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24/11/08 Social Innovation Ideas ‘08
DUBLIN, IRELAND - Once things settle for me I’m hoping to get involved in this type of initiative in Ireland. The concept is to collect ideas that can use technology to make social change and then get the brightest and best together for a weekend to implement them.
The UK sicamp.org collected 115 ideas this year and have filtered down to 8 they will take forward to the weekend on December 5th. If you’re talented and available, why not zip over!
Here’s a summary of some answers they hope to find:
- Can they stop 550,000 tonnes of junk mail by providing an alternative?
- Can visitors to developing country be organised to bring more than just cash with them?
- Can commuters user-generate an accessibility focussed transport map?
- Can we map all the social care requirements of an area?
- Can we harness jogging routes and gym commutes to form a delivery network for the elderly?
- Can we sell fruit and veg from our own gardens by connecting with neighbours online?
I love the jogging routes idea (GoodGym), I’ll keep an eye open for this one. A definite trend of the next 20 years will be technology aware senior citizens, and I can’t wait. Irish social entrepreneurs like James Corbett with his project Vizitant are sure to be winners over the long run.
Vizitant is bringing video information and communications services to the socially marginalized in Ireland, including the elderly, carers, disabled and other groups.
-Robin.
Resources:
Social Innovation Camp, UK
Social Entrepreneurs Ireland
(Image Credit: Last week, I took part as a casualty in a major incident training exercise with the Irish emergency services. We had to riot in a stadium until the Gardai Riot Squad arrived. They pushed through the crowd with explosions and bricks flying until the injured were behind the shield and accessible to the ambulance crews. I had been impaled on a metal bar with quote “my guts spilling out”!)
Tags: Ideas, Social innovation, social innovation camp
4 Comments
“Can they stop 550,000 tonnes of junk mail by providing an alternative?” - Trivially, by simply having anyone involved in producing or distributing junk mail executed. No alternative needed.
I’d probably make a bad dictator…
Cheers Robin, flattered. I absolutely love what the Social Innovation Camp is doing and only wish I had the time and funds to make it over. Next year hopefully. In the meantime Darragh Doyle and myself have been batting around the idea of doing a similar SocialCamp here in Ireland and would love to get you involved in the brainstorming.
What I love about your own D4H is that it’s the best example I’ve yet seen of a crossover ‘Web 2.0 entrepreneurship’ and ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ idea.
And it’s worth repeating a message that Social Entrepreneurs Ireland are at pains to make clear - they do not require a business idea to be a not-for-profit / charity - any idea that can bring about social good is up for consideration during their application process.
James - I’d love to be involved. Wondering if we could get Katherine or Anna over from sicamp.org for our event too. I know they just read this blog post ;-)
Yeah, would be terrific if we could :)
