"How do I get the resources I need to start my BOP business?"

This question came up in a recent discussion with a colleague from the Univeristy of North Carolina. Dozens of students graduate each year from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School with a top-rated MBA degree and a passion to pursue Base of the Pyramid (BOP) opportunities, but few companies are hiring for these types of positions. You can always start your own business, but how does an aspiring entrepreneur from the top of the pyramid attract the resources needed to launch a new business in the BOP?

Just like any other entrepreneurial endeavor, it’s all about building credibility.

Credibility gives your entrepreneurial idea the power it needs to become a true business innovation. The higher your credibility, the higher your probability of finding funding, partners, customers, etc: i.e. all the resources you need to get going. The farther afield you are going in terms of geography, expertise or industry, the farther you have to build up your credibility to win the resources your venture needs. MBAs are taught how to do business planning and how to detail the growth of our companies, but rarely do we think of the same step-by-step methodology to plan the growth of our credibility and how we will pay for our learning curve. And credibility is critically important in the Base of the Pyramid where ideas greatly outnumber available funding*.

David Bornstein, who chronicles social entrepreneurs in his acclaimed book "How to Change the World", offers a description of this process. Bornstein states that social entrepreneurs typically start with what they know and issues they feel passionate about:

Social entrepreneurs, like business entrepreneurs, should begin with what they know best and should focus on an idea or issue that resonates deeply in their lives. Entrepreneurs rarely come up with their ideas suddenly. Typically, they spend years thinking about them–often searching for the right moment in their lives to move forward. Sometimes their ideas can be traced all the way back to childhood interests.

The budding social entrepreneurs then go through a stage of credibility building.

Before starting out on their own, they often work in jobs that teach them how a particular type of business or industry operates. Social entrepreneurs go through the same types of "apprenticeships." They usually work for several years in a particular field, profession or organization, acquiring the knowledge, skills and contacts that enable them to branch out on their own and improve upon what is currently being done. Then they enter the "launch" phase–when they start preparing to build their own organizations. Again, like business entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs usually begin by tapping their personal networks–friends, families, colleagues, teachers, mentors. They often start with a few well-selected tests of their ideas–to demonstrate early viability–and build credibility and momentum. They enlist advice from well-connected and experienced allies about how to raise funding, think through strategy, and build a team of supporters and advisors.

For MBAs and others starting ventures in the BOP, creating a series of projects to build relationships in your target area is critical. Even if these projects are volunteer or charitable works, the credibility you build will be invaluable. For example, here at BRINQ, we seek to gain experience in new markets by running small toy-design contests with local non-profits, helping us to build the relationships and credibility we need to promote our commercial "sow & gather" approach to innovation. For another example, take a look at Theresa Williamson in Rio, Brazil, described as a "powerhouse" by WorldChanging.com. Williamson founded her high-impact "Catalytic Communities" four years ago as her doctoral thesis at the University of Pennsylvania. Williamson recounts her own learning curve in detail in her dissertation “Catalytic Communities: the Birth of a Dot Org” (PDF).

The key lesson to learn is that when you’re starting with very little and need the most help, you have to find ways to give the most help you can. And not just to the people you want to serve, but to the people you most want to partner with. You need to go beyond networking to credibility building. Afterall, you measure your network by the number of people you can call when facing a problem, but you measure your credibility by the number of people who will call you.

And when people start calling, the resources will follow.

* To illustrate the scarcity of funding, BRINQ recently made it to the semifinal round for Echoing Green funding. Echoing Green is one of the few organizations that will consider funding "for-profit" socially oriented ventures. We were one of 700 groups Echoing Green was considering for funding in 2005, we’re now one of 150. Echoing Green will eventually select 12 organizations to fund, a funding rate of under 2%.

At BRINQ, we promote the innovation and design capabilities of people in the Base of the Pyramid (BOP), with a particular focus on toy design in Latin America. One subject that comes up continuously in our discussions with top of the pyramid (TOP) designers is the importance of rapid prototyping, a need which is met here in the TOP by computers, CAD software, plastics, and well-stocked machine shops.

This brings up the question, how can rapid prototyping be handled by aspiring designers living in the BOP?

