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09-03-10

Pacific Tour – Australia – A Social Innovation Barcamp in Sydney.

First visit ? click here to understand the MakeSense story.
Second visit ? click here to access the video interviews of the Social Entrepreneurs we’ve met. Third visit ? You should follow live on facebook the kickstart of MakeSense (indeed a lot more things are happening on our facebook !)

This is a guest post by Michelle Williams from fulfilthis.com . Michelle is based in Sydney and is well involved in the Social Innovation community there. Thanks to Lauren, our aussie connection, Michelle is sharing with us the feedbacks of the last Social Innovation Barcamp organized in Sydney. A blog post is also coming soon about a Social Innovatin barcamp that happened in Paris a few weeks ago.

Everyone’s talking at Sydney’s first Social Innovation BarCamp

Saturday, the 14th of August, 2010 was the inaugural BarCamp discussing Social Innovation. An interesting and diverse range of people participated in conversation and activity throughout the day.

Here in Sydney, with our beautiful surrounds and easy -going lifestyle we often take for granted what we have. We also still have many of the problems associated with any big city with an heavily increasing & also ageing population, pollution, disparity in wealth & in the health services available. And the poll driven state of our political system is leaving us all frustrated and disenchanted with the current system and the services the government can deliver into the future – our recent “hung federal parliament” result proves this.

“The vision for running the Social Innovation BarCamp is to provide a place for people to engage. There are many intelligent and effective people, from various fields, across the private and public sector. If we can connect those in an open and collaborative environment, we can empower us all in becoming effective change makers”.

The day was opened by the Hon Bob Carr, former premier of NSW. We gave him the proviso to discuss what he was passionate about. Although he is not connected to our Social Innovation segment it was interesting, as was repeatedly mentioned after his session, to hear him talk of his experience of making change from within the highest levels of government down.

From this start the participants connected, discussed and ran presentations on various topics, including slow projects, myths of social innovation, the impact of social innovation in the public sector, and using your voice to increase engagement and influence.

Following the day participants have spoken of common themes related to the value of their services and finding some way to pay for pursuing their passion, of turning talk into action, of new growth and sustainable models.

Did we have the answers? Not yet. But we started the conversation, we opened the door, we engaged the community and we built the momentum that will be carried on to subsequent events.

We’ve compiled a list of who did what sessions throughout the day.

Room A Sessions
Room B Sessions
Room C Sessions

Thanks again to Cisco for sponsoring to provide participants a lovely eco-friendly lunch. Thanks to AskHer who sponsored our coffees and thanks to TheCommons who provided the lunch and coffee.

if you want to know more about the Social Innovation barcamp sydney you can :
Check out the site here / Check out the pics of the day here on our Flickr group / Follow us on Twitter @sibsyd / Follow the Twitter stream here / Follow us on Facebook / Share your presentations on SlideShare

09-01-10

Where is professor Yunus ? Episode 3 : Good Morning Dhaka !

First visit ? click here to understand the MakeSense story.
Second visit ? click here to access the video interviews of the Social Entrepreneurs we’ve met. Third visit ? You should follow live on facebook the kickstart of MakeSense (indeed a lot more things are happening on our facebook !)

We started the MakeSense adventure after reading the books of professor Yunus. We’ll not stop before getting a chance to present him our project and how it can leverage the connectivity of the web to get challenges of Social Entrepreneurs solved. This is the third episode of our quest. ( In case you are joining us along the way, the episode 1 is here and the episode 2 there )

Where is professor Yunus ? Part 3, we’re in Dhaka. from christian vanizette on Vimeo.

08-31-10

Asian Tour – Bangladesh – Click Diagnostics is bringing direct healthcare services thanks to ICTs.

First visit ? click here to understand the MakeSense story.
Second visit ? click here to access the video interviews of the Social Entrepreneurs we’ve met. Third visit ? You should follow live on facebook the kickstart of MakeSense (indeed a lot more things are happening on our facebook !)

We would like to introduce you Mridul Chowdurry and the fantastic team of Click Diagnostics, a Social Enterprise which is bringing direct healtcare services in Bangladesh, Uganda and other places in the world using ICTs and innovative models. Here is our video interview with Mridul and the team. Below you’ll find another video of Mridul taken from field operations. We would like to thanks Priya from Samhita for introducing us See you soon Mridul and thanks again for the ice creams !

Asian tour – Bangladesh – Click Diagnostic from christian vanizette on Vimeo.

08-30-10

Asian Tour – India – The Red River is empowering weavers from North East India ( part 2 )

First visit ? click here to understand the MakeSense story.
Second visit ? click here to access the video interviews of the Social Entrepreneurs we’ve met. Third visit ? You should follow live on facebook the kickstart of MakeSense (indeed a lot more things are happening on our facebook !)

Kakoli Das is the founder of the Red River, a social enterprise which designs all sell handmade fashion accessories produced in the weavers villages of north east India. We’ve already met Kakoli once in Bangalore to interview her (check the interview to understand the Red River concept ). Here is a new video made after our visit on the field in the North East of India, in Guwahati, for you get a glimpse of how it is over there. Thanks for receiving us Kakoli, I’m sorry that I didn’t put traditionnal Asamese soundtracks on the video

Asian tour – India – The Red River is empowering weavers form North East India ( part 2) from christian vanizette on Vimeo.

08-30-10

Bonus Video – There’s an app in the cloud made of thousands of Kilometers crossed and real people doing good met.

First visit ? click here to understand the MakeSense story.
Second visit ? click here to access the video interviews of the Social Entrepreneurs we’ve met. Third visit ? You should follow live on facebook the kickstart of MakeSense (indeed a lot more things are happening on our facebook !)

