Best of Social Edge 12/23

Published December 23, 2008 @ 08:40AM PT

A holiday edition of the Best of Social Edge that has enough great material to keep you snuck away from that family gathering for quite some time...

Social Capital & Social Business: The New Definitions - Entrepreneurs Commons founder Marc Dangeard hosts a discussion that tries to cut through some of the lingo and ask what all of the new discussion about social business really means. There is an emerging consensus in the comments that all businesses create (positive or negative) social value and that postive social value needs to be explicitly nurtured. I 100% agree with this, but I also think we need to accelerate the definition and standards process. I worry sometimes that recognizing that all businesses create social value in the absence of real benchmarks for what type of social value they should achieve gives a nice cop-out to businesses who say "look! We hire people! Social value complete."

First D. Light Solar Village - D. Light Design founder Sam Goldman announces that, with the help of nonprofit partners Beyond Solar and Southern Orissa Volunteer Association, the village of New Keringa has switched from 100% kerosene to 100% solar. D. Light is a really exciting company and Sam's is a great blog to keep track of.

Global Social Benefit Incubator - The annual leadership development course and contest for social entrepreneurs is all set to go live with their application on January 6th.

Holiday Giving Guide - For the last minute shoppers, check out Jill Finlayson's list of gifts for the social entrepreneurial. A favorite of mine are Toms Shoes, who will give a pair of shoes to farmers and children in Ethiopia for every pair you buy.

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Comments (2)

Nathaniel,I agree with you that once we agree that the definition of social business should be as broad as possible, we should not stop there. This is why I have been pushing for people and businesses to get their Vindex (http://www.venyo.org), so that we can also have a number we can track and optimize. The Vindex is a representation of your reputation, and I am convinced that this simple number will make people think twice about their actions, and it will help businesses make the right decision to optimize social capital instead of profit.The more people and businesses with a Vindex, the better. Mine is http://mdangear.venyo.org, what is yours?

Posted by Marc Dangeard on 12/26/2008 @ 05:22PM PT
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http://mdangear.venyo.org - there was an error on the last link...

Posted by Marc Dangeard on 12/26/2008 @ 05:23PM PT
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Author

Nathaniel is the founding Director of the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University, which works annually with hundreds of students in dozens of countries around the world through curricular programs and student project incubation.