Want to know more about the Small Is Good World and its relationship to the Skoll World Forum? For the last year or so, an informal group of social enterpreneurs on Social Edge have been drawn together through our mutual interest in what can most easily be described as social business ecosystems. These ecosystems are network strucures that cross sector boundaries, and are more characterized by inter-personal rather than inter-organizational network links.

Thanks to our election as Social Edge delegates, Sohodojo Timlynn and Jim, and Christina Kirabo Jordan (Life in Africa Network) will be able to meet with Toby Beresford (MicroAid), Michael Chertok (soloist social entrepreneur), Pam McLean (CAWDnet) and other Social Edge SWF delegates to lauch the Small Is Good World Working Group. We'll post updates of our activities here, as well as comment on World Forum events from a Small Is Good World perspective. Your comments and questions are welcome. Also, please do not hesitate to identify yourself as having an interest in the Working Group.

Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn - Mar 30, 2005 2:14 pm (#1 Total: 37)
Sohodojo

We were not sure what to expect this evening as the Skoll Forum got underway. The list of speakers was impressive and the topics looked interesting. But you never just know what to expect.

From the very start, the entire evening was an adrenalin rush. As speakers and delegates began to settle in, suddenly from the back of the Nelson Mandela theatre came the pounding rhythms of drums. The Dohl Foundation stole the show. The Dhol is a traditional North Indian drum made from a large wooden shell. Before the privilege of telephones, the Dhol was used by town criers to drum up crowds, read out notices or make formal announcements.

The Dohl drummers marched toward the stage and the Forum officially began.

Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn - Mar 30, 2005 2:44 pm (#2 Total: 37)
Sohodojo

We were thrilled to finally meet Christina Kirabo Jordan just before the opening session began. Vaz pulled us together to coordinate our activities for covering the World Forum. Much to our delight, Vaz requested that we be true to ourselves and our missions. We aren't here to be court reporters, dispassionately recording and retelling the details of the sessions. Rather, we are to reflect the conference through our own "lens" of personal missions. For us, that means the lens of the Small Is Good World, the world of the empowered Individual that is less organization-centric than so many of us have grown up in.

With these marching orders, we are pleasantly surprised and encouraged to report on some of the topics of conversation by the opening keynotes and panel session. While the "Making Networks Really Work" theme ran true throughout the presentations, a few presenter comments bear specific comment as they ring so true to the spirit of the Small Is Good World Working Group.

Stan Thekaekara's presentation, "Social Entrepreneurs -- A Global Perspective," was extremely well-received and it has special meaning to us. Stan is one of the just-named Fellows of the Skoll Center for Social Entrepreneurs. In his talk, he surveyed his thirty-year transformation as a social entrepreneur. Most recently, in his work in the Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu in South India, Stan described his work as being a social conglomeration facilitating trade between economically-challenged producer communities and economically-challenged consumer communities. Sounds a lot like the social business ecosystems we are have been talking about here on the Edge for some time. To learn more about Stan and his passion for social enterprise, check out "JUST CHANGE Humanising globalisation" on the Feasta web site.

Of course Bill Drayton's talk, "The Citizen Sector Transformed" was both inspiring and network-themed. Of particular interest were his comments on the producer/consumer hybrid organizations that Ashoka has been experimenting with for the last year or so. The idea is to hook up a product or service producer with a community-base organization in communities where the producer cannot normally justify the expense of servicing a marginalized market. The community organization becomes, in effect, a participant in the supply chain and benefits financially from it. Of course there is a Small Is Good World twist to this and we've written about it in "Drayton on Social Finance: Servicing Social Entrepreneurs' Needs" during the Building Blended Value event on the Edge last year.

Joel Podolny's wrap-up keynote was especially insightful and spoke to all the members of the Small Is Good World Working Group. Joel is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School. His talk, "Networks as Ends Rather than Means" was full of insights applicable to the world of influence without authority that characterizes the social business ecosystems of the Small Is Good World. Joel's research shows that social enterpreneurs interested in socal change should attend to developing their networks for their own sake rather than as means to experience, time, and resources. In this capacity, the social entrepreneur plays the role of Guardian of the Community rather than the roles of Matchmaker or Event Planner. The tipping point of evolving such a community is when you get what Joel calls Identity Transformation and participants become intimately committed to the social change mission.

This idea of Guardian of the Community rang particularly true for those of us trying to advance the Small Is Good World agenda. We are, however, in a more foramtive stage than what Joel is describing. That is, we are first Cheerleaders of the Community before we can be its Guardian/Facilitators.

The first day's events culminated with a rousing reception that was jam packed with social entrepreneurs and dignitaries, food, and drink. A wonderful end to our first day at the Forum.

 

Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn - Mar 30, 2005 2:46 pm (#3 Total: 37)
Sohodojo

The keynote panel Using popular media networks to drive social change, set the tone for the rest of the evening. Again and again we heard speakers saying things that resonate with the Small Is Good World Working Group. Panel moderator, Charlie Ledbetter's question to the group Can Big and Small work together? nearly had us jumping up and clapping! The message from each of the panelists, in fact from each of the key note presentors hinged on the democratization of something -- film making, music making, producer-consumer links, and so much more.

K.L.SRIVASTAVA - Mar 31, 2005 5:44 am (#4 Total: 37)
Researcher and Consultant,Hyderabad,INDIA


Hi Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn!

