The Portable Light is a self sufficient and sustainable source of power that can be easily folded and transported. Designed by KVA MATx, each portable light unit generates about two watts of electricity and about one hundred lumens of white light, enough to read a book or do domestic tasks by. It can even be used as a power supply to charge a cell phone, or used in conjunction with other units to increase its power supply so it can charge medical equipment or laptops. This breakthrough technology is great news for the 2 billion people in the world who live without electricity.

The Portable Light is on display at MoMA Feb 24 – May 12 as part of their Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition.

For additional images and video of Portable Light adapting to a variety of different uses, click here.

To hear Sheila Kennedy at Pop!Tech discussing the inspirations for Portable Light, click here.

Courtesy of KVA matx

Peggy Shea Andrews

Since coming to Pop!Tech in 2005 as a Sun Microsystems Fellow, Neema Mgana has been developing the first project of her Rural Center of Excellence – a hospital, a medical training center, and a secondary school in Ipuli, Tanzania. The project was born out of a collaboration that began at Pop!Tech when Neema was introduced to Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, and to Larry Smith of Haley & Aldrich.

Sponsored by Haley & Aldrich. Beth Cohen and Michele Bowman from Pop!Tech, Vikki Ott from Haley & Aldrich, and cameraman Bill Megalos recently traveled to visit the project. (Watch the longer version of the video update in our Pop!Cast archive, here.)

Ipuli is a small, rural village in the east Rift Valley of Tanzania, a stunning landscape filled with endless hills and soil that is a deep, rich red. Home to the Wanyiramna tribe for generations, life in Ipuli is simple but challenging: the village has no electricity or running water. A regional school draws students from neighboring villages, but there are no books and only a handful of classrooms have chairs for the nearly 500 students. Medical care is almost non-existent here; the village has no hospital and no doctors.

Photo by Vikki Ott, Haley & Aldrich

Just getting to Ipuli is difficult. The main road there is broken and dusty. By the time we arrived after a two-day journey from Dar es Salaam, we had red dust on our faces and cameras lenses, and our cameraman had something akin to whiplash.

Neema’s parents, Charles and Helena, grew up in Ipuli and the family became committed to this project after hearing the story from a young medical assistant: mothers and fathers were pooling months and months of salary to take sick children to the nearest hospital over 80 km away, sometimes making excruciating decisions as to who would be treated and who would not; pregnant women in labor were being carried over the broken road often by oxcart and bicycle to reach the nearest doctor.

In this region, the major health problem is malaria, followed closely by acute respiratory infection, pneumonia, eye infections and diarrhea. Infant and maternal mortality rates are high, and life expectancy continues to decrease due to HIV/AIDS.

Photo by Vikki Ott, Haley & Aldrich

To build the hospital, men draw water from the pond, and shovel sand from the river, mixing them with cement and then hand-cranking concrete blocks. The bricks then take a day or more to dry in the sun, a process that grinds to a halt during the rainy season. So far the men have made 6500 bricks, and the foundation for this future hospital is slowly becoming a reality.

Neema at Goat Ceremony, Photo by Vikki Ott, Haley & Aldrich

In a small ceremony, the village elders gave Neema two goats, gifts of gratitude and honor. Last week we received an email from Charles who wrote that one of these elders had fallen very sick and was diagnosed with severe malaria and typhoid. Charles found him lying ill at home after he had been released from the local clinic, and so gently tucked him into his car, and drove the 80 kilometers to get him the health care that may keep him alive. Thanks to Haley & Aldrich, Architecture for Humanity, Neema Mgana and other supporters, when the Rural Center of Excellence opens its doors this spring, medical help will no longer be a long and arduous journey, but will be a part of the community and its future.

The Rural Center of Excellence still needs support. If you would like more information on the project, or if you would like to find out how you can help, please email Neema Mgana at nmgana@yahoo.com.

Four Ipuli boys and their future clinic, Photo by Vikki Ott, Haley & Aldrich

Beth Cohen,
Michele Bowman

Last year at Pop!Tech, Cary Fowler, Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, spoke of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. February 26 marks the official opening of the “Doomsday Vault,” as it has come to be called. It is intended to protect the Earth’s crop diversity against gradual or catastrophic losses. Sited deep inside a wild Arctic mountain in Norway, seeds from around the world will be mechanically cooled to -20 degrees, which will keep seeds alive for up to 19,000 years. To ensure that developing nations can participate in this important seed bank, The Global Crop Diversity Trust is providing funding so that a diversity of all crops will be secure forever – even in the event of an asteroid or nuclear disaster.

Link to a video about the Seed Vault on the National Geographic website.

To read about specific crop strategies, regional strategies, or to make a donation to this effort, visit http://www.croptrust.org.

Also, last week, the BBC World’s Earth Report aired a documentary about the vault. To read the transcript and watch the video, click here.

