Social innovation is about inventing and implementing new ways of doing things in society. Its been happening since the Enlightenment, when we moved away from the Feudal system of Kings, aristocrats and peasants. Democracy was a social innovation. The abolition of slavery. The equality of women. Public education.
Over the last few hundred years, social innovations were only made by governments. Or by the introduction of new technology by aristocrats. So you had to be born in government, elected to government, or take government by force,, or be very wealthy. With the industrial and now information revolutions, individuals are becoming so empowered that they can make social improvements without the need to be in government or reply on aristocrat patrons. We can do it ourselves.
There are now social enterprises, that use the skills of entrepreneurs to raise funding and organise talented people, to pursue a triple bottom line. They can operate a business that is profitable and there fore self-sustaining, that also benefits society and also the environment we depend on. Ultimately social innovation is about empowering people and communities.
People can invent entire new business models and entirely new ways to do things. Micro-lending, and micro-credit. Open Source hardware and software. Wikipedia. Community gardens. The X-Prize. Wikileaks. There are all sorts of ways to apply intelligence to the ways we have always done things and find new ways to solve unmet needs. I think of social innovation as the application of new techniques to improve society. Thus its a form of new technology, in the same way that literacy was a new technology.
Social innovation is important because there is much suffering and injustice in the world that can be prevented. Starvation was due to there being not enough food for most of human history. Since the Green Revolution of last century this is no longer the case. There is more than enough food to feed everybody. Unfortunately most of it rots because the distribution of the food has fallen prey to political and financial interests. Starvation is no longer a scientific and engineering problem of how to grow more food, now its a social problem of how to use political and financial apparatus to distribute the food where its needed. Distribution has wars and corrupt regimes in the way, These are social problems that need innovation to solve. The Grameen Bank took people who were trapped in poverty by tiny debts that they needed to make a living. Grameen gives these people micro-loans and they are empowered to lift themselves out of debt and therefore out of poverty. Loans of tens of dollars instead of thousands.
Drought doesn't make people starve. Not being allowed to move away from a drought-stricken area to a fertile area makes people starve. What is stopping the movement of people is soldiers.
Human behaviour changes under the influence of new technology. Social innovators are giving old unsolved problems, clever, environmental and community friendly solutions.
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I interviewed Marianne Menictas about her Tsunami warning research. Marianne Menictas has been creating a mathematical model that shows how to save the lives of the most people possible from a Tsunami disaster for the least amount of money. Marianne is a final year student in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Technology, Sydney
Mathematical models can save lives! Marianne Menictas has just finished her degree in Mathematics and Statistics. She's 20 years old and is looking forward to doing new research in her honours year at the University of Technology, Sydney.
With
a degree in applied physics, Ian set out on a career as an
astronomer until injuring his back while working at the Culgoora
Solar Observatory in Narrabri. He worked his way up in IT support
from St George Hospital to Sun Microsystems, and then to the
University of Technology, Sydney as a Systems Programmer. At UTS
he was lured into academia and coordinated Computing Theory,
lectured in Computer Networking and tutored in Online Communities,
before returning to the Physics department to teach physics
laboratory classes.
Ian
was then hired as Project Officer for the Science Communication
Education Project run by the Science faculty to teach informal
science communication to science students, conduct educational
research, and promote research being conducted by the Faculty, by
interviewing their scientists and packaging the interviews into
podcasts.
He
co-athoured a paper on using research to teach science and
communication skills. For over ten years he has been a presenter
and producer on 2SER-FM's weekly science program Diffusion, and
reported science on ABC radio. He has built and exhibited
interactive electronic sculptures,and given public talks to the
Live Futures festival, Science On Tap, the Australian Science
Communicators, and Sydney philosophy groups.
Ian
is a member of the NSW Australian Science Communicators committee
and has organised events such as "Successful Freelance
Science Writing", and "Podcasting 101". He was one
of two judges of the National Science Week Big Blog Theory Science
Tweeting awards.
Janine Cahill is a futurist and innovation and sustainability consultant specializing in giving clients an experience of the future so they can develop innovative strategy and new products and services.
