Taking a page out of Ezra Klein’s playbook (and continuing our trend here of shamelessly copying features from other blogs…ahem), here are a few things I keep meaning to write about:
- The NC legislature commissioned a study report by a few of the best environmental and public policy academics in the state to look at water quantity and allocation. The report, currently in draft form (PDF), is very well done and a nice synthesis of policy and science. Water quantity is not the sexiest issue, but after recent severe droughts I think more folks are starting to give water policy the attention it deserves.
- The Acumen Fund invests in social enterprises around the world–businesses, generally operating at a below-market return for investors, that have as central tenets to their mission alleviating a social problem or improving lives of vulnerable populations. A recent think piece by Acumen’s Chief Investment Officer, Simple Measures for Social Enterprise (PDF), is a good reminder for social investors and philanthropists alike that sometimes just capturing consistent and reliable data can lead to greater improvements than the thorough impact assessments we all think of as ideal.
- I’ve been meaning to write about Nate Silver (creator and whiz behind fivethirtyeight.com) for a while. Even though the election is long past, this NY Times profile is worth a look.
- Speaking of the NY Times, this piece from the Magazine about the Netflix recommendation engine and the “Napoleon Dynamite problem” is fascinating (apparently Napoleon Dynamite is a love/hate kind of movie, and it’s nearly impossible to consistently predict whether someone will like it based on their other movie preferences).
I attended a fascinating session this morning on Social Entrepreneurship. I wrote up a bit of a (lengthy, but informative) play-by-play for Tactical Philanthropy. I’ll put a piece of it below, but you can check out the whole thing here.
How do we create a culture of social entrepreneurship in our community/funding area?
Bill Drayton spoke of the need to reach individuals at an early age in order to build successful adult social entrepreneurs. He emphasized what he termed “applied empathy” as a crucial component for change-makers.
Gregory Dees stressed that entrepreneurship—in the business OR social benefit world—is not easy to create. He argued that building the capacity of social entrepreneurs will depend on inspiring creativity, celebrating successes in a public way, and not stigmatizing failure. Failure is a natural part of the for-profit entrepreneurial world, and yet social entrepreneurs often face unrealistic expectations of success all the time.
I would add that one thing I didn’t cover too much in the guest post was the limitations of social entrepreneurship and social enterprise. Those themes weren’t covered very much in the session (to be fair, we were just touching on those topics when time ran out). BUT it should be stated that there certainly seems to be an environment (and perhaps a subset of problems) that are best-suited for social entrepreneurship, social enterprise, or social ventures. What exactly those conditions and problems are is still unclear to me, but it certainly seems that health issues and youth development in the developing world is one area where social entrepreneurship has had an enormous impact. More blogging to follow–it’s great to be blogging quasi-professionally!
Sorry for the posting delay. Here are a few Monday links…still nice and fresh for a Tuesday morning:
- If Tropophilia makes you want to branch out and explore more of the blogosphere, but you’re not sure how or where to find good blogs, I recommend you check out Alltop. Tropophilia fans might particularly enjoy the Green, Venture Capital, and the Social Media categories. Take a look and get hooked on a few more blogs (it’s a healthy habit, I swear).
- Russ Quackenbush, the head of Google’s engineering department, brags to Fast Company about his employees:
“Google is investing in brains. And that’s a pretty good investment, because that way, you don’t have to know what the next thing is. Those people are going to figure it out. [...] The odds are pretty good that if you bump into someone in the cafeteria, they are way better than you at something. They are world-class at something.”
- Social Innovation Camp brings software developers and social entrepreneurs together “to find ways that easy-to-build web 2.0 tools can be used to develop solutions to social challenges” in 48 hours. The projects for London on April 4-6 range from Barcode Wikipedia (“A site for storing user-generated information–such as carbon footprint, manufacturing conditions and reviews–against a product, identified by its barcode number”) to Prison Visits (“A tool to support the families of prisoners coping with the experience of being apart from a loved one”).
- This business card that grows seems like a pretty cool way to make an impression…as long as your business contacts save your email address on their computer before the roots sprout.
- Finally, in light of the happy distraction that occupies the minds of Davidson alums across the globe (and fans of those other schools too…), Mental Floss offers NCAA Tournament Pitfalls to Avoid.
Sorry again for the delay–on the positive side, it’s one day closer to Friday.
Apparently, some of you folks don’t have to go to work today. Aren’t you special. Since I’m clearly bitter for not having the day off, let’s cut the commentary and get straight to the links:
- From the “Things That Make You Go Huh” file, something seemingly obvious that never occurred to me: endless storage on gmail–>rarely deleting email messages–>lots of servers using tons of energy–>negative environmental impact due to archived musings from friends and frantic “OMG!@!11 NEW STAR TREK MOVIE TRAILER” messages from Jarred.
- Speaking of email, here’s a (currently) free service that allows users to track whether email recipients click-through on links in their messages. Kind of creepy if you ask me, though anyone who receives political campaign or corporate email (frequent flier promotions, etc) should know that they’re already tracked in this way.
- For anyone interested in philanthropy and social ventures, Tactical Philanthropy highlights a goldmine of free articles from the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Stanford usually publishes their articles behind a pay-wall, but for a limited time they’re allowing free access to 2007′s most popular articles, including (my personal favorite) “A New Era for Business.”
- An interesting Washington Post article on guerrilla activism–environmental activists inserted leaflets in Kleenex boxes accusing the tissue maker of “wiping away ancient forests.” Is this really a trend?
“The leaflets may be part of a trend known as “shopdropping,” in which people leave items at a store, the reverse of shoplifting. Items left on store shelves have included the business cards of personal trainers tucked into weight-loss books and CDs of unsigned musicians.”
- Anyone looking at the Democratic primary deadlock and wondering about the original purpose behind Super Delegates should check out this Op-Ed by the estimable Mann and Ornstein. The authors are insightful as always, but I still view a nomination decided by Super Delegates to be a worst-case scenario in terms of future voter engagement and turnout in the general election.
- Finally, in honor of Presidents Day, take a few pointers from George Washington’s “Rules of Civility.”
Enjoy your day off………
I apologize for the posting hiatus. Things have been busy. I was traveling for work, getting engaged, yadda yadda here I am back in blogistan. These links will be quick, but I promise lots of good material later this week–including reflections on an alternative energy forum I’m attending today and Tuesday. So, without further excuses ado, your links:
- I can’t really summarize this post from a blog I’ve just started reading (LifeYears), but it’s an intriguing piece on “How problemsolvers can help save the world” by identifying leverage points for change and categorizing causes behind major problems. Like I said, hard to summarize but worth a read.
- Add this to the list of topics I keep meaning to blog about: techPresident asks, “Is the Obama Campaign a Model for Online Politics?” Their assessment very much coincides with my view that truly effective online campaigning is as much about (ultimately, MORE about) simplifying and empowering offline mobilization as it is about Facebook groups and email lists. Great post, and a good time to check in on the state of the campaigns.
- Lifehacker continues to be one of the most useful sites on the web, this time cluing us in on how to best store onions: in pantyhose.
Sorry, that’s all for now. But keep checking back all week–Jarred and I will have plenty of new material to keep you busy. Happy Monday.
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