The Global Ideas Blog

Happiness Mappiness

Great post over at WorldChanging which goes through happiness maps in some detail. The guy who originally mapped it all (at the University of Leicester) reckons there is a strong correlation between happiness (or life satisfaction as it is often called in happiness science circles) and health. Or is it wealth? Ethan Zuckerman here looks at the data and reckons there are three groups of countries: the understandably happy, the understandably unhappy, and the surprisingly unhappy. There's very few in the surprisingly happy camp.....

GIB has covered this area quite a bit in the past (see happiness-related ideas here) and it's amazing to me that we still measure progress in primarily economic terms, despite there being no discernible upturn in life satisfaction/happiness as a result of more money. But perhaps that's because it's a long-term shift: looking at the rise of work-life balance on the agenda, at the priorities of new graduates/job-seekers, at ethical consumerism and social enterprise and venture philanthropy....we can see a gardual turn to a society that values more than money, and is beginning to understand what makes it happy.

An immigrant strike to raise awareness of their contribution

I had one of those 'wasn't that idea submitted to the Global Ideas Bank a while back' moments this weekend, when I heard about the immigrant strike in the US. And, despite my ailing memory and greying grey cells, I knew it rang a bell for a reason. See the idea here:

An immigrant strike to raise awareness

...and the idea-author has already posted up the link to the real thing on the BBC website; here's another take on things. There's a useful US wrap-up on Daily Kos.

What's interesting now is to read some comments left on the original idea:

Electric Fish: Subject: Immigrant strike
So, because immigrants are disliked by some people, you recommend a strike which will make them even more disliked. I would find it difficult to think of an idea which would be less productive! Try fewer anti-social activities!

Ambhagat: Subject: Response to electricfish
It's not an entirely serious suggestion, e-fish - nor do I think it is feasible. However, spreading the idea of an immigrant strike is a better way to raise the issue than actually doing it.

Siaffa: Subject: Response to electricfish
        What do you mean by 'try fewer anti-social activities'.  Do immigrants hold a monopoly on anti-social behaviour?


There's a whole load encapsulated in that: traditional anti-immigrant views countered by a robust response; the idea author saying the idea isn't 'serious' or 'feasible' (perhaps this accounts for their excited addition of the link this morning!); whether raising an issue through an idea is better than doing it...and so on....

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.

Giant catch-up

Well, it's been a while people and, to steal from the great philosopher Garfield, it would take two of me to be more tired....but it's all been exciting, and there's a whole truck-load of things/ideas/event/interesting bits and bobs to blog:

- I spent a couple of days on an Ideathon. What's that, I hear you cry. Well, basically, it's a Unilever-sponsored CSR scheme that aims to use corporate brainpower rather than financial muscle to help charities. A charity brings a business problem, and a crack team work through the problem over a couple of days and then report back with their solutions/ideas. As part of said crack team, I have to say it was a fantastic experience, and, though I can't say which charity it was concerning (because then I would have to kill you ;0) ), I think what was presented back was remarkably coherent and robust. We shall see.

- The day before that, I'd also had my brain squeezed at the launch of Launchpad, the institution-creating wing of the Young Foundation. The theme for the brainstorm was the Olympics and health, and a good time was had by all, fuelled by energy bars and, in an appropriate sporting manner, half-time oranges. My superpowered group included Rowena Young, of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, and I'll be blogging the Skoll World Forum in due course.

- The Power Inquiry came back with its reviews on how to reinvigorate political debate and participation. Including lowering the vote to 16, which Gordon Brown appeared to back in a later article....

- And while we're on Gordon Brown, there have been calls for him to make his next budget a carbon budget....and if you feel passionately on that subject, you can take part in a community-computing grid-type effort from the BBC on climate change

- You can vote for the Designer of the Year here. Might I suggest Cameron Sinclair, for this reason.

- Check out the Formula One type green fuel cars

- See the Australian Ideas Festival

- And submit your own ideas to the Global Ideas Bank ;0)

BP, X-Prize and East End working class

A round-up of a few interesting things that relate to stuff I've covered before:

- Having had a go at BP's relentless green-washing media campaign previously, I feel I should report on when they make genuine steps towards the future, and a financial commitment to go with it. So good to hear that they are planning a $1bn hydrogen plant in Arnie's backyard in California....progress will no doubt be tracked

- I think I've covered this before, too, but the people behind the $10 million private race to space, the X-Prize Foundation are widening their remit to other prize areas, namely genome codes and eco-transport....we shall see if the financial incentives prove as successful in these fields; worth noting that the GIB highlighted prizes as a way of promoting faster rates of research some time ago....see Reward the invention, not the feasibility study

- Most amusing piece of the week is David Stephenson's on open source, and why Lego are more forward thinking than the American Government: Thinking outside the blocks

- Finally, on the back of my discussion last week about how local and regional agencies are leading the way on environmental issues/community involvement, interesting news of the South West Regional Development Agency developing a Wave Hub to test wave energy systems (which are obviously the best long-term renewable option for that area of the UK, as anyone who's tried swimming against the Atlantic winds can testify). So kudos to them as well.....

