…William Kamkwamba. That’s right, if the DIY community had to pick a role model for this year, it has to be William Kamkwamba from Malawi, Africa. William built his family a electricity-producing windmill. And He was 14 when he did that. Using plans he found on a library book called “Using Energy” and modifying them to his needs, he managed to light up 4 light bulbs and to power 2 radios. Now with 19 he has plans to build a bigger one to pump water to a irrigation system for the whole village. How awesome is that?

His presentation at TED is worth getting inspired from.

Nice to mention is that William’s act was first published in a Malawian Blog which was read by TEDGlobal Conference Director Emeka Okafor who decided to invite him for this year’s conference. We see user innovation resolving local problems being spread in grassroots media (blogs) and inspiring global changes. Now William is also writing Blog.

People like him represent the new breed of entrepreneurs that are going to change things around here.

Is this the future or what?

Photos from: www.ted.com

My copy of Worldchanging – A user’s guide for the 21st century has just arrived! After randomly reading their Blog and being punched in the face by Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth I just felt I had to increase my sustainability level.

This massive 600 page book is a wonderful resource of sustainable examples gathered by the worldchanging blog community. Its 7 sections (stuff, shelter, cities, community, business, politics, planet) cover a wide range of applied ideas on sustainability from “water purification” to “spreading the power of café conversations” (two articles of the book)

The whole concept of small articles is just cool. This format is awesome, you don’t even have to read pages and pages in order to spice up your ecological charm. A quick read throughout one of the articles before that special date and you be sounding like a down to earth “worth a marriage” kind of dude. Could I convince you now?

Jokes aside, this book is an amazing resource and should be read by all of those citizens willing to make a change.

Got some eco strategies of your own you wanna share with? Favorite articles of the book people should know about? Write on.

I just finished out my latest project. A contribution for the DIY (Do it yorself) community. Since I love skateboards I just couldn’t start anywhere else. Inspired by the amount of waste produced by the growth of consumerism in Europe, specially here in Frankfurt, seen through the weekly dispose of old stuff in the middle of the streets. I wanted to show one way of rethinking the use of old materials in the example of a DIY skateboard.

The idea is simple: Download the DIY Skateboard Design PDF, Print it out, stick them together over any rest of wood to be recycled, cut, put on some wheels and enjoy the ride.

If you want make your own design, Download this DIY Skateboard Blank PDF (90cm long) and make it happen.

I would love to see some of your creations, so send a picture if you are proud of what you made.

a step by step of the building process can be found here.