Janine has worked with Sustainability as part of Strategy since 1990 when she completed cost-benefit analyses of change projects in Westpac. This included a state initiative on paper printing and transport reduction of over 20% which was then implemented nationally. She also completed some initial feasibility research into environmental cost reductions on $260m of discretionary expenditure.
Since then Janine has developed Sustainability and Climate Change as key elements of scenario planning and development, while also building them into Futures Simulations. These simulations require participants to develop strategy, products and services within carbon-constrained futures.
Janine designs and runs FISH@6 Foresight Innovation and Sustainability Hothouses which bring together designers, environmentalists, artists, engineers, lawyers, architects, bankers, accountants and others to work with innovation challenges, including an annual Climate Innovation Challenge.
Janine is co-founder and Designer of Live Futures 2020, an annual Futures Festival in its fourth year: a combined conference, workshops, ideas space and exploration of possible futures. College of Fine Arts (COFA- part of UNSW) is a major sponsor and partner.
James is currently MD and Founder of JCI Business Services. He has extensive experience in Technology, Business and Sustainability and has worked with major organisations in a range of technical roles and in building systems to minimise business' impact on the environment. James has worked with clients in the waste, water, waste water, oil & gas, energy and industrial sectors assisting businesses in identifying and adopting processes, behaviours and technologies to improve their global footprint and adopt environmentally sustainable and socially responsible business approaches.
His experience in creating and growing profitable companies, and implementing continuous improvement, along with his understanding of the daily pressures in successfully managing businesses are now provided to businesses through his advisory, project, training and seminar activities. James shares his knowledge and breadth of industry experience with people at all levels and changes business cultures to establish long term environmental and business goals.
James full career includes experience with major global organisations in dynamic roles and under heavy commercial pressures. He has worked in technical, production, engineering, manufacturing commercial and retail environments and has achieved many significant breakthroughs for which he has received numerous awards.
Recently James has worked with organisations to reduce their energy consumption, reduce waste generation, reduce water consumption, and reduce consumption of resources. He has created a number of Environmental Management Systems and guided businesses in communicating their environmental activities to staff, the community and customers.
James is an experienced Business Director and Leader with a finely honed understanding of customers, technology, management and the environment. He is an environmental auditor and a past Director of the International Association for Services Management.
Ray has over 25 years of marketing and business management experience, working for a variety of major Australian private and public sector organisations. This includes over 10 years with telecommunication companies such as Optus and Telstra, in a variety of marketing and business development roles, including Group Product Manager.
Ray also has extensive experience in international marketing and business development though numerous projects for major Australian exporters and Austrade
As the Principal of Rycom Business Services, Ray provides business planning and strategy implementation assistance to growth companies.
Jenny joined EnergyAustralia in 1992 after a career in the telecommunications and the public sectors. EnergyAustralia operates Australia's largest electricity distribution system and is the largest energy retailer in NSW. As the Executive Policy Advisor, a member of EnergyAustralia's executive team,
Jenny is involved in planning and policies for building strong stakeholder and community relationships, business development and innovations including the transformation of the network to a "smart grid", where the electricity network is integrated with digital and information technologies to support low carbon energy use.
She has experience in Australia and overseas and has had responsibilities in finance management, business development, IT projects and change management, business planning and policy and strategy development. In the past, Jenny has served as an Executive Council Member, Australia Indonesia Business Council, represented EnergyAustralia as an alternative director on AustEnergy Pty Ltd and was an Advisory Board Member for Project Humanity, the development arm of the Christian Children's Foundation.
Jenny holds a Bachelor Degree in Financial Administration, is a Certified Practicing Accountant and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Bert Franzen is the founder and principal consultant of electAssociates, a boutique recruitment firm specialising in the information, technology and communications industry.
Bert is an accomplished IT professional with extensive experience in providing high quality services to local and international clients. He has been able to achieve great results by leveraging a broad network and adopting innovative strategies to identify and attract the ideal candidate. Bert has helped clients recruit in a range of sectors including software integration, banking, health, telecommunications and wholesale distribution.