Entrance to Global Seed Vault- Credit Image Mari Tefre/Global Crop Diversity Trust

Peggy Shea Andrews

From a series entitled Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait, Chris Jordan looks closely at statistics of contemporary American culture. How closely? Have a look at his piece, Plastic Cups (2008), one million disposable plastic cups, the number used on airline flights in the United States every six hours. At first glance it looks like an intricate pattern of plumbing, or ant factory work, but look closely and you’ll see stacks and stacks of cups, weaving their way into an untraceable road leading us nowhere. Best seen live, these prints offer a glimpse into our real consumer culture, a sobering visual representation of the stats we usually only hear run down during a speech or campaign.

View the entire series of portraits here.

Watch his 2007 pop!cast here.

Peggy Shea Andrews

It’s another first for Dr. Craig Venter, the world’s leading human genome research biologist. Released in the January 24th issue of Science, a team of 17 researchers at his J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) has created the largest man-made DNA structure. By synthesizing the 582,970 base pair genome of a bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium, JCVI has completed the second of three steps necessary to create the kinds of synthetic organisms that might one day recycle carbon using a modified photosynthesis process.

The third and final step will be for the JCVI team to create a living bacterial cell based entirely on this synthetically made genome. Speaking at Pop!Tech in 2006, Dr. Venter said this whole process would take two years, and the team seems well on their way. Whether genes move swiftly to become the design components of the future, as Venter suggests, or the field becomes logjammed by skeptics, he’s poised to be a leader for years to come.

You can read the press release here, and see pictures of the organism here.

Peggy Shea Andrews

At Pop!Tech 2007, five-time Grammy award-winner John Legend moved and motivated Pop!Tech participants, weaving stories from his Show Me Campaign—a movement he launched to help eradicate extreme global poverty—in between each soulful song.

Now in a February 2 release, John joins ranks with Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and director Jesse Dylan (son of Bob) in their new celeb-studded music video in support of Barack Obama. The video is a musical performance of Senator Obama’s Yes We Can speech, his “concession” speech following Senator Clinton’s win in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary.

In spite of the fact that we live in controversial times, today’s North American music scene increasingly emphasizes music that’s materialistic, sexually charged or violent, over and above music that’s politically controversial. This moving example of musicians coming together and speaking directly to their audience in order to have a positive influence, is a reversal of that trend, and regardless of one’s politics, this reversal is important.

Check out the video, and read about the backstory here.

John also recently shot and released a music video in Tanzania for the Show Me Campaign to introduce his fans to critical global issues. Watch this story of a young boy overwhelmed by the weight of the world who is asking questions and searching for answers.

The character in the video is inspired by the real life story of two young boys, Yaguine Koita (aged 14) and Fodé Tounkara (aged 15), stowaways who froze to death flying from Guinea to Belgium, on 28 July 1999. The boys were carrying plastic bags with birth certificates, school report cards, photographs and a letter to the world asking for solidarity and kindness in providing relief to Africa. Check out their letter on John’s site under the “music video & explanation” tab here.

While talk of AIDS has become nothing but white noise for many, Zinhle Thabethe, a counselor working on the frontlines of the South African HIV epidemic, is taking action. Through home visits, working with AIDS orphans, educating nurses and doctors, and singing in the internationally acclaimed HIV-positive Sinikithemba Choir, Zinny’s goal is to fight stigma by raising awareness, and to ensure that people with HIV get plugged into treatment and stay on treatment – all in one of the most resource-constrained environments in the world.

Now, National Geographic is recognizing Zinny’s extraordinary contributions by naming her one of the 2008 class of Emerging Explorers – individuals who represent the next generation of world-changing talent from many different fields.

We continue to work with Zinny and her colleague, Dr. Krista Dong of iTeach, on Project Masiluleke, a Pop!Tech Accelerator project focused on using mobile devices to improve HIV care in South Africa and beyond. And we join in congratulating Zinny on her National Geographic nomination.

Bill Shannon brought the house down at Pop!Tech 2007, reminding us that anything is possible. Armed with a set of rocker bottom crutches, at times a skateboard, and two legs compromised by remnants of Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease, Shannon danced, jumped and glided effortlessly across the stage. Now, after many years of performing his distinctive style of dance, Shannon, aka the Crutchmaster, has begun systematically cataloging the components of his style.

In a new YouTube video, Shannon demonstrates various grips of the crutches, transitions used to move about, and describes the position of the body in relation to the floor. Shannon seems to defy physics, which is exactly the point.

Superficially his performance could be seen as eye candy, but Shannon’s practice goes much deeper with roots in performance art and his explorations of popular perceptions of disability. For more about this, check out his amazing online project “what is what” commissioned by Creative Time in 2003.

by Peggy Shea Andrews

What’s the net impact of Pop!Tech?  I’ve been thinking about my time in Camden, Maine a lot lately - never more so than while I attended the 2007 Net Impact conference this past week in Nashville (see, pun very much intended.)  In all seriousness however, my trip to Tennessee prompted the following questions: what is the impact of Pop!Tech and what will it do next?

