Social Entrepreneurship

The Top 5 Ideas From TED Fellows

by Nathaniel Whittemore

category: Innovation And Ideas

Published February 09, 2010 @ 02:49PM PT

I spent this morning watching the TED Fellows talk about their work -- a group that included clean tech entrepreneurs, scientists, musicians, artists and more. All are, as TED Fellow founder and TED Community Manager Tom Rielly put it, polymaths who excel in far more than just their particular area of expertise.

Although I loved all of their presentations, five ideas stood out to me in particular as game-changing, mind-bending or generally vital.

1. The power of local value chains: Kickstarter founder Perry Chen talked about his company's model of giving artists and creators the power to harness their audiences for financial support. While I've been a fan of the company for awhile, I was incredibly impressed by the clarity with which Perry explained Kickstarter's fundraising principles -- particularly Kickstarter's efforts to create local value economies that care about things that larger exchanges and markets would easily bypass. As Perry explained, supporters of most Kickstarter projects derive their "return" from the act of co-creating whatever the project is. It's a reminder about the importance of rethinking "rules," especially when the conditions that create those rules have changed.

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This Week: Live from the TED Conference

by Nathaniel Whittemore

category: Innovation And Ideas

Published February 09, 2010 @ 01:35PM PT

Right now, I'm on my way to the TED conference, one of the most renowned events for global thought leaders in the world. For the next five days, I'll be surrounded by new ideas and, frankly, a lot of people who have the power to make those ideas happen.

While TED’s origins go back a long way, it’s only since TED started making its talks available for free to the public in 2006 that it has morphed from a must-attend insiders' event to a true leader in the fight to, as I wrote last year, “make the world safe for smart.”

Since the first videos were posted on TED.com, TED talks have been viewed more than 200 million times. This is no not-fly-by-night video fad. These are intensely intellectual and creative talks meant to prod and stretch the mind into new shapes and modes of thinking.

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Student by Day, Robin Hood by Night: A How-To Guide

by Caitlin Cohen

categories: Brown Social Impact Initiative, Young Leaders

Published February 08, 2010 @ 12:17PM PT

This is part 7 of an 11-part series on Undergraduate Social Entrepreneurship coordinated by the Social Innovation Initiative at Brown University. This post's author is Caitlin Cohen, Chair and Co-Founder of the Mali Health Organizing Project

Student social entrepreneurs find themselves straddling a chasm between the ivory tower and communities facing a total lack of resources. It can be a distinctly uncomfortable split, even for the most limber, and the urge to start Robin-Hooding is overpowering. Many of us have heard the story of Paul Farmer pilfering hundreds of thousands of dollars of medications and equipment from Harvard-affiliated hospitals, but we can't all count on rich benefactors to bail us out -- or our moral high-ground to shield us from legal ramifications.

As an undergraduate, I started an organization called the Mali Health Organizing Project (MHOP). At the time, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. Since then, though, I've been able to grow it to serve a community of 100,000, mostly by leveraging my university connections. After all, there are plenty of perfectly legal means to Robin-Hood the intellectual and material resources that any college or university has to offer, including:

1) Getting the $

Many universities offer fellowships to help you with summer projects. If you take time off, you might be able to extend that funding into the fall semester. Be sure to apply for everything you are remotely eligible for, while tailoring each application to the specific guidelines of the grant. MHOP-affiliated students have received at least six student grants such as the Starr Fellowship, essentially providing us with a solid start-up labor force.

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New Orleans Wins Super Bowl, Gets New Social Entrepreneurship-Loving Mayor

by Nathaniel Whittemore

category: Government And Social Entrepreneurship

Published February 08, 2010 @ 07:13AM PT

Sure, sure, the Super Bowl was exciting. Who didn't want the underdog -- particularly from America's beating heart of New Orleans -- to win? (Okay, besides Indiana fans.) Still, though, even more exciting for social entrepreneurs was Saturday's news that Mitch Landrieu, former Lt. Governor of Louisiana, was elected to become the city's mayor.

With 66% of the vote, Landrieu won the election outright, boxing out 10 opponents and closing the door on eight-year mayor Ray Nagin. While Nagin was thrust into the spotlight in the wake of Katrina, New Orleans residents had grown increasingly frustrated with his administration's inability to accelerate the recovery process.

