Many organizations donate books of various kinds to developing countries, usually through a few collection centres and a small set of volunteers or employees. A new UK-based group, on the other hand, mobilizes teams of volunteer university students nationwide.

READ International (short for Realizing Education, Achieving Development) has established 11 student-led Book Projects throughout the UK to improve access to education across the world and increase youth participation in the global community. Originally launched in 2003 as "The Tanzania Book Project" by a group of university students, it had already sent 50,000 books and materials to Tanzania secondary schools by 2005. Beginning in 2006, however, the group registered officially as a national charity, won the support of five universities, and now works through a community of student-run READ Book Projects to collect disused, high-quality Key Stage 3 and GCSE textbooks from UK secondary schools.

Student volunteers also give presentations to promote student volunteering, young social enterprise, recycling and global citizenship, and are responsible for fund-raising towards READ Book Project costs through such means as cake sales, sponsored events and local corporate support. Ultimately, the student teams travel to Tanzania to distribute the books. The result: READ Book Projects have donated 148,000 textbooks to 140 Tanzanian secondary schools and five regional libraries. By the end of the 2007-8 academic year, READ aims to deliver 247,500 textbooks to Tanzania through its 11 university projects, which it plans to increase to 20 in the next year and to 27 by 2009-10, for a total of 1.3 million books kept out of UK landfills and put to good use instead.

The group's founders explain: "We have identified our core strength—our relationship with British students. The opportunity to run, rather than work for, a national organization is our success. We see them as leaders, not volunteers. Over the next three years, we will position READ International to capitalize on this unique offering." READ International was named the Best New Charity in the 2007 UK Charity Times Awards, and is planning sister projects in Ecuador, Ghana and Zambia. For anyone involved in projects for the social good, putting student energy and philanthropy to work makes great sense for everyone involved. A model to emulate!

Website: www.readinternational.org.uk
Contact: info@readinternational.org.uk

Spotted by: Shannon Hopkins

Back in 2006 we wrote about the Nike+iPod Sport Kit as an example of the growing number of branded brands—smart partnerships between brands —and now adidas and Samsung have launched an offering along similar lines.

miCoach, which was unveiled just last week, is an adidas-branded Samsung music cell phone equipped with stride sensor and heart rate monitor to provide on-the-go personal training. With one click, users can connect to the fitness features and begin a workout. On their first use, the system assesses their fitness level and places them in one of three categories. Users can then set their own goals, or let the system's personal coach—backed by more than 200 workout plans—guide them. Either way, miCoach provides instruction to encourage and motivate users along the way, such as advising runners to “speed up to power zone” or telling them that “15 minutes is completed.” Tapping the slider phone twice produces instant updates on the workout, and the 2-inch LCD shows a real-time visual display of time, heart rate, distance, speed and calories burned. Users can arrange workout music on the phone according to tempo or motivational value, while a 2-megapixel camera and 1GB memory capacity let them capture their workout milestones. The miCoach also features USB and Bluetooth connectivity for fast file transfers and seamless sync with the miCoach web portal.

The miCoach phone will be available in Europe starting in mid-March, with delivery in the US next year. European pricing will start at about EUR 195, according to the Associated Press. For more on branded brands, check out our sister site trendwatching.com's briefing on the topic. In the meantime, keep your eyes open for more of them!

Website: www.micoach.com
Contact: wos.info@adidas.com

Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen

Back in the pre-internet Dark Age, resumes had to be one-page, one side. No exceptions. Social networking websites such as Facebook and LinkedIn are helping to break that mold, and recently launched VisualCV hopes to do the same. Anyone shopping for a job can sign on with VisualCV and create a page that resembles an online magazine article. Besides the traditional resume detailing a user’s career, members can upload a video describing themselves. There’s also room for uploading files that list references or examples of creative work, as well as space to highlight specific accomplishments. If a member made sales explode at their last job, for instance, they can display a chart to illustrate growth.

Taken together, VisualCV’s features result in a document that’s more professional looking than what’s possible on most social networking sites, and incorporates features that help employers better assess a jobseeker’s skills and experience. Mouse over the name of a company where a candidate recently worked, for instance, and a pop-up will display a few details about it.

