Web of Change organizer photo by phillipadsmith

MaRS is casting its net beyond science and technology innovation into the sea of social innovation. Last week, as the resident Web expert, I went to the seventh annual Web of Change, a conference about using technology to address social issues. This week, I’ll be blogging about the people who are changing the world, one email at a time.

Technology is often seen as a path with high barriers to entry and one with a bit of a stigma attached to it, having been the domain of large enterprises — typically, the type of organizational structures that do-gooders try to avoid. But then along came the Web and, specifically, the category of Web-based tools known collectively as Web 2.0.

Overall, social change organizations are starting to understand and embrace these technical opportunities. The benefits are obvious and certainly in line with a social change organization’s mission as these tools are:

• cheap (relatively)
• scalable
• efficient
• democratic
• environmentally friendly/sustainable

These tools take advantage of the very nature of their users: people who want to be involved in making the world a better place but perhaps don’t have time to attend meetings, or those who are too far removed to be there physically can now be engaged in spirit. And organizations are figuring out how best to leverage these opportunities — but what exactly are they doing?

In some cases, they’re simply using technology to enrich existing processes and programs. In other cases, they’re basing themselves completely in the online world. And in others, they’re coming up with new ways of doing business with technology being used to create tools that are transforming the notion of social change organizations.

So what will these stories mean for you?

If you are a technology entrepreneur, you’ll be inspired by the double (or triple) bottom lines that these organizations are pursuing and perhaps you’ll wonder how your company can follow a new path. You’ll also find the technology that they’re using in their organizations can be used in yours — they’re not the only ones who wish to keep their stakeholders engaged.

If you’re a social entrepreneur, find out what others are doing in this space: what’s working, what their challenges are and where the opportunities lie for greater innovation.

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