Landrieu ran on a platform that promised to bring together an array of actors to unify the recovery process. The fact that he comes from a well-established political family didn't hurt, either. His father Moon Landrieu was the last white mayor of the city some three decades ago, and was apparently a much-beloved figure. Meanwhile his sister, Mary Landrieu, is one of Louisiana's two Senators.

To me, what's really intriguing about Landrieu's victory is the spirit of social innovation and support for social entrepreneurship he might bring to the office.

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G7 Countries to Cancel Haiti's Bilateral Debt

by Nathaniel Whittemore

category: Humanitarian Relief

Published February 07, 2010 @ 02:06PM PT

In a show of support for earthquake-devastated Haiti last night, the leaders of the G7 nations announced that they would be canceling all of the country's bilateral debt.

As the BBC reports, the actual amount in question is small, as Haiti's largest bilateral debts are not held by G7 nations (which include Canada, the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Japan). Most of its debt is owed to multilateral institutions like the International Monetary Fund. While such agencies cancelled some $1.2 of Haiti's almost $2 billion in debt last year, the chorus is growing louder for them to eliminate the remainder.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner welcomed the G7's commitments, and said that the U.S. would help lead the conversations to get outstanding debt to those multilateral bodies canceled.

Yesterday's announcement comes on the heels of decades of debt relief activism -- and controversy.

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Digital Work for the Poor: The Next Big Opportunity?

by Nathaniel Whittemore

categories: Developing World, Innovation And Ideas

Published February 06, 2010 @ 09:45AM PT

Congratulations to Samasource and Crowdflower, which have won the title of "Netexplorateur" of the Year, thanks to the creation of their GiveWork application. GiveWork -- which allows iPhone users around the world to support work opportunities for the poorest of the poor -- is a groundbreaking application, and the recognition is much-deserved.

Samasource is a firm that helps refugees and others in poverty earn income by completing digital tasks that include clerical and data input, photo tagging and translation, among others. It business development side brings in the contracts (often partnering with groups like Crowdflower to do so), while its field team trains employees and helps facilitate task completion. As a nonprofit, Samasource is dedicated primarily to the income and professional growth of its employees, with the goal of helping participants progress further and further down the path of higher-skilled work and additional education.

How does it work? The GiveWork application works on the iPhone, and allows American or Western iPhone users to cross-check the work of Samasource employees completing tasks. The money that Samasource receives from application sales goes to train more people on the ground. Just as importantly, the GiveWork application acts as a quality control mechanism. Matching iPhone users' answers with that of Samasource's field employees answers ensures quality.

There's a lot of buzz around Samasource right now, for good reason. The knowledge economy is only going to grow in importance -- which is exciting, but also opens up the possibility of a deepening digital divide. What I like most about Samasource is its commitment to making its employees better able to compete broadly, not just better able to do their specific tasks and assignments.

Other Netexplorateurs recognized this year are worth pondering as well. Some are more familiar, like the LUCAS system that's being developed as a way to improve field diagnostics in global health. Others, like the LAYAR augmented-reality system, are fascinating for their potential to shift the way we consume knowledge and interact with the spaces around us.

You can find the full list here, and read more about digital work at Samasource.org.

Photo Credit: luc leguy

Seeding a Crop of Social Innovators

by Molly Mills

categories: Brown Social Impact Initiative, Young Leaders

Published February 05, 2010 @ 12:24PM PT

This is part 6 of an 11-part series on Undergraduate Social Entrepreneurship coordinated by the Social Innovation Initiative (SII) at Brown University. This post was written by Molly Mills, leader of the SII Grants Competition.

When I can plant a few seeds and watch them grow into a harvest that feeds an entire community, I really feel like I have a "green thumb." The Social Innovation Initiative (SII) Grant Competition plants these seeds by funding early-stage undergraduate social ventures at Brown University. Our process reaches and engages multiple audiences, including alumni, community members and participants.

Here's a run-down of the steps:

1. Bring in the gardeners: Early on in our process, we match all applicants with mentors who watch short, video-recorded ‘elevator pitches' from each student before connecting with applicants according to their field or area of expertise. These mentors provide guidance and support throughout the competition, and continue to nurture early-stage ventures as they mature into full-fledged project plans.

2. Fertilize the soil: Young innovators depend on mutual support and shared resources, especially on a very small campus. In a peer critique process, applicants present developing projects before three or four colleagues (faculty, students or alums) who give constructive comments and ask tough questions about the project's sustainability, innovation, logistical feasibility and social impact. Each of our applicants gets to both pitch their idea during critique and sit as a "peer" offering comments on another project idea.

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