Very, very new...not even a company quite yet. (Moses may well interview this student)

See Saw Power: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_ne ws/education/7301354.stm

I am so glad to see this kind of inventiveness and curiosity at "play." While I don't think this application of the technology has a snowball's chance in the Arctic, the availability of low-cost power generating systems that can be adapted to a local context is vital.

Brilliant technology, off-target application imho.

So, including Kickstart, here are 10+ more clean water based technology related innovations

One one side you have people who want clean water, on the other side you have various different water based solutions. In the middle are orgs, foundations, donors, philanthropists, governments and simply people wanting to do good.

So now what? Which are the best, used when, where and why?

Perhaps not exactly on topic, but I follow Erik Hersman. Recently he was at the Nairobi Barcamp. Over the years both in travels to Kenya and through his blog, Erik has been in touch with Kenyan coders and entrepreneurs.

I keep telling my friend Nathan in Uganda to link up with Brosdi (Busoga RuralOpen Source and Development Initiative) but he never does. However I talked with him today and he was telling me about coordinating with a program to help farmers access maize prices by mobile phone. I thought sure it must have some connection with Brosdi, but no MTN a mobile provider in Uganda and some foreigners seem behind it. Anyway I do follow Brosdi some.

With Emeka Okafor at Ted Global last year there Cheetahs came in vogue. Of course I follow Okafor's blog, but also Nii Simmons Nubian Cheetah. Neither are models per se, but provide timely information on developments in this area. Likewise I find the World Bank's PSD Blog provides useful information.

I know these are not exactly the sorts of technology development and transfer models you are looking for, more like media that points to them. But it does seem that media is important in the transfer part.

`African Agriculture`_is a blog that aggregates news stories about African Agriculture in a weekly round up.

Cheetah Index provides business reporting and surveys the business news.

Bankelele finacial sector news in Kenya

Open Architecture Network is an important effort and model for other technologies I think.

A while back in the LiA threads there was planning for liquid detergent manufacture. I was very interested in packaging ideas--as usual out in left field. Packaging drives me crazy here in the USA. I wish there were more sustainability. Anyway I would love to see more open source efforts in design on the order of Open Architecture.

AfriGadget is a nice collaborative blog.

Another good technology for refugee safety: http://www.newsweek.com/id/33259

darfurstoves.org

Kickstart is cool. I saw their pumps all over Tanzania, in fact if anything they had so many stores selling them I was worried they might be over penetrated in the market. I would love to see some long term studies on how it has been working, but their on the ground marketing is clearly good.

X Prize

The X PRIZE Foundation is researching prizes structured around entrepreneurial solutions to global poverty. The focus is to find methods that catalyze profit-generating firms both in terms of financial as well as human development metrics that address major development challenges in agriculture, capital, education, health and water. The goal of these competitions would be to highlight the most scalable enterprises that create wealth and uplift the widest set of stakeholders from poverty.

From David Bale I was reminded about Xtracycle. Long ago their Web site had the story of the company up, now I don't see it. I'm not so good at remembering stories, but it seems to me that right from the start the founders of Xtracycle were intent on making load carrying bicycle technology available in the developing world. In some ways their paying customers were a means to that end. They were connected with Kickstart. Now it seems the efforts are joined with Worldbike. I feel sure their experience is makes for a good story about technology innovation and transfer, I just don't have the story straight. Nevertheless, Worldbike is something I'll be paying attention to.

Andrew Hall has is blogging from Kenya about Worldbike projects there. I plan to follow the blog. Also I was pleased to see on the blog that he's encouraging people to join in the discussion at their Flickr pages.

John, thank you!