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Vibrancy in a Box

Throughout this challenge, I was really inspired by all the ideas that everyone has been contributing… Only to realize how very few of them I knew beforehand. So the question I asked myself was: How to get this type of information available and easy to replicate in one's own city/neighborhood?

Following the example of some of the most used DIY websites (e.g. Instructables), the idea is to have a platform featuring a number of small and easily implementable projects that anyone can start in their neighborhood, their building, their metro station, etc. etc.

Website features

This website should include a forum/collaborative type of place, and potentially an e-commerce platform, as well as:

-- Members submissions: Anyone could submit their ideas, from artists like Candy Chang, to people like you and me. The result should become an inspirational website, with lots of ideas like:

• Share your love with your neighborhood
  
• Things like what Adriana did in Saint Raymond, Montreal
  
• Insert Here
  
• Gum Targets
  
• Inspirational messages in random places, like a parking lot 
  
• Say something nice
  
• Paint your own bike lanes 
  
• Community voice

These actions can also include fun ideas like giving people a 5 dollar challenge to create some type of action in their community (Thanks Jenny).

-- DIY Kits: And not just the ideas, but also ready-made kits to print out and/or order (stickies, pop-up displays, paint and canvases, printable stencils, etc.). These kits can be managed via Memberly, a platform that promotes subscription programs as a sustainable business. This could both help members of Vibrancy-in-a-Box to compose their own ready-made kits and also run them as a sustainable business.

-- Local chapters: The website could have local chapters in different cities, engaging communities together (similarly to Neighborland). Each community could then help figuring out local regulations and permits necessary for this type of initiatives. And local chapters could explore their own fundraising avenues (Thanks Meena). Vibrancy-in-a-Box might need eventually to be translated in order to reach non-English speaking communities (Thanks Arjan).

-- Youth Program: As per Jenny's suggestion, there could be "a Youth Program Vibrancy in a Box as a sister-project, that could leverage youth leaders who can act as mentors, and focus on the issues that they want to change in their communities and express their views on vibrancy".

In order to incentivize people to participate, we can think of key users (individuals or groups) that are already active and can drive others to join (Thanks Brian and Adriana), including online communities like Dailyfeats or Sparked (Thanks Susannah).

-- 

Visibility

• To give this more visibility, the ideas could be featured in urban festivals all around the world (BMW Lab, Lift 11, GOOD Design, etc. etc.), similarly to http://www.openideo.com/open/vibrant-cities/inspiration/actions-what-you-can-do-with-the-city/
  
• These ideas could even be featured in mainstream home makeover shows, magazines, or things like that... Or become one of the TEDPrize City 2.0 winners (we can always dream, huh :)
  

Resources

• Programmers, community managers, people to manage the inventory and the orders (unless we're in a Memberly type of model).
  
• Some of the ideas that cost a little bit more money (e.g. the DIY Bike Lane in Mexico costed $1,000) could be crowdfunded via Kickstarter or even locally through a "fund-a-project" meet-up (slightly similar to the Soup Detroit).
  

---

Image source: Gilad's Deviantart.

PS: The name of this concept was obviously inspired by the infamous OpenIDEO Brainstorm in a Box toolkit.

38 Evaluations so far

Comments

Nathan Waterhouse

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January 19, 2012, 11:17PM

Congratulations Sarah, great concept - really well thought through and presented - I can't wait to see what this might become!

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Lukas McGowan

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January 13, 2012, 05:48PM

Hi Sarah - I really like this idea. I am curious how you would scale it up though (and get people to use it other than the folks already active in their communities). It sounds like a project that in retrospect I would have loved my teachers in High School to have "volunteered" me for...is there a way to integrate it with existing programs so that other groups essentially incentivize its use for you (e.g. Highschool governtment/arts classes, NHS programs, etc.)

Best,

Luke

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Craig Edelman's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Craig Edelman

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January 13, 2012, 09:51PM

I think going through the education system is an interesting path. Many high schools have mandatory volunteer hours. I could see the DIY model as a great/easy way to get students out and interacting with their community. I could see student organizations (whether high school or college) developing solely around this model....the Vibrancy in a Box Student Org of school x, y, z.

