inov8.ca

Reduce Poverty by Giving People more Opportunities to Donate

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:25:54

Coffee isn't the only thing that people spend a lot of money on. If we compared how much we spend on things that would be luxuries in developing countries, we would be amazed at how much our dollar could buy in the developing country. Saving the life of a child through sponsorship with World Vision or Compassion only costs about $30 a month. The fact is that our dollar goes a lot further in developing countries when we compare it to the price of products in our country. Given that the number of people using the internet increases everyday and the number of online purchases also increase everyday. I propose the idea of retailers providing an option for people to donate a small percentage of their purchases towards a fund that benefits children living in poverty. So if you are about to check out of the online checkout, you can tick an option that says "Add 5% of the cost of my purchase to my bill and donate this amount towards eliminating poverty for children living in developing countries." For example, the money could go towards World Vision, which allows you to provide food, eduation and health to a child for $30 a month.

In our world of consumerism, this can be an opportunity to give just a fraction of what we spend on ourselves to someone on the other side of the world who really needs help in order to survive.

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Raise Awareness for Environmental Refugees

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:41:01

Climate change is forecasted to have a huge impact on the next generation of people in the next few decades. Environmental refugees represent the very real impact which climate change is having on people around the world right now. Perhaps environmental NGOs and organizations fighting to save the environment should focus their awareness campaigns more on environmental refugees because they put a human face to the environmental problems happening in our world today. I propose working with environmental NGOs to create an awareness campaign which will appeal not only to those who care about the environment, but also to humanitarians because we can highlight the impact that climate change is having on people. By raising awareness on the very real impact that climate change has on people, and how inter-related it is to other problems due to environmental refugees, this can be the first step towards advocating for legislation which creates laws which recognize environmental refugees. Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" video raised awareness on climate change drastically, and creating a campaign which focuses on environmental refugees can appeal not only to environmentalists, but also the wider population by highlighting climate change's impact on real people today.

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Sustainability through Education

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:33:48

These children and adults in these Third World communities have dire needs for basic life essentials, such as food, clean water, protection from disease, and education in order to build a sustainable living environment. To develop a society that can survive on its own will need committed professionals in their respective fields, ie doctors, city planners, engineers, designers, economists, teachers etc.

My plan is to create post-secondary educational programs in our colleges and universities that concentrate on professional humanitarian volunteerism in their respective fields of studies (ie Teaching degree with Major in Third World education with work placement, or Medical doctor specializing in providing aid to Third-World people, Argriculturalist majoring in African farming)

Eventually each year, these programs would produce graduates who'd be trained and devoted to working third-world communities and conditions sticken by absolute poverty...they'd have jobs through a work-placement program through NGO's and possibly government organizations like the Canadian military. Each year, NGO's could form teams of graduates that would live in third-world communities and create a sustainable living environment.

This a still an idea in the development, but I would like to challenge you readers to make suggestions to bring this idea closer to a reality.

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Team Surrey (Meeting Minutes Jan 26)

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:34:07

Agenda:

The mission statement
The internal research
The market research questionnaire

Decision
We have decided to go with the PBX option for homeless (unless we can prove that it won't work). The big question is not technical feasibility, but whether their is truly demand for this service.

Resources
http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200809/276/Google-gives-voicemail-to-San-Francisco-s-homeless
http://www.canada.com/news/company+fashions+homeless+shelter+shipping+container/2308656/story.html
http://www.nationalpost.com/m/story.html?id=2311512&s=Related+Topics&is=Weather&it=Topic
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20091210/bc_mobile_shelter_091210/20091210/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome
http://www.nightshiftministries.org/

Mission Statement

Product Description: A free voicemail service for the homeless (or those unable to avoid voicemail). The service allows each user their own mail box and send the voicemail as an email attachment.

Benefit Proposition: Voicemail is an essential tool for many job seekers. For homeless who have no fixed address and no phone, hearing back about job opportunities is almost impossible.

Key Business Goals: This is not-for-profit product and exists to improve the quality of life of the disenfranchised within our community. We intend to do this by removing one of the barriers to the job market.

Primary Market: The homeless of the Southern Fraser Valley who are seeking a job or otherwise require voicemail.

Secondary Market: Those within the Southern Fraser Valley who are not homeless, but still unable to afford voicemail.

Assumptions & Constraints:

1. Community of organizations will see this as valuable and will support it.
2. Technical & Financial constraint: we cannot provide unlimited lines or mailboxes. We are limited to one phone line and approx 50 mail boxes unless we have outside funding.
3. Technical constraint: limited storage space so we will not be storing the voicemails, rather sending them directly to their email. As such the only way to check their voicemail is on an internet-connect computer with audio.

