VISION + STRATEGY
The vision, which inspired the creation of TOM, calls for every person to have the solutions that they need, wherever they are and at a cost they can afford so the benefits of technological progress and innovation trickle down across societies. This vision is inspired by Jewish values of Tikkun Olam and the aspiration for a compassionate and caring society. Therefore, TOM also aspired to support every Jewish community around the world in their efforts to contribute to the betterment of their societies.
TOM’s mission and purpose were forged to effectuate its vision. Our mission is to inspire and support a global movement that creates and distributes radically affordable and accessible solutions for neglected needs of vulnerable populations. Our purpose is to be a network and a platform for innovation-for-good, serving both developed and developing communities and societies. These ideas are summarized in TOM’s motto: Affordable and Accessible for Anyone Anywhere.
TOM was designed as a “moonshot venture” which aims to help 250 million people. As a moonshot project, every element of the TOM Process of creating and distributing TOM Solutions was shaped to be scalable.
A GIANT CHALLENGE + UNIQUE ECONOMIC MODEL
In today’s profit-driven markets, many people with disabilities and other vulnerable populations do not have access to solutions they need, where they live and at a price they can afford. This gap exists because for-profit companies have little incentive to develop affordable, highly specialized assistive technologies for rare conditions or for poor populations. At the same time, government funding for such solutions is often limited or unavailable. Thus, the predicament of such vulnerable populations is a “societal failure” because acute needs are left unmet.
TOM seeks to bridge this gap by creating a marketplace that clears demand and supply for talent, allowing engineers, programmers, product designers and care professionals to volunteer their skills in order to address neglected needs of many small groups of people.
Through this unique “economic model,” TOM facilitates the development and sharing of low-cost, open-source solutions, providing solutions to those excluded by markets. Please see the section about the TOM Approach to learn more about how we serve our mission.
THE TOM APPROACH
The TOM Approach for realizing its vision, mission, purpose and motto is based on the following principles:
Focusing on ‘neglected problems’ where an affordable market or government solution is unlikely. Note that some solutions are available in developed nations but not in developing ones, or in rich metropolitan areas but not in poor or rural areas.
Tapping the ‘long tail of talent’ by allowing engineers, programmers, product designers and care professionals, which we refer to as “Makers,” to volunteer their time and their skills, inventions and innovations toward creating TOM Solutions.
Human-centered innovation: The TOM Process for creating TOM Solutions is driven by a “need knower” who has intimate first-person knowledge of the problem to ensure the functionality and usability of the TOM Solution.
Documenting the TOM Process in a TOM Playbook: The TOM Process refers to a series of steps from identifying TOM Challenges to having TOM Products that are documented and ready for manufacturing. The TOM Playbook describes the TOM Process so that it can be deployed anywhere around the world.
The intellectual property of all TOM Solutions is deposited in the public domain in order to allow for global open-innovation in designing TOM Solutions and for “distributed manufacturing,” which means that every product can be customized to the needs of the user and created locally .
Building an online platform for sharing all TOM Solutions globally so that if TOM solves-for-one then it solves-for-all. Hence, the TOM website is like an online store of product files that are downloadable for free.
Tapping underused resources of design and manufacturing e.g. engineering and design programs in universities and schools, in order to mass-design, prototype and disseminate TOM Products.
TOM Products are manufactured locally by makerspaces that download the design files from the TOM Website, customize the TOM Solutions for the needs of users and manufacture them. This approach is known as “distributed manufacturing.”