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Sarah Fathallah's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Sarah Fathallah

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January 14, 2012, 10:31AM

These are great thoughts!, thanks Lukas and Craig!

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Anne-Laure Fayard

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January 13, 2012, 02:32AM

Hi Sarah,

I like the concept and it's two main components: inspirations (from other stories) and tool box (resources, or even ready made stickers). Adding among tools, communication tools as suggested by Tim, or even some kind of background / practical, information about the laws, procedures, contacts (including links for funding) etc. might be a good idea as well. There could also be ways, but I guess that will be the role of the local chapters, to invite people to sign up / join in a project.

cheers,

al

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Sarah Fathallah's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Sarah Fathallah

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January 14, 2012, 10:30AM

Agreed!

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Matthew Goble

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January 12, 2012, 10:51AM

Hey Sarah,

Great idea to create a resource for DIY vibrancy. To me it seems like this idea is a good catalyst for people to get their own ideas started. I am not sure it's adding much to create kits yourself and ship out to people. Maybe you could focus it on showing examples, letting people come up with ideas and helping them with funding/gathering materials, instead of copying somebody else's idea, they could contribute with their own take on it or something they came up with because of the idea. That way it takes form as a kind of creative spark and helping hand. You would also need to advertise somehow to others involved.

I believe this would get the community to realize the potential it already has and allow them to create something that is their own.

- Matt

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Sarah Fathallah's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Sarah Fathallah

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January 14, 2012, 10:28AM

It's an interesting observation. I agree that sometimes, it's good to look at an idea, step back and go back to the basics. I'd love to hear more thoughts from the community around this...

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Tim Hess

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January 05, 2012, 10:13PM

Great idea Sarah! This concept is very similar to an idea that I had last night (sadly too late to submit it):

Tools to foster communication between community members and community leaders (Mayor, City Council, Chamber of Commerce, etc.).

These tools could maybe be integrated into your kit. They could include ideas, guidelines, or software tools (online community forums integrated with your Local Chapters?) for starting lines of effective communication. This would also stay true to the grass-roots nature of the challenge as all that is required for it to work is time, effort, and a phone or email address.

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Sarah Fathallah's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Sarah Fathallah

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January 14, 2012, 10:27AM

This is a great idea Tim! Thanks for the comment!

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OpenIDEO

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January 05, 2012, 09:38PM

Congrats on this fab DIY idea reaching our Top 20 Sarah! During Refinement, it might be fun to mock up what some of the pages of this toolkit might look like?

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Sarah Fathallah

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December 29, 2011, 12:33PM

I recently came across this startup called Memberly: http://member.ly/
It's a platform that promotes subscription programs as a sustainable business. This could both help members of Vibrancy-in-a-Box to compose their own ready-made kits and run them as a sustainable business. People could subscribe to receive say a different kit, with different DIY actions, each month. People could also subscribe as a groupe instead of individuals.

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Sarah Fathallah's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Sarah Fathallah

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December 29, 2011, 12:57PM

I have also updated this concept to include your builds and comments! Thanks all!

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Dan Parham

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December 14, 2011, 10:05PM

Hey Sarah, Thanks for mentioning our work. Neighborland is up for launching in Detroit. It's very easy for us to add cities, and our plan is to launch nationally this spring. One difference between our platform and others, is that ours is free to use for residents and cities!

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Sarah Fathallah's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Sarah Fathallah

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December 29, 2011, 12:27PM

Hi Dan! Thanks so much for your comment, I really appreciate it, coming from someone who's already done something similar.

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emanuela

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December 07, 2011, 06:58PM

I Sarah, I like the idea but I think that it's really importanto to involve all kinds of people... maybe the fist kit should be "how to be&feel as a community" ;)
In my Country (Italy) generally speaking there wouldn't be so many people using this website besides young people, that is ok, but only part of a community. For example, the promotion during festivals is ok, but I would think of more local events, not design festivals, otherwise u are always talking to the same kind of people...

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Sarah Fathallah's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Sarah Fathallah

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December 07, 2011, 07:16PM

Good point Emanuela! Definitely something to keep in mind.
In Italy for instance, how would you say would be the best way to engage with an older / "less connected" audience? What are example of those "local events" you're mentioning?

