9th Annual Social Enterprise Summit

I had the pleasure of attending the Social Enterprise Summit in Boston last week at the regal Park Plaza Hotel.

The two days were packed with activities that were divided into two tracks: educational sessions led by leaders and practitioners in the field, or structured networking activities that were dialogue-based.

The agenda took a soup-to-nuts approach, covering everything from start-up to scale-up, from strategic partnerships to influencing public policy.

Read the rest of this entry »

From Stanford Session courtesy SSIR

Kudos to Stanford for marking February 24^th Social Entrepreneurship day.

“More than 150 people attended the Social Entrepreneurship Day panel, which was sponsored by Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) and the Stanford Graduate School of Business’ Center for Social Innovation. The second annual Stanford University event, held February 24, brought a diverse, standing-room-only crowd and featured a lively discussion on ways to fund social enterprises, moderated by Kriss Deiglmeier, Executive Director of the Center for Social Innovation. Panelists included dynamic social sector leaders Jenny Shilling Stein (Draper Richards Foundation), Jessica Jackley Flannery (Kiva.org), Amy Clark (Ashoka), and Suzanne McKechnie Klahr (BUILD).â€?

Read the rest of this entry »

psiphon — an anti-internet-censorship tool designed by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab — is the first recipient of a new award for digital pioneers chosen by an international group of specialists and awarded in Paris this month.

Read the rest of this entry »

A market in my hometown is blending community involvement and creative financing to support the expansion of their store.

Brothers Jamey and Robert Lionette of Lionette’s Market in Boston’s South End are pitching their plan, dubbed a Community Supported Market, to their neighbors.The Boston Globe reports that:

“…People who invest $10,000 will get a two-year stipend of $125 per week at the store (for a total of $13,000 in food). For $5,000, investors get a $55 weekly stipend for two years; $2,500 gives investors a 10 per cent discount on store items for two years…

Read the rest of this entry »

The beginning of December marked something besides the start of snowfall. It marked an unofficial opening of some rather large floodgates. On December 4th, MaRS, in partnership with the Boston Consulting Group, The Toronto City Summit Alliance and the Centre for Social Innovation held the first ever national Social Entrepreneurship Summit.

The full Summit proceedings are now available on the Summit website.

Find out what the over 250 attendees from across the country heard from the fabulous keynote speakers from Canada, the US and the UK. While social entrepreneurship has been a hot topic as of late, the Summit seemed to ramp up the discussion even more, seeing the emergence of new partnerships and projects. Check out the highlights and the photos to get infused with the Summit experience.

This Global Attention Profiles map shows what countries were included in the New York Times news coverage of December 1, 2003. Countries in red received the most attention, while pink and blue countries received smaller and smaller amounts of media coverage.

That was Ethan Zuckerman’s emphatic message at the recent Ontario Library Association conference in Toronto. Zuckerman, a research fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, studies the intersection of technology and developing countries. He co-founded Global Voices Online, a “global citizens’ media project” at Berkman that collects and distills web content from across the world, particularly from the Global South; he’s also behind the Global Attention Profiles project (GAP), which monitors the geographic distribution of media attention.

Zuckerman provides a much-needed counterpoint to Thomas Friedman’s Gospel of Globalization, the idea of the digital revolution as great global equalizer. Zuckerman argues that an Internet connection alone cannot correct the vast disparities between developed and developing nations. While he recognizes the democratizing potential of such technology, he emphasizes the fact that persistent structural and systemic disadvantages keep Friedman’s dream from becoming reality.

Read the rest of this entry »

the open road can be daunting

There are a few peer-to-peer groups, like the Young Presidents’ Organization, which are made up of business leaders (in the case of YPO - over 20,000 from more than 100 countries) who dedicate some of their “spare” time to reviewing, critiquing, discussing and shaping each others’ plans and ideas. These forums are meant for unedited and nonjudgmental idea exchange and learning.

In the non-profit world, however, there are fewer (dare I say none?) forums of such size and status to identify common issues and debate key ideas. This lack is due, in part, to the way in which organizations are funded.

Because non-profits rely mainly upon government and foundation grants or charitable donations, there is little incentive to air or share any problems with their sponsors or peers (who are often going after the same dollars).

This funding model sets up a “don’t bite the hand that feeds you” situation between granter and grantee. Talking publicly about struggles, hardships or even failures is not a comfortable position.

Read the rest of this entry »

A sea of innovation for greening the earth

January 14th, 2008, marked a momentous occasion in the corporate world and for the betterment of the environment. In the first-of-its-kind collaboration, leading corporations came together on a united front for a common social goal.

The effort, called the “Eco-Patent Commons,” is a collection of technology patents, pledged to a publicly-available portfolio by companies and other IP rights holders. The purpose of making public dozens of eco-friendly patents is to create a resource for cleaner solutions for those facing similar challenges.

Read the rest of this entry »

215 Spadina

Check out this Toronto Star article on the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI), one of MaRS’ coordinating partners for the 2007 Social Entrepreneurship Summit.

CSI is holding its official launch on February 29th, 2008, even though it has been in operation for four years as a shared space for social purpose enterprises. The event should prove to be an opportunity to rub shoulders with academics, politicians, social activists, business people, members of the community, and the tenants themselves, as well as a chance to scope out the newly renovated 91 year-old warehouse space in which such great work occurs.

Entrepreneurial investing is only one click away

As the holiday season has wrapped up, I take note of what else is all wrapped up — namely a few unopened jars of jam, boxes of chocolates and a few packs of ginger bread cookies of different shapes and sizes. Trying to get back to a health routine after the holiday sugar rush and food bonanza can be hard enough without all these treats begging to be eaten. It seems I’m not alone in that struggle. Nor am I innocent of chocolate-box- or bottle-of-wine- giving. So why do we do it to each other?

I had a conversation the other day about creative gift giving, as I have become interested in gifting free-trade products or making donations. Although slightly less glamorous and non-caloric, the draw in nontraditional gifts is the impact it has on all parties.

Read the rest of this entry »