Editor’s Note: Last fall, we rolled out Purple Pedals (aka the Ybike), a project that mashed up purple bicycles with GPS devices, cameras, solar panels, and Flickr to create a social media experiment. We sent 14 of these bikes to influential bloggers/photographers/cyclists around the world. Here’s the story of how our Copenhagen bike was received on a recent visit to Africa:

My Experience on the Ybike
When I hit the dusty roads of Tanzania, “karibu” and “wow” were some of the first things I heard. “Karibu” is Swahili for “welcome” and shows everyone’s openness and goodwill at the sight of me with my purple Yahoo! bike. I could tell by the expressions on people’s faces that a “muzungo” (“white man”) on a purple cruiser was not an everyday sight — most white people arrive in four-wheel drives.

There are plenty of bicycles in Tanzania. The people who ride them — the majority of Tanzanians — cannot afford cars or motorcycles. The fancy Yahoo! bicycle with solar panels, camera and the shiny purple colour showed people that the bicycle is not just as a means of transportation for the poor.

I’m cofounder of Baisikeli (Swahili for “bicycle”), a project that makes high-quality bicycles accessible to the poorest people of Africa. These bikes have many purposes, including helping farmers increase their income by more than 100%, just by enabling them to move twice the amount of crops in half the time. We also build bicycle ambulances, which are donated to rural health care centres to enable them to provide vital access to health care in neighbour villages.

My Running Guides
The Baisikeli workshop is based in Arusha, 80 kilometres from Mt Kilimanjaro. When I first arrived from Denmark, I went out for a bike ride to get a feel for the vibes of the city. Within the first few minutes, two young boys were running next to the bike shouting “around – around!,” explaining that they were going to give me a guided tour of the neighbourhood. To be honest, I’ve had better guided tours. But taking into consideration that “around” was their only English word, the energy they put into the tour was amazing.

The Attention
A Yahoo! bike ride in Tanzania was a new experience every time. Obviously, you get a lot of attention when riding a fancy purple bicycle in Tanzania. People would often ride up alongside me and start asking questions in Swahili and show enthusiasm for both the bicycle and me. Children on the side of the road would call for siblings, who would come running out of houses, screaming euphorically at seeing the muzungo on the purple bicycle. I couldn’t help but laugh. It was great every time — seeing the small children amused by me passing by.

A boy laughing at muzungo passing by on a purple bicycle:

Uses for Bikes in Africa
Bicycles are important to Tanzanian infrastructure. They are vital in the mobility of both the population and goods. People are employed with transporting huge amounts of things like charcoal, milk or bread, traveling dozens of kilometres to the city to sell them.

Sometimes people turn their bicycles into mobile shops, so they can ride around and sell their goods. Here’s a bicycle sneaker shop:

The idea of using bicycles for varied means of transport is the foundation of Baisikeli. We design bikes based on what we observe about how they are used in society. If people can make a living transporting 100kg tomatoes, they can make an even better living transporting 200kg. As a result, our mantra is: “Bikes for a better life.”

Here are some more examples of people riding bicycles with a heavy load: a shop, two baskets balance the weight, selling ice cream, and goatskins.

Bikes for Better Health
Bicycles also mean the difference between life and death for inhabitants of rural villages — everyone from pregnant mothers to children with malaria. Twenty-five percent of children never reach the age of five. Bikes can change that. I visited a village called Intavira, 60km from the nearest city and without a proper road leading to it, to donate a bicycle ambulance. This village of 2,000 inhabitants was the largest of 20 in the area and the only source of proper health care. Sick relatives are often pulled in a wagon by cow. Now with the Baisikeli ambulance, the surrounding villages will have easier access to the clinic –- and we hope this will reduce the rate of deaths in the area.

Here’s a slideshow from my visit.

Henrik Smedegaard Mortensen
Co-Founder
Baisikli – Bikes for a better life

A month and a half in the saddle and today I have the perfect excuse to get blogging.

I’ve been on a whirlwind tour for the last six weeks, talking with everybody from executive leaders to the guys who configured my laptop. I’ve been in student mode, slowly getting smarter about what makes this place tick. And most recently, I’ve been gathering information on what it’s going to take to get Yahoo! to a great place as an organization –- and one that brings you killer products.

People here have impressed the hell out of me. They’re smart, dedicated, passionate, driven, and really nice. There’s so much great energy and frankly lots of optimism. But there’s also plenty that has bogged this company down. For starters, you’d be amazed at how complicated some things are here.

