2022!

2020 did not go as we expected, nor did 2021, but we survived, and we keep doubling-down on purpose. It has never been easier to join us!

Check out our 2021 initiative, the New Media Network: a humanist, egalitarian, and sustainability-oriented media cooperative. The NewMediaNetwork work to liberate individuals from all backgrounds to amplify our respective truths, so that reality can be seen above the din of commercialized story. Strategies include social events, co-housing experiments, and on-line meetups. If you have un-used space, we need your help! If you crave community and independence, we can help you!

Check out NMN’s flagship production, #DinosUnite, a post-rock opera for #equality, #degrowth, and #survival of the species. #DinosUnite is in phase 2 of production, fleshing out the libretto into story-telling music videos. You can support this production as a cameo artist, or financially.

Thanks for your time and love, best wishes to all through these difficult times, … the most critical moment in human history. #FaceTheClimateEmergency! #WeCanWin, #Together, #GlobalSolidarity, #Decolonization.

-jeff

2020 needs you to Be-The-Change!

Holy crazy, what is going on with this world!?

We’ve followed the science, and we’ve been heart-broken by numerous problems re-emerging all over the exploited “developing” nations. Our species and many others teeters on the edge of extinction, threatened by a group of oligarchs and powerhouse international corporations who will not let go at any price.
So. We humbly and hopefully have re-focused our mission and programs per these modern challenges. We firmly believe this is Everybody’s Job and it will take a lot more than whining at authorities to build a better world. Our new offering is called Be-The-Change.

Be-The-Change is ultra affordable consulting service that focuses on how you, me and everyone can Be-The-Change we need to be, to build a future we want to live in. We need to re-mobilize, and we need to do it Now.

In any case, don’t be a stranger! Hasta lluego,…

What.The.Hell!?!?? =)

2018 - 2019, Reflect and Iterate.

Whoa, how is it already April 2019!?

Lets begin by saying how much we really love ProjectHouse.World, and sharing our thanks and love to everyone whose contributed to our various iterations and projects, between 2017 in Medellin, Colombia, and 2018 in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, Granada, Nicaragua, and Bar Harbor, USA.

Lets continue by promoting our 2019 Euro Tour of the Project House program. Find out more at their FB page and website.

And if you like reading about us, here are some reflections.

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(Under Construction. But in the meantime, we hope this ted-x video inspires you as much as it inspired us!)

And here’s a link to this super cool creative project that came out of ph.w Bar Harbor: Sophia the Wondercat. (Hint: It’s a lot deeper than it looks!)

ProjectHouse - Medellin

Just a quick note here, to redirect your love to projecthouse.world and facebook.com/projecthouseworld as we ramp up our Project House program October and November, in Medellin, Colombia.

We’ll add writeups of select programs as they come, at http://projecthouse.world/PastProjects.php.

(And we might not add many more updates here for awhile…..)

ProjectHouse.World

Hi there,

If you're familiar with our company, you've seen anywheredigs.com -- the remote home-office network we're growing. And you also noticed our Focus Week pilots, which we started in Panama spring of this year, and are now taking down to South America: oneworldinnovations.org/sudamerica. These projects are of course related. Through these pilots, we are making the connections we need in new places. We are building our network one pilot at a time. We are learning as we go, augmenting and adapting, leveraging what exists, discovering what more is required.

You might be wondering... Why are we doing this? What is it all for? Is it really going to work?

Our pages and the associated marketing materials only tell part of the story... the client-facing side of the story. These pages are recruiting people (like you) who work in remote-friendly industries, or have their own ideas they'd like to try out but can't find the time, space, or resources to really get things going. We want you to come join us... bring your job, or your idea, and work on it. Most importantly: have fun, see the world, and grow professionally.

To us, work is not work. We could say "work is life", and "life is work", but we don't like how that sounds, either.

Rather, we say "life is life".

Most people live to be about 80. You're a child, then a student, then an employee (and a spouse, and a parent)... and then fifty years later you retire, and not long after that you die. You lived for a very long time. But most of that time was not your own. You gave it to the system.

