-cola bottles not Fanta:
Any volunteers? Please comment or contact me - contact details are on the PRESS page. Thanks.
Emmanuel Jal winds up Africa Gathering
October 10, 2009 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
Africa Gathering came to an emotional end for three reasons:
- Emmanuel Jal - the now musician (Peter Gabriel compares him to the young Bob Marley) - but once Child Soldier told us about bits of his young life. Horrendous to a level you would not believe. That’s all I’m saying. You’ll have to read the book. >>hint
- The £5,000 raised through Africa Gathering ticket sales was presented to Banana Man (aka Kevin Allen). Again an amazing story. And again you’ll have to read the book. >>hint
- Then Emmanuel sang ‘Emma‘ [What would I be if Emma never rescued me?]. Which was brilliant, especially when you know who Emma was. Read the book! Best to listen to it here rather that play the above video caught on my iPhone.
Emmanuel came over to the giant AidPod (in ‘interested person’ mode rather than celebrity mode) and we talked about ColaLife. Then he came back again to talk some more. A lyric of his goes: ‘Babies dying from curable disease’. We could be talking again.
After all of this I thought I’d try and get the giant AidPod back to Rugby on Virgin Trains and I did it by deciding it was a bicycle box for the purposes of the trip! Thank you Virgin Trains for being understanding.
Tracking the Giant AidPod’s progress towards Africa Gathering
October 9, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Just for fun . . . this map will track our progress in getting the Giant AidPod to the Africa Gathering event tonight. We should get there by about 5pm. If you are nearby and see us - give us a wave (and a shout)!
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