Prior to establishing electAssociates, Bert worked for a variety of organisations including the global recruitment firm Adecco. As their NSW General Manager for the IT division, he successfully managed a $70M budget and more than 350 consultants. He also worked with Sienna Technologies as Australian Sales Manager promoting B2B solutions, SPL WorldGroup as Senior Sales Executive promoting system integration services, Technical Logistics International as Managing Director specialising in international recruitment, and Computer People as NSW Branch Manager.
Bert has also participated as a Judge with Austrade's IT Secrets Software Innovation Awards and facilitates workshops on how to use Emotional Intelligence in Effective Leadership.
Andrew has been actively involved in the global high tech industry for 30 years having worked in the UK and Silicon Valley for a number of years. His roles have always involved engaging with some of the largest technology firms around the world.
Andrew currently works for Sapphicon Semiconductor the only manufacturer of integrated circuits in Australia where he is responsible for business development and marketing activities. The company designs and manufactures advanced RF chips based on Silicon-on-Sapphire process technology for communications and defence/aerospace applications.
Prior to working at Sapphicon Andrew was involved in the Contract Electronics Manufacturing industry with GPC Electronics one of the largest electronics manufacturing companies in Australia.
He also worked for CSIRO in technology commercialisation which involved the identification and analysis of target applications for CSIRO technology.
His work in the semiconductor industry began in 1989 with AWA MicroElectronics where he was Business Development Manager responsible for global sales and marketing. After graduating with a Degree in Applied Physics he was contracted by British Aerospace Dynamics Group to work in the UK on the aircraft integration of anti-ship missiles.
Andrew also holds a Diploma of Business Administration from the University of Technology, Sydney. He has been married to Heather for almost 20 years and holds a Private Pilots License, an Advanced Hang Gliding rating, and is involved in videography to support overseas aid work.
Richard is the founder and CEO of Carbon Free Solutions Ltd, an unlisted public company with offices in China, America, UK and Sydney. He is the founder of Cleantech Sydney, a Clean Technology industry cluster with the assistance of the NSW Department of Industry & Investment (formally Dept of State and Regional Development).
Richard's primary interest is the simplification of environmental and business practices to achieve better business and environmental outcome. His latest project involves the use of the solar energy Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) to assist with low-cost housing and healthcare. By working with a wide range of stakeholders including the NSW Department of Housing, local governments, financial institutions and end users, this allows for the creation of a new type of 'sustainable regional development'.
Richard graduated with a Master of Business Administration from UTS and a Graduate Diploma in Law and Accounting through the Chartered Secretaries Australia. He has lectured at UNSW and UTS on Energy Policy and Financing Innovation.
Richard started programming in FORTRAN in 1976 and has been involved with computer and IT for over 30 years. He has also organised a number of conferences for both the NSW government and universities. These include LowCarbon07, Innovation08 and Asia's first conference on university spin-offs.
Bruce is Co-founder of Incept Labs, a growth and sustainability focused advisory. He was formerly the Head of Organisational Innovation at Westpac Banking Corporation, an initiative that explored how to build an innovation capability that delivered superior long term growth to the Bank while helping Westpac win in the war for talent. Bruce is a director of Breakaway Investment Group, former director of Society of Knowledge Economics, and was a member of the BCA advisory board to their 2006 Innovation study.
Before this initiative Bruce was Head of Risk for the Business Technology Solutions and Services division of Westpac Banking Corporation. He was a member of the BTSS executive team, the Bank's Risk executive team and a member of the Bank's management committee. Bruce is a qualified accountant and a member of the New Zealand Society of Accountants. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and has over 25 years of experience in senior risk and audit roles.
Robert is a Senior Software Specialist at IBM working in their Sydney Support Centre and focusing on AIX, Linux & Virtualisation products. Robert has almost 20 years of problem solving experience that has required regular education and innovation during a time of rapid evolution of IT products.
Robert's career at IBM has included being one of the authors of IBM Redbooks (about IBM software innovations). He graduated with an Honours Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Sydney where his major 4th year project investigated failures in the chemical industry.
Robert is passionately concerned about the possible 'failure' of the planet if people do not change how we interact with Earth. Robert's understanding of energy issues from his engineering degree has evolved into his current interest in virtualisation technology which enables a more efficient use of energy & other resources.
