Ian Sanders reports from the 2012 Do Lectures for "The Entrepreneurs", a weekly program on Monocle 24 online radio, putting the spotlight on those driving innovation in their industries, plus where to invest, business news and tips from those who have succeeded. He interviews a couple of the event's speakers, including Toshi from Kopernik. To listen, play archive #29.
Scientist Without Borders published Willow Paule's photo essay of the three-day training workshop held by Kopernik for women technology agents in Lombok, Indonesia. One of Willow's photographs from the event also took second place in Scientist Without Border's photo contest.
A powerful new diaspora from down under is rising up. They live offshore but their hearts and minds are connected to home. Ewa is included in this new generation of young professionals reaching international success.
Ewa Wojkowska, in her Black Innovation Awards Talk in Jakarta, invites Indonesian product designers to participate and innovate in creating technologies that can solve various social problems in their home country and change the lives of those in need. The Black Innovation Awards is accepting submissions for innovative ideas until 18 May, and the winner will win a trip to 100%DesignShanghai.
Article written in Bahasa Indonesia.
The Lovina Pages, a monthly bulletin for the Northern Bali community, interviews Cindy about her role in Kopernik and the technologies that Kopernik distributes to communities in the last mile.
The Center for Applied Innovation, a Chicago based 501(C)3 non-profit organization, announced today a collaboration with Kopernik, an online marketplace of innovative, life-changing technologies designed for the developing world.
This collaboration has resulted in the presentation of ten Kopernik campaigns during the Invent for Humanity Technology Transfer Exchange Fair, taking place in Geneva, Switzerland on January 23-25, 2012.
"Kopernik brings technology to those in the developing world by connecting companies manufacturing the technologies with local organizations working on the ground with the funders who want to make a difference. Since starting in Feb. 2010, Kopernik has already implemented 41 projects in 11 countries and reached 52,000 people. [...] The organization’s flagship project is the widow project in Indonesia, where business opportunities are being created for about 20,000 women."
Dewita Soeharjono, the voice behind Ecotwist, interviews Toshi after the Startup for Good Challenge at Mashable's Social Good Summit.
Matthew Bishop, a member of the panel of judges of the Startup for Good Challenge, highlights the 8 finalists in the competition, which includes Kopernik.
The notion that change requires a model, and that certain models are more effective than others, was the driving force behind Change Model, a two-day conference held at New York University in conjunction with the Grameen Creative Lab where Kopernik's co-founder Toshi was a speaker.
Startups that are building or using technology to make a positive impact on the world will compete for a chance to present at the Social Good Summit and win a $10,000 cash prize for their company. Kopernik is a finalist.
The Huffington Post spotlights Kopernik among the non-profits launching innovative approaches in the annual meeting of Clinton Global Initiative.
Everything Internet talks with Gordon Little about technologies and ongoing projects featured on the website and what's next for Kopernik.
While in Jakarta, Toshi and Ewa were interviewed by Green Radio, part of the Radio 68H network of community radios throughout Indonesia.
Co-founder Ewa gave a talk at TEDxJakarta, discussing Kopernik projects located in Indonesia that distribute locally manufactured technologies.
Ewa Wojkowska, after a decade with the UN, decided to establish Kopernik.info, a nonprofit online venture that brings life-changing technology to disadvantaged communities in developing nations.
Australian Ewa Wojkowska and Toshi Nakamura founded Kopernik, an on-line marketplace of innovative, life-changing technologies designed for the developing world. But they never thought that this resource was going to be needed by Nakamura’s affluent home country Japan.
TV Tokyo featured Kopernik and the technologies that it disseminates, including Q Drum, self adjustable lenses and solar lights.
Co-founder Toshi spoke at TEDxTokyo, sharing his experience in Japanese innovation and foreign aid, and show how the devastating tsunami in Tohoku can present an opportunity.
Poland's most widely read newspaper, Gazeta featured Kopernik and its founders.
NHK World's Asia 7 Days programme featured Kopernik's activities in Timor-Leste, and emergency response to the tsunami victims in Japan.
...crowdfunding sites, however, offer something new. Scroll through these sites and you will find catalogs of dozens or even hundreds of small projects, each with its own mini-site, for potential donors to consider. ... Thekopernik.org offers high-tech products for the poor: solar lights for Nigerian farming families, or a bio-sand water filtration unit for a village in East Timor.
Nikkei newspaper in Japan featured Kopernik's model and its recent activities in Japan in response to the devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Co-founders of Kopernik, Ewa and Toshi opened the TEDxWarsaw! Video will be shared as soon as it is up.
Kopernik's project to support Papuan indigenous community was featured by Bakti news
Ewa Wojkowska was honored as an Ashoka ChangemakeHER, Changemakers's inaugural celebration of the world's most influentual and inspiring women.
Ewa was chosen as one of the 50 future leaders of Australia, an event organised by Advance.
Kopernik is a technology marketplace that connects life-changing innovations to the people who need them in the developing world. Co-Founder Ewa Wojkowska explains how and why it came about.
'In the last few years, with the help of its distinguished partners, ExxonMobil has reached out to thousands of women in many developing countries through grants and investments.'
'During their stints as U.N. workers, Ewa Wojkowska and Toshihiro Nakamura realized that many technologies that could help the world’s poor could not find their way to those who needed them, and those who needed them were usually unaware of the technologies’ existence.'
Kopernik was awarded a prestigious runner up prize for the clean tech category of Tech Crunch's Crunchies Award.
Toshihiro Nakamura, co-founder and CEO of the NPO Kopernik, believes the country could be putting its tech savvy to better use, creating products with the power to profoundly affect the lives of the poor.
