T-Shirts With a Story

One of the challenges for charitable organizations large and small is to get potential donors to feel the need for help in an immediate and personal way. By selling t-shirts imprinted with the stories of the specific individuals in need of assistance, Rosa Loves raises the necessary funds while also giving donors a tangible connection with the people they have helped.

Each Rosa Loves t-shirt is created to help a specific person, family or community, and 60 percent of its sales go directly to providing that assistance. The story of those in need is told on each t-shirt through not just a graphical design on the outside, but also a written description of that story on the shirt's inside, just over the wearer's heart. T-shirts are hand-numbered and created in limited runs; once the needed amount has been raised for a particular cause, Rosa Loves stops printing and selling the associated t-shirt. A series of t-shirts over the holidays, for example, was designed to provide holiday meals to 10 families in the St. Augustine, Florida, area, where Rosa Loves is based. In just two weeks, the shirts sold out and Rosa Loves had enough funds to supply the needed meals.

The site's founders explain: "It's usually thoughts like, 'those people over there,' that perpetuate a sense of complacency and lack of concern. Rosa Loves wants to shed light on the stories around us, to give them a real face, a real name."

Rosa Loves was founded in 2006, and is still operating with just a part-time staff. But there's no arguing with its success stories. We've written before about companies that have begun to publish the "life stories" of their products (see, for example, Dole Organic's product life story labels), tapping into consumers' increasing demand for authenticity, transparency and information, and Rosa Loves brings that trend into the social arena. One for other socially focused organizations to emulate!

- www.rosaloves.com -

Pocket Printer from Polaroid

More than half a century ago, the Polaroid camera produced the world’s first instant printed images, spitting out photos just a minute after they were taken. And while today’s cell phones and digital cameras take snap shots that can be transmitted to other phones or computers instantly, people still have an old-fashioned desire to hold printed copies of their snapshots in their hands.

Proof: one of the biggest buzz-generating products to come out of this year’s Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show was a printer about the size of a deck of cards that can create 2x3 inch photos in under a minute. The printer is the result of a collaboration between Polaroid and Zink, another US firm that developed the device’s inkless printing technology. With a store-delivery date slated for this fall, the Digital Instant Mobile Photo Printer can be linked up via Bluetooth or USB to other portable media such as cell phones and digital cameras—all for a retail price of USD 150, plus USD 4 for a 10-pack of paper.

Granted, the instant mobile printer may not be as disruptive as the iPhone, but it does show creative entrepreneurs how an older company can neatly reinvent itself, even if its products have long been technologically leap-frogged. Polaroid’s pocket-sized printer harks back to the company’s original breakthrough, making media instantly available for sharing. It was an idea that spawned a small-scale social revolution as millions devised innovative uses for the product: everything from instant photos of wedding receptions to the identification-card making devices used by organizations and governments.

No doubt people will devise new uses for Polaroid’s minuscule printer. But the real lesson here is that there’s a wealth of opportunity to be mined in old ideas, provided you have the creativity and the capital required to reinvent them.

- www.polaroid.com -

Ribbit.com - Silicon Valley's First Phone Company

Start-up phone provider Ribbit aims to offer solutions to questions like: “Why can’t I forward voice messages like I can my email?” or “Why doesn’t my phone ring in my browser?”

Ribbit, which is still in beta testing phase and set to launch in the coming months, is headed up by Silicon Valley tech veterans who plan to load their phone service with applications previously unavailable from a single phone network. Instead of simply displaying a caller ID, for example, Ribbit will create a mashup of relevant information culled from social networks like Twitter and Facebook, revealing what the caller is currently doing/reading/watching.

What Ribbit is attempting, via its development platform Amphibian—is to combine all of the different ‘talk channels’ that consumers are using, and to overlay this unified communication hub with web-enabled features such as voicemail sorting tools and info-rich caller ID. Call routing is good example of their integrated approach. As explained by Ribbit: “Drag and drop personal call routing lets you connect all your phones together. It's your call—you determine where you want to take it. Route calls to Skype, MSN, Google Talk, home, office, or anywhere you want. Ring all, none, or some...answer one and they all stop ringing. And you can even move a live call from one phone to another.”

