A friend of mine recently pointed out that a Scottish website had quoted in full one of my old blog postings.
My curiosity led me to take a look and…I have to say that I am very proud to have been included in this website.
The website is called “Assist Social Capital”, a non-profit, charitable organization in Edinburg, Scottland.
Visit the Assist Social Capital website to read about their project to promote an end to poverty.
Categories: Social ecology · Social entrepreneurship · Sustainable societies
The current issue of New Scientist Magazine has an interesting article that compares selfish behaviors with altruistic behaviors and produces a theory of how group-oriented collaboration has a track record of survival.
“ALTHOUGH a high standard of morality gives but a slight or no advantage to each individual man and his children over the other men of the same tribe… an advancement in the standard of morality will certainly give an immense advantage to one tribe over another.”In this famous passage from The Descent of Man, published in 1871, Charles Darwin perceived a fundamental problem of social life, and a possible solution. The problem is that for a society to function, its members must perform services for each other. Yet members who behave “for the good of the group” often put themselves at a disadvantage compared with more selfish members of the same group. If so, then how can altruism and other prosocial behaviours evolve?The solution, according to Darwin, is that groups containing mostly altruists have a decisive advantage over groups containing mostly selfish individuals, even if selfish individuals have …”
The link below links to a page that contains the same text as above. To read more a subscription is necessary. The print version of this issue is worth it’s price as it has a few other articles of interest.
Source:
Evolution: Survival of the selfless – being-human – 03 November 2007 – New Scientist
New Scientist Magazine: Current Issue contents >
Related in this blog:
Beyond Abraham Maslow’s Pyramid of (Individual) Needs >
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect
Categories: Problem-solving · Social ecology · Social entrepreneurship · Social theory · Sociology · Sustainable societies · Urban Design
Quoting Al Gore from a blog post on the Identity unknown blog:
“Current, the media company I co-founded six years ago with my partner Joel Hyatt, just last week launched a new web site that integrates television and the Web in an unprecedented way. It provides, as never before, a platform for citizens to make the media their own.One of the features I’m most excited about on Current.com is called Viewpoints. Viewpoints is a virtual town hall where you can share your opinions, in video, about the issues that matter in the 2008 election: from global warming to government eavesdropping, and many more.This digital town hall is already bustling, and you can find viewpoints from me and from a lot of people, including the candidates running for President. Come and listen to their positions and, more importantly, tell them and the rest of the world what you think!”
Link
http://current.com/viewpoints 
Source:
Identity Unknown (blog): “Al Gore: Announcement of Viewpoints…a new website from Current” >>
Related in this blog:
Reading List 10/11/2007 (includes The Assault On Reason, Companion to Philosophy and Social Intelligence.)
Green.TV >>
Categories: Communication · Critical theory · Cultural anthropology · Cultural studies · Politics · Social Networks · Social ecology · Social entrepreneurship · Social innovation · Sociology · Sustainable societies
An interesting tool that allows users to “invest” in poor individuals from across the world who have entrepreneurial dreams.
Link:
Related in this blog:
Categories: Collective problem-solving · Poverty · Problem-solving · Social ecology · Social entrepreneurship · Social innovation · Sociology · Sustainable societies
Both Seth Godin and Bruce Nussbaum have expressed their opinions over the latest move by the One Laptop Per Child group to sell one laptop while giving one away for free in the developing world.
Nussbaum think it’s time to call it a failure. Expressing design flaws such as “top down” design and lack of research:
“Cell phones are far more popular as the means to connect to the net in much of the Third World and cell-phone type devices rather than cute little laptops might have made much more sense. Tons of research show this to be true.”
Nussbaum does have a point, spoken word, may be better ways to communicate some information in parts of the “developing world”. At the same time the laptops provide the capability of more comprehensive (larger with clearer information) video and animations which are also recognized as powerful communication tools in areas where literacy may be low.
Seth Godin takes a longer-range approach towards evaluating the project:
“The marketing: Everything, even laptops for kids, works its way through the innovation diffusion curve. That means that most countries, most organizations and most communities aren’t going to adopt this tool for a few years. It doesn’t matter if it’s perfect… these things take time. Smart marketing embraces the curve and doesn’t insist that it must change for this project, right now.”
I lean towards Godin’s evaluation. Some types of change take more time than others. The OLPC group is adapting to the current dynamics of the philanthropic marketplace. And I’m glad that they’re being innovative in their approach.
We also have to remember that the goal should not be to sell lots of laptops, (or phones) but rather the goal is to make a positive change in a community. This will require some contextual user research to determine the needs and requirements (as Nussbaum hinted). This will also require looking at the challenges from a systems-wide perspective. At all times the goals and feedback from the individuals in the target communities should be the guiding light in front of these projects.
Eventually we may find ourselves with solution systems aligned to make a difference. A phone is not the solution to all challenges. Neither is a laptop. But they both have potential to being valuable elements for positive change. This change will depend (heavily) on the contextual needs of the populations.
