Here's a story about how members of the Changemakers community are using media to boost volunteerism in the United States:
Almost everyone wants to do good, but how many of us actually manage to? Apparently, only 26 percent, according to studies on American volunteerism. For many of us with full-time jobs and kids, spending a chunk of time each week at an organization, no matter how beloved, simply isn't feasible. But what if you could do something meaningful for a cause you care about, while waiting in the grocery line or on the bus to work?
Read more about this solution, or discuss this topic below.
An online platform allowing users to create stories using social media
Allows users to structure and mashup real-time data from disparate media channels (Twitter, Email, SMS, JSON, XML or RSS/Atom)
A community-specific news and information platform dedicated to providing comprehensive and trusted local coverage for individual towns and communities.
Aims to create easy to use apps, open-source firmware MODs, and customized, commercial mobile phones that can be used and deployed around the world, by any person looking to protect their communications and personal data from unjust intrusion and monitoring.
Provides journalists with the tools and training to tap their Network of more than 100,000 sources, engage their own audiences, and produce high-quality journalism.
A non-profit tech company that develops free and open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping
Social website where the people publish their own news stories and the reporters work for them.
'Street Journalism' - the newswire where YOU tell the stories.
An open-source, citizen-based reporting project, supported by Huffington Post
Atlanta, GA United States
http://atlantamusicproject.org/
Welcome to the Atlanta Music Project
Students of Venezuela's El Sistema in Rehearsal.
Modeled on El Sistema, Venezuela’s National System Of Youth And Children’s Orchestras, the Atlanta Music Project is a 5-day-a-week, after-school, youth orchestra and choir program targeting underserved communities in metropolitan Atlanta. Founded in February 2010, the Atlanta Music Project is a tax-exempt, 501(c)3 organization.
Los Angeles United States
The Conference, http://constructingmodernknowledge.com/cmk08/
Constructing Modern Knowledge is a minds-on institute for educators committed to creativity, collaboration and computing. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in intensive computer-rich project development with peers and a world-class faculty. Inspirational guest speakers and social events round out the fantastic event. Jonathan Kozol, Derrick Pitts, Mitchel Resnick and Lella Gandini are among this year’s guest speakers.
TeacherStudio™ is a vital, worldwide professional learning community allowing teachers to see, hear, and collaborate with exemplary educators in action. Through a unique combination of networking technology, rich-media, and proprietary tools, TeacherStudio™ allows educators from member districts to come together anytime, anywhere to share ideas, receive mentoring, and learn best practices.
TeacherStudio is:
• A visual online exhibition so teachers can demonstrate what they've learned during professional development
• A place for refreshing conversations
Washington State United States
The Washington Association for Career and Technical Education Awards Program seeks to promote excellence in Career and Technical Education by recognizing individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to the field, programs that exemplify the highest standards, and organizations that have conducted activities to promote and expand Career and Technical Education programs.
Deadline to submit awards is May 1, 2011.
There are 11 categories of WA-ACTE awards for 2011:
Lifetime Achievement Award
Distinguished Service Award
Hall of Fame
Award of Merit
Outstanding Service Award
Live nomination on #SocEntChat
Live nomination on #socentchat
CiviliNation is a global CSO focused on advancing the full capability of individuals to communicate and engage in cyberspace in a responsible and accountable way. A strong supporter of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, CiviliNation believes that free speech is enhanced through civil dialog and a rational exchange of information and ideas.
HablaCostaRica is a website for democratic, civic activities based on the sharing of information that is useful, relevant, has impact, geographic significance, timeliness and veracity. Contributors from Costa Rica share and discuss information in various languages and connect to local actions and organizations. The mission is to create a solutions-based local journalism where young people share information, connect to a larger community of organizations and get funded for their reporting.
Live #SocEntChat Nomination by raovallab.
San Antonio, TX United States
Above is a picture of a Columbian codex from the World Digital Library. This image housed within the World Digital Library network is an expression of the future of libraries—digital, networked, open, cultural, artistic, ancient, and futuristic. As part of hosting the Mayor’s International Summit on Libraries, San Antonio convened a Global Library Summit at the request of Mayor Julian Castro. Upon reflecting on the summit, some of the San Antonio Public Library questions included: (1) What have we learned about future library designs from our international peers?
Created on 07/13/2011 by jonvidar
The @tizianoproject wants to elevate citizen media through training, technology, & verification: http://360.tizianoproject.org
Organization: The Tiziano Project
Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hideOrganization Country
United States, CA, Los Angeles County
Country where this project is creating social impact
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
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Elevation & Evolution of Citizen Media | The Tiziano Project
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Scaling (the next step will be growing impact on a regional or even global scale)
How long have you been in operation?
Operating for 1‐5 years
THE NEED: Describe the need for your solution and the size/dynamic of the community (ies) you will engage
In the most connected communication era in human history, the reach of an everyday citizen can extend beyond that of a major news corporation. A cell phone clip from Iran is able to, near instantly, be uploaded and viewed worldwide – an ability that has the power to drastically shape global events.
A new form of content producer is emerging: the active participant.
Yet, we have seen this be abused: the false kidnapping of now-fictional blogger, Amina, or the fake CNN iReport on Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ heart attack that resulted in the company’s lowest stock price in months.
The professional journalist, while not always worthy, is vetted by the industry and therefore carries some element of trust. As active participants continue to pour content into mainstream information channels, we find ourselves in need of a credibility system to help insure that this new role provides trustworthy, accurate, and contextualized information.
THE SOLUTION: Please explain what your solution offers and how it is innovative. How will you put your solution into the hands of users or beneficiaries? Be specific!
Similar to Yelp.com, where active reviewers and those considered most helpful by the community are elevated to “Yelp Elite”, The Tiziano Project is integrating a status-based verification system into its developing citizen media platform. Through community monitoring, combined with participation from professional journalists, we seek to establish a system for vetting and elevating citizen content producers.
The Tiziano Project is developing our award-winning Tiziano 360 Kurdistan -- http://360.tizianoproject.org -- into a platform through a $200,000 grant from the Knight Foundation. Through this grant, we are going to scale the technology for use by other organizations and curate this content on an interactive map. We will then create a communication layer allowing for direct discourse between interested parties and citizen media producers.
Citizen journalists will have profiles and be rated within the system by the community, as well as professional journalists. Their profiles will clearly list the reports they have produced, discussions they participate in, what training they may have, and a score based on their involvement and support of the community. This score will be able to be used and embedded by news organizations, media websites, blogs, etc. as a reference for the validity of the information the citizen reporter produces.
THE MODEL: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference through use of information technology and media
The Tiziano Project at its core is a new media journalism training organization. We send professional journalists to conflict, post-conflict, and underrepresented regions to teach local communities how to tell their own stories. Through rigorous two-month trainings, we ensure that our citizen reporters adhere to strict journalism standards and ethics, while teaching everything from interviewing techniques to article construction to multimedia production.
This field has been fraught with organizations attempting to bring storytelling capabilities to local communities -- many through the model of simply providing technology with minimal training. Many organizations failed.
The Tiziano Project seeks to enable the evolution and elevation of community journalism by openly providing curriculums, training materials, and lesson plans for like-minded projects, along with a high-quality platform for displaying program content, enabling direct communication, and establishing credibility for participants.
Through our platform and training model, we work with organizations around the world to train and foster a network of “sleeper journalists” who can then be called upon by news organizations and journalists during immediate times of crisis and need for local reporting.
THE MARKETPLACE: Who are your peers and competitors? What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
Dozens of organizations conduct community journalism projects around the world -- each completed with varying levels of success and quality. Many of these programs are poorly funded, volunteer operated, or lacking in the leadership and experience necessary to conduct a truly beneficial community journalism program.
The Tiziano Project seeks to elevate the work of these organizations through collaboration – rather than competition. We are positioned as a community journalism meta-organization that will help foster, grow, and support like-minded programs and their citizen participants.
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FOUNDING STORY: We want to hear about your “Aha!” moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution’s potential to change the world.
The Tiziano Project was founded by three idealistic graduate students -- Andrew McGregor, Tom Rippe, and Jon Vidar -- who flew to Rwanda to teach new media storytelling in an orphanage. The idea was that it is immoral for YouTube and undocumented genocide to exist at the same point in human history.
We quickly realized that Rwanda was far more diverse than Hollywood’s frequent portrayal. We knew then that we wanted to empower local citizens to shape outside perceptions of their own communities.
Shortly after launch of the 360 Kurdistan, we received an email from a student planning to volunteer in the region. His parents were understandably upset about his decision to travel to Iraq. He directed them to our website and after spending more than an hour exploring the culture, they fell in love. Not only were they excited for their son, but they themselves wanted to come visit.
We knew then that our model works.
Specify both the depth and scale of your solution’s social impact to date
A global goal is to influence public perceptions of conflict, post-conflict and underrepresented regions, while the goal at the local level remains job creation. We would love for all of our students to continue working in journalism, but we are just as happy if they go on to start a wedding photography business or join a new media department of a company utilizing their new skills.