There are promises of future technologies for the masses, such as 3D Printing or Personal Fabbing but these are still experimental and expensive.

There are examples of current businesses which seek to lower the cost of prototyping for designers, such as eMachineShop, which will machine the object you designed (in plastic or metal). Read on USA Today for more. Other examples include MFGquote.com, a bidding site for custom fab jobs, and QuickParts.com. All of these businesses are centralized though and rely on a well-developed infrastructure to get parts to designers. Instead, the less developed infrastructure in the BOP may require functionality closer to the point of service, as the Multifunction Platform in Africa provides.

“ The multifunctional platform is built around a simple diesel engine, than can power various tools, such as a cereal mill, husker, alternator, battery charger, pump, welding and carpentry equipment, etc. It can also generate electricity and be used to distribute water.”

In the end, perhaps the most useful course is to teach design and prototyping methodologies as called for by Indian professor Sanjay Dhande in his paper “Designing for Handicrafts - A Socio-technological Perspective”. These skills could be offered with community level computing services to allow for a greater level of rapid prototyping. Reference sites: WorldChanging - A new world is here ThinkCycle - Open collaborative design

Discarded socks, aluminum cans, and corncobs may look like trash to some, but to nine-year-old Junior of Brazil, they are balls, cars, and dolls in the making. Junior makes toys when he visits the toy library set up by his Christian Children’s Fund project, Federacao Sao Goncalo Do Rio Preto. At the library, he can also play with commercially made toys that his family could not otherwise afford, and learn music, stories and games important to his community and culture. Junior’s participation in the library has helped him develop closer ties with friends and better relationships with his three siblings. According to Obedes Barbosa Soares, CCF Brazil’s program director, toys “play a meaningful role” in a child’s interaction with others. “They are essential for the human being’s emotional, intellectual and physical health,” he said. CCF Brazil began the toy library program in 1999, primarily in rural communities, where access to entertainment and toys is limited. Specially trained child educators run the libraries, which are set up wherever space can be found—rooms inside the project’s headquarters and even outdoor sheds. The libraries are guided by “the culture of the child,” said Soares. “It is the culture of activity, fantasy, discovery and imagination.” Storytellers, and folk song and dance groups regularly appear at the libraries. Luis, a father of three sponsored children, plays guitar for a group called “Folia de Reis” (“Revelry of Kings”) that practices once a week in the local toy library. The group teaches children songs and dances, and reconnects them with their roots. At Christmas time, “Folia de Reis” goes performing door-to-door, to raise money for the poor. CCF-Brazil operates 24 libraries and hopes to open another 25 in 2001. For a relatively small investment, project staff is able to create a space where, according to Soares, “children and adults can share joy, relive their traditions and build a better world.” Copyright 2004. Christian Children’s Fund. All Rights Reserved. – This story was submitted by the Christian Children’s Fund Links and Resources: (English /Inglês) CCF’s Toy Libraries - More about the Toy Libraries CCF Brazil - an overview of CCFs efforts in Brazil Donate a Toy Library - Help build a new toy library or donate to other CCF Projects in a loved ones name. (Portuguese /Português) CCF Brasil - O Fundo Cristão para Crianças e as Brinquedotecas dela. “Brinquedoteca” = “Toy Library”

