Innovation in a bucket

October 24, 2006, 8:27am PDT | Length: 00:01:58
Simon Jennings suggests that not all innovation is high-tech. He tellsZDNet Editor in Chief Dan Farber about an creative product called the "Oxfambucket," which allows people to transport clean water more easily.

Transcript

Innovation in a bucket

>> Well, I think the challenges of innovation are always about how we take learning and apply that to a problem and then get an answer, which is a new approach. Before I go into some IT examples, I'd just like to give you an example of innovation that inaudible has come up with in the past. This is a thing called the inaudible bucket. Okay? So what's so innovative about a bucket? Well, the innovation is when you have a problem, which was how do we transport water for a displaced family and keep it safe and clean? So first you have to look at the transportation of the water and you have a handle on the bucket, you have a bucket that is designed with a capacity that is carry-able by people, so it's not too heavy to carry, and you actually grind the plastic molding pieces off the bottom, because in many of the cultures where we work, they carry these things on their heads. The second thing is that you have to look at sanitation about water, we want to keep it clean, and we are talking about carrying it through perhaps a camp. So, the bucket's with a lid on it so you can fill it up, put a lid back on so you won't spill it when you carry it. But that lid also stops things falling into the bucket or insects getting into it and it's also got a tap on the bottom, an insert-able tap that allows you to draw water from the bucket without putting in any dirty implements to bring it out. And then lastly, the real interesting piece about the innovation is that these buckets take up about a 10th of the size of the old jerry cans. And, of course, when you're transporting in a plane, the thing that matters is size. So it's a very good example of innovation. And in fact, this bucket, won a design award.

==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====

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