Of our 12 students from Iraqi Kurdistan, four of them had jobs in new media within three months of completing the program. Since 2007, we have conducted programs in DR Congo, Somalia, Kenya, Turkey, Iraq, and the United States, with students going on to work anywhere from NGOs to the Wall Street Journal.
Meanwhile, each of our trainees and the participants in our larger community form a network of “sleeper journalists,” ready to influence the future of their societies.
What is your projected impact within the next 1-5 years? Is your idea replicable? If so, how?
As an organization, we are entering a period of expansion and scale. Our training model is established and tested, while our platform is funded and being developed into an easy to use tool for curation, communication, and verification.
Through these channels we seek to provide a model and support for successful community journalism. Our curriculums, course material, and online platform will enable meaningful and engaging citizen media projects. While our community verification system will provide news organizations and main-stream audiences, large and small, with a trusted pool of sources, content, and information.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and mark growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Alpha platform launch with proposed programs with Voice of America and the National Constitution Center in Haiti and Afghanistan
Task 1
Finalize Scope of Work for platform; Identify interactive agency and begin development.
Task 2
Secure partnerships for initial launch projects.
Task 3
Identify and recruit training teams; Conduct training programs in Haiti and Afghanistan.
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Open the platform up for public use!
Task 1
Complete technology development and Beta test with select organizations.
Task 2
Complete marketing push and community outreach for platform launch.
Task 3
Secure partner organizations for continued use by both community journalism organizations and major news outlets.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
More than 10,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideExplain how your company, program, service or product is structured
Non-profit
What barriers have hindered the success of your project to date? How do you plan to overcome these and other challenges as you grow your solution?
Stable funding has been our largest problem to date. While the Knight Foundation grant will ensure that the outlined technology development will be completed, we have identified several revenue streams to sustain The Tiziano Project moving forward. First, we will position the platform as a tool for selling our services as a work-for-hire training organization. Second, we will integrate revenue generation into the platform through print sales and licensing, reporter funding, and donations. Finally, we will explore licensing models for commercial implementation of the platform in anything from large scale Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives to personal travel websites.
How do you see the information-technology and media sectors shifting over the next decade? How will your solution adapt to and/or drive that changing environment?
Consumer attention will continue to veer from traditional news sources as community produced content floods the market. Already, many people get their news via Twitter and Facebook. Our platform’s verification system will provide a needed level of checks on community producers and their content. This becomes a tool for both consumer to consumer information sharing, as well as for news organizations to interact with active participants in local communities.
Failure is not always an option. If your solution fails to gain traction in the next two years, what other applications of the idea could you explore?
Our platform at its core is a container for community media and verification. We plan to implement it for journalism, however, this container can be applied to an infinite number of industries should it fail to gain traction. Examples include a Corporate Social Responsibility team wanting to present stories of their company’s local impact or a Hollywood studio creating a movie campaign around user submitted content and community dialogue.
Expand on your selections, explaining how you will sustain funding
While our community provides small and recurring donations, we also actively pursue foundational, corporate, and governmental support. This has come from both J.P. Morgan Chase and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (through the Knight News Challenge in collaboration with Google).
We have also received assistance from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and are currently in discussions with the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the State Department to support US funded initiatives overseas. In addition, we are collaborating with the National Constitution Center to develop programs in Afghanistan and Latvia.
Finally, we plan to integrate revenue into the platform via direct print sales and image licensing, reporter and organizational funding, donations, and platform licensing.
Tell us about your partnerships
While we have not received support from any of the above organizations to date, we have received generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation through the Knight News Challenge and JP Morgan Chase through the Chase Community Giving Program.
We are also currently working through details for potential Alpha test projects with the Broadcasting Board of Governors (Voice of America), the National Constitution Center, and the Pennington Foundation. And have had discussions with both Al Jazeera and YouTube for distribution.
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section?
CoFounder & Executive Director, Jon Vidar (photojournalist and new media strategist);
Advancement & Outreach Director, Victoria Fine (Journalist / former Managing Editor Huffington Post Impact & Education);
Business Development Director, Mara Abrams (Formerly Executive Director Remedee Foundation);
Technology Director, Chris Mendez (KUSC and formerly Channel One News);
Video Producer & Mentor, Grant Slater (KPCC);
Designer, Grant Kindrick (Has worked for Channel One News, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards).
Changemakers is a collaborative and supportive space. Please specify any community resources you would need to grow and sustain your initiative. Select all that apply
Investment, Human resources or talent, Marketing or media, Collaboration or networking, Pro-bono help (legal, financial, etc.), Innovation or ideas, Mentorship.
Specify any resources you might offer to support other initiatives. Select all that apply
Human resources or talent, Marketing or media, Research or information, Collaboration or networking, Innovation or ideas, Mentorship.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren’t specified within the list
We strongly believe that people are the key to a successful project. As such, we are always looking for innovators, collaborators, developers, professionals, mentors, and generally amazing individuals who actively believe in the work we are doing. If you would like to support The Tiziano Project in any way, please do not hesitate to reach out to us and see if there are ways in which we can work together.
More specifically, we are actively looking for an Intellectual Property Lawyer willing to provide Pro-bono advice and legal counsel on our platform, as well as developers looking to contribute to the system and designers interested in helping to extend our brand and marketing material.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideDefine your company, program, service or product in 1-2 short sentences
The @tizianoproject sends professional journalists to teach local communities how to tell their own stories - tizianoproject.org
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences
Created on 07/13/2011 by ashwinirahul
SMS Short Code to use for whatever happening and reported 2 Editor
Organization: Stop U Rightly Group
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n/a
Is your organization a
Please select
How long has your organization been operating?
Please select
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
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Dont Miss....Any Important News
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Idea (you're poised to launch)
How long have you been in operation?
Still in idea phase, but looking to launch soon
THE NEED: Describe the need for your solution and the size/dynamic of the community (ies) you will engage
The need is SMS Short Code Service. Masses will get engage.
THE SOLUTION: Please explain what your solution offers and how it is innovative. How will you put your solution into the hands of users or beneficiaries? Be specific!
Print media and channel news reporters want to catch important news then they can make use of SMS Short code service. By this they will be able to get important news which otherwise they could have missed.
How not to miss important news?
Generate the code for the Editor. Editor should advertise that if you see any situation which is to be reported then please do tell your message, name, occupation, address in short, zip code etc. and send to the specified code to the Editor. By this the Editor will get information which is important to report to the media company. Editor should send his area reporter-on-field to the incident immediately. By this newspaper readers will get aware of what’s happening in and around him.
THE MODEL: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference through use of information technology and media
By the use of Sms Short Code for news reporting not a single important news will get missed. For example if A white crow is found then person seeing it will report by using sms short code. Editor will send the area media representative to the place. A white crow was found in Goa, India.
THE MARKETPLACE: Who are your peers and competitors? What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideThis Entry is about (Issues)
FOUNDING STORY: We want to hear about your “Aha!” moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution’s potential to change the world.
I just thought of it when there were ten days left to enter an idea for media innovation.
Specify both the depth and scale of your solution’s social impact to date
What is your projected impact within the next 1-5 years? Is your idea replicable? If so, how?
There will be a very good impact on the society helping each other to be aware of each news.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and mark growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
My idea is in idea phase. I will share the same with News channel and print media company.
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
How many people have been impacted by your project?
Please select
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideExplain how your company, program, service or product is structured
Undefined
What barriers have hindered the success of your project to date? How do you plan to overcome these and other challenges as you grow your solution?
How do you see the information-technology and media sectors shifting over the next decade? How will your solution adapt to and/or drive that changing environment?
Failure is not always an option. If your solution fails to gain traction in the next two years, what other applications of the idea could you explore?
Expand on your selections, explaining how you will sustain funding
Tell us about your partnerships
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section?
Changemakers is a collaborative and supportive space. Please specify any community resources you would need to grow and sustain your initiative. Select all that apply
Specify any resources you might offer to support other initiatives. Select all that apply
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren’t specified within the list
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideDefine your company, program, service or product in 1-2 short sentences
Sms short Code will make us aware of whats happening around us.
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences
SMS Short Code to use for whatever happening and reported 2 Editor
Orlando, FL United States
FLORIDA: STEM+ARTS: Orlando TECH
Orlando Tech students are building video games and using motion-capture technology to get jobs in occupational and physical therapy. Students at Orlando Tech are connecting technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEM+ARTS) to health industries. Students are designing, experimenting, and ultimately working in a zone that connects skills from what are traditionally thought of as different industries and areas of academic study—for example, video games, occupational health, mathematics, anatomy, and English.
San Antonio, TX United States
http://www.alamo.edu/sac/pr/NewRel11/cyber_team.htm
Alamo Area Academy ITSA team takes third place
in national CyberPatriot III competition
SAN ANTONIO, TX (April 6) – High school students representing the San Antonio College’s Information Technology and Security Academy (ITSA) won third place in the national CyberPatriot III competition in Washington, D.C.
Orlando, FL United States
Mary Palmer, Ed.D.
