The Ninety Per Cent Solution - Channeling Geek Powers for Good in an Open Source TV Design Show
Location
We're making better science TV to solve problems no one else will. With DIY fun, a social conscience, and participation, it's Mythbusters meets American Idol with a crunchy center. Instead of taking up couch space, our viewers will create the show, helping people, and helping promote science and engineering.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Jonathan
Last Name
Kuniholm
Organization
Shared Design Alliance/Open Prosthetics Project
Country
United States
Section 2: About Your Organization
Organization Name
Shared Design Alliance Open Prosthetics Project
Organization Website
Organization Phone
919-491-2819
Organization Address
PO Box 306, Durham, NC 27702
Organization Country
United States
Your idea
Name Your Project
The Ninety Per Cent Solution - Channeling Geek Powers for Good in an Open Source TV Design Show
What is your idea? What makes it innovative? Why is it important?
We're making better science TV to solve problems no one else will. With DIY fun, a social conscience, and participation, it's Mythbusters meets American Idol with a crunchy center. Instead of taking up couch space, our viewers will create the show, helping people, and helping promote science and engineering.
Will you launch your idea as a business or non-profit?
Non-profit
Country your work focuses on
What will be the impact of your idea?
The majority of the world lives in conditions that would be unacceptable to most in the developed world. They lack the economic power to generate the solutions that they really need: clean water, safe cooking tools, and access to information. Tens of millions of people suffer from orphan medical conditions that number in the thousands, with many affecting as few as tens of people each. These groups have in common that neither capitalist nor command economies, nor the combined efforts of NGOs worldwide have solved their problems.
Volunteers, engineering students, community activists and others stand ready to try to solve these problems, and many would gladly give their ideas away for free. Rather than participating in robot wars, building concrete canoes or dropping eggs off of buildings, these volunteers could be learning and demonstrating real problem-solving and engineering skills while tackling the worlds real problems.
In addition to going some of the way to publicize the needs of underserved communities worldwide, this show will energize Americans and people worldwide about science and engineering education, making these topics exciting and showing their true impact.
Who will help you develop your idea? Why are you the one to make this happen?
I'm inviting everyone to help me develop the idea of the show, as well as help define and work on the projects presented on the show. Using the experience that we've had with The Open Prosthetics Project, we're going to help others use the crowd to help solve their own problems. We've had great success drawing attention to an area that hasn't gotten much before, with almost no resources. I believe that this is repeatable, and that by implementing the lessons that we have learned about what works and what does not in distributed collaboration, we can help everyone solve problems for which we've failed to find solutions.
If we are successful in getting the seed money from Changemakers, we will leverage contacts in the documentary and reality TV industries to make a pilot demonstrating the entertainment possibilities of this idea. We will follow several problems through presentation, online collaboration, prototyping and testing, to completion and implementation, using volunteers and our distributed production model from start to finish.
Who will help you develop your idea? You will. Let's put our heads together! Join Right Now!
How much will it cost to launch your idea? (This can be an estimate)
Using crowd-sourced content and volunteers, the pilot as well as the show itself will be inexpensive to produce. We believe that a pilot can be made for less than $50,000, significantly less than most television pilots cost to produce (the "Lost" pilot was reportedly $12 million). Indeed, it may be that the pilot will be more expensive than the show itself to produce, because of the advantages that the show will have in user-contributed content once the model has been in place for a while.
This Entry is about (Issues)
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| logo-200_SDA_no_box_2_copy.png | 15.85 KB |
| logo-200.png | 22.89 KB |
 | swisswuff said: Underserved communities seem to suffer lack of attention, lack of integration and resources and thus lack of solutions. The current ... about this Competition Entry. - 750 days ago read more > |
| Jonathan Kuniholm said: Shannon - Thanks for the comment. I believe that these two goals--the delivery of *appropriate* technology to those who need it ... about this Competition Entry. - 752 days ago read more > |
| Shannon Hawes said: I understand and applaud the idea of bringing engineering solutions to underdeveloped countries, but what about the education needed to ... about this Competition Entry. - 752 days ago read more > |
| prOducer said: I like that Damon - a render farm. Also known as crowd sourcing. The people behind projects like Firefox and Linux have seen it in ... about this Competition Entry. - 753 days ago read more > |
| Damon Zwicker said: I got it - an engineering render farm of people. I think it's an interesting idea with lots of room to run. The social aspect feels ... about this Competition Entry. - 753 days ago read more > |
| prOducer said: Hi Damon - there are a ton of possible problems that underserved markets experience. We could choose to tackle any of them. Some ... about this Competition Entry. - 753 days ago read more > |
| Jonathan Kuniholm said: Damon - Great question. First off, I would say that we are trying to solve the problem of underserved communities. That's very ... about this Competition Entry. - 753 days ago read more > |
| Damon Zwicker said: Is there currently a common solution you guys are looking for from the community? What's the problem to be solved? about this Competition Entry. - 753 days ago read more > |
| prOducer said: Hi a b, I can weigh on the how this project will leverage traditional media like TV. I'm a TV producer and I see on a daily basis, ... about this Competition Entry. - 753 days ago read more > |
| Jonathan Kuniholm said: Media includes the traditional--television--and new media--the internet, and, more specifically web 2.0 tools where users get to add ... about this Competition Entry. - 755 days ago read more > |