We’ve traveled thousands kilometers. We’ve got 400GB of videos. Here is a random video mash up of things seen while moving. Hope you’ll like it

Bonus Video – An app in the cloud / www.makesense.org from christian vanizette on Vimeo.

08-23-10

MakeSense – The Gang – Introducing New members !

First visit ? click here to understand the MakeSense story.
Second visit ? click here to access the video interviews of the Social Entrepreneurs we’ve met. Third visit ? You should follow live on facebook the kickstart of MakeSense (indeed a lot more things are happening on our facebook !)

Since the beginning of the MakeSense journey a lot of cool people or joining us along the way to help build MakeSense. They are part of the Gang. We would like to introduce you several new members : Larry based in Singapour, Arya from Indonesia, Jonathan soon in Egypt, Sebastien from Provence and last but not least Clement from Nice !

*we are starting to have a lot of boys…are there any girl interested to join the Gang ?

larry@makesense.org

Hi there, I’m Larry. I’m (yet another) Tahitian guy, currently based out of Singapore where I’m employed by a small-global-palo alto based-Frenchies founded startup. In previous lives I lived in France and in the US. I’m passionate about entrepreneurship and technology/business/design, and how to mix all these to solve real world problems. I’m a big fan of the concept of social business, and of course, of MakeSense! Very excited to be here!
Super power: can’t stay in one place
Connect with Larry on his linkedin, Facebook or twitter

arya@makesense.org :

Haloo..my name is Arya Krishna. I lived in Bandung City, the capital city for West-Java Province, Indonesia. Still try to end my class in the Padjajaran University over the Social Welfare studies, yet i am very enthusiast about makesense.org who provide the supporting audio-video capture for many social enterprise freely. The idea of many-many social innovation must be spread as fast and wide as it can be. I know MakeSense.org will increase the number of social innovation applicant all over the world in near future. So i am willing to help and more to support by joining the gang.
my special power is a strong will to expand social entrepreneurial idea.
my extra-gang activities is building social enterprise concept to gain the sustainable coastal tourism.
Connect with Arya on his Facebook

jonathan@makesense.org :

Hi people!
I’m Jonathan, a 23-year-old french guy (from Corsica and Brittany) who currently works in an investment bank in Paris.
I’m in a french business school and would like to start my career in a management consulting firm. I’m also keen on international politics and journalism.

I’m glad to be part of this adventure which will start, for me, in Egypt (namely in Cairo and Alexandria)!
I don’t know if social business can lay the foundations of a new capitalism, but I really think that it’s a missing part of the system and it could also be adapted to our developped countries in the future. This is only my opinion and it’s precisely exciting to exchange with entrepreneurs all around the planet to figure out how they imagine the development and the strategy of their social businesses. ”
Super power: Can eat 3 Grameen Danone yoghurts in a minute.

sebastien@makesense.org

Hi people!

So, my name is Sébastien and I’m a student like most of the members of the gang.
I’m 23 years old and studying in sales and management at Esarc Evolution Aix en provence.
In the same time, I’m working in a computer shop downtown.

So, this 3 years degree is allowing me to have some knowledge; About Communication, marketing, economics…

And just when I asked myself if it could be useful, I saw Christian.
His head’s full of ideas, brilliant ideas that could lead to something great.
Then, I decided to follow him and try to help him.

What could I bring to Makesense? Well, I’d like to make a difference.
I’d like to be part of something useful and I think Makesense is, and will really be making sense soon!

The skills I have are entirely at their disposal and I hope it will help!

See ya on my Twitter and Facebook

clement@makesense.org

qualifier : Bearded Gangsta / playground : Nice / Special power : can be transformed in Chewbacca
Hi ! I’m Clement, I am 20 years old and for now i’m preparing a bachelor in a business school (actually in third years)
2010 was a revelation for me. I discovered the social economy and I became aware that another world was possible!
I wish I can become a craftsman of a world where the human would be at the center. I decided to join the gang of MakeSense because I think this is exactly the kind of initiative that can change the world !(in the right way) !

MakeSense – The Gang – Introducing Clement from Nice ! from christian vanizette on Vimeo.

08-21-10

The MakeSense Gang – Introducing Peter, the web-app craftman.

First visit ? click here to understand the MakeSense story.
Second visit ? click here to access the video interviews of the Social Entrepreneurs we’ve met. Third visit ? You should follow live on facebook the kickstart of MakeSense (indeed a lot more things are happening on our facebook !)

Hi there, Christian speaking
I’m in Tahiti with Doctor Peter, the koala born in the matrix who is coding the MakeSense web-app. We plan the launch of the app for the middle of september and have a few weeks in Tahiti to work on it ( yeah peter lives in Tahiti , he quit surf to code, I come from there also ) ! Say hello to Peter in the video below.

MakeSense – The Gang – Introducing Peter the app craftman. from christian vanizette on Vimeo.

08-16-10

The To-do list of the coming weeks for MakeSense

First visit ? click here to understand the MakeSense story.
Second visit ? click here to access the video interviews of the Social Entrepreneurs we’ve met. Third visit ? You should follow live on facebook the kickstart of MakeSense (indeed a lot more things are happening on our facebook !)

These weeks are busy weeks. We are working on the graphic designs of the web-app with Agathe in the south of france. Then christian will move back to his home in Tahiti, french polynesia, to work with Peter on the code of the app so that we can release the alpha in september. Don’t forget to let us your email address on www.makesense.org for us to ping you when we’ll test the alpha with the entrepreneurs we’ve met while traveling