So today I’m rolling out a new management structure that I believe will make Yahoo! a lot faster on its feet. For us working at Yahoo!, it means everything gets simpler. We’ll be able to make speedier decisions, the notorious silos are gone, and we have a renewed focus on the customer. For you using Yahoo! every day, it will better enable us to deliver products that make you say, “Wow.”

I’ve noticed that a lot of us on the inside don’t spend enough time looking to the outside. That’s why I’m creating a new Customer Advocacy group. After getting a lot of angry calls at my office from frustrated customers, I realized we could do a better job of listening to and supporting you. Our Customer Care team does an incredible job with the amazing number of people who come to them, but they need better resources. So we’re investing in that. After all, you deserve the very best.

We’re also leaning on this team to make sure we’re all hearing the voice of our customers (consumers and advertisers). I’m singularly focused on providing you with awesome products. Period. The kind that get you so excited, you have to tell someone about them. Whether on your desktop, your mobile device, or even your TV.

And that takes a real understanding of what you want/need/love/hate, how you’re using our products, and what you find simple, intuitive, easy and fun. Who wants innovation for innovation’s sake if it doesn’t make your life easier, more efficient, more productive? So expect us to hear you better and take better care of you.

Finally, a note about our brand. It’s one of our biggest assets. Mention Yahoo! practically anywhere in the world, and people yodel. But in the past few years, we haven’t been as clear in showing the world what the Yahoo! brand stands for. We’re going to change that. Look for this company’s brand to kick ass again.

Big thanks to the many of you who’ve reached out with positive comments. It’s clear people want Yahoo! to succeed. I’ll try to pop by here again soon, though probably not too soon. I have a pretty long to-do list.

Carol Bartz
CEO

About two years ago, a life-changing experience occurred during one of the most mundane chores of a new mom: washing baby bottles. I was frustrated that my soap wasn’t really removing the milk odor or residue. I also wondered what the harsh chemicals might be doing to my daughter. The idea for a business was born.

Now I’m co-owner of Dapple, purveyor of the first line of environmentally-friendly products that deal with baby-specific cleaning challenges. And thanks to Yahoo! Small Business, our business is skyrocketing –- even in the current economic climate.

In March, on a whim, my partner Tamar Rosenthal and I applied to Yahoo! Small Business and fwm’s “Seeds for Success” grant program and were later named one of the three finalists chosen from among 5,500 entrepreneurs. Over the last six months, we competed for the grand prize by working toward milestones with our website, sales, partnerships, PR and marketing, and more. More than 660,000 people recently cast their votes on Yahoo!. And lo and behold, we won!

It’s wild to think that just six months ago, we had no products on shelves, no retail presence. Just a few prototypes and a lot of hope. After we earned Yahoo!’s grant of $25,000 in cash and services, it was the perfect storm. We were able to produce our first two products, found small retailers in our New York City neighborhood willing to be our first test market, and built our web site. I can’t describe the kind of endless credibility the Yahoo! name gave us. We later struck deals with two major national retailers, attended trade shows, won an iParenting Media Award for best product, and got a lot of great attention from mommy bloggers. We’ve sold more than 25,000 units to date, have distribution in 300 stores and strong interest from big national chains, and now have six products in our line.

As part of our prize, we got mentoring advice from some really legendary figures through fwm (Finding What Matters). For example, fwm’s Carolyn Kepcher, of “The Apprentice” fame and Yahoo!’s program co-sponsor, helped us shore up our business plan while being a great sounding board. Cathie Black, president of Hearst Magazines, taught us about breaking through closed doors “in a ladylike way” but never giving up. Brand guru David Vinjamuri helped us create thoughtful packaging (e.g., pump dispensers are far more convenient for harried moms) and branding that resonated with our customers. Beauty maven Bobbi Brown gave tips about carefully growing our business. And Scott Smigler from Yahoo! partner Exclusive Concepts helped us recognize how important a successful Web site is as part of the mix and was amazing in revamping our Yahoo! Small Business Web site.

We’ve experienced many ups and downs in our journey and we’re often humbled by the hard work and dedication of other passionate entrepreneurs. If you’re on the edge of jumping in and think you have a great idea with a lot of promise, we say “go for it!” But put on your seatbelt and hang on –- the ride is incredible. As for Dapple, we plan to use our grand prize winnings to bring you even more baby-friendly cleansing products in the near future.

Dana Rubinstein
Co-Founder, Dapple

There are nearly 275 million Yahoo! Mail account holders worldwide.

Since one Yahoo! Mail address is in the news today, I thought this might be a good time to remind everyone about some online safety tips that will help protect your account. (In order to protect the privacy of our users, we can’t get into specific details of any of our users’ accounts — we know you’d want us to do the same for you!).

