Social Enterprise: MSM's New Darling

Social enterprise took another big step into the mainstream media conversation again this month. First, it was BBC World's TV series on social entrepreneurs, Alvin Hall's Guide to Good Business. [The fourth and latest segment of ex-Wall Streeter Hall's series profiles Apopo, a social enterprise that uses rats to sniff out landmines.]

More recently - if you haven't seen it yet -- Fast Company's global "50 Most Innovative Companies" issue [March 2010] features two online social enterprises, a first for the magazine's rankings.

The two Web startups cited -- both for-profit/nonprofit hybrids that aggregate information and crowds -- are UC Berkeley professor Dara O'Rourke's Good Guide and Ben and Jamie Heywood's PatientsLikeMe.

The Heywoods started PatientsLikeMe, an online support group with real-world data on symptoms and treatments, after their brother, Stephen, was diagnosed with ALS, known as Lou Gherig's Disease. Since 2008, they have set up online communities of people with various diseases. The communities function as support groups and data pools in which patients share information.

People who come to PatientsLikeMe can click on a symptom and see how others are working through their diseases, from treatments to family support and insurance issues. It's the latest model in online support groups, with future revenue streams contemplated as coming from limited research partnerships with drug firms and other groups wanting access to qualified communities.

O'Rourke, the founder of Good Guide, started her company with the goal of building a way for consumers to instantly "see" the environmental track records of the products they're buying . Her company distills the health, environmental, and social profiles of everyday products and the companies that make them into a simple, 10-point rating system accessible on goodguide.com. So far, her team has rated 75,000 products this way.

O'Rourke says her goals are two-fold: first, to inform the public, and second, to help companies improve the products they're making. It's working, Fast Company says: So far, Clorox, Method, and SC Johnson are looking for help with their ratings, so GoodGuide is launching a Manufacturer's Portal with supply-chain data.

Other intriguing companies listed included Twitter, Politico, VNL, PG&E, Huawei, First Solar, Indian Premier League, Hulu, and Walmart.

What are some social enterprise startups that you think deserve a nod for "most innovative"? And what do you like about lists such as FC's? What don't you like? Let us hear from you.