Professor Emerita, University of Central Florida
Former Dean, UCF College of Education
Founder, Florida Alliance for Arts Education
Mary Palmer & Associates, LLC
Consultants in Education and the Arts
www.marypalmer.org
Nasib arranges media skills training for women in the Horn of Africa. Up to 150 Somali women and girls have been trained over 4 years, focusing on health information. In addition to media skills, participants are trained also by doctors in basic healthcare. The participants are currently publishing a monthly magazine, radio programs, video clips and wall cartoons about health, nutrition and sanitation. The publications spread through local media, health and emergency nutrition centers and the internet, reaching tens of thousands yearly.
Kinshasa Congo (Kinshasa)
The South Asian Media Net is an independent and comprehensive website providing in-depth news coverage from across the South Asian region.
Apakabar, Indonesia, is well known as an alternative medium
VOICE is a rights-based, activist organization working mainly on the issues of food sovereignty, aid effectiveness, economic justice, and the right to information and communication, both in Bangladesh and on a global scale.
Over the last ten years, the Sarai Programme has matured into what could arguably be South Asia’s most prominent and productive platform for research and reflection on the transformation of urban space and contemporary realities, especially with regard to the interface between cities, information, society, technology and culture.
The Centre for Independent Journalism, Malaysia (CIJ) is a non-profit organisation that aspires for a society that is democratic, just and free where all peoples will enjoy free media and the freedom to express, seek, and impart information.
A news publication that promotes freedom and free speech through the utilization of journalists throughout all of Africa.
This project produces major investigative stories that would otherwise go unheard of to the public. Also, the organization works to create a wider media community and public. They are also advocates to defend and expand the democratic space investigative journalists need in order to bring quality work to the public.
A digital literacy project aimed at teaching African youth how to fully utilize social media and other digital tools to effect social change in their communities to achieve their goals and objectives.
“1 Billion Ballers 4 Hope” = 1BB4H is a platform created in Tokyo, Japan, which connects Sport and Media for Action. The primary goal of the project is to help build new lines of communication through Sport and Media and to find a rallying point for positive social and environmental change.(www.ballers4hope.org)
This is a program of Digital storytelling that empowers under-privileged students with a voice that is identifiable in their world of anonymity. The Modern Story (TMS) brings this medium to governmental secondary school systems in India. All projects are broadcasted to the wider world via a weblog.
This is a fortnightly agricultural newspaper called ”Krishi Patrika’ exclusively for farmers. This aims to transfer agricultural/forestry technology, empowerment farmers with information and advocate for farmers rights. It publishes agricutural news analysis in Nepali simple language so that villagers could also understand easily. (krishipatrika.cfsites.org)
Grassroots comics – an inexpensive and low-tech tool - are visual storytelling with entirely local content. World Comics India (WCI) in co-operation with World Comics Finland is promoting the use of Grassroots Comics. Local people are taught in workshops, throughout India, the basics of making comics wallposters themselves and tell in these comics about issues which are important to them. This visual storytelling with a local story, characters, language and idioms represents a genuine voice of the grassroots.
MEDIAte is a social enterprise that aims to educate and elevate youths-at-risk through new media platforms, by giving them a chance to discover and develop their creative talents in new media, and be equipped with transferable media skills for sustainable livelihood. (http://mediaterunway.com)
The project intends to create a website with online media tools and blogging services free to be read and contributed by the users and readers who wish to test themselves as journalists, who can put up online open letters, everyday concerns, bribery facts, demanding responsibility from the elected MPs, addressing them with open letters, put up everyday concerns, publish online photos of traffic policy bribing drivers, video or photo municipalities, executive powers illegally selling lands, courts passing unjust rulings and much more.
Aina supports and develops cultural projects and independent local media, all critical tools to rebuild civil society, within places of sharing as well as media and cultural centers.
Aina helps disseminate a larger number of educational and peace-promoting messages fostering the creation of a civil society by involving local actors in realizing large-scale communication campaigns.
Palestinain Territories
nd Floor, Al-Fallah Buiding , Habailriah St. , Hebron , Palestinain Territories
Hebron Palestinian Territory
The mission of Journalists for Change is to create a suitable space for students to discuss and write about their issues and then advocate for them. By introducing them to media tools like filmmaking, writing and blogging, Journalists for Change created student ambassadors who reflect the voice of students in front of local officials and on the international stage.
Very interesting organization: http://lensforchange.weebly.com/journalists-for-change.html
Demotix (http://www.demotix.com) is a global user-generated news platform that supports free speech and expression and provides a marketplace for media created by street journalists. Their strong partnership strategy with traditional media outlets both accelerates the dissemination of news while supporting frontline citizen journalists.
Created on 06/17/2011 by cesarvivas
Con los ICOMUNDOS 2.5D queremos que todos vivan una experiencia innovadora, cambiando el tradicional formato de educación virtual, comunicación y sistema laboral, haciéndolos más dinámicos e interactivos.
Organization: ICOM STUDIO SAS
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Is your organization a
For‐profit
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
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ICOMUNDOS 2.5D Recorre con tu avatar espacios reales o imaginarios, interactiva y digitalmente.
What change do you want to bring to the world?
Con los ICOMUNDOS 2.5D queremos que todos vivan una experiencia innovadora, cambiando el tradicional formato de educación virtual, comunicación y sistema laboral, haciéndolos más dinámicos e interactivos. Por medio de un avatar se puede recorrer un espacio real o imaginario de manera digital, gracias a la conexión ilimitada de usuarios en línea podemos disfrutar más socializarnos, educarnos y trabajar desde el hogar, actualmente está en marcha en la universidad minuto de Dios como servicio de chat en línea con posibles trabajadores remotos que den solución a los estudiantes que disfrutan de esta divertida experiencia.
What are the primary activities of your project?
Dar solución a problemas de educación virtual e implementar estaciones de trabajo remoto principalmente. Actualmente la educación en línea no es muy lúdica ni motivadora y llega hasta aburrir, nos dimos cuenta gracias a nuestras propias experiencias. Los Icomundos 2.5D ofrecen una alternativa divertida de disfrutar el aprendizaje con un entorno visualmente atractivo y funcional, cuenta un chat genérico para hablar entre compañeros o docentes, además satisface otras necesidades de ubicación de los estudiantes nuevos, por medio de un avatar que cada uno elige se puede recorre virtualmente la institución como carrera de observación que ayuda a fidelizar, y así cuando el estudiante visite físicamente el lugar, ubicarse sea más sencillo, ahorrándole tiempo y aprovechando mejor los servicios del plantel.
Combinándolo con el aspecto laboral la herramienta brinda la posibilidad de solicitar información, por medio de un chat especial, el usuario se comunicara con personal capacitado atendido en casa por "empleados remotos" como: madres cabeza de hogar, personas discapacitadas físicamente y otras condiciones beneficiándolo, optimizando tiempo y seguridad al trabajador. A la institución le ahorra espacio y economía entre otros beneficios. Nuestros Icomundos 2.5D satisfacen muchas necesidades paralelamente, todo desde la comodidad del hogar con una conexión de internet estándar.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
Los Icomundos 2.5D es una propuesta innovadora tanto en la educación virtual como en el campo laboral, por medio de su formato interactivo y funcional desde la comodidad y seguridad del hogar el alumno como el trabajador se benefician ahorrando tiempo y dinero en desplazamientos, pueden aprender y laborar desde otras ciudades ó países, es más rentable para instituciones, se socializa y comunica fácilmente optimizando así muchos recursos aprovechando el auge tecnológico, que para personas discapacitadas es una gran solución y ayuda con alternativas en áreas educativas y laborales que mejoran su calidad de vida.
La aplicación es flexible y se puede adaptar fácil y rápidamente a cambios repentinos.
Además con la herramienta podemos recorrer virtualmente la institución y si algún día necesitamos visitarla, reconoceremos mejor los espacios y servicios que se ofrecen cuando estemos hay.
En Bogotá y toda Colombia hay universidades que tienen educación virtual y empresas con trabajadores remotos, pero no hemos encontrado una compañía que brinde lo mismo que Icom studio con sus Icomundos 2.5D ofrece y es una interesante ventaja competitiva que integra beneficios educativos y laborales en uno, con un formato que nos estimula visual e interactivamente a disfrutar de una experiencia innovadora.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for less than a year
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
Actualmente trabajamos con la universidad minuto de Dios sede Bogotá con el área tecnológica para los Icomundos 2.5D y observando el comportamiento y receptibilidad de la herramienta con los alumnos, y ha sido muy positiva independientemente de sus condiciones económicas a la mayoría le parece innovador, funcional y muy divertido además les permite ahorrar tiempo ya que el servicio de chat es inmediato a diferencia de la atención telefónica, la oportunidad laboral con trabajadores remotos es un formato que les parece muy conveniente y están convencidos que será una gran ayuda para personas que les favorezcan estas alternativas, este proyecto toma cada vez más fuerza ya que satisface muchas necesidades tanto educativas, comunicativas y laborales.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
Con nuestro equipo de trabajo vimos que los actuales juegos de redes sociales como farmville y otros como club penguin ofrecen beneficios en entretenimiento a un nivel masivo y después de investigar nos dimos cuenta que este formato visual e interactivo es factible y funcional en otros segmentos de mercado, por lo tanto creamos los Icomundos 2.5D que logran satisfacer muchas necesidades reales de manera digital, desde la comodidad de la casa u oficina ayudamos e impulsamos a nuestro país en avances tecnológicos, gracias a nuestra propia experiencia vivida con educación en línea vimos este como nuestro principal campo de acción ya que los tradicionales métodos son algo aburridos y se pierde el interés fácilmente por lo tanto fusionamos estos sectores para aprender de manera divertida paralelamente aportamos en otros aspectos sociales, laborales, comerciales entre otros, para ser más eficaces y contar con más tiempo para nuestras familias u otras ocupaciones sin dejar de cumplir con nuestras responsabilidades, derechos y deberes, esto es algo que nos llena y satisface personalmente saber que podemos con nuestros conocimientos aportar beneficios a nuestra bella Colombia.
