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Nonprofits can always use extra manpower, but it’s often professional skills that they need most. Catchafire is a site that aims to improve the quality of the matches between professionals and the nonprofits that need their help. Now in beta, New York City-based Catchafire is similar in some ways to The Extraordinaries, which we covered this summer. The certified B-corporation begins by matching professionals who want to volunteer with nonprofits and social enterprises that need their skills. Matching is done on a variety of characteristics including skills, cause interests and time availability. By design, Catchafire projects each require 50 hours or less of flexible volunteer time to complete over less than three months; they are discrete, each with a clearly defined deliverable; and they are individual, or designed to be completed by one skilled professional rather than a team. Tasks involved typically include marketing, PR, design, social media, strategy and finance. The matching service is free for volunteers; nonprofits and social enterprises, meanwhile, are charged less than 5 percent of the cost that they would normally pay for the professional skills they gain, Catchafire says. The organization also helps corporations offer skills-based volunteer opportunities to their employees. Since the soft launch of Catchafire in May, it has matched more than 70 organizations with professionals who have volunteered more than 3,000 hours to provide over USD 500,000 in services. Currently, however, the company serves only organizations in the Greater New York City area. One to partner with or emulate to boost volunteership in your part of the world...? Website: www.catchafire.org Spotted by: Margarita Barry |
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We’ve been watching Belgian Dinner in the Sky for years as it’s expanded to offer live entertainment, weddings and other special events. The company has now hosted more than 1,000 events 50 meters above cities in 40 countries around the world, but we couldn’t resist sharing news that just last week it launched a brand-new platform. Whereas participants in the original Dinner in the Sky events all sat around a central table capable of accommodating 22 people in roller coaster-style seats, the new generation of Dinner in the Sky is designed more like a real restaurant. Specifically, there are eight lighted tables for four situated around a central bar, and the seats are more like those on an airplane. The new platform’s flexible configuration enables not just greater intimacy, but also more customisation. The company explains: “This new platform lets you share a dinner or a glass of G.H. Mumm champagne with friends while listening to the sounds of Ghanaian drummers; arrange a match of bridge or poker; sip Chivas while enjoying a fine Havana cigar; play a round of baccarat while being entertained by French cancan dancers; participate in a quiz or a talk show broadcast live from the stars; attend a DJ jam session ... all from an altitude of 50 meters.” Is there any sign that the experience economy is fading away? Nope. The sky’s the limit — or not! ;-) (Related: Yellow Treehouse: pop-up restaurant, 10m up a tree.) Website: www.dinnerinthesky.com |
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Much the way UK retailer Marks & Spencer has been working with Oxfam to reward consumers for recycling their gently used clothes, so the New Zealand Red Cross recently launched a like-minded effort in partnership with clothing retailer Country Road. Typically, only a very small proportion of donated clothes are of high enough quality to be resold through the New Zealand Red Cross’s 38 stores, the relief organization says. Aiming in part to remedy that problem, the new “Fashion Trade" effort is designed to encourage donation of better clothing. So, as of July, New Zealand consumers who include at least one pre-loved Country Road item in a donation of clothing or accessories to a participating Red Cross shop will receive a NZD 10 voucher for use towards their next purchase of NZD 50 or more at Country Road stores. The donated clothing and accessories are sold by Red Cross shops to support the organization’s relief work, including its Breakfast in Schools program for school kids who would otherwise go without. Red Cross and Country Road in Australia also participate in the Fashion Trade program. With benefits for consumers, the organizations involved and the environment — since presumably fewer items of clothing will end up in landfills — the Fashion Trade effort promises the kind of win-win-win we all seek. Fashion retailers and nonprofits: when will *your* recycling effort launch...? (Related: Method's mobile laundry truck facilitates clothing donations — Retailer recycles customers' old sex toys — Incentive-based recycling.) Website: www.redcross.org.nz/shops Spotted by: Paul Scoringe |
