The Global Ideas Blog

Social Entrepreneurship: the right term?

Really interesting piece on the World Changing blog, called How to Change the World?. It discusses whether social entrepreneurship is the right term or, indeed, the right way to go in order to enable people to "change the world". Refers to David Bornstein's book that came out in January......

"Despite some real strengths, the idea of social entrepreneurship, like its symbiant "venture philanthropy," seems to act like a magnet for fuzzy thinking. Beyond the category error involved (social change is not a business, and philanthropy is not an investment, and taking these terms as more than analogies can lead to really poor decision-making -- points we'll come back to), the term "social entrepreneur" is being slapped on all sorts of people and efforts who are not in the slightest way innovative or dynamic leaders, much the way the "change agent" or "catalyst" were last decade.

I think "social entrepreneur" has officially lost its usefulness."

One is tempted to add, essay question style, "Discuss....."

Dodgeball

The Lessig Blog alerts me to the "friendster of mobile phones", Dodge Ball. Neat piece of social networking technology which combines location-based technology with text messaging, to hook up friends who happen to be in the same area.....this is from the FAQ on the site

"Q: What is it?
A: dodgeball.com is a new social networking site built specifically for mobile phones.

Q: What does it do?
A: The idea is simple: tell us where you are and we'll tell you who and what is around you. We'll ping your friends with your whereabouts, let you know when friends-of-friends are within 10 blocks, allow you to broadcast content to anyone within 10 blocks of you or blast messages to your groups of friends.

Q: Give me an example.
A: Okay, so you're having drinks at Luna Lounge. Send us a text message telling us where you are and we'll send out a text message telling all your friends where you are AND send you back a message letting you know if any friends-of-friends are within 10 blocks. If you have a camera phone, we'll even send you their picture.

Q: So, how do you know who my friends are?
A: You need to tell us who your friends are, just like you did with those other social networking sites.

Q: So how is this different than those other social networking sites?
A: dodgeball is designed to help you meet up with friends and friends-of-friends while you're out, not while you're sitting in front of your computer. Try it out, next time you meet a friend for drinks... tell us where you are and we'll let all your friends know of your whereabouts and alert you if any friends-of-friends are nearby."

Nice twist on Friendster and the flashmobbing stuff, and starting to prove popular with web-savvies in several US cities....

The rainbow of obesity....

I'm back on food this morning: difficult to get away from obesity in the news, or as I chomp through a thoroughly unhealthy breakfast. The top-rated idea on the Global Ideas Bank at the moment is Colour coding system for sugar, fat and salt content in food, which seems eminently sensible to me. Particularly as it would help make people aware of those foods in packets or tins with "hidden" salt and sugar content.

Though the Department of Health warned firms about high levels of salt (see here, for example), they didn't really fllow it through. The Five-a-Day campaign, though hijacked by the supermarkets for their own use, at least got the concept into the public domain, and raised the profile of nutritional requirements. Perhaps a similar labelling approach could work for high salt and sugar content foods as well.

Top 5 from the Global Ideas Bank

The current Top 5 rated ideas on the Global Ideas Bank for your delectation:

1. PIN number safety - rearranging the number positions 97%
2. Making Disabled Sport Even More Exciting Than Abled 97%
3. A directory of problems on the Global Ideas Bank 95%
4. Donate unwanted shares to charity and reap the rewards 94%
5. A webpage for every prescription drug for information and patient discussions 94%

Doing it for the children

Great suggestion on the Global Ideas Bank over the weekend: a children's section to encourage the youngest members of our world to come up with innovations and inventions to change the world. The idea (HERE! ), submitted by the prolific social inventor David Morgan, is a good one, and one which we will pursue. Recently, the Global Ideas Bank has been running intermittent social invention workshops, and also found its way onto the philosophy curriculum of an American University (Elon, North Carolina), thanks to one of its professors. We'd love to do more, and hope to....soon.

Slow Food

On reading about the new film that is out in the States wherein a man eats nothing but McDonald's for a month (SuperSize Me!), it reminded me of one of the most popular ideas on the Global Ideas Bank, Slow Food.

Started by an Italian, Carlo Petrini, who was rebelling against the introduction of the famous Golden Arches to his home town, the Slow Food focuses on savouring food, preserving local food and drink specialities and giving nutritional education. It is also a great example of how an individual can see a problem and come up with a solution that helps many....

Abba to Zappa

Oh, this is great......Abba To Zappa. My top score? 2890. The perfect thing for a Friday afternoon....and, needless to say, a great idea.

Free-form

Just thinking on the way to work how disciplined and strictured the way we are taught to think in schools is. I wasn't introduced to a brainstorm (a real one) until well into my twenties, despite working on numerous school projects throughout my education. Lateral thinking was not encouraged, and creativity is limited to the "artistic subjects": art, CDT, literature (occasionally).....but why not in History? The What If books (thinking about what might have happened had things turned out differently) show a creative way of bringing history alive and allowing pupils to have an input into it. Why not in Maths? Setting each other problems, or creating equations that result in the most aesthetically pleasing graph....and so on.

If innovation and creativity are so important in business and research and planning, why is this the case? Makes no sense to me: send them to Half Bakery or, as one American university does, the Global Ideas Bank. That might bring it alive.....

Freecycling

I was scanning through an old edition of the ever entertaining and informative Grist magazine and came across a piece on Freecycling groups.

This is a movement which I was not familiar, and is a great social invention. The basic premise, for those who don't know, is that rather than just throw stuff out, you post it up in your area and offer to give it to anyone who wants it. Originating in Tucson, Arizona, the movement has spread to almost 500 cities in the US. And the people using it, a mix of environmentalists, kindly people and unashamed cheapskates, are keeping a huge amount of rubbish out of landfill. See Freecycle.org for more....

And there's one in London too, to which I now belong.

The Anti-game....

In reading about Wired's NextFest, their annual dabble into futuristic technology, I stumbled across a marvellous idea/invention: Brain Ball.

It's essentially a game in which your brainwaves control the movement of a ball; the more relaxed the player, the more likely they are to win. As the makers put it, "Brainball is a game where you compete in relaxation. The players' brainwaves control a ball on a table, and the more relaxed scores a goal over the opponent." This also means it turns all the "normal" rules of a game upside down...the more relaxed, even disinterested, is more likely to win. The competitive type, with adrenaline pumping, will be the loser.

Interestingly, the technology could have wider uses, such as being used to help hyperactive kids or those with ADHD....