Two main thoughts

[dina]

There are two main issues discussed in the wrokshop that i will be continually thinking about after leaving today.

First, the discussion about maslow’s hierarchy of needs and whether we actually know what people do need. If maslow was here, he wont really like what i am about to say, buuut I don’t think the Maslow hierarchy applies in our current world. I think our needs have developed with the changes of how we percieve our current world, so we cant really say that untill poor people are fed, they will start caring about issues like the environment. You see all the taxi, tuk tuk drivers in Egypt, you wouldnt categorise them within the middle or high class, but they do spend alooot of time, money and energy on personalising their cars; a need that doesn’t belong to the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid. It might be that customisation is an important need, or may be that people are relatively motivated after all, or it could be that our needs have developed and the layering of Maslow’s pyramid have shuffled. So conclusion, we should not assume what people want or need before actually, prototyping our idea and actually testing it, and the results would speak louder i guess.

As for the second thought, this would be about why we dont or wont collaborate in Egypt. At Reform Studio, i would say that yes competition is sometimes discussed as a concern, and for us, as designers who have created an innovative “award wining” new material, our concern stems from the absolute lack of awareness of the existence of intellectual property rights in Egypt. That said, we are aware that an idea alone is nothing, it’s how you’ll implement and grow your initiative. So i guess the question would be how to find the people with the right attitude to collaborate with?

[hazem]

looks like u r having a intense discussions

looks like u r having good discussions in the workshop . so allow me to jump into these discussions online I am not sure if what I am going to say was discussed or not

I really like how u rethink maslow’s pyramid , and actually - am backing u up here - it is good examples that u said also we can add these satellite  dishes one can see everywhere on top of even tin rooms or  in the very poor informal settlements that people actually struggle to get water and food and obviously proper shelter , but also when we think about it from their perspective if they saved the money they paid for the tv cable or something it wont get them water or proper housing (may be just some food ) 

so that 's y I think there should be a reason for people to recycle not because they love the environment and so on BUT because their is other incentives as green should be sexy , they need to have the same "pleasure or sense of belonging " they have when they customize their tuk tuks when they invest in something like recycling , I think this is part of the challenge -

and for the part of the intellectual rights - it is a very debatable issue - and I know there is lack of “awareness” in Egypt about that , but I kinda lean towards that Everything is a remix and to the open source way of thinking about that I mean so what if someone copied the idea it ,  any way it is another debate i think , may be we can discuss that afterwards

so have fun in the workshop , waiting for ur comments and updates :D:D