Greetings from India. After reading your posts, it is satisfying to note that the importance of linking business sector goals with societal concerns of human dignity, freedom and justice has been fully emphasized. We should be grateful to Stan Thekaekara, Bill Drayton and other speakers for highlighting the role of social entrepreneurship in the modern, fast globalising and complex world so effectively. The plight of poor people and environmental damage in developing countries like India are likely to increase in the coming years unless some appropriate solutions (like the one implemented by Stan Thekaekara in the Nilgiri hills) are devised and used in other situations also.

I am interested to join the group on social business ecosystems.

Thanks,

K.L.

Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn - Mar 31, 2005 5:48 am (#5 Total: 37)
Sohodojo

We would be remiss to reflect on Day One of the Forum without mentioning a personal highlight in our finally getting a chance to meet Christina Kirabo Jordan of Life in Africa, Toby Beresford of MicroAid, Pam McLean of CAWDNet, and Michael Chertok of... various social business ecosystems he is involved in.

We first crossed paths with Christina through our involvement as Social Edge delegates which puts us together in the same hotel, coping with the lack of Internet access and jet lag. Although we talked on the phone briefly at the hotel, it was not until we met at the Forum's Internet Cafe that we met face-to-face. It was like Old Home Week, except for the fact that we had never met in person before.

Next, we were heading to opening sessions and spied a smiling face wrapped in conversation among the throng of delegates that were gathering in the Said School reception area. Adding a third dimension to the 2-D representation that we have of him from our interactions to date, we did a double-take and said to each other, "I think that's Toby!" At about that time, Toby looked around from his conversation and did an "A-ha!" moment as he recognized us. Again, Old Home Week of the Small Is Good World kindred spirits. It was so great to be finally engaging in direct, real time conversation!

Then we pooled ourselves together -- Timlynn, Toby, Jim, and Christina -- to sit together in the tiered rows of the Nelson Mandela Theater for the opening sessions. We were, quite literally, the Small Is Good World delegation sitting together as a group in a setting the very much resembled a United Nations of Social Entrepreneurs!

Then, as things were about to begin, we noticed a woman turning to sneek a peek at name tags -- the type is quite small so we squint alot at each other on first meeting. Again, we had to apply the 2D-to-3D transformation from Social Edge member profile picture to flesh and blood person. We sain, "Hi, you must be Pam." and she lit up in recognition as we all introduced ourselves to each other for another dose of Old Home Week of kindred spiritness.

Then, finally, after the opening sessions and were at the reception and we turned and there was Michael Chertok, the final link in the core team of Small Is Good World Working Group founders who all found each other through Social Edge.

What a great personal dimension to an inspiring first day to the Skoll World Forum. Together at last. And this is only the begining...

Vaserius - Apr 1, 2005 2:11 am (#6 Total: 37)


Toby Beresford of MicroAid, just stood and spoke during the "How the Media can be the Push Strategy for Social Change" session. He made what I thought was the salient point that the Media is essentially a spotlight - a spotlight on issues, causes, people.

Because of that, we shouldn't all crowd into that spotlight, further diluting the limited light the media can shed on these issues, but instead people should create their own spotlights with personal broadcasting via, radio, print, Internet, etc.

Toby, I thought that was a great insight. Could you elaborate?

Toby Beresford - Apr 1, 2005 4:12 am (#7 Total: 37)
MicroAid

Hey Vaz

It's been great to meet you in person here at the Skoll forum. I hope we can continue all the discussions via Social Edge and to share with others who haven't got the resources to make it over here to Oxford.

My point was simple: the mass media can only ever be a spotlight. Highlighting things but then moving on. Instead of us all crowding in to try and get into that spotlight we can get better results by talking to a smaller group of people but with our own local media - this might be a local noticeboard in a village, a newsletter or even a web site and email newsletter.

The speakers responded with a good point that to succeed in using the media to push social change takes time as you need to build a depth of engagement amongst supporters - the best way to do this is to have your own local media outlet with committed subscribers so you can keep them up to date.

I've been personally astounded with how far our own networks will stretch, one of the speakers here said that we all have enough connections we just don't manage them enough. Using direct local media is one way to keep the connections alive.

Small is good.

Cheers

Toby

www.microaid.net

Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn - Apr 1, 2005 4:21 am (#8 Total: 37)
Sohodojo


K. L. - Welcome to the Small Is Good World Working Group. You have been in our thoughts while we drank in information from several of the workshops and presentations. Fear Not, the plight of poor people and environmental damage in developing countries like India is in the minds of a number of people we have met and spoken with here at the Forum.

Among the number of things we will be writing about over the next days and weeks as we debrief from the Forum is one of the Said Business School projects in social entrepreneurship which you may want to start tracking.

The students have developed a biodesel in India project that uses jatropha (a weed) to generate biofuel. According to their presentation jatropha has more oil output than even soy, grows wild on arid and non-arable soil and produces an oil cake at the end point that can be used a fertilizer to help 'green' the region.You'll hear more about this over the next days and weeks.

Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn - Apr 1, 2005 5:03 am (#9 Total: 37)
Sohodojo

The panel on Social Venture Networks - An Academic Roadmap was interesting. As its title implied, this was not a session for the faint of heart. A handful of distinguished faculty researchers from Oxford and Harvard gave a time-compressed overview of the state of the art in social network theory as it pertains to the social sector.