Robert carries this passion into other aspects of his life. Hence he is actively involved in the Faith Ecology Network and ARRCC (the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change), attends events of the Green ICT special interest group of the Australian Computer Society, and has provided feedback to Sydney's Public Transport, such as the Independent Public Inquiry chaired by Mr Ron Christie, AM.
Robert is a Co-founder of Incept Labs. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology, Sydney. Robert was formerly the Head of Strategic Innovation at Westpac Banking Corporation, where he was responsible for the development of the methodological dimensions of the Westpac innovation framework.
Prior to his role in Westpac, Robert's career has moved between both industry and academia. He has held senior academic positions at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS); the International Graduate School of Management, University of South Australia. Has worked for Lend Lease Corporation in various research and analysis capacities related to organisational change.
Robert is also a member of the University of New South Wales, Department of Information Systems Industry Advisory Committee. Robert holds a 1st Class Honours Degree in systemic approaches to education, and a PhD on biological systems approaches to organisational sustainability and learning.
Matt Lohmeyer is a Principal Consultant of Streamwise, a boutique a consulting firm specialising in business strategy and organisational development. As a business development specialist, Matt advises clients on business strategy, intellectual property, technology development as well as licence, fund-raising or M&A transactions. His background is in the life sciences and technology sectors (pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, biomedical devices, healthcare, agribiotech and diagnostics).
In addition to his years of practical experience in business, Matt has undertaken extensive training in advanced negotiating skills and is an accredited Principal Consultant for Scotwork Australia. Matt consults regularly to Scotwork, teaching executive programs in advanced negotiation skills and assisting clients with important commercial negotiations.
In previous roles, Matt was a member of CSIRO's Corporate Transactions Team, Associate Director of Unisearch at the University of New South Wales and Senior Business Manager at CRC Technology in London.
Matt is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Member of the Licensing Executives Society (LES Australia & NZ). He managed the activities of AusBiotech Ltd in NSW for 5 years, most recently as Vice-Chair, and he has served for 4 years on the NSW Committee of the LES. Matt received his Bachelor, Masters and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Cambridge, UK and has completed postgraduate executive programs at Macquarie Graduate School of Management. His research background is in drug development and protein engineering.
San Murugesan PhD, FACS, is a Principal consultant with BRITE Professional Services and adjunct Professor at the University of Western Sydney. He is also senior consultant with Cutter Consortium in the US.
He has over 30 years of professional experience and his areas of expertise include business intelligence, cloud computing, green IT, Web 2.0 and 3.0 and IT for emerging markets. He is Fellow of Australian Computer Society and Editor of IEEE IT Professional magazine. He has published widely, written several executive reports on hot topics in IT and offers executive seminars and short courses on emerging technologies and their business applications.
Sam edited the popular Handbook of Research on Web 2.0, 3.0 and X.0: Technologies, Business, and Social Applications, and his next book is Cloud Computing. He is guest editing the January/February 2011 issue of IEEE IT Professional on Green IT.
Melissa is currently employed by LJ Hooker as Sustainability Manager and is responsible for driving the LJ Hooker sustainability agenda. A key focus area is to build the Group's position as the leading eco-broker in Australia and as a leader in sustainable development and management.
Before joining LJ Hooker, she spent four years as an environmental town planner with Conics, where she worked on a number of sustainable developments which incorporated cutting edge eco-architecture and green design solutions. Melissa is experienced in dealing with a range of sustainability rating tools, indexes and environmental legislation.
Melissa has a variety of extra curricula interests which ensures she brings a wide sustainability perspective to her work. In particular, Melissa is a founding member of Project Survival Pacific which is a group dedicated to helping address the effects of climate change on the Pacific Islands. Last year Melissa was part of the delegation that attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen along with 11 young Pacific Islanders funded and arranged by the group.
A key area of interest for Melissa is the transition to a sustainable society and the innovative solutions required to facilitate the shift.
Melissa has completed a Bachelor of Environmental Planning with honours at Griffith University, Queensland.
