How are you going to buy food?

May 1, 2010 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment 


Food parcel distribution. Image credit: British Red Cross

As the day approaches when I give up my day job (4/6/10) to concentrate full-time on ColaLife the excitement is building but this comes with a degree of anxiety especially among family members. Jane, my partner in life and ColaLife, is channelling her anxiety into researching and applying for appropriate funding to get us underway - so she’s effectively full-time already.

We had a set back this week when we heard that ColaLife did not make it from a semi-finalist to a finalist in the 2010 Buckminster Fuller Challenge (BFC). JenJoy at the BFC broke the news gently saying:

While your project was not selected, the jury was quite impressed with your work and all of the semi-finalists and we wish we had the resources to award prizes to everyone. Getting this far is no small feat! If there is anything we can do to help you further your work outside of direct financial support, please let us know.

So we will be following that up and wish all the finalists the best of luck. But, on the very bright side we have also just heard that we are through to the final interview stage for a ‘Level 2 UnLtd Award’. We’ve applied jointly and if we are successful this will give us £15,000 towards our living expenses to help us get the next phase, the implementation phase, of ColaLife off the ground.

So, Mum, in answer to your question, ‘How are you going to buy food?’, I’m not quite sure but the UnLtd thing looks quite promising! Oh, and if that fails I’ve just had reassurance from a friend collecting for Children in Need that the neighbours will bring some around.

ColaLife features on Buckminster Fuller blog

April 27, 2010 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment 

Children with AidPod in Tanzania
Image credit: Tim Dench

Please show your support by commenting on the ColaLife blog post on the Buckminster Fuller Fellowship blog. It’s dead easy. You can do it anonymously and you don’t have to register. Let’s see if we can create a bit of a buzz while Buckminster Fuller decide who’s in the finals!

CLICK HERE TO COMMENT!

Thanks.

ColaLife is a Buckminster Fuller semi-finalist

February 17, 2010 by Simon Berry · 2 Comments 



Spot the ColaLife imagery in the collage above

It was announced last night (17/2/10) that ColaLife is through to the semi-finals of the global Buckminster Fuller Challenge. This is brilliant news. It’s  exactly the sort of recognition we need and yet again raises the credibility of the ColaLife concept. It’s time to move on from the very positive campaigning stage to actually make trials of ColaLife  happen. Every single ColaLife supporter needs to take some of the credit for this. We would not have got anywhere without the huge numbers of supporters on the Facebook Page, the Facebook Group, Flickr, Twitter and . . . . It was ColaLife supporter, Maria Ana, who alerted us to the challenge - thanks Maria Ana.

The Buckminster Fuller website says:

The thirty semi-finalists currently under consideration have undergone a rigorous review including an interview with the individual or team behind the strategy. They were advanced from a pool of 215 entries that were submitted in Fall 2009. The titles, entrants names and a 50 word summary of their project is listed below.

Congratulations to all of the Semi-Finalists and everyone who entered this year’s Buckminster Fuller Challenge. Those who have opted to have their work published will be featured in the Idea Index in March.

The press release is here (PDF).

So what do you think of our chances?

In true ColaLife style we will now increase our expectations. We entered the Buckminster Fuller Challenge with the aim of getting this far. Now we want to win!