It was a bit too much like being back in graduate school! We met as doctoral students in the Mathematical Social Sciences program at UC Irvine in the 1980's. There were the formative years of the area of study that is widely known today as social network theory. We, of course, studied what is called the American school of social networks, essentially graph theory applied to sociometric data to map interpersonal relationships, etc. The British or European school can be characterized as Actor Network Theory or ANT. ANT models map to human and non-human actors (agents) in a system.

An ANT model looks more to us like a process model or, in the domain of business, like a general business model rather than a person-linking-person social network. That said, there are aspects of the panel's discussion on ANT networks that rang true to those of us interested in the Small Is Good World.

Sarah Whatmore, Oxford Environment and Public Policy Professor, described her networks-related work on food economies as involving linkage paths that provide product source trace-ability and validity. Being able to trace a specific slice of meat to a particular cow is an important factor in quality control for organic and specialty agricultural products. The "Who, How, and Why" alternative markets of the Small Is Good World need similar trace-ability and source validity.

Harvard's Management Professor Karen Stephenson went on to talk about Exchange Theory, trust, and its impact on organizational form. Network "DNA" can identify Gatekeepers, Hubs, Outliers, and Pulsetakers. Trust again is key to network cohesion and effectiveness. Such network dynamics are crucial to the effectiveness of the decentralized and distributed supply chain networks of the Small Is Good World.

The session wrapped up with Oxford's Alex Nicholls describing Actor Network Theory as ecosystem-oriented. Spot on, Alex. As anyone who follows our posts knows, the Small Is Good World is about an emerging community of soloist and small groups of social entrepreneurs who collaborate in networks that we describe as social business ecosystems. It looks like we will have to dig a bit more deeply into ANT as a descriptive model for describing our collaboration between Sohodojo, MicroAid, and Life in Africa Network!

 

Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn - Apr 1, 2005 5:09 am (#10 Total: 37)
Sohodojo

Absolutely Toby! Trying to get the attention of the mass media may not be worth the cost of the effort. Joel Podolny suggested in Networks as Ends not Means that we avoid trying to get participation in our community agendas from people who do not share our values. The cost of time, effort and resources to get their attention may not be worth the response (non-existent, lukewarm or fleeting as it is likely to be).

It is much more efficient and effective to spread the word about our social entrepreneurial agendas through our grass-roots media - through the network of connections of those who we have already found share our values (direct contact, newsletter subscribers, list-serve members, etc.). These already-interested individuals could pass the word on through their social networks about your project or news, to others they believe would also be interested. In this way an interested community can really begin to grow.

Mass media has a job to attract the interest of potential consumers of more of their programming/newspapers/radio time, etc., or of their sponsors products or services. Whatever they choose to spotlight for coverage has to appeal to a large enough segment of their audience to keep them in business. With so many broad interests out there, it is truly like panning across a stadium of projects, but hovering for only a moment on any one.

Research claims that we are only separated from any other person in the world by 6 degrees of connection -- that is, by a friend of a friend of a friend.... If that's the case, then as social entrepreneurs we should be able to mobilize thousands of others in the world with us who share our values and have interest in our agendas through the networks in which we already participate.

The real issue may be not so much how to get the attention of the mass media -- which at best can only be fleeting -- but how to make better use of our grass-roots media - the networks of connections we already have.

Toby, what kinds of strategies has MicroAid been using to grow the network of newsletter subscribers or list-serve folks? How about you Christina? What are some of the strategies you both have been using at the grass-roots media level that have worked well for you? K. L.? Pamela? Michael? Jump right in with suggestions and ideas! Small Is Good!

Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn - Apr 1, 2005 6:44 am (#11 Total: 37)
Sohodojo


Of course you are welcome as a member of the Small Is Good World Working Group! We missed your smiling face in Oxford.

As we recall, you are heading to the International Social Entrepreneurship Research Conference in Barcelona, Spain later this month. So we can understand that you could not make two international trips back-to-back.

We also know that you have had a most interesting paper accepted for presentation at this important conference. If you don't mind, you might tell folks about your paper and how it relates to the Small Is Good World perspective on social entrepreneurship.

Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn - Apr 1, 2005 7:25 am (#12 Total: 37)
Sohodojo

In the "Mobilizing People to Support New Ways to Work" workshop, moderator Charlie Leadbeater related a fascinating tale of his experience visiting what has been described as one of the world's most creative city, Curitiba, Brasil.

Charlie showed a photo from his visit of a man with a bicycle pulling a cart piled high with bags and bags of trash... an almost Dr. Suess-like character dwarfed by the rubbish he was hauling. When Charlie engaged this chap in conversation, he learned that this micropreneur was an independent rubbish collector. Not too unusual that. You might expect that he scavenged trash by the roadside or near markets. Not so. Each house has a trash shelf on their fence or back wall where bags of trash are left.

The industrial-urban trash trucks -- there are only a couple of them, too few to adequately cover the whole city territory -- are scheduled to go out in the late afternoon. Until then, all trash is fair pickings. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of micro-enterprising individuals hit the streets in the early morning and preemptively haul the trash to the munipal deposit sites where they are paid for their efforts.

Bottom line, Curitiba is spotlessly cleared of rubbish, lots of jobs are created, and the flames of the entrepreneurial spirit are fanned by a most unlikely means imaginable.

How does your city stack up with Curitba in terms of recycling, public transportation, and other municipal services? Check out these Curitiba links to learn more.

Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn - Apr 1, 2005 8:09 am (#13 Total: 37)
Sohodojo

When our plans started shaping up to attend the Skoll World Forum, Christina Kirabo Jordan told us that she was so excited that we would have a chance to meet a dear friend of hers who would be presenting at the conference. Margrethe Junker is a Danish doctor living in Uganda. Like Christina, Margrethe is an Ashoka fellow.

