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Economy Archives

To make a 'real' impact in the cultural and political space of the United States and internationally, we must demostrate our values through our choices as consumers, investors, and workers. While it is easy to point to all of the corporate waste and exploitation, we must be proactive by making it easy for people and organizations to invest in and grow the just and sustainable economy that is emerging.

April 5, 2008

Social Innovation Camp in London this weekend

This weekend in East London is what looks like an amazing first of it's kind event that hopefully will be replicated across the world soon. Based on the Barcamp / Unconference events that have blown up over the last year or so, Social Innovation Camp puts teams of techies with social entrepreneurs whose 5 ideas have been chosen before the weekend event.

My housemate Seth actually submitted one of the selected ideas, which is Stuffshare, Freecycle meets Street Car . The idea that actually seems the most similar to my own vision for Open Green is Barcode Wikipedia:

A site for storing user-generated information – such as carbon footprint, manufacturing conditions and reviews - against a product, identified by its barcode number.

Even though I'm a bit disappointed to not have submitted an idea to the perfect event for my converging interests (too much of my time focused on my job), it'll be cool to attend the final session tomorrow afternoon.

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February 17, 2008

Free Range's Open Value Chain Story

I've been psyched about the folks at Free Range Graphics ever since I saw the Meatrix back in 2002, and worked with Jonah when I produced the new Listen Up! website.

After getting an email about their 2008 Gratitude Grant, I found their Youtube channel which currently is highlighting a series of videos titled the "Story of Stuff," a straightforward look at the linear chain that is pretty much how things have been made over the last few hundred years. The next step of course is to more clearly tell the stories of (and financially support) the few innovators which are starting to use the new proposed renewable system.

Posted by Colin | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 5, 2008

OpenGreen - Draft Presentation

A draft presentation that seeks to demonstrate the value of open value chains for inspiring consumer behavior and demand toward a green culture and responsible economy. Definitely looking for feedback as I move this forward. Note: The audio for some reason became out of synch when uploaded to youtube, and will be corrected shortly.

Posted by Colin | Permalink | Comments (1)

December 1, 2007

The Evolution of the Digital Bumper Sticker

From conversations back in 2002, and then resurfacing when discussing life visions while my brother Adam was visiting me in London on his way to Ruanda, I have the following vision for a digital bumper sticker.

Disclaimer: There are others (Killer Cotton, Tonkatronix, and MotionLed, which seems the most evolved with LED messages powered by the cigarette lighter.

The key breakthroughs that I would like to help make happen are the following:
1. solar powered to remove the need for charging and improve eco footprint
2. enable submissions of text and images via mobile device (bluetooth or equivalent)

I think the LED text is fine for promotions or expressing road rage, but for enabling people to communicate some of their personal values and identity, we need more graphical and font creativity. Also, connecting it to mobile devices like phones will enable more network effects and interesting uses we haven't even thought of yet.

Does anyone know someone who could help with this?

Posted by Colin | Permalink | Comments (2)

October 6, 2007

Sundance and Skoll : a good year to be at Oxford B-school

This is turning out to be a perfect year for my long term partner Christie George to be attending Said Business School at Oxford.  She worked in the documentary film world in NYC for many years, and then was selected to receive a Skoll Scholarship to attend the school. 

Now, the week that classes are starting, it turns out that the Sundance Institute and the Skoll Foundation announced $3
million, three-year partnership dedicated to exploring film's role in
advancing knowledge about social entrepreneurship. Good timing.

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