SI Camp - a tool for social entrepreneurship
This weekend I'll be attending the first Australian Social Innovation Camp. On Saturday and Sunday, I'll be playing the role of a roving 'mentor', moving between the teams offering feedback, encouragement and advice where I can.
I also plan to do a lot of observing and listening, because I want to better understand the perceptions and expectations of participants of how they see the ideas from this weekend evolving into sustainable initiatives, that have a real social impact.
To give you some context - I've heard and read about Cheryl Kernot commenting on the state of social innovation in Australia on a number of occasions and I tend to agree with her that it is time to introduce a stronger vein of social entrepreneurship. While I've seen plenty of passion and goodwill in the SI Camp community for social good, I'm not quite sure we yet have enough entrepreneurship in the equation. This is broader issue than SI Camp itself and Kernot is quoted in this summary of a presentation at a recent mental health forum as saying (or words to the effect) that:
the social landscape is seeing huge social change away from reliance on charity and grants- much more about creative income generation. We need to let go of non-profit and profit distinction but how can we harness profits that put back into the social community, there needs to be a reassessment of “Not for Profit” terminology.
For me, the exciting thing about SI Camp is about using it as a tool for social entrepreneurship (and one that make use of the inherent attributes and capabilities of Web 2.0 technologies in a number of ways), rather than simply as an event where these ideas just become an expression of the good will that exists in the Web 2.0 community. A subtle, but important difference.
Photo Credit: From the Dignity in Care: Enabled by the Web (Set) CC-BY