If you are lucky... the system fed you, the system clothed you, the system gave you some vacation time, the system paid off your college loans, the system paid for your children's college, the system covered your health bills. Maybe the system even gave you enough extra so when you retired, you could climb on tour busses with other retirees and see what the world really is. Maybe that system took all that retirement money away because it didn't know how to regulate some greedy banking firms on Wall Street.

This might all sound nice enough, but its actually terribly inefficient.

Furthermore, if the above paragraph is a rough approximation of your experience (or expected experience), you're getting a lot more out of the system than the most of the world's other 7.5 billion inhabitants.

Despite unthinkable technological advances, we somehow work harder and harder every year... for less and less pay... and usually for disappointingly incremental progress. The system is great at keeping you stuck in it. Its great at spinning its wheels so you are busy, and giving back just what you need to keep you from trying anything else.

The system does not care about your potential. The system does not care about humanity. The system does not care about progress. 

The system is a rat race.

But we are not rats.

We are people.

There are 7.5 billion people part of this system. Each person is in a different place, but all feel the effects, and all must play their part.

Or must we?

We are pleased to introduce our new flagship program: projecthouse.world. Project House is more than just another project. It is a purpose. It is a global vision that we are building to compete against the alternative. It is a community... of excellent people... pursuing excellent ideas... unafraid of failure... failing constantly... but succeeding just as frequently... sustaining ourselves, and growing our community.

Join us live, or remotely. Be the change you want to see!

Panamá - Places (2)

An hour and a half away from the city, the highway continues west along-side scattered beach communities, resorts, surf schools, and emptiness. To the north are hills, valleys, a rugged and dry-looking landscape this time of year. Up in these hills is El Valle de Anton, a popular weekend escape. A few ridges over there's a lower key community, La Laguna. Somewhere in La Laguna we find ourselves at the Mamallena Ecolodge.

The property is a birders paradise. Cell coverage is spotty. The internet exists, but it seems to have some problems. Food is grown on site, and prepared for guests by volunteers (i.e., low-budget travelers from all over the world). A river runs through it, but has been damned off to create a natural pool.

If not for the spotty internet, it would be the perfect remote-productivity sanctuary. For any non-internet objective, it is the perfect sanctuary. Niki is here to watch birds, swim with tadpoles, draft concepts for a comic strip idea. Jeff is here to write. Taylor loses herself in wildlife photography.

In between these activities, we swim or hike. We chat with other guests, each with their own agenda. At night, we play mafia with the volunteers. One of the hosts takes everybody on an educational tour of the property. Did you know that a pineapple plant produces only one pineapple, then dies?

All the food we eat is grown on site. All the waste we produce is composted on site.

The wind howls at night.

Not ready for winter?

We are back from a long summer of projects, and super excited about whats coming next!

We are heading back to Latin America, this time to the deep deep south -- Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay.

From December through March, it's going to be cold, dark, snowy in the US, Europe, and northern Asia. It doesn't look so bleak in the southern hemisphere!

Since we are still piloting our program, we are offering all visitors at-cost accommodation. Optional services are available on-site at standard rates:

• design, technical, and business consulting
• technology training
• career coaching
• workshops

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Don't work in a remote-friendly industry? Don't worry, we've got you covered. Put your regular job down for few weeks and give your creative interests the opportunity they need. Whatever your passion, we'll get you started. And what's more, we'll share the skills you need to keep moving on your own.

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Seasonal weather averages for Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay:

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24°C / 75 F, mostly sunny.

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17°C / 63 F, sunny.

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29°C / 84 F, sun and rain.

What are you waiting for? Reserve your spot at oneworldinnovations.org/sudamerica.

Panamá - Testimonials

Nick is a software developer from Rochester, NY with many hobbies: music, poker, circus. Nick works at an all-remote company. Nick joined us in Panamá for a 10-day full-immersion workation. He hopes to join One World Innovations again this coming winter in South America.

