Tag Archives: Social innovation

trust may be the underlying demise for social entrepreneurs.

Posted on by Colin.Wee
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Social Entrepreneurs operating non-monetary social enterprises may find obstacles gaining their clients’ trust. Lokesh Kuma Singh reveals his experience that not everyone is a social entrepreneur. His dairy social enterprise, encounters trust issues between his organisation and clients. He has to find a balance by ensuring that the animal he sells are healthy and inexpensive. Furthermore, going to the extent of exchanging for a new animal if it does not provide the sustainable returns it should.  Continue reading →

dripping wet arid – Drip Irrigation Innovation.

Posted on by Colin.Wee
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Over the past twenty-years ‘micro’ irrigation systems have reached 10.3 million people. In various arid areas, water scarcity is a major issue for farmers to sustain an agricultural livelihood. Drip Irrigation provides a system that allows users to efficiently and precisely manage usage water to the demands of the particular demands of the crop. If this is not a prime example of social innovation, then I don’t know what else is! An elaboration of how drip irrigation works can be found here.  Continue reading →

growing food from urban waste – a mushroom growing kit!

Posted on by Colin.Wee
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Imagine growing food from urban waste! 2 UC Berkeley students, Alejandro Velez & Nikhil Arora have started a ‘mushroom home growing kit’ for your home! Their organisation, Back to the Roots utilizes used coffee powder from coffee shops to grow oyster mushrooms! Edible of course! Definitely a sustainable solution to coffee waste (or other kinds of urban waste) that urban-ers produce! More on from the video… Continue reading →

social innovation: make some money by texting.

Posted on by Colin.Wee
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Now, low income earners can send SMS during their free time and earn some extra bucks! Research by Microsoft revealed a crowd-sourcing model that requires low income earners to translate words and gain mobile credit in return! To good to be true? Perhaps, but this is one step forward for scalable social innovation to take traction. A summary of how it is done can be found here, and if you want a more in depth understanding and economic analysis, you may click here.  Continue reading →

pay-as-you-go electricity via SMS.

Posted on by Colin.Wee
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The power of the sun goes beyond our own comprehension! In Halliberu, Karnataka State in India, local farmers are given a solar panel attached to a battery and a meter box to keep track of power usage. Locals would travel ridiculous distances just to charge their mobile phones. Now, a company Simpa Networks have been installing solar panels in rural village housing to supply electricity to residents! Video Link

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