On June 6th Smallbean met with Design Museum Boston to brainstorm ideas for improving our solar suitcase. This collaboration was organized by Design Museum Boston's directors, Sam Aquillano and Derek Cascio, and Smallbean Executive Director Sean Hewens. Attendees to the event included a collection of talented industrial designers form the Boston area, including representatives from Bose and Phillips. Ross Lohr, the Executive Director of Newton Tanzania Collaborative, was also in attendance.

The day began with Sean's 45 minute PowerPoint presentation explaining the Citizen Archivist Project and the solar suitcase's integral role in the functioning of the project.  Ross then gave some background on the Kwala community in Tanzania, what the community there was like and what sorts of people were using the electricity provided by the solar suitcase installation.

The purpose of this collaboration between Smallbean and Design Museum Boston was to have industrial designers listen to a presentation of how we used the solar suitcase in Tanzania, and then come up with ways to improve it. Following Sean and Ross' presentations, the designers immediately started brainstorming how to make the solar suitcase smaller, easier to use, mass produceable, and built within it a capability to charge multiple batteries.  One of Smallbean's goals is to have swappable batteries that store excess solar power that can be rented to members of the community for sustainable revenue generation. The designers, with this information, began to break down the project into who would be producing the solar suitcase, what dual uses packaging could serve and how batteries could be charged outside of the suitcase.

This meeting was the first of three sessions with Design Museum Boston and there was homework for Sean and everyone else in attendance! One of Sean's tasks is to find out what screws, bolts and replaceable parts are available in Tanzania. In the case that a part is lost or malfunctioning, knowing what replacement parts are available in Tanzania will make it easier for residents to repair the solar suitcase system.

Smallbean and Design Museum Boston will be meeting again in mid-August after the team returns from the Kenya trip. The goal is to have a self-contained, functioning system by January 2011.

Some more pictures from the meeting:

Let the designing begin!