TheSanFranista

TechCrunch: Samahope to Help Fund Medical Treatments for Women in Need around the World

I was honored to feature Samahope’s work to help women in need of medical care around the world in TechCrunch.

This Sunday, there’s a lot you can do in honor of the woman who raised you. There’s TheMomtract, a project out of the ad agency Mother New York to give your mother authority back over some part of your life. There are flowers and promises to let fewer of her calls go to voicemail.

But the San Francisco-based startup Samahope hopes that funds usually reserved for cross-state chocolate delivery might be used to finance medical treatments for women in need around the world. Its #HonorYourMom project is soliciting donations for medical treatments for women along with tweet-length anecdotes about participants’ own parents’ uniqueness. And while funding fistula repair surgery may not have been part of some users’ plans this year, the non-profit organization’s founders hope that providing safe birth kits in a mom’s name won’t take much convincing. more

Good Garden State Story

Lest you think this is a post about Zach Braff’s crowdsourced campaign for a film follow-up, I’ll direct you to Brian Leaf’s personal tale from the Novato publisher New World Library. “Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi: My Humble Quest to Heal My Colitis, Calm My ADD, and Find the Key to Happiness” is his story about getting sick, stumbling into practicing, meeting a crazy cast of characters, and getting well. His reflections on exploring yoga while in college in the 80s are a ton of fun, least of all because of the interesting notes: that was the same decade when sticky mats were evolved from carpet padding (an improvement from the tiger skins used years ago by Indian yogis).

The book provided grateful laughs while I was in the middle of advanced Forrest Yoga teacher training last week. His keys to happiness may not be novel (“Meditate.”), but they are needed: “Become most real.”

Urban Agents, Unite

On April 9 (tonight!) the advocacy organization SPUR will host a gathering of young urbanists to discuss directions for improving urban environments. Between Code for America’s expanding data work with cities and an increasing number of parklets sprinkled throughout SF, the conversation feels like a timely one. “Two poles” of design–non-professional contributions and those from traditional urban development sectors–will be considered during the program with California College of the Art’s Urban Lab. Public Architecture, Stamen Design and Design Observer will share their thinking, and I love how MKThink CEO and program panelist Miller conceives of what’s needed for this space: “To remain vital and relevant, we must not only think like architects, but analysts, cultural anthropologists, inventors, and community advocates as well.”

TechCrunch: Maker’s Row: Matchmaker Between Designers & Domestic Manufacturers

I had the good fortune of meeting and featuring this team that is focused on empowering designers and makers alike. Full story on TC.

Barriers to international manufacturing and high fuel costs have long made overseas production painful for small businesses. Now, an economic trend towards American manufacturing has created a timely entrance to the market for Maker’s Row. The startup, a finalist in last week’s Women 2.0 Pitch Competition, says it wants to become a go-to resource to create, well, anything.

Co-founders Matthew Burnett and Tanya Menendez launched Maker’s Row in November to act as a sort of Match.com with Kiva.org-like profiles for factories and facilities. The site enables recognized designers and amateurs alike to partner with manufactures that are searchable on the site by state to create a range of items, from handbags to sportswear. It charges manufacturers a subscription fee to post. Read the post in its entirety.

New Lydali Worldly Wares

For her birthday I just gave my Mom a handmade bowl from the SF-based e-retailer company Lydali. Like the other gifts I’ve bought on the site, it went over (very) well, in part because each item on the site features a story about the artisans who made it.

The online store, which “brings together well-designed jewelry, accessories, and home furnishings from around the world,” sources from 21 countries. It was launched eight months ago by Ali Price and Lydia Harter (whose combined names gave the company its moniker), two friends who met at Wake Forest before working at Kiva.org and Pottery Barn, respectively.

I’m especially struck by a colorblock clutch from Rags2Riches out of Manila, a blue agate ring from Joya in Cape Town, and a handblown olive glass pitcher out of Jordan. Any of which would be much appreciated this week o’ love, of course.

Dance to End Violence Against Women this Valentine’s Day

Where will February 14 find you this year? Dancing with your neighbors, friends, and co-workers, of course!

This 15th V-Day will be the largest ever: when women and men around the world dance, sing, and shout in defiance of violence against women. I’ll be at City Hall with thousands of other San Franciscans, DJs, and Mayor Lee between 4 to 6 PM–consider it if you’re local.

One Billion Rising was created to show our collective refusal of violence aimed at women and girls. Your stomping–your sharing, your hip-waving, your shouting–is part of a global call for a better reality for 50% of the world’s population (and the people who love them). more

A Chance to Design Open Badges for Mozilla Contributors

At Mozilla we’ve just launched a call for design submissions for new Open Badges and are seeking your creative prowess. This is part of a project to acknowledge public contributors’ work and create meaningful badges that can help them earn new career opportunities:

Attention visual designers! Are you interested in contributing to Mozilla, being part of an awesome worldwide community and having your work seen by a *lot* of people?

Our Web Development team relies on community volunteers for help with a variety of things and would like to create a series of badges to recognize these contributors for their work. Specifically, they need badges that could be earned by the following actions on Github. more

TechCrunch >> NewlyWish Looks to Disrupt $19 Billion Annual Wedding Registry Industry

In a world of customizable coffees and individualized experiences, the wedding industry is just recently starting to break from its historical lack of options. Pre-nuptials, many couples still face lists of venue-required caterers and fight their way past other undesirable prescriptions for their big days. Enter NewlyWish, a New York-based e-commerce platform that seeks to provide creative registry options beyond big-box retailers.

With its first product for couples, the newly minted winner of the Women 2.0 PITCH NYC Startup Competition provides a custom multi-merchant online marketplace. Users can choose from and register for goods at brick-and-mortar stores, which have historically been excluded from the $19 billion annual domestic wedding registry market.

Read this post in its entirety on TC.

MozFest: Badges, Making & More

I keep holding out for a magical pocket of time when my thoughts from the annual Mozilla Festival (“MozFest”) will crystallize. Realizing that that’s foolish–and inspired by Grainne Hamilton’s thinking about badges in Scotland post-fest and Pamela Fox’s inspiring take on proving your worth as someone who’s self taught (first and last step: “open-source everything on Github”)–it’s time to share a few takeaways from London.

A few dozen people joined my colleagues Doug Belshaw, Sunny Lee (that’s her at right) and I to think about Designing Open Badges in the Wild and another 20 came together to give feedback on the user experience around earning and hosting badges. They are educators, designers, non-profit organizers, business folks, and people designing their own personal learning pathways. more

On Openness + Mozilla Foundation

I’m excited to share that I’ve joined the team at Mozilla Foundation this month as design and community lead on the organization’s Open Badges efforts. Say that you want prospective employers to know that you have design or programming skills (or are an amazing copywriter or coach to kid creators or…you get the idea). A resume doesn’t do justice to all you’re capable of, nor is it validated by organizations whose credentials you’ve earned. And in an age of anywhere, anytime learning, university degrees don’t adequately capture skills gained outside the classroom.

Like Girl or Boy Scout badges, Open Badges with metadata information coded in serve as digital and visual forms of recognition of skills and literacies. Mozilla Foundation has created the infrastructure that allows issuing organizations to offer their badges to the world via badge earners who meet their requirements. Badges can then be displayed on social network and job search sites, among other places, for discovery by people who might ask about or applaud earners’ efforts. more