Founded by a pair of World Bank and UN Development Fund alums, Kopernik uses the model to connect innovative humanitarian designs and technologies with the communities that would benefit from them, allowing local organizations to take the fulfillment of their needs into their own hands.
Toshi participated in NHK Mission programme that featured a Japanese company that embarks on producing affordable prosthetics for the poor in the Philippines.
Kopernik is a unique social model in that it provides awareness and access of innovative technologies to organizations in developing countries and helps them procure these products through crowdsourced microfunding, while also enabling technology providers to scale, reach out to more people and bring their costs down.
What is needed is nothing too sophisticated: Just simple yet practical products can go a long way to making daily life a lot easier if it augments one's livelihood.
"Our involvement with Ashoka's Changemakers was key in securing this grant and has opened up so many other new opportunities for Kopernik," said Ewa Wojkowska, Kopernik's co-founder.
If you don't fancy the traditional wedding crockery, silverware and cooking equipment, perhaps it's time to turn over your gift list over to a cause loftier than that of household appliances.
Ever wanted to change the world? Ewa Wojkowska, Australian co-founder of New York-based Kopernik is bringing innovative technologies to developing communities in East Timor, Africa and elsewhere.
An innovative distribution approach is being pursued by The Kopernik, an online store that connects individuals, companies, and local distributers. Companies post product descriptions, and on-the-ground distributors choose appropriate technologies to meet local needs from a "menu," articulating how they intend to use the technology in a short proposal that gets posted on Kopernik's website.
Access to basic necessities like clean water and electricity can be addressed effectively and Kopernik has found the solution.
The Kopernik is an online marketplace bringing together technology developers, donors and beneficiaries to provide basic necessities through technology to families in the developing world. I recently had a chance to connect with Scott White, the Business Development Specialist at Kopernik, to learn more.
If you would like to help humanitarian design projects to reach people who urgently need them, you can do so through a new Web site, www.thekopernik.org. Founded by a group of former United Nations workers, Kopernik, named after the Renaissance astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus, asks for donations (large and small) to contribute toward the cost of specific projects.
Sometimes, utter frustration can lead to solutions – as it did when 30-somethings Ewa Wojkowska and Toshihiro Nakamura realized that the barriers of cost and distribution of innovative technological products that could improve the quality of life in developing countries kept them from getting to where they were most needed.
Toshi was interviewed on NHK’s ‘Project Wisdom‘. It’s a global debate program on African development. He was in good company with other panelists including Paul Collier (Oxford), Matt Flannery (Kiva) and Fred Swaniker (African leadership Academy).
One of the most challenging aspects of humanitarian aid is connecting those who generate innovative solutions with those who need them. That's where Kopernik comes in: a grassroots platform designed to help bring breakthrough technologies to developing nations.
This session was part of The ExxonMobil Women and Development Roundtable Series.
There are some interesting technologies featured and a short piece about how Kopernik helps to distribute them.
“A smart solution to get technology into the hands of those who need it.”
“Ten years ago Ewa Wojkowska arrived in East Timor with her sleeves rolled up as an Australian volunteer for an NGO.
“Copernicus changed the way people viewed the world. Kopernik is changing the approach to development. Social Venture Kopernik uses crowd sourcing and crowd funding to connect progressive technologies, poor communities and a global network of donors.”
Alan Brough interviews Ewa Wojkowska, Co-Founder of Kopernik.
“A new website follows the increasingly familiar model of funding socially progressive design and technology projects a few dollars at a time.” Click to read more
“…breakthrough products, all of them invented in the last 5 o 10 years, are examples of what can be done when technology is designed for the poor.”
“We became bothered by the lack of innovation and new ideas in solving development challenges. It was the same people and the same projects being tried from place to place."
That's where startup Kopernik comes in. Founded by two ex-UN staff members, Ewa Wojkowska and Toshi Nakamura, Kopernik is a marketplace for what the duo calls life-changing technology. Their site promotes matchmaking between NGOs and other social change organizations with specific needs and the makers and designers of products-for-good.”
“Take a look at this new Cause Integrated company, Kopenerik. Kopernik connects innovative technologies, poor communities & individual donors to help facilitate the transfer of these technologies to the communities that need the
“With so much ingenious technology being developed by social entrepreneurs around the world, one of the great remaining challenges is figuring out how to make it available to the people who need it—first by letting them know that it exists, and then by raising the money to pay for it.”
A couple of months ago I had the pleasure of meeting Toshi Nakamura, co-founder of Kopernik, an interesting venture that addresses this very issue and launched a little over a week ago.
“The main concept behind Kopernik is the realization that amazing, life-changing technologies are out there, but are not reaching those who really need them”
“The Kopernik is a next-gen online charity initiative that lets you choose exactly which projects and technologies you wish to put your money towards. It's also quite an amazing repository of emerging survival and sustainable living technology.
“The name, of course, comes from Copernicus, the Polish Renaissance astronomer who busted the geocentric model of the universe and completely changed the way people perceived the way around them — an aspirational metaphor for Kopernik’s ambition to revolutionize how people see and understand the biggest challenges the world faces today.”
“Vintage copy of a Salinger novel? Ghosts in a jar? Nowadays, you can buy just about anything on the interwebs. That includes the coolest new gadgets – at least, for most of us. But what about high-tech goods for the developing world?”
“Kopernik have just launched a new web platform connecting you with poor communities and technologies that might be needed there via an online store. I cannot emphasize enough that is this is long long overdue and that we should all be embarrassed that this hasn’t happened before.”
“Kopernik is a group of former UN workers and today, Feb 19th, they are launching Kopernik—www.thekopernik.org—an online store of technology designed for the developing world.”
“Ewa Wojkowska wants to make an Amazon-like online store for technologies for the developing world.”
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