I was at Davos again this year, but decidedly quiet on the blogging front — I did a bit of Twittering, but for the most part was really there to focus on the topics at hand. If you didn’t make it this year don’t worry, they provided HD links to download most all the big sessions, which is pretty neat. Highlights include Putin schooling Michael Dell in the opening plenary (Number 31) “The Values Behind Capitalism” with Indra Nooyi (CEO of PepsiCo), Tony Blair, and others (Number 60), and one of the most intense sessions I’ve ever witnessed, “Gaza: The Case for Middle East Peace” with Tayyip Erdogan, Amere Moussa and Shimon Peres. At the end of the spirited (read: insane) debate, Prime Minster Erdogan of Turkey, walked off the stage. Interested in geopolitics? Watch it, (Number 97).

Overall, given the financial crisis, this year was a little surreal. Unlike many of the other people, I actually left hopeful. My sessions on Creative Leadership and Youth Culture were off the record, but what I can tell you is this: There are some incredibly savvy young people moving the needle across the board, and we need more of them. We simply can’t depend on the old guard to fix things. They’re too busy looking backwards, analyzing where they screwed up in the first place to see the future. Each and every one of us will be paramount in our own way — whether it’s solving the financial crisis, climate change, or making the world as a whole a better place, it’s going to be fresh thinking and innovation that saves the day.

Micro-lending has been in the news a lot lately, since Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Prize for his pioneering work in the field and wrote a book about it, called Banker to the Poor: Micro-lending and the Battle Against World Poverty. I’m no expert, but the idea seems simple: people below poverty lines don’t just need more food rations dropped from helicopters; they need a way to produce and buy food for themselves. Micro-loans are small amounts of money given to burgeoning entrepreneurs in developing countries to help them start or expand successful businesses. A successful business — in theory at least — being the end of that individual’s poverty and the start of a viable economy in his or her area. It’s a way to circumvent the often bureaucratic and ineffective foreign aid packages that most developed nations favor and to help poor people directly.

Now here’s where Kiva.org comes in. Kiva takes the micro-lending idea and combines it with the democratizing power of the internet to allow you (or me, or the guy reading this over your shoulder) to connect with entrepreneurs in the third world and give them a loan. You can search Kiva’s website to find a businessman or woman that you want to support, and, as time goes by, you can see the impact that your loan has made on your business partner’s life. Your $25 might do more than buy food for a week. It could supply someone with a lifelong profession. Learn more about Kiva in the New York Times, Newsweek (last item) and NPR.

–Dan Steckenberg

Since we’ve got such a talented bunch of readers, we thought we’d share a few links to some high-profile design competitions that you should know about (and you probably already do, but just in case). HOW, the graphic design magazine that’s been around since ‘85, is currently accepting entries for two of their high-profile competitions: the Interactive Design Awards and the International Design Awards. Winners of both competitions will be featured in How’s April 2008 Design Annual. Application fees for both of these competitions are very affordable, and they’re pretty abstract as to what’s eligible for judging, so don’t be shy — go for it!

I think my heart skipped a beat when I set eyes on this latest skyscraper set to join the skyline in Tianjin, China. Composed of three towers made up of stacked and slightly rotated eight-story blocks, Atkin’s TEDA Landmark towers (appropriately nicknamed “the pile of boxes” by Tianjin residents), will make use of a geothermal heating/cooling system and an in-house turbine system (encased in the crowning mesh-like structures) to help supply electricity. The three towers will also display sky-gardens in rotating corners of the glass blocks that will “light up the corners of each tower, creating an illusion of glowing lanterns rising up into the sky,” a feature that I’m anxious to see executed by virtue of its potential surreality. The towers will hold (in their over 400,000 sq. feet) residential apartments, retail shops, office space, and – yay for us – a luxury five-star hotel. No word on date of completion as yet, but once we know, I think a field trip may be in order.

