October 2008
The Archives
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10.30.08Dimensions of trust in connections.[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Image by cuellar via Flickr"][/caption] I recently had an impromptu conversation on the nature of trust in my tumblog with my fellow 'social catalysts' (more info coming soon). I'm fairly new to exploring this topic in this way so really appreciated the depth of responses. The insights I'm left with are that there are essentially 3 dimensions to trust in facilitating a connection. Each dimension is a range that might be expressed as follows. The person (from "they're not a sociopathic stalker" to "they walk on water and you'll want to be their best friend") The subject (from "i don't ...
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10.28.08Expanding on the Social Venture CommonsExpanding on my previous post on micro-funds and the social venture commons, here are few more pieces on what I see being the core elements of the Social Venture Commons. First, I see the commons containing three interdependent realms: conversations connections accomplishments Accomplishments are the product and desired outcomes of every venture. They are also a great catalyst of conversation. Conversation, in turn, is a great catalyst of connections - connections to ideas, resources, people etc. And connections, in turn, catalyze accomplishments - new resources to help get things done better, faster, etc. Of course it's not that linear but I do sense a compelling ...
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10.25.08Supercharging Social CapitalI've been working with some fantastic colleagues (Duncan Work and Duncan Holmes) on ways to harness social capital (the relationship kind vs. financial kind). For me, the interest is applying it to ventures that are working toward a just and sustainable society - but, more generally, I believe it is our most underutilized form or capital and is becoming increasingly important in the current economic downturn and the new mode of organization that I see emerging. I've also been playing with other ways of communicating in presentations and taking some cues from VizThink which I've recently been introduced to. The converegence ...
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10.22.08Micro-funds and the Social Venture CommonsWorking with the building blocks for a new kind of venture capital I've been shaping a couple of core components - micro funds, and the social venture commons. Micro-funds: making small, flexible, intuitive, low-cost, high-leverage investments. Features: Short life: fully invested within 3 years or less Small, high-leverage investments: invest financial (e.g. $25-50k) and social capital in high-leverage ways - core capacity, incremental engagement, financial seeding Low or no fee: offset with performance based incentives for financial and impact returns appropriate to the fund Light-weight and dynamic operations: led by individuals or organizations that have a unique position or perspective on the 'frontiers' - run ...
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10.14.08SoCap08 – Alive onlineMy first impression of SoCap08 have as much to do with the excellence of the physical event as they do with the virtualization of it. First the physical event. There are over 600 participants from the usual people but also from more mainstream financial players that are seriously starting to get their toes wet. I first heard about this a year ago when Kevin Jones of GoodCapital was just starting to pull it together and I must say they did an extraordinary job of convening the community in a big way. Now for the virtualization. In addition to some on-site use of ...
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10.13.08Building Blocks for a new kind of Venture Capital[caption id="" align="alignright" width="202" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] A new kind of venture capital for purposeful ventures is something I've been exploring for a number of years and was recently reenergized by some conversations at the OpenEverything retreat in September. I'm writing this now as I head to SoCap08 and looking forward to testing some of these ideas against other emerging models (e.g. Enterpreneur Commons) and amongst the worlds leaders in social venture investment. I'll follow-up this post with any big insights that emerge and in the meantime I'm interested in any comments about what I've started framing below. Feel free to ...
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10.12.08SoCap08 – Social Capital Markets ConferenceI'm getting ready to head to SoCap08 in San Francisco. Here's a brief blurb on what it's about - and for those of you who are interested there is a twitter account and tag that you can follow. Doing well and doing good is the mantra of a new generation of entrepreneurs and the organizations that invest in them. And Social Capital Markets 2008 (SoCap08) is a new event designed to bring together all of the people and organizations with a similar deep passion to change the world through sustainable businesses. We're at the cusp of a massive sea-change in the ways ...
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10.09.08In the midst of a macroshift."It's clear that the financial system built on the mindset of the last few decades is unravelling." Quotes like these are increasingly common in the media. So what is the mindset we need to build the new system? In his prescient book Macroshift, Ervin Laszlo suggests what I think would be a good start. From competition... to reconciliation and partnership From greed and scarcity... to sufficiency and caring From outer "authority"... to inner "knowing" From separation... to wholeness From mechanistic systems... to living systems From organizational fragmentation... coherent integration [caption id="attachment_244" align="alignleft" width="145" caption="Macroshift by Ervin Laszlo"][/caption] The book's a fascinating read on the interplay of mindset and technology ...
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10.09.08Sparkin’ up our future leaders.I was invited by Maria Antonakos of Opus Philanthropy to speak to her Philanthropy class in the Commerce program at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University in Hamilton. She asked me to talk about social finance and 'a little bit about how you ended up doing what you do". I prepared the short presentation below to give the overview of social finance, social enterprise, and social innovation but somehow ended up getting into some fun rants about making choices to venture toward a just and sustainable society. I learned that they were just beginning to make their career choices ...
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10.09.08OpenEverything VideoWe were fortunate enough to have Duane Nikull of Adobe do a Duane's World episode on the OpenEverything Retreat at Hollyhock. Another fun perspective. Enjoy.
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Tumblog
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Igniter published Reporting & Analytics | Rally Software Development.
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Igniter shared Olympics still alive in the coffeeshop..
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Igniter shared Patriotic munchkin window art.
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Igniter shared Showdown time. Cumon ->.
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Igniter shared A welcoming entrance in the snow..
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Igniter published Interesting mobile neighborhood messaging service....