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Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
Hemos logrado confirmar directamente con los usuarios de los Icomundos 2.5D por medio de encuestas de satisfacción y el diagnostico ha sido grandioso nos felicitan por el desarrollo y la idea, están muy satisfechos con este formato innovador que ven muy útil y necesario para potencializar recursos, hay algunas retroalimentaciones nos han ayudado a pulir más le herramienta. definitivamente están muy felices que la universidad minuto de Dios invierta de esta manera en sus alumnos y personal administrativo aprovechando que cada vez más, somos muy afables a las tecnologías de la información y comunicación (TIC) si todo va como esperamos esta tendencia virtual seguirá creciendo favorablemente a otras universidades y diferentes segmentos de mercado.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
Fewer than 100
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
Fewer than 100
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
Nos enfocamos principalmente en universidades para la educación virtual y Bogotá cuenta con muchas afortunadamente, pero adicional existen otros sectores en que los Icomundos 2.5D funcionaran muy bien como: el sector inmobiliario, e-commerce, prevención de desastres, publicidad, turismo, entretenimiento entre otros, para llegar a ellos contamos con la Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá que nos capacita frecuentemente, organiza ruedas de negocios, ferias, encuentros corporativos, provee bases de datos y contamos con nuestro plan y estrategia de mercadeo para llegar a las personas interesadas en los Icomundos 2.5D y continuar con el proyecto muchos años más sostenible y rentablemente.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
Así como los Icomundos 2.5D son innovadores esto puede retrasar un poco la adquisición del servicio y esto nos perjudica económicamente a los socios por lo tanto es importante contar con una sostenibilidad financiera constante, el premio en caso de ganarlo es para invertirlo en ello, sin embargo Icom Studio cuenta con 7 líneas de mercado publicitario, tenemos la capacidad para diseñar y desarrollar videos institucionales, imagen y multimedias corporativas, páginas web, ilustración digital, retoque fotográfico, litografía comercial, modelado y animación 3D. Por medio de la venta de estas piezas graficas generamos un sostenimiento momentáneo, pero realmente nuestro enfoque esta en nuestro servicio estrella los Icomundos 2.5D que genera una mayor rentabilidad.
Tell us about your partnerships
Contamos con una alianza estrategica ya mencionada y es la Camara de Comercio de Bogotá que nos brinda muchos beneficios y estar aliados con ellos potencializa nuestros esfuerzos, aparte de ellos pueden surgir algunas empresas con las que esporádicamente nos aliamos para el desarrollo de algunas piezas visuales pero principalmente con la CCB de Bogotá.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$10,001‐50,000
Explain your selections
Cuando empezamos recibimos apoyo financiero por medio de préstamos de nuestras familias, con el tiempo el principal sustento de los Icomundos 2.5D es el comercial, tiene un valor y venderlo a la Universidad Minuto de Dios capitalizo temporalmente la empresa, de igual manera con otros servicios que ofrecemos a diferentes clientes hemos logrado una sustentación económica temporal, la idea es que nuestra herramienta se sostenga sola y sea lo suficientemente rentable, para ello estamos abriendo mas mercado en el sector educativo y paralelamente en otros segmentos de mercado.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
Con la calidad, continuo acompañamiento e investigación nos hemos dado cuenta que es la mejor manera de fidelizar un cliente por lo tanto con los Icomundos 2.5D funciona igual, la universidad está solicitando mas piezas graficas como personajes y demás con el tiempo y la estrategia de mercado llegaremos a mas universidades que gracias a la referencia de nuestros clientes antiguos ganamos más credibilidad y fortalecemos nuestra herramienta.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich barriers to employment does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Lack of visibility and investment
SECONDARY
Restricted access to new markets
TERTIARY
Restrictive cultural norms
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
Gracias a la creatividad, interactividad y funcionalidad los Icomundos 2.5D cuentan con estos y más puntos fuertes, como valor agregado su flexibilidad para el cambio continuo le permite obtener más ventajas competitivas que las aplicaciones en línea deben tener y por medio de la investigación contamos con ello, ofreciendo al mercado un servicio evolutivo.
Are you trying to scale your organization or initiative?
If yes, please check up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Influenced other organizations and institutions through the spread of best practices
SECONDARY
Leveraged technology
TERTIARY
Enhanced existing impact through addition of complementary services
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
Recientemente a la universidad minuto de Dios se le paso la propuesta de diseñar, desarrollar y animar mas personajes y se estipula que las aéreas continúen creciendo esto lo calculamos en un plazo de 2 meses aproximadamente, ellos están muy interesados en incrementar los beneficios de la herramienta y notaron que es algo muy importante para su evolución siendo pioneros de los Icomundos 2.5D.
Adicional esta la alcaldía de Madrid Cundinamarca e implementaran los Icomundos 2.5D para comunicación y turismo
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
Technology providers.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
Absolutamente ya que los Icomundos 2.5D requieren para su conectividad de usuarios ilimitados de un software llamado Smart Fox Server (SFS) que adquirimos bajo el licenciamiento de una empresa Italiana, adicional a ello es necesario un servidor para instalar la herramienta y que funcione perfectamente en la red, para ello contamos con una compañía canadiense. Ambos aliados son esenciales para que nuestro proyecto continúe de manera exitosa.
Created on 06/17/2011 by AtlantaFilmFestival
Our mission is to lead the community in creative and cultural discovery through the moving image and we have done so since 1976. We do those for the audience and those who want to work in make moving images. We want to continue to help bring jobs to our state that is going through some of the worst unemployment and housing declines in the entire United States. The progress we have made in the last three years has been one of the single beacons of hope in the state. It is one of the only industry that have grown but create an ample ripple-effect in over $1.5 billion in economic impact.
Organization: imageFV (d.b.a. Atlanta Film Festival 365)
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Organization Name
imageFV (d.b.a. Atlanta Film Festival 365)
Organization Country
United States, GA, Fulton County
Country where this project is creating social impact
United States, GA, Fulton County
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
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Film & Media Industry Jobs Training, Creation & Outreach
What change do you want to bring to the world?
Our mission is to lead the community in creative and cultural discovery through the moving image and we have done so since 1976. We do those for the audience and those who want to work in make moving images. We want to continue to help bring jobs to our state that is going through some of the worst unemployment and housing declines in the entire United States. The progress we have made in the last three years has been one of the single beacons of hope in the state. It is one of the only industry that have grown but create an ample ripple-effect in over $1.5 billion in economic impact.
We want to continue to inform job seekers about opportunities and methods of seeking them out . We also help train people in the public with skills to get those jobs and provide opportunities to do so.
What are the primary activities of your project?
We primarily lead the change by using out position as a regional pillar of the film community and host classes, panel discussions both year-round and during our tent-pole Oscar-qualifying annual festival and networking events every month where we bring industry leaders and members of the community together.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
Unlike most festivals around the country, we continue to engage the community year-round. We combine the efforts, expertise, audiences and resources of non-profit organizations, for-profit businesses, government entities academia and professionals in the region with the perspective, relationships and experience that operating for 35 years as a successful arts organization and community leader brings.
We have been using this unique positioning to create education opportunities for the community. While we host events year-round that are targeted for the film-loving community we use the success of these events to hose our educational programming for the film-making community. We engage people on all levels from those who are in high school and explore filmmaking as a means of expression all the way through the middle-aged person who is looking to start a new profession. We have the unique social issue in Georgia of having one of the most negatively-impact economic landscape, one of the lowest publicly-funded arts community but one of the fastest growing film & media industries in the nation.
We are using this culmination to provide access and opportunity into one of the only job-growing sectors in the state. Our multi-faceted approach of working with state government to create incentives, state agencies to attract industry to utilize those incentives and use our role to bring the community and the industry together to put Georgians to work, educate them on ways to get that and help them gain those skills if necessary.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for more than 5 years
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
Having been a pillar in the Atlanta arts world for 35 years, the Atlanta Film Festival 365 is made up of staff members, volunteers and a heavily involved working board dedicated to the success of the organization and ultimately our mission. As mentioned in earlier sections, Georgia is economically one of the hardest hit states in the nation with one of the highest unemployment rates and the most dramatic declines in home values, government revenue and non-profit organization budgets.