“I joined One World Innovations for their trip to Panama this year, and it was excellent! This was the first time I tried combining travel and work, so I was definitely apprehensive, but the whole experience was very positive. When I arrived, Jeff met me right at the airport to make sure I didn’t have any trouble navigating an unfamiliar country; from then on, he continued to go above and beyond to make sure we could stay productive during the day, and also have a great time on evenings and weekends.

The trip was definitely an adventure, and I mean that in a good way. This isn’t your typical tour company, where every detail is planned and scheduled in advance. Instead, I found it to be a refreshingly flexible, personalized experience: some days we toured ruins or parks, other evenings we wandered around the city and sampled the local cuisine, and a couple times we were able to met up with some locals for a few games of ultimate frisbee. If you want to try something new and break out of your comfort zone, yet still maintain the stability required for a true “working vacation”, this is the experience for you!”

Panamá - Place(holder)

We did so much in Panamá, and we are working on sharing the complete story, and many more great photos.

Please bear with us while we write...

More photos coming, please visit again soon. :)

Panamá - Places (1)

A confusing thing about Panama for North Americans... is that the country runs east-west rather than north-south. If you want to drive from Panama City to the United States, you need to go west. If you go north, you will cross the continent at its narrowest, along the canal. If you go west, you're heading towards Colombia. If you go south, you are swimming in the Pacific Ocean.

It's worth knowing that the country of Panama is simply Panama. Panama's capital, Panama City, is Panamá.

Panamanians speak a particularly challenging Spanish. Words blur together, and some sounds are dropped or pronounced depending on context.

The Balboa is the currency in Panama, but it is the same as the US Dollar.

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Tocumen International Airport.

The international airport is pretty cozy, a bit less than an hour from the city. You can take busses. Special city busses require a special city bus card, which you cannot get at the airport. Other busses are usually more crowded, and take only cash (dinero en efectivo). You probably want to go via Corredor Sur, the toll-highway in the city. These busses cost $1.25. Local buses cost only $.25, but you may hit a bit more traffic winding through the neighborhoods.

It can be hard for a foreigner to find a taxi for less than $30, and they will try to charge you more for more people. Uber is a new thing and works pretty well, and there's even free WiFi in the airport lobby. The problem with Uber and taxis is convincing your driver to take the much faster Corredor Sur, because your driver has to pay the toll, and you probably didn't know it was even an option.

If you end up needing to crash near the airport, try the Riande Airport Hotel and Casino. Its not the cheapest place, but its minutes from the airport and offers an anytime shuttle service.

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El Cangrejo

This is a trendy area of Panamá, with lots of international restaurants, casinos, and prostitutes. Its quite popular among tourists, in fact the most popular area according to booking.com. The area is not particularly clean, and heavily trafficked except for Sunday morning. During the high season, January-March, it can be quite expensive. As April rolls by, though, its not so bad.

I was not really impressed with the food here, perhaps because its geared towards short-stay tourists. I also don't like being bothered by everyone soliciting sex or taxi rides. You will generally be yelled at when you leave your hotel... by a hotel serviceman trying to connect you with a hotel-arranged taxi. I recommend hailing your own taxi, and never one that is waiting for you or trying to pick you up before you have hailed it. Uber works, too.

From pretty much anywhere in Cangrejo, it's just a stones throw to the metro line. But it's a bit further to the water and other points of interest. Hotels have big pools on their roofs, and lovely views of the city. There is a great bakery just across from the Veneto Hotel. Try the lulu smoothie, a fried plantain, and the special spicy salsa.

Panamá skyline, from a hotel rooftop in El Cangrejo.

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Albrook Station

From Panamá, you can go east through Darien towards Colombia, north along the canal towards the Atlantic, or west over the canal towards Costa Rica and (eventually) the United States. Regional buses go in all these directions, leaving from the Albrook Gran Terminal Nacional de Transporte. You can get to Albrook station on any bus that says "Albrook", or on the metro.

The station is a mess. Bus schedules and departure gates are poorly organized. Find a kiosk in the terminal with the name of the place you are trying to go. Buy a ticket, and listen carefully to which departure port your bus will leave from. To get to your port, however, you need a special transit card to pay the ten sent departure tax. Someone will collect your ticket and you will get in a bus, or van, or some combination. Most likely, you'll wait a little bit for your vehicle to fill up. It can be smart to double-check that your destination is listed on the placard visible from the front of the bus.

