Tracking Innovation in the Social Economy

It’s been a few months since I’ve been writing for a tech blog called bub.blicio.us – covering the social economy. My job, primarily, is to cover the SF Bay Area tech parties and blog about recently funded startups.

In addition to discovering what’s cool about certain emerging technologies and statups, I find myself uncovering patterns, researching trends, revisiting topical themes discussed in the SF Bay Area tech cocktail circuit.

Today’s topical theme is “Social”. It occurred to me that I write for a tech blog whose tagline is “Covering the Social Economy”. However, I realized that I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant in the context of all the tech partying we do. So I decided to turn to Wikipedia for guidance.

What is the Social Economy?

Economies are loosely comprised of three sectors:

the business private sector – which is privately owned and profit-motivated.
the public sector – which is owned by the state
the social economy – which includes a wide range of community, nonprofit, and voluntary endeavors.

According to Wikipedia, the social economy can be further divided into 3 subcategories:

the community sector – organizations that are active at the community level, such as community associations, civic societies and neighborhood watch
the voluntary sector – charities, nonprofits and nongovermental organizations (NGOs) that are supported by substantial voluntary effort
the social enterprise sector – businesses with a social mission, whose profit orientation is motivated by achieving social objectives rather than by profit maximization for shareholders

I looked at a few more websites that were coming up for the keyword “social economy“. What struck me is that this definition of “social economy” – community-oriented and supported economic activities that thrive on a social mission – seemed to be a predominantly European interpretation of a concept explored in top U.S. business schools called “social innovaton”.

What is Social Innovation?

Social innovation refers to strategies, concepts, organizations that meet social needs of all kinds and strengthen civil society. Examples of social innovation include micro-credit financing in Third World Countries, earned income strategies in nonprofit management, zero-waste/closed loop industrial systems, socially responsible business and corporate social responsibility.

Social innovation is a business management track explored by top U.S. B-schools such as Stanford, Harvard, and Berkeley. The Stanford Social Innovation Review is an excellent resource for understanding this wide-ranging topic.

Social innovation touches upon social entrepreneurship, another topic dear to my heart. Social enrepreneurship refers to the use of business entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture that can impact social change in economically measurable ways. This metric is called the social return on investment (SROI) of the social enterprise. Great organizations that support and explore social entrepreneurship include the Social Venture Network, Ashoka, the Skoll Foundation, and Social Enterprise Alliance, to name a few.

But what does all this have to do with the SF Bay Area technology sector? Allow me to tie this in with another hot topic these days – social media.

What is Social Media?

I spent months sipping cocktails with social media experts in the SF Bay Area before I even began to get a glimmer of what social media was all about, and why it is so cool. Let me go back to the social media application that I refer to for all my information needs – Wikipedia.

The Wikipedia entry for social media is astoundingly brief – I can’t believe that none of the tech-savvy, Web 2.0 social media pundits in the SF Bay Area have gotten to Wikipedia yet. According to Wikipedia, social media describes online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences and perspectives with each other.

Prominent examples of social media applications include sites that enable social networking (MySpace, Facebook), video sharing (YouTube, Grouper, Revver), photosharing (Flickr, Photobucket), music sharing (Last.fm), news sharing (Digg) and social bookmarking(Del.icio.us).

Blogs, message boards, podcasts, vlogs, wikis are all examples of social media technologies.

Social media differs from traditional media in that it enables interaction and dialogue its users, and can be entirely self sustaining (informationally) through user-generated content.Social media relies heavily on democratic principles that allow anyone to promote anything from videos and news stories, to music and photos. Social media is a force to be reckoned with, as it has the awesome potential to democratize society by placing the power of information back into the hands of civil society through citizen journalism. It can harnass the wisdom of crowds and create community in unprecedented ways.

Social Media and the Web 2.0 Revolution

Social media is often used interchangeably with Web 2.0, or the “participatory Web”. Web 2.0 refers to a second generation of Web-based services and technologies that has catalyzed a paradigm shift in the Internet as a platform, and in the way that people on the Web interact with each other.

