The NYTimes ran an article very relevant to design.
According to the article, The Macklin Intergenerational Institute developed a program called Xtreme Aging as a sensitivity training program for schools, churches, workplaces and other groups that have contact with the elderly.
Increasingly, these types of simulation programs are going to be important for designers [...]
Archive for the 'Social Entrepreneurship' Category
I didn’t fully appreciate the lessons that I received from Larry Keeley’s Innovation Frontiers class last semester until I started to explore the X-prize model in depth.
Listen to their elevator statement:
“The mission of the X PRIZE Foundation is to bring about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. The Foundation fosters innovative, high-profile competitions that [...]
Surveys for the Developing world
19Nov07In Keeley’s Design Planning class, we’re trying to nail the plan for a platform solution that aggregates data, uses some sort of human or computer powered inference engine, and visualizes the data in a meaningful way that is actionable by urban planners, city officials, or business leaders.
The work is part of a project titled 19-20-21 [...]
Last week, Bill Clinton spoke at the Inc 500 conference about entrepreneurship and challenged small business owners of the fastest growing small companies to tackle large systemic problems by using their creativity: the health care crisis and poverty.
In my large scale systems planning workshop class on Tuesdays and Fridays, that’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re [...]
Bask in this glory: A friend and colleague of mine at ID just sent me the NY Times’s most popular article for today, May 29, 2007, aptly titled:
“Design that Solves Problems for the World’s Poor“
Nice!
It references the Cooper Hewitt (which I visited earlier this year), Martin Fischer’s Kickstart, and has a small gallery that shows [...]
I know I’m late on this post (Sorry Sheel), but I suffered 1 all-nighter and 1-near-all-nighter this week trying to catch up on school work from going to conferences two weeks in a row (Indian business conference and a design management institute seminar)
Interesting lectures/panels at the Indian Business conference:
Professor Jagdish Bhagwati (opening keynote).
Prof. Bhagwati is [...]
How does “Fair & Lovely” fare?
21Mar07Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Unilever or associated brands. These are just my thoughts on a heated debate.
Sometimes, it’s hard to get people to talk about selling to the Base of the Pyramid and looking to the emerging markets as a source of revenue. I think the latest BoP [...]
Dr Yunus accepts the Nobel Prize
11Dec06Dr. Mohammed Yunus collected his Nobel Peace Prize speech the other night in Oslo. Yunus has been my hero since I read his book in college and learned about Grameen, but I didn’t realize how remarkable of a speaker he is.
The text of his speech is available here.
Tidbits that I found particularly interesting:
First of [...]
Social Capitalist Awards: 2007
09Dec06This year’s social capitalist awards, sponsored by Fast Company, and Monitor group were released.
The problem with having access to the web while you’re trying to finish final projects is that I spend hours and hours researching these organizations. All fantastic in their own way.
Find the 43 winners here:
The 2007 Social [...]
The first panel after the keynote that I checked out at the Net Impact conference was the "Implications of Earned Income for Non-profits".
Speakers: Debra Natenshon, CEO, The Center for what works; Barbara M FLom, Principal, Barbara M Flom, P.C.; Alfred Wise, President, Community Wealth Ventures
The intent of this panel was to discuss strategies that non-profit [...]
Net Impact Conference 2006
28Oct06Net Impact conference 2006
Originally uploaded by quami77.
The 2006 Net Impact conference is taking place in Chicago! Wow, I guess I really lucked out.
I will be at the Professional Summit portion of the conference tomorrow (or I guess this morning now since its past midnight). [...]
Whoa, I was very excited to see one of my personal heroes win the Nobel Peace Prize –
Dr. Muhammad Yunus, who pinoeered MFI in the developing world is an amazing man.
If you haven’t already done so, check out his book, Banker to the Poor.
You *have* to hear this man’s story, as he [...]
India balks on OLPC
04Sep06So I know this happened a while ago, but I’ve been lax on blogging about BoP lately, since I moved.
India decided not to fund Negroponte’s mission to bridge the digital divide. I think this just might put the nail in the coffin for One Laptop per Child.
The Indian Ministry of Education dismissed the [...]
Kiva and BOP lending
17Jun06I am elated and secretly jealous at the same time; A friend of mine has deferred B-school at Columbia to pursue a worthy cause– He is working with IndiCorps in Gujurat and working for Kiva to distribute loans amongst the BOP population there. What a cool way to work for a nonprofit [...]
You Go, homeboy
16Jun06Some people love him, some people hate what his company stands for… But you can’t help but admire what his foundation has done for humanity.
Bill is leaving Microsoft in order to work full time to “give away his fortune” accoring to this article.
The Bill and Melinda Gates does some pretty impressive [...]