Not content to work only on the disease, Margrethe became convinced that fighting the pandemic of HIV/AIDS in Ugandan women required that she treat the whole person, and by extension, their families. Project Reach Out (no web site yet, but here's a project description in PDF format) began in May 2001, servicing 14 clients. By 2004, Reach Out was serving 1650 clients.

Project Reach Out provides job skill training and arranges employment for its patient/clients who learn to make clothing that is Afro-Euro stylish. As Sohodojo and MicroAid evolves our work with Life in Africa Network, we'll be building connections to include Margrethe's dressmakers into our Small Is Good World Marketplace. Margrethe and the Reach Out Fashion Coop is yet another piece in the evolving social business ecosystem that is getting its start here on Social Edge.

 

C Kirabo - Apr 1, 2005 9:02 am (#14 Total: 37)
Webbed Strategist, Life in Africa Foundation

I just have to say what a pleasure it's been to finally get to meet Jim and Timlynn of Sohodojo and Toby Beresford of MicroAid - and new Small is Good World members Michael Chertok and Pamela McLean.  

The answer to everyone's burning question is YES - each and every one of them is really as wacky, creative and interesting as these social edge posts would lead you to believe. I have no doubt we're going to do lots of innovative, fun, impact rich, and BIG things together. (shhhh... don't tell anyone I used the 'B' word!)

C

Keely Stevenson - Apr 1, 2005 2:08 pm (#15 Total: 37)
Acumen Fund


I wanted to express my deepest appreciation for the wonderful way that the Small is Good Working Group has shared the insights of the World Forum. It was a special gift to be able to meet you all in person, and the Forum was lucky to have had such innovative thinkers (and doers) like you!

thank you, thank you, thank you!

tutormentor - Apr 1, 2005 3:46 pm (#16 Total: 37)
Cabrini Connections Tutor/Mentor Connection

Jim and Timlynn, thank you for keeping us all informed.

I'd like to add on to the strategies you and Toby have been talking about.  I feel that we need to think like advertisers in building our enterprise and our networks. We don't have the millions that phone companies and fast food companies spend to draw our attention every day. Yet we need to be as frequently in front of our customers if we're to successfully compete for resources to build our enterprise.  Since we don't have big ad budgets we must be more creative in finding ways to draw visibility and involvement. 

This is essential to finding those few people who already share our vision, but don't yet know that we exist.

Attached is a power point essay titled "Tutor/Mentor Learning Network"  http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/Partner/CC/Presentations/TMLN/TMLN_files/frame.htm

In it we talk about building a "blueprint" that would show all of the things any community needs to do to reach all kids born in poverty and support them with actions that result in these kids starting jobs and careers by age 25.  On a typical blueprint there are "general contractor codes" that indicate specific work that needs to be done to certain level of quality at each stage of the project if the enterprise is to be successful.

Organizations who seek out others who are part of this blueprint, or who serve as general contractors, or network hubs, have the ability to create networks of support for specific causes.  If each member of the network, or hub, acts stategically to draw attention to the blueprint, and all of the other contractors in the enterprise, the collective result can be much greater visibility for all of the contractors who need to be involved in the project. 

For instance, if 100 organizations who focus on the same cause each have web sites that attract 10,000 visitors per year, link to each other, then the total traffic potential is 100 x 10,000, or 1,000,000.  Each active participant has the potential of 1 million visitors for the cost of attracting 10,000.

If these organizations have strategies to draw public awareness, trade group awareness, or philanthropy awareness to themselves, they can become an entry point to the network if they find ways to point to the network when they get the spotlight. This can draw millions of people to our causes for a fraction of the dollars traditional advertisers pay to draw attention to their products and services.

In Chicago we've been doing this for almost 12 years.  We organize events that focus on tutoring/mentoring and point to a web  based database that includes hundreds of other tutor/mentor programs. By talking about "we" instead of just me, we actually end up with more traffic and visibility than if we only focused on our own program.

This is a strategy that can work in any social network, but it is one that must be learned.  Most non profits hoard their resources and compete against each other for shrinking resources and limited media attention. If groups band together at certain times each year, or support events organized by others in their network, the entire network can grow.  However, some people have to take the lead and model this strategy before it will become habit of the majority of organizations.

Because we have modeled this we have received many awards, and have a constantly expanding network of support.  I'd like to say it's made us rich, but it hasn't. Yet, our small group has raised more than $3.9 million in the past 12 years, without the help of professional fund raisers, or brand name board members.  We've been in the Chicago media dozens of times and our own web sites have had more than 120,000 visitors.  As others duplicate this strategy in other places, they will have similar success, and we'll also benefit as the network grows.

You can learn more about the Tutor/Mentor Connection's networking strategy at www.tutormentorconnection.org and www.tutormentorexchange.net, or by participating in the May Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences (at www.tutormentorconference.bigstep.com)

Through the eConference component we're connecting with networks in all parts of the world. By hosting eConferences in the months of May and November we aggregate attention and hopefully that draws more support directly to tutor/mentor programs in every city that is involved in this effort.

Daniel F. Bassill
Tutor/Mentor Connection
Chicago

Pamela McLean - Apr 1, 2005 4:02 pm (#17 Total: 37)


I have just been reading the posts - after getting home from the Skoll Forum - then catching up on some sleep - then catching up on some emails.

