Perspectives on Innovation

Many of you have been impacted by the story of SunNight Solar, and their BoGo light (Buy One, Give One). Founded by former US Diplomat Mark Bent, SunNight Solar uses the latest scientific advances in solar and lighting technology to provide light to people in developing countries. When you purchase a light from them, they match your purchase and send a light to the location of your choice. SunNight Solar posted a Challenge to the InnoCentive Marketplace to improve their existing light, so that it could illuminate an entire room as well as work as a handheld flashlight. The Challenge was solved and the company has already begun production of these improved lights, less than a year after posting the Challenge. I recently asked Mark for an update on this exciting project - his thoughts are below:

My name is Mark Bent, and I posted the Challenge to improve the design of my original solar flashlight on Innocentive.  This need for improvement came as a direct result of feedback from World Bank and Department of Energy field research on my lights in Africa.  People liked the original device, but it did not replace a kerosene lantern, because it did not light up a room.  After trying, and failing, to develop a light which had this feature, I turned to Innocentive, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Within the next ten days - by the end of October 2008, we will have a second factory come on line to produce our lights - the original factory cannot keep up with the demand.  Via Innocentive, our electronics and other components are pretty amazing and the lights have been very, very welcomed by the consumer and are in use worldwide.

We are starting up a new program to get these lights to our military serving in Iraq and Afghanistan - the SL-2 - SunLight 2, or SuperBoGo, was so well received by the Marines and soldiers, we wanted to do another program to get them more lights - please see http://www.warlights.com/.  These will be camouflage lights - not a good idea to carry bright orange lights in a war zone and the combat soldiers probably would not appreciate the pink lights much either.

We continue to improve this model and will be coming out with variations in the very near future, both in appearance and in function - lights which cure jaundice in infants via blue LEDs will be the next light and we have many more versions planned.

Thanks InnoCentive and thanks to all of the customers who support our BoGo Lights and other social programs.

Best regards,

Mark

CEO - SunNight Solar
Mark Bent

http://www.sunnightsolar.com/blog/

As you may know we were thrilled to work with Mark Bent and SunNight Solar, to help them improve the Solar Powered BoGo flashlight that they are distributing in the developing world. I just read a recent blog post from Mark that I wanted to share with you all. Read it here: Lights in the Congo. It’s a moving tribute to the work he is doing, and the change that we can all make in the lives of our fellow human beings.

Some of you may already know about SunNight Solar, and their BoGo light (Buy One, Give One). Founded by former US Diplomat Mark Bent, SunNight Solar uses the latest scientific advances in solar and lighting technology to provide light to people in developing countries like Africa and Peru. When you purchase a light from them, they match your purchase and send a light to the location of your choice. Well, I thought you might be interested to know that thanks to the diligent work of Russell McMahon (a Solver in New Zealand) SunNight Solar was able to improve their existing light so that it will illuminate an entire room as well as work as a handheld flashlight. They call it the SuperBogo. The company has already begun production of these lights, less than a year after posting the Challenge on the InnoCentive website. They are due to be available in August of this year. We’re thrilled to be a part of SunNight Solar’s work, and are proud to see our Solvers getting involved in these Challenges that really make a difference!

If you’d like to learn more about the BoGo light, visit the BoGo Light website.
For more from Mark Bent on his work with InnoCentive, watch this YouTube video.

If you have recently worked on a Challenge that really made an impact on you, we’d love to hear about it. Please post your comments below.

Liz