A little reflection about my coolhunting process

Hi!
As you have seen I posted a few new blogs about coolhunts. We are almost finished with the sector Food for this year and therefore I have written a short reflection about my Coolhunting process.

I have used the Science of the Time’s Coolhunt Methodology for writing this self reflection.

This year I started with the study International Lifestyle Studies and from the beginning we had to write about Coolhunts on this blog. From the start I have found it hard to write my blogs in English and I still do. I always write the Coolhunts first in Dutch and then I try to translate them into English. Everyone says that I have to write them in English right away, it should save a lot of time and the blog will be better then.  So I will definitely try that the next time!

Here are some things I do before and while I am writing the blog:

I constantly work on my archive on my laptop. When I see interesting things I drag them to my desktop, make a print screen of it or save the articles in the pocket. The only problem is that I tend to forget to order the pictures and articles, so sometimes it is hard to find something.
At home I also constantly collect articles from newspapers and other stuff I found on the street. But again, I tend to forget to order them. The previous period we had to collect the articles in a dummy, so that would be an idea for the next time again.

I really learned a lot from the lessons ‘Actualiteiten’ (News) in the previous period. We had to cluster news and it really worked for me. When I spotted a lot of cool stuff, I first clustered them which made it easier for me to explain the future growth potential and the mentality behind it.

I particularly coolhunt through visuals. A lot of people have noticed that and said that to me. I spend a lot of hours at pinterest or other websites. It is harder for me to describe what the coolhunt is about but the technique mentioned above helps a little bit:)

At my desktop I also have a few notes, so when something pops up in my head I immediately write it down or save the note on my iPod or mobile phone. Everywhere in my room there are papers lying around with notes because that makes it easier for me to write down what I want to discuss in my blog. It always takes a lot of time to start, but after a while I continue typing. This makes me think that this might not be the best method. Sometimes I think about buying a type machine because typing is quicker but I can also put it next to my laptop and mark some things.

I always think that I am doing it wrong and I spend to much time searching and searching, so I think I have to take a stand about my Coolhunts and have confidence about what I am doing. I really like to search for cool things and I am always curious about things (sometimes my family gets mad because of my curiosity) and I think it would be more fun when I am confident about my posts.  Now, my insecurity gives me a lot of stress.

I think that I do a lot of other things while coolhunting and writing on my blog, so it might be an idea to write down every single other thing that I do while working.

Thanks for reading! x Eline

Coolhunt 5 – Against Global Warming

Sustainability is a long term trend and the past few years there have been invented new ways to deal with it. There are two trends I would like to share with you.

The first trend is about package waste. I already showed you a few cool things that are designed against food waste. In the past two years, there also have been invented products against packet waste.

The fast food firm ‘Bob’s’ came up with an edible wrapper. In the video below you can see that the people not only eat their burger but also eat the wrapper. It’s made from rice leaves and it tastes just like a normal burger.

There is also an ice cream shop, Coolhaus, that wraps it’s ice cream in edible paper.

The company ‘Monosol’ creates dissolvable packages for hot chocolate powder, oatmeal and other things. You can put the plastic into hot or cold water and it slowly dissapears.

Food package is a big part of the waste in our homes. Packings for the school lunch, or packages in the evenening during cooking. I’m always thinking about what can be done about this and the edible or dissolvable packages seem like a good solution to me.

At pinterest I have also seen a lot of pictures of nice ways to package your food, like eatable spoons or chocolate boxes.

The second trend is Urban Farming. I think everyone recognizes that title.

Anywhere in the western world, there have arisen vegetable gardens. At empty places in the city, in empty buildings or even on roofs. It’s also possible to make a vegetable table on balconies or even in the kitchen.
Urban farming has many advantages: it provides fresh and affordable fruit and vegetables. The city will become healthier and cleaner.

Another example are the string gardens from Fedor van der Valk. It’s kind of the same as the Bonsai- technique where roots are growing in a ball of moss. You can hang the plants in your home. It’s a new way off gardening.

Why is it cool?
This year there were people who thought that there was a pause in the climate change. Since 2001 global warming has been slower than predicted. Research shows that the global warming hasn’t stopped in the past decade, but that the heat has been pushed below the surface because of the strong wind (Volkskrant, 2014)

This is why we still have to live more sustainable. It’s nice that they invent new ways to get people’s attention.

Why has it future growth potential?
An article in the Volkskrant says that the earth will heat up very quickly if the winds slow down in the coming years. The global warming hasn’t stopped and will not stop in the coming years. So everyone has to become more aware of it and the new inventions will help in this process.

Coolhunt 4: It’s watching us

Last year I heard from somebody, that hackers can watch you trough your webcam. There was also an episode of GTST (a dutch soap serie) where it was shown. I immediately put a sticker on my webcam. At one point, the sticker fell off and I forgot to put a new one on it. At the beginning of this year, there appeared new posts about taping your webcam.
At a certain point, I saw more and more people with a patch, sticker, tape, etc. on their laptop.