Well done to all the "Small is Good voices" and Vaz and Keely for all your background work and for managing to put fingers to keyboards, to share so much and give such a genuine flavour of what went on. With so much information coming at us during the Forum I am honestly impressed by how much of it has been captures, interpreted and turned around to share back out again...

To SocialEdgers on a virtual visit to the Skoll Forum I can vouch for the authenticity of your virtual visit - and as a returner from the "real thing" skimming through the virtual visit has been a great short cut for my own thinking and reflecting.

K.L.SRIVASTAVA - Apr 3, 2005 8:38 pm (#18 Total: 37)
Researcher and Consultant,Hyderabad,INDIA


I wish to express my gratitude to all of you who have presented the deliberations in the World Forum to virtual visitors like us so superbly.

Special thanks to Jim and Timlynn for admitting me in Small is Good group. Also, thank you for your mention of my paper on " Social Entrepreneurship for sustainable development" which is accepted for presentation in International Social Entrepreneurship Research Conference. I shall post some information on this conference on Social Edge a little later. I am also requesting the organizers of the conference to post relevant information on Social Edge in due course. Unfortunately, I am not able to travel to Barcelona, Spain to participate in this conference physically.

In my paper, I have presented a few lessons drawn from microfinance industry in India with reference to sustainable development goals. Based on this, I have argued that the SE can contribute much more to sustainable development if it has strategic (rather than just operational) orientation. The paper has stressed the need for skills in networking, cross-sector partnerships, cluster-level sustainability planning etc. for social entrepreneurs. In many ways, the Small is Good paradigm embodies these ideas.

With warm regards,

K.L.

Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn - Apr 7, 2005 10:56 am (#19 Total: 37)
Sohodojo


Hi Daniel!

Great post about the importance of networks and remembering to put our 'advertising/marketing' hats on to increase our networking effectiveness.

The presentation, 'Tutor/Mentor Learning Network', was especially interesting. (Folks should know, however, that this HTMLized PowerPoint presentation may not display in their Firefox/Mozilla browsers, so use Internet Explorer to see it.)

We espeically liked slides 10-12 of your presentation where you talk about how important it is to link network hubs to other hubs. Such grassroots strategies can certainly "spread the wealth" if, as you say, folks are savvy enough to understand that 'win-win' strategies can be more effective for all than using "I win, you lose" protectionist tactics.

Thanks, Daniel, for posting this insightful information... now if we could just talk you into including a profile image of yourself, then we'd all have a better sense of the person behind the font of information you continually provide the Social Edge community!

Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn - Apr 7, 2005 2:22 pm (#20 Total: 37)
Sohodojo


One of the absolute highlights for us this past week was the official launch of the Small Is Good World Working Group at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. For over a year, a few of us have been mutually supportive of each other as we each work tirelessly to advance our social missions.

The Small Is Good World Working Group at the Skoll World Forum (l. to r.) Michael Chertok, Timlynn Babitsky, Toby Beresford, Christina Kirabo Jordan, Jim Salmons, and Pam McLean.

While our activities are spread all over the planet, we share a common bond of celebrating the empowerment of the Individual and collaborative networks of individuals. We work in a world which is less organization-centric and more network/ecosystem-like. We tend toward integrated, holistic community development strategies rather than focus on silo-like problem solutions. And, perhaps above all, we celebrate life and strive to enjoy ourselves and others as we work together to solve our collective problems.

At this year's Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship we achieved critical mass by getting our initial group together to bond through sharing time and space together in a way that cannot be duplicated only through e-mail and web site posts. We truly had many moments that will be treasured for the rest of our lives and that will bouy our spirits as we each return to our homes and our life's work.

Thank you, Jeff Skoll, the Skoll Foundation and Social Edge staff for making this past week possible. The Journey is just beginning!

Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn - Apr 8, 2005 12:24 pm (#21 Total: 37)
Sohodojo

John Harrison - Repro ID PU2851 © NMM London

Prior to the entrepreneurial and scientific accomplishments of John Harrison – the tireless Englishman clockmaker who won the Longitude Prize in 1773 – it was all but impossible to know the degrees of separation between the spots on the globe that would become known as Fairfield, Iowa, and Kampala, Uganda. In Harrison's time it is likely that there were no 'Friend Of A Friend' connections between the people living in the heartlands of North America and Africa. Virtually all social and economic networks were local networks based on face-to-face interactions. We had not yet entered the era of the Network Society and its associated Network Economy.

Monica Nankoma - Internet4Change Agent

While it took a relentlessly committed father and son team to do the work that solved the Longitude Problem, it was the Big Is Good World of nation-state economic and military interests that provided the Prize as stimulus to Harrison and others who sought the solution to global navigation. It was the Big Is Good World that put the Harrison clocks to work spreading nation-states' self-interest around the world. Last week we sat with Christina Kirabo Jordan in a hotel lobby in historic Oxford, England during a break in activity at the Skoll World Forum. We were living testimony to the revolutionary changes that have transformed our world and made it possible for the first time for the Small Is Good World to be as global and influential as its complement, the Big Is Good World.

The Small World in Action (Note: Animation will not show when printed.)

Today, the very information, communication and transportation technologies that continue to serve the Big Is Good World are equally applicable to the emergence of a global and changemaking Small Is Good World. The Small Is Good world is a world of the empowered Individual. It is a world of peer-to-peer interpersonal social and economic networks that provide an alternative to the world dominated by monolithic organizations and nation-states.