A doll made of rolled-up white material has a special meaning in Belarus. Some 40 years ago, the country experienced an epidemic of scarlet fever. In one of the villages, almost all the children died. But there was one little girl whose grandmother had made an “Aleysa” doll for her and placed it on the child’s heart, saying it would save her life, and her life was spared. A similar “Alesya” doll, made by 12-year-old Elena of Belarus, appears in a special exhibit of toys created by CCF children around the world. The collection, currently in the lobby of CCF’s Richmond headquarters, features about 250 toys, each with its own story. Plans are underway to exhibit the toys in children’s museums around the U.S. Dr. John Schultz, CCF president, found the inspiration for the exhibit while visiting Kenya in May 2000 during the famine. After witnessing tremendous human suffering, he watched, amazed, as a group of children sailed hand-made toy boats on Lake Turkana. “I was expecting to see children and their families either begging, or sitting idly by the side of the road waiting for their fate,” he said. “But I was struck by the fact that they were having a childhood, in spite of the famine and emergency at hand.” He admired one boys’ boat, which was made of a rubber flip-flop, twigs and plastic bags. The child presented him with the boat, and CCF’s collection began. Like the flip-flop boat, most of the toys in the collection are made from discarded items, which were given new life in the hands of the children. A construction site provided the raw materials for a Zambian boy, who created a miniature 10-speed bike from tiny, elaborately twisted wires. An 11-year-old boy in Brazil turned two sardine cans into a car and a trailer. One child made an oil delivery truck out of discarded materials after admiring the real trucks that sometimes passed by his town. Nalubuga, age 11, lives with her family in a poorly constructed shack in Uganda. But she calls the dollhouse she made out of banana leaf fiber and cardboard her “dream house”. That special toy sums up the hope of all the children, indicating how the toy exhibit captures not only the children’s inventiveness–but also their dreams. Copyright 2004. Christian Children’s Fund. All Rights Reserved. – This story was submitted by the Christian Children’s Fund

Different problems require new innovations in India.

The Economic Times of India reports a number of "Bond-like" innovations:

• A bicycle that rides on both land and water.
• An electronic stick for the blind with sensors to detect water and the distance of objects.
• A long distance WiFi network to carry voice and internet access to rural villages (developed by Media Lab Asia.)
• An odor fighting ozone generating machine, to make bearable the burial traditions of one the world’s oldest religions.
• A film projector costing 1/10th the price of traditional projectors.

In an article published in October, Wired Magazine reports on even more innovations from India:

• Hewlett Packard’s Script Mail, an electronic pad for emailing in languages that are difficult to type in (you handwrite the messages, a dying art in the U.S.. )

“The motivation for developing this device was the recognition that English is not very widely used, and people want access [to e-mail] in their local languages, specifically those that are not [based] on the Roman script,” said Gita Gopal, associate director of HP Labs India.

• K-Yan developed the Compact Media Center which incorporates a TV, PC, and projector for use in large group learning.
• The International Institute of Information Technology has developed Shakti, English translation software. Director Rajeev Sangal describes why India is likely to develop better translation technology:

  "Western nations that usually pioneer research have no real motivation to be involved in language translation because they are chiefly monolingual countries. That’s why India is crucial here. Just about a billion people in this world speak English. The rest may need Shakti"

 

What is the most popular holiday in Viet Nam?

An adult may tell you that the answer is Tet Nguyên Dán, the Vietnamese New Year, but a child will tell you Tet Trung Thu, the Mid-Autumn Children’s Festival, wins hand down! Whether eating their favorite treats, parading with rabbit- or star-shaped lanterns, wearing masks to scare away the moon-gobbling demon Ra Hu, or just shouting, playing, and singing in the streets, the Mid-Autumn festival is the time for children in Vietnam.

Traditionally the festival included folk games such as choi chuyen (stick and ball), O an quan and rai ranh (small stones in squares), di cau tre (small bamboo bridge), nhay day (jump rope) and ca kheo (walking on two high sticks). In addition to lanterns and masks, the Festival has also traditionally been a time for buying handcrafted Vietnamese toys like tien si giay (paper doctor, for good studying), ong danh gay (stick fighting doll, a symbol of martial spirit), as well as drums, ships, paper lion heads, and toy animals. These toys are crafted from available materials like recycled metal, rice powder, sponge, and paper. However, like the many other Geppetto’s of the modern world, traditional toy makers in Vietnam are increasingly unable to make their creations come to life. Sales are down, even during the very old tradition of the Children’s Festival.

This Toy Story tells the tale of one such Vietnamese toy maker, while Vietnam Investment Review’s Timout story "Child at Heart" describes the history of the festival and the decline of traditional toys. Plastic toys crossing the border from China are replacing traditional toys during the Festival. Timeout quotes below:

“I think it’s time for the government to minimise the importation of Chinese toys into Vietnam,” said Pham Van Manh, a 65-year-old man on Hang Bong street. “I am afraid that Vietnamese children will forget all about tradition and end up with modern toys. It’s particularly sad because toys such as masks, puppets and lanterns are cheaper, more educational and more traditional.”