Stakeholders: Shelters, Social Workers, Charities, Public Library, City of Surrey, Community Centers, Career Services, Places that Provide Free Internet

Success Metric: 5-15 Users; 1-3 Shelters

Assign Action items:

Internal research
Proof of Concept
Hardware plan (i.e. where do we host?)
External research
Write Market Research Questionnaire
Perform Information Interviews
Research market Size and other market factors
Identify customer needs

Next Meeting

Review market research results
Review prototype
Define target specifications
Discuss alternative product concepts
Choose final product and start presentation

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Team Active Van

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:08:27

Below outlines a summary of steps taken in determining our capabilities, strategy, target market, market needs and potential products:

Organizational Capabilities

- Technical Skills
- Software development
- User interface design
- Business process analysis and engineering
- Graphic design
- Network administration
- Business Skills
- Project management
- Software sales
- Event planning
- Domain Knowledge
- Sports / fitness activities
- Commuting
- Music
- Performance arts / venues
- Dining / restaurants / cooking
- Strata management

Corporate Strategy

- Based on our capabilities, we could adopt the following corporate strategies:
- Web site development and management
- Event planning / project management

Potential Market Segments (Target "Community")

- Market: Residents of the downtown core of Vancouver
- Segments:
- Residents interested in finding fitness opportunities <-- CHOSEN MARKET SEGMENT
- Performance artists looking to promote their specific style of performance art (e.g. Burlesque)
- Residents interested in healthy eating / sustainable food <-- POSSIBLE SUB-SEGMENT
- Members of strata councils
- Commuters who travel to and from the downtown core
- Residents who visit restaurants
- Residents interested in racquet sports
- SFU MBA students

Potential Product Concepts

- Websites

- FitnessFinder: find nearby fitness/sport activity opportunities, web 2.0 structure - allow user driven content and discussions - provide feedback, etc. <-- CHOSEN PRODUCT CONCEPT

- SmackThat: racquet sport web site for finding potential partners

- StratusSoftware: cloud-based small strata management software

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Team Downtown Vancouver - SFU MBA MOTStudent Community

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:05:35

We have decided to focus on the SFU MBA MOT student community as the relevant target market.

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Neighbourhood: Effective team management using interactive resources

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:19:55

Product Description
•    Resource templates for preparation of hockey and soccer team lists in the Tri-Cities and used by league Coaches and Team Managers.
•    Available online or via DVD/ CD.

Benefit Proposition
•    Access to membership reporting resources in one location;
•    Easy to understand guides and standard templates
•    Standardization over ad hoc on-the-fly methods currently used
•    Ability to customize templates
•    Quick and easy generation of accurate team lists with player data for use by coaches, match officials and parents/ spectators
•    Scalable potential for further development into other sports areas based on customer feedback and user requirements

Key Business Goals
•    Provide an easy to use and low cost resource to support Tri-Cities sports organizations’ efforts in managing teams and sports events (with an initial focus on hockey and soccer) more efficiently while enhancing the experience of coaches, officials, players and parents in the Tri-Cities

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Neighbourhood: UniverCity bike sharing service

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:48:50

1) Mission Statement:

To provide clean and efficient local transportation for residents of UniverCity.

2) Product Description:

A low-cost and sustainable bicycle service for UniverCity residents that allows them to access the university and community resources.

3) Benefit Proposition:

To promote healthy living, active lifestyles while encouraging the use of community resources. Our program will provide those that don't have access to a bicycle with a means of sustainable transportation within their community.

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Neighbourhood: Not-for-profit IT planning service

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:59:53

Product description

strategic IT infrastructure planning services

Benefit proposition

provide knowledge & expertise that is not available in house
template based deliverable reduces costs and time to market
leverage best practices from previous engagements

Key business goals

completed by the end of semester
quality is such that the recommendations are practical and feasible for implementation by a 3rd party IT consultant
cost is negligible
meet the criteria specified on inov8.ca

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Strategic IT Planning

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:00:29

project team:
Joanne, Gord, Steve, Colin, Tom, Larry

project description:
IT planning service for non-profits in on the North Shore.

Expected outcomes:
Delivery of one IT strategic plan by April.

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QuakeAware

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:09:59

project team:
Ryan, Kelvin, Terrence, Eliza, Dylan, Donal

project description:
An earthquake preparedness website and app.

Expected outcomes:
600 hits on website.

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smallwURLd

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:23:15

project team:
James, Andrew, Chris, Gord, Kevin

project description:
A social networking site for MOT students and similar academic groups with links to useful and interesting sites.

