Comments on: Innovation out of constraint http://culturematters.wordpress.com/2008/10/19/innovation-out-of-constraint/ Sun, 03 Jan 2010 11:11:25 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: David Inglis http://culturematters.wordpress.com/2008/10/19/innovation-out-of-constraint/#comment-4726 David Inglis Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:48:07 +0000 http://culturematters.wordpress.com/?p=523#comment-4726 Being an engineer married to an anthropologist, I expect at some time to spend some time in the field. Hopefully Engineers Without Borders can help me to be useful. An organization that comes to mind and one that has done some inspiring work (to engineers) is Path, www.path.org. They are out there to help solve global health issues and they take cultural relevance seriously. At a talk I attended by their founder he gave a simple example of a failure. TThey had developed a vaccination tool that shot the medicine as an aerosol onto and into the skin, it gets the medicine under the skin without a needle. Problem was that the thing looked like a gun and no patients wanted to go near the thing. Being an engineer married to an anthropologist, I expect at some time to spend some time in the field. Hopefully Engineers Without Borders can help me to be useful. An organization that comes to mind and one that has done some inspiring work (to engineers) is Path, http://www.path.org. They are out there to help solve global health issues and they take cultural relevance seriously.
At a talk I attended by their founder he gave a simple example of a failure. TThey had developed a vaccination tool that shot the medicine as an aerosol onto and into the skin, it gets the medicine under the skin without a needle. Problem was that the thing looked like a gun and no patients wanted to go near the thing.

]]> By: Chris Loughnane http://culturematters.wordpress.com/2008/10/19/innovation-out-of-constraint/#comment-4724 Chris Loughnane Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:38:29 +0000 http://culturematters.wordpress.com/?p=523#comment-4724 You struck a chord with me, I am a Mechanical Engineer who took as many anthro classes as I could. I find that an understanding of those you are designing for makes for excellent devices. You might be interested in reading about IDEO's (among other consultancies) cooperation with the Rockefeller foundation in a project they call "Design For Social Impact". Many of us (I am a Mechanical Engineer myself) working in the design industry see it as the next ripe opportunity (what medical devices were a decade ago). The developing world is full of problems that would best be solved by low-tech, well designed solutions. It's an exciting time to be working in this realm. Keep up the good work, it's a wonderful read You struck a chord with me, I am a Mechanical Engineer who took as many anthro classes as I could. I find that an understanding of those you are designing for makes for excellent devices.

You might be interested in reading about IDEO’s (among other consultancies) cooperation with the Rockefeller foundation in a project they call “Design For Social Impact”. Many of us (I am a Mechanical Engineer myself) working in the design industry see it as the next ripe opportunity (what medical devices were a decade ago).

The developing world is full of problems that would best be solved by low-tech, well designed solutions. It’s an exciting time to be working in this realm.

Keep up the good work, it’s a wonderful read

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