Invennovations: A meeting space for inventors and social technology distributors

This post contributed by Paula Cardenau.

The gap between those who develop social technologies and those who distribute them was identified as one of the main barriers to ensure that the technologies arrive effectively to the people that need them as discussed by the social entrepreneurs that attended the Sao Paolo event.

Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow Greg Van Kirk distributes products and services that improve the quality of life isolated communities in Guatemala and El Salvador through a Microconsignment model. Greg dedicated many hours to investigating who and which countries developed the types of products and services that could benefit the communitieswhere he works. And even after all his research, he was not assured that these products would be high qualities or that they would have the technical specifications that he would require.

So he decided to create Invennovations, a website that compiles information of about 80 technologies related to health, energy, water, production and basic necesities. In the video above, Greg comments the idea behind Invennovations, which is that those organizations workign close to the communities that could benefit from these technologies can have easy access in the same website, can make comparisons and choose the ones that can adapt to their needs in a relevant and relatively simple manner.

PS: If you can't see the video, hit refresh. Thanks!