Introduction

I've become interested in ideas surrounding access to clean water. Its something we in the first world don't think about day to day b/c its more than accessible to everyone here. Other than hunger, access to clean water is the most troubling issue I see in the 3rd world. (obviously a root of many other issues) I wondered if someone like me could do anything about that.
Me:  a visual effects artist with an art degree from Penn State, and access to the internet. Is that all, so what? hah, but that's a lot more than most people can ask for in places with these problems. I wondered could just a regular guy make a difference on an issue like this by just thinking, researching, and trying?
While there are a lot of ideas out there already and many of them better than anything I could think of for their respective purposes, my main interest is desalination of sea water for a small village of 1000 people. A somewhat arbitrary goal I suppose, and to further constrain myself, it must be self sufficient. That's not to say it would work forever, but to make something DIY enough that with some education the people could run this system as long as they needed. That's what I believe will be the hardest part based on my initial conceptualizing of the problem.
So this blog will spot light other ideas, along with my own in the area of access to clean water.