“What if changing the world could be fun?”

Launched earlier this year Yoxi.tv is using an interesting combination of online video, game mechanics and voting mechanisms to engage users in tackling social issues – in attempt to make changing the world fun.

Very roughly, the site runs challenges where users are invited to develop ideas to address social issues – reinventing fast food is the first. 1-minute videos are then voted on by the community and the best are gradually whittled down through a series of rounds.

What makes Yoxi interesting is that users of the site can increase their influence through a variety of actions, graduating to new levels by earning points for backing winning ideas and giving cash (only paid out if the project you’re supporting wins).  So the more active you are in supporting a successful project, the more weight your voice carries.

It’s very early days but the site has managed to get some traction, not least through its partnership with the excellent Good magazine (where I first found Yoxi). The game play mechanisms and rules seem a little complicated for what the site is hoping to do but it will undoubtedly evolve over time.

In the mean time it’s certainly worth a peek.

Site: www.yoxi.tv

If you’ve never heard of Kittanning, you’re not alone. Kittanning is a small town about 40 miles outside Pittsburgh and home to about 4-5000 people as of the last census.

Like many towns in America (not to mention the UK and just about every other developed country), Kittanning was once home to industry – in this case “iron and steel works, foundries, coal mines, glassworks, flour and lumber mills, china, pottery, brick, lime, and clay works, mirror and typewriter factories, breweries” – but its population has declined as those industries died out.

And like many towns, the people of Kittanning have decided to try and do something to reverse the decline. Mirroring projects in towns, cities and countries the world over, RefreshKittanning.com has been setup to encourage people to not only submit their ideas for the town but also get involved in helping to make them happen.

The focus for the town is entrepreneurship – how can they encourage more starts and attract new ones in. Founder of the site, Mike Rizzo got in touch to tell us a little more:

So what’s Refresh Kittanning all about?
It’s a social innovation project – we’re engaging a discussion around development topics in our community. We plan on using our collective talents and ideas from the community to help ignite growth, either from within the community or by attracting outside entrepreneurs and investors.

Why does Kittanning need this kind of action?
We’re in the middle of four decades of population decline, and most of our young people are forced to move away. Politically nothing is happening in our town, so we’re taking the initiative to make something positive happen.

Who’s involved?
Anyone who wants to be. We need has much help and as many ideas as possible.

What kind of response have you had so far?

We’re only a couple of weeks in, and the main challenge for us to get more people to share their ideas. A couple of interested entrepreneurs have stepped forward, and we’re currently exploring ways to help them get their business ideas off the ground. We’re also speaking with a very large corporation about a major project for our community.

What would you actually like people to do to get involved – both locally and outside of the area?

Share ideas, the more feedback and suggestions we have, the more powerful our data becomes. For example if a 100 people share the desire for say an organic grocery store, then we can use that data to help attract or develop an organic grocer. Suggestions from outsiders are valuable too, as we want to know what to do to attract people to our community. Anyone who is interested starting in a business, we want to engaged them. Also there are plenty of VCs, investors, and businesses out there we would love to work with.

Are there any other projects that you’re taking a cue from or that have inspired you?

I would say social media in general. I don’t think we could have created this project a few years ago. People are interacting and sharing ideas with each other online, and now businesses are starting to engage in the discussions too. Did we create something radically new, No. We’re just current technology as a collaborative platform.

What’s Kittanning got that other places don’t?
Lot of things! A river, and great trail, some people say we’re one of the most picturesque towns in the East. We’re a short t drive to all the amenities of Pittsburgh, and many great outdoor activities are right here. We have an extremely low cost or living and a low cost of doing business. Which I believe makes us ideal for start-ups. We’re also a real community, not a suburb or neighborhood, there is a much greater sense of involvement for a person or business here.

What are your plans for the future?
Bottom line, we want to create jobs, and make are town an all around better place to live and work. We hope to work with as many individuals, entrepreneurs, and businesses as possible.

After time in graduate school and the Peace Corps’ Master’s International program, avid surfer Dave Aabo was looking for a way to combine his passions with the idea of doing good.

A couple of years surfing in coastal villages in Peru brought the idea for WAVES for Development into focus:

“WAVES for Development (WAVES) was born out of a simple desire to connect surfing and sustainable development in the disadvantaged communities we surfed in Northern Peru.   More specifically, make surfing available to youth who would otherwise not experience its joys and at the same time, use surfing as an educational tool.  We wanted to help coastal community members find creative ways to directly benefit from surfing and surf tourism.”

