• Store
  • Design Jobs
  • Firms
  • Awards
  • Conference
e

Core77

Sign In / Join Now;
e
  • Topics
    • Product Design
    • Process
    • Technology
    • Lifestyle
    • Business
    • News
    • Furniture
    • Tools
    • Transportation
    • Education
    • Footwear
    • Impact
    • Reference
    • Video
  • Features
    • Features
    • Yo! C77 Sketch
    • Photo Galleries
    • Bizarre Inventions
    • Design Calendar
    • Weekly Maker's Roundup
    • DiResta's Cut
    • Industrial Design Tips
    • Hand Tool School
    • Tools & Craft
    • Design Experience that Matters
  • Shopping Guide
  • Projects
    • Projects
    • Firm Projects
    • Reader Projects
  • Forums
    • Forums
    • General Discussion
    • Students & Schools
    • Design Employment
    • Sketching
    • Software & Technology
    • All Forums
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • About
    • Contact
    • Advertise

Sony Open Planet Ideas Winner - Greenbook: Giving you that extra push to do some good

By Sara Jacobson - Apr 08, 2011

  • Join Core77 Today
  • Submit your projects for publication
  • }Favorite This
  • Y1
  • m1
  • U1
  • [1
  • X1
  • H1
Epic Games Fortenight Battle Royale Epic Games Fortenight Battle Royale

This post is brought to you by Sony's Open Planet Ideas.

Say you're sitting around on a Saturday, with no obligations other than bumming around the house and poking at old projects you've been "meaning to get to" for months. You debate the idea of actually doing something meaningful with your weekend, maybe even with some quick volunteer work, but where do you go? Even if you had considered this on some Saturday, the extra effort required to identify a volunteer organization might have burned away any energy you were ready to expend.

Ay, there's the rub: How can people quickly and easily connect with the thousands of charities, nonprofits and groups they might want to help, even for just a few hours?

Paul Frigout considered this problem and created Greenbook, the winning concept from the Sony Open Planet Ideas Challenge.

Through months of evaluation, support and inspiration from the Expert Panel and other users on Open Planet Ideas, Frigout refined and developed the winning concept. He explained the importance of the community review process: "The online community is a great source of inspiration. You are offered insight into the views of many passionate users. Each of them has a story...discovering users, trying to help them and being helped is fascinating. Overall, the good spirit of the community pushed me to keep going."

"Originally my goal was to link local people with local volunteering projects. Each person would do micro-volunteering to improve the efficiency of local resources. It then became clear that linking people requires some technological solution. This is when peer-to-peer, mobile telecommunication, and geo-localization appeared," Frigout said. "It could have stopped here, but then I realized that this platform is in competition with gaming, so I included various gaming features such as different levels, sense of achievement, rewards and connections to other players."

On March 4, a Development Day was held to workshop Greenbook with key stakeholders including members of the Open Planet Ideas community, World Wildlife Fund, Sony engineering teams, the technology community and interface designers and developers from both Sony and IDEO. Additionally, members of volunteer organizations participated in Development Day to help develop relevant and useful solutions to address the needs of participating organizations.

Prior to the all day workshop, the group was able to conduct additional interviews and research with consumer groups to better understand the public's motivation in volunteering, and how it could be made easier to become involved. "Some useful insights came out of that research, such as, the main reasons for not volunteering for people is lack of time and the fact that it is hard to find information about different volunteering opportunities and how to get involved," said Emily Nicoll, general manager of environmental communications, Sony Europe.

"During the Development Day we have done a good job of working out what Greenbook might look like, but we still faced the challenge of how to make it as relevant and useful as possible to volunteering organisations. The insight shared by the volunteering organisations that are involved in the project was invaluable. "They shared details about their resources, what they need and how to make things work for them, along with their current base of volunteers--giving us a well rounded, and practical feel for how Greenbook might be used by their organization and volunteers."

Frigout now gets to work with Sony Europe's R&D and design teams, WWF experts and members of the IDEO creative team to bring Greenbook to life. Over the next few months they'll all be working together to develop and move the concept into beta testing. Stay tuned to the Sony Open Planet Ideas blog to learn more about opportunities for community members to get involved and participate.

The latest design news, jobs & events.
Straight to you every other week.