Decision-making processes

Interesting little piece yesterday about why Lotus Notes sucks which, as one of the 120 million who use it, I thoroughly identify with. Basically, web administrators/IT people love Lotus Notes because of its great back-end support, robust administration and collaborative potential. So they choose it for the organisation. Sadly, the vast majority of end users hate it, because they use it almost solely for e-mail and calendaring (if that's a verb), for which it is way behind almost all other e-mail clients...Our organisation has 10 workstations, and uses NONE of Notes' collaborative applications because it has no need to. So why do we have it? Because an IT administrator decided.

But then I began thinking about how this widened out. I've spoken recently about the need for technology usage to be driven by the end-users, to be relevant to the organisation, and not pursued for its own ends. And the same applies more widely: whether you call it "stakeholder engagement", "user-led solutions" or the New Labour-preferred "Big Conversation", involvement of those who use services is absolutely crucial. But it only works if they are listened to, and their opinions acted on. If the organisation had been canvassed on e-mail client opinions and all said "Outlook will be fine", and the IT admin had chosen Lotus anyway, then the canvassing has little point.

At a fundamental level, it is about decision-making processes being based on a real understanding of the options and opinions of those who matter, and that, where possible, the process is bottom-up rather than top-down, be that a government or a knowledge hierarchy within an organisation. It's interesting to see much of the more innovative stuff in this field being led by local/regional authorities, as with Westminster's mini-ideas bank or Braintree's subsidising of cavity-wall insulation to reduce carbon emissions. Both responding to demand and opinion from those on the ground. Both, hopefully, providing an example to others of good decisions based on user-led knowledge and demand.

Two Mings don't make a...might

Much of the talk over the past few days in the UK has been about the Liberal Democrats and also their potential new leader, Menzies Campbell; his name is pronounced 'Mingis' or, simply, 'Ming', for short. This has inevitably led to depictions in various newspapers (particularly with the politicking / machinations of the Lib Dems infighting) of him as Ming the Merciless. The BBC News website was even speculating on what his followers should be called (Mingers? Mingons? Mingites? Mingles?)

Anyway, all this Ming-related malarkey reminded me of another Ming: FlemMING Funch, an early supporter/designer/hoster/IT guru on the Global Ideas Bank. So I went back to his own Ming blog and found a few gems. In particular:

- a great round-up of Web 2.0 software applications

and

- the Edge's annual question; this year's is "What's Your Dangerous Idea?" and there are lots of interesting people giving interesting responses, including Kevin Kelly, Martin Seligman, Martin Rees, Craig Venter, Matt Ridley, Jared Diamond, Douglas Rushkoff, and Stewart Brand. My personal favourite? Susan Blackmore: "Everything is pointless", which cheered me up no end.

Feel free to add your dangerous idea below....

HearFromYourMp.com

Thought I'd mention some new projects from the ever-resourceful MySociety crowd (who, incidentally, share the building with SSE here in Bethnal Green).

The first, which is very much a development of their previous work, is HearFromYourMP.com which, in keeping with its Ronseal-like name, aims to allow you to hear from your MP. Its objective is to facilitate dialogue between MPs and their constituents by getting people to sign up to a list which is only activated (for constructive debate and q &a) when the MP replies. Which is when things could get interesting. I'm intrigued by whether this will work; some tech-savvy MPs will definitely give it a punt, but I'm sure others (such as the bloke at the top of the "league" at the moment) will run a mile.

They've also been trying to work out new uses for Google Maps, by the look of Placeopedia.com and YourHistoryHere.com. The former allows people to tie Wikipedia articles in to locations; the latter allows people to write little tit-bits of info and history factoids and tie that in to locations too. I'm sure there will be many more uses of this technology as we go on; indeed, one can see a day when organisations will use it to give a visual representation of their customer base, or for marketing purposes....and so on, ad inifinitem. In the meantime, have a look at these, and get involved if you get the urge.

Community Interest Companies

Wednesday evening was the official launch of the new Community Interest Company structure by the government (represented by Alun Michael, Alan Johnston, and a man from the Treasury whose name is not Alan). It's an interesting one this: effectively a registered company with an asset lock and objectives that are community-focused. At the launch event, the powers-that-be were very keen to emphasise that this is very much one new option in a range of options (unincorporated association, registered charity, 'normal' company, providential society and so on), but it at least demonstrates some sort of commitment to social enterprise / community investment beyond mere words. Whether it amounts to more than words and an unused structure remains to be seen.

See here for early examples / the announcement

Demilitarized zone park: the green ribbons

Interesting piece on WorldChanging (which is a great source generally) about the ribbon of land that ran/runs between East and West Germany which was therefore unspoilt and is harbouring wildlife etc. This is obviously reminiscent of the more widely known Korean demilitarized zone which is also a haven for countless species and a centre of biodiversity in the region.