We have consistently grown our audience while at the same time reducing our expenses by leveraging strategic partnerships to constantly provide more services and outreach to the community.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
Having existed for 35 years, our organization was founded by leaders in the educational, artistic and industrial sectors of the film & media world. We have been having paid classes for years, but recently through the leadership of our staff and board such as Charles Judson our Director of Programs & Industry Outreach as well as one of our crucial board members and independent producer, Linda Burns, we have added more classes that are at more accessible fees or even free as well as more panel discussions and our recently addition of our free monthly networking events, "Eat, Drink & B-Indie."
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Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
Networking Events:
Eat, Drink & B-Indie: Have gone from approx. 30 attendies to over 100 each month in less than a year.
Our workshops have gone from 60% capacity to 80% capacity filled for our classes.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
1,001- 10,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
Over the next three years we plan to increase the number of workshops, seminars, panel discussions and networking events that we host as well as improve their accessibility, community impact and therefore their service to the greater community.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
Because of our limited budget, we have to charge a small fee to our workshops and have to limit the number of free events we can support. This also means that we have limited resources to promote these events.
Tell us about your partnerships
We partner with:
Comcast, Creative Loafind and Turner Broadcasting to share content with the community and promote our events.
Georgia State University, Emory University to reach and serve students and provide education programming as well as opportunities for their students work to be seen.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$10,001‐50,000
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
Over the next three years, we plan to enhance our programs in one or more of the following ways:
• allow certain programs currently supported by registration fees to become even more affordable or FREE
• allow programs to be held in a broader variety of venues
• bring-in a broader field of instructors/experts
• improve the teaching tools and technology we use
• allow for greater frequency
• support a part-time staff member to ensure that any increased education & career-development budget is used at the highest possible level of effectiveness AND to meet increased organization demands that come from the benefits above
• improve outreach of all education & career-development programs
• invest in partnerships between ATLFF365 & institutions of higher learning as well as industry-leading companies with active hiring practices.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich barriers to employment does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Lack of access to information and networks
SECONDARY
Lack of skills/training
TERTIARY
Need for regulatory/policy support
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
Through training classes, panels and networking events, we help provide information and educate filmmakers and potential film, television and new media workers on opportunities in the film & media industry, ways of seeking them out and the means by training them to be able to fulfill those opportunities.
Are you trying to scale your organization or initiative?
If yes, please check up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Enhanced existing impact through addition of complementary services
SECONDARY
Leveraged technology
TERTIARY
Grown geographic reach: Within host country
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
Enhance our existing programs in one or more of the following ways:
• allow certain programs currently supported by registration fees to become FREE
• allow programs to be held in a broader variety of venues
• bring-in a broader field of instructors/experts
• improve the teaching tools and technology we use
• allow for greater frequency
• support a part-time staff member to ensure that any increased education & career-development budget is used at the highest possible level of effectiveness AND to meet increased organization demands that come from the benefits above
• improve outreach of all education & career-development programs
• invest in partnerships between ATLFF365 & institutions of higher learning as well as industry-leading companies with active hiring practices.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
Government, NGOs/Nonprofits, For profit companies, Academia/universities.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
In government, we are working with the Office of Film, Music and Video to help put government incentives in place that have substantiall brought the industry here and made over $1.5B in economic impact in the first three years. We partner with other nonprofits for cross-marketing, promotion and programming. We partner with for-profit companies such as Comcast and Turner Broadcasting to create our media, market and provide services for our events. We partner with academia such as Georgia State and Emory Universities, Boys & Girls Club to reach out and include the student population and engage with them to help serve their educational needs.
Created on 06/15/2011 by votekim
Let’sVoteTogether.com believes that a democratic society thrives when politicians and elective representatives are accountable to its citizens. Active participation in the political decision making process of voters is crucial in making the elected accountable and responsive to people’s needs. However, political apathy is not uncommon in many countries, and South Korea is no exception. Voting rates have been alarmingly low in the recent elections and strong political apathy is widespread among young voters in Korea. Bipolarized political scene has enforced this political apathy.
Organization: Let'sVoteTogether.com
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twitter.com/letsvotekorea
Country where this project is creating social impact
Is your organization a
For‐profit
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
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Democracy Pays Off – Voter education program and online platform for voter participation that help people employed
What change do you want to bring to the world?
Let’sVoteTogether.com believes that a democratic society thrives when politicians and elective representatives are accountable to its citizens. Active participation in the political decision making process of voters is crucial in making the elected accountable and responsive to people’s needs. However, political apathy is not uncommon in many countries, and South Korea is no exception. Voting rates have been alarmingly low in the recent elections and strong political apathy is widespread among young voters in Korea. Bipolarized political scene has enforced this political apathy. Let’sVoteTogether.com thinks that building more a democratic society and counteracting political apathy can be achieved through a market-based, creative approach.
What are the primary activities of your project?
Democracy Pays Off has two primary activities – one is to run a year-round voter education program called ‘VOTE School,’ and the other is to create an online gateway ‘Open Party’ to track politicians’ actions over time and to provide voters with information on policies and political decisions made by the politicians.
VOTE School is an education program designed for inactive voters. All courses aim at getting them to register to vote, to cast a vote, and to participate in the political decision making process more actively as a voter. VOTE School plans to be operated as a nationwide network of regional education programs so that voters in any region can easily access the program. Each regional school will need to follow the guideline of VOTE School Main Campus for the course integrity and political balance.
Open Party is a web-based data archive of politicians’ track records of his or her political activities including speeches, legislative activities, voting record in the congress, etc. Major policies – whether national or regional – are also reviewed and summarized in Open Party for voters’ understanding of the issues and changes that the policy can bring. Through Open Party, voters have easy access to important information on politicians and policy, which voters can use as evaluation criteria in their voting process.
Both VOTE School and Open Party are geared toward mobilizing people to get more interested in political decision making process and to exercise their rights as voters by participating in the election.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
‘Make Democracy Thrive by Making People Prosper’ is a key idea of Democracy Pays Off. The first step is to make people (especially the unemployed) prosper by giving them a job that is sustainable and meaningful. The next step is to have their jobs to contribute to economic and political stability.
Indeed political stability is a key to economic success. They are like two sides of a coin. Thus, in the long run, creating jobs that help democracy to mature will be one of the most effective ways to make a region (country) thrive.
Typically, voter registration campaigns are considered as a non-profit activity. Democracy Pays Off shows that exercising one’s right to vote not only decides the future scope of a country and individuals, but it can also generate income as a business. This model encourages political participation through a market-based approach.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for less than a year
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
South Korea has a long history of democratization. Koreans suffered with military dictatorship for more than 20 years. The power of citizens finally made the military government to step down. Now, Korea is considered one of the fully democratized countries according to Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual report of world democracy index.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
Things change. One’s view changes, too. I was an indifferent voter. I never missed the election, but politics have never been my priority or a big interest. Political activists were like aliens to me. Politicians were just people on TV. I was too busy to work for my career.
Things changed when a respected researcher was accused of being a “commie.” He wrote tens of books and papers, many of which were considered as key readings for understanding Korean history. All he did was what a normal researcher would do, just studying, writing, and sometimes giving his expert opinions to media. But once he became one of candidates for a chief of a government committee, conservatives – the extreme right, to be exact – began politically assassinating his perspectives. The poor researcher could not survive the bombardment of wrongful accusations. He gave up leading the committee, and kept silence for a while. This happened not too long ago in Korea, where people believed democracy is fully mature.
I got furious. This kind of wrong accusation was only possible because too many people just did not care. Some politicians took advantage of this apathy, and could attack just whomever they wished to attack. Moreover, these politicians were supported by the tax money that I paid. That was when I realized political apathy can be abused by bad politicians. However, getting people to hear about this problem was not enough. I thought things can only change when people receive a direct and visible return by their political participation. That was the starting point of Democracy Pays Off.
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Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
Basically two simple measures can be used to assess Democracy Pays Off – voting rate and the number of jobs created. For relatively short period of time, we have operated a successful campaign for voter participation with our partners. Due to the efforts of many individuals and organizations including ours, there has been a noteworthy increase in voting rate with the last two elections in Korea. In terms of job creation, it is frankly too early to judge about the outcome, as the project is still in its early stage. However, we believe that linking political watch with job opportunity will affect the whole society (already making progress in Korea) in the near future.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
More than 10,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
We plan to make Let’sVoteTogether.com a total solution to voters – helping voters to make informed decisions, reviewing the current political issues, spreading the idea of democracy globally. In order to achieve the goal offering a total solution, we are planning to expand our customer base and address market segments that are more diversified. For example, students who are not old enough to vote may still be interested in politics, and VOTE School will provide courses for these future voters. Widening geographical range of service will also be an important strategy of Let’sVoteTogether.com.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
Perhaps the biggest hindrance to the successful project is people’s prejudice against business and politics. The word ‘business’ and ‘politics’ may remind many people of corruption and power abuse. Such viewpoint could affect Let’sVoteTogether.com, as customers (and stakeholders) could feel the business should not be related to politics.
Another obstacle is the difficulty of being ‘unbiased’ and ‘fair’. Bipartisanship is not easily achieved in the current political landscape where the extreme opinions often attract more voters. Therefore, any opinions related to politics can be interpreted as ‘biased’.