And a recollection of the old days:

Seventy-five-year-old composer To Vu remembers the old days well.
“When I was young, I begged my parents to take me to shops on Hang Ma street, where I spent hours trying to choose between myriad toys,” Vu said. “Children in my neighbourhood would jealously compare each other’s toys in the lead-up to the festival. When the day finally came, we all gathered on the street and sang songs and danced. At the end of the day, we sat around huge moon-lit trays of fruit and mooncakes. I will never forget such times."

However, some groups are fighting to keep the traditions alive. Ha Noi’s Viet Nam Museum of Ethnology launched its program to perserve traditional toy making through teaching Vietnamese children traditional toy making skills and games.

"Traditional toys play an important role in helping to shape children’s personalities and develop their thinking, awareness and creativity"

“We hope to bring children back to Vietnamese traditional culture, but we also want to help adults explore their kids’ intelligence and creation,” Huy said. [museum director Nguyen Van Huy].

Additional Links and Resources:

Things Asian - "Mid-Autumn Children’s Festival" - a lovely article describing the Fesitval
Vietnam: Journey’s of Mind Body and Spirit - from the American Museum of Natural History

Stamps of Mid-Autumn Festival Toys

Who: PRODEM FFP
Where: Bolivia
What: For half the cost of a traditional ATM, a network free, multilingual, voice-driven system for delivering banking services, and with no chance of forgetting your PIN!

In Bolivia, the PRODEM Private Financial Fund (PRODEM FFP), overcame substantial obstacles to extending their banking services to its remote customers by innovating better technology.

“With a per capita income of US$950, Bolivia has long suffered as the poorest country in South America. Faced with skyrocketing unemployment, more than 61% of Bolivia’s workforce operate in an informal marketplace, often as self-employed micro-entrepreneurs.

Their informal status and various language and cultural barriers, however, essentially bar these businesspeople from participating in the traditional banking system. PRODEM FFP recognizes this vast market and offers an array of savings, credit, and money transfer services to Bolivia’s informal economy.” - WRI

Operating under the constraints that the costs of a traditional ATM network were too high and that many of its customers were illiterate or spoke Quechua or Aymara (languages indegenous to Bolivia), PRODEM built it own machine, the Smart ATM.

The PRODEM Smart ATM utilizes smart cards (to store account information, including account balance, which allows the ATM to forgo the network), fingerprint recognition technology (no PIN required), a voice driven interface in all three of Bolivia’s major languages, and a color coded system to make the transaction simpler (blue for withdrawal, yellow for account information, etc.). The cost is $18,000 per ATM, about half the cost of a traditional ATM ($30,000 - $40,000). Although the ATM does not appear to handle deposits yet (a much more complicated process than dispersing money and a much less common activity), customers are able to make deposits at a bank branch by using their Smart Card and fingerprint, no paperwork or ID required. According to the World Resources Institute, by the end of 2002 PRODEM had 50,000 smart card accounts.

Sources and Links:

WRI Summary - a summary article from the World Resources Institute Multilingual Smart ATMs for Microfinance (PDF) - a Digital Dividends case study by UNC’s Yerina Mugica and Roberto Hernandez An Interview with Yerina Mugica - An interview with the author of the Digital Dividends case study Serving the Poor Profitably in Bolivia - WRI article PRODEM FFP - company website

An exhibit of toys and photographs from the developing world taken by New Zealand Volunteer Services Abroad. The exhibit ran at the PATAKA Museum in Porirua City, New Zealand from July – November 2004. Text and photos courtesy of PATAKA.

From the Exhibit Introduction:

“In many countries parents can’t afford to buy toys for their children. Out of necessity children, often with the help of their parents, make their own. The results can be both beautiful and ingenious. They can also be moving in their simplicity.

The empty fizzy drink bottle that becomes a cherished doll or the discarded milk carton turned into a makeshift bus speak eloquently of lives devoid of material possessions. Toys crafted from wire and old tin cans are popular with tourists visiting Africa and it was one of these, a bird that flapped its wings made out of a Shell Oil can, that inspired the title of this exhibition – Playing on Empty.

Playing on Empty is a celebration of creativity, imagination and the universal desire to play. It’s also a reminder of the resourcefulness and determination of those living in the developing world.

