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Design Blog Design Blog » Design for the Other 90%

Research Chronicles

Follow my field research chronicles on twitter, starting in Kumasi, Ghana at the International Development Design Summit organized by Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and MIT. The summit aims to create equity in the distribution of research and development resources by focusing on the needs of the world’s poor, bringing together students, professors, end-users and professionals from over 20 countries with a broad range of disciplines and experience. Immediately following the summit, the first Maker Faire Africa convenes in Ghana’s capital of Accra. Organized to cultivate a manufacturing base, the Faire will bring together indigenous innovators of locally generated technologies to address immediate challenges to development.

Follow me on twitter to get updates from these events in the upcoming weeks.

Social Changemakers


Join in a Twitter-based Social Entrepreneurship Chat organized by Ashoka. The real time discussions on social entrepreneurship issues take place the 1st Wed of the month, 4-6PM US Eastern Time. The next conversation on Wed, July 1, focuses on mobile innovation.

Ashoka is now partnering with the Lemelson Foundation on a new initiative to support social innovators. The initiative AshokaTech now has over 70 fellows, individuals who are effectively aligning social entrepreneurship with technology.

On the Nicaraguan coast AshokaTech Fellow Mathias Craig is working with a local rural community to develop a hybrid wind/solar energy system. The aim is to create new industries resulting in local jobs and increased economic activity for a depressed area while providing basic energy needs.

Godisa’s SolarAid solar hearing aid battery recharger is expanding to other countries beyond Botswana. Transferring what he learned from this successful product AshokaTech Fellow Howard Weinstein is working with other underserved and disabled communities around the world.

In India Village Information Kiosks provide wireless internet access in remote areas. Fellow Amol Goje has developed low cost computer, video-conferencing facilities to help farmers to increase productivity, stimulate growth and educate the next generation. Using interactive communication technologies Amol looks to increase economic capacity beyond the cities; increasingly important as our urban centers grow at unprecedented rates.

BarCamps to Books

From citizen journalists to user generated conferences the dialogue keeps expanding.

Those of us who could not make it to BarCamp Africa this past October in California the organizers posted video clips of the panels. This user generated conference was designed to make connections between people and opportunities in Silicon Valley and Africa.

Bryan Bell’s latest book with Katie Wakeford, Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism, illustrates the ways design can address issues of social justice and allow individuals and communities to plan and improve their own lives. The next Expanding Architecture events take place in Los Angeles and Chicago.

Greener Gadgets will convene in New York bringing together citizen journalists, entrepreneurs, product designers, social innovators and policy makers to discuss the business of green. If you can’t make in person the online resource page is worth exploring.

Explore inclusive innovation, thinkmospheres, culturally informed product use, underserved populations and co-creation at EXPOSED: A Design Research Exchange. Ambitious ASU grad students have put together a series collaborative workshops, panels, and discussions with leading design thinkers and researchers in Tempe, AZ.

Download presentations from the United Nations’ Web4Dev Innovation for Access conference. This year UNICEF brought together global innovators from the UN, academia, the development and private sectors to focus on strategic partnerships, innovation and new technology for achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

Collective Solutions

Design for the Other 90% opens on February 17, 2009 at one of the world’s leading public health agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.

Committed to helping all global citizens live safer, healthier, and longer lives the CDC has been on the cutting edge of developing innovative and practical solutions to the world’s health challenges. Working with the Carter Center to eradicate guinea worm disease CDC developed a small portable water filter, similar to the LifeStraw water purification tool on display in the exhibition. In the early 1990s, CDC scientists developed some of the first safe water vessel systems to prevent the spread of diseases such as cholera and diarrhea. You can view these and other innovative designs that help to improve the lives around the world at the Centers for Disease Control’s Global Health Odyssey Museum now through May 29, 2009.

Fall in Toronto

Design for the Other 90% opens in Toronto, Canada at Ontario College of Art and Design’s Professional Gallery October 4, 2008 through January 25, 2009. In addition to the exhibition at OCAD, the Design Exchange will present a complementary program of exhibits and events as part of Design for the Other 90%.

Announcement from ArtForum, October 2008