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We at AshokaTECH strive to showcase the latest in technology for social impact, but an equal part of our mission is also to illuminate and encourage the very best human forces that drive the products, systems and inventions that make this world a better place.

A recent article in Science Daily reports that researchers have found compassion on the rise as a motivating factor for our species--something we can all be proud of and hopeful about, especially as we reflect upon the past year and think about how we'd like this new one to be.  The research even finds that "the more you give, the more respect you get."

ScienceDaily (Dec. 9, 2009) -- Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are challenging long-held beliefs that human beings are wired to be selfish. In a wide range of studies, social scientists are amassing a growing body of evidence to show we are evolving to become more compassionate and collaborative in our quest to survive and thrive.

Read the full article here

Charlie Brown, Director of Ashoka's Changemakers, spoke this Tuesday at the 2009 UX (User Experience) Week about how the new Changemakers site was redesigned around the Changemakers community. By the way, they are now inviting people enter the Rethinking Mental Health competition!

While I was reading the UX schedule of speakers and workshops, I realized that most of the event's topics are also really hot trends in the social sector: mapping data online, experiential design at events and public spaces, disabilities and design, and mobile literacy.

Earlier this month I stumbled upon the great work that the people at Microsoft Research are doing regarding technology applications for the emerging markets; in particular, I was interested in their work last year on text-free User Interface Design for the illiterate (which was so innovative that it was featured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Elastic Mind exhibit).

Then this morning on the bus to work I read an article about how people interpret expressions on faces differently based on where they are from: apparently people in East Asia are more likely to read the eyes of the face, while people in the West scan the whole face with an emphasis on the mouth. One example of how this difference is reflected in practice is the use of emoticons:

Emotion    West    East
'Happy'      :-)       (^_^)
'Sad'         :-(        (;_;) or (T_T)
'Surprise'   :-o       (o.o)

Where does innovation come from? Ashoka Fellows would say from being inmersed in what you want to change. IDEO has packaged a free how-to guide to creating your own solid observational study. You can download it here (I found it at the User Experience for Good blog).

Pictures are of Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow Victoria Hale's project. Check out her video (below) about how she came up with her project through observation. Photos by Jonathan Torgovnik.

Bicycles are an obvious alternative to owning a car and the solution to our ever-increasing pollution problem; so why aren't more people biking on a daily basis?

This year, the Taipei International Bicycle Design Competition (IBCD) attracted over 900 entries from around the world. The design solutions aim at increasing the usability of bikes (see pictures of the finalists' designs here).

Simon Páez, a Colombian citizen who won the competition's 2009 Merit Award tells us about his rationale behind TRIBO, the design concept that he submitted for this year's IBCD:

"In Bogota we have the largest infrastructure of bike lanes in South America, yet only 4% of the population ride their bikes to work every day. The city of Bogota developed bike lanes all around  the city to decrease the traffic caused by the vehicular congestion, but this has not happened because vehicle users find bicycles unfit to move around the city. After investigating, I found that people weren't comfortable enough, and that they didn't feel safe enough to ride their bikes in a city like Bogota. TRIBO meets needs like safety and comfort to encourage people to use the 350 km infrastructure of bike lanes in Bogota and thus decrease the social and envionmental impact made by vehicular congestion"