• Choose a strong password. It’s like a toothbrush – choose a good one and don’t share it. Your Yahoo! Mail password can be any length and can contain spaces, symbols, or numbers –- letting you come up with something that’s easy for you to remember but impossible for someone else to figure out.
• Avoid using a complete word from a dictionary (English or otherwise) or a name.
• Use at least 7 characters. The more the better. A long but simple password can be safer than a shorter complex one.
• Use a combination of capital and lowercase letters, numbers, and standard symbols (! @ # $ % ^ &, etc.).
• Don’t use personal information that someone could easily figure out. Avoid a password based on information easily obtained about your (a birthday, your child’s name, your phone number, school name, etc.). Don’t use a password you already use for another account, like your bank account PIN. And don’t’ use your Yahoo! ID (or other username) in any form (reversed, capitalized, doubled, etc.).
• Avoid the obvious. Attackers tend to first try repeating letters or number sequences (123456). Stay away from “test” or “password.” And when you change your password, which you should do relatively often, don’t just add a number to the end.
• Create a sign-in seal. Yahoo! and many financial institutions let you personalize your sign-in page to help you make absolutely sure you’re not falling victim to a phishing scam. See a photo of your cat Rupert? You know it’s safe to proceed.

Cybercrime is an industry-wide issue and we’ve been working with the industry in combating it (with innovations like Domain Keys). Rest assured that we take security and privacy very seriously here.

You are the first line of defense. Head over to antispam.yahoo.com and security.yahoo.com for more tips to help you protect your account, your privacy, and your identity.

John Kremer
Vice President, Yahoo! Mail

You’re busy. You read fast. You have a lot more blogs to go today. But before you move on, wanna take two seconds to give us a little feedback? We’ve just added an insta-ratings system to every post, which will help us get a sense for what you dug and what outright bombed (it’s ok, thick skin). In each post footer, you’ll find five dots. Click, boom, done.

To aid you in your rating decision-making, here are some suggested criteria for selecting from one to five dots:

5 — Epic. That’s what I’m talkin’ about.
4 — That rocked. Though it could’ve used a little more je ne sais quoi.
3 — That hit the spot. Thanks.
2 — Meh.
1 — Wow. That sucked. No more of that, please.

Note that you can only rate a post once. So don’t get trigger happy. Thank you kindly.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

EDITOR’S NOTE: The earthwise among you know that tomorrow is Earth Day. We are teaming up with Freecycle™ and other popular reuse groups to inspire people to swap stuff they’d normally send to a landfill. In honor of Yahoo!’s “Free is Good” campaign, into which we’ve tucked treasures like a Smart Car, eco-resort vacation, and Sheryl Crow tickets, we’ve asked a Yahoo! user to reflect on what a boon Freecycle has been to her life:

September 19, 2003 should be memorable as my son Davis’ fifth birthday. Instead, we remember it more clearly as the day we started the very long recovery from Hurricane Isabel, which had hit our small Virginia town the day before. We lost just about everything in the bottom three feet of our garage to floodwater.

Several months later, I read about the local Yorktown Freecycle Yahoo! group and quickly joined. I immediately saw how it could help my town in its recovery efforts (which is, I might add, STILL ongoing five years later as friends and neighbors continue to shell out to repair floors and foundations).

The group proved useful just a few days after I joined. I had posted a want for a lawnmower and within 48 hours, I heard from “uubooklady.” When she let me know that her husband had recently bought a new mower to replace their 1985 Toro and that we were welcome to it, I was elated. I’ve always been happy to use hand-me-downs, and Deron Beal’s brilliant idea to use modern technology to share belongings locally via the Freecycle Network was a perfect match for my earth-friendly leanings.

When my husband Jim went to retrieve his “new” mower, lo and behold, his work colleague Ellis came pushing it out of the garage! These men worked mere feet from one another at NASA, yet they would have never made the lawnmower connection if it hadn’t been for Yahoo! Groups and the Freecycle Network.

I started FreecyclePoquoson for my own town that very week and have been happily moderating it ever since. We’ve grown to almost 600 members and we connect neighbors on a daily basis.

I’ve given away furniture, kitchen items, clothing, toys, and office supplies. I’ve received puzzles, games, craft supplies, used egg cartons (we raise hens and reuse cartons), even empty Kool-Aid Jammers (which I sew into very cool purses). I also get nearly-expired bread each week from a guy I met on Freecycle, who rescues it from grocery stores. I’m now known as “the bread lady” because I put a giant stack (we’re talking over 100 loaves) on my porch for neighbors who might be too proud to get food from the food pantry but are happy to keep it from being tossed into the landfill.

