The Soccket - A Fun Social Innovation

by Kevin Roberts

Tackling climate change is too important to leave to politicians! It's a job for the inventors, the innovators, the radical optimists. Because of them, the clean energy revolution is already underway, in big ways and small. I stumbled across this amazing idea, and I wanted to share it with you.

Meet the Soccket, a "fun, portable energy-harvesting energy source in the form of a soccer ball". That's right - it is a football that captures the energy of each kick, throw or header to be reused later as a tiny power generator. For each 15 minutes of play, it generates enough energy to power an LED light for three hours.

The Soccket has been trialed successfully in Durban, South Africa - home to this year's Soccer World Cup, as well as to millions of young people who love nothing more than to kick a ball around, often in communities with not enough safe, reliable sources of energy. The inventors see it as a community builder and public health tool as well as being, well, a soccer ball. They plan to develop a high-end version for sale in the US and Europe. An inspired and inspiring idea!


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Image source: ecofriend

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Kevin Roberts is the CEO worldwide of The Lovemarks Company, Saatchi & Saatchi. For more information on Kevin, please go to www.saatchikevin.com. To see this blog at its original source, please go to www.krconnect.blogspot.com.

Picture - Trends for the 2010s

by Venessa Miemis

Here are a few recurring themes that have been popping up on my radar.
(click to enlarge)



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Venessa Miemis is a Media Studies graduate student at the New School in NYC, exploring what happens at the intersection of technology, culture, and communication. Connect with her at www.emergentbydesign.com and on Twitter @venessamiemis.

Will Apple or Microsoft Dominate Home Energy Management?

by Idris Mootee

Home energy management is hot and I've seen more than a dozen of companies having a very similar approach. It is almost hopeless for small start-ups to play this same, as many deep pockets have been working on this for a long time. Whirlpool and energy retailer Direct Energy have joined forces to showcase what the energy efficient home of the future will look like at the CES. I've seen some cool stuff from them.

I don't think anyone have nailed it yet. Whirlpool Home Energy Manager (HEM) includes appliances that tap into a unified network to communicate how much energy they are using, when, why, and how much it is costing. This type of data transmission is what will eventually make it possible for your clothing dryer to know to turn on after your washing machine has finished the cycle. Or let you finish watching your 7.2 Dolby home movie before the oven starts baking. The goal is to optimize the use the of energy between all appliances.



User experience design is still one big challenge and OpenPeak is doing a pretty decent job. They have an iPhone like touch-screen dashboard to manage appliances to run at certain times, use that to change settings and to display consumption data. There are many other players such as Tendril, EnergyHub, People Power, Control4, and OPOWER. Whirlpool appliances, Lennox thermostats and OpenPeak dashboards together create the product package and Direct Energy will be testing the market in Houston.


The latest player, guess who, is Apple. They just filed an application this week called the Intelligent Power Monitoring that allow people to reduce energy use by giving them tools to manage how connected devices are powered. Users could get recommendations on when to schedule gadget charging to take advantage of off-peak rates, for example. Or the electronics controller could put devices in hibernate mode after a set amount of time. Users could have a display, such as an LCD screen, or a movable projector to control these tasks and monitor electricity use. No question this will be the coolest one.



Apple talks about power management in its patent application as: "Some personal computers sometimes are being left on simply to serve as power supplies for the charging of the aforementioned portable devices via connections, such as USB connections, that provide power in addition to data (rather than charging those devices from the household electric service using their dedicated chargers), even though the power supply of a personal computer is much larger than is needed for such a function, and as such draws much more power than such a function would otherwise demand. As the price of electricity increases, such uses of power can cost users more."



This is definitely going to be another platform play, both from a standard and user experience perspectives. Microsoft is also active in this space and giving away its energy management tool Hohm to consumers for free. Distribution is a key factor here and both Apple and Microsoft has no apparent advantages. Is this going to be Microsoft vs Apple all over gain?


