Grants/Problem Statement: Difference between revisions

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#Describe the current state of the pressing problem or issue(s) that your organization addresses. '' - Skoll Foundation''
#Describe the current state of the pressing problem or issue(s) that your organization addresses. '' - Skoll Foundation''
#Overview of Need: what is the problem? Why is it important? '' - Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation''
#Overview of Need: what is the problem? Why is it important? '' - Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation''
#Describe the critical need(s) your solution seeks to address and its impacts on both the local and global system. - ''Buckminster Fuller Institute''


==Answers==
==Answers==
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Our work is designed to address the following problems:
Our work is designed to address the following problems:


 
#''Climate Change'': promoting the development of local industrial manufacturing capacities using environmentally sustainable technology is a way to simultaneously reduce carbon emissions and prepare for the destabilizing consequences of climate change.
#'''The way society innovates''' - the copyright system limits people’s ability to improve upon or even use vital human innovation to solve very serious problems such as hunger and disease.
#''Destruction of Ecosystems'': we need to situate our product manufacturing systems within the boundaries of natural ecological limitations by developing products that can be made with renewable and local resources. We believe that people make environmentally-sound decisions when natural resources are sourced from their own backyards and regional ecosystems.
#'''Planned obsolescence''' - products are designed to have limited lifespans in order to improve profit margins for companies by creating conditions where people have to continue to spend money. Entire product service industries develop around this issue to profit off of people’s dependency.
#''Declining Wages'': multiple factors are contributing to the stagnation and decline of wages internationally, and we can expect these trends to continue with the internationalization of the labor market and the more widespread use of factory automation and software-based service delivery.
#'''Chronic unemployment and poverty''' - the United States has lost over 29% of its manufacturing sector jobs since its peak in 1978 due to the globalization of the labor market. Some developing nations have seen an increased ability to attract investments that lead to job creation, but we need to ask ourselves if these are the kinds of jobs we want for ourselves. Aside from a life of poverty or working for unaccountable institutions, the third option, the route of the entrepreneur, has been prohibitively expensive for many, and the risks are very high.
#''Crisis of Global Economy'': the economic system is in crisis as populations in developed nations age, as cheap natural resources are depleted, as wages decline, and as nations face problems with mounting debt and corruption.
#'''Enterprise development barriers are unnecessarily high''' - the cost of acquisition for industrial capital is prohibitively expensive. When businesses depend on industrial capital for survival, and it breaks down, service costs can drive companies out of business.
#''IP'': excessive patenting frustrates innovation and threatens the openness of the internet and the wider economy.
#'''Climate change and the destruction of natural ecosystems''' - the global system has taken risks to improve profitability and to concentrate power, and now the infrastructure that supports billions of lives is unacceptably instable due to a lack of political will in the face of climate change and the accelerated destruction of natural ecosystems. We need to rapidly deploy decentralized systems of agriculture, manufacturing, and clean energy production in order to reduce carbon emissions and develop social infrastructure that is resilient in the face of change and uncertainty.  
#''Design for Obsolescence'': products are often designed to be as cheap as possible and to break down, creating relationships of dependency on costly services, which maximize profitability, but degrade the quality of our general material environment.  


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Latest revision as of 21:34, 16 April 2013

How This Works
List of Submitted Grants
Annual Fundraising Plan 2013

Common Question Phrasings

  1. Describe the current state of the pressing problem or issue(s) that your organization addresses. - Skoll Foundation
  2. Overview of Need: what is the problem? Why is it important? - Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation
  3. Describe the critical need(s) your solution seeks to address and its impacts on both the local and global system. - Buckminster Fuller Institute

Answers

Our work is designed to address the following problems:

  1. Climate Change: promoting the development of local industrial manufacturing capacities using environmentally sustainable technology is a way to simultaneously reduce carbon emissions and prepare for the destabilizing consequences of climate change.
  2. Destruction of Ecosystems: we need to situate our product manufacturing systems within the boundaries of natural ecological limitations by developing products that can be made with renewable and local resources. We believe that people make environmentally-sound decisions when natural resources are sourced from their own backyards and regional ecosystems.
  3. Declining Wages: multiple factors are contributing to the stagnation and decline of wages internationally, and we can expect these trends to continue with the internationalization of the labor market and the more widespread use of factory automation and software-based service delivery.
  4. Crisis of Global Economy: the economic system is in crisis as populations in developed nations age, as cheap natural resources are depleted, as wages decline, and as nations face problems with mounting debt and corruption.
  5. IP: excessive patenting frustrates innovation and threatens the openness of the internet and the wider economy.
  6. Design for Obsolescence: products are often designed to be as cheap as possible and to break down, creating relationships of dependency on costly services, which maximize profitability, but degrade the quality of our general material environment.

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