Centre for Social Innovation - Where Change Happens!

One of our members sent around a link to a new IDEO project called Open Ideo. It is basically an online crowd-sourcing platform intended to surface solutions to various social challenges. In short, a "challenge sponsor" comes forward with a social/environmental challenge for which they need help solving. The call goes out to the Open Ideo online community by way of a "challenge brief", and then proceeds through four steps: Inspiration (brainstorming); Concepting; Evaluation; and Winner Announcement.

CSI just keeps growing! We've added a handful of new staff to prepare for our expansion into the CSI Annex and we're now searching for an extraordinary strategist and story teller to lead our marketing and communication efforts. There is just too much going on around here to keep it under wraps any longer - we want to invite the world into our community. Click here for more information about the position.

Tim Draimin of Social Innovation Generation recently posted an interesting article titled Corporate Social Responsibility is Dead: Long Live Corporate Social Innovation.  The article details an emerging trend from traditional CSR to CSI...

What do Farmer's Markets, Bikeshare Programs, Freecycle and Couchsurfing have in common? They are all examples of Collaborative Consumption. Check out this short video on the emerging trend toward collaborative consumption... while I am familiar with most of the examples they use, I never realized how they could all be tied together and identified as a trend in social innovation.

It's back!! Net Change Week is coming up June 7-11, exploring the role of technology in social change. Hosted by MaRS, this week promises a great line-up of speakers, workshops and projects that will motivate, inspire, and connect those working in the field. Check out the Net Change Week website for more information...

CSI former intern Alexis Kane Speer is branching out to launch a new project, which we are proud to host here at the Centre. The Sustainable Thinking and Expression on Public Space (STEPS) Initiative is a collaborative effort that aims to promote sustainable and community-centred public spaces by engaging inspiring and creative organizations, informal collectives and individuals committed to using art as a medium for dialogue on liberating the urban commons.

I am leading a workshop at the Young Social Enterpreneurs of Canada Re:Vision 2010 conference next week here in Toronto. The title is Social Innovation: What the Hell are We Talking About?

For some crazy reason The Globe and Mail rejected this proposed Comment piece, which I wrote this morning after reading about how the Feds are going to prioritize innovation in this week's Throne Speech and Budget. Anyway...I will crack that nut yet! In the meanwhile, for your reading pleasure....

Innovating Innovation: It’s time for the Canadian Government to show real leadership in innovation

Well, our first ever Discover CSI Month has come to a close, and we are still trying to recover from the intensity of it all. This was an experiemnt for us at CSI - we had never before tried something quite like this. Basically, our objective was to introduce the space to people who hadn't been here before. Our goal was to reach out to folks who weren;t familiar with CSI and give them a chance to see what we're all about.