Inventor's 2020 vision: to help 1bn of the world's poorest see better

Josh Silver was one of my tutors at university (a very smart, friendly, approachable professor).

He has indeed been pursuing this idea for a good while, quite passionately. This is one case where entrepreneurship in the western world can really help poorer countries, imho.

It's also a good example that it can take a lot of perseverance and more than just cool technology to make things happen on a large scale like this. The science to make these glasses was already pretty much done 10 years ago when I did my degree, but unfortunately it's still not widely distributed to the people who need it most.

I know there are many people on this site who are looking for interesting, socially constructive projects to back - this is certainly one of them.

In many countries it is already common practice that poor people buy glasses on the market without any prescription. They try on several different lenses and buy the one that seems most suitable. In essence that's what the doctor does as well.

I'm so glad the article didn't end up taking a 'social enterprise' angle. Silver was doing his stuff a long time before the concept was given a title, and hence got diluted with PR nonsense and consultancy management speak.