Earlier this year I had the occasion to attend the AshokaU Exchange being held on the sunny Arizona State University campus in Tempe. The day and a half of packed conference schedule culminated in a dinner panel of three university presidents, each a giant in his field.
The dinner panel brought into sharp focus the challenges facing our higher education system and the three different but equally innovative approaches taken by each of the colleges. Continue reading
Image via CrunchBase
Last year I had the opportunity to participate as a judge and mentor in the inaugural competition, MassChallenge. This is a serious business competition that has shown it can attract top quality concrete job creating ideas from round the world. Over 450 entries applied and 110 finalists were incubated for 3 months including free office space, introductions to VC, funders, customers and team resources. Sixteen finalists split $1 Million including $100,000 for the top finisher. Seeding Labs, profiled elsewhere on my blog, won $50,000 as the Social Impact finalist and also was offered free office space for another nine months.
If you have a venture and are looking to make it to the next level I strongly encourage you to apply to the 2011 accelerator. If you have any questions please reach out to the organizers at contact@masschallenge.org or apply online at www.masschallenge.org/enter. Continue reading
Posted in mobile technology, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, Startup, Venture Capital, venture philanthropy
Tagged Barack Obama, Boston, business ideas, business plan competition, entrepreneurship, innovation, Massachusetts, MassChallenge, Social Business, Social Entrepreneur, social entrepreneurship, Social Impact, social Innovation, startup, Sustainable ventures
Paul Polak is a physiatrist by training but has spent the past 25 years working to alleviate poverty in the developing world. His non-profit, International Development Enterprises, has come up with innovative low cost technologies that have improved the local livelihood of people at the bottom of the pyramid. For example the simply designed bamboo treadle pump has sold over 1.7 million copies and generated over $1.4 billion in farmer revenue in Bangladesh.
Paul has encapsulated his learnings in a book Out of Poverty that describes a number of these technologies. More recently, Paul has posted an interesting video on You tube that summarizes his Twelve Steps to Practical Problem Solving.
Some of the observations are commonsense ones but it is remarkable how often people forget them in their eagerness to push technology.
Posted in Agricultural Development, BOP, international development, non-profit, Poverty, Rural Development, Rural Entrepreneur, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, sustainable development, Water, Water resources
Tagged appropriate technology, bangladesh, BOP, innovation, international development, Paul Polak, Poverty, poverty alleviation, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, Social Impact, social Innovation, treadle pump, youtube
I came across this article that summarizes Amy Smith’s philosophy of design for low cost solutions
Here are her 7 key points. You can read the entire article on Popular Mechanics.
Some of Amy’s inventions and designs are also described with diagrams in another article Small, Low-Tech Inventions for Big, World-Changing Problems on their website. Amy is an editorial advisor for Popular Mechanics.
Posted in BOP, Education, international development, Poverty, Rural Development, Social Ecosystem, social Innovation, sustainable development
Tagged Amy Smith, BOP, Education, innovation, international development, invention, Low Cost Design, MIT, Poverty, Social Entrepreneur, Social Impact, social Innovation, sustainable development
Yesterday I attended the final presentation of the International Development Design Summit at MIT – the brainchild of Amy Smith, MacArthur Fellow and lecturer in MIT’s Mechanical Engineering department. This, now yearly, event brought together nearly 60 students from 20 countries around the world to work together with a team of mentors and staff to tackle a number of design problems facing NGOs and non-profits in developing countries. Continue reading
Posted in Agricultural Development, BOP, Education, international development, Poverty, Rural Development, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, sustainable development
Tagged Agricultural Development, Amy Smith, BOP, design, engineering design, IDDS, innovation, international development, invention, MacArthur Fellow, mechanical engineering, MIT, Rural Development, social entrepreneurship, Social Impact, social Innovation, sustainable development
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