News on The Edge
Welcome to the Social Edge update! Developing new technologies that solve social problems can be enormously challenging, but bringing them to the communities who need them can be even more so. Technology-driven social entrepreneurs from around the world recently met at Tech4Society in Hyderabad to share their experience, and we asked Ashoka’s Rosa Wang to host a conversation about the challenges and successes of innovation to serve the poor. Just back from Hyderabad, she wonders what new inventions will scale to reach the two billion people at the base of the pyramid, and asks you to think about the mechanisms that will enable adoption of these new technologies by local communities. Also sharing the belief that technology can fuel collaboration, a group of funders have partnered to make an open source database of vetted social entrepreneurs. Now you can find social entrepreneurs by region or issue instantly with a few clicks. Discover the power of Social Entrepreneur Search and why it is a win for the sector. After that, head off to Haiti with Leila Janah as she sets up an Internet connection to establish a digital work center for the thousands of people who have fled Port-au-Prince. Or join Monrovia-based Kiva Fellow Karen Buxton as she notices that even the 20th poorest country in the world is raising money for Haiti. In Tanzania, d.light design is launching the Right to Safe Light Campaign in reaction to several recent fires in schools and household because children were studying with kerosene or candles at night. While in the United States, Dr. O tells the story of a homeless man who created a powerful tool to fight poverty, a case most social entrepreneurs will want to study. Alvin Hall, a former financial expert, visits a new social entrepreneur every week to look at business models and the challenges of scaling. The first two episodes, on Riders for Health and IDE-India, are already up on Social Edge. Watch Alvin’s Guide to Good Business! Striking close to home for a number of our readers (including Jonathan Lewis), Sara Olsen reminds us that we may be proud because we can tolerate significant risk and pain, but there is a cost. Join her in this very private conversation as she looks into our personal bottom line.
Join this Week's Live Discussions  Technology and Social Innovations
Ashoka’s Rosa Wang just got back from Hyderabad where she attended Tech4Society. Join her in a conversation about the challenges and successes of technological innovation to serve the poor.
The Personal Bottom Line
Where do you fit on a three-axis graph with X=social, Y= financial and Z=personal? SVT Group’s Sara Olsen wonders what your personal bottom line looks like. Death by Definitions
Social investment, mission-related investment, or impact investing? Rod Schwartz answers: "Let’s spend our time growing the sector and leave it to future generations to decide what to call what we did." What do you think? The Fetishization of Metrics
If the value of social entrepreneurship is not reducible to simple quantitative terms, how do we define and capture the impact we are having? Join Charles (Hipbone) Cameron in the conversation. Too Small to Fail: Debt Relief for Social Entrepreneurs
Peter Deitz wonders how we can we build debt relief into the social entrepreneurship ecosystem to ensure the growth and development of world-changing innovations, and the well-being of the social entrepreneurs behind them. Invest in Me, Take my Equity
Three social entrepreneurs (Kjerstin Erickson, Jon Gosier and Saul Garlick) are offering equity in their life’s earnings for an infusion of cash today. Should you invest in their future? Or follow their example?
Do you have suggestions for Social Edge or for this newsletter? Send us feedback. You can remove yourself from this list at any time. Hope to see you on The Edge and on Twitter @socialedge! Victor d’Allant
Executive Director, Social Edge
250 University Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94301 | 
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home