Graeme Philipson is founder and Research Director of Connection Research, a market analysis firm specialising in the convergence of digital and environmental technologies. He has been in the high tech industry for more than 30 years, most of that time as a market analyst and journalist.
He is author of Connection Research's innovative Green IT, Sustainable Home and Connected Home reports, and heads up the company's research activities in the sustainable technology, IT and home automation industries.
He was founding editor of MIS Magazine, Research Director for Gartner Asia Pacific, Editor of Computerworld Australia, and Research Manager for Yankee Group Australia.
Kevin
Sansome
Director
Kreative
Solutions
Kevin
has had over 20 years of General Management experience in the gas
industry working for Elgas Limited and Commonwealth Industrial
Gases (now BOC) holding positions in Technology & Innovation,
Strategic planning and Divisional Management.
Kevin
is a Director & Owner of Kreative Solutions a boutique
strategic energy consultancy advising overseas and local clients
on Strategic Market analysis, potential for Merger &
Acquisitions and assisting an Energy Investor Group with expansion
capital opportunities in the gaseous and renewable sectors. He
specialises with technology evaluations in clean energy.
Bhuvan
Unhelkar (BE, MDBA, MSc, PhD; FACS) has spent more than two
decades as a strategic as well as hands-on professional in the
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) industry. As
Founder and Consultant of MethodScience.com he has notable
practical consulting and training expertise in business analysis,
software engineering (modelling, processes and quality),
enterprise architecture (including SOA), green IT and the
environment, project management, collaborative web services and
mobile business. His domain experience includes financial,
insurance, government, banking, retail, as well as
telecommunication organisations wherein he has created
industry-specific service-oriented architectures, process maps,
transformation maps, quality strategies and business
transformation approaches.
Bhuvan's
hands-on experience has lead to creation many seminars and
industrial courses over past few years in the aforementioned
areas, which have now been delivered to business executives and IT
professionals globally (in Australia, USA, Canada, UK, China,
India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Singapore). Training courses
delivered through MethodScience have been consistently ranked high
and acclaimed by the participating professionals from the
industry.
Dr.
Unhelkar is a sought-after orator, a Fellow of the Australian
Computer Society (elected to this prestigious membership grade in
2002 for distinguished contribution to the field of information
and communications technology), Life member of Computer Society of
India, Rotarian at St.Ives (Paul Harris Fellow), Discovery
volunteer at NSW parks and wildlife, and a previous TIE mentor.
Khimji
represents a number of Indian investors to search and connect with
Aussie business solutions organisations and is working with a
number of SME's looking to develop new products. His strategic
investment experience is married with the opportunity to explore
how best to export innovative technologies into the vast and
growing Indian domestic market.
Khimji
is strategic advisor to many of these businesses with a view to
helping them develop their growth strategies and has assisted
SME's with various government grants in terms of articulating
and clarifying business models and commercial planning, as well as
conducting technology due diligence for these businesses.
He
has spent a number of years, across banking/finance,
telecommunication, and manufacturing in Strategic business
planning and product development. As a Project Director, Khimji
has managed large scale infrastructure and business process
projects at Siemens, Telstra and Westpac.
Khimji
has also been a judge with various prestigious Government and
private technology awards, such as the ATS / Western Sydney
Industry Awards, Yellow Pages, C9 Small Business Awards, Consensus
Software Awards, and APC Technology Awards.
Khimji
has a keen interest in technology in developing nations and is
completing his PhD in innovation. His interest stems from the
emergence of nations and the challenges faced with the
introduction of new business solutions in the banking industry. He
is currently writing for a number of journals on this topic.
Tony
Vassallo is the Delta Professor in Sustainable Energy Development
at Sydney University. Before joining the University in 2008, Tony
held the position of Senior Principal Research Scientist in the
CSIRO Division of Energy Technology, followed by a period of
consultancy to industry and government in sustainable energy
technology.
Tony
led the CSIRO Carbon Supercapacitor Project from 1994 till 2001.
His primary research interests concern clean energy technologies
and their role in mitigating climate change, in particular the use
of energy storage to facilitate the uptake of renewable energy
technologies. Tony is also vice-president of the Australian
Institute of Energy.
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