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Arjan Tupan's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Arjan Tupan

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December 13, 2011, 11:37AM

Great point Emanuela. I think the box should include instructions on how to engage a community. Organising a street festival, or a sort of town hall meeting, for example.

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emanuela 's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

emanuela

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December 14, 2011, 09:46PM

Dear Sarah and Arjan, street festivals are always good because it's impossible for citiziens not to notice something is happening if the town is not too big ;) also "district events" work well, because often it is the right scale to work on if you want to buid a sense of belonging...
In my experience, the best "engaging events" are those dedicated to residents but connected with a "b2b" event...we call them "satellite events". it's like building a bridge between two levels of the city.

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Sarah Fathallah's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Sarah Fathallah

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December 29, 2011, 12:23PM

Great thoughts Emanuela! Thanks for sharing your experience.

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Arjan Tupan

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December 13, 2011, 11:39AM

Sarah, great concept! Very inspiring and it could become a great resource for places all over the world. I see also a combination with your open translate project. This could help in not only making it available in other languages, but also have a cultural translation of some things that might works slightly differently depending on local habits.

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Sarah Fathallah's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Sarah Fathallah

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December 29, 2011, 12:22PM

Thanks Arjan! You know I'm particularly fond of the OpenTRANSLATE idea :)

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Anne-Laure Fayard

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December 10, 2011, 02:54AM

Really nice concept Sarah! I like how the platform provides inspirations, connections (between people who might not know about an initiative in their cities) and resources. I can see it being implemented in cities around the world, esp. as it can be a resource for individuals as well as NGOs or even local governments.

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Sarah Fathallah's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Sarah Fathallah

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December 29, 2011, 12:21PM

Thanks Anne-Laure!

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Susannah Ware

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December 08, 2011, 05:22AM

Sarah, I like this idea a lot and see how the platform could also integrate with existing online community action tracking like http://www.dailyfeats.com/ where you can earn points for completing challenges (or in this case, a DIY project) and redeem points for physical prizes. Also, http://www.sparked.com/ might be another integration opportunity for the platform that communities across the world could draw on each others' strengths by posting volunteer opportunities from afar. This could also help to integrate diaspora communities with their home cities.

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Adriana Valdez Young's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Adriana Valdez Young

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December 24, 2011, 03:39PM

Good point Susannah. Maybe a big part of this concept is a live data visualization that can map how each person's efforts link up with those in communities all over the world by illustrating shared challenges and collective impact. It would be great to show the big picture and even set collective targets that encourage people to frame their work as part of a global goal.

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Brian Redondo

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December 10, 2011, 11:41AM

You're definitely right that there is no shortage of good ideas out there, so some catch-all resource that could offer knowledge and resources would be helpful. The question is though how can we encourage people to execute? How do we incentivize action if we assume that altruism is probably not enough of a motivation? I think Vibrancy in a Box could be partnered up with existing associations, e.g. tenants, professional, student, etc, to encourage them to work on these projects as part of their service activities which many of them pursue.

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Adriana Valdez Young's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Adriana Valdez Young

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December 24, 2011, 03:32PM

Brian - I think this is a great idea! It would be important to consider key kit users as individuals and groups that are already active, but could use a fresh set of tools and a community of do-ers nearby and around the globe to link up with and continue to be inspired by.

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emanuela

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December 14, 2011, 09:44PM

Dear Sarah and Arjan, street festivals are always good because it's impossible for citiziens not to notice something is happening if the town is not too big ;) also "district events" work well, because often it is the right scale to work on if you want to buid a sense of belonging...
In my experience, the best "engaging events" are those dedicated to residents but connected with a "b2b" event...we call them "satellite events". it's like building a bridge between two levels of the city.

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OpenIDEO

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December 12, 2011, 08:28PM

Congrats on this post being todays onsite Featured Concept!

