When I first started thinking deeply about network effects I was very pleased to realize that there are some little examples: pot luck dinners, flea markets. And one of my favorites was the turntable, a toy found in playgrounds.

These days I’m more interested in how you get these network effect things to start, or how you create new turntables. How you draw off something from the resulting energy that assures they can be self sustaining, maintained.

So I just can’t believe how wonderful this example is. Via Rebecca Blood; a turntable that taps the energy in children’s play to pump water. What a tour de force! There are 500 of these in South Africa.