Hello, my name is Blake, I am a Penn (Wharton) student. I'm envisioning a wiki-project where people can go to post the problems or inefficiencies that they see in their work or life. The purpose would be to create a place where those with the know-how and dedication to invent and solve problems (like engineering students or weekend inventors) can find the issues that need to be addressed. Like the idea that "necessity is the mother of all invention", or that innovation happens when a problem is at hand, this wiki-project would give people that specific problem to focus their energies on. Please contact me (bwest87@gmail.com) if you would like to help me work out the detials and get this started, or to help me work through the inevitable problems that will be faced in making this idea a reality. I've put two examples below that originally stirred me to think of this problem.
Thank you - Blake
As some quick examples of what I'm talking about; two students at Penn recently devised a system to capture weather probes that usually get lost by the National Weather Service. The N.W.S. sends out thousands of probes per year to gather data, but they lose 80% of them. Each one cots over $100, and with the help of these Penn students, the N.W.S. will save hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Yet, how many people even knew that this problem existed? Perhaps it could have been solved sooner, if more people knew about it. A different example. I was recently introduced to a business that sells bedding for flowers, primarily to commerical growers. Typical bedding is made of coconuts shavings that sucks up water and the plants then take water from the coconut shavings. The founder of this business however, said, "hey, why don't we put a small bio-degradable sheet of plastic inbetween the coconut shavings to hold more water?" Once the original water runs out, the coconuts will suck up water from the plastic bed and the plants will have more water. This means that planters have to water their plants half as much, which means huge savings in time and money. Again, however, so few people even knew of this problem, which is probably why it took this long to find a better way to do it. There are people with time on their hands who would love to solve issues for the world (and potentially make money from them), but they just don't know where to start. This is where we start. Right here, with this wiki-project. Please contact me if you're interested.
While it sounds like a good project, I don't think it's is something the Wikimedia Foundation would run. The WMF aims to provide information to the public, which isn't really what your project is about. Wikia (www.wikia.com) might be interested, they have a wider remit.
On 19/06/07, Blake West westb@wharton.upenn.edu wrote:
Hello, my name is Blake, I am a Penn (Wharton) student. I'm envisioning a wiki-project where people can go to post theproblems or inefficiencies that they see in their work or life. The purpose would be to create a place where those with the know-how and dedication to invent and solve problems (like engineering students or weekend inventors) can find the issues that need to be addressed. Like the idea that "necessity is the mother of all invention", or that innovation happens when a problem is at hand, this wiki-project would give people that specific problem to focus their energies on. Please contact me (bwest87@gmail.com) if you would like to help me work out the detials and get this started, or to help me work through the inevitable problems that will be faced in making this idea a reality. I've put two examples below that originally stirred me to think of this problem.
Thank you - Blake As some quick examples of what I'm talking about; two students atPenn recently devised a system to capture weather probes that usually get lost by the National Weather Service. The N.W.S. sends out thousands of probes per year to gather data, but they lose 80% of them. Each one cots over $100, and with the help of these Penn students, the N.W.S. will save hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Yet, how many people even knew that this problem existed? Perhaps it could have been solved sooner, if more people knew about it. A different example. I was recently introduced to a business that sells bedding for flowers, primarily to commerical growers. Typical bedding is made of coconuts shavings that sucks up water and the plants then take water from the coconut shavings. The founder of this business however, said, "hey, why don't we put a small bio-degradable sheet of plastic inbetween the coconut shavings to hold more water?" Once the original water runs out, the coconuts will suck up water from the plastic bed and the plants will have more water. This means that planters have to water their plants half as much, which means huge savings in time and money. Again, however, so few people even knew of this problem, which is probably why it took this long to find a better way to do it. There are people with time on their hands who would love to solve issues for the world (and potentially make money from them), but they just don't know where to start. This is where we start. Right here, with this wiki-project. Please contact me if you're interested.
-- Blake West Wharton, University of Pennsylvania '09 bwest87@gmail.com _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
....sounds excellent - - - so while you work on the wiki - universe - to get this started, please begin a group someplace online..... I'd suggest Zaadz.com
--- Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
While it sounds like a good project, I don't think it's is something the Wikimedia Foundation would run. The WMF aims to provide information to the public, which isn't really what your project is about. Wikia (www.wikia.com) might be interested, they have a wider remit.
On 19/06/07, Blake West westb@wharton.upenn.edu wrote:
Hello, my name is Blake, I am a Penn(Wharton) student.
I'm envisioning a wiki-project wherepeople can go to post the
problems or inefficiencies that they see in their
work or life. The purpose
would be to create a place where those with the
know-how and dedication to
invent and solve problems (like engineering
students or weekend inventors)
can find the issues that need to be addressed. Like the idea that "necessity is the
mother of all invention", or
that innovation happens when a problem is at hand,
this wiki-project would
give people that specific problem to focus their
energies on. Please
contact me (bwest87@gmail.com) if you would like
to help me work out the
detials and get this started, or to help me work
through the inevitable
problems that will be faced in making this idea a
reality. I've put two
examples below that originally stirred me to think
of this problem.
Thank you - Blake As some quick examples of what I'm talkingabout; two students at
Penn recently devised a system to capture weather
probes that usually get
lost by the National Weather Service. The N.W.S.
sends out thousands of
probes per year to gather data, but they lose 80%
of them. Each one cots
over $100, and with the help of these Penn
students, the N.W.S. will save
hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Yet,
how many people even knew
that this problem existed? Perhaps it could have
been solved sooner, if more
people knew about it. A different example. I was recently
introduced to a business that
sells bedding for flowers, primarily to commerical
growers. Typical bedding
is made of coconuts shavings that sucks up water
and the plants then take
water from the coconut shavings. The founder of
this business however, said,
"hey, why don't we put a small bio-degradable
sheet of plastic inbetween the
coconut shavings to hold more water?" Once the
original water runs out, the
coconuts will suck up water from the plastic bed
and the plants will have
more water. This means that planters have to water
their plants half as
much, which means huge savings in time and money. Again, however, so few people even knew of
this problem, which is
probably why it took this long to find a better
way to do it. There are
people with time on their hands who would love to
solve issues for the world
(and potentially make money from them), but they
just don't know where to
start. This is where we start. Right here, with
this wiki-project. Please
contact me if you're interested.
-- Blake West Wharton, University of Pennsylvania '09 bwest87@gmail.com _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org
http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
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