Additional applications will come from independent developers using Amphibian’s API. These developers—more than 600 have signed on so far—can sell the tools they create via Ribbit’s online store. That’s where the opportunity for tech-savvy entrepreneurs may lie. Ribbit itself will create revenue through access fees to its API, along with support services and sales of applications developed both in-house and by third parties. Ribbit isn’t alone in this space, of course. Heavyweight Google recently announced its open model Android operating system for mobile phones. Another major player, eBay, is under pressure to wring more profits from its Skype subsidiary. And Apple has plans to further open up its iPhone to third party developers.

Bottom line: the telecom industry is about to get even more lively, with lots of opportunities for small-scale developers to create their own profitable niches that serve consumers like never before.


- www.ribbit.com -

Music Mag

Customised content has long been held up as the Holy Grail of digital publishing, and idiomag is making that promise a reality with a personalised, daily digital magazine about music that is based entirely on members' individual interests.

Launched just over a year ago, UK-based idiomag uses a system of weighted tagging to customise both content and advertising to readers' personal musical tastes. Readers initially name their favourite music topics and weight the relative importance of each of them in the content they will view. idiomag then uses that information to serve articles, tracks, videos and other multimedia content in a high-quality, audio-visual virtual magazine format that readers can enjoy in page-by-page fashion. idiomag has content partnerships with publications including Billboard, 365mag and Hip Hop Nation as well as popular blogs such as Aurgasm and BlogCritics. It has also built up a large team of its own journalists across the UK. As readers rate the appeal of the content they view, idiomag intelligently adapts subsequent issues to reflect those changing preferences.

Not insignificantly, advertisers benefit from idiomag's personalisation system as well, with the ability to serve nonintrusive, full-screen and rich-media advertisements that closely match readers' interests. A newly incorporated social element, meanwhile, uses Facebook integration to let readers get their idiomag within the social networking site, view their friends’ magazines and capture articles they like, submit articles, and view trends and favourites among the other idiomag readers on the site. idiomag also offers widgets to incorporate the magazine on other social networks, blogs or home pages. Subscriptions to idiomag are free for readers; advertisers are charged on a CPM basis, and revenue is shared with content providers based on their content’s popularity.

When readers get the content they want and advertisers reach their target audiences in a targeted way, it really is hard to see a downside. One to bring to other niches, localities and topic areas!

Website: www.idiomag.com

Electruck by Battery

Back in 2006 we covered GoinGreen's G-Wiz electric cars. Recently, we've begun seeing several options emerge in battery-powered trucks, serving the business market.

In London, Electruc distributes the French-built Mega Multitruck, which is designed for inner-city use. With speeds up to 30mph and a range of up to 60 miles, the Mega Multitruck can handle payloads from 300kg to 530kg, depending on body type. The Mega Multitruck charges from a standard 13amp (3 pin) socket, and five body types are available, including modifications for espresso carts or mobile fruit stalls. As with electric cars, the Mega trucks are exempt from congestion charges and road tax, and they are eligible for free parking in many London boroughs. Pricing starts at GBP 45 per week, based on a 60-month contract; average yearly running costs are just GBP 215, or between 2p and 3p per mile, Electruc says.

On the other side of the Atlantic, California-based ZAP (which stands for Zero Air Pollution) sells a range of electric vehicles, including both cars and trucks. The company's 3-wheel Xebra Electric Truck, for example, offers speeds up to 40mph and a range of 25 miles per charge. Both flatbed and dump-truck styles are available, as are left- and right-hand steering. The suggested retail price is USD 12,500, and operating costs are between 1 and 3 cents per mile. This fall, Zap will also begin selling the Zap Truck XL, a 4-wheel vehicle with a payload of 770 lbs, maximum speed of 25mph and a range of 30 miles. Estimated MSRP is USD 18,500, and operating costs are about 3 cents per mile.

With their financial and environmental advantages, demand for vehicles like these will only increase. Transportation entrepreneurs: time to make "emission-free" your mantra!