Those of us used to navigating the concrete jungle in our cities know we’ve gotta be equipped with the right carry-all to get us through an entire day- sometimes, a backpack just isn’t going to cut it when you’ve got a ton of portables to keep separated and readily accessible. Sao Paulo-based Matramba, which I discovered at a fair for underground and alternative clothes and accessories, puts fashion as high as form, function and quality in the designs of their waist and shoulder packs (and in one case, one pack that you wear on your leg). Inspired by the pouches carried by comic book superheroes and cowboys of the Wild West, Matramba’s packs vary in style (two sides, one side, all-around), material (neoprene, cotton), and number and kind of pockets — meaning you can find one to fit your needs. My problem is that I can’t decide which one I want, ’cause they’re all useful. Most of the packs with more creative prints, like German newsprint and zebra stripes, are sold out. Currently you can only find their products in Europe and Brazil, but try writing to them to see if they deliver internationally.

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Peace: 100 Ideas is a collaborative book project put together by Chen Design that juxtaposes 100 illustrations next to 100 ideas for achieving a more peaceful world. The book is printed on 100% post-consumer recycled, elemental chlorine-free paper using soy-based inks. Ten percent of all net proceeds are donated to wagingpeace.org for their efforts in promoting peace around the world. The book has also expanded into a bit of a traveling exhibition and a line of t-shirts worth checking out.

TED was not only described to me as inspirational, passionate and unique, but also as mind boggling– sometimes almost exhaustively so. Today started early, I attended the pre-conference breakfast where TED Prize winners from last year updated attendees on their progress, issues and steps towards ultimate success– I encourage you to check out some of their wishes and how far they have come, it’s quite amazing. Not long after the breakfast, the real conference kicked off with one of the most passionate, heart-felt, and moving presentations I’ve seen in a very, very long time by none other than John Doerr, one of the, if not THE most well-known venture capitalist. His speech was about how scared he was for the future of the world– how his generation had put his children, and his children’s children in such jeopardy. He spoke about how despite all the positive work on eliminating CO2 and harmful emissions in places like Brazil, and around the world– it still was not enough, and the current efforts were not even close to what’s needed. I met him later in the afternoon to thank him and he said simply, we must do something now to change this or we’re not going to last much longer on the earth. I look forward to re-watching his presentation when it’s available online– it’s not to be missed.

Doerr was followed by Nogozi Okonjo-Iwela a surprise addition to the program for many. When she took the stage I had absolutely no idea who she was or what she was here to talk about– and that unexpectedness was greeted with a humbling look into Africa like I’d never seen before. Nogozi is the Former Nigerian Finance Minister, and her short 18 minute speech honestly left me with a different view of the financial situation in not only Nigeria, but Africa as a whole. Nigeria and much of Africa is further along in their economic growth than they’re given credit for. Her speech was packed full of interesting growth statistics and ended leaving me in thoughts about Africa as a place for entrepreneurs, and a place for immense positive change. She left saying Africa is Open For Business.

Other highlights from the first session included Zipcar founder Robin Chase talking about mesh networks, the poet Rives obsession with the phrase “4 in the morning” and how it repeats itself throughout history. The first session called ‘Open For Business’ ended with Lawrence Lessig– founder of the Creative Commons movement. His presentation was absolutely fantastic and really spoke to me. That’s going to be a fabulous TED talk when it’s up on the internet for everyone to view!

The second session of the day was much different, it was called Truth & Invention. Although Erin Mckean, Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford American Dictionary was fascinating, and Nano-technologist/author Ted Sargent equally so– A humble and passionate Artist and Designer by the name of Jonathan Harris stole the show for many. We covered his project WeFeelFine many moons ago and it’s not surprising he has been working full-force on his latest project called Universe, slated to be online sometime next week! Nathan Myhrvold, former CTO of Microsoft was also great. He spoke about penguins, photography, dinosaur hunting and much more– and in 18 minutes gave me both the realization and validation that knowing a little about a lot of things is okay, like becoming a mini-expert on everything that interests you.