It is the Small Is Good World in which we forged a social and economic link between ourselves and a wonderful mother and her sons in Uganda. In social network theory, the phenomena that links each of us to each other is called the Small World Effect... the so-called six degrees of separation between us and any other person in the world. The Internet and on-line communities have helped to make the world an even smaller Small World. As we sat with Christina in Oxford and got to know about Monica, the already short path of one-degree of separation between us and our new friend Monica was fast becoming a zero-degree direct connection.

Part 2 of this story tells about Monica's laptop and the Small Is Good World.

Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn - Apr 8, 2005 12:27 pm (#22 Total: 37)
Sohodojo

Sohodojo Timlynn Babitsky and Jim Salmons with Christina Kirabo Jordan (center) hand off laptop and Sohodojo Idea Incubator for Monica Nankoma (photo on computer)

When we learned that the Webbed Empowerment Center of Christina Kirabo Jordan's Life in Africa Network needed donations of computers, we went digging in our closets and found a laptop that was beyond its usefulness to us but still fully functional. We wrote an email to Christina and told her that we wanted to give our laptop to an Individual not to the Center. We explained that our donation would come with a personal committment from us to establish a long-term and meaningful social and economic relationship with its recipient. Christina wrote back and explained, "I have just the right person for your laptop. And you two will love her. Her name is Monica Nankoma, the first Internet4Change Agent!"

Through tireless self-motivation, Monica Nankoma has worked her way into being Christina's hardworking and able assistant. Monica proudly and rightfully describes herself as the first Internet4Change Agent, a growing core of computer/Internet-able folks that the WE Center is preparing to transform the lives of individuals and their communities across Africa. Through her hard work and continuous learning, she is making a new and better life for herself, her sons, and her community. Through her work with Life in Africa, Monica is becoming a changemaker contributing to a better life for all of Africa.

Throughout the week prior to leaving for the World Forum, we carved out hours to rebuild, test, and refine the operating system and applications on the laptop that was soon to find its way to Uganda. We found Open Source applications that we knew would be useful for Monica's work and a few games for her and her children.

If we had donated our old computer to a typical computer recycling service, we would have been content to simply pack it up and hand it off to the service for processing and redistribution. But in the Small Is Good World, this was not simply an old computer destined for a faceless recycling program. This computer was soon to be Monica's laptop. And it was more than just a laptop. It was the first exchange between us and someone whom we want to get to know and have in our circle of friends and fellow changemakers.

So before we passed along the computer at the hotel in Oxford, we sat and talked at length with Christina who told us all about Monica and her two energetic sons, and of the challenges they face in a world that is so much different than our own. By the time we closed the cover and packed it up for the trip to Uganda, we felt we already knew Monica and she was now a part of the Sohodojo family.

As icing on the cake along with the laptop, we sent a Sohodojo Idea Incubator It is actually a baseball cap but when worn on a head filled with creative promise, the Idea Incubator is guananteed to generate Big Ideas for the Small Is Good World.

And as we sat on the plane, winging our way back to Fairfield, Iowa, not having to worry about the longitude calculations that would bring us safely home, we wondered how long it might be before we can muster the resources to get ourselves to Kampala. We met our goal of getting to Oxford for the World Forum. Now we have a new goal to see our Idea Incubator on Monica's creative and hard-working head, and to work with her and Christina to expand the Life in Africa WE Center as we help swell the ranks of Internet4Change Agents!

Pamela McLean - Apr 8, 2005 2:50 pm (#23 Total: 37)


It was good to hear of the way that Monica was helped by Small is Good - which made me think of introducing my friend Muji.

When I go to Ago-Are Muji is my friend and "cultural interface". She helps me in too many ways to tell, but a few will give you a flavour

When Mrs. Oyawale the mother of our late founder comes to visit and chatters to me in Yoruba (apparently totally unconvinced that I really do not understand what she says) Muji tells me "She say..... " And I say to Muji "So what should I say?" And Muji utters a few simple Yoruba syllables which I practice with her a couple of times - in front of Peter's Mum. Then, when I have it more or less okay, I turn to Peter's Mum and say it directly to her - to our shared satisfaction - and the process starts all over again… until it seems we have done all the right things regarding Yoruba etiquette and meeting and greeting and social calls.

Yoruba etiquette and social interaction are important, especially in small communities and rural areas. When we walk through Ago-Are together I simply copy what Muji says as we greet people (there are different greetings for different circumstances). Muji helps me to say the right things as we walk along, and, even more important, to recognise the people I should recognise. If we go to pay a formal visit at the Oba’s palace she helps me to arrange my head-tie – a DIY millinery skill at which Yoruba women excel – and a serious challenge on straight, slippery, European hair. When I need to meet the women of Ago-Are Muji fixes the meeting, along with another friend Maria, through a mix of informal messages, announcements at religious meetings, and organising the town crier to go out and spread the word. When, along with the drinking water, I bought a couple of bottles of Star beer (for the last evening meal that project manager David and I would be sharing) it was Muji who pointed out it was “not done” to be seen carrying Star bottles through the town, and helped me to camouflage them amongst our other belongings.