Expected outcomes:
25 visitors to the site in week after pre-launch.

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Neighbourhood products ready to launch

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 08:44:30

After a semester of very hard work, the goups of Bus774 are ready to launch their community-focused products. Please check out the Review section of inov8.ca to find out more about the final products.

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Neighbourhood products launched

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:41:22

After only one semester, the students from SFU's 2008 and 2009 MOT classes launched their neighbourhood-focused products. Please visit the Review page where more information about the Neighbourhood products will be accessible.

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Leader to Leader Video Challenge 2010

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:29:39

Emerging Leader Video Challenge

We want to hear your leadership story!

In a two to three minute video you produce yourself, tell us a compelling story about a cause you are dedicated to and a person you have served. Download the VIDEO CHALLENGE invitation!

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QuakeAware in the News: SFU News Online, 7 April 2010

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:52:52

SFU PEOPLE IN THE NEWS - April 9, 2010

Six MBA students who designed an iPhone application got hefty media coverage of their success: an app called QuakeAware, whichconsolidates the key information people need to be prepared for an earthquake.

The national Canada AM show on CTV featured student Ryan Cole, who explained on Canada AM that the app is available free from the Apple iTunes store: “We intend to keep it free, as the idea is we are trying to promote awareness and trying to increase preparedness amongst residents, so if we can keep it free and keep it accessible we are hoping that we will have as many people as possible download it.”

Cole and fellow-student Dylan Marks then were on CBC-TV. (Video here.)

Then Cole followed up with an interview on the Early Edition show on CBC Radio. And GlobalTV also pursued him for a story.
Earlier, The Province carried an item: ”Some enterprising Simon Fraser University students think one of the first things you should do when an earthquake strikes is to consult your iPhone or iPod Touch.”

The Vancouverite.com news website also did a story, and had a photo of Cole.

[extract from SFU News Online at www.sfu.ca/sfunews]

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SFU Slow Food Potlucks in Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:32:40

Slow Food Summer

SFU's Sustainability Ambassadors are promoting slow food this summer.

Slow Food Summer Potlucks

Join us for good food and good company at one of our six slow food summer potlucks.

Burnaby: July 5th & July 29
AQ:4140

Surrey: July 6th & July 28
Student Lounge above the Mezzanine

Vancouver: July 7th & July 30
Harbour Centre Lunch Room

Slow Food Summer Potlucks tips for attending:

Choose one season BC ingredient and make a dish around it (think Iron Chef BC)
Bring enough food for yourself and a couple other people
Bring your own plate, cutlery and cup!
Bring your recipe to share with others (optional)
Try to bring something made from scratch...or close to it if you can (optional)

Want to find out what is in season and fresh in BC? Look no further

So what is slow food?

According to Slow Food International the slow food philosophy is as follows:

"We believe that everyone has a fundamental right to pleasure and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible. Our movement is founded upon this concept of eco-gastronomy – a recognition of the strong connections between plate and planet.

Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.

We consider ourselves co-producers, not consumers, because by being informed about how our food is produced and actively supporting those who produce it, we become a part of and a partner in the production process" http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/eng/philosophy.lasso.

Slow Food Actions:

Delicious Actions
• Purchasing local (BC) produce, meat, dairy, etc., whenever there is a choice
• Purchasing produce from local farmers’ markets
• Asking on- and off-campus vendors for local, sustainable options
• Growing food in community gardens, backyards, balconies and window sills
• Building relationships with local farmers to deliver food products
• Cooking whole foods from scratch
• Sharing food and connecting food with community
• Preserving food for winter to reduce winter purchases
• Purchasing organic produce
• Purchasing grass-fed, pastured meat as an alternative to the carbon-intensive, grain-fed kind
• Go wild—hunt, forage or purchase wild foods

For more information about SFU Sustainability Ambassadors, visit www.sfu.ca/sustainability

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Mark Your Calendar: SFU Terry Fox Community Event

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:39:29

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

Terry Fox – who was a SFU Kinesiology student and junior varsity basketball team player when he was diagnosed with bone cancer – began his Marathon of Hope in 1980 to raise money and awareness for cancer research.

You're invited to continue Terry's legacy by participating at this year's campus events:

Burnaby       Thu, Sept 23, 11:40 am (sharp), Convocation Mall – Walk / Run Event
Vancouver   Thu, Sept 23, 11:45, Harbour Centre – walk to Terry Fox Statue at BC Place
Surrey          Donation jars

Note: Classroom hours and service hours are respected, as are innovative ways to include students, staff and faculty in the event. Team participation is a great way to involve the class, classmates, colleagues or employees.

