Hasta La Ideas

Competition-led innovation pushes positive social change

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Kickstarter for socially-minded projects, Yoxi (pronounced yo-see), an online platform to propose solutions to social issues, encourages activism by introducing a competitive element. After teams create pitch videos on Yoxi-identified problems—they launched with “Reinvent Fast Food“—the voting starts. Industry experts serve as judges, but their opinions only function to create dialog about the team ideas. Social game playing ultimately selects the winners, who can win up to $40,000 (with public donations matched by Yoxi) to make their ideas happen. You can literally help change the world just by voting; their latest competition “Trim The Waste of Fashion” takes on garment manufacturing.

One pair of jeans sold in the U.S. has often traversed seven countries in its making, with the cotton picked stateside then cleaned in China, buttons added in Taiwan, zippers in Hong Kong and so on. This extremely unsustainable practice affects everyone, so Yoxi’s tasking teams to generate a new system or program that will drastically reduce the carbon footprint fashion creates.

With the success of its first competition, Yoxi proves that these American Idol-inspired challenges can yield life-changing results that will better the world in a real way. To enter “Trim The Waste of Fashion,” assemble a three-person team, make a video about your idea and register before 1 July 2011.