The third session was called simplicity– presenters like designer John Maeda and illustrator/artist Maira Kalman spoke so passionately about what they do and why they do it. Alan Kay debuted new revelations about the $100 Laptop initiative. By this third session the mind-boggling feeling had fully kicked in for the day.

The final session was the most important of the whole conference, it’s the session called I Have a Dream, where three prize winners get to present their individual wishes. The three prize winners were photographer James Nachtwey, author and scientist EO Wilson, and former president Bill Clinton. What was so interesting to me was that on one hand each of these individuals do such drastically different work, while they’re very, very similar on the other. Nachtwey’s speech was very moving– the war time photographer in my eyes is likely the most important photographer of my lifetime, if not the entire 21st century. When he took the stage he admitted how difficult receiving this award in front of so many people would be, as he has spent a majority of his life being invisible–blending into crowds of people, troops, etc taking photographs on the front line. The best way to describe his speech is to give you a quote by him: “I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated.” His wish was for us to help him break a a story that the world needs to know about in a way that provides spectacular proof of the power of news photography in the digital age. He hasn’t yet shared the story he is working on– but I have my guesses. You can read more about his wish and what he needs to make it a reality here.

EO Wilson’s acceptance speech was very different, he said at first he stood on stage speaking on behalf of the ‘little things in the world’, the insects, bacteria, etc. His scientific studies have led him (and many other scholars) to believe that if we destroy the insects in the world, the rest of the world won’t function properly, and therefore will not continue and cease to exist. His wish was that we will work together to help create the key tool that we need to inspire preservation of Earth’s biodiversity: the Encyclopedia of Life. You can read more about his wish and what’s needed to make that happen here.

Last but certainly not least was a speech and wish by President Bill Clinton. His speech was fairly casual and refreshing– Every other time I’ve ever seen the former president, let alone any president speak it has been with a teleprompter in a suit and tie with an American Flag pin on their jacket. I think he obviously hit his stride with his Clinton Global Initiative momentum. He spoke about, no surprise to many, Rwanda– but what was most interesting is that while solving the major issues in Rwanda he wants to create a foot print and system that can be deployed in thousands of other places around the world in need. His wish was for us to help create a better future for Rwanda by assisting his foundation, in partnership with the Rwandan Government, to build a sustainable, high quality rural health system for the whole country. Clinton’s words resonated with me because I recently saw an interview where he was asked what, if anything, did he regret about his time in office– and he said he felt like he could have and should have intervened and stopped the genocide in Rwanda– but he didn’t. You can see more details about his wish here.

Presentations like these really put life, and what we spend our time doing throughout it into a serious perspective…

More TED to come tomorrow!

When Josh passed this little nugget of goodness on to me this morning, I thought it was too good to be true. For the cost of a call to Iowa, you can make phone calls to a bunch of countries around the world using AllFreeCalls.net. The list of available countries is pretty large, and is supposedly set to expand in the near future. According to the folks at TechCrunch, this is how it works: the founder of the service established a phone company in the great (corn laden) state of Iowa, which is apparently the only state in the Union taking advantage of an FCC ‘kickback scheme’ that gives telephone companies a portion of the fees arising out of every single inbound call to an Iowa number. When you dial AllFreeCalls’ number, some of the long distance fees you pay to call Iowa go to the company. The key is that these ‘kickbacks’ are sufficient to, on average, more than cover the international outbound calling fees. Complicated? Yes; but who cares? You can make free calls overseas people!

Via TechCrunch

Start Soma, the fine upstart art gallery in San Francisco that’s focused on three simple ideals — emerging artists, original art, and affordable art — is going to be hitting the road this April through 2008 with its Propaganda III Tour. The tour has stops all over the place– North America, South America, Australia, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The focus of the tour is not to sell art, but rather to celebrate free speech and freedom of expression. The format of this tour makes it a true exercise in global, peer-to-peer, open source political art showcasing. As an added bonus, all of the final collection of posters will be donated to the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in L.A. where they will join the other 50,000 posters in the CSPG archives. Get your overtly political designs going– the deadline for poster submission is March 15th.

