Seeds: A Microlending Game Where Farmville Meets Kiva
Instead of giving your dollars to Zynga to make your virtual farm grow faster, what if the real dollars you invested in a virtual game went to help a real entrepreneur?
Sounds good to us!
Agree!
The problems we face as a society can often seem daunting and intractable, and in this country, perhaps none more than the health of our citizens. But it’s efforts like these – beautiful in their simplicity and purpose, and highly coordinated across sectors – that can begin to make a dent. And as other cities across the country take notice, a dent quickly becomes something more.
Michael Zakaras, in a recent article on Forbes.com about NYC’s initatiative to get more greens pushed in the cities many food carts.
Source: forbes.com
What change? Be a Changemaker. New online course can get you started.
Source: distance.ufl.edu
Want to learn venture planning for social entrepreneurs?
Then read on: Ashoka and the University of Florida are offering a new online course to give you the tools & strategies needed to start your own organization or social business.
Earn two credit hours from UF just for launching your venture, while getting all the guidance and support you need to turn your social change idea into reality.
We believe that the skills you gain in designing, launching and leading a venture that solves a social need are critical for succeeding in today’s fast-paced, constantly changing world. We are here to help you develop those changemaker skills and to have fun while creating impact around you. What better way to learn valuable skills and earn college credit while doing something meaningful?
You must act quickly, though, because the course starts on August 22! Find out more about the course: Venture Planning for Social Entrepreneurs.
And yes, scholarships are available - Enquire with Gretchen Zucker at gzuckerATashokaDOTorg.
Source: distance.ufl.edu
What if…
What if there were something that could create 1.5 million new jobs, reduce carbon emissions equal to taking 50 million cars off the road, cut dependence on foreign oil, increase exports, save water, improve air quality and reduce toxic waste?
What if it were low-cost and readily implemented? Wouldn’t everyone do it? At a time of wildfires, droughts and persistent unemployment, wouldn’t it be a centerpiece of the presidential campaign?
You would think so, right? Read the answer in today’s New York Times.
Source: The New York Times
The potential that learning a language has to promote cultural understanding and empathy.
Duolingo, the site that lets you learn a language for free while simultaneously translating the web, came out of beta a few weeks ago. I love the idea, but I wish they would combine it with a Couchsurfing.org philosophy and a Google+ hangout platform—something where you could meet native speakers around the world with similar interests and practice speaking the language as well as reading and writing it. Imagine the power of that platform in promoting empathy and cultural understanding.
Are you a change-maker?
Video created by the Summer Associates on the US Team: Anne Von Petersdorff, Alice Goresbeck, Natalie Dance and Wendi Oppenheim.
20 young adults skip college to change the world
PayPal co-founder and billionaire Peter Thiel announced yesterday his second class of fellows for his controversial fellowship program, 20 Under 20 Theil Fellowships. The 20 fellows will each be receiving a $100,000 grant to forgo college and pursue system-changing ventures. Thiel, a Stanford Law School graduate, believes that students can put a hold on college if they have a big enough idea.
“Today, everybody believes that we need to go to college, and people will pay– whatever it takes,” said Thiel in his May interview with Morley Safer on “60 Minutes.”
Thiel commented on how the pressure for kids to go to college right after high school graduation has, in his opinion, negatively impacted society economically.
“We now have $1 trillion in student debt in the U.S. Cynically, you can say it’s paid for $1 trillion of lies about how good education is,” he said.
“I did not realize how screwed up the education system is.”
Source: marketwatch.com
The Case Foundation launched their super cool new campaign today, asking you to pledge to be fearless - to quote the Case Foundation: “To tackle today’s big and ever-changing social challenges, we have to take risks, be bold, and fail forward”. Read more about their “fearless approach” on their new campaign site.
What a great example of innovation and resourcefulness in finding a scalable, simple solution that fits the needs of the people in the Philippines. Watch the video to see how you could do it yourself.
An innovative initiative is taking place in the Philippines to bring sustainable lighting to homes in impoverished communities. Empty plastic bottles are installed in the roof, filled with water and bleach they refract sunlight. These “solar light bulbs” provide light equivalent to a 55watt light bulb.
See how they’re made here. From Visual News
What if all students had to solve a social challenge?
In a post about her new book on the how-to’s of creativity, Tina Seeling describes an introductory assignment she gives her students at Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), in the Stanford School of Engineering.
On the first day of class, we start with a very simple challenge: redesigning a name tag. I tell the students that I don’t like name tags at all. The text is too small to read. They don’t include the information I want to know. And they’re often hanging around the wearer’s belt buckle, which is really awkward. The students laugh when they realize that they too have been frustrated by the same problems.
They then come up with ideas bound to the format of the classical name tag, before being pushed to focus on the end goal: why do you want to wear one? What’s the purpose; the challenge that needs to be overcome?
It sounds like an assignment that should be given to all students in any discipline to practice the ability to innovate for people and people’s needs. Imagine if all types of schools always gave their students a social challenge to solve, as the first assignment of the year? Every school has some kind of “getting started” excise, why not one that could change the world? One that challenged the students to use the skill of empathy to do good?
It could even be formalized into state and national competitions in “change-making”. The winners could win start up capital, depending on the age of the students, others maybe the chance to get a social entrepreneur as their mentor or a dinner with their biggest social hero. Imagine if all students had tried to tackle a major challenge by age 25, and given the inspiration to keep changing the world for the better? Sounds good to me!
- Anna
Source: ssireview.org
On The Up: Stories of Changemaking in Africa
In 2011 Co-worker and entrepreneur-in-residence, Rob Wilson, went from South Africa to Cairo together with his wife to find and capture the stories of exceptional social entrepreneurs who are transforming Africa.
Their efforts are now online and in print and twenty percent of the profits from the book are being donated back to the projects profiled in its pages. Great way of giving back!
The above video of Erik Hersman, co-founder of Ushahidi, are from their site and one of the many interviews with change-makers that you can browse through. Highly recommendable.
(Via Ashoka’s global blog: “Change Insights”)
ChangeNation
What would you do if you were taoiseach? Well, if I was asked that question, the first thing I would ask is what on earth does taoiseach mean. Sorry for my ignorance. It is the irish name for prime minister. Our colleage Paul O’Hara, Ashoka’s Ireland country director had a good answer for that question: he would open highways for social innovation in his country. How? First, by inviting 50 of the top leading social entrepreneurs in the world who had proven solutions for Ireland’s most pressing challenges and connecting them with the local leaders in a big 3 day event that he would call ChangeNation. The main goal? Well, to some extent the goal would be to have local adaptation. Maybe 15-20 of those ideas would be imported. But the real, real goal would be to spark a national conversation about how everyone can be involved and engaged in solving Ireland’s social problems. Everyone. Businesses, government, citizens. Especially citizens.
Well, it is happening.
It starts tomorrow -and I’m excited I’ll be there to learn. (I’m literally writing this from the airport before heading to Dublin).
Even the Irish Times is fully on board, with a 30 page magazine about it.
“Across Europe, we have
bankrupt social systems that need to be radically
redesigned. The innovations are coming from the
citizen sector. There has never been a greater
need or appetite for change than there is now.”
O’Hara. O’Change.
- Paula
