World-changers meet in Maine
Each year, Pop!Tech brings dozens of world-class thinkers and doers, along with hundreds of listeners, to a three-day retreat in rural Maine. Their goal: Save the world.
By Gregory M. Lamb | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the October 22, 2007 edition
Page 1 of 2
Camden, Maine - One of them has created an innovative way to let individuals make tiny personal loans over the Internet to impoverished but motivated entrepreneurs anywhere in the world. Another one designs simple, inexpensive products that let millions of people who earn less than $1 a day ratchet up their standard of living. A third repurposes technologies developed for state-of-the-art consumer products to cast light for people living in remote areas far from conventional power sources.
Those were just some of the people who addressed several hundred movers and shakers from corporations, think tanks, and universities at the 11th annual Pop!Tech conference in this picturesque seacoast town.
Each year, hundreds of attendees pay a considerable fee to crowd into Camden's quaint Opera House to hear from a score or more of innovative thinkers and doers representing the latest and best thinking in their fields. The talks are all available online and – starting this year – translated into eight languages.
Past speakers have ranged from geostrategist author and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman; to Carolyn Porco, the head of NASA's Cassini spaceprobe mission to Saturn; to Bunker Roy, the Indian social activist.
Jessica Flannery calls herself just an ordinary middle-class girl from Pittsburgh who wanted somehow to help those in need in developing countries. Together with her husband, who supplied some of the Web know-how, they founded Kiva about 18 months ago.
Kiva allows individuals to loan as little as $25 to people over the Internet to help them start businesses, from peddling popcorn or running a fruit stand to starting a taxi service. Lenders can sort through loan requests online, choose their own partner, and e-mail them directly. The repayment rate? More than 99 percent.
That makes the lender happy, who then usually just reloans the money to someone else. But something else happens, too. The borrowers learn that someone else in the world cares about them. "We can change the way that borrowers think about the rest of the world," says Ms. Flannery.
Paul Polak has founded IDE (International Development Enterprises,) and D-Rev, organizations aimed at helping the poorest of the poor become self-sufficient. He urges architect and product designers to "design for the other 90 percent" of the world, including the 1.2 billion who live on less than $1 a day. Many are farmers trying to survive on less than five acres.
But Dr. Polak tells those wanting to help not to bother unless: (1) They have talked to at least 25 poor people before they start; (2) The device they design will pay for itself within the first year; and (3) The device can be sold to at least 1 million people (to keep costs low).
RSS feed
