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Global Entrepreneurship Week

Marcia Stepanek | Monday 16th November 2009

Innovators have always been heroes, whether or not the marketplace liked their inventions or immediately recognized them for their brilliance. [Think Philo Farnsworth (TV), Preston Tucker (1948 Torpedo automobile), Alexander Fleming (Penicillin) and Steve Jobs, just for starters.]

But today's entrepreneurial landscape is different. More than any other time in recent history, it is crowded with new venture ideas. Today's business and non-profit worlds favor the young and the globally conscious, and even in the most destitute corners of the world, young social innovators are more start-up savvy than ever. They're not waiting for permission to get started: the world's problems have rarely seemed so daunting.

To commemorate Global Entrepreneurship Week (#GEW), which runs this week in 85 nations [including the United States], this blog will be posting three short "Changemaker" profiles spotlighting a few of the most dynamic new social entrepreneurs using the mobile Internet today. To be sure, we profile many innovators on this blog -- regardless of what week it is. But this week and next, we'll focus on a few who are testing new ways to use new "right here, right now" mobile technologies to improve the world as we know it.

Meanwhile, beginning today, we'd like your input on the following question. [Consider it an informal "reader poll."]

Who do you think is the most dynamic but as-yet unknown social entrepreneur in the world today?

Post a comment or send me an email and we'll add it to a list of "Social Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2010." We'll be compiling that list over the next month for our year-end Social Enterprise Round-Up of trends in the social enterprise space.

And one more thing? With more than 25,000 different events tied to Global Entrepreneurship Week this year -- organizers are hoping to engage some 4 million participants in 88 countries -- please share your experiences from any of these events with me and your colleagues in the Justmeans community.

It's your week. Let us hear what you're up to.

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Marcia Stepanek 30 November 2009

Christine -- belated thanks for your comment. Thanks for it; sounds like a wonderful group and great conversation! I'll check out the site.

Christine Guardia 24 November 2009

http://jm.ly/aGMPuf , a site that empowers youth by challenging them to find their life balance of heart, mind, body and spirit, organized a weeklong program to teach youth how to solve societal issues.

On 11/16, students from the Soledad Enrichment Action’s Girls Academy learned about social entrepreneurship and discussed case studies of how youth have played a role in satisfying global challenges, including: Homelessness, Access to Education, Disease Control and Sustainability.

On 11/17, social entrepreneurs discussed how they are addressing the four challenges:
• Mark Horvath, founder of InvisiblePeople.tv
• Scott Fifer, founder of GO Campaign
• Nedra Weinreich, founder and president of Weinreich Communications
• Alex Teklak, creator of Aquamantra

The panelists worked with groups of students to complete worksheets created by KooDooZ to help the students develop their 90-second presentations on how they would address one of the challenges, which were presented on 11/24.

Rashad Javed 23 November 2009

Dear friend,

Greetings from Hope Development Organization, Faisalabad, Pakistan
We are a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Faisalabad, Pakistan, and concerned about the violence spreading worldwide from our country. Please visit our website at http://jm.ly/NzmNXX We want to teach peace to our children and bring a better future to our country and thereby to the entire world. Please read about what we do and our vision; then consider how your organization and ours might partner toward this very important goal.
Please contact me if you have any questions or suggestions.
God bless you abundantly for your good work and commitment.
Regards, love and peace.

Rashad Javed.
Chairman: Hope development organization.
Email: chairman@hopedevelopment.org
http://jm.ly/NzmNXX/index.htm

Rashad Javed 23 November 2009

Marcia Stepanek 23 November 2009

Thanks, all, for your comments. Anne - microeconomics is a fascinating topic. Will definitely post something on it in coming weeks! Your work sounds fascinating. What are you finding as you research the domestic landscape?

Shahid Khan 23 November 2009

Amazing

Tex Dworkin 22 November 2009

Thanks for sharing about this..I hadn't heard of it. Looks like the U.K. has a lot more going on than the U.S.

Cynthia Stringer 18 November 2009

Thanks for a wonderful resource of ideas. Cynthia

Anne McCrady 18 November 2009

Terry sounds inspirational! Microeconomics is such an exciting and demonstrably successful field. I want to know more! I have tried to think about how to apply it to American communities, especially those where prejudice and low education rates keep single parent families from accessing our free market economy.