[liberationtech] International Development Design Summit at MIT

[Yosem Companys]

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/13/1412226

About 60 people from 20 nations will descend on the MIT campus July 14th for
the second annual International Development Design
Summit<http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/idds-adv-0710.html>to begin
an intensive month-long process of creating technological solutions
for the needs of people in the world's developing nations. The goal of the
program is to develop simple, inexpensive
devices<http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0508/p16s01-stgn.html>that in
some cases can be produced locally and make a real difference for
people and communities. The event is the brainchild of MIT Senior Lecturer Amy
Smith <http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/06/1327215&tid=216>,
a returned Peace Corps volunteer and a past winner of the MacArthur 'genius'
grant. Previous products of Smith's design class include a bike-powered corn
sheller, a metal press that can make clean-burning fuel out of agricultural
waste, and an electricity-free incubator. The workshop promotes a shift in
focus among companies, universities, investors and scientists toward attacking
problems that hamper
development<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/11/science/11mit.html>in
the world's poorest places. 'Nearly 90 percent of research and
development dollars are spent on creating technologies that serve the
wealthiest 10 percent of the world's population,' Ms. Smith said. 'The point
of the design revolution is to switch that.'
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