The site is currently in beta, but once it fully launches this spring, VisualCV hopes to make money by providing premium features for employers, such as folders that let hiring committees at companies route and comment on leading candidates. Companies can also pay for prominently placed listings. Also, larger companies or recruiters will eventually be able to license white-label versions of the website.

Plenty of variations on VisualCV’s business model are possible. As with another employment site we wrote about earlier this month (YouTube meets Monster), localizing the service or focusing on industries such as healthcare could help build traffic faster than would be the case with a generalized employment site. Likewise, customizing features to suit different professions should increase chances of success. Jobseekers could choose from an array of industry-specific templates, for example. And video-conferencing features such as those found on dating websites would let employers more efficiently screen candidates. Bottom line: employment sites have long proven themselves to be a viable web business model, but the door remains wide open for new ideas.

Website: www.visualcv.com
Contact: www.visualcv.com/www/site_information/contact_us.html

Spotted by: Michael O’Brien

When a company employs 1.6 million front-line workers throughout the world, chances are that at least a handful of them will have knock-your-socks-off singing abilities. That’s what McDonald’s reckoned when it launched its Voice of McDonald’s II.

As the title implies, this is the second time around for the event, which debuted in 2006. Then as now, company talent shows were nothing new. But the sheer number of McDonald’s participants—some 3,600 working at restaurants in 53 countries signed up for the most recent contest—helped generate valuable media coverage and customer involvement. This time round, customer votes helped select the finalists whose video performances are posted on the contest website. In April, the three top performers from the event will compete for a USD 25,000 first prize at the company’s world convention in Orlando, Florida.

Advertising and marketing bloggers have generated considerable buzz about the campaign, enough that other large companies could well emulate it. Corporate event organizers and team-building experts, and those wanting to enter that business, should be able to invent countless variations of the idea—everything from sports competitions to the funniest YouTube videos to events where finalists get to challenge the pros. As with “American Idol,” the basic idea behind these contests is universal: the yearning ordinary people have to be discovered and the fact that many who lead ordinary lives have talents which deserve to be shown off.

Website: www.mcdonalds.com/usa/voice.html
Contact: www.mcdonalds.com/contact/contact_us.html

Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen

As anyone with children is no doubt keenly aware, birthday parties can be extremely wasteful affairs, leaving in their wake heaps of disposable dishes and cutlery, bags of plastic packaging and torn wrapping paper, and an array of mediocre gifts the child could probably do without. ECHOage was recently founded by two mothers who were determined to come up with an alternative.

Launched at the end of February, Toronto-based ECHOage is "convenience and conscience wrapped up in a big green ribbon," as cofounder Alison Smith puts it. Specifically, the service offers a way for concerned parents to turn their child's birthday party into an environmentally respectful and socially mindful celebration by applying the philosophy of "one gift, one cause." It works like this: Parents and children planning a party begin by choosing from a variety of online invitations available on the site. Next, they sit down with the birthday child to choose from a list of charitable causes that ECHOage has screened and selected based on their track record of helping children and the environment. Participating charities include Nourish America, EarthCorps, International Child Art Foundation and Girls Inc., among others. Invitations are sent via email, and instead of bringing a wrapped gift, guests are asked to make a secure online donation of $10 to $30 (USD or CDN, depending on where the party takes place). After deducting a 15 percent administration fee, ECHOage sends half of the party proceeds to the child's chosen charity, and remits the other half to the party's host towards the purchase one really special and meaningful gift for the child. The site handles invitations, RSVPs, thank-you notes and reminders as well as collecting parent contact details and allergy information about guests. At the end, the host even gets a tax receipt for the portion of funds donated to charity.

ECHOage not only cuts back on the waste associated with most birthday parties, it also teaches kids valuable lessons about giving and quality versus quantity, and saves parents and guests time and money by eliminating the present buying, wrapping (and returning) process. "Children are full of creative solutions to environmental and social issues, and the impact they can make on this world is extraordinary," explains Debbie Zinman, ECHOage's other cofounder. "Our dream is that ECHOage parties will help members of our youngest generation recognize that they can make meaningful choices that have a positive impact on others." (For more background info on the no-present trend, check out: Cake, but No Presents, Please—New York Times, 27 July 2007.)

So far ECHOage supports parties and funds just in the US and Canada. Who wants to bring this to the rest of the world?

Website: www.echoage.com
Contact: info@echoage.com

Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen