Social Silicon Valleys: the worlds of social innovation

A brief post to note that the Young Foundation have put up a draft of their social innovation overview / manifesto, Social Silicon Valleys. [please note: it's'a big pdf.....]. It's a very interesting, coherent approach to starting to methodically think about how, why, and where social innovation occurs (and in what ways...). It rightly identifies a lack of research in this specific field (though futurist studies, 'general' innovation research and social entrepreneurship studies inevitably crossover into / form part of that world) as something that needs to be addressed....which the YF will, of course, aim to do.

It also looks at and details various models and approaches: the heroic individual (aka social entrepreneur / social inventor), the political effect (laws etc.), non-profit organisations, and broader movements (feminism, civil rights). Looking with a view to create the types of environment and structure and approach that can allow/enable social innovation to flourish.

Anyway, I'm not going to go through all 60+ pages now: take a look yourself, and suggest any additions/amendments to the paper's authors. Relevant to anyone interested in how social change happens, and how innovation occurs.

Other than that, GIB is massively busy with social inventions itself, and I've been busy reading Malcolm Gladwell's new blog.....don't blink or you'll miss it.

Comments

[German Yañez Marquez]

Silicon Valley is one of the word-references of business innovation and high-tech, but now every time more, there are growing new places that for sure combine the classical 18th century places with this new innovation. This case is an example, Edimburh Science Triangle, is nowadays one of the focus of this high-tech areas, but also Grenoble in France or many other places around the world that give a solution to the glovalisation and generates new qualified work places here, to support the impact of the manufactoring migration to emerging markets.

http://europeanexpress.blogspot.com/2006/03/edinburgh-excellence-from.html