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Idris Mootee is the CEO of idea couture, a strategic innovation and experience design firm. He is the author of four books, tens of published articles, and a frequent speaker at business conferences and executive retreats.

Innovation Perspectives - 911 Call for Innovation and Revolution

This is the fourth of several 'Innovation Perspectives' articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on 'What product or sector is in desperate need of innovation?'. Here is the next perspective in the series:

by Ric Merrifield

I define innovation as figuring out a way to accomplish the same outcome, the "what" we do, in a way that doesn't resemble "how" we used to do it. Flight check-in over the web doesn't resemble the experience of talking to the airline employee at the counter, but it accomplishes the same three outcomes (confirming a reservation, conducting a survey, and managing logistics when there is luggage). A revolution, by contrast, I would define as an innovation that results in a dramatically different, or richer experience. E-mail and text messaging haven't just replaced prior forms of communication, they have revolutionized the way we communicate in ways we couldn't imagine 20 years ago.

Right now, I see very distinct places where innovation is desperately needed, and at the same time, I see a place where a revolution isn't quite overdue, but it's getting there.

The most urgent innovation needs are in U.S. health care and energy. People in Washington are chipping away at ways to improve the administration of health care and the role of insurers and doctor incentives, and while I will grant that those are all big messes that need cleaning up, that's not where the greatest need is. The greatest need is to stop people from needing to see the doctor in the first place and the way to do that is managing wellness in a structured, disciplined way. People get there insurance through their work in the US, and the companies should mandate regular checkups and the insurers should provide statistics (not at the individual level - for obvious privacy reasons) as to where the risks are and then invest in wellness programs accordingly.

Just at Microsoft alone, if they don't take action on diabetes and obesity alone, in less than six years they will have to spend about $70 million more each year - and most of that will be avoided if the high risk employees lose just six pounds before they turn 46 (source: The American Diabetes Association, and Microsoft Corporation). People ask about the return on investment from wellness programs - there it is. Energy - this one is harder but more obvious. The car replaced the horse, we need something to replace our dependency on petrochemicals. I don't know where it will come from, waves, wind, cold fusion, whatever, but we need it soon.

As for where the revolution is needed, or why, I would say we need it because we are in a new era - the era I will call post-decentralization.

We grew up in a world of a finite number of TV stations, the record labels decided what music we would listen to, and we all got newspapers (all very centralized sources of news, entertainment, music, and information). Now, we are in a very different world that includes social networking, YouTube, blogs, iTunes, and the iPhone. Most of the sources information, music and content have become almost cartoonishly decentralized.

That's great from a control perspective, but except for those who are really on top of it all, it's hard for people to feel comfortable that they are getting connected to the right stuff that's most aligned with their needs and interests. We need innovations to do better match making between consumers and all of these decentralized sources of apps and content. I shouldn't have to find the best news articles, blogs, video clips, and music, they should find me based on who I am and what I am interested in. I happen to have some ideas on how that will happen - but that is going to allow us to really fulfill the potential of the internet, and it will be awesome.


You can check out all of the 'Innovation Perspectives' articles from the different contributing authors on 'What product or sector is in desperate need of innovation?' by clicking the link in this sentence.

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Ric Merrifield is known at the "Business Scientist" at Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, WA and is the author of "Rethink". He blogs about ways to rethink through getting out of what he calls "the 'how' trap".

Is Search Killing the Planet?

Everytime you search on Google, you are adding to the consumption of 1% of the world's energy

by Idris Mootee

Here is a lesser-known fact. Data centers use up tons of energy just for cooling, and in a typical data center only 40-45% of energy use is for the actual computing - the rest is used mostly for cooling down the servers. Data centers' emissions of carbon dioxide have been running at around one third of those of airlines, but are growing 10% a year and now approach levels of entire countries such as Argentina or the Netherlands.

Apple is building its own server farm. Apple has secured a $300 million tax cut from North Carolina politicians in exchange for investing $1 billion over nine years for a so-called technology "hub." Wonder why Apple needs such a big server farm? There's only one reason, Apple is contemplating a large-scale strategic shift to deliver multiple applications as a service on an enhanced Apple device, which I think will be entertainment related.