These questions are not accidental; the Net Impact conference’s theme this year was, in fact, What Will You Do Next?  With 1800 attendees and up to 16 sessions at a time (!) there is no one answer from Net Impact.  Despite the wide variety of experiences among attendees, the conference managed to communicate a clear theme: get it done. 

Part of that theme stems from the fact that Net Impact attracts mostly MBA students - they are all about starting a business or at least working with organizations that address social and environmental problems.  I saw MBAs eager to be the next Claire Broido Johnson (of SunEdison) or Paul Hudnut (of EnviroFit) - two perfect examples of people who are “doing it next” through their work. 

(Side note: check out Paul’s excellent blog, What’s a BOPreneur? and his report from Net Impact.)

Pop!Tech, on the other hand, is just beginning to dip into the “get it done” arena.  This year’s conference, The Human Impact, seemed to be a departure from previous events.  Quite a few attendees described previous Pop!Techs as gadget-fests, featuring the latest innovative products and concepts.  This year’s conference, on the other hand, gave a lot of stage-time to problems, mostly environmental degradation and persistent poverty.  I’m not sure the old-school Pop!Techies were happy with this shift, even though the conference did a marvelous job pointing out the innovative tools, models, and ideas that are indeed changing the world - and featured some great “get it done” types, like Jessica Flannery and Van Jones (among others.)

So, getting back to my original question, what is Pop!Tech’s net impact?  In many ways, it remains to be seen - it depends how the Pop!Tech Accelerator and the Pop!Tech Carbon Initiative work, among other things.  These two initiatives are forays into the “get it done” space.  If they are successful, then Pop!Tech’s impact will grow.  If they hit some roadblocks, however, Pop!Tech may have jeopardized its hardcore audience in its effort to take its program to the next level.  (Side note: I’m confident that Andrew and co. can make it work.)

What will it do next?  For starters, Pop!Tech can continue its excellent programming.  I’d like to see invites to next year’s meeting go out to folks like Paul Hudnut and Claire Broido Johnson, for starters, as well as other get-it-done speakers at Net Impact - Cindy Cooper, Tim Prestero, Ben Powell, Cleve Justis, etc.

Ultimately, these are two vastly different conferences, but they can learn from one another.  Net Impact, in my opinion, can take a page from Pop!Tech’s book and sharply reduce the number of sessions and speakers - quality over quantity!  Not only that, but mandated, controlled networking - like Pop!Tech lunches - are the sorts of things that sets a conference apart from a series of lectures interspersed with a bag lunch.  Can you do Pop!Tech for 1800 MBAs in 2/3 of the time at 1/3 of the budget?  No - and I’m not asking Net Impact to.  But as Pop!Tech can learn from Net Impact, it goes the other way as well.

by Robert Katz, World Resources Institute

Paris was one of the Global Bloggers attending this years conference. Below is her wonderful post-conference thoughts from her blog Ride the Wave
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I am so grateful to collaborate with Hamid Tehrani in sharing my experience of Poptech with an Iranian audience on Global Voices Online Farsi. However it is in the time after the conference that I am able to truly reflect and share my experience to both Iranian and American audiences, and as a citizen of both of these countries, to speak to all people about the things that are closest to my heart.

We are the ones who can solve the worlds’ problems. To solve these problems we must first recognize that there are people who share with us a dream for a better world. The first step is to hold on to the dream that there can be peace, and I realized that at Poptech there are many people who share this dream with me. For example, Zainab Salbi was a great source of inspiration when she spoke about the role of women in maintaining peace within society. She founded Women for Women International, responding to a need to make sure that the world is safe for women. Women hold together the family structure, and if women are being raped, killed, or offered food in exchange for one of their children, a society can only fall apart. Her organization makes it possible to give these women a chance, and a choice.

Van Jones is another world-changing thinker that is bringing his dreams to life. He realized that people living in poverty were not being given chances to succeed the way more affluent, educated kids were given chances. He recognized that he could combine solutions to social inequality and environmental destruction. He explains that by creating green jobs [jobs that are beneficial for the environment], he could work in creating educational, rewarding work opportunities for people–creating “green pathways out of poverty.” He worked to create the Green Jobs Act, an initiative that identifies jobs and skills needed to grow renewable energy and energy efficiency industries, while creating a way out of poverty for low income adults.

The solution that Van Jones brings to life is the type of thing I dream of seeing happen between Iran and the US–exchange of culture, tools, ideas, and technology that improve our understanding of one another, and help us all toward achieving a safer planet. Rather than fighting about how we disagree on certain things, we should keep our focus on the problems that relate to us all, and find solutions to those problems. Our environmental problems are a global concern, and our emphasis as citizens of this planet should be on generating global solutions to bigger the issues that impact all of humanity. We have a choice: to focus on “the other”, creating labels such as terrorists, militants, freedom fighters… or we can find solutions, collectively, for global exchange, interconnection, and peace.