We dedicate this exhibition to children of the world forced to work so others can play and to the adults everywhere working to put an end to the inequalities and injustices that allow that to happen.”

The first photo above shows metal push cars for racing:

“ Samoan push toys, some with double pushing handles, are very popular among the island children. Using a frame of lightweight wood and tin cans as wheels, the toys often have accessories such as mud flaps and additional cans mounted midway along the push handles into which smoking coconut husks are placed to represent the engine, the smoke pluming out behind the toy as it is pushed along.”

Other toys exhibited include kites, ball and ball games, handmade catapults, dolls made from local or recycled materials, go-carts & trolleys (2nd picture above), toy guns made of bamboo, and board games.

Related Links
Volunteer Services Abroad
PATAKA in the cultural center of Porirua City, New Zealand
Aratoi, Wairarapa Museum of Art and History Playing on Empty may currently be exhibiting here in Masterton, New Zealand

Who: Mohammed Bah Abba Where: Nigeria What: For less than $2 for a clay pot system to refrigerate up to 12 kg of produce. This is a relatively old story but a great one. In 2000 Mohammed Bah Abba was awarded the Rolex Award for Enterprise for his innovative Pot-in-Pot system to provide affordable, electricity free, refrigeration in arid Nigeria. Mohammed took an old local understanding of the cooling properties of evaporating water, combined it with the ancient tradition of making clay pots, and turned into a useful, world-changing innovation: a “desert refrigerator” that helps reduce food spoilage and increases income by increasing the shelf-life of farmers’ produce for sale. “Eggplants, for example, stayed fresh for 27 days instead of three, and tomatoes and peppers lasted for three weeks or more. African spinach, which usually spoils after a day, remained edible after 12 days in the Pot-in-Pot storage.” [source] The Pot-In-Pot system consists of two earthenware terracotta pots of different diameters, one placed inside the other. The space between the two pots is packed with sand, the sand is kept wet by pouring water into the sand about twice a day. Produce is placed within the inner pot and then covered with a damp cloth, and the system is left in a dry ventilated area. As the water in the sand evaporates throughout the day, the law of thermodynamics ensures the tempature in the inner pot drops. Our bodies use the same technique to keep us cool. How well does it cool? Well, one quantative study was performed in Ramona, CA by student Garret Rueda in his 2003 entry to the state Science Fair. Rueda found that average daily temparature drop inside the sytem was 14 C (23.5 F), aka keeping produce at 15 C (59 F) while the outside temparature is 28 C (82.4 F). Finally, the Rolex Awards Committee makes a great point about ideas vs. innovation in their article about the Pot-in-Pot award: “Good ideas are indeed rare, but good ideas that actually become good projects and bring lasting benefits are even rarer still,” In other words, an innovation is an idea that is brought to life and changes people’s lives. Related Links A Short History of Refrigeration from the History Channel. Terracotta Water Cooler for the office. The Coolgardie Safe - An Australian invention from the turn of the 20th century, but a bit more complicated, metal and heavier than two clay pots! Amish Water Cooler - in use by the Amish for decades, link courtesy of WorldChanging

The disruptive-innovation theory explains why new firms armed with relatively simple, straightforward technological solutions can beat powerful incumbents, often creating entirely new markets and business models. The disruptive innovation theory was popularized in Harvard professor Clayton Christensen’s "The Innovator’s Dilemma". This article points to some examples of disruptive innovations, their characteristics, how to test for disruptive innovations, and further sources for review.

Some examples of disruptive innovations:

• Peer to Peer networking, disrupting traditional distribution mechanisms
• MPEG Audio and Video Compression (MP3 et al.), disrupting physical media
• PCs, disrupting other media devices (TV, stereo, etc.)
• Smaller sized hard drives (as discussed in the Innovator’s Dilemma)
• Steel Mini-Mills (as discussed in the Innovator’s Dilemma)
• Amazon.com (disrupting traditional Brick & Mortar retail)
• Dell Direct (disrupting the whole PC Industry)
• Cell Phones (disrupting PCs and digital cameras)
• Ebay (disrupting traditional retail systems)

