Social Innovation Camp – turn your technical innovation skills into human benefits
The last few years we’ve become increasingly better in building applications that make our life easier. May that be collaboration, day-to-day tasks like writing, converting or just managing our tasklists – a web app to make it smoother for us as end-users was always available with a minimum search effort.
Meanwhile, in the real world, social problems became worse and worse. This becomes even more problematic as there is a distinct lack of forward thinkers providing easy to use and apply solutions to existing problems. This is where the Social Innovation Camp wants to bridge the gap.
In London between 4th-6th April 2008, Social Innovation Camp will bring together some of the best of the UK and Europeâs web developers and designers with people at the sharp end of social problems.
Our aim is find ways that easy-to-build web 2.0 tools can be used to develop solutions to social challenges.
Until then, the organizers are calling out to you for ideas:
For the next month, we’ll be accepting applications to come to the event via the website – www.sicamp.org. The plan is that people will fill in our ideas submission form with details of an idea they have for socially-beneficial web tools. This process will close on 7th March 2008 and we’ll choose the best to come and join us in April.
I’ll be one of the technical advisors on the panel and I am very much looking forward to seeing what web geeks can do to change the world around us rather than just the virtual ones.
February 16th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Sounds good.
From the website:
“Weâre currently thinking about the best way to help you pursue your venture â or if itâs more appropriate, find someone to take it on for you.”
To me that reads “Please bring your great ideas. If we like them we will take them off you.”
I think that needs a bit more definition as I’m sure that’s not what is intended!
February 17th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Hi George – thanks for your comment,
ownership of ideas at the Social Innovation Camp is an important point (disclaimer: I’m one of the organisers)
Our aim is to help create new relationships between people who can help one another start new projects – we don’t have any interest (or for that matter capacity) to take on other people’s ideas ourselves.
We want to invite the people who send us their ideas to join us at the Social Innovation Camp weekend and ideally, we want these people to leave the weekend a step closer to making their project a reality themselves.
We have, however, had people contact us with ideas who say that whilst they’d like to help get their idea off the ground, they don’t have the time to run a start-up or new project themselves. We’d like to see these people come along to the Social Innovation Camp weekend and try and help them identify others who do have the time/abilitiy/capacity to see their idea through.
Hope that makes it a bit clearer – I’ll add this question to our FAQ as well…. further comments/criticisms v welcome.
Many thanks,
Anna Maybank – anna[@]sicamp.org