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It’s been a few years since we covered Kidfresh, the New York store that sells organic and natural prepared foods for kids. Just recently we got word, however, that Kidfresh has now begun selling frozen versions of its kids’ meals in US supermarkets. For kids who object to veggies, the meals contain 'hidden' vegetables that are puréed and, as Kidfresh puts it, snuck in. Currently available in Northeastern US retailers, Kidfresh frozen meals are coming soon to supermarkets nationwide. The company’s healthful selections — including 100 percent natural macaroni and cheese or pasta with meatballs — are rich in vegetables but include no artificial additives, flavors, colors, preservatives, trans fats or high fructose corn syrup. Even the company’s packaging meets the highest safety standards, with no BPA, phthalates or other potentially harmful chemicals. A store locator is available to help parents find the nearest retailer. Pricing is USD 3.99 or less in most stores, Kidfresh says. With childhood obesity a persistent problem and the school year under way, it seems a pretty safe bet parents will be looking for convenient but healthy options. Grocers around the globe: one to add to your healthful line...? (Related: Fresh and frozen gourmet baby food — Tasting bar for babies — Swedish hotels serve healthy meals for kids, courtesy of Jamie Oliver — Happy healthy meals.) Website: www.kidfresh.com |
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We’ve already seen jewelry made from both reclaimed and sustainably mined materials. Guided by a similarly eco-minded philosophy, Los Angeles-based (and Florence-born) WeWood crafts wooden watches and plants a new tree for every watch it sells. WeWood timepieces offer Miyota movements in a variety of designs that are completely devoid of artificial and toxic materials, the company says. Several wood varieties are used in WeWood’s watches, including Maple, Ebony and Guaiaco, a tree native to South America. A fourth type — called Red Wing Celtis — is typically used for flooring, and WeWood draws its supply from the industrial waste that would otherwise result. Perhaps best of all is that — much like Vermont’s Naked Table workshops — WeWood plants a new tree for every watch sold thanks to a partnership with American Forests and Global Releaf. Each WeWood watch is priced at USD 119. With their focus on sustainability and the use of story-laden reclaimed materials, WeWood’s watches offer a new eco-iconic time-telling option for green-minded consumers. Eco-minded retailers around the globe: this one’s for you!(Related: Furniture with a story, crafted from salvaged sailing dhows — Eco-friendly gift cards & hotel key cards — Boxes made of cardboard laden with seeds.) Website: www.we-wood.us Spotted by: Jasmine |
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We’ve seen crowdsourcing applied to graphic design, publishing and car development, to name just a few, but typically such efforts are wide open as to the crowd members who can be involved. Edge Amsterdam, on the other hand, bills itself as “elite sourcing,” whereby an invitation-only scheme determines who can be part of the contributing crowds. Now in beta, Edge is “an international offline and online platform that works with the best international young creative talent and brands to develop product and brand innovations,” in the site’s own words. To make that possible, the company recruits select young talent by invitation only via art schools and other connections to help create product and brand innovations. Experienced creative professionals in the Edge network ensure quality output through guidance and coaching; assignments can be related to marketing communications, where output is used directly, or innovation and trend concepts, where output can be used for further development. Recent assignments have come from the investment funds industry, PICNIC (Holland's largest creative/tech conference) and surf and lifestyle brand O'Neill. If clients’ greatest risk in employing a crowdsourcing strategy is the potential lack of high-quality results, limiting the pool of contributors to those with known capabilities seems like the logical next step. What other crowdsourcing efforts might benefit from a little externally imposed quality control...? Website: www.edge-amsterdam.com |
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Fashion is all about the new, so it's no surprise the clothing industry is a hotbed of innovation, as can be seen from the new ideas in our Fashion & Beauty database. And the fashionistas are no slouches when it comes to making use of new technology. Here are five examples of what happens when geek meets chic: 1. FITS.ME — Many consumers are discouraged from shopping for clothes online because they can't try before they buy. And those consumers who do take the plunge will often pick the wrong fit—meaning online clothes retailers suffer a high rate of returns. The techies at Estonian startup Fits.me believe they have the solution in the form of a shape-shifting robotic mannequin that replicates thousands of different body shapes. On clothes retail sites that feature a Fits.me "virtual fitting room", consumers follow an interactive guide to enter their personal dimensions. They're then shown how the shirt they're dreaming of would really look on a body just like theirs. 2. LEVI'S CURVE ID — In another use of technology to get just the right fit, jeans maker Levi's has teamed up with Korea's i-Fashion Technology Center to promote Levi's new Curve ID line, which are made in three fits inspired by research into body shape, rather than just size. At a pop-up store in Seoul (pictures here), customers were given a free 3D body scan and a report about their body shape, with—of course—recommendations for which Curve ID fit would suit them best. The measurements were then used to create an onscreen avatar of the shopper, which could quickly and conveniently model combinations of clothes on sale in the store. 