Potential Disruptive Innovations

• Renewable and Distributed Energy (Solar, Biomass, etc.)
• Adaptive Eye-Care’s user-adjustable corrective glasses
• WiFi and organically grown networks

Characteristics of a Disruptive Innovation>

• Its performance attributes meet the unfulfilled needs of an emerging market’s customers. These same attributes are not initially valued by the mainstream market, which instead value different performance attributes and initially see the innovation as substandard.
• Emerging market adoption enables the innovation to increase its performance and to begin overlapping with the performance expectations of the mainstream market.
• Awareness of the innovation increases as the innovation develops, influencing change in the mainstream market’s perception of what it values.
• The change in the mainstream market’s perception of what it values enables the innovation to disrupt and replace the existing offerings in the mainstream market.

Can you see why those us of working in the Base of the Pyramid are so excited about this theory? The Base of the Pyramid could be an ideal place to meet unmet needs and to incubate disruptive innovations, creating new markets and one day perhaps even disrupting mainstream markets higher up the pyramid. This idea of incubation in the BOP was put forward in Christensen and Hart’s article “The Great Leap: Driving Innovation from the Base of the Pyramid”. Quoting Professor Hart:

“It is much easier to take an innovation up-pyramid than it is to try to do it the other way around.”

We believe that same reasoning is why Hewlett-Packard set up the HP labs in India.

Is the Idea Disruptive? Christensen’s Litmus Test
Summarized by Emergic.org

Executives must answer three sets of questions to determine whether an idea has disruptive potential. The first set explores whether the idea can become a new-market disruption. For this to happen, at least one and generally both of two questions must be answered affirmatively:

• Is there a large population of people who historically have not had the money, equipment, or skill to do this thing for themselves, and as a result have gone without it altogether or have needed to pay someone with more expertise to do it for them?
• To use the product or service, do customers need to go to an inconvenient, centralized location?

The second set of questions explores the potential for a low-end disruption. This is possible if these two questions can be answered affirmatively:

• Are there customers at the low-end of the market who would be happy to purchase a product with less (but good enough) performance if they could get it at a lower price?
• Can we create a business model that enables to earn attractive profits at the discount prices required to win the business of the overserved customers at the low end?
• Once an innovation passes the new-market or low-end disruption test, there is still a third critical question to answer affirmatively:
• Is the innovation disruptive to all of the significant incumbent firms in the industry? If it appears to be sustaining to one or more significant players in the industry, then the odds will be stacked in that firm’s favor, and the entrant is unlikely to win.

Sources and Links:

The Innovator’s Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen
The Innovator’s Solution, by Clayon Chistensen and Michael Raynor
The Great Leap Forward: Driving Innovation From the Base of the Pyramid , by Clayton Christensen and Stuart Hart
HBS Working Knowledge Article - A Diagnostic for Disruptive Innovation
Optimize Magazine - Forging Innovation from Disruption
CIO Magazine - Disruption is Good - an interview with Clay Christensen Emergic.org Article - TECH TALK: My Mental Model: Creating Disruptive Innovations
Adaptive Eyecare - low cost, user adjustable eye glasses.

 

