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One of the themes that emerged in the conference is a new trend toward listening over telling. In the old model, ad agencies simply “branded” a mass audience to believe in their new product’s virtue. Now, consumers tell the would-be innovator what they need.


Under the new rules, says Ramsey Ford, of Design Impact (www.design-impact.org), product designers go through a series of four steps before producing a new product. First, they immerse themselves in the local culture, to see what life is really like. Next, they study local capacity for production. Can the product be built using local labor and resources? To win the trust of that labor force, they seek out partners in the community. And finally, they assess the impacts of their business on both the economic and environmental health of the community. Is it good for both?


Efforts like Ford’s to create technology from the grass roots up has turned the innovation model upside down. With luck, it will do the same to technology’s dismal record with regard to the environment.


Trouble in Techno-Topia
According to author George Monbiot, in his paradigm-shattering book “Heat,” despite good intentions, technology improvements have not reversed the negative trends of CO2 production, energy use, fuel use, or resource depletion worldwide. We’re using up the earth at an accelerating pace, and a growing population is only part of the reason.


06.2011
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