Once your on the road, heading west, enjoy brief views of the canal as you pass over it. Do not be surprised when your bus slams on the breaks to pick up a new passenger. These passengers wait beside the highway with their heads craned the side, trying to figure out if your bus is going wherever it is they want to go. The bus will slow down for them if they wave soon enough. They might run alongside the bus a few strides before jumping on.

Los diablos rojos - red devils - are US school busses converted into Panamanian public transportation.

Panamá - People

1 country, 4 weeks, 7 people: freelance, software, design, writing, language, guitar, birding, photography, cultural tourism.

Team Workation:

1. Jeff - 30s - Entrepreneur, writer. Focus Week host.
2. Nick - 20s - Software developer, musician. Nick works at an all-remote company in USA.
3. Giles - 30s - Freelance developer, DJ. Giles is part of Gentle Oak Design & Dev, an office-free freelance group.

Team Hobbyist:

1. Niki - 20s - Graphic designer, birding amateur, Niki decided to take time off work and focus on a personal project.
2. Taylor - 20s - Physician's assistant, photography enthusiast. Taylor's profession is not remote-friendly, but she wanted to relax, practice spanish, and work on her photography habit.
3. Rae and Tom - 50s+ - Rae and Tom came down to visit Giles, their son, after his first two weeks in Panamá. They were curious about the cultures and cuisines of Central America.
    

The Panama Flag, on top of Cerro Ancon.

Inspiration... surprisingly easy to find when you look for it.

Jeff, with a draft of his book, "a monkey in the dark".

Giles, freelance ruby developer, web designer.

Nick, software engineer, full-time remote employee.

Niki and Taylor, enjoying some Latin American fusion.

Niki and Taylor, exploring the great outdoors.

Ms Sloth didn't mind us visiting her in Panama's Parque Natural Metropolitano.

Mr Coatimundi didn't sign up for Focus Week, but we let him join us anyway.

Focus Week

And finally... We're off!

"Join One World Innovations in sunny Panamá, Central America's most cosmopolitan city. Work hands-on an hour each day with our experienced do-ers, ... including design help, technical consulting, and skills development. In between, see the canal, eat local delicacies, and doze off on a beautiful beach."

We're trying a small ad campaign on facebook, to start getting the word out, but mostly to figure out what an ad campaign on facebook is... and how to engage potential clients, employees, and partners through the social network.

For the pilot, we're looking for a small but diverse group.

We picked four professions, which we decided were "best fit" for the remote lifestyle:

1. Design
2. Software
3. Management
4. Entrepreneurial

In each of these professions, a person could also be:

1. self-employed
2. working for someone else

Our ideal pilot group would have two people from each category, one with each of the possible employment statuses.

...

Say, what are _you_ doing next month?

OneWorldInnovations.org/Panama.

Hello, 2016!

Happy New Year!

Despite the month, the weather's been absurdly warm in Ithaca. Instead of wrapping up pilot logistics and marketing strategies, we've been tackling outdoor home-improvement projects. We need to rent out our office, the first Make-It Home prototype, before we can head down to South America.

And I went kite-boarding at Playa Copal in Costa Rica, scoping out a plausible pilot location. It was a great beach, a superb spot for a chill workation. But the internet needs an upgrade, and its a bit too remote for month-stay travelers. Another downside, from the perspective of an immersive work-and-travel experience, is the lack of a local community. It was a kitesurfer hangout, tucked between a few big resorts. The nearest real Costa Rican town was 40 bumpy minutes away.

Happy Anniversary

Its hard to believe its already been a year!

Its amazing to look around the internet and see all the buzz about remote working, about digital nomads, about piloting projects and new institutions focused on their own version of the same thing we've been working on all year. This buzz wasn't there 12 months ago.

Its a brand new industry, and its starting to blow up.

If you follow our project on facebook, we'll keep you posted on how this industry is going. We'll also share inspiring music, tip lists, interesting travel data, and revealing infographics.