Admittedly, Democracy Pays Off will also go through these problems. Then the best approach will be to do marketing more aggressively. Once Let’sVoteTogether.com gets familiar to the general public, many obstacles will be tackled more easily.
Tell us about your partnerships
We have collaborated with a number of organizations in Korea, including Work Together Foundation, Korea Youth Alliance, Korean Voters Association, etc.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$50,001‐100,000
Explain your selections
The initial funding for the project was done by friends and family of the project team members. One of the members also put a big portion of his savings into the project. Winning a national competition for social venture hosted by the Korean Ministry of Employment and Labor allowed us to receive the government grant for 6 months. As a business, we also try to create a reasonable profit by providing specialized service to our customers, which is still in early stage.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
The first step toward sustainable business operation of Let’sVoteTogether.com is to expand our customer base. Thus far the target of our marketing efforts has been limited to relatively young voters, as they tend to show the most serious political apathy. However, market research shows that voters in their 40s and 50s as another important customer base of VOTE School, as they want to teach their children about democracy and to make informed decisions at the poll.
Another plan to financially stabilize our project is to launch a professional version of Open Party, where more detailed and processed information about policy and politicians is provided. Subscription to the professional version of Open Party will be charged for a small monthly fee so that researchers or policymakers, more active citizens will be able to utilize the detailed information.
In addition, collaboration with both government and civic sector is important for Let’sVoteTogether.com for spreading its message of political participation as well as to hold the sustainability. For example, support from National Election Committee of Korea would enable us to provide more VOTE School classes for the under-represented voter groups such as the physically handicapped, the recently immigrated, etc.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich barriers to employment does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Underemployment
SECONDARY
Lack of access to information and networks
TERTIARY
Other (Specify Below)
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
Underemployment of the youngsters in Korea is more than serious. A quarter of young people between 15 and 29 are unemployed, and this problem gets more serious as the growth of jobs stagnates.
Democracy Pays Off tackles youth unemployment issue by having them start their own ‘businesses’ of teaching or data collecting, with little risk. An unemployed young man can start VOTE School in his hometown and teach voters the importance of participation. Or this young man can become a data archiver for Open Party, who collects all the records about a politician, policy, or operation of government and submits his collection to Open Party’s archive. All they would need is the manual and the Internet connection. This way, a significant number of decent jobs will be provided by Democracy Pays Off
Are you trying to scale your organization or initiative?
If yes, please check up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Grown geographic reach: Multi-country
SECONDARY
Enhanced existing impact through addition of complementary services
TERTIARY
Other (please specify below)
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
Let’sVoteTogether.com has planned to extend its geographical reach by building a national network of voter education program, VOTE School. If the current plan is realized, a sort of ‘franchise’ system of VOTE School will be operated across the country by 2012. We also plan to extend our reach to other countries where democracy and citizen’s political participation is either still young or weak. We think that our model of job creation combined with political activism will be effective not just in Korea but also in many other countries. For the time being, Democracy Pays Off plans to build partnership with organizations in our target market, one of Asian countries, over the next three years.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
NGOs/Nonprofits.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
Let’sVoteTogether.com has actively launched a series of vote campaigns for major elections in Korea since its establishment. We have collaborated with a number of NGOs for campaigns, and several Korean celebrities have helped us spread the idea that voters’ participation is essential to achieving and sustaining democracy of the nation and well-being of its citizens. One of main partners is ChungEoRam Academy, a NPO that specializes in adult education and knowledge-sharing online platform. Thus far the collaboration has focused on planning a variety of campaign events together, but we hope to have more opportunities for collaboration with more NGOs, who share the same vision with us.
Created on 06/14/2011 by Sawa World
Over one billion people on the planet are still living on $1 per day and close to half are youth of which 60 % is unemployed. Sawa World unlocks both of these colossal global challenges using a revolutionary approach.
Organization: Sawa World
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http://twitter.com/#!/sawa_world
Country where this project is creating social impact
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
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Sawa World Youth Reporters – Skills & Income for Youth As They Reach Thousands with Local Solutions to Solve Extreme Poverty
What change do you want to bring to the world?
Over one billion people on the planet are still living on $1 per day and close to half are youth of which 60 % is unemployed. Sawa World unlocks both of these colossal global challenges using a revolutionary approach.
We empower youth, who live extreme poverty, with skills and a living wage. The youth get trained by local media partners to become employed community reporters. The youth document local community leaders that have found own solutions, to uplift their community out of poverty, without charity of foreign aid. On a monthly basis, using new media tools, the youth share the best practices of the leaders to surrounding communities. This provides hundred of thousands of people, living in extreme poverty, with knowledge and empowers them to solve their own poverty issues.
What are the primary activities of your project?
Sawa World introduces solutions for two critical global challenges, youth unemployment of millions in the world’s poorest countries and over a billion people living in extreme poverty.
Sawa World empowers unemployed youth that live in extreme poverty with skills training and employment. The youth get trained by established local media partners to become community reporters. They receive an intense 4-week, 6 days per week, training in basic videography, social media and community knowledge sharing skills. The training provides practical and employable skills and awards an official certificate to the youth.
After the training, the youth become employed as Sawa World Youth Reporters, receiving a basic living wage. The main goal of the youth is to document local community leaders (Sawa Leaders), who live in extreme poverty and created their own effective solutions, without charity of foreign aid, to uplift their community out of poverty. On a monthly basis, using video and other new media tools, the youth share the best practices of the Leaders to surrounding impoverished communities. This includes video screenings and discussions and broadcasts on local radio stations.This provides hundred of thousands of people, living on a dollar per day of less, with valuable knowledge and empowers them to replicate the solutions and solve their own poverty issues.
The local media partners are supported to generate permanent income to sustain the training and employ the youth reporters. Sawa World uses a phased approach to support this new market based innovation: (1) approves local media partners that have an existing business model to provide the personnel and facility to conduct the training and ongoing program support (2) provides a two year seed fund to start the program and (3) provides businesses development support to market the program to national and international institutions that have a mandate to eradicate extreme poverty. Using this “services for fees” business model, we apply a cutting edge market-based innovation by offering the valuable skills and services of the youth reporters to national and international organizations that have a mandate to find effective solutions to eradicate extreme poverty (i.e., UNICEF, World Bank, Oxfam, Government Ministries). These organizations hire the youth to document certain proven solutions to local poverty issues.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
Sawa World is the only organization in the world that tackles extreme poverty by training and employing marginalized youth from the world poorest countries as community reporters who then use their media skills to reach large amounts of people living in extreme poverty with local solutions to eradicate extreme poverty.
At the core of our innovation, is putting the ideas, talent and capabilities of the world’s most marginalized youth at the centre of solving the problem of unemployment and extreme poverty.
The unique design of the program creates a valuable market based solution that is scalable to other impoverished countries in creating youth employment and sparking a new paradigm shift that will have systemic change in eradication extreme poverty for millions.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
Sawa World aims to operate in the world’s 50 poorest countries in the world. These countries are strategically selected based on the large amount of unemployed youth and people living in extreme poverty (40% or higher). We are currently working in five countries: Haiti, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia. In the next twelve months, we will further expand our program in Uganda as it has the highest youth unemployment rate in the world, with a staggering 83 percent (World Bank, 2008).
We work with two main vulnerable target populations (1) marginalized and unemployed youth and (2) community leaders that live in extreme poverty. The youth mainly come from urban slum areas and the leaders can be found in both urban and rural settings. Both groups have an average income of less than $1 per day.
The selected youth, range from ages 18 to 30 and have either dropped out of school or received a very basic level of education. Most of them come from single mother households or were orphaned. All of the selected youth, are unemployed prior to being accepted into the program. The selected youth are eager to use their energy, grow their skills, get an income and become future leaders to mobilize their communities out of poverty.
50 % percent of the selected youth reporters are female. This ensures that young females that live in extreme poverty have an equal access to employment and have the ability t o rise up as future leaders in their communities.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
Daphne Nederhorst was born into a Dutch family but grew up in Tanzania. Her parents, both working in the international aid sector, challenged the long term sustainability of foreign models to solve poverty in countries such as Tanzania.
Since infancy, Daphne had the chance to live among communities across Africa that lacked the basic necessities and endured extreme poverty. While she was deeply touched by the problems in these areas, she was mesmerized by the local people’s strength and inspiration to find solutions to their own local challenges. She felt a strong sense of responsibility to help these communities. Daphne wanted to give a voice to these extraordinary unsung heroes and bring their valuable lessons to the world. At the age of 7, Daphne made a conscious decision to make this my life’s mission.
Since then, Daphne’s passion remains strong. She lived and travelled to over 48 countries, received 3 academic degrees, is a part-time teacher at the University of British Columbia in the area of international development. She has worked with and advised governments and international aid agencies such as the United Nations and collaborated with renowned global leaders including Richard Branson and Muhammad Yunus. She resigned from her corporate job in 2007 to spearhead Sawa World and has since received the Ashoka Fellowship, YMCA International Peace Award and was selected as a finalist for the 2010 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
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Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
In the last three years of operations, Sawa World has trained 215 youth reporters in six of the world’s poorest countries. Through this process the youth reporters have shared the success models of a wide range of community leaders with a combined impact of reaching 100,000 people living in extreme poverty and secured over $450,000 of in-kind support to scale up the projects of the Sawa Leaders.