Sources:
Seth’s Blog: This changes everything >>
Bruce Nussbaum on BusinessWeek Online.
It’s Time To Call One Laptop Per Child A Failure,>>
Related:
TED Video: Nicholas Negroponte: The Vision Behind One Laptop Per Child >>
ONLPCNews: Americans Want to Help One Laptop Per Child >>
Browser for One Laptop Per Child >
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect
Categories: Innovation · Non-profit organizations · Problem-solving · Social entrepreneurship · Social innovation · Sustainable societies
Hans Rosling is one of those speakers that has acknowledged the need for a wider consciousness of data analysis.
In the TED video below Rosling shows how moving data allows us to see another type of pattern -the pattern of change across long ranges of time (but that’s not all) we can also correlate this change to other variables – in his case we can chart the change of countries, their economies, their infant mortality rates, and other social changes.
The video below has a few sequences in motion of how data can be animated to illustrate relationships over a period of observation. (sequence starts at the following playhead location 19:08)
BTW: I noticed that BMW has sponsored the videos at TED – I’m thankful for that but I have yet to see a hybrid vehicle by BMW or perhaps an electric vehicle to challenge Tesla Motors or Loremo’s off the charts vehicle.
Dear BMW execs: World class engineering today has a new requirement – it’s fuel efficiency (if you want to be one of the pack – even lame GM is catching on);
The requirement is revolutionary energy usage if you want to maintain your leading engineering legacy. Sponsoring TED is great but I’m probably not the only TED fan who will ask “Where’s the green vehicle?” Show us the green. (Send them a note about this yourself >
Related Link:
Gapminder >
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect
Categories: Problem-solving · Social entrepreneurship · Social innovation · Sustainability
Yahoo has a new section called “Yahoo! Green” it has features like a list of actionable items to change the way we consume energy. The feature includes a built-in calculator that helps you calculate how making changes to your life-style can help our environment.
It also features gadgets like this handy dandy cranker-upper MP3 player.
Links
Related Elsewhere
Worldchanging.org >
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect
Categories: Innovation · Social entrepreneurship · Social innovation · Sustainable design
Quoting from WorldChanging (blog):
“Most of the time when we cover art on Worldchanging, we focus in particular on critical and activist art — work that the artist utilizes as a vehicle for cultural commentary and sometimes a call to action, art which is socially engaged and even participatory. Artwork that doesn’t do these things, in artspeak, might be called discursive — ambling around pointed issues, provoking dialogue, but ultimately yielding no useful result, as suggested in Victor Margolin’s opening essay. The obvious counterargument is that art by its very definition need not be useful; utility emerges from other creative fields like design and architecture and even landscaping and urban planning. But as social and environmental issues become more and more pervasive in cultural conversations, and sustainability becomes everyone’s concern, the lines between these fields start to blur — practitioners of “fine art” no longer stand isolated in a realm of reflection and suggestion, and specialists in other disciplines often undertake projects that gravitate towards and into the art world.”
WorldChanging: “Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art” >>
Related in this blog
Theo Jansen >>
Categories: Art · Social entrepreneurship · Social innovation · Sustainability · Sustainable societies
“Realizing that innovation driven solely by technology often failed to meet customer needs, many organizations turned to a consumer (marketing) oriented approach where consumer research and observation is handled by “experts”. Green believes that this approach is starting to reaching end of life. [Josephine Green's (of Philips Design)] main point is that we need to go beyond designing around individual consumer needs and start innovating around social needs. Her reasoning: We have reached a saturation point for technology and consumer goods. Continuing to consume the way we currently do is not healthy.”
“There is too much ‘stuff’ and a growing realization that filling the future with more and more consumer-driven technology and marketable goods does not necessarily guarantee higher growth, a better quality of life or even life itself, given the state of the planet.” (from NexUp)
Consumer research and observation are still important, the difference now is that these methods have to be integrated with a wider social purpose.
Source
NextUp: “Democratizing the Future” >>
Related
Call for papers on Social Innovation >>
Customer World (blog): “Adding Social Innovation to Design” >>
Categories: Collective problem-solving · Cultural anthropology · Cultural studies · Design thinking · Eco literacy · Ecosophy · Permaculture · Pollution · Social ecology · Social entrepreneurship · Social innovation · Social theory · Sociology · Sustainability · Sustainable design · Sustainable societies
“A German architect is pursuing an ambitious project in the Middle East. He wants to build office towers in Riyadh, Dubai and Bahrain that produce all their own energy. The zero emissions office building has arrived.”
Spiegel Online International: “New Tower Creates All Its Own Energy” >>
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect
Categories: Design · Design ethics · Innovation · Permaculture · Social entrepreneurship · Social innovation · Sustainability · Sustainable design · Sustainable societies · architecture
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