Registration:
For the Burnaby campus event, individuals and teams are requested to register. Everyone is welcome to participate.

If you would like to start a new team, email terryfox-team@sfu.ca and provide the team name, team captain name and contact information to receive instructions. An honourable mention of the most spirited team and the team with the most number of participants will be made at the event.

For more information, see our SFU Terry Fox website.

Online donations:
This year’s goal is $10,000. If you'd like to donate online and receive an immediate tax receipt, please see our fundraising page for instructions.

Donations may be made on behalf of a specific SFU team, individual, or to the online account for 'SFU Community Donations'.

Also, please look for ‘Change for Cancer’ donation jars near you.

Volunteers:
Check out the great opportunities at Burnaby campus, and then email the SFU Terry Fox Committee at terryfox-volunteers@sfu.ca. All volunteers will receive a complimentary lunch.

For more information about Terry Fox and his legacy of hope for cancer research, please visit the Foundation website.

Looking forward to your participation,

SFU Terry Fox Day Committee 2010
terryfox-committee@sfu.ca (email)
www.sfu.ca/terryfox

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Write a social innovation case study. Win cash.

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 12:06:34

Would you like to write a social innovation case study?

You are invited to submit a business case for the NextBillion 2011 Case Writing Competition, hosted by NextBillion.net, the premier blog and online community focused on market-based approaches to development. Winners will receive cash prizes and media coverage. Cases may be developed by students with the supervision of an educator.

This competition is co-sponsored by the William Davidson Institute (WDI) at the University of Michigan, as well as Acumen Fund and Ashoka. WDI writes globally-focused business cases for international and domestic business schools, and this is the second year running this competition. You may see information about the competition here:

http://www.nextbillion.net/nextbillion-2011-case-writing-competition

The competitions seeks business cases describing organizations that use market-based approaches to economic or social development, social ventures. Winning cases will be taught in business schools around the world, facilitating the integration of social enterprise topics into MBA courses.

They are looking for your expertise in creating cutting-edge business cases on social enterprise to be used globally. This material will steer business students towards social enterprise for years to come.

If you're a student and have already have a supervisor to work with on the case, please direct him/ her to the competition details.

If you're and SFU student and would like to write a case study, but do not yet have a supervisor, please email Lisa Papania (lpapania@sfu.ca).

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Write a social innovation case study. Win cash.

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 12:07:22

Would you like to write a social innovation case study?

http://www.nextbillion.net/nextbillion-2011-case-writing-competition

Write a social innovation case study. Win cash.

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 12:07:42

Would you like to write a social innovation case study?

http://www.nextbillion.net/nextbillion-2011-case-writing-competition

Leader to Leader Institute 28 October 2010: Innovation of the week - New Global Citizens

Sat, 27 Nov 2010 13:37:55

In this week's Innovation,
we recognize New Global Citizens

"We have major challenges, but you can be part of the solution," says Chantal Sheehan, New Global Citizen’s Executive Director. New Global Citizens (NGC), works to engage the next generation in leadership and philanthropy by presenting youth with global challenges and equipping them with the tools to create solutions to these challenges. Through education on the issues and global context, and training in fundraising, advocacy and community education, NGC educates, equips and mobilizes young people in the US to become leaders and change agents in their communities, serving grassroots projects around the globe.

In 2006, Youth Philanthropy Worldwide (YPW) -- the brainchild of the Global Fund for Women’s leadership -- and Youth Re:Action Corps (YRC) -- a nonprofit founded by Courtney Klein at age 21 -- were both operating in the same San Jose High school and were featured in a local newspaper article. The similarity in goals and mission were striking. Courtney decided to fly to San Francisco to meet with the members of YPW.

"Immediately, both organizations knew that collaboration would not be an end point, that a merger was more than likely," said Sheehan. "YRC had been working locally and always dreamed of scaling the organization globally, and YPW was already working internationally but was searching for a larger domestic impact.”

The organizations did merge, ultimately forming New Global Citizens in 2008. “We never imagined how the program would evolve. We now have a strong curriculum for students to act locally and make change globally, I don’t think anyone expected this to become as solid or as real so quickly,” said Sheehan.

A young person who wants to get involved with NGC finds two peer leaders and together, they recruit one team advisor -- an adult role model in their lives -- and they register as an NGC team. Each team receives a "Team Box" toolkit which combines practical advice to raise awareness, rally for a cause and recruit team members. Throughout the year, students receive additional curricular materials in print and online to deepen their knowledge and skills.

