We had an amazing 133 ideas submitted to come to Social Innovation Camp Scotland June 09.
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This idea helps people to form clubs to invest regular sums in small and micro-businesses in their own community. The judges thought this was hugely topical in the current recession and suggested that, rather than investment, it might focus on loans. Loans would be legally less complex than investment and there are already similar models to learn from - it’s a kind of hyper-local Zopa or Kiva. It’s also drawing on old ideas which provide an alternative to banking, such as credit unions. Community Investors Club was originally a closed submission, but it’s now up our site with all the others here.
This idea helps people to form clubs to invest regular sums in small and micro-businesses in their own community. The judges thought this was hugely topical in the current recession and suggested that, rather than investment, it might focus on loans. Loans would be legally less complex than investment and there are already similar models to learn from - it’s a kind of hyper-local Zopa or Kiva. It’s also drawing on old ideas which provide an alternative to banking, such as credit unions. Community Investors Club was originally a closed submission, but it’s now up our site with all the others here.
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The Social Innovation Camp was first created and run in the UK. Now it’s springing up all over the place; other people are taking the idea and running their own thing.
The Centre for Social Innovation is bringing it to New Zealand later on this year, and the Central and Eastern Europe Civil Society Forum are planning theirs for September 2009. You can find more of the details here.
We reckon that each Social Innovation Camp will be slightly different, but its DNA is always the same.
We hope Social Innovation Camp shows that if you have a little faith in people, they can do amazing things for all sorts of different reasons - whether it’s to solve a problem; to do something that’s worth doing or because it’s simply really good fun.
We believe the incredible thing about the web and new technologies is that they make all of this possible by helping people to organise things better for themselves. And Social Innovation Camp is all about making that a practical reality by helping people create the next generation of social start-ups.
But our really grand vision is that the Social Innovation Camp might play a small part in creating a big change: a shift where people don’t just complain about stuff that needs fixing or rely on government/companies/charities to do it for them. Instead, we want to give people the confidence, connections and skills they need to start up their own thing and mend something that’s broken.
So, wherever you are in the world, stop whinging, get excited and fix stuff.
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