Stowe Boyd, friend and expert on building social applications, describes the Web 2.0 Revolution this way:

“A new category of software is emerging, software intended to augment social systems. Not to change the company inadvertantly, like email did, when the electronic analogue of interoffice mail became something else, grew into something else by changing the way people communicated, and led to a change in the structure of the company. No this new generation of software is intentional , designed from the start to guide human behavior into new paths and patterns, to counter prevailing ways of interaction. I call these social tools: software intended to shape culture.”

What Does Social Media have to do with the Social Economy?

In the SF Bay Area, many would say that the “social economy” refers to the economy of the social web and emerging social media technologies, rather than “social innovation” or “social enterprise”.

I would like to mash together these definitions and explore the very interesting intersection of social media and social innovation. Or call it new media in the social economy, if you will.

The use of social media technologies to meet social needs, empower civil society, fight global warming will have a huge impact on raising citizen awareness and activism. Already, a number of sites have emerged, with the ability, if not, the express intention to impact positive social change.

Change.org is a social network for hundreds of social causes and over 1 million nonprofit organizations.

LinkedIn For Good aims to profile outstanding nonprofit organizations and enable visitors to donate directly via the new nonprofit pages featured on LinkedIn. They are also offering free job postings to registered nonprofit organizations to support their hiring needs.

Ning allows you to create a social network about anything for free. Ning’s robust technology allows you to drag and drop all kinds of content (video, RSS feeds, photos, and more) to make your site a rich, rewarding place for your fans to hang out. Given the high costs and headaches of building a social network in-house, nonprofits would do well to create a Ning community for their members. Not only can organization members, donors, volunteers and supporters meet and communicate with each other online, nonprofits can update the community on new programs, fundraising drives, news, and events.

Ning is a great way to find other people interested in the same issues, because, chances are, someone has already created a Ning social network for it, such as
The Bay Area Clean Technology Network

WiserEarth is a project of Paul Hawken’s Natural Capitalism Institute. WiserEarth is an open source, community-editable international directory and networking forum that maps, links and empowers the largest movement in the world â€“ the hundreds of thousands of organizations within civil society that address social justice, poverty, and the environment.

WiserEarth is essentially a structured wiki with a comprehensive taxonomy that makes it the most advanced search tool available in the environmental and social justice fields. Social entrepreneurs, students, scientists, consultants and volunteers can construct personal profiles, which creates visibility for them, while organizations will be able to access a broader pool of prospective talent. Grassroots groups that do not have a web presence visibility and access can benefit enormously from a listing on WiserEarth.

In upcoming posts, I will explore some of these sites in depth, and share ways in which they can be leveraged for maximum visibility of your social cause, organization, and the activist you.

[tags]social innovation, social economy, social activism, social media, social media applications, participatory web, Web 2.0, green 2.0, ning, change.org, wiser earth, linkedin for good, lorna li[/tags]

Share and Enjoy:

Starbucks Ideas, Consumers Vote for a Greener, More Environmentally Friendly Starbucks Says:
March 29th, 2008 at 7:41 am
[...] power of social media for social innovation is evident. If consumers are vocal enough about Starbucks’ environmental impact, Starbucks [...]
Starbucks Green Ideas - Consumers Vote for an Eco-Friendly Starbucks-- bub.blicio.us Says:
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:14 pm
[...] hopefully be the Greening of Starbucks, if their customers want it strongly enough. The power of social media for social innovation is evident. If consumers are vocal enough about Starbucks’ environmental impact, Starbucks [...]
Citizen Eco Drive Watch Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Citizen Eco Drive Watch…

I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you….
lorna Says:
May 12th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Thanks, Citizen Eco Drive Watch! Keep up the good work too!
What is Social Innovation? « Social Innovation Projects Says:
June 28th, 2008 at 9:44 am
[...] Social innovation refers to strategies, concepts, organizations that meet social needs of all kinds and strengthen civil society. Examples of social innovation include micro-credit financing in Third World Countries, earned income strategies in nonprofit management, zero-waste/closed loop industrial systems, socially responsible business and corporate social responsibility. From here. [...]
ForbesFeeds Says:
August 18th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
One of my favorite quotations on leadership came from John Howard who said “I’m not a banner. I am an encourager and a persuader and an advocate.” Many top managers in the United States would be well served with this advise.