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.

from the October 22, 2007 edition

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Among the tools that fit the last two criteria are a human-operated $8 treadle pump for irrigation and a $3 drip-­irrigation system for gardens. Polak estimates he's helped some 17 million people move out of poverty in the past 25 years. Now beyond retirement age, he aims to help 150 million more.

"All it takes is one person with a dream," Polak says.

Sheila Kennedy founded the Portable Light Project to bring the advantages of portable light to the developing world, where some 2 billion people don't have access to electric lights or power. In these primitive conditions, light sources need to be simple, reliable, rugged, durable, lightweight, adaptable, mobile, self-sufficient, self-contained – and, of course, inexpensive. Using existing technologies such as a 4-cent switch from a dishwasher, lithium-ion batteries developed for cellphones, and HBLED lights like those used in pedestrian "walk" signals, she developed a rugged solar-powered portable light source that gives off 80 lumens per watt, enough for people to read and work by at night.

Pop!Tech has long talked the talk about environmental issues, and in recent years it's begun to walk the walk, too. To compensate for the carbon emissions created by this year's conference (including energy needs on site and for participants' travel), Pop!Tech bought carbon-offset credits equal to twice the carbon the meeting created.

"We vetted very, very carefully" in choosing the projects, Andrew Zolli, Pop!Tech curator and the conference's host, told the gathering. "All of the [carbon] credits are legitimate." In fact, a leader from each project addressed the audience. The projects included solar-powered irrigation in Benin, West Africa; a wildlife corridor and reforestation in Nicaragua; and making energy from biomass in Brazil. (Everyone was invited to participate. It offers a quick and simple "carbon footprint" calculator to help individuals determine the amount of carbon emissions they are producing. Then they can volunteer to financially support one of the carbon-offsetting projects.)

In another "walking the walk" initiative, the "Pop!Tech Accelerator," announced this weekend, aims to bring together innovators attending the conference to take on big challenges. Its first effort, Project Masiluleke (it means "to reach out" or "rejuvenate oneself" in Zulu) combines the work of ­iTEACH, a program in South Africa that aims to educate poor people about HIV/AIDS and help them find medical treatment, and researchers at the University of Connecticut who have developed an interactive computer program that helps patients understand and manage their own medical treatment.

But Mr. Zolli never let the mood get too earnest for very long. He also introduced toy designer Caleb Chung, who gave an entertaining account of how he developed the Furby toy that became a huge hit a decade ago. His latest invention is Pleo, a "life form" dinosaur toy, ~~a href="http://"/~~that uses robotics and sensors to become a "pet" that reacts to its surroundings.

Expect Pleo to be on store shelves this Christmas. Cost? Figure on $350 or so.

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