Comments for 6 Projects to Change Your Life? Social Innovation Camp Ideas Announced

6 Projects to Change Your Life? Social Innovation Camp Ideas Announced

2008-03-17T20:02:18Z

The six ideas that will be developed into web products at Social Innovation Camp, which convenes in London on April 4th-6th, were announced today. The unconference-style event, which is being sponsored by Yahoo! Developer Network Europe, NESTA, mediaguardian, The Young Foundation, CabinetOffice, and madgex, and includes Bebo-founder Paul Birch and Yahoo! lead developer Chris Heilmann on its advisory board, aims to bring developers together for 48 hours to solve a set of social problems.

]]> "Not only does the social web enable individuals to create things for themselves, but as increasing numbers of people use the web in this way, the network that they are building becomes more than the sum of its individual parts," according to the project's about page. "The Social Innovation Camp is interested in how this phenomenon in the online world can be used to create better solutions to social problems in the real world."

The camp's organizers aren't aiming to take a role in starting these new companies, but rather to create an environment that brings together people to collaborate on making them a reality. What's in it for the advisory board? As far as I can tell, not a whole lot. The whole thing seems rather altruistic, though I suppose the event organizers would have first crack at investing in anything that came out of the camp.

The group fielded 70 proposals for applications and chose 6 for development at the 2-day hackathon. Those are:

Enabled by Design

A portal and web shop for products designed to help people overcome "disability, injury or impairment." In addition to a shopping section and showcase of products, users would be able to write reviews, sell second hand goods, and receive advice from experts. A noble idea, if not all that innovative.

Barcode Wikipedia

This is perhaps the neatest idea of the bunch. A barcode driven, user created database of information about products such as health benefits, consumer risks, manufacturing information, carbon footprint, news stories, government subsidies to the manufacturer, and user reviews. Users would access the information by scanning or entering the barcode information from the product itself.

Prison Visits

A resource for families who have a loved one in prison. The tool would include information about getting to and from prisons for visits, information about arranging child care, coping with having a friend or relative in prison, etc.

Personal Development Reports

Using online activities (games?) and surveys the system determines a user's personal skills and qualities. By periodically retaking the online tests, users can track how their social and interpersonal skills are developing. The proposal includes a function to allow people to print off results for inclusion in a resume/CV or portfolio, but given the biases and unreliability of most personality tests (i.e., always take them with a healthy dose of salt), we're not so sure that's a great idea.

Stuffshare

Stuffshare is a classifieds-style stuff centered around lending and borrowing. This sort of thing actually already exists. For example, Traxstuff, Loanables, and Billmonk (sort of). There are also trade-based marketplaces like Zunafish and Swaptree which compete in this area.

Rate My CV

A user-driven resume review service. Upload your resume and get feedback from other users. You can specify who you want to give you feedback -- i.e., only people in your industry, or only people with a management experience, etc.

Are any of these projects truly innovative? Do they really address social needs that matter to people? Which are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below.

Comment from Aryan on 2008-03-17

2008-03-17T20:53:09Z

awesome idea. really awesome. m simply feeling low because can't attend it live otherwise it woudl be gret being there.

anyway i am discussing it on our designer community blog too so that i could make it available to the maximum number of designers possible. :)

Comment from Garlin II on 2008-03-17

2008-03-17T22:46:15Z

I wrote a version of the barcode wikipedia back in college. I still love the idea, though I think an SMS interface is more interesting than the barcodes (unless I can snap a pic of the barcode with my phone cam).

Comment from Lou Mittchell on 2008-03-17

2008-03-17T23:33:31Z

Looks rather lame. Advisors seem like a good bunch, so I'd hate to see what didn't get picked if this is the best that social innovators in the UK have to offer.

Move on, move on, nothing to see here.

Rate my CV? why would anyone bother?

typical NESTA stuff.

Comment from Ashley Smith on 2008-03-17

2008-03-17T23:47:58Z

What about en.barcodepedia.com pretty big database

Comment from Kaila Colbin on 2008-03-17

2008-03-18T00:05:00Z

I've got two social innovation ideas, and I'd welcome anyone who's interested in helping me get them off the ground -- or take them over outright.

The first is highly local. Here in Christchurch, there are tons of people who have private veggie gardens and fruit trees. If you've ever had a veggie garden, you know that all your produce comes online at once. You have no tomatoes for eleven months and then you've got tomatoes coming out your ears. I propose a centralized database / logistics / collection system to consolidate excess personal produce and distribute it to food banks or hungry kids. I'd really love to set up a system for this that can be replicated in communities across the globe.

The second is a form of enlightened self-interest. We can combine a global micro-lottery (say, a penny per ticket) with microlending. 50% of the revenues are distributed in prizes, 50% go out to borrowers via sites like www.kiva.org. Anyone playing the lottery can see who is receiving the loans and track the recipients' progress. Admin, legal, and other costs can be covered by interest (or a slight reduction in the amount of money returned as prizes).

Any takers, please feel free to shoot me an email! kaila (AT) vortexdna (DOT) com.

Comment from Konstantin Weiss on 2008-03-18

2008-03-18T09:26:00Z

A website similar to the Barcode Wikipedia already exists in Switzerland: Codecheck (unfortunatelly only in German). By either entering a barcode or scanning it via web cam you get information about the consumer product. Additional to that you can comment on the product, e.g. about your experiences or any additional information you have. Although not a wiki, Codecheck has certainly gained some experience in product focused user generated content.

Comment from yonatan on 2008-03-21

2008-03-21T09:49:13Z

very interesting event!
I read about this event here for the first time.
I'm behind traxtuff (not traxstuff, but no biggie), which should undergo some design changes in the next days.
stuffshare seems exactly like that, I will contact them to consider a way to collaborate (either by exchange of ideas/advice or in more creative ways).
nice, thanks!
Yonatan

Comment from Mike Amos-Simpson on 2008-03-31

2008-03-31T18:15:19Z

Hi Josh - you say that Personal Development Reports isn't such a great idea and I'd be interested to hear your thoughts as to why? At this stage criticism and doubts will be just as helpful towards the development of the concept.

I think you make a clear point that the system must be more beneficial than personality test type things which already exist in abundance and I agree should be taken with a pinch of salt.

What I'd like to achieve is a system that allows us to measure what young people gain from particular experiences/projects/activities in a way that allows them to articulate beyond saying 'I feel more confident' - we want something that enables them to say I developed in these particular skills/qualities....

The idea of a print off report is not that young people would simply attach them to their CV and job done - its most of all that they would feel more confident to talk about the value of their experiences and their own personal qualities. There are potential knock on benefits such as being able to compare different experiences and how they actually benefit people but this will require the system to be taken credibly and obviously that will take some time.

Please do share your thoughts though its all helpful.