Posts
Thoughts, musings, and ideas on various topics.
The Changing Business Model
December 5, 2012
Great blog post on CYBF Canada on social purpose and the changing business model. Social purpose businesses are on the rise and are generating interest for start-ups… A new wave of business owners ...
1 comment socialchange socialenterprise
The Future Of Social Entrepreneurship
November 30, 2012
Forbes.com had a great article on Five Predictions For The Future Of Social Entrepreneurship. One of the predictions particularly caught my attention: “Through the coming years we’ll see social ent...
socialenterprise
Saskatoon.ca
November 29, 2012
A collaborative effort from fellow software developers in Saskatoon, making recommendations on the design and development of Saskatoon.ca website. The document received some great local press, as w...
371 comments saskatoon software
How To Change The World
November 22, 2012
Just finished re-reading How To Change The World, a must have handbook for all social entrepreneurs. “In the end, business and social entrepreneurs are very much the same animals. They think about ...
socialchange socialenterprise
Idealist
November 18, 2012
One of my favorite quotes on the difference between optimist, pessimist and an idealist: “An optimist is a person who sees only the lights in the picture, whereas a pessimist sees only the shadows....
inspiration
Saskatoon Dream Team
October 19, 2012
Saskatoon’s civic election is fast approaching, who are you voting for on October 24th? Here are my recommendations for a ‘dream team’ city council in Saskatoon. Mayor – Tom Wolf @TomWolf2012 tomwo...
2 comments saskatoon
What’s My Ward in the Leader-Post
September 13, 2012
Great article in the Leaderpost by Bryn Levy on the What’s My Ward app. A conversation about getting young people engaged in municipal politics has spawned a smartphone app with a host of helpful p...
1 comment apps4good
What’s My Ward
September 5, 2012
This is the story of how the app What’s My Ward was born… Back in May the Hello World developer series hosted a discussion on open data in Saskatoon, which included both software developers and cit...
1 comment apps4good
Funding Social Change
July 23, 2012
How do you fund world changing ideas when the organizations with the resources to fund these projects fail to see the long term impact? How can you be innovative when funders would rather support ...
2 comments socialchange whitespace
Inventing on Principle
July 12, 2012
Brilliant talk by Bret Victor on Inventing on Principle. Besides discussing his principle that ‘creators need an immediate connection to the thing they are making’, he also shares a powerful messag...
dharma
Mobile Phones Tackling Poverty
July 9, 2012
Brilliant infographic by USAID on the power of mobile technologies to empower the poor to take hold of their future. “They fundamentally transform the way people in the developing world interact wi...
mobile socialchange
Making Everyone Known
July 6, 2012
Powerful talk by Mark Horvath from InvisiblePeople.tv at TEDxYYC sharing the story of homelessness in Canada. You can watch the video on YouTube at youtu.be/78EuiFXkZ34
1 comment homeless
Everybody Say Eh!
July 1, 2012
The Poverty Plainsmen said is best, “every day is Canada Day!” The northern lights are shining bright on this tiny prairie town.The old dirt road still carries the load for the men who were breaki...
uncategorized
Severn Suzuki’s World Vision for Sustainable Future
June 26, 2012
Powerful message from Severn Suzuki speaking at the Rio+20 Summit calling for a unified world vision for a more sustainable future. “History is not made by those who stand silent, or by those who d...
environment
Accessible Mobile Apps
June 21, 2012
The best mobile apps are the ones that solve a real problem. The apps that demonstrate the true power of mobile are the ones helping empower disadvantaged groups. It is truly encouraging to see a...
2 comments mobile
ReCoding Good
June 19, 2012
ReCoding Good is a must read series by Stanford Social Innovation Review on philanthropy, policy, and technology which explores the use of private resources for public good. Part 1 : http://www.ss...
socialchange socialgood technology
I Vote Because
June 18, 2012
For this year’s eSTAS 2012, I had the pleasure of writing a chapter for the book The Power Of The Connected Citizen on the I Vote Because map in deployed last spring in Canada. Below is an excerp...
ivotebecause
The Power Of One
June 15, 2012
A common theme emerged at eSTAS 2012, one person can change the world. The conference highlighted the social use of ICT and the power of the connected citizen. In the spirit of Gandhi’s famous wor...
1 comment socialchange speaking