It’s a good time to change the world

Since July 18th I have been acting as a track-leader and mentor for the first edition of the Paris Summer Innovation Fellowship. Last Friday, in the middle of the program , I took a bus ride for a weekend trip. As I sat enjoying the country view from my seat on the bus , I realized I had forgotten my headphones. Since reading makes me sick, I had plenty of time to reflect on what we’re doing on this program.

Since the beginning of the program, I have been amazed by the number of people who are showing support. Mentors from large and small companies are giving their time to help our fellows, so they can improve navigation through complicated train stations or build a robot that makes the streets of Paris happy again. Artists from all over the world have joined us to spread the word. We even have an audit court judge supporting two fellows who are trying to make public institutions more accountable by exploring newly available data sources.

There is a strong will from a lot of people to make the world a better place, by co-constructing the cities of tomorrow. The good news is that it’s a perfect time to do this because of a unique combination of people, openness and easily accessible tools:

• Data is becoming more and more open, meaning that every citizen and stakeholder can get involved. We can map the risks of Paris, neighborhood by neighborhood, using various open data and crowdsourced maps. We can make restaurants safer by searching for correlations between online comments and results of sanitation inspections.
• The resources and tools available in fab labs allow (nearly) everyone to prototype their idea, be it a portable swing or a drawing robot. But they also may be used to design a tiny house that can be built and customized by the people who will live in it.

Since I was 10, my main (and only) objective in life is to “be happy”. Pretty cheesy, I know :) And even if I’m sure that what you need to find happiness is all within yourself, I’m also convinced that being surrounded by happy people (on a global scale I mean) makes this quest much easier. Maybe it’s because we’re social animals, maybe it’s in our genes… But if you want to be happy, you have to try to make the world a better place. A sort of selfish altruism.

My bus has finally arrived to my destination. Everyone is sleeping. The air is finally fresh. It’s a good time to change the world. Wanna join us?