These days, there's no shortage of buzz about the power of crowds. The idea that wired masses can be harnessed to accomplish tasks that even large organizations could never handle is very attractive. Groups now invite supporters to do such things as help ...
One of the reasons we launched Dowser is because the media over-reports social problems and under-reports potential solutions - and when they do cover solutions, they often do it poorly. Today I’ll look at one issue in particular: journalists who identify superficial conflicts ...
Search for the hashtag #socent and you'll find wide-ranging interest in social entrepreneurship on Twitter. Here's a roundup of a few thought-provoking tweets from last week: Bruce Lowry, communications director for the Skoll Foundation (@SkollFoundation) is live tweeting this year's Skoll World Forum, ...
The Young Social Entrepreneurs of Canada published an interview with our own David Bornstein this past Tuesday. We’re highlighting it here because David made a few points that really capture what motivated us to start Dowser. “Inspiration is overrated” - young people have ...
Thirty years ago, microfinance was a crazy idea. The notion that villagers, or slum dwellers, let alone women, could manage loans, and repay them dependably, was considered absurd. When I wrote my first book on the Grameen Bank in the early 1990s, many ...
We’ve talked about the potential (and potential pitfalls) of crowdsourcing in previous posts. Today, we’ll look at ColaLife, a remarkable example of the power of online collaboration to mobilize a movement and revive a decades-old, heretofore unrealized idea. Simon Berry has been obsessed ...
Civil rights activist and serial social entrepreneur, Van Jones, resigned last September as the White House Special Advisor for Green Jobs in the wake of Glenn Beck's attack on his patriotism. In a recent Grist interview, he reflects on a year in which ...
The recent health care debate has drawn attention to the industry's proclivity for wasting time and money. But research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), shows that the industry is also accomplished at wasting energy and resources. Mother Jones ...
Each Saturday night at EcoAlberto Park in El Alberto, Mexico, tourists gather in groups awaiting a coyote to smuggle them across the U.S. border. The ritual takes place 400 miles south of the actual border. For $20, tourists -- mostly middle class Mexicans ...
Search for the hashtag #socent and you'll find wide-ranging interest in social entrepreneurship on Twitter. Here's a roundup of a few thought-provoking tweets from last week: When one of the co-founders of microlender Kiva talks about her new startup, it's worth listening. Jessica ...