You probably didn’t hear about it, but in 2008 Estonia cleaned up 10,000 tons of trash in their forests by recruiting 50,000 people. How? Through an extensive media campaign and a good dose of networked collaboration.
The “Let’s Do It!” website is here, but in Estonian. So here’s a video in English!
Based on the success in Estonia, the campaign has gone worldwide!
Business Week has a short editorial on why collaboration is needed for future sustainable economic growth. Essentially, in order to make the future a better place we ought to share our knowledge – sounds good to me!
“The key to our prosperity in the 21st century lies in our ability to nurture our intellectual capital in science and engineering” to produce “breakthroughs on energy,” Energy Dept. chief Chu said earlier this year, as we did with semiconductors, computers, and biotech. But entrepreneurs hoping to capitalize on this international nurturing—even those with killer IP—face a ticking clock and fierce competition. As VantagePoint Venture Partners CEO and Managing Partner Alan Salzman told us recently, “In a world that’s innovating quickly, the life cycle of IP is short.”