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Karen Boyd

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December 08, 2011, 09:15PM

We looked into doing something like this for book drives to help a local NPO (Traveling Stories) go global. I'd bet you could easily find some NPOs who'd love to partner! Vibrancy in a Box could cover some of their costs, perhaps, by charging the NPOs for distribution, design, and outsourcing, depending on both sides' needs and expertise. It offers visibility and expansion for NPOs at a lower investment than hiring to do it in-house, and helps Vibrancy expand. Just a thought :)

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Bev Clark

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December 08, 2011, 04:30PM

Hey Sarah. I really like the idea of bringing together a variety of different tactics and ideas into one space so if you were particularly interested in community based environmental work you could access ideas about that from DIY kit. Not sure if you know of Tactical Tech. Worth a look.

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Sarah Fathallah's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Sarah Fathallah

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December 08, 2011, 07:19PM

Hi Bev! I did not know about Tactical Tech and just had a look at their website! Thanks for sharing this, it's a great example.

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Jenny Jin

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December 07, 2011, 05:12PM

Great idea!

Stanford teaches a class on creativity and innovation that can seed a lot of the ideas for this concept: http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2011/08/25/the-art-of-teaching-entrepreneurship-and-innovation/. From some of the ideas there (like giving people 5 dollar challenge to create some type of action in their community), I see fun and teambuilding and getting some out-of-the-box solutions to creating vibrancy.

I would love to see a Youth Program Vibrancy in a Box as a sister-project, that could leverage youth leaders who can act as mentors, and focus on the issues that they want to change in their communities and express their views on vibrancy.

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Sarah Fathallah's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Sarah Fathallah

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December 07, 2011, 07:14PM

Hi Jenny! Thanks so much for these great ideas. I really like your take on the concept, regarding the youth leadership angle. Definitely something to further explore...

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Dante Besong's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Dante Besong

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December 07, 2011, 07:47PM

Reading the contributions you all have made so far, I feel particularly thrilled by your ideas. I wish youths in underdeveloped countries can benefit from such initiatives to the fullest. True though, that some effort is being made to an extent, but there is still much to be done. However, love your thoughts.

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Paul Reader

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December 07, 2011, 11:45AM

Like everyone else I think this is great Sarah. Having now read Amanda's Infographics concept too I'm wondering if somehow this plus the Neighborland sites plus OpenIDEO Local Chapters (ex Social Impact Challenge) could somehow be combined. This would add some cross-fertilization between communities both within a city and further afield.

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Sarah Fathallah's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Sarah Fathallah

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December 07, 2011, 12:38PM

Hi Paul! I think it's a great idea! I'm really looking forward to seeing mash-ups and concepts coming together throughout this challenge (and beyond!).

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Bryan Lee

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December 07, 2011, 08:40AM

Loving the local chapter idea as well. I am seeing an added component to this beyond the resources (which I think is a great aspect as well) where it could become a movement (almost cultish but in a good way) where people take pride in their local chapters exploits of vibrancy.

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Sarah Fathallah's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Sarah Fathallah

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December 07, 2011, 08:47AM

Thanks Bryan, that would be the ideal scenario, indeed :)

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Keven Truesdell

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December 06, 2011, 09:38PM

Local chapter, excellent! As I think about the concept phase, I find that in other areas, success was contingent upon a group of residents willing to roll up their sleeves and do the work from a grassroots level. Most people, however, are not trolling websites for ideas to change their community. If there is a virtual box where those who are interested can go to find ideas AND obtain resources, then they may be more willing to get involved and lead the transformation.

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Sarah Fathallah's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Sarah Fathallah

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December 06, 2011, 09:42PM

Thanks Keven! I agree, it's not just about finding ideas, but also having concrete resources just two clicks away.

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Meena Kadri

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December 06, 2011, 08:50PM

Loving the local chapter aspect here + crowd funding notion. (especially as struggling cities are often short on central funds + crowd-funding relies on ideas which really engage people :^) Local chapters could explore their own fundraising avenues – maybe there could even be tips as part of Vibrancy in a Box!

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Sarah Fathallah's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Sarah Fathallah

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December 06, 2011, 08:50PM

Absolutely!

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Amanda Drescher

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December 06, 2011, 08:14PM

This is great Sarah! I love that this complex is theoretically simple, but the information it is able to convey (through the website in particular) is very rich. I also like how it could directly inspire change.

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Sarah Fathallah's reply to Nathan Waterhouse's comment

Sarah Fathallah

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December 06, 2011, 08:30PM

Thanks Amanda! I completely agree with you.

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