Surf voluntourists can now sign-on to spend two weeks or more with WAVES in Lobitos, Peru – working with local youth on educational programs and developing their own individual service projects. And surfing.

Volunteers stay with local families and must raise a minimum $400 project contribution plus $250 towards costs for each week they stay – and are encouraged to do so through campaigns that help spread the word about WAVES.

Voluntourism offers adventure seekers the chance to enjoy a life changing experience while doing some good at the same time. And WAVES is a perfect example of this growing trend – with a little surfing thrown in for good measure.

How could your passions lend themselves to a similar idea?

Site: www.wavesfordevelopment.org
Site: changents.com/waves

In celebration of St Patrick’s Day, this week we’re focusing exclusively on interesting businesses and entrepreneurs from the island of Ireland, both North and South. Suggestions welcome.

Ark°, Ireland

Ark° is a non-profit clothing brand with a mission – to promote Acts of Random Kindness. The idea is that each time you wear an Ark° branded t-shirt, you are reminded to perform a random kind act for a stranger.

As founder Cameron explains:

“The idea—one ARK every time the clothing is worn. That’s it. Buy someone a coffee, give up your seat on the bus, help a drunk home.”

Cameron founded Ark° straight out of secondary school and after designing, sourcing and selling several hundred of the tees in 2008, his first big Ark was to empty the company bank account to buy Christmas presents for the homeless. The company has been run as a non-profit ever since, reinvesting profits back into their campaign to spread Arkiness around the globe.

After reading about Ark°, we pinged Cameron an email to find out a little more, here’s what he had to say:

So where did the idea for ARK come from?

The Ark° idea was born on a 4-day hike through the Wicklow mountains when I was 17 years old and in my final year in school. I basically wanted to create a business that genuinely pursued a social vision through its business.

I had recently been living this ‘Ark° lifestyle’ of Arking people in my every day life – buying coffees for people behind me, sending gifts to people for no reason at all, clearing cafe tables for the craic, and thought it was something everyone should try at least once.

I decided the best way to attach this idea to a product was in a t-shirt – a t-shirt that physically reminded you every time you put it on to do an Ark° for someone. Simple

What’s been the reaction so far – any interesting stories of how people have been taking the ARK idea on board?

Reaction has been superb. We’ve had sales in over 25 countries around the world and our Facebook following is growing daily (www.facebook.com/ArkHQ).

The best response has probably come from the Friday Challenge – an Ark° challenge we give out every Friday where fans have 24 hours to act. Last week was a simple challenge to buy someone in a local newsagents a treat for their break.

Here’s a quote from one Arker -

…he couldn’t believe that we didn’t “work” for ark and weren’t getting paid to be nice! he was genuinely pleasantly shocked that we just did it as an ark°…watch this space for another fan of ark° …from india too! Edel and Desi

All in all, it’s incredible to think there are people all over the world wearing this t-shirt and doing a simple Ark° every time they wear the tee.

What are your plans for the future?

How long you got?

We’ll be expanding the Ark° t-shirt range in a few weeks with 4 new designs. Another 4 to come in a further 4 weeks.

We’re launching an education program for kids. Piloting the scheme in Dublin and then planning to bring it all over Ireland to inspire kids to act in an Arkish way. Launching a kids range after that hopefully.

Ark° underwear will be coming out in the next few weeks… for undercover kindness.

We launched a Rep program this week where we’re employing people all around the world to act as Reps and spread the word. Fancy bringing Ark° to your college?

We have some crazy social connection ideas where we’ll be using our profits to launch some cool campaigns to bring that long-lost connection back into society again. Stay tuned!

I guess we’re a Virgin brand for kindness. Who knows, we may start a wee Ark airline some day… the sky’s the limit.

Site: www.arkhq.com

In celebration of St Patrick’s Day, this week we’ll be focusing exclusively on interesting businesses and entrepreneurs from the island of Ireland, both North and South.

Grace, Wicklow

Inspired by an advertisement displaying the graphical interface of an iPhone, a Wicklow-based mother of two, Lisa Domican, has launched an iPhone application designed to help autistic children develop their communication skills.

