Have you heard about http://buythissatellite.org/ ? Buy This Satellite is a brilliant marketing concept where Kosta Grammatis, the young inventor who was awarded one of TIME Magazines best inventions of 2009, is trying to raise money to buy a satellite and move it to Africa where more than 5 billion people is without Internet access. So he wants them to use this satellite for free.

He got an amazing group of sponsors too, among them NASA.

Even though there is a great cost to this project it is doable. Both buying the satellite and moving it to Africa.

There is one catch though. The majority of the 5 billon people in Africa is also without electricity.  There are also fibre cables all around the coastline of Africa that would provide a much faster access to the Internet than the satellite.

So experts around the globe are not questioning what he is trying to achieve, but many is questioning if a satellite is the best way of doing it.

If you are a carpenter you might get used to se every problem as a nail, and every solution as a hammer. Both Kosta and NASA are experts on satellites.

Can it be that a great marketing concept sometime takes the focus away from the real problem?

Emotions are a great communication and marketing tool. When you really get to people you can get them to do great things.

Please do not take this the wrong way. I really want the 5 billion to get access to the Internet. I just hope this is the right way of doing just that. If it turns out not to be there is going to be a long time until anyone else is going to be able to try anything similar (not the satellite, but helping the 5 billion with access) again.