And stay tuned. In just a few more months we're moving to South America!

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Anywhere Digs

Wow, what a rush!

First, Make-It Homes has been rebranded as Anywhere Digs, and we've launched anywheredigs.com. The Make-It Homes project is still alive as a related side project, regarding just the aspects of the vision that apply to property owners and productivity-oriented property upgrades.

One World Innovations and Anywhere Digs are both live on facebook, too. Like them?... Please? :)

• facebook.com/anywheredigs
• facebook.com/oneworldinnovations

The last few months have been quite a ride and a lot of work, all culminating last night. Rev, the local incubator I've mentioned in a few previous posts, invited One World Innovations to pitch its business. 12 companies were considered. 6 were selected for pitch night. We were the 4th pitch. The audience was 85 people. Most attendees were local entrepreneurs and professionals, some were students. A few in the audience represented regional venture firms.

We pitched Anywhere Digs, the global home-office network. We pitched it's pilot, launching early 2016 in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, and Argentina. (By the way, we're going to South America next March!) We pitched the key features. We pitched the scaling model. We answered questions, and then we mingled and had a really nice beer.

We're really happy with how it went. Rev did not record the event, but we're filming an adaption for web audiences.

In the meantime, did you know...:

• 52% US* workers unhappy with their jobs. (Conference Board)
• 40% US* workers have remote-feasible jobs. (Scott & Williams 2012)
• 90% US* companies are growing remote-working programs. (Citrix)
• The online staffing industry (e.g. remotely employed freelancers) will grow $4 billion by 2018. (Staffing Industry Analysts)

* I'd love to see similar data for the EU.

Where's the money?

User research

The big discovery after months of user research... is that most people have no idea what to do with a 3D printer, or laser cutter, or many other high-end prototyping tech. Generally, people are curious, and would love to learn more, but wouldn't want to pay the high-cost of exclusive access to these and many other pricey technologies.

That's great news!

Its a lot easier... I mean, its a lot cheaper... to furnish our Make-It Homes to provide only the universal and affordable office amenities. Clients with specific hardware needs can be satisfied by this basic offering, plus the option of temporary memberships at local incubators, hackerspaces, and 3D-printing labs. These days, nearly every major urban area is practically exploding with new businesses and organisations catering to these exact needs.

Funding

We've been looking into crowd-funding, ala kickstarter.com, to launch our first international Make-It Home. Kickstarter is not ideal, though, since it eats 10% of the funding. However, its a great platform with a lot of users, many of whom might love to be our pilot clients. Others may be willing to sponsor a site in exchange for a voice in the look, feel, and features offered at that site.

Another avenue is to approach and partner with the other side of the vacation accommodation market: the property owners. We've been digging into the existing revenue models for hotels, hostels, BNBs, and airBNBs. The Make-It Homes model compares very well against these alternatives, despite the added remote-productivity amenities. Most vacation properties sell to individual clients for a day or two, or at most a week. Its more efficient to rent space to a few clients over longer windows. Two weeks is the minimum stay we're considering for Make-It Homes clients. Most clients would stay between one and three months. By slowing down, you will actually pay less for a substantially deeper and more relaxing travel experience.

---

Summer vacation?

On May 29th, One World Innovations was invited back to Rev for their next entrepreneurial workshop: Concept to Company. C2C is a bit more exclusive than previous workshops, and they pre-screen applicants to make sure everyone is on the same page and serious about moving their business idea to the next level. C2C is also spread out over three night sessions, with homework in between. The focus of C2C is on iterating deeper into the business model canvas. The homework is about validating assumptions -- in other words, talking to people.

This was exciting advice. I mean, OK, did they really think we hadn't already been talking to people? Here's what they actually mean:

• Don't talk to friends and family. Talk to strangers.
• Don't tell people what your doing, but rather, have a conversation with them about their needs and wants.
• Direct this discussion towards the vague area of your business idea, and hope they complain about whatever pain point your idea is trying to tackle.
• Try to get at what they'd be willing to pay to have their problem solved, and hope this is more than what it costs to provide your solution.
• Iterate on your business model canvas as you learn from potential clients.