Back to the energy saving topic, here's one of the greenest data centers on earth which will be housed in a massive cave beneath an orthodox Christian cathedral in Helsinki. It is a former bomb shelter carved into the rock by the fire brigade in World War Two as a refuge for city officials from Russian air raids. Excess heat from hundreds of computer servers will be captured and fed into the district's heating network, a system of water-heated pipes used to warm homes in the city. This makes perfect sense and I don't see why these server farms need to be in California. Should we move all our servers to Scandinavia, Northern Canada and Alaska?

Data centers such as those run by Google already use around 1% of the world's energy, and their demand for power is rising fast with the trend to outsource computing. Every time you search on Google, you are adding to the consumption of that 1%. Research firm Gartner issued four recommendations for improving energy management for corporations:

• Raise the temperature at the server inlet point up to 71 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius), but use sensors to monitor potential hotspots.


• Develop a dashboard of datacenter energy-efficient metrics that provides appropriate data to different levels of IT and financial management.


• Use the SPECpower benchmark to evaluate the relative energy efficiency of servers.


• Improve the use of the existing infrastructure through consolidation and virtualization before building out or buying new/additional datacenter floor space.

Some called this the Moore's Law of data centers, the growth of cooling requirements parallels the growth of computing power, which roughly doubles every 18 months. That has brought the energy challenge of data centers to the top of the list. Have you come across any innovation allows waste heat from servers or data centers to be recycled (or managed) in a non-traditional way that conserves energy? There must be a solution.

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Idris Mootee is the CEO of idea couture, a strategic innovation and experience design firm. He is the author of four books, tens of published articles, and a frequent speaker at business conferences and executive retreats.

Which is Heavier? - Car or Soft Drink Shipments?

by Stephen Shapiro

Last week I had a fantastic meeting with the CEO of a mid-sized energy company. We had a number of fascinating conversations ranging from Personality Poker, Open Innovation, and alternative energy.

In the meeting, I was drinking my "caffeine in a can" - a diet cola.

The CEO pointed at my soft drink and said that it was one of the worst energy hogs.

He pointed out that years ago, Coke was sold as syrup (in fact, it was originally sold for medicinal purposes). The carbonated water was added at the point of sale (e.g., the pharmacy or soda shop). Less energy was expended in the packaging process. Less material was used for the packaging itself. But more importantly, less energy was used in shipping.

After doing some digging, I found that, according to one website, 500ml of syrup makes the equivalent of 12 liters. That means that a can of cola contains <5% syrup and over 95% carbonated water. According to one study, nearly 300 billion liters of soft drinks are sold a year. Hoovers research shows that only 35% of that is from fountain sales.

Ok, so let's do some math.

A liter of soft drink weights approximately 1 kilogram. This means that a liter is over 2.1 pounds of water, and .1 pounds of syrup. At 65% bottle/cans (excluding the 35% fountain sales), this is over 400 billion pounds of carbonated water needlessly shipped with the syrup. Let's not forget the weight of the cans/bottles. To put this in context, this is the weight of 100 million cars. In 2007, 16 million cars, SUVs and trucks were sold in the US. Every car sold in the United States over the past 6 years weighs less than the weight of the excess water shipped EVERY year with bottled soft drinks.

Enough of the math. I could attempt to calculate the average distance the bottles travel and the amount of fuel required for transportation, but I just don't have the time. And I suspect you get the idea.

What do you do about it?

• Of course advocates are trying to reduce the amount of soft drinks we consume. But so far nothing points to that being a successful strategy.


• Encourage people to buy and use soda machines. There are several companies that provide this type of product. You buy the machine, the syrup and the gas cartridges.


• Another option might be to find a solution similar to Crystal Light "On-the Go." The challenge is adding carbonation to a powder. While eating Pop Rocks Candy the other day, I realized that there must be a way of addressing this.