Muji has been part of the project in Ago-Are since we managed to get the InfoCentre opened, and through her work there (as a trainer and providing business services) she earned enough to pay her own salary, pay the security man, and contribute to other costs. We will miss her so much when she leaves to get married. She wants to find some way to continue to use her ICT skills in her new husband’s home-town but there are no opportunities, unless she makes them for herself, which she is keen to do. The link I have included has a picture of Muji when she first learnt to use a computer (and tells more about her – the page was created as my attempt to help her via our small circulation newsletter). See www.bmycharity.com/V2/MujiWedding Perhaps someone could help Muji to get a laptop, like Monica, or give her some other kind of encouragement or support. CawdNet believes strongly in a Small is Good person-to-person approach to tackling the problems of community development in rural Africa – Muji is one of our people – can the Small is Beautiful network help her in any way?

Pamela McLean - Apr 8, 2005 2:57 pm (#24 Total: 37)


https://www.bmycharity.com/V2/MujiWedding

monica - Apr 9, 2005 12:51 pm (#25 Total: 37)
Internet4change.Com

Hi the Sohodojos,

I have no words to explain how I felt when I received this laptop. But I have to say right now from deep down my heart that I am so honoured to be part of the Small is good world.

When I clicked through this URL and I found my picture I could not hold back the tears of joy from my eyes. I am so grateful and I promise to use this laptop to help others to learn using the computer and see that together we can create change in our lives.

This draws my mind three years back when I joined Christina at Life in Africa with barely enough skills and confidence to operate the computer. But now I am so proud of myself that I can help lay out instructions for others to follow and do alot of good work on the computer. Since last month I have been preparing instructions for our members to learn to build the African Traffic Machine (ATM). I have been doing this because I want each of our members to learn to get visitors to their websites

I am also teaching our members to build their own webpages and how to upload them online and how to interconnect with each other's websites by asking them to write short testimonies about each other and then teach them how to link to each other online. Our members are determined to see change in their lives no one ever wants to miss out on this opportunity. This laptop actually is going to help me alot to prepare my work since we do not have enough computers. I am so grateful to the Sohodojos once again and I should say I am so excited to become part of the family. My children are excited about the games and they sent me to extend their sincere thanks to you.

Thanks very much for the IDEA InCUBATOR! I have started thinking bigger.

My sincere greetings to all,

Monica Nankoma
i4c Agent.

C Kirabo - Apr 10, 2005 4:06 pm (#26 Total: 37)
Webbed Strategist, Life in Africa Foundation

 

When you upload your new photo here at Social Edge, please let it be one with your idea incubator on!

I love you Monica!

C

Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn - Apr 10, 2005 4:14 pm (#27 Total: 37)
Sohodojo

Albert-Laszlo Barabasi tells us in Linked: the New Science of Networks that 'everything is connected to everything else' in the world. We live in a complex, interconnected system - in business, science and every day life - that is best understood by the study of networks.

Networks - what they are, how they develop, operate, sustain, and expand - are of keen interest to social entrepreneurs in the Small Is Good World Working Group. Without the power, prestige, or money of a large business, non-profit or academic organization, our chief means to change the world is through developing and maintaining our networks of relationships and by using influence, without authority, across these networks to accomplish our desired agendas.

The Forum workshop on Networks for Learning, chaired by Gordon Bloom provided good insights into the work of four very different social entrepreneurs using networks to accomplish four very different agendas.

In 2001, James Austin, founding leader of the Social Enterprise Knowledge Network (SEKN), set out to develop a "social partnering in South America" - a network of leading Latin American business schools and the Harvard Business School in partnership with the AVINA Foundation. The emphasis is on inter-institutional collaboration to strengthen research and practice and to develop case studies and teaching materials for 103 courses in social enterprise in Latin America.

Dr. Austin shared with the Forum two key best practices for large, cross-cultural, professional networks he learned while developing and managing the SEKN network.

DRIVERS TO MAKE A NETWORK

1. Motivating mission
2. Concrete joint production task
3. Tangible value to each individual by engaging in the process (e.g., intellectual challenge, professional growth, potential publications, etc.)
4. Positive values (e.g., lateral learning, professional respect) and relationships ( e.g., trust developed over time, congeniality, friendship)
5. Tight collective management of the network (virtually, periodic fact-to-face, systems)
6. Distributed leadership - divide responsibilities for performing network tasks
7. Money to do it!

NETWORK MANAGEMENT

1. Be alert for diseconomies of scale - complexity could over-tax the ability to manage it.
2. Resources will be needed just for network management.
3. Allow time, energy, resources to discover network management best practice - what works, where, how, why and can it be replicated.

Next up was Tariq Zafar Executive Director of Nai Zindagi, Pakistan. Nai Zindagi (NZ) is a non-profit organization providing services to marginalized drug users in Pakistan since 1990. NZ's great strength today is its ability to develop close relationships across communities of drug users and their families. These local networks have provided a deeper understanding of the values and needs of the communities involved and allow NZ to provide appropriate, needs based and holistic support to its clients. Mr. Zafar shared his best practices for local, community-based networks of drug users and their families.

BEST PRACTICES FOR LOCAL NETWORKS

1. Focus on the client - question ideological approaches
2. Work WITH not FOR people
3. Ask - Learn - Adopt - Change - Evaluate - Ask ...
4. ALL must benefit, not just some - to the disadvantage of others
5. Accountability and Transparency are keys to earning trust
6. Organic networks - those that naturally emerge at the community level - have survived; while arbitrary networks - those put in a box - will fail
7. Three years is too short for a program to make a real impact; it takes time to understand the clients' issues, to establish trust, and to develop a local network.