3. DIESEL CAM — In-store tech initiatives can even feature real people wearing real clothes. Diesel stores in Spain are introducing touchscreen workstations in dressing rooms that let customers take (Diesel-branded) photos of themselves and instantly upload them to Facebook. It means the wearers can get real-time feedback and comments about their outfit from friends. Or just show off. 4. FITS — Fits is an iPhone app that's ostensibly designed to help people buy the right size bras for their girlfriends, but it's likely to appeal also to a somewhat less romantic crowd. With a frontal photo (or better still, a frontal and profile) of the lucky lady, the user manipulates a silhouette to match her outline, manoeuvres a sample bra image into the correct position, and finally keys in her height. The app will now estimate the subject's bra measurements. 5. IFROCKUP — Another fashion-related iPhone app, iFrockUp lets people get input from friends when deciding on the right look for a big event such as a ball or prom. Users set a deadline and upload pictures and details about possible dresses, shoes, hairstyles and accessories. The information can be shared on Facebook and Twitter, allowing contacts to vote on each item and help identify the perfect outfit. Spotted by John Greene, Natalie Lee, Maria Dahl Jørgensen, Nitzan, and Mandy Stevens |
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When searching for airfares online, travellers are typically required to know ahead of time exactly where they’re going and when, and they must input those details in a specified way. Not so on Adioso, a site that uses natural language and allows for open-ended exploration. Now in beta, Australian Adioso is “a travel search engine for spontaneous and adventurous travellers,” in the words of its creators. The site’s natural-language search interface allows users to conduct searches in which both the date and the destination can be flexible, such as “San Francisco to NYC late October,” for example, or “Austin to anywhere under $200 next week.” They can also investigate trips to anywhere in a continent or region, such as “New York to Europe.” Adioso provides a routing engine that interconnects flights from low-cost airlines, so it also allows budget-conscious consumers to identify the lowest-cost route between any two places, domestically or internationally. Judging by all the ongoing efforts to refine travel search, it’s clear there’s still plenty of opportunity for both generalized improvement and niche variation. One to partner with, emulate — or be inspired by? (Related: More travel-route comparisons, now with CO2 effects — Trip-planning site helps find others to travel the world with — Travel agents bid on consumers' dream trips — Event-driven travel search asks when, not where.) Website: www.adioso.com Spotted by: James B. |
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It's always inspiring to see an entrepreneur hit upon an idea that solves two problems at once. Case in point: New York-based Solve Media. Combining websites' need for user authentication with advertisers' ongoing need for consumer attention, the company has launched a captcha-style tool that addresses both ends. Rather than the nonsensical text or words in difficult-to-read fonts used by most captcha tools — typically requiring about 14 seconds for users to negotiate — Solve's Type-Ins tool achieves website user verification by asking users to type in advertising text instead. The ad is simply placed where the cryptic text would be, and users must enter into a box the text presented within quotation marks — typically a brand message. (For security, slight variations in pixelation mean that no two Type-Ins are the same, according to a report in AdAge.) The process takes only 7 seconds using Solve's system, yet advertisers are guaranteed to have the user's attention for that full time. The result, according to Solve, is no less than 1,200 percent greater message recall than is typically achieved with a banner ad. Ads get remembered, websites verify their users, and ad revenue gets shared between Solve and its publisher partners. Advertisers and web publishers: what's not to like? ;-) Website: www.solvemedia.com Spotted by: PSFK |
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Free and open source software has already opened up a world of opportunity for users unable or unwilling to pay the comparatively high costs associated with proprietary packages. Such benefits haven’t yet come to the world of TV, however, which is why the Novacut project was formed. Traditionally, the equipment needed to make a broadcast-quality TV show has been so expensive that only the big TV networks could afford it. That, in turn, made those networks the effective gatekeepers of the content. With new, lower-cost HDSLR cameras, however, are coming new opportunities for TV independence. So, Novacut aims to seize this opportunity to build a platform that allows artists to create, promote, distribute and fund independent TV shows and other video entertainment. Toward that end, it’s writing a free, open source video editor aimed specifically at producing off-network TV shows using HDSLR cameras like the 5D Mark II, and it’s also creating a like-minded video player through which fans can easily find, watch and support the results. Along the way, it hopes to enable a learning community through which aspiring TV makers can learn, teach and collaborate using a distributed workflow and cloud-based storage. Colorado-based Novacut is currently seeking USD 25,000 in funding through Kickstarter by Oct. 1. Independent-minded media entrepreneurs: one to get involved in? (Related: Open source phone service for off-grid areas — No secret recipes at open source restaurant — Crowdsourced dream cars inspired by destinations — An open-source 3D printer for the masses — Bands funded by their fans.) Website: www.novacut.com Spotted by: Jeffrey Ballagh |
