I am the founder of SuperNova7 Productions; a global grassroots group of social entrepreneurs.
Working on the Obama campaign has taught me very practical lessons about the change we seek in our
world; especially in India. I was born in Kerala and my early education was in Mumbai before my
departure to the United States. Having family members in various parts of India who are working in
the areas of engineering, education, religion, medicine, agriculture, and technology give me insight
in to some of the daily challenges in the lives of Indian citizens. By attending the Skoll World
Forum in Oxford, England for the last two years, I have also met and continue to work with Oxford
business graduates to tackle some of the challenges facing social entrepreneurs. I am also an
independent filmmaker who is on the board of advisors for the South Asian International Film
Festival in New York City http://www.saiff.org/ . I have seen firsthand some of the problems facing
India in the area of social innovation during my numerous visits.
I can contribute with a sense of familiarity, empathy, and urgency to the problems facing social
entrepreneurs in India. I have a moral and personal obligation to give back to a land where my roots
have originated. My involvement would be based on the diverse experiences I have had which can
transcend cultural barriers to bring transformational change. Social entrepreneurs in India are
facing many challenges based on growing socioeconomic gaps. Too often the learning curve is based on
trust, time, and resources. I can lower such barriers by using technology for social entrepreneurs
to be more effective in this field and decrease stagnation of progress.
I would use this experience to help build the first ever open source platform for social
entrepreneurs to connect, collaborate, and measure their work. This platform would fill the voids of
current websites by aggregating data in a meaningful way. I was selected to present my idea at the
Ashoka/We Media Changemaker contest in Miami, FL earlier this year. Currently our first prototype
http://bit.ly/vHrVd lead with the most votes and comments in the NetSquared-Change the Web (CA) and
Apps for Democracy (Washington, DC) contests.
I feel that if I am chosen for the Just Means contest, I can bring a knowledge base with practical
solutions that directly affect the lives of many people.
I am a medical student who has done health education and outreach work in India. In doing my work, I partnered with amazing people in the community in which I was working. I saw first-hand what commitment and creativity there is in India for progressive causes, but these amazing people are not always easy to find when you first land. A portal such as Tegy's, that enables people who are striving for progressive change to network and communicate, is the gateway to collaboration that gets things done. Indian activists and entrepreneurs will be much stronger with a tool like SuperNova7 at their hands.
Great idea. Many people wait for others to change things. "...you should avoid the temptation of thinking that your dreams can be realized only in some far-off place. If you think that way, you'll neglect the possibilities in your immediate surroundings."
Great idea - but rather than re-invent the wheel, I suggest you take a look at the work that is already being done in this space: http://jm.ly/XJVN2h offers a virtual meeting ground for a wide range of groups—citizen sector organizations, underprivileged communities, funding agencies, corporations, government departments, and global citizens interested in India.
Also sharing similar concerns to yourself, I find this an excellent idea and a great concept. Just looking at similar websites, but with different objectives, I see this being a highly successful initiate. For example, Facebook (which many of us know and love) is a social network which was created to help college students and other people keep in touch with friends world-wide, and look to what it has expanded to today!
If i understand it correctly, creating this open-source platform through the Internet could really help to open doors and give everyone a better concept as to how to solve the worlds greatest problems. It would be a positive step in the right direction.
I think that this is an excellent idea. As an educator, I can definitely use a program such as Nebula 7 to connect with other educators around the world. I can also use it with my students. All the best to you on this project!!
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