To track our impact and challenges, we apply a range of monitoring tools such as surveys, emails and site visits to gain valuable information from the youth reporters, media partners and community leaders. Our two most valuable learning lessons in the first two years were (1) we needed move away from having the youth reporters act as volunteers and develop a sustainable business model to employ them on a permanent basis and (2) it was essential to create reliable partnerships with local media organizations that could train and employ the youth on an ongoing basis.
In year three, we changed our program model to reflect these learning’s and established new media partnerships in Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Haiti. To test our new approach, five youth were trained in Uganda at the Uganda Film and Television Institute with a guaranteed income for the next 24 months. During the first month of their training, the youth reporters reached 125,000 Uganda people in extreme poverty with the solutions of three community leaders.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
More than 10,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
Based on the results in Uganda over the next 12 months, we aim to expand the program in four countries (Zambia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Haiti) in the next 2 years. We will train and employ 100 new youth reporters and guaranteed them an income over the 24 month period. The youth in return, will find and document 100 community leaders and share their effective solutions to 1 million people living in extreme poverty across the five countries.
During the next three years, a substantial growth in corporate and private sponsorship will have supported continue efforts to scale up operations and field programming. However, our goal in the next five years is to replace all charity funding with earned income from services provided by the local media partners and Sawa World Youth Reporters.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
Sawa World has grown rapidly in the last three years mainly as a result of transparency and openness to the learning’s from field experiences and changing approaches and models accordingly (see earlier section). This internal leadership philosophy will be used to overcome any future barriers to success.
One apparent challenge we may encounter is the resistance from the trillion dollar international aid industry. Our innovative approach bypasses the traditional and mostly ineffective approached of these institutions and aims to strive free of charity and foreign aid to solve extreme poverty. At the core, Sawa World is putting unemployed youth and the people living extreme poverty in charge of solving their own poverty issues with their own leadership. To overcome this challenge, we have built strong alliances with international aid organizations, engaged them in our work and informed them how we can assist them in applying similar approaches. For example, Sawa World’s Founder was recently asked to advice UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and 300 Heads of State and Governments on using more effective ways to solve global poverty aims or also referred to as the UN Millennium Development Goals.
Tell us about your partnerships
Sawa World has an impressive list of global partner organization. Some of these include:
Our local media partners who train and support the employment of the youth include the Uganda Film and Television Institute, Zambia Institute of Mass Communication, Tanzanian Kilimanjaro Film Institute, Rwandan Kalisimbi Cinema Production and Haitian Creative Studio Video Production.
Our main technology partner is Best Buy/ Future Shop who donate an extensive “Sawa Youth Media Kit” to local media partners with the goal to support the training and monthly work of the youth reporters. This includes items such as portable camcorders, tripods, microphones, mini projectors and speakers. They have included suppliers such as Kodak. Sawa World is also currently in communications with Sony and Apple to join these efforts with product donations.
Our main corporate sponsor is Western Union. They provide access to their global fund transfer system free of charge. This allows us to wire funds to our local media partners and youth reporters when needed. Western Union is also a corporate sponsor to support the employability of some of the Sawa Youth Reporters.
We work in close partnership with Ashoka Canada and Ashoka USA to assess the scalability and business development opportunities of Sawa World’s model. The Director of Ashoka USA is a Board Advisor in the area of social enterprise development.
We also have partnerships with Milton Rose (creation of employment contracts) and the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia (income development strategies), and are currently in collaboration with global companies including Virgin Unite and Quakers Foods.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$100,000‐250,000
Explain your selections
Sawa World has fundraised over $300,000 in the last three years. Our funding has grown every year between 15 percent and 100 percent. The main sources of funding have come from private philanthropists and business in North America.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
Our vision is to strive free of charity and create earned income to support our operations and field programs. To support this goal, we have an internal “think tank” of 12 volunteers called the Income Development Team. They are currently assessing 65 income options and identified 12 for further exploration over the next three years.
This has led to a meeting with senior staff members at the United Nations Global Compact, a network of 3000 leading global businesses that have a commitment to the solving global poverty. We envision providing this network with the opportunity to hire the Sawa Youth Reporters in documenting, on short video, best practice to specific poverty issues. These can then be used for training, marketing or replication purposes by the businesses.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich barriers to employment does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Underemployment
SECONDARY
Lack of skills/training
TERTIARY
Lack of access to information and networks
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
See earlier sections that fully describe how our innovative approach tackles the above barriers.
Are you trying to scale your organization or initiative?
If yes, please check up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Grown geographic reach: Multi-country
SECONDARY
Grown geographic reach: Global
TERTIARY
Influenced other organizations and institutions through the spread of best practices
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
See earlier sections that fully describe growth activities of the next three years.
Beyond the three years, we will work towards an entire paradigm shift in international aid and youth employment in developing countries. Sawa World plans to scale up to five new countries every two to three years until we reach all of our targeted 50 countries and have thousands of youth employed as Sawa World Youth Reporters These youth will have the ability to reach and empower millions of people with access to local solutions to solve their own poverty issues.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
Technology providers, NGOs/Nonprofits, For profit companies, Academia/universities.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
See earlier section in partnerships that fully outlines our partnerships and impact.
Created on 06/12/2011 by mayi12345
The change we want to bring is to make all great ideas into action, immediately. The whole globe generate at least 2.5 trillion ideas per year (we do have at least one great idea flash by without using it according to a science magazine). Some innovators put efforts into a 30 pages business plan to enter a competition. However, there is only winner. Other social innovative (SI) moves are suspended due to lack of funding, time, and suggestions. Innovators give up their SI ideas before another opportunity comes.
Organization: Match Social Innovator
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Is your organization a
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How long has your organization been operating?
Less than a year
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
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Provide chances for the other 99% "failed" social innovators via media
What change do you want to bring to the world?
The change we want to bring is to make all great ideas into action, immediately. The whole globe generate at least 2.5 trillion ideas per year (we do have at least one great idea flash by without using it according to a science magazine). Some innovators put efforts into a 30 pages business plan to enter a competition. However, there is only winner. Other social innovative (SI) moves are suspended due to lack of funding, time, and suggestions. Innovators give up their SI ideas before another opportunity comes. From a poor community's stand point, how long can they wait till the next great ideas is generated, well developed, selected to be finalists and taken into action to make a change? The change has to be made - switch all great ideas into actions, before they are abandoned.
What are the primary activities of your project?
Our project is to provide a platform for students, entrepreneurs or any individual who is intended to make a change, using media. To provide as many self-improvement opportunities as possible, our primary activities are to build the largest database in SI related competitions and successful stories for website posting and discussion (www.MatchSocialInnovator.com). We are seeking mentors in different industries and organizations to assist social innovators (SIers) through our website consistently. Using our global network, our team is making small projects happening all around the world for SIers to participate. Slers post their ideas online for further discussion and partnership. Then they can modify and send their concrete idea and business plan to us. We send it to our mentors with confidentiality and give suggestion on how to make small-scale products. These products designed by SIers will be brought to communities that our team or partners travel and volunteer for market survey. We are currently in Africa, filming serial real-life social innovators experiences associated with those small projects. All these projects will be filmed in the future and posted online for catalyzing SI work in a vivid format, continuingly.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
Our initiative is to take good use of media for SIers to obtain and practice multi-skills to be ready for real action challenge. The society has high expectations on SIers but is not financially, culturally and politically prepared for the arrivals of large amount of SIers. Our innovative approach is more than collect SI information, but also create global partnership and boutique innovative projects to benefit SIers and underdeveloped communities with no risk. We assist SIers to develop ideas and products through our built network. We/partners use frequent travel opportunities to additionally bring small-scale products to communities for market research, then provide feedbacks via serial reality filming format. Every project will be recorded by trained travellers with detailed description of Match SIers process through our webcam, website, games, etc. Information collected will help build a virtual game room environment for SIers to practice skills online. We are matching SIers with similar ideas, matching our travel and networks opportunities with SIers' desires, matching the SIers' design products with needed communities, for no cost on partners & SIers, no abandon on ideas, no waste of time and opportunities. To protect SIers and yet inspire potential change-makers, we share public discussion forum and publish videos made for small projects; however, we provide professional advice and small projects ONLY for active SIers who take the initiatives to participate in SI competitions and are committed to write a concrete business plan after public and private discussion.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for less than a year
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
The community we are engaging has one particular action in common: cannot wait. SIers who often check our website are ones want to do something and partially ready. However, most of the SIers are lacking of one or more components to take immediate action: funding, time, long-term commitment, security, network, not-so-boring projects, business or technology skills. They usually come from normal family and are mostly aged under 35. Additionally, they consider their daily life unsatisfied and have short-term (1-3 months) volunteer or abroad experience. While there are another part of the community we engage. This group of people are underrepresentative, either in developed or developing countries. They have been helped by other volunteer organizations or individuals in the past five years but positive changes are not obvious after one year of assistance. Prominent changes include: clean drinking water, food, proper sanitation system, payable housing, medicine and education, secure job and societal equity. Last but not least, the individual in the community are able to and willing to work, and has to be not afraid of helping or being helped.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
Disease, gender discrimination, sexual assault, lack of opportunities, water crisis, they are not all stories about the founder, but they are parts of the founder's story. Grew up in China, she had rare diseases that normal children do not have; she could not help her cousin who is facing gender inequality in her own family; she witnessed her friend forced to be a prostitute by violence. To find solutions for these problems, In 2007 she arrived the US to study environmental engineering along with various subjects. These experiences has powered her to generate ideas that are related to multi-issues. Though 1 out of 100 people supported her strangely correlative idea, or someone stole parts of her idea, she insists on taking action for her new ideas and decided to share her ideas with SIers. Currently, she is in South Africa working on mercury management in the Ocean and initiated projects in Nicaragua, Ethiopia and the US with other SIers. When she heard story from Paul Polak about using market to solve 1.7 million people's drinking water problem, Vivienne Westwood about fashion fights climate change, Peter Thum about making guns in Africa to jewelries, founder herself about how graceful to be supported before she gave up, she firmly believes that if she soon becomes the "1 supportive" for those seem-to-be-failed ideas, both her and other SIers will see the rainbow after rain. Therefore, she turned down her internship opportunities and started MatchSocialInnovator.com.
