ColaLife principle: openness

I first had the ColaLife idea in 1988 when I was working for the British Aid programme in NE Zambia. However, I was unable to share it other than by word of mouth and I got nowhere.

In May 2008 I shared the idea on Facebook and look what’s happened. Thousands of people have convened around the idea and discussed it and challenged it and the idea has got better and better. We have gone from this:

Removing one bottle from every 10 crates and replacing it with a cylinder full of Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) to this:

A wedge-shaped container that uses the un-used space in a crate and carries whatever ‘social products’ are needed in a local area, as determined by the local public health experts.

So openness has convened thousands of people around the idea. This has improved the idea, given us more and more confidence in the idea and got Coca-Cola’s attention. We just need some action now!