Join over 300,000 designers who stay up-to-date with the Core77 newsletter...

Subscribe

Test it out; it only takes a single click to unsubscribe

  • }Favorite This
  • Y1
  • m1
  • U1
  • [1
  • X1
  • H1
  • Open Planet Ideas

Comments

Core77's Design Directory

View all Design Firms »

Core77 Adlets

Advertise Here

Recent Posts

  • Hyperqube

    By Felix Monza - 18 hours ago

  • Tools & Craft #92: How to Choose the Best Dovetail Saw for Yourself

    By Joel Moskowitz - 23 hours ago

  • Steven M. Johnson's Bizarre Invention #96: The Tunnel Bus

    By Steven Johnson - 23 hours ago

  • An Interview with Jonathan Ward, Founder of Icon

    By Rain Noe - 23 hours ago

Continued Reading
  • Open Planet Ideas

    By Sara Jacobson - Nov 22, 2010

    Sony Open Planet Ideas: Interview with Takuya Kawagoi, Director of Sony Design Centre Europe

    Sony's Open Planet Ideas kicked off back in September with the challenge to create a new solution to a crucial environmental issue, all by mashing-up available technology. The open-source project is now in the midst of the "Concepting" phase, with participants adding new ideas of tech combinations up until...

  • Open Planet Ideas

    By Frank Bonomo - Oct 22, 2010

    Studiotalk.tv - Open Planet Ideas

    In case you missed yesterday's livestream broadcast interview at studiotalk.tv with Ben Moore (Sony) and Dax Lovegrove (WWF), you can watch it here via YouTube. Watch to learn more about the evolutions taking place at Open Planet Ideas and find out how you can put your design skills to the test.

  • Open Planet Ideas
    1 Comment

    By Frank Bonomo - Oct 19, 2010

    Could Your Gaming Device Solve an Environmental Problem?

    This Thursday (Oct 21st) Kate Bellingham of the BBC hosts a live chat with Open Planet Ideas program participants Dax Lovegrove (World Wildlife Fund) and Ben Moore (Sony) to discuss how you can get involved with the program's current phase of design collaboration.With the establishment of recently announced eco-design themes,...

  • Open Planet Ideas

    By Frank Bonomo - Oct 18, 2010

    Open Planet Ideas: On Concepting

    We recently wrote about the start of the concepting phase happening at Sony Open Planet Ideas. Here's a recently published video from project leaders discussing the next phase in detail. The project needs your design contributions. Get involved today by submitting your concepts at Open Planet Ideas, and help solve...

K

{

Welcome

  • YSign In with Facebook
  • mSign In with Twitter
  • USign In with Linkedin
OR
  • jSign In with Core77 Account
  1. Forgot password?
  • Cancel

Don't have an account? Join Now

K

{

Welcome

Create a Core77 Account

  • YJoin Now with Facebook
  • mJoin Now with Twitter
  • UJoin Now with Linkedin
OR
  • jJoin Now with Email
  • Cancel

Already have an account? Sign In

By creating a Core77 account you confirm that you accept the Terms of Use

K

Reset Password

Please enter your email and we will send an email to reset your password.

  • Cancel
Today On the Core77 Network...
  • ]Design Jobs

    • UI/UX Designer

      Factual, Inc Los Angeles, California
    • Industrial Design Internship

      Impel Studio LLC New York, New York
    • Graphic Designer

      LC Brands Elk Grove Village, Illinois
    • Graphic Designer

      LC Brands Elk Grove Village, Illinois
    • Post A Job
    • View All Jobs
  • ]Design Directory

    View other design services:

    • _Hand-Eye Supply

      • Trusco 2-Level Cantilever Tool Box

        $65
      • Kaweco Highlighter Color Leads 5.5x80mm 3 pack

        $7
      • Hand-Eye Supply 6 PC Screwdriver Set

        $50
    • *Coroflot Portfolios

      • Squeaky Goat toy "You-goat-me"

        Vladimir Nikolic
      • Milpod CBRN Stretcher

        Joseph J Lincoln
    • © 2018 Core77, Inc. All rights reserved.
    • Terms
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
    • Advertise
    • About
    • Y
    • m
    • '
    • X
    • S
    • © 2018 Core77, Inc. All rights reserved.
    Advertise Here