The value proposition canvas, from Osterwalder, Pigneur, Bernarda, and Smith's "Value Proposition Design". In this framework, a consumer hires a product to do a job. For what job would you hire a global network of Make-It Homes?

I decided Rev should be One World Innovations first partner. But then I went to Europe for a month... to Holland, France, Scotland, and Iceland. I asked a lot of people a lot of questions, to varying degrees of success. I almost got blown off a mountain.

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Local networking

Hi,

We love the Make-It Homes concept, but money doesn't grow on trees. The only way for our idea to grow beyond our garage ... is for us to figure out how it can generate the capital it needs to grow itself.

We need a business plan.

If you have your own life goals, and a genuine desire to achieve them... so do you.

The business model canvas, popularized in Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur.

On March 26, One World Innovations was invited to an educational business summit, sponsored in part by Cayuga Venture Fund. We were most excited by the keynote, a talk by Andrew Delmont on social entrepreneurship. Of additional value: several social media marketing seminars, a power networking session, and lunch. It was a new place to practice our pitch and learn a little about small business culture in upstate NY.

On April 9th, One World Innovations was accepted at "Ideas to Concept". I2C is a recurring entrepreneurial workshop hosted by Rev, a new business incubator in downtown Ithaca. There were four other accepted entrepreneurs, and discussion was led by Rev's entrepreneurs in residence Ken Rother and Brian Bauer. We bounced ideas off each other for 4 hours, basically working our way through the various components of the business model canvas shown above.

Sorry, we didn't take any photos.

Some people will do anything to make their business card stand out. I care a lot more about a person's ideas, and their core competencies. But it's nice if a card can reflect your or your company's values.

What's the most useful thing you could have on a 3.5" card? My previous card was lined for easy note-taking. This one is a ruler and doodle-pad. The squares are 1/4"x1/4". The angles are 15°, 30°, 45°, and 22.5°.

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P.S. The following are adverts, because money sometimes does grows on trees. I wonder what types of things AdSense will recommend for readers of this blog.

Our first launch!

Its hard to get a lot of work done over the holidays, but here's where we're at:

1. Our website is live at oneworldinnovations.org. Check it out to find out who we are, the services we offer, and to learn about our first big project: Make-It Homes.
2. Our prototype Make-It Home is already amazing. We focused on the low-hanging fruit, which really just means we deferred all high-cost and quickly depreciating purchases. Did you know that 3d printers cost more than $2K? Or that even the most basic laser cutters cost more than $10K? Furthermore, in most urban areas you can rent access to these and other high-end tech tools for very reasonable monthly rates. Ithacagenerator.org, a local 501c hackerspace, charges just $20 a month.
3. What wasn't low-hanging? We have a sweet wood-working shop in the garage, which we're using to create the rest of our office furniture. This isn't because we're bored! We're learning the tools -- gauging their safety, their ease-of-use, their ideal function in a prototyping laboratory. The first thing we built was a ping pong table, to complement the dartboard, Wii, and Rocksmith already set up in the play space.

There's of course a lot more to do, falling into roughly three categories: testing, marketing, and business development. Stay tuned!

A grand vision.

We're back from Thanksgiving break, with a healthy backlog of website mocks and business plan ideas for the Make-It Homes project.

The vision is grand, but at the same time simple. We asked ourselves to imagine the best-ever home-office. And here's what we came up with:

• a comfortable and separate living area
• a simple yet functional office: copious desk space, whiteboards, filing cabinets
• a full suite of office technology: print/scan/fax, large monitors, projector, killer internet
• a spacious workspace, chalk full of cool tools and tech: craft materials, woodworking tools, electronics gear, a 3d printer
• a play space, where its easy to take a break from whatever your stressing about
• did we mention killer internet?

But there was one more thing we thought would be really cool, and line up well with our company's mission: the best-ever home-office is everywhere in the world you want it to be.

After three weeks of thinking, only one thing is truly certain... we have a lot of work to do!