More research and proof that mobile devices in areas of poverty are creating new opportunities and bettering the lives of people.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPaMe0Nj6zM&feature=player_embedded]

Please watch, very informative.

R&D- Ramon & Diane

The Design for the Other 90% exhibit site is of course a fantastic resource…

and curator Cynthia Smith’s twitter feed has great updates on projects, resources & events.

- Penny

Transparency: How Much Water Do You Use?

This March post from GOOD Magazine is an interesting concept.

-Elizabeth

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rphhfy4qCfc&feature=player_embedded]

Diane

Good Magazine’s water issue from July has a lot of informative articles & case studies — it’s all about ‘How to make the most of the water we have.’

A few relevant articles:

Clean, Clear Water (5 case studies of water purification products)

Don’t Love That Dirty Water (3 innovative solutions on a broad scale – with comprehensive implementation strategies)

And a striking fact (that ties into the first ‘Day without Taps’ water diary):

Last year, UNICEF announced that humans need about five gallons of clean water a day to survive. In America, we can easily use 400 gallons per household, per day—two to three times as much water as other developed nations.

- Penny

The ‘watering can’ by Nicolas le Moigne connects a smart, designed component with the universal threaded top of any PET bottle. This strategy has a lot of potential — taking advantage of existing containers to hold water, and designing a new component to achieve functionality, interaction and even some fun.

- Penny

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U-mvfjyiao&hl=en&fs=1&]

A pedal-powered vehicle that transports, filters, and stores water, by Team Aquaduct. This design won Google/Specialized’s “Innovate or Die” contest, which asked people to create pedal-powered solutions to ‘cool the planet and better lives.’ The video provides a really clear synopsis of the challenges, user needs, and scope of the problem.

- Dan and Penny

Hey guys, I found here is clever way of implementing water conservation by using an emotional strategy, take a look:

–Core 77, London Design Festival 09 Preview: Designersblock| 22 Sep 2009

Poor Little Fish by Yan LU

“Sustainable and energy preservation become a global issue, however consumption is incalculable, saving is often neglected through daily consumption. Rather than forcing people to consume less, thus depressing the using experience, Yan LU offers with his Poor Little Fish basin an emotional way to persuade consumers to think about saving water, by making consumption tangible. There is a traditional shaped fish bowl in the Poor Little Fish basin. While using, the level of water in the bowl gradually falls; it will go back to the same level once the water stops. Hence the consumer needs to consider the fish while using. Due to separated pipelines, the water that comes from the tap is pure and clean while the one in the bowl is not actually changing; no more water is wasted in this process.”

-Nubia

I came across an article that discusses the use of mobile phones as an education supplement in developing communities. While it refers specifically to India, its principles are applicable globally. In addition to using phones to aid education, agriculture, and healthcare, mobile devices can potentially be an information platform and portal for aiding business, resource use, and countless other possiblities.

From http://ezinearticles.com/?Mobile-Phones—Not-Just-a-Phone&id=2740606:

Viewed simply; phones are capable of:

1. Voice – These are the most basic phones, are still prevalent though being rapidly replaced. Such phones with voice only technology can be used to learn languages, literature, public speaking, writing, storytelling, and history amongst a whole range of topics. We’ve known that voice based learning works for millennia now.

2. SMS – Widely used in India, literally billions of short text messages are sent over the phone networks. These messages can be written quickly and offer enormous learning opportunities. SMS can be used to provide just in time information of almost any type, like reminders. (e.g., someone undergoing a formal mentoring process) SMS can be used for informational quizzes. There are also innovative games based around SMS that have strong learning potential.

3. Graphic Displays – Almost every mobile phone has a graphic display, even if it just shows signal and battery strength. Most phones today have far more graphic power and are able to display words, pictures and animation. Such screens also allow for meaningful amounts of text to be displayed, supporting rapid serial presentation of context-appropriate information. You can use this type of displays for almost any sort of learning. Eventually these displays will render content that is today rendered on personal computers.

4. Downloadable programs – With mobile phones that have memories, and can accept and install downloaded programs an entire new learning space is opened up on the phone. Almost any sort of learning content and interaction technology can be delivered to the phone using this method.

5. Mobile Internet Browsers – Internet browsers are now built into an increasing number of phones, especially those that take advantage of 3G or enhanced data networks such as GPRS. Having a browser on the phone opens up all the learning resources available on the web, including Google, LMS applications, typical eLearning courseware and other tools/applications.

Posted by Will Tang