The application (named Grace after Lisa’s daughter) is similar to the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) which is frequently used in teaching autistic children and those with other learning difficulties. Children uses pictures to build up sentences, and as they learn more words these are added to their ‘books’ mirroring their growing vocabulary.

The iPhone app brings added portability (PECS is usually delivered on a board game style or velcro board), makes communicating progress between parents and teachers (and vice versa) simpler and makes it easy to add new words over time.

It was built in conjuction with developer Steve Troughton-Smith (with the support of Telefonica O2 Ireland) and has already been trialled in a local school for autistic children – and in Lisa’s own home.

“As the mother of two children with autism, I know it works, I’ve seen the positive impact it has had on my own children, and therefore I can confidently recommend it to other parents and tutors of children with autism.”

The app is available via the iPhone App Store at €29.99 for up to five users, allowing family members to access the app.

Source: SiliconIreland

Bartering has become big business with organisations like BarterCard building large communities and generating revenues by facilitating transactions.

On a smaller scale, a New York based project is helping people barter their knowledge and expertise in return for, well, whatever they want. Trade School is a pop-up storefront from OurGoods, an organisation which facilities the bartering of ‘skills, space, labor and art objects’ in artistic communities.

The Trade School project runs from January 25th until the first of March, and provides a venue for bartering, co-working and classes.

The classes are of particular interest; subject matter experts agree to teach a class on their chosen subject in return for bartered items and services. Would-be students can bag a place by providing one of the items or services on the teacher’s wishlist (see image below).

Classes include topics like ‘writing a stage play’, ‘feltmaking for nomads’ and salsa dancing.

For the artistic types amongst you, there clear potential to replicate this kind of model just about anywhere in the world. For the more business minded, there’s always value to be found in bringing communities together.

And if you can get yourself to Manhattan, why not drop in and take a class.

Site: tradeschool.ourgoods.org
Check out images from the first classes on Flickr

The Open Source House ‘is a non-profit organization that aims to provide better, more sustainable housing in low-income countries.’

What makes this project particularly unique is the ‘open source’ bit. Their design competition challenges participants from across the globe to create a house design for a middle-class family in Ghana, based on 8 design principles (including, being able to be produced locally and minimising energy consumption).

The ideas are then shared on the site so that they can used – and improved upon – by others. The web platform also makes it simple for designers to share ideas, co-operate and even connect with people in Ghana to get a feel for the location.

Of course Ghana is only the pilot in a project which hopes to see 100,000 sustainable homes built in developing countries before 2020:

“The platform will be a source on the internet which offers a huge diversity in smart and sustainable designs freely accessible for everyone; it will be a place where creativity is never lost. Furthermore, on the platform the designs can be upgraded, improved and adjusted according to the specific needs within a certain region or according to cultural needs, available materials or other circumstances.”

Open Source House is a project from architect Vincent van der Meulen and Enviu, an organisation which scouts and develops ideas around innovative, sustainable entrepreneurship.

This is one idea that seems to tick those boxes – and a model that you could apply to lots of societal and ecological issues. What problem would you like to turn your entrepreneurial flair to?

Site: www.os-house.org

“Men anpil chay pa lou” roughly translated means “Many Hands Make the Load Lighter” and is the slogan for the Threadless tee designed to raise money for survivors of the Haitian earthquake.

Threadless reached out to two of their designers – Thomas De Santis and Ivan Tarrazo Sanchez – from the Dominican Republic who designed the tee, drawing inspiration from “the amazing Haitian street art [which] provides a true sense of daily life and community through the use of gorgeous colors.”

With the designers, printers and Threadless all donating their time and efforts, 100% of the proceeds of the tee will go to the American Red Cross (up to $100,000).

As a post on the Threadless blog says:

“We reached out to Haiti’s neighbors and asked two of our designers from the Dominican Republic to design this tee, Thomas De Santis and Ivan Tarrazo Sanchez. They’ve declined their printing award and are instead giving it to the Red Cross. Shirts Our Business, one of our printers, has donated their printing time and ink. And everyone here has been rallying to get this tee out to retain focus on the relief effort. We hope you too, will send this along to your friends and fams to show your support!”

We’ve covered all kinds of good causes on this site – and Threadless has picked up quite a few mentions too. Two reasons, if needed, to head over and check out the t-shirt now.

Haiti tee on Threadless