Collaboration. Design. Development. Dissemination.

Apply Now to IDDS 2010 in Colorado!

The International Development Design Summit brings together people from around the globe to build technologies that improve the lives of people in the developing world. The program is the brainchild of MIT Senior Lecturer and D-Lab founder Amy Smith, a past winner of the MacArthur “genius” grant. To learn more about IDDS, please click here.
 
The 2010 International Development Design Summit (IDDS) will take place from 7-30 July at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO, USA. IDDS 2010 will be somewhat different from previous years - whereas past summits focused on creating prototypes, this summit will focus on turning these prototypes into products and getting them into the hands of people who can use them. It is the goal of IDDS 2010 to guide project teams through the process of becoming viable ventures with business plans to disseminate their innovations at scale. Participants will have the opportunity to explore the many challenges of entrepreneurship and technology dissemination for developing markets with a diverse group of people from around the globe.
 
PARTICIPANT APPLICATION
The most common way to get involved with IDDS is to apply to be a participant. The deadline for participant applications has passed. Please check back later this year for information about IDDS 2011.
 
FOUNDER APPLICATION
We will be accepting 8-10 projects for IDDS 2010. Each project team will have a founder, who is responsible for coordinating communication among team members and will commit to launching a product or business at the end of the summit. The deadline for founder applications has passed. Please check back later this year for information about IDDS 2011.
 
TRANSLATIONS/TRADUCCIONES
For applications in other languages, please email us at idds [at] mit [dot] edu.
Para aplicaciones en otros idiomas, por favor nos manda un correo electrónico a idds [arroba] mit [punto] edu.

IDDS 2009 in Ghana!

The 2009 International Development Design Summit in Ghana brought together people from around the globe to build appropriate technologies and develop the creative capacity in our partner communities in rural Ghana. This year, there were over 90 participants and organizers representing 21 countries from around the world: India, Ghana, United States, United Knigdom, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Guatemala, Ireland, China, Malaysia, Brazil, Malawi, Peru, Pakistan, Canada, Colombia, Nigeria, Guinea, Singapore, Tanzania, Uganda. The 2009 summit is unique in that it was hosted outside of the United States for the first time. IDDS prides itself on the spirit of co-creation and this movement from the United States to Ghana enabled participants to be immersed in the local context and work together with community members on a regular basis. There is a huge difference between an MIT lab and a rural village of a developing country; the main benefit of having IDDS in Ghana was the proximity to community partners and potential end users of the technologies...