Website: www.electruc.com — www.zapworld.com

Online Shopping Medical

The US health-care industry may be best known for its problems, which currently include a labyrinth of Byzantine rules and regulations, covert pricing schemes and millions of citizens without insurance. At the end of January, however, a Minnesota-based site launched that just may give the industry the shake-up it so desperately needs.

Carol, also billed as The Care Marketplace, describes itself as an online shopping mall that gives consumers everything they need to shop, compare and purchase health care much the way they do other goods and services. Focusing on the Minneapolis and Twin Cities area, consumers can go online to compare the cost and quality of more than 350 health services from local, competing health care providers and doctors, and then select the option best suited for them. Participating providers create condition-specific care packages of related health care services, such as common immunizations, neck and back pain diagnosis and treatment, pregnancy classes, a year’s worth of diabetes care, or in-home check-ups. Each provider specifies on Carol's site what's included, the location of treatment, the types of patients treated (men, women or kids) and the total price of the package, along with quality information and customer ratings. Carol, meanwhile, works with insurance companies to verify consumer membership and provide cost estimates for care packages. The result is that consumers can apply their health insurance benefits and instantly view base prices and estimated in-network and out-of-pocket costs for each health care service. Carol's services are free for consumers with or without health insurance, and appointments can be scheduled online through the site.

Thirty Minneapolis-area providers have already joined Carol, which plans to expand to additional US markets over the course of this year. Health-care entrepreneurs: This could do for health care what Travelocity did for airline reservations. Pay close attention! (Related: Doctor 2.0.)

Website: www.carol.com

Future Fashion

Fashion is really just starting to interact with the information technology (IT) world. Today there are already 'cool' gadgets and wearables, but tomorrow, we will see whole new domains where fashion can play a key role.

The biggest of these is the duality of appearance - where we may appear one way in the physical world, and have a whole range of digital appearances in the augmented reality and virtual environment worlds. This will lead to many people designing for themselves.

Along the way, electronics will continue to shrink in size to a point where it no longer significantly need affect the form of the object that carries it. Form and function will be separated, at least as far IT is concerned.

New materials and devices

Fashion is often at the forefront of technology usage. Many new materials and technologies are used in textiles and accessories when they are still too expensive or primitive for other uses.

The next decades will see the gradual convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive technologies. Typical results will be materials with different tensile, thermal and optical properties, integration of IT into fabrics, and linkage of our bodies to the network for medical and communication purposes, via clothing or skin-wearables.

Thin, flexible displays are becoming available already, and we will undoubtedly see them built into clothing with increasing frequency. This will be both for body adornment and functional uses.

A wide range of electronic devices can already be built into clothes and this will increase. New fabrics are already being developed to provide power generation - using solar power, electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical means.

Storage technology is improving extremely quickly and we may expect massive amounts of storage to be available in very small volumes, so that people can take all their files, music and videos with them - integrated invisibly into small devices or clothes.

Ambient intelligence, smart environments

Clothes will be part of the ambient intelligent environment we will inhabit in a few years' time. There will be myriads of chips all around us - in building infrastructure, furniture, gadgets, clothes, foods, packaging, even on our skin and inside some peoples' bodies (for medical and security purposes).

Chips in the environment or on our person will offer processing, storage, sensing identity and communications. The resulting smart environment will know who we are, what we are doing, where we are, to the nearest few millimeters, and all about us, subject only to our own preferences and privacy or security laws.

Form and function

As we head down this smart environment road, we will see an almost total decoupling of form from function. Almost any amount of electronic functionality can be associated with something without necessarily affecting its form.

Chips will be physically very small, so can be hidden anywhere, and any functionality that won't physically fit into a device can be accessed via the smart environment. This means that fashion designers can add a wide range of functions to something without needing to change its design.

Digital bubbles

The smart environment could offer many advantages and disadvantages for people. Potential abuse by marketing departments will necessitate the development of digital bubbles that protect us from the flood of unwanted electronic information coming at us from all angles.

These bubbles will act as an electronic force field and personal firewall. But of course we will want some information and want to communicate to some degree with the smart environment, so it must be a semi-permeable force field that allows information through it selectively.

