Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Neeraj on February 20, 2010 at 19:49

hey everyone....i m late into the discussion.....incase you guys have selected the projected...my proposals can be considered in next round.

i have two ideas that can be considered for voting:
1st - How can we help people who have retired to utilize their skills & pass time
2nd - How can we help Indian 'desi' entrepreneurs to scale up their innovations

1st - Now this idea came after I noticed my grandfather having difficulty passing time after his retirement. From being very very busy during his working tenure, he had practically no work after he retired.
Now many retired people have vast amount of skills & expereince which they can & wish to use after retirement. Many join trusts, local bodies or even become consultants but there is still vast number of old people who do not know what to do once they are retired. what happens is Soon retirement is being looked as burden & the person start feeling lonely & without a purpose. What may follows is illness.
I mean we are living in the age of Internet. web 2.0.....we can have vast number of ideas on how to start a service
whereby we connect with these people & at the same time utilise their skills.
The DREAM is to help people who have retired use their skills, contribute, earn & dont feel lonely.

Sorry, I am keeping it short as i m almost out of battery with no charger.


2nd Idea is to help scale up the local innovations from our desi entrepreneurs. Meena has recently posted about National Innovation Foundation & its efforts to identify & help local entreprenuers. The need I think is to help them scale up these Innovations. We as designers, managers & thinkers can help them.

So these were two of the Ideas that I thought of.

Would love to hear from u guys.
Would also write in detail soon about collaborators.

Sorry to keep it short.

Neeraj

Permalink Reply by Anab Jain on February 20, 2010 at 20:30

Hi Neeraj,

Thanks for posting your ideas and taking interest in this experiment. I have not really shouted out loud about this - perhaps we should spread the word and get more ideas. I was interested in seeing how a platform like this can generate the ideas, the collaboration - and then more importantly - translate the idea into reality. It feels like that is what most of us are genuinely keen to do.

Please do come back with ideas of how we should do this. I am not so keen on constantly tweeting and shouting out loud - I think we need to just get our heads down and go for the action. Lets perhaps do some research on some of the topics mentioned - see what is feasible? What do you think?

Permalink Reply by Daniel Christadoss on February 21, 2010 at 0:04

Neeraj,
I am very much aligned with your philosophy of tapping the skills of the retired and also one of my favorite subjects.
The retired have accumulated a vast store house of knowledge and experience and the world would be enriched by continuing to keep retired people productive.
This could also be good first idea to be implemented and tried out to help us get experienced in successful idea implementation.
Let us talk more on this and as Anab has said we could get into action mode.
For example we could start with what makes for a successful transition from end of retirement to a contributing position to local communities, educational establishments and industries.

Permalink Reply by SteveJBayer on February 21, 2010 at 6:07

Hi Neeraj,

Both are interesting topics.

It would be interesting to see how seniors interact with each other. I'm sure their conceptual model for how a computer works (especially since quite a few of the elderly in India haven't really used a computer on their own) and build a platform around the same. It would be interesting to see how responsive a senior would be to a hardware platform such as the iPad as well as websites/online enabled apps that allow seniors to communicate amongst each other and opportunities for younger persons to get involved in their conversations. Making sure seniors don't feel lonely (a key issue as Neeraj and Daniel mention) could be the key to encouraging and guiding seniors to contribute their knowledge.

I'm a bit wary of supporting national industries based on only locally available resources. An innovator may have an idea that isn't of immediate value (or recognizable value) to the local/regional economy yet could be of great value elsewhere. Keeping things within the country boosts security but that could be one of the hurdles to fostering innovation. Separate types of innovation drives could be applied where some drives having a city wide reach, state wide reach, nation wide reach and a more global reach. Sometimes the best ideas to solve issues in India could be from someone outside India and vice versa, ideas to solve problems outside India could be from someone within India.

I personally think, improving/expanding critical thinking skills/capabilities of designers could enable the designers to design more applicable solutions rather than just creative solutions.

As Anab states, turning ideas into actions is important and as stated in earlier comments by Daniel, funding is key to getting things started. Personally approaching VCs or co-operative business groups with similar goals can work although I think having a workable and commit worthy plan before an official approach is best.

It'd be interesting to see how some of the inventions on http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=12691 were refined by more seasoned/trained designers for mass consumption and production.

Permalink Reply by Daniel Christadoss on February 21, 2010 at 15:06

Steve,
Thanks for pointing us to Anil Gupta. Extremely inspiring. I am quoting below from you "Sometimes the best ideas to solve issues in India could be from someone outside India and vice versa, ideas to solve problems outside India could be from someone within India."
I agree with you wholeheartedly in this approach. It has worked very well in the past and will now too. As a matter of fact I think the USA can take a page from Anil Gupta and look towards finding ways of using indigenous industry to power the unemployed which is exceeding 10%. Maybe create Indian style villages using Indian sustainable techniques where the unemployed could be given health care, food, shelter and clothing to produce, learn, research and consume cleanly from the earth.

Permalink Reply by SteveJBayer on February 21, 2010 at 18:30

I'm glad that you're inspired Daniel. Unfortunately, I didn't state (in my comment) that the original source of the article about Anil Gupta is the post by Meena Kadri on the front page wall of the Emerging India group which I think is the article Neeraj mentioned in his post here.

