Social Innovation Camps

During an afternoon of surfing the internet, I stumbled upon an innovation article that vaguely mentioned a "Social Innovation Camp" with a link attached to it. Curious what this meant, especially in light of this class, I clicked on the link and was taken to the main website describing these camps. They last for 48 hours in total and tout that they "bring together ideas, people, and digital tools to build web-based solutions to social problems."

What started out as sounding like a slightly implausible idea, quickly became extremely interesting to me after reading a bit more. Originally founded out of the UK, these Innovation Camps are now spreading throughout the world including Nigeria, South Korea, Australia, Slovakia, Georgia, the Czech Republic, and Azerbaijan. These camps take submissions of ideas for web-based tools that have the potential to have a social impact and bring about change. After the submission period ends, a panel of judges pick a handful of these ideas to be presented and worked on at the camp. At the camp the goal is to take the initial concept and develop a working prototype web-based tool by the end of the weekend. From there, the camp hopes that those who submitted the idea or others will take this working prototype and the relationships established at the camp, and begin a social venture that succeeds and makes a difference.

While the concept of a so called "Social Innovation Camp" is by itself a novel idea, it was the "About" section on their website that really interested me and I also think pertains to what some of our classmates are focusing on in their ventures. The big idea, the website writes, is that the web has changed and will continue to change our lives in so many HUGE ways. They write about the evolution of social media and connectivity as well as the notion that the old top down structures of non-profits are failing to meet the needs of society. Thus, they claim, we are at a tipping point of sorts. Technology has become boring and therefore it has now ironically become socially interesting. However, due to inefficiencies and lack of incentives there is a mismatch between what technology supplies and what society needs. That is where the Social Innovation Camp gets its start and its mission.

The link to the About section is pasted below. I suggest, even if you read nothing else about the camp, to read this section. It is truly interesting, exciting, and beneficial topic for many of our classmates.

http://www.sicamp.org/about/the-big-idea/