Learning new ways to challenge.

I recently read an article   titled Budding programmers swap ideas with Gates. This profiles some talented college students from various countries who won the opportunity to share their projects with Microsoft’s Bill Gates. One of the featured contestants is a Brazilian development team who created vibrating wristbands that work with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and mapping technology to help blind people navigate their surroundings.

What a great way to get people interested in creating devices and other improvements for the greater good of all. Microsoft is not only marketing their development tools they are also challenging young people to think about utilizing technology for real world applications.

As a member of a newly formed local organization of visually impaired and blind people, I am motivated by the ideas presented in this article. Not just the technology featured, but more so the concepts that inspired the contest -- Challenging people to create with social consciousness.

I hope that our organization, the Monroe County Council of the Blind, can use creative methods to market our ideas and change the perceptions of visually impaired and
Blind people. We have several challenges ahead that include local awareness campaigns, countering the many stereotypes associated with blind people and challenging our membership to strive for their individual goals. I look forward to sharing more about this endeavor and especially our accomplishments in the future. It’s not very easy to take a task like educating the public on a topic such as blindness and other related issues. Well, frankly, the topic is not considered exciting enough to attract the desired attendance. After reading this article I am moving in the direction of finding solutions that have been applied to for profit business rather than thinking of this effort solely as a social issue. Should be interesting! Stay tuned.