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Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
We have done small works that inspired people to become social innovators. Some of the examples are book donation event we held as well as volunteer technology training weekly in a local non-governmental organization in China. The book donation event used large advertisement with picture of a dead child hand holding pencil in front of the busiest square to attract attention. We also went to schools directly to pick up books. With help of around 10 volunteers, we collected more than 10,000 useful books in a town of 300,000 in two weeks. The technology training was brought from the US and 20 core volunteer members were trained. A year later, the NGO and the government has co-started a education center for students from low-income family. In the past two years, these small projects have helped the town increase registered volunteers to 1/5 of its total population. Our previous success is contributed to our networks as well as pilot partner selection. Some schools in China were too busy with exams that we were not able to launch even a small project there. The commitment of volunteers of our partners are crucial for the continuity of successful small work. Our partner did not require long-term commitment; however, dedicated short-term individuals and responsible leaders and reputations have contributed a lot to these projects. The success is measured by local awareness of the organization, the number of participants per event, the government support and donation after events.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
101-1,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
The project will generate jobs (reporter, coordinator, IT, etc) and further maximize the advantage of media in the next three years. We are planning to expand our small projects into at least 10 different countries. We are looking for broadcasting a serial reality show on TV to raise SI awareness and gain profits to support projects of loyal SIers. In addition, we are planning to make an on-line game or apps to allow SIers from all over the world to be connected. SIers can practice their business and technology skills, know other SIers in country of interest, or even experience unexpected disasters that often happen in developing countries through visual environment. The new product will potentially attract new customers to become SIer and will be charged due to its practical application.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
The biggest barrier so far is to convince large companies, organizations to invest, provide opportunities and provide mentorships, due to constraints set in regards to sex, age, experience, background, nationalities, etc. For young individuals specifically, they are lacking of related experience, concrete business plan, multi-skills in running a business, networking opportunities, funding, etc. It is one of the largest blocks on our way. However, they are never lack of innovative ideas and they have plenty of energy and desire. With such a driving force in mind, we are starting small and simple projects that do not require more than 100 dollars investment. As a student grew up in China, studying in top school in the US and have been funded to work in Nicaragua, South Africa and Ethiopia for projects related to water, roadway, education etc, the founder has built a large network globally. Therefore, we will first have small projects for every country visited previously and record the whole progress of these projects then open for discussion, so that we are able to prove that young people are open to critiques and capable of doing something amazing.
Another barrier concerned is the number of countries that co-founders are able to travel in one year, especially we are currently full-time students. Though we get funding to travel for bigger projects and our sponsored professors are very supportive for other small projects. We plan to be in touch with other universities and scholars, to see if they can bring along small projects for our users.
Tell us about your partnerships
There are three partnerships that we have established or seeking currently.
Universities: students have different talents and passions who are willing to donate 3-5 hours per week to start projects in local communities; professors with science, art or business experiences and are able to become future mentors; potentially financial supports from schools and school registered organizations that co-founders belong
Private sectors: large companies that have involved in social innovation, which are willing to provide experienced mentors for our users (registered social innovators); individuals that already have a start-up firm and plan to expand their business in other countries. They are willing to share stories and potentially provide training-for-job opportunities for social innovators.
NGOs: local NGOs that provide community information and have volunteer opportunities available for users to gain out-of-routine experiences. Our (potential) partnered NGOs work at suburban areas in developing countries, or areas close to New England area (fuel-saving commute with Cambridge headquarter). NGOs are willing to efficiently and frequently assist our users for community survey and social activities that are necessary to start their own project. NGOs in Nicaragua and China has offered us partnership opportunities in the future and more NGOs are targeted.
However, due to prior commitments with our partners, we are not allowed to share their information unless our website is completely built and have the ability to commercialize their products or service.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$10,001‐50,000
Explain your selections
At the first stage, financial support came from family's contribution ($1,900). To focus on the website and the business, the founder has given up internship opportunity for the summer and rented an apartment in Cambridge area where talents are surrounded. Website host (3-year) and software were paid with this initial fund. Using our network worldwide, our global friends in college or recent graduates can start small projects locally. Additionally, our friends travel around the world frequently with their initial projects, hence, they have become a volunteer carrier to bring trial products to their community. Our friends bring more than a social innovation message or product to their own community (however, it is not considered as small projects in our work due to limited resources ), but also help our project recruit more social innovators and reach out more countries. During second year, we are starting to charge ads fee on the website, targeted customers include individuals and business. Individuals are defined as start-up owner who is looking for help from our registered users or our website commercialization; normal society member who pay attention to our website, TV shows, posted video and support local activities. They support us by sharing stories, buy our ads online, introduce our websites and SIers to their friends, participate in events, etc. Businesses support our project by investment, commercial, merchandize products designed by SIers, etc.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
First year focuses on data collection and website design. Communications with NGOs and individuals are priorities as well. We will reach out other countries by traveling opportunities for research/assessment/infrastructure-based projects offered/funded by universities or organizations. During travel, our team will bring products designed by our users for free to test its market value and record a detailed video tape (including location condition, selected community's change during stay, etc). We then discuss with our users for potential market, barriers, improvement, local or global investors, etc (either open discussion forum or private chat). We use our own opportunities from top universities to assist users save money and time as well as brainstorming with confidentiality.
Second year we will attract interesting investors for ready-to-go users. To secure project's partners, we provide free ads for our partners during the first three months to allow our users to contact our partners. We also list a number of tested, well-discussed and improved projects candidates for partners as referenced.
Third year, we are hoping to fund trips for users and invest into their projects. We will continue doing small projects with a more creative format, to match more social innovators with various backgrounds. We will also maximize social impact by using media such as TV, cell phone, iPhone app, virtual online game room, etc.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich barriers to employment does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Lack of access to information and networks
SECONDARY
Lack of visibility and investment
TERTIARY
Lack of skills/training
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
SIers such as students with various backgrounds are lacking of information and skills to develop their ideas. Our project helps them collect as much information as possible from successful stories of SIers, to competition and social job/volunteer opportunities. By building a platform online and combining with our pre-established connection, our users will have a larger social network globally. By attracting committed and hardworking SIers, we can increase the awareness of SI and connect investors with our users as well as our project itself. We offer training through online discussion, mentorship and provide feedbacks (active users only) by sub-projects done in other developing countries. Users are able to get skills needed to launch business with their initial idea.
Are you trying to scale your organization or initiative?
If yes, please check up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Enhanced existing impact through addition of complementary services
SECONDARY
Grown geographic reach: Global
TERTIARY
Influenced other organizations and institutions through the spread of best practices
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
Small social projects such as book donation and educational center have been completed. We are currently working on more projects such as Nuke Exchange in S. Africa, Nicaragua, etc., and we are recording the project from head-to-toe, which will become the first video launched. Similar projects will be continued in the near future. Interviews with social innovators along with mentor sponsorship request are occurring. In addition, a user-friendly website is being built and will be launched in the next three months. We are going to use social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and other famous websites to spread out the words. Majority of the documents will be posted on the website to encourage more social innovators to join our network.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
Government, Technology providers, NGOs/Nonprofits, For profit companies, Academia/universities.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
Coming from top engineering school in the US, the founder has a strong technology and science background. In fact, the first two projects' ideas were derived from experiences obtained from working with organizations at the university then combined with technologies developed at school. Universities, for profit companies and local NGOs have provided us with valuable feedbacks and resources (small funding, working space, materials, connection with local governors, engineers, educators, entrepreneurs, private partners, etc) to make our ideas fit into specific areas based on local policies, economy and market. Some local NGOs provided us human resources (their own volunteers) to help us initiate local projects.