The NGC program is organized around ten (8+2) of the world's greatest challenges. These include challenges identified in the 8 UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) -- extreme poverty and hunger, universal education, gender equality, child mortality, maternal health, HIV/AIDS and other diseases, environmental sustainability, and sustainable local economies, plus two initiatives based on NGC student feedback -- armed conflict and natural disasters.

"Our young people and their teams are so savvy. They are really experts in staying relevant. When the disaster in Haiti happened, we added two projects in the Dominican Republic that served Haiti. Teams took the lessons they had learned about creating sustainable change and adapted them to disaster relief, and in every project, 100% of funds raised goes directly to the organization or community the program serves."

Team leaders, team members, and advisors are also invited to join the NGC Global Network, an online community site for teams and partners, as well as Peace Corps volunteers and other professionals working internationally, to share their experiences, discuss solutions and set-backs, and learn from others.

NGC Projects run one year, and each team is required to set goals and assume accountability for advocacy, education and fundraising for their project. Upon year end, each team decides if they will work on their project for another year, or decide to tackle another project challenge. In New York City, one team started working for the Foundation for People with Disabilities four years ago. The team continues to grow in size and awareness.

According to Sheehan, "What makes NGC unique and vibrant is the strong network of partnerships we have cultivated. We acknowledge and embrace that we are not experts in everything, so we collaborate with partners from organizations trusted in the fields of education, social entrepreneurship and international development.

Yearly results are compiled into a virtual yearbook -- the 2008-2009 Yearbook profiles 76 teams of youth whose efforts totaled $37,000 in funds, created 35 advocacy initiatives and educated 10,000 community members. Projects included The Institute for Overcoming Urban Poverty in Guatemala City, and the New Orleans Women’s Shelter.

Building on their network of high school and university project teams, NGC also offers opportunities to alumni such as college and gap year scholarships for programs aligned with their values including Thinking Beyond Borders, an eight-month international service-learning program.

'We hope to be seen as a pipeline for global education and careers in the social sector," said Sheehan, "We will always work to spark the passion of a young generation of future global leaders, and we always try to remember who we are serving."

For more information, please contact: info@newglobalcitizens.org.

The Leader to Leader Institute, established in 1990 as the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, furthers its mission by providing social sector leaders with the essential leadership wisdom, inspiration and resources to lead for innovation and to build vibrant social sector nonprofit organizations.

It is this essential social sector, in collaboration with its partners in the private and public sectors, that changes lives and builds a society of healthy children, strong families, decent housing, good schools, work that dignifies, all embraced by the diverse, inclusive, cohesive community that cares about all of its people.

October 28, 2010

Mission: To strengthen the leadership of the social sector

RESOURCES

PUBLICATIONS

The award-winning journal, Leader to Leader, offers cutting edge thinking on leadership, management and strategy with contributions by today’s top thought leaders.

The Five Most Important Questions is a tool for self-assessment and transformation; answering these five questions will fundamentally change the way you work.

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For SFU Masters students - Minor in Social Entrepreneurship at Copenhagen Business School

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 09:45:25

Minor in Social Entrepreneurship (Sept-Nov 2011)

Copenhagen Business School is happy to invite international exchange students to apply for our `Minor in Social Entrepreneurship´. The program is free of cost for students from 400 international partner universities (see list here). Courses run from September until November 2011.

In order to receive the Minor certificate students need to take part in the following three courses (total of 22.5 ECTS).

· Social Entrepreneurship: Creating Social Change Using the Power of Entrepreneurship

· Business Plan Writing for Social Enterprises

· Instant Innovation Camp: Creating sustainable tools and business models

The minor is an ideal combination of thorough theoretical understanding used on real world examples, combined with a chance for the students to work on their own social business plans. A team of practitioners are continuously coaching the students in the work with their business plans, ending with a competition for the best business plan judged by a panel of social entrepreneurship experts.

The minor comprises of a diverse mix of students from across the world, strengthening the students’ international network, and ability to understand and settle cultural differences often crucial in social entrepreneurship. In 2010 we had attending students from more than 20 countries including Australia, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, USA and Canada.

We encourage students to preregister (s-ent@cbs.dk) with us in advance since seats are limited. Participants need to be enrolled in a Master Program at their home university and need to be accepted in the CBS exchange program before they can apply for the Minor.

CBS will arrange a series of online Skype consultations for interested students. Please contact us by e-mail (s-ent@cbs.dk) to register for these consultations or send us further questions.

For more information please see www.cbs.dk/s_ent.

An information posters can be downloaded here.

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Visit inov8 on Facebook!!!

Tue, 17 May 2011 12:58:11

Post your thoughts on social innovation and get involved in social change

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