What we want and need depends heavily on context, so large amounts of artificial intelligence (AI), security and profiling technology will be needed.

Duality of appearance

Various sensors on and about our person will monitor our behaviors and physical characteristics, and respond accordingly. One of the areas that computers may want to share with other people's digital bubbles is that of personality characteristics.

An ego badge would alert us to other people that are likely to be of interest to us so that our social and sex lives would improve. A related device is the active contact lens, which uses tiny lasers and micro-mirrors built into a contact lens with circuitry and power supply, to raster scan a high resolution image onto our retinas. This is called direct retinal projection.

Any computer generated images could be superimposed on what we see in the real world. We would be able to modify how we see other people so when you meet people you could change how they look. Beauty will be quite literally in the eye of the beholder.

This brings us to the heart of how fashion will change. Suddenly we have to worry about our digital appearance as well as our physical appearance. And digital appearances can be infinitely diverse.

We will not be limited by the properties of physical materials, or have to have the same appearance for everyone looking at us, nor even have the same appearance all day. Our appearance can be different to each viewer and different each time they look at us.

So fashion designers will need to design virtual fashions, and these will need to be dynamic and context sensitive. Dual appearance dictates dual fashion.

One of the accessories that we might need in such a world is the digital 'aura generator'. This will act as a sort of wireless web server that radiates our digital appearance into the nearby space.
It is almost like the hologram generators that science fiction fans will recognise from Red Dwarf. The main difference is that it will make us look different to different people.

DIY fashion

Finally, with increasing assistance expected from AI in all walks of life, we should expect that people will often want to design their own clothes - making most of the artistic decisions and letting the computer sort out the technical stuff.

As local production becomes more widespread, self design may become very popular indeed. How much this affects the market for professional fashion designers will thus depend on how much relative skill and creativity they really have, as well as on how much effort people can be bothered to invest in designing themselves.

• The full version of this article appears in the April-June edition of The Journal of The Communications Network - www.tcn-uk.org

Google's Gadget

Google Gadget Ventures is a new Google pilot program dedicated to helping developers create richer, more useful Google Gadgets. Inspired by the success of iGoogle, which has been driven by the creation by 3rd-party developers of a broad range of gadgets, Gadget Ventures provides two types of funding:

1. Grants of $5,000 to those who’ve built gadgets we’d like to see developed further. You’re eligible to apply for a grant if you’ve developed a gadget that’s in our Google gadgets directory and gets at least 250,000 weekly page views. To apply, you must submit a one-page proposal detailing how you’d use the grant to improve your gadget.

2. Seed investments of $100,000 to developers who’d like to build a business around the Google gadgets platform. Only Google Gadget Venture grant recipients are eligible for this type of funding. Submitting a business plan detailing how you plan to build a viable business around the gadgets platform is a required part of the seed investment application process.

For more information visit: http://www.google.com/gadgetventures/

Minority Report Become Reality

Remember “Minority Report”? The Tom Cruise blockbuster had fanboys, geeks and advertisers everywhere cooing over hand gesture technology and targeted, personalized advertising. It turns out that Bill Gates and Microsoft remember the flick, too. Yesterday, the technology giant took the cover off an expensive tabletop technology that relies on touch and hand gestures just like in the film.

Called Surface Computing, the new technology lets people interact with computers using touch, hand gestures, and physical objects equipped with optical tags. Tabletops are turned into dynamic canvases adding a whole new meaning to the concept of “social computing”.

For those of you interested in finding out more about the ideas behind the technology, I strongly suggest heading out to Banff, Alberta for nextMEDIA: The Future of Digital Content where Dale Herigstad, Co-Founder and Executive Creative Director, of interactive agency Schematic will deliver one of two keynote addresses.

As one of the consultants for “Minority Report”, Herigstad was a key contributor to the concept of “gestural navigation” used in the film. Herigstad has incorporated similar concepts when helping design the Accenture Interactive Network on display in Chicago’s O’Hare and New York’s John F. Kennedy airports.

The first 30-inch Surface Computing tabletop units, priced between $5,000 and $10,000, will debut in November, primarily through hotels and retailers.

Source : ContentRevolution