The cross cultural village idea is interesting. I'm fairly certain living in an Indian style village without having to visit India could be a great tourist attraction too and could even inspire designers having a vacation in the village with ideas how to improve the lifestyle of villagers with limited resources.

I personally wouldn't mind trying out life (or at least having a conversation with someone who tried to live) in an African, Indian or Asian (and similar regions with villages that have extremely limited resources) themed village.

Permalink Reply by Daniel Christadoss on February 21, 2010 at 20:54

Steve,
We should explore the Themed Village concept further. It holds plenty of potential the more I look at it. As a matter of fact many of our Dreams could be realized in it.

Permalink Reply by Anab Jain on February 22, 2010 at 16:58

Sounds like many good ideas are floating around. I like the idea of creating "prototype future cities/habitats" - in fact have been doing bits of work and still doing - in this area. Where one can design services, experiences and conditions for living in different economic, climatic and environmental conditions. I think many of the prototypes that emerge from such thinking can trickle down and become real services for an 'emergent now'. I am bit vary of treating it like a tourist destination though. It should be real, and meaningful to the residents, to the people putting in effort, more then anyone else...What do you think?

Permalink Reply by SteveJBayer on February 22, 2010 at 19:34

A Themed Village could be a 'convenient' simulation of life in a rural village. I find it easier to design solutions after I've worn the shoes of the person facing certain environments (especially when contextual observation and end user interviews have not provided enough information to ideate effectively.)

I'm thinking of not only facilitating designing solutions for rural living but also ways of making such initiatives to improve rural life more profitable or at least pay back some of its costs in the event that the produced life improving products themselves aren't immediately profitable.

I'm firing ideas from the hip (hence the possibility of the Themed Village doubling/being used as a tourist destination when not used for educational or research purposes) that could be refined or inspire even further ideas. Popularizing or making initiatives profitable may make the issues seem less serious (possibly even seem a circus act) but they can (in theory) bring more attention to issues faced by villagers.

I'm pondering involving a TV Studio and have them set up 24/7 coverage of designers living in rural villages (or their simulated village counter parts) and then see what they create/design as a solution to the problems they (and villagers) faced while in villages. The solution design stage could either happen while living in a rural village or when the designers return to their design studio or a location where they are most comfortable with ideation. Advantages are two fold: an entertaining method of highlighting village life as well as the possibility of promoting (through the television) the awareness of design to a wide audience who haven't had a formal introduction to the design industry's definition of design. TV ad sponsorship could be a source of income to fund the research and design phases and possibly even the production of products to enhance village life.

Permalink Reply by Daniel Christadoss on February 23, 2010 at 3:07

Let us say we create a prototype future city. Let us explore this and throw ideas around and explore the options
1. Location
2. Concept for the city
3. Energy needs (wind, sun, geothermal, pedal power)
4. Self sustaining economy
5. Inhabitants
6. Education (open university?)
7. Architecture (from the earth?0
8. Transportation modes (cycle only ?)
9. Organic Agriculture?
10. Production of basic needs (indigenous technology?)
11. Water supply
12. Pathways
13. Landscape
14. Service Design
15. Self funded?
16. Costs
17. Is corporate sponsorship the only way?
18. Business plan
19. Modularity for repeatability
20.Study of existing models advantages & disadvantages (Auroville as an example)
21. Plan for success.

Permalink Reply by Neeraj on February 25, 2010 at 9:00

Hey everyone.....Interesting ideas there....liked the future city concept. Was thinking about it. How about if we put a constraint over it.

Let's say while designing the future city, one can only use those resources which will either not generate pollution or produce more resources.
Let me give u an example:
Transportation as a resource is a utility but also damages the environment. Lets say if we have to design cities wherein there will be no transport / only green transport (electric rail, bicycle, etc) to be used, then it will cause the problem of employee, students, etc travelling to offices/ colleges which in turn will give rise to setting up of colonies wherein people will have all their needs met within very short distances. This will force designers to rethink how cities are designed.
One can look at townships (like lavasa)which are coming up in India for example.

We can think of more Constraints.

Inaddtion......thanks for appreciating my earlier post. I did some research & the following link provides a view of the state of old people in India. Also check this link
There are NGO's like helpageindia which are working in this domain.

I propose we can follow the following steps:

1. Initial Research to understand the scenario & gather data on number of
people getting retired, which SEC mostly, what they mostly do afterwards, any NGO's working in this regard, their programs, any other issues, etc

2. Meeting old people. Listing down emotions (safety, companionship, joy) that they go through after retirement & what they are looking for.

3. Framing the problem (what they exactly want)

4. Ideation on possible solution & Solutions already available.

5. Making it a viable solution (how can we leverage from business partners to make it sustainable & self sufficient model)

6. Partner relationship & execution.

What do u guys think.

Permalink Reply by Daniel Christadoss on February 25, 2010 at 11:49

Excellent suggestions from all. I do agree that if we are creating a future city we do have to pay attention to the environment. Constraints (opportunities) are necessary as this will be an opportunity to rethink the whole concept of a future city. Also clubbing the use of the resources of the retired in a future city make a lot of sense. The youth of today will be retired of tomorrow. Or we may not even have any one retire in a future city as they will all be contributing in one form or another. And using green transport could also be an opportunity to even engineer,manufacture or assemble the very modes of transportation using local resources.

As a start what would be the minimum requirement in terms of area for a future city module?

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