For over a year now, WEdia.tv has had a simple aim concerning a complex problem: to gain more television exposure for the many humanitarian crises transpiring throughout the world. Working with the assumption that ratings-driven media outlets — which are to a certain extent important to world-wide exposure of these problems — frequently lack the resources and motivation to cover these stories sufficiently, WEdia.tv acts as a supplement– an independent source of funding and support to both journalists and NGOs to increase coverage of humanitarian disasters. In 2005, WEdia.tv covered the famine in Mali and Niger, and its footage was picked up by every major American network as well as by Reuters and the AP. More recently, they partnered with Action Against Hunger to document the persistent disease and malnutrition killing 1,200 people a day (!) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I am impressed by WEdia.tv’s drive to use creative and novel means to address and expose very significant world wide problems.

A few days ago, I posted the Light to Unite initiative, urging you to go light a virtual candle to support those affected by the rampant, world-wide AIDS pandemic. I received a wealth of comments from you (our readers), most of them to the effect of ’supporting a pharmaceutical company’s ad campaign is not the best way to show support for those battling HIV and AIDS’ (the Light to Unite initiative was the brainchild of Bristol Myers Squibb). The truth is that I agree with many of the comments I received– I agree that a campaign like Light to Unite is not the best way to address the problem– although I do think it was a way for millions of potential people to mouse-click their way onto the support radar. Today, December 1st, is World Aids Day. In 2000, world leaders promised to halt the spread AIDS by 2015, but the current proliferation of the disease is, unfortunately, making that goal mighty doubtful. With that in mind, today is a perfect day for those of you who are not aware — or sufficiently aware — to become more reticent of the pandemic and its root causes. While pharmaceutical companies are providing important contributions to those already infected, anti-retroviral drugs can only take us so far to battle the fundamental problems– those problems which can only be addressed by, for example, ‘tackling the issues of poverty and the sexual objectification of women.’ Learn more. Get involved. Help reverse the trend.

Today we scored some ‘black gold’ from the folks at Venice, CA based Java Juice– hats off to them for dreaming up a great coffee concept. Java Juice makes individual packets of pure coffee extract; all you have to do to indulge is ‘rip it, drip it, sip it.’ I can imagine these things working really well on those mornings you’re running late for work, and on those mornings when you are climbing Mount Everest. And what a great stocking-stuffer opportunity! Java Juice appears to be an eco-friendly, community-minded company– something I always like to see. They’re extract us made in the USA with organic Arabica coffee beans sourced from sustainable farms. I was also impressed with the recipe contest that Java Juice has going (there are already some great ones posted).

The Nobelity Project is a certified education and action non-profit working towards a better future for all children. In a world where knowledge is power, one of The Nobelity Project's principal goals “is to provide people all over the world with reliable information and innovative thinking on pressing global problems like global warming, the energy challenge, global health, economic disparity and development, cultural understanding, nuclear proliferation, and general questions of war and peace.” To aid in spreading this information, Turk Pipkin created the feature documentary “Nobelity”. The film takes a look at these, the most pressing issues in our world today, through the eyes of nine distinguished Nobel laureates including Steven Weinberg, Ahmed Zewail, and Wangari Maathai with the children from all over the globe as the main characters. A must see for anyone concerned with the current state of our world– this eye opening, touching, and informative film will motivate you to change for a better tomorrow, today!

Congratulations to Flavorpill for launching their 10th email publication to date. Sick of scanning CNN.com for world news? I know I am! The latest newsletter Activate is a weekly filter of ‘what’s going on around the world’– distilling the most important, and most interesting hand picked links covering the gauntlet of international news, politics, business, science and technology, and even some humorous news links from around the web.