Big Apple hosts redesign competition

New York City, also known as the 'Big Apple', one of the greatest cities on Earth, is proving the perfect example of how government can engage its citizens in order to re-imagine the world we live in. The Reinvent Payphone Challenge, hosted by Quirky, an industrial design firm located out of New York, asked contests to rethink the design of thousands of outdated, dilapidated payphones currently plaguing the city. In fact, there are roughly 11,000 public payphones throughout New York's five boroughs, and anyone who's ever visited the city knows that most of those have been reduced to germ-infested piss-booths. Let's face it -- in the age of smartphones, who uses a payphone anymore?

They've gone the way of the beeper, some say. Yet the eleven finalists of the Reinvent Challenge beg to differ. Crowds gathered last night to listen to some truly tremendous visions for the future. From straight-out-of-Star-Wars ideas like a kinetic sidewalk that harvests energy from everyday foot-traffic, to more advanced versions of the iPad, the event oozed creativity and ambition.

According to Citywide Chief Information and Innovation Officer Rahul Merchant, the eleven finalists were chosen from more than 120 submissions. "It was hard to get it down to 11," he said. "The ideas were phenomenal and so full of innovation."

The most shared trait among the 'payphones of tomorrow' was a large touch-screen, which featured information for businesses and offered directional help. But who knows how far these ideas will go. "The ideas we got from tonight will be incorporated with research we’ve done prior to the design challenge," said Merchant, who went on to add: "This is New York City. We set global standards. The way we do that is to get the best ideas from everybody’s minds.”

He's got that right. Now, if only governments and corporations across the globe were as willing to tap into our greatest natural resource -- the minds of our people! -- to identify current problems and help come up with creative solutions. What a world we might live in...

Of course, the conservative minded-reader immediately asks, "But how is the city planning on funding these 'payphones of tomorrow', with their fancy screens and whatnot? Sure, idealism is nice, but there's always a price tag."

The project is being funded by public and private partnerships (with advertisers pitching in just a bit of course... who doesn't want to see a McDonald's symbol pop up on their payphone touchscreen?), so the city of New York won't end up spending a single tax dollar to revamp their infrastructure. Hear that? Not a single tax dollar!

What Quirky has done for payphones, NRGLab has done for electricity production. Now all it takes is implementation -- taking that next step. We've identified the problems facing climate change. There's too much carbon in the atmosphere. The icecaps are melting too quickly. We rely too much on fossil fuels. We consume way, way too much. Are we going to stand idly by as we let the world turn into a New York city phone booth? Or are we finally willing to accept the fact that it's time to come together as a community, a nation, a planet, and solve these issues together?

To check out the eleven finalists in The Reinvent Payphone Challenge, visit NYC.gov's Facebook page. For more information on NRGLab, visit http://nrglab.asia/