Collaborative Problem Solving | Alejandro Maza | TEDxDF

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

"I'm intrigued by how many different ways there are to arrive at the same solution," says Alejandro Maza, co-founder of Yo Propongo (I Propose), a platform for citizen engagement that finds collaborative solutions to social problems while creating social cohesion.

Thank you.

So, yeah, problems.

[Problems]

Mexico has problems;

some are very serious.

All we have to do is ask ourselves,
"Who isn't affected by them?" Right?

Or, "Who hasn't had ideas
of how to fix them?"

I loved how earlier we had
a 20-minute group discussion,

and we came up with a ton of ideas
at both of the tables I was at.

There were very different ideas
about how to fix the issues.

The thing is, when we're constantly
faced with problems,

we sort of become experts on them.

When facing a big challenge,

we don't have the luxury
of wasting all these ideas.

Here's an example:

NASA is months away
from launching the Atlantis.

Millions upon millions of dollars
have been invested in this mission.

And for weeks, the smartest scientists
from around the world

were trying to reduce
the weight of the rocket by 1,300 pounds,

because it's too heavy and can't fly.

After a lot of frustration and attempts
to improve their already perfect designs -

they're the experts,
they're the smartest people -

they decide to try something
they've never done before.

They call everyone in the building
to the auditorium.

From the night security guard
to the head of the program,

everyone was there.

They pose the problem to everyone:

"Look, we're 1,300 pounds over.
What should we do?"

After a few hours
of bouncing ideas around,

someone finally raises
their hand and says,

"Don't paint it."

It was the maintenance person,

who has to carry cans of paint every day

and knew that a lot of paint
was needed to paint the rocket,

which you see there, that copper color.

So they didn't paint it,
the mission was a success,

and since then, NASA has taken
its most difficult problems

that not even their best
engineers can solve,

and they put them online
and offer prizes to solve them.

This method is called "crowdsourcing,"

which basically means enlisting
a large group to help with a task.

Nowadays, it's used for everything,
from making the best predictions

in politics or sporting events,

using betting sites
where people upload predictions,

to Wikipedia, which we've all used,

to the most successful
T-shirt company today,

which doesn't have a single designer;
all the designs are crowdsourced.

So if this model works so well,

why not apply it to the problems
that affect us the most?

Why not use them to solve social issues?

[Social Issues]

It's not so crazy if you think about it.

Ultimately, the people affected
by issues understand them;

we face them every day.

[Knowledge, Interest]

We know how to improve things,

what part of a government program
isn't working and which could be better,

and we care, because
if a problem is solved,

we could directly improve
our quality of life.

A year ago, a couple of friends and I
asked ourselves this question:

"Why don't we use crowdsourcing
to solve social issues?"

And "Yo Propongo" was born.

"I Propose" is a civic engagement platform
that does just that:

it gathers information
from people closest to the issue

and transforms it into viable projects

that affect them directly
and help solve the issue.

The way it works is simple.

We ask the community:

"What do you propose?"

"How could this issue
be improved or solved?"

We gather all the information
through media that's super easy to use,

like Twitter, Facebook, polls, SMS.

We want it to be easy.

Then we analyze the information,

trying to create a much more
comprehensive picture.

Once we see the bigger picture,
we can identify trouble areas

or what people might consider to be
causes or possible solutions.

With all this information,

we meet with the people trying
to solve the problem -

different levels of government,
community organizations,

international institutions ...

All of them can use this information.

So now that we're sitting down
with them, we say,

"You can improve the program in this way,
or you can start a new one."

So in the end,

the ideas proposed by the people
affected by the problem

become programs that affect them directly

and that help us find a solution.

I'll give you an example.

The first issue we tackled was
alcohol-related traffic accidents

in Mexico City.

Many organizations deal with this issue,

investing millions of pesos a year,

but they rarely take
young people's input into account.

We went to 100 universities
and compiled thousands of ideas.

Fernando tweeted an idea:

"How about instead of closing
sobriety checkpoints at 4,

which is an hour before the clubs close,

they close later?

That way, I'm not in the club
having a few more beers

until the sobriety checkpoints close."

From there, we gathered
the information from Fernando,

we gathered information
from everyone who sent us ideas

for the "Drive without alcohol" program,

we sat down with the program directors
and said, "What do you think?"

And voilà!

Now there are sobriety checkpoints
that close at 6am.

To date, in a little over a year -

[2 cities, 2 issues,
over 10,000 participants]

we've been in two cities,

dealt with two different issues
in Juarez and Mexico City,

and we've had more than
10,000 people participate.

And we've realized that
information is really important,

and all this participation can lead -

[Solutions]

to solutions that affect
people's daily lives.

But more importantly,

we believe we've found a platform

that will allow for a transformation
that goes beyond ideas and solutions.

We ourselves can be transformed

from seeing ourselves
as victims of problems

and complaining about everything

to becoming part of the solution.

Thank you.

(Applause)