There are literally MILLIONS of similar stories about how helpful the Freecycle Network has been in people’s lives. I’ve seen time again how, while Freecycle often begins with an experience of a person receiving, it inevitably turns into discovering the joy of giving.

Freecycle, through Yahoo!, makes every day Earth Day and provides a modern, free, easy to use format to prove true the old adage, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” It sure beats spending hours having a yard sale or trolling sales!

Davis is nine now. He’s never known anything other than listing his old “stuff” on Freecycle. I don’t know when Poquoson will fully recover, but I do know that Freecycle and Yahoo! have and will continue to play an important part in the healing process… both for our community and for Mother Earth.

Traci-Dale
Yahoo! Groups user
Moderator, FreecyclePoquoson

When I started to post my pictures from Myanmar on Flickr in February 2006, I just thought it was a good way of storing my photos at a cheap price. But then I received one comment, two, three… and people even favorited my pics. Mon dieu, there’s someone somewhere who looks at my photos and takes time to leave some messages!

My ego was flattered. I felt like the most important amateur photographer on Earth. Then I received an email from The Economist asking me for an Oman pic to be used in an ad. (What? I can earn money with my pics??? And they even paid!) I went to Papua New Guinea, put my pics online, received comments, faves, you know the story! GEO USA called me: “Hi, we saw your Papua pictures on Flickr. We want 12 pages for GEO Germany, OK?” (Yes, sir!)

A French editor saw my photos and asked me if I was OK making a book. (No problemo!) My book was released this Christmas and was number 10 on Amazon.fr last week! Lonely Planet, National Geographic Russia, Get Lost, UNESCO Magazine, etc. bought my pictures thru Flickr. And then, the leading French photography agency Eyedea (Rapho, HoaQI, Gamma) contacted me and signed me few weeks ago!

So, YES, Flickr works and… well, now, I must leave you cuz I have to pack my bags and go to India for one month to shoot!

I keep posting on Flickr as it remains the most powerful tool to be seen on the Web and in search engines, and I do not want to lose the direct contacts I’ve got with the world jury that comments on my stream.

Thank you, Yahoo!!

Eric LAFFORGUE
http://www.ericlafforgue.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mytripsmypics

Last fall, Yodel Anecdotal received quite an unusual email:

“Hello - I wanted to leave a comment here about how Yahoo! has changed my life! I was homeless, living on $35 a week, sleeping on friends’ couches, and eating dollar menu in New York City, pursuing a career as a petite model. Without a computer of my own, I started using the Apple Store as my office in February of 2005. I organized my thoughts and experiences, struggles, and pursuits into a document that I saved to my free Yahoo! account. I am editing and publishing my memoir, Almost 5’ 4’’, which is about being the underdog in modeling and striving no matter the odds. Isobella”

But in this short email, Isobella Jade couldn’t hope to explain all the details of her one-of-a-kind story, which began when she was a struggling 19-year-old model. As a student at the New York Institute of Technology, she went from photo shoot to class to track practice to photo shoot. It was only time before Isobella’s mother found nude pictures of her daughter on the Internet. Ultimately, Isobella changed her birth name and decided to pursue modeling after graduation without looking back.

Isobella used the Net to self-promote, and decided that before her 25th birthday, she would be a published author, writing about the experiences of being an aspiring model, trying to break into the fashion industry, and being only 5’4’’ at that. Living out of a suitcase, she wrote her memoir (standing in heels between shoots) at the Apple Store on Prince St. in SoHo (check out the video they helped her make) and saved her work to her Yahoo! Mail account. And now, months shy of her self-imposed deadline, Isobella Jade’s work Almost 5’ 4’’: Confessions of an Unconventional Model is available at Borders and Amazon.com.

“Unlike some girls scouted to model or raised around fashion and glamorous life, modeling for me started with curiosity when I discovered a free Internet modeling site and it evolved into me becoming my own business,” Isobella said when we spoke on the phone.

She said she didn’t always have Yahoo! in her life. “My first email was on AOL, but when I started going for my dream I couldn’t afford AOL. I discovered Yahoo!, and suddenly saving my work, my rejection letters, my acceptances, everything, was one less thing to worry about.”

How’s life for her now? She’s finding success as a “body parts” (think knees, shoulders, and elbows) model and getting plenty of notice, but life is still a flurry. “I’m doing more legit work now [from a shoe ad campaign to doubling for a Christina Ricci movie poster], but I’m still rushing arund,” she said.

