Luma League will have a demonstration table at Chabot Space and Science Center this Saturday, April 14th.

We’ll be working on a LumaLeague Phototherapy Lamp and have a LumaLeague Photherapy Meter on display.

This will be a trial run for what I want to do at Maker Faire, coming up on May 19th and 20th, where we’ll be asking people to solder LED’s and contribute to Luma League to fund our first overseas tinkerer position.

Ok, since this is the blog I’m going to tell this as a story.

I met Luke at Global Healing a couple of weeks ago. I contacted him because they have designed and constructed and are in the process of giving away a thousand bili light meters (or Phototherapy Light Intensity Meters, as they call them. ). I felt a moment of discourage when I found out that they were doing this, but then I decided to call, and it turned out to be a great connection.

It turns out that their meter is great for their intended use, which is calibration of fluorescent-tube style bili lights as found often in developing countries, many of them having been donated over the years. …but their meters are not intended for use with LED bili lights. In fact, Luke said that in their tests, they were not able to properly calibrate LED bili lights with their meter. My Luma League meters (formerly known as “bili light meters” are made for use with my LED based Luma League Lights (formerly known as “bili lights”).

So what’s with all this “formerly known as” stuff and why did The Bili Light League become Luma League?

Well, one thing that Luke told me is that Global Healing’s legal counsel is also an expert in trademarks, and upon performing a trademark search, felt that the terms “bili” and “bili light” were either registered trademarks or too close to the names of existing products; that’s why they came up with the name “Phototherapy Light Intensity Meter” for their… for their… for what I will call their “bili light meter”.

So as a follow-up to that meeting I decided to look into it. And I found, there seems to be a lot of companies using the word “bili” in their products. But far be it for me to argue with an expert in trademark law, even if she’s not <my> legal counsel, I can take a hint. So I decided, I have nothing (much) invested in “The Bili Light League” or “Bili Light Blog”, I might as well go ahead and change the name. After some collaboration with Jennifer and Penny, I decided on Luma League, which suits me just fine. In fact, there are many ways in which this could be a much better name for the organization I’d like to build.

So there you have it: We’re now Luma League!

Sometimes you find a blind spot- something you should have known, or known about, but didn’t. This is one case: I had read & clicked through HEAL Africa’s web site, but not their current site; their old site didn’t have nearly as much information about HEAL Africa as it does now. Thus, I only had a peep-hole view of who they are and what they do – now I have two…

Obviously you don’t just go and start a hospital in the DR Congo, a country the International Rescue Committee calls the “worst humanitarian disaster since World War II.” It turns out the hospital, while significant, only accounts for 20% of the organization’s “work.” (is that sysnonymous with “spending”? I can’t tell from the context).

Dr. Chris Carpenter, of course, was Chief Resident in Pediatrics at UCSF; but there is another strong UCSF connection, which is that Dr. Ruel, who is a Founder of the International Pediatric Outreach Program (IPOP), is also on the Board of HEAL Africa. IPOP is the program that sent Chris, Josh, and Mary to HEAL Africa’s hospital in Goma.

I’m alternately hopeful that I can make something work on a large (or at least larger) scale in Goma, and terrified of asking for help from these established organizations. Yet, with HEAL Africa’s mission better known to me now, I think I have to reach out to them first, if only as a courtesy.

But it’s not just a courtesy. There is real potential for collaboration there, and if they’re willing to partner with me, I’d be honored to partner with them.

So now I’ve gotta figure out who in particular to contact, what, exactly, to ask them, how to frame it, and what I can offer.

What’s the worst that can happen? They could just say “no, we’re not interested in working with you”. And then I’ll be no worse off than I am now, right?

No, that’s not the worst that could happen, but I think it’s the worst likely outcome.