The Volkskrant also posted an appeal on their website at the 15th January. In January, Lodewijk van Zwieten, national public prosecutor in the area of cybercrime, advised all dutch people to cover their webcams the moments they don’t you use it.
This was in response to the court case against the eighteen year old hacker who had broken into computers on a large scale and had manipulated all kinds of files. The hacker also spyed on people through their webcam. This can be quite simple with certain software (Volkskrant, 2014).

The VPRO wants to make its viewers aware of this and has previously included stickers in its TV guide. At the front page they placed the sentence: It’s watching us.

The organisation Bits of Freedom, that defends digital rights, developed Bits of Freedom Stickers that you can stick on your webcam. With these stickers you can let everybody know that internetfreedom is important to you. These stickers can be ordered at their website (Bof, 2014)

Of course it’s also possible to put a normal sticker or something else on your webcam!

Why is it cool?
Total Transparency has it’s benefits and it’s drawbacks. A disadvantage is that our privacy is in danger. These activities will make people think about their own privacy and incentivise them to take action. They can make sure that their own privacy is protected.

Why has it future growth potential?
Because of the technological developments, it’s harder to protect your privacy. The trend Total Transparency is a long- term trend and will not end in a month. We want our privacy back and we want to have control about our own live. These actions seem to make that a bit more attainable.

Coolhunt 3 TRACKERS

Since the development of new technologies, privacy has declined. However, these technologies can also help you with certain things.

For Example, with the app Shazam, you can find songs from the past few years. Therefore you do not have to be stuck with a song in your head without knowing the title of the song..

Now, a new app has been designed, ASAP54. This app helps you to find the cute shoes you saw on the street. When you come across something you only have to take a picture and the app will search for the clothing or will look for something similar.

The ‘find my phone’ apps are older but still very useful because it is a permanent problem.  At this moment there is a wide range of apps for every phone to find your phone.

At Volkskrant.nl I read the article: ‘Holland and U.S. want phones to be equipped with ‘killswitch”.
‘Telecom Providers in the Netherlands probably will be required from Januari 1 next year, to make the stolen mobile phones of their customers unusable. Because of Killswitch the phone will be unusable. The U.S. is working on a similar law. The blockade has to make sure that thieves can not access the valuable data.
The next problem arises: hackers can probably soon delete phones widely, leaving many people with a crappy phone’ (volkskrant.nl).

Trackers are not only for phones. For example, now there is TRAX, a GPS tracker that helps you locate your children and pets real time by using a mobile app or computer.

 

At last, there is a firefighter who has designed his own Google Glass App which saves lives.
‘Jackson, a 34-year-old member of the Google Glass Explorer program, has developed an app that displays incoming emergency dispatches, shows maps of where incidents are, nearest fire hydrants, and even building plans. By using data to shorten response times, he’s hoping to turn his peers’ disbelief into respect’ (fastcolabs.com). 

Why is it cool?
I am not sure that I find everything cool. But I wanted to show the two sides of trackers.
I like some of the trackers because you can track stolen stuff or you can save lives with it.
But the fact that soon everyone knows anywhere and at any time where you are, does not seem like such a nice idea. Trough bonus cards and discount cards the stores already know what you are buying and now they can follow passersby on the street trough tracking phones.

Why has it future growth potential?
Technology develops constantly. By Web 3.0 it is already possible for companies to see what everyone is typing on their websites, without placing the message. And now they go a step further. Because off these possibilities they have a certain power over you and I do not think that they will give that up soon.

Coolhunt 2 Food Transparency

Lately there has been increasing commotion about the food we consume. This is because of the various food scandals which were published. And this will probably not be the last.

I will mention a few scandals here:

‘Chinese human hair is sometimes used as a bread improver’ (Volkskrant)
The article told that an important component of bread, called ‘bread improver’, in some cases is made of Chinese human hair.
Bread improver is an extra ingredient which bakers add to dough to enhance the tenderness of their bread.
This phenomenon does not occur in the Netherlands, luckily, but it makes people thinking about it.

Horsemeat Scandals
About a year ago the horse meat scandals reached the news. It became known that horse meat was sold as beef.
In an article on Foodnieuws.nl I read that the FNLI found it extremely disappointing that ”another company became known as still not living up to the basic requirements for integrity products and acting safely and whereby the administration to guarantee the quality is not in order ”.

Foodwatch started a campaign that is called: ‘Misleid!’ (misguide).
Foodwatch is the ‘waakhond’ of the Netherlands. They join forces with thousands of consumers for the right of fair, safe and healthy food. They show you where it goes wrong and point the government and industry at their responsibility to protect consumers (Foodwatch.nl)

Food Watch has revealed  a lot of misleading marketing tricks over the past few years. ‘Healthy’ products full of sugar, ‘authentic’ recipes with a long list of E-numbers, false health claims on ‘resistance- enhancing’ yogurt and so- called ‘natural’ products which do not turn out to be as natural as was claimed. Food manufacturers use the marketing tricks on a large scale to sell their – often unhealthy and processed – products ‘.