And as for Mom? “The book captures a time when our relationship was not so great. My mother is a teacher, and it was difficult for her to cope with me pursuing a career that has to do with my body. But now our relationship is great. She’s very, very proud.”

As she should be. Congrats, Isobella!

Doreen Bloch
Yahoo! Intern

It’s difficult to travel through the state of Nebraska without spotting the phrase “Go Big Red” somewhere along the way; but today, “Go Big Green” seems much more appropriate because Hastings, Nebraska, has gone green in a major way!

As noted on this very blog yesterday, Hastings beat out hundreds of other cities to earn the title of the “Greenest City in America” per Yahoo!’s “Be a Better Planet” promotion.

If you haven’t heard of Hastings, it is located right in the middle of the United States, is the birthplace of Kool-Aid, and also just happens to be home to every relative I have going back several generations. Initially, I was shocked to hear (overhear in the hallway actually) that Hastings was going to be victorious. But really there is nothing surprising about their big win at all. This is exactly the kind of community making exactly the kind of effort that Yahoo! hoped for when issuing our “Greenest City in America” challenge. Not to mention that people who live close to the earth may just care the most about it.

Hastings’ charge was led by the unflappable Mayor Matt Rossen and his staff. They saw an opportunity to highlight and extend an effort Hastings was already making and they aggressively set out to engage the entire community. They got the word out in a major way and via all available means: emailing the local businesses (who in turn encouraged their entire workforces to participate), leveraging local media, making numerous phone calls, even going door-to-door. With so much effort going into the “Greenest City” challenge, you might think Mayor Rossen has a lot of time on his hands. He doesn’t. For his service as mayor he receives $9,600 a year, so mayor is just one of two jobs he holds in this town.

Another Hastings resident who made time for the challenge was Jane Staley, who despite coming off a series of difficult surgeries, managed to find the strength to answer twenty-nine environmental questions on Yahoo! Answers. Jane was (and is) motivated by her desire to ensure we leave a world where “our grandkids and their grandkids can see rainforests and polar bears in their natural environments.”

Jane was one of over 2,000 Hastings residents who joined us Monday night for the “Greenest City” celebration (those 2,000 celebrators comprise nearly 10% of the entire Hastings population). It was a night of music, food (served on corn-based biodegradable plates), dignitaries, and the afore mentioned Kool-Aid (green for the occasion). It was also a night where a small team of Yahoos learned first-hand just how much this distinction meant to the town. From the marquees celebrating the victory all over town to the keys to the city we were honored to receive, it was clear this town couldn’t be prouder or more appreciative of the “Greenest City” title.

Chuck Conrad, Hastings resident and loyal Yahoo! user for 10 years, told me he had a good feeling that Hastings might win and noted that it was the topic of conversation the past few weeks. As for what this means to Hastings, he said, “We were ‘fly-over’ country before. We knew what we had here, but now hopefully other people know now, too.”

Here’s what we know Chuck: Hastings is officially the “Greenest City in America” and as such, will be receiving a quarter of a million dollars to continue greening their city. (Yeah, we initially offered up hybrid taxis but there’s not much need for taxis in this town).

To everybody in Hastings and all of the Yahoo! users who participated in the challenge, we thank you and we share your passion for protecting our planet.

Stay green!

Heidi Burgett
Yahoo! Evangelist

What do you do when your father’s arthritis prevents him from attending your sister’s backyard wedding? Haul out your webcam, position it outside your sib’s home office on a tripod, pray for the wind to die down, and fire up Yahoo! Messenger.

That’s what Jessica Greenhood recently did for her sister’s wedding. After learning her father wasn’t up for the trek from Florida to the Midwest, Jessica investigated ways to capture the nuptials for him. She had an old camcorder, but its battery was defunct. Finding a replacement battery in Miller, Kansas (pop: 12 houses), proved a distinct challenge, and a new camera was more than Jessica could afford.

Remembering how effective her Yahoo! Messenger webcam had been for monitoring her family’s shop after-hours, she MacGyver-ed together a low-tech, low-cost solution that brought the ceremony to her father — and tears to his eyes.

“I’m a kid in a candy store with Yahoo! Messenger. I’ve been using it for years to communicate with family and friends. Everyone lives so far away — can you say big phone bill? I’ve always found it really easy to use. Even here in Kansas, where I’m on dial-up that really only gets speeds of 24.4K,” she said.

Thanks for writing with your story, Jessica. And congratulations, Naomi and Eric!

Nicki Dugan
Editor, Yodel Anecdotal