Martin Meinel's Blog (17)

When I'm visiting the Splash! Festival (for Hip Hop / Rap music in Germany) the equipment used to generate power for the concerts will have changed totally. The tents, where the music is played, are covered with solar modules, so that sun energy can be saved over the day and used in the night, when it is dark outside. Furthermore there are bio-power plants around the area, so that the huge amount of waste and excreta can also be used to generate power. At last there is a totally new…

Today I'm turning 100 and I'm the mayor of Leipzig, a city with 1 million inhabitants. I'm holding a birthday speech that is broadcasted through the local radio stations:

"Dear citizens of Leipzig, today is a great day for me. I'm turning 100 and I'm still fit and able to do my job and lead our city through the times. But as my life is going to end in some years, I want to tell you some things, that are very important to me. Please think about that and keep that in mind, because…

Last week me and some friends agreed on a weekly date for breakfast on Wednesdays. Since we are students, we are used to get up late and our first meal is usually lunch. That is problematic, because we miss almost half of the day. That is why we want to meet at least once a week to celebrate breakfast together. We will use this time to talk about different emerging topics. Everyone is bringing something with him, always according to his portmonnaie. So it is secured, that there is enough…

In 2020 once a week we will have dinner with our local community. Everyone in our neighbourhood is invited and brings something with him. We are growing some different vegetables in our own garden, that we can use for cooking. Today's serving: some conserved antipasti from the last harvest, mashed potatoes with local grilled fish and carrots, ice-cream made of local grown fruits. Eating together means a lot to us, because the world is getting more and more anonymous. Everyone is connected…

In 2020, I will work with some friends on my own company. We are creating innovative games captivating players worldwide to solve various problems. I will live in a house at a lake or sea. My wife and two children are supporting me with my work. My work at the company is pleasure: I can't await to get up every morning to create new ideas and see how the games and players work.

Evoke is a global network of visionaries. Evoke is acc**ulating ideas. Evoke is trying to create a better world.

These three sentences explain, what Evoke is and how it works:

1) a network of visionaries: Evoke is a platform where people from all over the world communicate about their ideas on social topics. Everyone involved has a vision and the ambition to change the world. Evoke is connecting visionaries, that otherwise would not have met.

2) The players can evaluate…

One feature of Season 2 could be, that not only articles or texts are given to investigate the topic, but also videos from people mentioned. That could dramatize the topic and encourage the players find creative solutions.

What is more, but very hard to implement, is that the top stories or ideas could be started to implemented just in the next week. Everybody could see, that one's opinions and ideas are invaluable and is even more motivated to solve the next weeks' quests.

I…

What I think is most important to the people is that they get informed about news - and even small ones - as soon as possible. They want to get to know every single fact that arises to a pandemic, so that they can decide what to do on their own.

But since most people are no experts in medicine or that specific pandemic, they need some trustful people who spread the news. On the one hand these people can be journalists. The problem with journalists is, that they get paid or are…

I decided to analyze the CBNRM's case study about an area, that is nowadays only talked about, because it's a war region. The Pamir and Wakhan Area in the Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan is very backward. Some activists developed and implemented a WWF-sponsored community based conservation management programme. Before the initiation of this programme, a complete chaotic situation with regarding to shooting at every animal prevailed. No law ever existed to limit the massacre of the very…

In Germany we have the problem of decreasing interest of people in politics. One reason, that is discussed, could be the fact, that our form of democracy is not direct enough. That means, that people do not believe, that there wishes and ideas are implemented by politicians or parties.

When I looked for a possibility to use Ushahidi in our country, this page drew my interest. It is an interactive map (using the…

For us in Germany there is almost no doubt that girls and boys do have the same opportunities in education. That is why it is hard for me to read about girls in other countries, who are not able or even not allowed to go to school. This article about programmes for educating girls and women in Africa shows how companies and foundations…

To my mind, money will come back to its roots. Once it was just a medium to weight and transfer goods. I think in the future it can be possible, that nations move up to each other and that there will only be one currency unit in the world. That might sound unimaginable, but why do we have different currencies in different countries? Why do currencies have different values? Why is a hamburger in Germany not as worth as in India or Brazil? As far as I know, it's a question of how strong an…

When I think of drinking water security, always an organisation called "viva con agua" comes to my mind. They are based in St. Pauli, Hamburg, Germany and their overall aim is to enable people all over the world access clean water. Therefore they raise funds through very different actions and donate them to clean water projects in many different countries.

What makes "viva con agua" special for me, is that they are not only supporting people in the third world, but alsothe artists,…

Two years ago I attended a seminar at HTWK Leipzig (University) regarding a special technology in the field of regenerative energies. We discussed about how biohydrogen in connection with fuel cells can solve the problem of shortage of fossil fuels.

Using that technology would change our everyday life in Europe dramatically. We would use biohydrogen, which is produced in local bio-power plants and our existing gas pipelines to serve every household. At each home we could generate…

Some days ago I watched a report on TV about Prof. Dr. Ulrich Zimmermann, who is a scientist in the field of biotechnologies. During his researches he found out, that the water demand of plants is very unstable. Dry soils do not always mean, that the plant is out of water.

That is why he invented (or is still researching for) an optimal system to measure the water demand of every plant. This system is able to measure how much water the plant is losing through condensation and…

I subscribed to Guy Kawasaki not because I think he's a great social innovator, but he has one personal trait that every social innovator needs: he is not afraid of starting businesses or projects.

Guy Kawasaki launched several business which all were quite successful and was also an evangelist at apple. Now he's supporting upcoming entrepreneurs with venture capital. He is spreading his knowledge via his blog or…

To my mind sharing knowledge and skills is the most important factor when it comes to secure a steady innovation. One might think "It's enough for them to know how to use the product; they will surely forget about how we created it and what was the technology used, because they don't need it for other problems, since we created the product only for this special problem."

What I believe in is, that people in other societies and other circ**stances are even more able to identify…