“Who is Rain?” asked the little girl in the lantern light. “Rain is a dancer,” I replied. “A dancer?” she said, prompting for more. “Yes, a dancer,” I repeated, pausing for a moment to glance at our slumbering fields and up to the empty sky. The night was full and people were starting to arrive. I raised my hand and gestured toward the stars, “Rain dances on the veil above, his feet tapping and bouncing on the cushion of the sky. Sometimes his feet will sink into the pillow of a cloud and water shakes loose and falls below to wash the earth and feed our crops. Some days he dances lightly, others with tumbles and leaps, the sound of his landing shaking the earth as his smile flashes and lights up the world.” “But he doesn’t like to dance here,” the little girl said, sandals removed and toes bunching on the dry earth beneath her feet. “No,” I replied, “not for a long time.” “But why?” The truck with the speakers rumbled by. I waited until it had stopped at the improvised floor, where the circle would form, and then I leaned forward in my chair and said, “Let me tell you a story.” – One day, a man climbed atop the house on the highest hill to look for Rain. He saw the dancer in the distance, down by the sea, far away and twirling by. With all his might he shouted his question, “Tumbling Rain, why do you dance for us no more?” He expected no reply; Rain is often too busy dancing to have conversations with Man. Yet moments later an answer came back, wafting on the wind. “I see you bent over the plow, day after day, with tears on your eyes. You are unhappy. I see your woman, hauling the water, pounding the beans, with tears on her eyes. She is unhappy. I see the little ones toiling, no laughing, no leaping, with tears on their eyes, they are unhappy. You are all so unhappy. Your tears make you unhappy. When I dance, tears fall from the sky. Why would I wish to make a sad people, more sad?” – “But that’s silly!” exclaimed the little girl after I finished my tale, “my tears don’t make me sad. It’s being sad that makes my tears!” “Ah, but Rain is just a simple dancer,” I explained gently, “How is he to know the difference?” “Oh,” she said. The little girl looked up into the night sky, toward a lone, distant cloud shadowing the moonlight, and asked, “Will he ever return?” “I suppose that’s up to you, little one,” I said. “Me?” her wide eyes now stared into mine, “What can I do? I’m little. Everybody says so.” “Ah, but you’re the most important one of all,” I said, sliding from my chair to settle in front of her, “You can laugh, you can leap. You can dance, you can play. You can show the world that tears or no tears, you live with joy. And drawn by your joy, perhaps Rain will dance with us once again.” Music flowed from the back of the truck and I could see partners forming in the circle. I stood to join them. “Now go play little one,” I urged with a fond pat to her head, “the dance is beginning, and Rain is watching.”

In our research and discussions we’ve come across a number of wonderful websites and blogs on sustainability and the Base of the Pyramid (BOP). We’d like to share them with you. We’ll keep updating this list as we continue to discover more of this fantastic work!

• WorldChanging: A NewWorld is Here - One of the best all around blogs on the web, in their own words "A group weblog discussing and analyzing tools, ideas, models, and technologies for building a better future."
• NextBillion.net - by the World Resources Institute, an online community and news site to identify and discuss sustainable business models that address the needs of the world’s poorest citizens
• IFTF’s Future Now - IFTF’s Future Now draws research and forecasting at the Institute for the Future, a Palo Alto, CA think tank specializing in the future of technology, health, and organizational change.
• ThinkCycle: Open Collaborative Design - ThinkCycle is an academic, non-profit initiative engaged in supporting distributed collaboration towards design challenges facing underserved communities and the environment.
• The Timbuktu Chronicles - Emeka Okafor is a consultant and entrepreneur with a background in Finance and Information Technology who lives in New York City. His interests include sustainable technologies in the developing world and paradigm breaking technologies in general. His blog, Timbuktu Chronicles seeks to spur dialogue in areas of entrepreneurship, technology and the scientific method as it impacts Africa.
• WorldIsGreen.com - All things green!
• Enviropundit - articles on green buildings, green energy, and more.
• Alternative Energy Blog - articles on alternative, distributed, and green energy news and technologies
• Slashdot: News for Nerds - the uber technology news site, not specific to sustainability or the BOP, but at times discusses potential world changing technologies.
• Base of the Pryamid Resource Center - a blog started up by Thunderbird MBA student Matt Berg, the site was created “to help serve as a resource for the those intersted in serving the base of the pyramid”.

Favorite Community Organizations we know personally

• Catalytic Communities - providing space to document and share community solutions around the world, creating a global network of community leaders and solutions. CatComm provides both physical space (the Casa do Gestor Catalisador in Rio de Janeiro) and virtual spaces (http://www.CatComm.org/) and is based in Washington, D.C. and Rio de Janeiro.
• Carolina for Kibera - an NGO and community based organization in Nairobi’s Kibera slum, one of Africa’s, if not the world’s, largest slums. CFK provides programs to work with youths in Kibera, reducing ethnic conflict, and inspiring youth based solutions and change. CFK is run out of the University of North Carolina but is based locally in Nairobi, Kenya. CFK was the home for our work on the Base of the Pyramid Protocol Pilot.
• Favelarte - a project by Brazilian photographer Maur√≠cio Hora, incredible windows into the world of Rio de Janeiro and the city’s favelas.