Charlotte Young, Chair of the School for Social Entrepreneurs, London spoke next. SSE provides training (e.g., fund raising, marketing, business planning) and opportunities (e.g., to grill expert witnesses, policy-makers, politicians, and funders) in an action learning system to enable individuals to use their creative and entrepreneurial abilities more fully for social benefit. Learning is small group and network focused. Ms. Young shared her experiences for tapping the potential of every day people for social change.

EMPOWERING INDIVIDUALS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

1. SEE uses 10 identifiers to target potential social entrepreneurs and filter out talkers-only from doers
2. Traditional education doesn't work!
3. Individuals can only join if they have a project/issue about which they are passionate
4. Focus on experience, inquiry, and analysis
5. Emphasize self insight, exploration of values
6. Help students develop processes they can adapt and replicate
7. Networks and projects benefit from diversity
8. Be flexible to individual needs and situational demands
9. Show each person how he/she can be the seed of a virus for change

One of the most powerful presentations of the entire Forum in our minds was made by Jacek Bozek, Founder and President of Gaja Club, Poland. For Small Is Good World social entrepreneurs, Jacek is truly a role model.

In 1988 (pre-democracy Poland) sitting atop a tree in the center of his home city of Bielsko-Biala to stop bulldozing for development, his passionate love for the Earth and Nature found focus. "I had no experience, and neither did anyone else in the country." With no knowledge of how to organize, fund or lead an organization or to meet policy makers, politicians and government decision makers, Jacek started with what he knew.

He focused attention on the local level and began building networks of relationships. When he didn't know how to do something he found someone who did and asked for advice or collaboration. When he wasn't sure how to approach government officials he asked network fellows to give him some help.

In 1989 Bozek and four friends formed the Gaja Club, an informal group that promoted forest protection and animal rights. In 1994 the club added eco-friendly development of the Vistula River. The Vistula basin covers more than half of Poland and is home to 220 bird species, including 60 percent of Europe's white storks. But the Vistula a is becoming really polluted. By focusing on the economic benefits of providing hiking and biking trails, camping and fishing grounds along the river, Club Gaja has sparked the interest of at least 20 local communities to pressure government for re-evaluation of the Vistula River policy.

Through constant development of networks of relationships among youth, scientists, other NGOs and local community leaders, Bozek has grown Club Gaja into an international organization that works in the small, at the local level with local networks.

Jacek Bozek has a heart full of passion for Nature, for the Environment, for the land he so loves in his native Poland. The key lesson he gave us as he wrapped up Workshop 4 is this: When your heart is so full that even words cannot express it -- you sing what you feel, and you get up and dance! And Mr. Bozek did just that!

Few of us knew the words he was singing, but his love for the land was universally understood.

Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn - Apr 10, 2005 5:16 pm (#28 Total: 37)
Sohodojo


Monica, you are a true inspiration to all of us here on Social Edge! You have learned so much so fast. You are like a thirsty sponge for new ideas and information. We all can learn a lesson from you about life-long learning.

We are so happy that Christina was able to get the laptop to you. She must have looked like a pack animal with all the stuff she was lugging back from Oxford!

Your ideas about creating a "cloud" of inter-connecting links among LiA member pages is excellent. We have learned a lot, too, about writing simple but effective HTML pages. We will send you some samples and ideas that you may find useful.

Monica, you have made us so happy to know that you and your sons will be able to make good use of the laptop. We put a number of excellent Open Source applications on it that you will find useful in your work with Christina at the LiA Webbed Empowerment Center.

More, soon... We, like Christina, are anxious to see your new Social Edge profile picture with your Idea Incubator on your beautiful head!

Enjoy the computer and we look forward to working with you in your mission as a great Internet4Change Agent!

Peace and Happiness to You and your Boys, --Sohodojo Timlynn and Jim--

Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn - Apr 10, 2005 5:30 pm (#29 Total: 37)
Sohodojo


Hi Pam!

We were so happy to meet you at the Forum and have so much quality time to get to know you and the other members of the Small Is Good World Working Group. This was surely the start of a number of lasting and rewarding friendships.

Muji's need sound like a perfect entry for the Offers and Requests forum that Michael and Christina are hosting. Why not post a copy there and see what happens.

Also don't hesitate to ask around among friends, especially 'Road Warrior' type business folk. Laptops have been around long enough now and the price of new ones have fallen to the point that folks are replacing them before they stop working.

Again, great to meet you and we'll do what we can to help you spread the word about Muji's need for a computer.

C Kirabo - Apr 12, 2005 9:26 am (#30 Total: 37)
Webbed Strategist, Life in Africa Foundation

I also want to extend a HUGE thank you to Keely, who contributed a very nice printer to the WE Center! It is currently where it needs to be, but isn't yet set up since Monica needs someone to help her download the drivers and get it installed.

Keely is currently in Tanzania helping to develop a refugee project... I'm hoping she's going to send us lots of nice writing about it to put somewhere on the Life in Africa site...

Thanks again Keely - Hope you had a great time!

C

Toby Beresford - Apr 13, 2005 9:32 am (#31 Total: 37)
MicroAid

Please find below excerpt from my leader in MicroAid Monthly News

http://www.microaid.net/pi_newsletter.php?action=read&NewsletterID=219

MicroAid says Small is Good at Skoll Forum MicroAid was represented at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrerpreneurship and is now part of the “Small is Good working group”. Toby Beresford explains what he means by Small is Good

Small is Good “Small is good” is a change of mindset. A new way of approaching the problems and opportunities the world presents. In social terms it means direct one to one relationships matter – your family, your friends and your neighbours. In political terms it mean