What is Demotech - By Joel
- Demotech works to create solutions to Development and Sustainability aimed at the whole world's population, in developed and less developed countries.
- To do this, demotech creates designs which serve a specific function. Examples are water pumps, toilet units, construction methods, and entrepreneurial aids.
- A Demotech design is expected to have several qualities:
- It should present an innovative solution to a basic problem or need.
- It is immediately applicable with current technology, resources, social structures and capacities.
- It is more efficient both in cost and resources than any immediate substitute.
- It is affordable and understandable to the intended users, so that clear knowledge of the design is sufficient for someone to make good use of it.
- Because they often use resources that are readily available to the poorest people, demotech designs are often mistaken as being "low tech". Demotech's work is very tightly refined, high-tech and complex, the result being an inexpensive construction that is very highly functional. This efficient use of available resources is characteristic of Demotech Design.
- Demotech works with students rather than professionals. This high tech work requires a very different way of thinking about technology. Students have the open-minded creativity required for the task.
- Besides creating designs, demotech produces publications, think-tank research, student training and projects which explain and give examples of design in practice.
- Everything produced through demotech is open source, and free for all users.
Because of this background, Demotech Projects have certain defining qualities:
- We do not attempt to please local people's wishes onsite. A project introduces people to an already completed design which is built to efficiently supply for their needs.
- We do not spend money on location. A design must be affordable to the end users, otherwise it is useless. Thus, a demotech project can only be successful if people are able to build and pay for the design themselves.
- Onsite, we train people extensively in the construction and use of the design. If the design is successful, it will be reproduced and spread after we leave.
- Projects are as much about research and publication on the demotech method of production as they are about the people directly involved. It is as important to test and improve the method and the design as it is to provide for the immediate needs of the people we visit.