Zopa is an online marketplace for people to lend to, or borrow from, each other. It is a simple and transparent system: lenders can choose and track how their money is invested, and borrowers have more freedom in selecting where their money is coming from. Zopa earns money by charging borrowers a 0.5% transaction fee and lenders a 0.5% annual servicing fee.
The community was set up as an alternative to impersonal financial institutions. By sidestepping the traditional banking system, lenders get greater returns than a conventional savings account and borrowers get lower interest rates on their loans. No banks means no huge overheads and no unethical investments. Zopa is a platform for fairer, more efficient borrowing and lending.
Reasons for borrowing have ranged from football season tickets to IVF treatment. The more members Zopa attracts, the more varied the borrowing and lending becomes.
Lulu is a do-it-yourself publisher. Individuals upload files to Lulu’s website, select printing and binding options, and set the profit margin. Authors retain copyright and books are printed on demand.
By eliminating traditional entry barriers, Lulu is changing the world of publishing by empowering authors to directly publish work themselves. It also provides practical tools to help market, sell and distribute books.
Lulu is a platform for individuals to maintain complete editorial and copyright control. The more peopel who take part in Lulu, the more diverse and representative the published world will be and the more useful the Lulu community becomes in helping and supporting new writers.
Streetcar is a car sharing club. Its self-service vehicles are parked in a dense network of dedicated spaces in several UK cities and can be booked in 30 minute slots. Membership offers the convenience of car ownership without the responsibility and expense.
Sharing vehicles amongst several users supplements public transport use, enables access for people who cannot afford car ownership and helps to ease congestion and parking in busy city centres. Streetcar provides a platform for more accessible, economical and efficient car use.
As more people join Streetcar, the number of private cars on the road will reduce and the proximity and availability of shared cars will increase. In order to achieve this Streetcar need more parking spaces.
Macmillan Cancer Support improves the lives of people affected by cancer. As well as providing medical support, they also address the emotional, practical and financial impact cancer can have.
By providing information about what to expect and what support is available, as well as enabling people to help each other, Macmillan Cancer Support is a platform for people living with cancer to be less fearful and do more.
Cancer affects us all. We can all help. The more fundraisers and volunteers who contribute their time and energy, the more resources Macmillan Cancer Support will have to deliver better cancer services.
OLPC created the XO laptop to improve learning opportunities for all children around the world. Its revolutionary design can withstand water, dirt and heat; it has low power usage, and can be recharged using a foot pedal or solar panel where there is no electricity.
With open-source software and wireless broadband, the XO enables local communities to explore, experiment and express themselves, by bringing their knowledge, culture and interests into the digital world. It is a platform for children to be both teachers and learners.
The Give One, Get One programme allows US residents to buy two laptops, with one being sent to a child in a developing nation. The more children who use a XO laptop, the more valuable it becomes as a tool for learning, sharing and creating. To achieve this, the XO needs to be fully localised in a number of different languages.
Current TV is an independently owned television network led by Al Gore and broadcast in the UK on Sky and Virgin Media. It airs a broad mix of topics and perspectives, produced and programmed in collaboration with its audience.
Via an online portal, viewers upload short non-fiction films, called Pods, which contribute to a third of all on-air broadcasts.
Current TV is a platform for democratising media, by giving more people a voice. The more people who join the production community to create films, the more representative and balanced the content will be.
World66 is an online travel guide, based on the idea that travellers are the best source of knowledge. Anyone can contribute content about the places they have visited, the hotels they have stayed in or the restaurants they have eaten in.
Every part of the travel guide can be edited directly, making it much easier to update and expand than a conventional guide book. As a platform, World66, also provides a range of travel tools to help people research, plan and share their travels.
The more contributors to World66 the more comprehensive and objective the information becomes and the more reliable it is as a travel tool.
BookMooch is an international, online community for exchanging used books. Instead of buying new books, it lets members give away books they no longer need in exchange for books they really want. The only cost is the mailing of books to others.
By keeping books in circulation, and finding new readers for them, BookMooch encourages users to read more, but consume less. It is a platform enabling readers to save money, access out of print books and reduce waste, deforestation, and household clutter.
By aggregating over 40,000 members’ book collections, BookMooch is building the best selection of used books in the world. They need more members, with more books, to make BookMooch even more useful.
OpenMoko is developing a mobile phone, Neo 1973, based entirely on open technologies. Their goal is to change phones from being disposable gadgets with rapidly declining value, into mobile computers that become more valuable to users over time.
OpenMoko is a platform for creating bespoke phones that can evolve and grow in line with the user’s needs. The Neo will be supplied entirely ‘unlocked’ so owners can download, add and update their own services and applications, unconstrained by network providers.
OpenMoko is building a community of developers, engineers and designers to create the phone. The more programmers who contribute their skills in creating and improving applications, the more useful the phone will be for everyone.
Fairtrade is an international association of certifiers, producers and traders. As well as guaranteeing a fair and stable price for its members’ produce, the Fairtrade mark provides extra money for local communities. Workers decide how to invest this money in education, clean water, health care or other vital facilities.
Fairtrade is a platform for sustainable economic development, by providing access to export markets with a secure, guaranteed supply. Through certification, it is actively changing supply chain dynamics to bring a greater share of profits to producers.
The more Fairtrade products that are bought, the more money flows into developing economies to break the cycle of poverty. To increase this, the more people who use and supply Fairtrade products, the more local communities in some of the world’s poorest countries will benefit.