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More eco-friendly cleaning products! No sooner had we posted our recent story about Activeion than we learned of DropShot Cleaners, a Canadian brand of dilutable cleaning products much like the iQ line we covered earlier this year. As with the iQ line, consumers need only drop a packet of DropShot's concentrated cleaning solution into an empty water bottle and fill it with regular tap water. Following a good shaking, the result is a full bottle of commercial-strength household cleaner worthy of the Design for the Environment (DfE) label. Variations available in the DropShot line include All-Purpose Citrus Cleaner, Autumn Fresh Odor Eliminator, Glass & Hard Surface, and Grease-Cutting Multi-Surface cleaner. Each refill order of two DropShot refill packets costs USD 2.99, while the DropShot Cleaning Kit — including one bottle plus two refills of each product — costs USD 19.95. DropShot Cleaners are currently available only online, but other retail locations are forthcoming, parent company JBI says. Green-minded retailers around the world: one to add to your own minimal-packaging line...? Website: www.buydropshot.com Spotted by: Stuart Miller |
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Breaking up is hard to do, as the saying goes; what can be even more difficult, however, is removing all traces of an ex from one’s social network. That’s where Block Your Ex comes in, with a tool that’s specially designed to extract even the most stubborn evidence of past relationships gone bad from an otherwise pristine online existence. Designed by Washington, DC creative agency JESS3, the Ex-Blocker needs only the offending ex’s name along with his or her Twitter identity, Facebook page and blog URL. From there, the tool wipes that person right out of the user’s online life. For each user, the Ex-Blocker will block up to five exes for free. More than 7,800 exes are currently being blocked thanks to the tool. We’ve already seen ways to sell the gifts past flames have given us and ways to cheer ourselves up once a romance has ended; somehow, ex-removal in a social networking context seems like the logical next step. Now, if only the same capabilities could be brought to the offline world — augmented reality, anyone? ;-) Website: www.blockyourex.com Spotted by: Bjorn Verbrugghe |
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Children affected by serious diseases and medical conditions either personally or in their families often don't really understand those illnesses or the treatments required to fight them. New Zealand-based Kidzcomics aims to change all that with a series of comic books designed to explain medical information for children. The Medikidz series features five superheroes by the same name, each of them a specialist in a different part of the body. With stories designed to be fun and appealing, the comics aim to entertain as well as educate children about serious medical issues. Conditions covered in the Medikidz line so far include leukemia, epilepsy, diabetes, HIV and ADHD, among many others; rather than “sugar-coating” the topics, Kidzcomics' books aim to empower and educate children for better self-management and less fear. All content is written by professional medical writers and doctors and then peer-reviewed. Pricing is GBP 6.99 per comic book. There are currently more than 50 million children afflicted by illness in English-speaking countries alone, Kidzcomics says. Who will offer something similar in other languages for other parts of the world? Website: www.kidzcomics.com Spotted by: Kendall Flutey |
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Pest control is a hotly contested topic, owing largely to the toxicity of the chemicals that are typically involved. So it's hard not to take notice when an alternative emerges that's not only chemical-free, but based on solar power as well. Developed by South Korean Eco Solatec, the Solar Trap uses a BLB lamp to attract mosquitoes, moths, mayflies and other common pests, and then propel them by fan into an inescapable netting. Eminently suitable for agricultural settings as well as recreation areas such as parks and golf courses, the Solar Trap can be used 8 hours a day after just 5 hours of charging — which takes place on cloudy days as well as sunny ones. The device generates its own energy, creating no pollution in the process; it also automatically deactivates when it's raining, turning itself back on again after the rain stops. It turns off when temperatures fall below 12 C as well. The Solar Trap is currently installed at the International Rice Research Institute, but its potential promises to extend globally. Agro-entrepreneurs: a sustainable and functionall innovation to explore for your part of the sustainability-focused world? Website: www.ecosolatec.com Spotted by: Bill Kirby |
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