Vote No on 1 in Maine!!!

OK, so I suck at blogging, but what better way to start again than with something as important as this for my beloved state.

Must request my absentee ballot immediately. What could be LESS about positive social change than this shit. Lies about what it means to have equal rights for all people!

I don't know Bill Nemitz, but I will vote with him!

To Maine for being so forward thinking and well done Protect Maine Equality for fighting the good fight!

Yunus on the Financial Crisis

The year started so OK for blogging...alas, I need to re-group, start again and remind myself why I (try to) blog. I will still give it a go, if only for the effort to share topics and ideas that keep me thinking.

I have reorganized the RSS feeds I follow. One of the better ones is the news feed on the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (British spelling!) site. I don't usually think through social change from a human rights angle, but really appreciate the collection of resources on this. I found several interesting leads in the past few days.

One was an article highlighting recent comments on the financial crisis by Muhammad Yunus, who was speaking at the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture (and Nelson Mandela's 91st birthday). His comments realign my thoughts to some of the reasons I started this blog.

...Yunus noted that even if the problems springing from the global financial crisis were overcome, the world would still be left with some fundamental questions about the effectiveness of capitalism in tackling many other unresolved issues.

"There is only one concept of business in the whole world and that is the purpose of business is to make money."

He said the interpretation of the human being in this theory treated people as one dimensional human beings.

"Capitalism and the marketplace that has grown up around the theory make no room for the selfless dimensions of people ... what about starting a business on the base of selflessness?" he asked.

Yunus proposed a second type of business alongside the existing one, calling it "social business."

...

"Whenever I see a problem I start a company to solve that problem," Yunus said.

Brother, Can You Spare (half) a Dime?

Always with a soft spot for something that pokes the inspir(red) campaign, I was pleased to find a new blog (thanks Melindochka!) While there is no "about blog" link, it appears Mr. Easterly and others at NYU are now blogging about international aid on "Aid Watch". One for the blog roll.

I didn't do my own search of Starbuck's web page for results of their (RED) efforts, but am pleased Easterly is pointing out that companies need to go a bit farther than just the marketing ploy. Anyone with more energy than I have is welcome to pass along results.

"If it's not social, then it's bad business."

Global X, blogging on Social Edge has some good videos. Whenever I am feeling like nothing really matters, this is a good place to go.

I like that quote - the title of this post - from this inverview with Laila Iskandar, especially since she is running a "for-profit/non-profit hybrid organization".

CID is a recognized pioneer in approaches which integrate private, public and civil society interests to create new and sustainable opportunities for growth. We take a holistic approach to business development and are committed to helping build healthy organizations that contribute to Egypt's development.

Let's MicroFranchise it!

Change Has Come To www.whitehouse.gov!

I knew there would be a gestures of good will. I didn't realize you would be able to stream Nowruz greetings with Persian subtitles from the www.whitehouse.gov site.

While I get that words alone, don't matter, Mr. Javanfekr, at least we have a leader invoking and teaching us about Saadi Shirazi. Peace in the Middle East, it is not. But it is a step in the right direction.

Happy Nowruz, everyone!

Cramer v. Stewart

I debated putting this on my less-serious blog, but think it belongs here as John Stewart has crossed over the line from comedian to more serious stuff, as evidenced by clips on PBSs Frontline (an old Frontline about Cramer 10 or so years ago) and NPR and here. Even the non-profit media is covering the story! The full March 12, 2009 interview is certainly worth seeing if you missed it.

Even if the tactics were somewhat unfair in this unconventional style of "journalism", I think the Daily Show continues to do an exceptional job reminding the media that their jobs are not only to sell advertising, but that there must be some principles in there as well. Late for work again, I will leave it at that very undeveloped thought.

Microfranchising - Building on Good Ideas

It is certainly not new (I learned that I should have been reading Nextbillion.net more carefully three years ago... their new look is great!), but diving into the topic of MicroFranchises today, I found some new ideas.

First, the BYU Economic Self-Reliance Center "broadly define MicroFranchises as small businesses that can easily be replicated by following proven marketing and operational concepts. The overall objective of MicroFranchising is to promote economic development by developing sound business models that can be replicated by entrepreneurs at the base of the pyramid; therefore, the start-up costs of MicroFranchises will be minimal. The key principle is replication, replicating success to scale."

This led me to another article I missed in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. This article, as an online PBS report on health care solutions, focuses on CFW Shops in Kenya.

I am still thinking through my reaction to this idea. It stirs up my interest in social marketing and social enterprise. I am very attracted to the idea that, at least in the CFW Shops, franchise owners are vetted, supported and trained. It seems to address the frequent criticism of Microfiance that its loans remain too small to really have an impact that money alone doesn't make an entrepreneur. On the other hand, the challenge of quality control seems to linger. Can you really take away a franchise in Kenya if the owner cuts corners in a time of crisis? (This is discussed in the PBS video.)

One graduate of BYU has set up a blog on microfranchising and the head of the Economic Self-Reliance Center, Jason Fairbourne, has written a book on the topic (cover above) and runs the university's wiki, which explains their MicroFranchise Toolkit.

Everything Online (...but I still want my books!)

Continuing with a topic that interests me - all information, all the time - Brewster Kahle's efforts to take on Google in the area of making the online collection of human knowledge is a thought-provoking read. A lot of challenging ideas related to open source development, copyright and who should control that big internet library.

I also found this video of Kahle on Nerd TV. My wife is bound to like that, even if it appears not to be running any more.

An Open Book Blog...on Microfinance

Via Global Development: Views from the Center blog, I learned of this project by David Roodman, who is writing his next book with an eye on getting feedback along the way through a blog, his Microfinance Open Book Blog. An experiment worth watching in all my "free" time.

Philanthropically Speaking

The good thing about delicious tags are that you have less of a chance of forgetting something you glanced at and closed before considering further...

...for example, "The Sin in Doing Good Deeds", and op-ed by Nicholas Kristof just before the New Year holidays, that wrestles with a recent book called Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential.

I like the feature on the NYT website that gives selected reader comments. There are some good ones and they point to a lot of the issues related to social enterprise, which I find terribly interesting.

Oh, and Uncharitable has a website...no time to look now as I am late to work! I shall tag if for later...