Top Ideas : Good Ideas

Solar Water Disinfection

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:00:55 PST

A billion people drink highly polluted water. Treating water by putting it in 2 liter cola bottles and setting it in the sun on a black surface for 5 hours kills 99% of pathogens. One of the world's truly great ideas. See http://www.sodis.ch/

Comments (1)Global Development, water, cleanwater, solar, sodis

Spend-down Foundations

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 06:24:20 PST

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The Gates Foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies, and other foundations have announced plans to spend-down their endowments to zero. This greatly increases annual spending and gives the programs a sense of timing and urgency.

Comments (1)Philanthropy, foundation, philanthropy, endowment

Pay Teachers More - If They Give Up Seniority

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:39:56 PST

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Washington DC proposes a different approach to teachers' salaries. NYTimes "best of 2008" idea. http://bit.ly/5fAIqz

Comments (6)Education, dc, salary, teacher

Advance Market Commitments for Vaccines

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:32:02 PST

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Drugs and vaccines that developing countries need are underinvested in because companies can't be sure there is a market. Guarantee a market commitment in advance so pharma will do R&D. See http://www.vaccineamc.org .

Comments (5)Global Development, health, vaccines, markets

Free Online Education

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 06:25:45 PST

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Provide free online courses, K-12 and university, following the lead of MIT. http://www.ocw.mit.edu .

Comments (6)Education, education, onlinelearning, onlinecommunity, mit

Using Facebook to Promote World Peace

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:49:35 PST

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"Peace on Facebook", a section which show how many friendships are occurring across lines of conflict, offers a glimpse on what the social networking site could provide towards world peace. http://ow.ly/EjfW

Comments (2)Online Collaboration, facebook, twitter, socialmedia, peace

Require Open Process Projects in Government

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:42:01 PST

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The government should have a good reason before it invests in closed software, content or database development. In general, information products funded by the public sector should be public products.

Comments (1)Government, government, governance, opensource, software

Bypass Electoral College

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:55:05 PST

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A new proposal seeks to bypass the Electoral College and elect the President via popular vote. Without amending the constitution, it calls on states to commit all electoral votes to the candidate winning the popular vote. Information at http://www.fairvote.org/ .

Comments (0)Government, electoralcollege, president, vote

Philanthrocapitalism

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:15:22 PST

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New "hybrid" organizations mix philanthropy and capitalism -- not a little of one or the other, but an aggressive pursuit of both. One example is Omidyar Network. http://bit.ly/6Jb08D

Comments (0)Philanthropy, omidyar

Good Ideas?

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:12:20 PST

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Does this database of good ideas make sense? Any suggestions?

Comments (1)Site Feedback, goodideas

Birth Certificates for All

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 06:57:51 PST

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Half a billion children have no birth certificate, blocking access to health care, education and welfare support. Universal Birth Registration seeks to remedy this problem. http://bit.ly/6Om2OZ

Comments (0)Global Development, birth, certificate, education, health, welfare

Balancing Innovation and Execution

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:00:55 PST

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How does an organization balance the need to innovate with the need to execute on current projects? Eric Schmidt at Google imposes the 70 / 20 / 10 rule for percentage of company resources spent on core business / new businesses / speculative efforts. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/70/20/10_Model

Comments (1)Management, google, management, innovation, ericschmidt

Micronutrients

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:01:24 PST

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Micronutrient supplements, particularly iron supplements to combat anemia, are among the most cost effective health interventions possible. See Micronutrient Initiative at http://www.micronutrient.org.

Comments (1)Global Development, micronutrients, copenhagenconsensus

African Good Governance Prize

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:49:47 PST

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The Mo Ibrahim Foundation will offer a $5m prize to African heads of state who do most to alleviate poverty and leave office peacefully. http://www.moibrahimfoundation.org/en

Comments (1)Global Development, africa, development, governance, dictators

Mantra for Healthy Eating

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:28:27 PST

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Author Michael Pollan (Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food) provides this mantra for healthy eating: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." WebMD: http://bit.ly/52sBZP

Comments (1)Health, diet, food, pollan

Crowdsource Data for Global Development

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:01:14 PST

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Track disasters, monitor aid, map conflict - all through crowdsourced data. BBC: http://ow.ly/LSPk

Comments (0)Global Development, data, metrics, crowdsource, cellphone

Make Web Sites Readable with Push of a Button

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:07:44 PST

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The "Readability" service provides a bookmarklet for browsers. When pushed it strips pages of ads and graphics to make the page more readable. A David Pogue "best of 2009" selection. http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/

Comments (2)Technology, web, usability, text, ebook

Instant Birth Control

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:28:13 PST

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Through the use of online tools, Washington state public health officials have eliminated the need for a doctors appointment to receive a prescription for hormonal contraception. A Changemakers.com winning idea 2007. http://bit.ly/862fnj

Comments (0)Health, contraception, birthcontrol

Encourage Chinese Philanthropy

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:27:57 PST

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The Chinese are creating a great deal of wealth in coming decades, but they have little experience with institutional philanthropy. The American philanthropic sector should make working with China a high priority. http://bit.ly/6GqGia

Comments (0)Philanthropy, china, philanthropy

Grand Challenges in Global Health Competition

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:00:55 PST

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Ongoing Gates Foundation program funding big, innovative ideas in global health. See http://www.grandchallenges.org.

Comments (1)Philanthropy, global development, gates, gatesfoundation, globalhealth

Solar-powered WiFi

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:52:27 PST

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The non-profit Green Wi-Fi brings solar-powered wifi base stations to poor communities to allow cheap and reliable local networking. http://www.green-wifi.org .

Comments (0)Global Development, development, solar, wifi, internet

To Combat Global Warming, Forget About CO2, Worry About Methane

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:45:40 PST

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Methane only has 75% of the impact of CO2 on global warming, but has short lifespan and is easier to contain. WSJ: http://ow.ly/QJuy

Comments (2)Environment, globalwarming, environment, co2, methane, greenhouse

Change Senate Filibuster Rules

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 06:05:19 PST

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Requiring 60 votes to do anything is a recipe for partisanship and paralysis. http://bit.ly/8rARoJ

Comments (1)Government, governance, senate, congress, filibuster

Social Networks as Foreign Policy

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 08:40:05 PST

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Supporting social networks globally - but not telling people how to use them - is in the strategic interest of the US. http://www.nytimes.com/projects/magazine/ideas/2009/#s

Comments (0)Online Collaboration, socialmedia, socialnetworks, foreignpolicy

Fund Risky Ideas

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:29:20 PST

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Many foundations have distinct programs for funding risky ideas (Gates "Grand Challenges", RWJF "Pioneer Portfolio). The Energy Department has established a new office - Arpa-e - to fund "long shot bets". http://bit.ly/2dYhVO

Comments (0)Philanthropy, philanthropy, government, energy