Of course there are many more possible solutions. But the solution is not the point of this article.

Innovation is about asking better question. It is about surfacing the hidden assumptions. When looking at issues (environmental, business, or personal), sometimes you need to question everything...even the can of soda in your hand.

P.S. Soft drinks account for the largest percentage of the "liquid refreshment beverage" market. This article did not even include the oft-maligned bottled water industry, which is smaller in size. Do you want to know how far your bottled water traveled to go to you? Check out this article.

P.P.S. I am not suggesting we eliminate soft drinks. My consumption of diet cola - especially first thing in the morning - is one of my guilty pleasures!

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Stephen Shapiro is the author of three books, a popular innovation speaker, and is the Chief Innovation Evangelist for Innocentive, the leader in Open Innovation.

Calling All Media and Energy Innovators

The Economist is holding two innovation competitions to find the most exciting, game-changing innovations that will have a marked impact in two key areas: new media and energy. Twelve finalists will be invited to present their innovations to an audience of top executives in the field at events hosted by The Economist. Finalists will also receive complimentary conference registrations (value of up to $2,495). The winning presenter will receive exclusive bragging rights and a free subscription to The Economist.


1. Media Convergence

Do you have the next thrilling new interface, electronic reader, social media idea, mobile device or other novel way for people to interact with media? If you have a media or marketing innovation that you believe will change the way people behave, then you should enter to win the Media Convergence Innovation Competition, taking place in New York City, October 20-21, 2009.




The deadline for entries is September 8, 2009 in YouTube video format. Complete details and rules area available here or by email.


2. Carbon Economy

Do you have the game changing solution for climate change, the next renewable energy source, human-powered appliance or breakthrough use of nano-technology? If you have created a product or service that will improve energy efficiency or will add to the renewable energy industry, then you should enter to win the Carbon Innovation Competition, taking place in Washington DC, November 17-18, 2009.




The deadline for entries is September 30, 2009 in YouTube video format. Complete details and rules area available here or by email.


Good luck to any readers who decide to participate!

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Braden Kelley is the editor of Blogging Innovation and founder of Business Strategy Innovation, a consultancy focusing on innovation and marketing strategy. Braden is also @innovate on Twitter.

Best Kept Secret in Wireless Innovation

I came across an article in Fast Company on a wireless technology standard that I think most people (especially non-techies) have probably never heard of - ZigBee.

ZigBee is a wireless technology that uses significantly less power than WiFi and as a result is ideal for monitoring applications. The application detailed in the Fast Company article was a remote healthcare monitoring solution called AT&T Telehealth, but the technology is also touted for energy management and efficiency, home automation, building automation, and industry automation.

If you are interested in learning more about ZigBee, they have lots of educational information on their web site.

What other uses can you imagine for this technology?

@innovate

Why can't we grow new energy?

Here is another very interesting video from Juan Enriquez, futurist, speaking at TED 18 months ago. The topic of this one is agriculture and energy, and whether or not we can approach hydrocarbons with biology instead of brute force in the same way that we have innovated in agriculture over the years, and as a result drive efficiency.

Check it out:



What do you think?

@innovate

Interview with Humdinger Wind Energy's Shawn Fayne

I had the privilege yesterday to interview Shawn Frayne, a founder of Humdinger Wind Energy. This being the Internet Age, we didn't have to wait until we could sit down in person to chat. Instead it was an almost commonplace phone to Skype, to mobile (Skype Forward) call from Seattle to Hong Kong.To my parents, I would say "I interviewed him by phone."

Background



Humdinger Wind Energy was inspired by Shawn's discovery of the story of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse of 1940. From seeing video of this historic collapse, Shawn became inspired to try an alternative approach to generating electricity from wind energy. The genesis of the wind belt and subsequent founding of Humdinger Wind Energy Was the result of an initial goal 4 or 5 years ago to create an inexpensive wind generating device to power simple LEDs for lighting, or to recharge cell phones in Haiti. This original goal then evolved to a goal of developing affordable rural lighting and rural electrification solutions.

