Love

I also believe the most innovative acts are ones built over a foundation of  love  (the Kiva.org is a powerful example)...
Guster announced the winner of  their video contest for "Bad Bad World"...

Bad Bad World from Guster on Vimeo.

Real change can only be accomplished out of acts like these. Reminds me of the Harlem Children Zone's attempt to get 6th graders back on a track in school...trying to reverse the effects of years of poor schooling. It seemed everything the teachers would so was failing...end every was exhausted from trying to change these kids. The author Paul Tough, sited a study where the only visible change that could be seen with the students farthest behind happened during one on one tutoring.

Which makes me think of this really cool Tutoring center...(need to leave now - will post later)

Workspaces

I was reading about on of IDEO's patterns; The I in community - enabling the individual enables the community. One of the patterns discussed was about how the individual workspace at PIXAR which has "fueled their tightnit culture. The results—far from your typical cubicle farm—are one of the most inspiring and interesting places to work. Walking down the halls, you see everything from piñatas to jungle themes to a neighborhood of cottages."
You Can explore this article and the Patterns website further here: here


Anyway, this got me looking into other AWESOME workspaces. One of my favorites was the "whiteboad egg" located at Mindlab.. located in the Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs in Copenhagen, Denmark
check out website here

Design Museum Boston

I was attracted to the website by the word 'design' and their fresh look Design Museum Boston . What are they about?? Well, let me read again..Its about educating people on design and bringing designers and non-designers together. They do this through organizing events, helping to create exhibits in museums, and holding an open discussion board:  http://designingamuseum.ning.com/ .

They have this cool booklet:

Open publication - Free publishing - More vision

This blog entry is really unorganized...I'm just writing as I learn more about it. Some cool points

• They just opened their first museum on the 9th floor of Boston City Hall..see details here Creative Capital
• Designing a Difference: educate the poublic on the transformative power of design by helping non profits find innovative solutions to economic social and environemental problems. They're first collaboration is with Smallbean who runs the Citizens Archivist Project (CAP). Participants in CAP learn how to use technology as they upload video and oral recordings from interviews with their community. More info on them and the benefits of their solar suitcase here: Design Museum and Small Bean
• And they help this meeting around Massachusetts Called UNITE where designers and non-designers came together in these really modern office spaces to collaborate

I LOVE OPENIDEO

They (openideo.com) announced the new winners recently of the first opensource design challenge, "How can we raise kid's awareness of fresh food so they can make better choices?" See winning ideas here: Fresh Food Innovators

One of my favorites:

It was based off this simple experiment where someone put ducktape in the middle of a grocery cart. As a result, 102% increase of fruits in vegetables purchased...check out news story here : Shopping Cart INNOVATION . It reminds me of some of the simple principles taught to the parents taking Baby School in the Harlem Children Zone - just how reading more to your kid when they're 1 can increase they're chance of success so much...or in a This American Life is was listening to recently on "Unconditional Love"... they talked about how this homicidal 16 year old was cured of is attachment disorder just by standing 3 ft away from his mom for 8 weeks. Also, the parents needed to feed him from a bottle while holding him to restore the attachment....My point is that simple fixes can cause solutions to flow from them....

About

I just wanted to brng together some products/ideas/ or organizations have a truly sustainable solution.

Watch this TED Talk...

TED's description of the talk "What do you think of people in poverty? Maybe what Jessica Jackley once did: "they" need "our" help, in the form of a few coins in a jar. The co-founder of Kiva.org talks about how her attitude changed -- and how her work with microloans has brought new power to people who live on a few dollars a day."
She started a website similar to KIVA called Profounder.com which helps small businesses collect money from the everyday joe...like your family and friends. 


Profounder Link