At https://www.foodwatch.nl/misleid/index_nl.html you can read what the situation is at the moment and the number of products which they have identified is shown.

There are many more scandals and signals out there, but I will discuss the products that have arisen in response of these messages:

A food scanner has been designed, which is called ‘TellSpec‘. The gadget analyzes your food and tells you exactly what is in it.
‘by holding the device close to the food and drink, he measures the molecular mass of individual components with infrared light, . Tellspec is not finished yet. The creators started a crowdfunding campagin on Indiegogo’ (bright.nl)

There also exist packages that are adapted.
‘Corella meat branding’ indicates the ‘Exact Cut of the Animal Inside’ So he’s telling the consumer exactly what sort of animal he is s about to eat and from where on that creature the cut has come’ (trendhunter.com).

The Slow Food Movement is organizing a wild course where you slaughter animals by yourself, prepare them and eat them.
The consensus at the farm is that it is good to think about how our food is produced.
According to Arie van den Brand we are completely alienated from our food. ‘I actually think that all the kids in high school have to slaughter a chicken and prepare it. Just to make them aware of what they eat and if you still want to eat meat, it is your own choice’ (volkskrant.nl).

SLA LAB is part of the Salad Bar SLA which is located in Amsterdam.
‘Under SLA LAB eat, share and live will come together. The LAB is not just the kitchen where we translate our inspiration into new recipes (eat), but also the open house where you will learn how to cook SLA- typical and listens to ‘do-ers’, dreamers and thinkers from the world of good food (share)’ (sla-lab). From January 2014 they started organizing workshops. Every month they invite experts that they find inspiring and who can tell you a little more about the wonderful world of food.

During a guest lecture at school we got to hear something about restaurant BIO MIO.
‘In the former red light district of Copenhagen, Bio Mio serves an Asian- tinged menu which is 100% organic and which consists for 70 % of vegetables’ (foodinspiration.nl).
They don’t use fancy scenes, but fair, real food is central to this anti -glamour concept.
The remarkable thing is that visitors can look through a wall of glass into the freezer.
That is Total Transparency!!

Why is it cool?
Because of the overload of food scandals people do not longer know what is healthy and what is not.
Through various routes there will be searched for solutions to solve the problem.

Why has it future growth potential?
Transparency is not only a trend in the Food sector, it is everywhere. Therefore it will be a long during trend. People no longer accept that companies and the government are holding back things for them. By the various confusions that have been established, people want clarity first. The first companies started with it, but it still will take a while before everything is clear to everyone.

Coolhunt 1 Against Food Waste

Today, we are producing too much food.
Research shows that around 5 to 10 per cent of the vegetables is being wasted because of their shape, color or size.

A few companies have developed a response to this process.

There is an older initative: ‘Kromkommer‘
They bring crazy vegetables – which will be wasted otherwise because of their shape, color, size or overproduction  – back into the food chain.

‘Kromkommer’ is also working on a production line. They connect farmers to wholesalers and horeca, and they are looking at possibilities to get crazy vegetables on the shelves.

”There is not only the throwing away of a lot of vegetables, in Amerika they are discarding fifteen billion dollars of fruit every year” (Lindanieuws.nl) . Mirim Seo came up with a solution: Ugly Fruit. She is making jam, smoothies and dried fruit from the ‘ugly fruit’. She makes these products more attractive through pretty packaging.

The restaurant Biomat let guests pay with waste.

BIOMAT was a POP-up restaurant in Austria. This restaurant offered meals in exhange for biodegradable waste. BIOMAT put the waste into biogas, which they used to cook with.
They asked their costumers to take bags with biodegradable goods with them to the restaurant. Then the bags were weighed and they got an energy value, which was converted into a voucher for the restaurant.

Through the use of crowdfunding they are developing a product that gives you the opportunity to act against food waste yourself.
Within three hours the ‘Food Cylcer‘ turns food scraps into compost, which can be used, for example, in the vegetable garden.

and at last…

Around three weeks ago, the Albert Heijn (that’s a supermarket in Holland) gave away free transparent measuring cups with the purchase of a private label rice or pasta. With this, you can measure how much pasta or rice you need for a one to four persons portion. The article from the ‘Volkskrant’ (a dutch newspaper) mentioned that the measuring cup is difficult to read and that the dimensions are still different for every person. But they came to the conclusion that if the ‘Eetmaatje’ also let people who where never concerned about food waste, think about this dilemma, it was still useful.

Why is it cool?
These initiatives and products ensure that more people are going to think about food waste.

Food waste is a big problem, it creates an inefficient use of energy and natural resources. There are still many people around the world who live with hunger every day and we are throwing food away?!!

I believe that these initiatives will improve the quality of life for people. People are now able to play a part in reducing food waste by themselves.

Within the model of Felce and Perry it will have a positive influence on our emotional well being. People are more satisfied and they are happy because they can do something for others.