The genesis for the company may have come out of seeking to do social good, but Humdinger Wind Energy is not a pure social play. They are a for-profit start-up that can stand on its own. Humdinger has already gone through a significant angel round that is enabling it to a technology transfer level.

Implications - Wealthy vs. Developing Countries

Though the wind belt technology has developing country implications, it also has wealthy country uses that they can address through technology licensing to existing energy players. The goals of the organization when fused together are to use revenue from wealthy country applications to fund longer term developing country applications. They are more akin to someone like Motorola developing an inexpensive phone to address low-income customers, than an international development organization. Humdinger has a triple bottom line, but also endeavors to meet traditional company goals of making revenues and profits.

Education

In part to support the different goals for wealthy countries and developing countries, Humdinger has decided to make part of their intellectual property available for educational exploration. One of the purposes of doing that is to treat the wind belt as open source hardware in the developing countries while at the same time patent protecting it in developing countries. Shawn had some of the following things to say about this:

• "We've built the system described in the education document ourselves in three minutes."


• "Hopefully having more people working on it will advance technologies faster."


• "People were downloading videos and experimenting with the idea itself and a community was starting to develop."


• "This community inspired us to put out more information than we had previously explored."


• "So far we have had 1,100 downloads of the document."


• "To this point we haven't gotten much feedback other than saying they are excited to work on it."


• "This approach is also in our best interests because any company seeking to harvest or create energy in a new way has to convince people that the new approach works in order to move out of the fringe."

Open Innovation

We also discussed the open innovation movement and Shawn doesn't fully agree with the open innovation approach. He doesn't think that the human species has reached the point where invention is highly social at scale. He believes that optimal invention is still limited to small groups of people working together in person. Also for Humdinger to be financially viable he feels they must have some amount of protection around their ideas in wealthy countries. Here are some more of his thoughts:

• "The problem is not generating new ideas..."


• "There are 1000 different ways to address a problem, the bigger problem is how do you effectively select what to test. You can't test all the approaches. How do you pull out the right ones to test?"


• " You still need a small group to select the correct solution to pursue."

Social vs. Commercial

There are four primary members of the leadsership team: Shawn Frayne, Jordan McRae, Jerry Chun, and Kurt Kornbluth. As they grow, they will likely merge some of their ideas with those of one of their informal advisors (Paul Hudnut at Colorado State University) and create small incubators of 4-5 people ("Virtual Innovation Factories"). These teams will not be together under one roof (the Edison or Dean Kamen approach), they will be dotted around the world and bring the best minds to bear on very fundamental problems (energy harvesting, energy storage, and water treatment).

Humdinger was formed to generate funds over time for this grand experiment. This is not what we are currently doing with the group in Xela, Guatemala. As they are a separate organization that we partner with - we like to call this "Cloud Inventing".

• "When we talk to the group in Guatemala (we Skype in to see what's going on at the site and to talk to them), there is a lot of personal contact and we know that they are very good at inventing and engineering, and it is a small group."

Humdinger is trying to develop a new type of wind cell that is flexible and modular and works inexpensively on a smaller scale that only solar or batteries could have before.

• "What if you could break up a big turbine and split it up into 1000 pieces at the same efficiency ($2/watt)?"


• "Most of the folks we talk to get really excited about this being a fundamental change in how power can be generated."

Conclusion

Overall it was a great talk and I hope this gives the readers a bit of insight into an example of one of the many hybrid commercial and social good models that we are blessed to have existing during our lifetimes. There are obviously a lot of potential applications for this technology in the wealthy countries - everything from powering sensors to other types of micro-generation. I wish Shawn and Humdinger every success with this endeavor.

Sites mentioned during the conversation that are worth checking out:

- http://www.instructables.com/
- http://www.makezine.com/
- http://www.brightidea.com/
- http://www.ideorg.org/

Related articles:

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/oct2008/id2008106_231604.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily