Pylon Sounds

Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly have been documenting an emerging phenomenon they call “the quantified self“. The term refers to a set experiments that people are conducting – primarily on themselves – to understand their own bodies and behavior. In an article for the New York Times magazine, Wolf details a range of these experiments. One engineer weans himself off coffee and compares his reported levels of concentration with and without caffiene. Others use sensors like the Zeo to track their sleep patterns, or the Fitbit to track physical activity. Some track what they eat and drink, how much they weigh, their emotional states.

Wolf acknowledges that some of the people profiled in the article sound obsessive and notes that people engaged in detailed self-tracking may be “outliers”. And he’s careful to offer testimonies from people who engaged in self-tracking and gave it up, feeling like the data they generated was relentless and remorseless. (As someone who’s had to engage in self-tracking of blood glucose levels as a type 1 diabetic for the past 25 years, “relentless and remorseless” are my words, not Wolf’s.) But he’s clearly a believer that tracking can be a tool for self-discovery, a way of learning what constitutes normal behavior for each of us, not just a tool for moving towards a goal, like increased fitness or better sleep.

The experiment in self-tracking that I’m considering is more about self knowledge than self improvement, though I’m finding it’s hard to separate the two. I’m looking for ways to monitor my personal information flow. I’d like to understand how I get information about the world – through television, the web, radio, email and the people I talk to. The hope is to use myself as a guinea pig, to see what’s possible as far as active and passive monitoring of information flows, in the hope of opening the experiment to a wider population.

I’ve made the case – in my recent TED talk and elsewhere – that many of us overestimate the amount of diverse, international information we encounter through the internet and other communications networks. We run the danger of being “imaginary cosmopolitans”, convinced we’re encountering information from all corners of the world, while we might be trapped in homogenous echo chambers.

There’s some data to support this theory, both from experiments colleagues and I have been carrying out looking at cosmopolitan and parochial consumption of media online, and there are terrific analyses like Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart’s “Cosmopolitan Communications“, which looks at vast data sets about communication flows across borders. But I’ve not been able to find much information that compares the media diets of individuals at a level that allows me to answer questions like, “What percentage of news encountered is local, national and international, on average? What media is most likely to make an individual seek out more information – a mainstream media story, a citizen media post or a personal recommendation?

Responding to an earlier blog post of mine, my friend David Sasaki proposed an experiment: keep a communications diary that tracked interactions via different media. If I’m going to argue that people’s uses of the Internet are disproportionately domestic, it would be good to compare those online interactions to other media. Sure, 90% of my Facebook interactions might be domestic, but perhaps that vastly outpaces my face to face interactions – that might then be an argument that the Internet is, on balance, more likely to help us interact with people from different nations (different religions, different political perspectives, take your pick) than other technologies.

Media diaries aren’t new – take an intro communications class at many universities, and you’re likely to be asked to keep one. They tend to be pretty superficial – it requires some serious obsessiveness to log the individual stories you encounter, rather than writing down “NPR – 7am – 7:20am. And the process of keeping a diary tends to shape your behavior – for the month Rachel and I were a Nielsen family (years back), we watched vastly more public television than we do in an average month.

It’s easier than ever to keep a diary with tools like Your Flowing Data, a Twitter-based service that allows you to send direct messages via the web or SMS. I just logged “d yfd listened WNNZ 0750 – 0830″, a syntax that I hope will let me start collecting information on what media I encounter offline, and who I interact with in the real world.

But what I really want is data on the dozen or more stories I heard on NPR during that morning drive – coding each in terms of subject and geography would mean either logging while driving or writing a tool that turns the name of a broadcast media source and an interval into a stream of metadata. (To a certain extent, this is one of the functions of MediaCloud, but we’re a long way from being able to do this with media that isn’t also creating RSS and Atom feeds.) Furthermore, I know that the process of logging my behavior will influence that behavior. I can already see myself tweeting “d yfd watched football 1130 – 2045″ on Sunday and the accompanying feelings of guilt, shame and, if the Packers lose, frustration.

Logging my media diet is clearly going to involve some diary work, but it would be great if I could automate collection as much as possible, both to minimize the time requirements and the influence logging will have on my behavior. And, if this is an experiment I hope others will repeat, logging needs to be as automatic as possible. So I’ve been looking for tools that will log and analyze my online behavior transparently.

My friend and colleague Judith Donath was responsible for a number of early tools designed to allow self-monitoring of email use, including Themail, ">developed with her student (and now, world-leading designer) Fernanda Viegas, Themail. I asked her advice on locating appropriate self-tracking tools to understand how I’m getting information through email, the web, Twitter and other media. Her suggestion: look at productivity tools.

Good advice. Most of the tools I’d been finding to track web use either are designed to allow bosses to monitor their workers or spouses to read each others’ email. Judith’s advice led me to Rescue Time, an amazing package that monitors everything you do on your computer… and nags you when it perceives you to be wasting time. I may break down and turn off the messages that urge me to account for every five minutes of inactivity, but I’m finding the ability to track what applications I’m using to be hugely helpful, if slightly dispiriting.

A week in the life with RescueTime

Apparently, I spent roughly twice as much time answering email as I do anything else. Writing (BBedit) comes in second place, though I apparently spend almost half as much time on Twitter as I do writing. And while I’d likely tell you I get most of my important news from Global Voices, the New York Times and Foreign Policy’s Passport, the logs tell the tale of my secret shame: a need to view every single goofy image posted on Reddit.

While RescueTime does a lovely job of presenting this information, I find myself looking longingly at the data collected by Eyebrowse, a project from Brennan Moore, Max Van Kleek and David Karger at MIT computer science. Eyebrowse is a Firefox plugin that grabs URL information on every page you browse and offers the option to report the data linked to a profile or a set of demographics. The profiles are far more revealing than I’d personally be comfortable with – it’s one thing to know that I’m a sucker for Metafilter, another to see every Javascript function call Karger looks up. My dream tool grabs the data Eyebrowse does, analyzes it and presents it at the level of granularity RescueTime offers.

Mail Trends visualizes the top ten people I receive email from

That’s not an easy balance to strike. I’ve been looking at mail analysis tools as well, since Themail no longer exists. Mail Trends gets the job done… if you’re a GMail user and if you don’t mind mucking about on the command line. (It’s a very elegant Python script, which needs the Cheetah templating library. In my experience, it chokes when I try to feed it more than 100,000 emails, but works like a champ on 50,000 or so.) Mail Trends does a great job in offering a topline summary – I now know that my primary research collaborator sends me roughly twice as much email as my wife… which may or may not tell me something helpful about both relationships. But it’s not able to tell me what URLs I follow within emails and which I ignore, data that I’d need to understand how I get information from mailing lists and individuals. My guess is that a tool specific enough to track the URLs I read would be almost unusable in terms of showing the overall patterns of email usage.

A map of who I follow on Twitter, via MMMeeja

I’m having similar problems figuring out how to analyze Twitter. Tweetstats offers insights on who I retweet and who I reply to – good indicators of who I read closely within the set of 585 people I follow. And MMMeeja provides a pretty map of those 585 who have provided information about their location, letting me see that I follow a lot of Africans and not many South Americans. Again, what I’d really like is something that collected every URL presented to me via Twitter and tracked which ones I follow and which I ignore. Ditto for Facebook, though I use it lots less.

So – here are my open questions:

- What are tools I’ve not yet found that solve some of the problems I’ve described here? Is there a good tool that can turn an interval of radio or television into a stream of story metadata? Has anyone developed a tool that tracks every URL I encounter across applications and examines whether I’ve followed it?

- Has anyone come up with a way to make offline media tracking easier to do? Something like Shazam, which could listen to radio or television with me and tell me what stories I’m hearing? A microformat for tracking conversations with individuals?

- If I want anyone else to participate in this project – and I do -what’s the right balance between the overbroad and the spookily specific? If I’m not willing to start using Eyebrowse, what level of specificity is the right one? Your top eight sites, as Chrome present to you? The aggregate data of RescueTime? A world map that shows how often different corners of the world are presented to you in the course of a month?

- To make the process of media self-monitoring worth engaging in, there needs to be a reward, either in terms of self-knowledge or self-improvement. What sorts of knowledge would make you willing to participate in an experiment like this? Are there behaviors that you’d like to change that such an experiment would help you identify and address? Or have I simply descended too deep into the realm of the obsessive outlier?

• Comparing Approaches to Information Filtering for Relevance by @ScepticGeek Useful taxonomy of strategies to determine relevance within different search and serendipity structures. (tags: serendipity search information influence social socialmedia filtering algorithms)
• Mapping Startups & Services Filtering For Relevance In A Matrix by @ScepticGeek Useful post. Suggests thinking about information discovery services in terms of two axes – search/serendipity and personal/popular. Not sure it's the hierarchy I want to use, but an effective framing, with links to interesting tools in each quadrant (tags: search serendipity homophily information discovery)
• Mogadishu Man Fascinating news and analysis from an anonymous blogger in Mogadishu (tags: somalia blogs islam terror politics africa failedstate bloggers analysis)

Heather Blanchard, Noel Dickover and Andrew Turner from Crisis Commons visited the Berkman Center Tuesday to discuss the rapidly growing technology and crisis response space. Crisis Commons, Andrew tells us, came in part from the recognition that the volunteers who respond to crises aren’t necessarily amateurs. They include first responders, doctors, CEOs.. and lately, they include a lot of software developers.

Recent technology “camps” – Transparency Camp, Government 2.0 Camp – sparked discussion about whether there should be a crisis response camp. Crisis Camp was born in May, 2009 with a two-day event in Washington DC which brought together a variety of civic hackers who wanted to share knowledge around crisis technology and response. The World Bank took notice and ended up hosting the Ignite sessions associated with the camp, giving developers a chance to put ideas for crisis response in front of people who often end up providing funds to rebuild after crises.

The World Bank wasn’t the only large group interested in working with crisis hackers. Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft came together to found the Random Hacks of Kindness event, designed to let programmers “hack for humanity” in marathon sessions around the world.

While these events preceded the earthquake earlier this year in Haiti, that crisis was the seminal event in increasing interest in participating in technology for crisis relief efforts. A crisis camp to respond to the Haitian earthquake involved 400 participants in five cities and pioneered 13 projects. Over time, the crisis camp model spread to Argentina, Chile and New Zealand, with developers focused on building tools for use in Haiti, Chile and Pakistan. Blanchard explained that the events provided space for people who “didn’t want to contribute money – they wanted to do something.”

The camps had some tangible outcomes:
- I’m Okay, a simple application that allows people to easily tell friends and family that they’re okay, in an emergency situation, was developed at Random Hacks of Kindness
- Tradui, an English/Kreyol dictionary for the Android was developed during the Crisis camps
- Crisis camps also developed a better routing protocol to enable point to point wireless between camps in Haiti, writing new drivers in 48 hours that were optimized for the long ping times associated with using WiFi over multi-kilometer distances

Perhaps the most impressive collaboration to come from the Crisis Camps was work on OpenStreetMap for Port au Prince. Using satellite imagery released by the UN, a team created a highly detailed map, leveraging the work of non-programmers to trace roads on the satellite images and diasporans to identify and name landmarks and streets. As the map improved in quality, the volunteers were eventually able to offer routing information for relief trucks, based on road damage that was visible on the satellite imagery. A convoy would request a route for a 4-ton water truck, and volunteers would use their bird’s eye view of the situation – from half a continent away – to suggest the safest route. Ultimately, the government of Haiti requested access to the information, and Crisis Camps provided not only the data, but training in using it.

The conversation turned to the challenges Crisis Camps have faced in making their model work:
- About 1/3rd of the participants are programmers. The others range from the “internet savvy” to those with complementary skill.
- Problems and requirements are often poorly defined
- It’s challenging to match volunteers to projects
- There’s a shortage of sustainable project management and leadership
- Projects often suffer from undocumented requirements and code, few updates on project status.
- Little work focuses on usability, privacy and security.
- Code licensing often isn’t carefully considered, and issues can arise about reusability of code on a licensing basis.
- Projects can be disconnected from what’s needed on the ground
- Disconnection happens in part because relief organizations don’t know what they want and need and are too busy to work with an untested, unproven community
- Volunteer fatigue – the surge of interest after a disaster tends to dissipate within four weeks
- There’s a lack of metrics and performance standards to evaluate project success.

The goal is to move from a Bar Camp/Hackathon model to a model that’s able to build sustainable projects. This means bringing project management into the mix, and asking hard questions like, “Does this project have a customer? Is it filling a well-defined need?” It also means building trust with crisis response organizations and groups like the World Bank and FEMA, who can help bring volunteer technology groups and crisis response groups together.

Crisis Commons see themselves as mediating between three groups: crisis response organizations like the Red Cross; volunteer technology organizations like OpenStreetMap; and private sector companies willing to donate resources. Each group has a set of challenges they face in engaging with these sorts of projects.

Crisis response organizations have a difficult time incorporating informal, ad-hoc citizen organizations into their emergency response plans. There’s a notion in the crisis response space of “operating rogue” if you’re not formally affiliated with an established relief organization… which further marginalizes volunteer tech communities. Many CROs have little tech understanding, which means they aren’t able to make informed decisions about collaboration with technical volunteers. In a very real way, crises are economic opportunities for relief organizations – that reality doesn’t breed resource sharing, which in turn, gets in the way of sharing best practices and lessons learned.

Volunteer tech communities frequently don’t understand the processes used by CROs, and frequently fail to understand that there’s often a good reason for those processes. While VTCs provide tremendous surge capacity that could help CROs, if there’s no good way for CROs to use this surge capacity, it’s a waste of effort on all sides. At the same time, tech communities inevitably suffer from the “CNN effect” – when crises are out of sight, they’re out of mind, and participation slumps. This is particularly challenging for managing long-term projects… and tech communities have massive project management and resource needs. Finally, successful VTCs can find themselves in a situation where they have a conflict of interest – they’re seeking paid work from relief organizations and may choose to cooperate only with those who can support them in the long term.

Private sector partners are usually participating in these projects led by their business development or corporate social responsibility divisions… while cooperation with the other entities often requires technical staff. Response organizations are often the clients of private sector players – the Red Cross is a major customer for information systems – which can create financial conflicts of interest. And working with large technology companies often raises intellectual property challenges, especially around joint development of software.

Meeting with a subset of crisis response organizations, Crisis Commons understands that there’s a need for long term relationships between tech volunteers and relief organizations, tapping the innovation power of these charitably minded geeks. But this requires relief organizations to know what solutions are already out there and what are reasonable requests to make of volunteers. And volunteer organizations need to understand the processes CROs have and how to work within them.

The hope for Crisis Commons is to become an “independent, nonpartisan honest broker” that can “bridge the ecosystem and matrix the resources.” This means “translating requirements of the CRO to the crisis crowd, helping the public understand CRO requirements,” and the reasons behind them. This could lead towards being able to set up a service like “Crisis Turk”, which could allow internet savvy non-programmers to engage in data entry tasks during a crisis.

In the long term, Crisis Commons might emerge as an international forum for standards development and data sharing around crises. Building capacity that could be active between crises, not just during them, they could direct research projects on lessons learned from prior disaster relief, could build a data library and begin preparing operations centers and emergency response teams for future crises. Some scenarios could involve managing physical spaces to encourage cooperation within and between volunteer tech teams and providing support for future innovation through a technology incubation program.

Starting from the shared premise the Crisis Commons founders presented us with – “Anyone can help in a crisis” – the discussion at Berkman focused on the structure Crisis Commons might take. The goal behind a “commons” structure is to be able to be an independent and trusted actor in the long term, to be able to be objective source of tech requirements, and to be able to bring non-market solutions to the table. But the founders realize that this is an inherently competitive space, and that volunteer organizations might find themselves in conflict with professional software developers in providing support to relief organizations, or with relief organizations if volunteer organizations began providing direct support.

It’s also possible that another player in the space could compete with Crisis Commons in this matchmaking role. Red Cross could develop an in-house technology team focused on collaborating with technology volunteers. Google could use the power of their tech resources to provide services directly to relief organizations. A partnership like Random Hacks of Kindness could emerge as the powerful leader in the space. Other volunteer technology organizations – Crisis Mappers, Strong Angel – might see themselves providing this bridging function. FEMA could start a private-public partnership under the NET Guard program. What’s the sweet spot for Crisis Commons?

One of our participants suggested that Crisis Commons could be valuable as a developer of standards, working to train the broader community about the importance of standards, and on the challenge of defining problems where solutions would benefit a broad community.

Another participant, who’d been involved with several Crisis Camp events worried that “the apps, while neat, never really made it into the field,” suggesting that the problems raised are real, not theoretical. It’s genuinely very difficult for tech volunteers to know what problems to work on… and hard for relief organizations under tremendous pressure to learn how to use these new tools.

This, I pointed out, is the problem that could prove most challenging for Crisis Commons in the long term. When crises arise, people want to help… but it’s critical that their help actually be… helpful. Clay Shirky told the story of his student, Jorge Just, who’s worked closely with UNICEF to develop RapidFTR, a family tracking and reunification tool. It’s been a long, engaged process with enormous amounts of time needed for the parties to understand each other’s needs and working methods… and it’s easy to understand why it might be difficult to convince volunteers to participate to this depth in a project.

I offered an observation from my time working on Geekcorps – I meet a lot of geeks who are convinced that the tech they’re most interested in – XML microformats, mesh wireless, cryptographic voting protocols – are precisely what the world needs to solve some pressing crisis. Occasionally, they’re right. Often, they’re more attached to their tech of choice than to addressing the crisis in question.

As such, the toughest job is defining problems and matching geeks to problems. At Geekcorps, it often took six months to design a volunteer assignment, and a talented tech person needed to meet several times with a tech firm to understand needs, brainstorm projects and create a scope of work, so we could recruit the right volunteer. While that model was expensive – and ultimately, made Geekcorps unsustainable – I think aspects of it could help Crisis Commons find a place in the world.

I ended up suggesting that Crisis Commons act as:
- a consultant to relief organizations, helping them define their technical needs, understand what was already available commercially and non-commercially and to frame needs to volunteer communities who could assist them
- a matchmaking service that connected volunteer orgs to short term and long term tech needs, preferably ones that had been clearly defined through a collaborative process
- a repository for best practices, collective knowledge about what works in this collaboration.

Unclear that this is the right solution for Crisis Commons or the road they’ll follow, but I came away with a strong sense that they are wrestling with the right questions in figuring out how to be most effective in this space. Very much looking forward to discovering what they come up with.

Note: two updates at the end of this post.

I’m not very active in local politics. I follow international news more closely than the news of my hometown. In my defense, Western Massachusetts is a pretty sleepy place in political terms – this part of the state is so blue that the Democratic primaries tend to be the only elections that matter, and often major offices go uncontested at that level.

But one local issue has caught my eye… quite literally so. I live in a mountainous area, where some of the major employers are ski areas. One – Jiminy Peak – had the clever idea that their windswept mountaintop would be an excellent place to site a wind turbine. They used state grant money to research the feasibility of their site, then spent $4 million of their resort revenues to install a 1.5MW turbine. It provides a substantial portion of their energy needs and has helped the resort position itself as a green company.

Turbine atop Jiminy Peak

The turbine has become a local point of pride. So I was thrilled when one of the companies involved with installing Jiminy’s turbine started building 10 1.5MW turbines about a mile from my house. These turbines were sited atop another ski hill, this time Brodie Mountain, a ski resort that was mothballed in 1999, sold to Jiminy Peak and later sold to a real estate develolper. The developer, Silverleaf Resorts, began a legal campaign to shut down the wind farm that had been approved by local zoning and permitting boards, and which had already installed four turbines. They found a technicality and got an injunction that has held up construction for the past year.

I wrote a letter to my state representative, state senator and to my US congressman complaining about the injunction and the stalling of the project. I figured that, at worst, it would be a voice in favor of the windmills, helping counterbalance the sometimes shrill voices that are trying to stop wind development in the county. I also figured it would be an interesting test of the responsiveness of local government – would I get any response from my local politicians? Would they send form letters or have something insightful to share?

I sent the letter a little more than a week ago, and was surprised – stunned, shocked and thrilled – to get a phonecall Monday morning from Ben Downing, my state senator. He apologized for not responding to my note immediately – he wanted to wait for the outcome of a meeting so he could give me the good news that the project was likely to go forward in the next few weeks. He filled me in on several details I hadn’t known about the project and the legal battles surrounding it, and basically – without being pretentious about it – made it clear that he knew vastly more about local renewable energy projects than I ever will. I came away with the strong sense that I was represented by someone who had deep insight into local issues, was happy to hear from me, wanted me to understand local issues fully, and was going to be advocating for a point of view close to my own.

It obviously helped that I’d picked an issue that’s close to Senator Downing’s interests – who knows whether I would have gotten a similar response to a question about property taxes or the quality of local roads. But I pretty damned impressed, and it got me thinking about the political and media climate in the US today.

It’s not news that there’s a populist upsurge in American politics, based on widespread dissatisfaction with various institutions of government. Only 16% of Americans recently polled by Rasmussen think Congress is doing a good job… and that number is higher than it was a few months ago. And only 12% of polled voters believe their representatives are interested in helping constituents more than they are interested in advancing their own careers. This seems like it should spark a wave of anti-incumbency – as some are predicting, watching the rise of Tea Party-backed candidates in Republican primaries.

But the oldest truism in American politics is that people hate Congress but love their Congressperson. Since 1964, the lowest re-election rate for incumbents in the House of Representatives has been 85%, and lately has been approaching 95%. Incumbents have the advantage of name recognition, of being able to promise pork-barrel projects to voters, and the profound advantage in fundraising that comes from being in office with a near guarantee of election. If you were a company or indivdual hoping to influence a legislator, betting on the incumbent is a safe bet… which helps fund the incumbent, making incumbency a safer bet.

I wonder if there’s a different theory that might explain this disjunction: media attention is proportional to government dysfunction. I live very close to two other states – Vermont and New York. I know far more about New York state politics than I do about politics in my home state. In part, that’s because the most powerful of the local NPR stations is based in Albany, the state capital of New York. But it’s also because New York State politics is such a dysfunctional mess that it’s endlessly fun to report on. (Don’t believe me? Listen to the first story of this episode of This American Life and thank your lucky stars that your legislature isn’t this broken.) I probably know more about the budget crisis affecting California than I do about my own state’s budget… which is proving difficult to balance, but doesn’t face the sort of massive crisis California does.

I hear a lot about the most dysfunctional members of Congress – the crooked and the crazy – and little about those who are serving constituents and getting legislation passed. It makes sense – the senator with the wide stance is lots better copy than the senator with a nuanced stance on a complex political issue.

With many small newspapers in dire financial straits, cutting back local political reporting, national media becomes inceasingly influential and important. My local government officials are extremely unlikely to receive national attention unless they do something criminal or crazy. And if I’m not hearing about the positive work they’re doing in local media, it’s likely that my impression of politicians, as a class, is that they’re criminal, crazy and the source, not the solution, to societal problems.

So let me propose an experiment. Pick an issue you’re passionate about, preferably a local issue. Write a (paper) letter to local elected officials… the more local, the better. Blog, tweet, Facebook or otherwise talk about the response you get or don’t get. I’m curious whether the surprisingly positive experience I recently had is the lucky convergence of a responsive public servant and an interesting issue, or a hint that our governments might not be as dysfunctional as we tend to hear.

Two updates/postscripts to this post:

- My timing was either terrific or dreadful – my letter reached my representatives a few days before a new agreement that appears to let the wind project go forward. The Berkshire Eagle story on the “pact” to allow the wind project to proceed is here. While my advocacy had absolutely nothing to do with it, it’s great to see the project go forward.

- I got a call from Representative Denis Guyer two days ago, wanting to talk about the project. We spoke this evening (September 3rd). Guyer isn’t the wind fan that Downing is and made the case to me that wind farms are “no different” from large gas, coal or oil projects, “except that they might be cleaner”. He was critical of how Berkshire Wind had handled themselves in the Brodie Mountain case, but told me that he agreed that an 80% complete project was embarrassing and frustrating. And he pointed me to a recent oped in the local paper and on his blog arguing against a statewide bill designed to make approval of wind projects easier for developers.

As with my experience with Senator Downing, I was impressed that he’d taken the time to call me and felt like he had a good sense of the local issues, even if we disagreed on aspects of the situation. In some ways, this made his willingness to call me even more impressive than Senator Downing’s call, as he knew I was on his side and likely to agree with what he had to say.

So… two for three in terms of constituent service so far. And I’m willing to give Congressman Olver a break, as this is really a local, not a national issue. As I said above, I’m impressed with the knowledge, dedication and communication of my local officials. Your mileage may vary, but I hope your experience isn’t too dissimilar from mine.

Authored by: Francisco Noguera

Editor's Note: Today we feature two posts on the busy Social Entrepreneurship summer that is winding down in Colorado. The first one featured the happenings at the Unreasonable Institute, while this entry profiles the International Development Design Summit at Colorado State University. 

By Zach Youngerman, Staff at the 2010 International Development Design Summit. 

Benjamin Linder, a professor of sustainable design at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, is explaining to a classroom the technological and social innovations of Grameen Bank in cooporation with Danone Foods. The game-changing microfinancing bank and the European yogurt giant created a socially-impactful enterprise to sell fortified yogurt to the large market of extremely undernourished Bangladeshis. "Yogurt for Power" is about half as expensive as unfortified existing yogurt products commercially available.

"I think the families will not buy this for the girl child," says Suprio Das, a native of Calcutta. "Even at ten cents, that's too expensive."

"In Bangladesh, yogurt is a delicacy. It's not something you have every day," adds Zubaida Bai.

Das and Bai are two of the forty-eight participants from nineteen countries at the 4th annual International Development Design Summit, held 7-30 July in Fort Collins, CO. The Summit is organized by MIT and Franklin W. Olin College, technology development firm Cooper Perkins and hosted by Colorado State University's Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise alternative MBA program. IDDS "is an intense, hands-on design experience that brings together people from all over the world and all walks of life to create technologies and enterprises that improve the lives of people living in poverty." Rob Katz from NextBillion chronicled the second version of IDDSa couple of years ago.

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Organization: Ashoka

Location: Washington, DC, US

Ashoka is the global association of the world's leading social entrepreneurs-men and women with system changing solutions for the world's most urgent social problems. Since 1981, we have elected over 2,500 leading social entrepreneurs as Ashoka Fellows, providing them with living stipends, professional support, and access to a global network of peers in nearly 70 countries. With our global community, we develop models for collaboration and design infrastructure needed to advance the field of social entrepreneurship and the citizen sector. Our Fellows inspire others to adopt and spread their innovations - demonstrating to all citizens that they too have the potential to be powerful changemakers.

Summary of the Opportunity

The Venture/Fellowship Finance Manager is responsible for improving, developing, implementing and maintaining our program's financial systems, policies and procedures and in general managing the budgets of our programs and sub-programs. High standards of accuracy coupled with an enthusiasm for optimizing processes and improving systems are required. Candidates applying should demonstrate excellent analytical thinking skills combined with strong communication and interpersonal skills. We are seeking an individual committed to social change who is very detail oriented and well organized in a fast moving organization and is able to also assist our programs director's to make crucial decisions.

For more information, check out the full Job Description linked below:

Venture-Fellowship_Finance_Manager_nextbillion.pdf

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Authored by: Heather Fleming

Editor's Note: Today we feature two posts on the busy Social Entrepreneurship summer that is winding down in Colorado. The first one features the happenings at the Unreasonable Institute, while this afternoon's will profile the International Development Design Summit at Colorado State University. 

Last Saturday the Unreasonable Institute, a 10-week summer institute hosting 22 social entrepreneurs from around the world, wrapped up its first year with the Unreasonable Global Summit in Boulder, Colorado.  The Unreasonable Institute attempts to address a problem I wrote about recently in my piece titled "R.I.P Social Ventures?": the increasing number of promising organizations sitting in development limbo due to the lack of resources and support for budding social entrepreneurs.  

They tackle the problem by supporting early stage ventures with the tools and connections to carry out their organizational vision.  The qualifications?   "All ventures must effectively address a social or environmental issue, be financially self-sustaining within 1 year, have a model which can be scaled out of the country of origin within 3 years, and must eventually meet the needs of at least 1 million people."

That is a tall order, and having met several of the Unreasonable Fellows, I can't say that all of them will achieve those qualifications or even aim to do so.  Nevertheless, the 22 Fellows selected for the Institute's inaugural year are impressive and energetic -all between the ages of 20-30.  Two examples: Participatory Development Initiatives aims to stop the tradition of honor killings in Pakistan; Mosaic Ventures, on the other hand, is working on a micro-financing program for clean tech in the US. 

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Authored by: Francisco Noguera

It's time to offer my perspective on the transitions and invitations that have been made public on NextBillion this week. I will be brief and touch on two points only: how this website changed my life, and ending with an exposition of my vision for NextBillion and how you can contribute to it.

This website changed my life. Literally. This may sound a bit overboard but let me share the anecdote of how I ended up writing these lines. I came to the United States three years ago on a business trip with my previous employer, a consulting firm in my native Colombia. At the time, I had been working for about 18 months on the establishment of a new microfinance institution in Colombia; one of my recent consulting projects was also related to microfinance, and it gave me the chance to travel and research the nuances of bringing financial services to the poor.

While doing late-night desktop research on microfinance, smart cards and mobile payments, I came across NextBillion.net. I was hooked in a minute. Very soon the site became my homepage and first read in the morning, and the books it recommended landed on my desk. Reading daily posts and comments strengthened and deepened my interest in the role of markets and enterprise in improving the lives of the poor, but most importantly, showed me that I could effectively put my talent and everyday work to the service of a powerful idea.

Continue reading this story...

Authored by: Nilima Achwal

As most of you are probably already aware, NextBillion has been undergoing some transformative changes. After contributing immensely to NextBillion and guiding its growth over the last five years, Rob Katz of Acumen Fund is stepping down as co-managing editor of NextBillion, and Acumen Fund will be transitioning from its role as a Managing Partner to Associate Partner. Moses Lee has left the William Davidson Institute (WDI) recently and he also stepped down as co-managing editor.

Now, WDI and the World Resource Institute will continue managing the site. Francisco Noguera from the World Resource Institute will stay on board as a co-managing editor, and WDI will hire a new, full-time, managing editor who will be based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

NextBillion needs a capable leader to foster its growth into a new era. The goal is to make NextBillion the premier spot for BoP coverage around the world. We want to intensify marketing efforts and increase readership. We want to continue facilitating strategic connections between organizations in the BoP sphere. We want to transform our career center into the most comprehensive and accessible resource for those interested in development through enterprise. 

The new managing editor must have the capacity to help define NextBillion's brand image, and design and implement revenue streams to make it sustainable. And, of course, the managing editor will have the privilege of working with the staff writers, stimulating discussion around cutting-edge topics relating to the BoP, editing and publishing staff posts, and contributing to the discussion, if so inspired.

If you are dedicated to the BoP space and have a desire to shape the destiny of NextBillion, take a look at our job posting. We prefer candidates who have experience in developing and managing a complex website with a robust following. Are you up for the challenge? We look forward to hearing from you.

Authored by: Shital Shah

This post is part of a series that introduces iuMAP, a web-based social enterprise directory developed by Ayllu and launched in media partnership with NextBillion. The purpose of the series is gathering feedback from the NextBillion community as the map unfolds and to share some of the information we've collected and analyzed. You can help triple iuMAP's size by submitting social enterprises and giving feedback. Read the previous entries of the series here.

This post is part of a series focused on microfranchising, a common way many social enterprises distribute their products.  There has been some great discussion of microfranchising recently (such as this SSIR article) and  this series provides an overview of different types of microfranchising. It also profiles many enterprises that are employing this method, and provides information for both investors and those looking for funding.  The last post focused on the business-in-a-bag model.  This post focuses on infrastructure-based models.

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Continuing our exploration of microfranchising, we'll move on from discussing the business-in-a-bag model to one that requires a larger physical presence for the franchise: infrastructure based models.   As suggested by the title of this post, some social enterprises offer services, such as electricity or water, that require small scale machinery to provide.  To franchise operations, they need to equip each franchise with the appropriate infrastructure to offer the service to their customers.  Generally, those interested in forming franchises buy a machine and then can use it to earn continued revenue off customers by becoming, for example, their source of water or power.  Franchise owners continue to make money well after the initial investment is paid off, offering a sustainable livelihood option. 

Continue reading this story...

Authored by: Hebah Fisher

Much has been written about the success of microfinance throughout the world, but did you know that nearly 40 percent of microfinance clients in predominantly Muslim countries (such as Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Algeria) refuse microfinancing because it conflicts with their religious beliefs? Under Islamic law, the conventional practice of charging interest for loans - or the very means by which conventional microfinance institutions maintain operational sustainability - is prohibited. So how can the estimated 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide access microfinance products? Institutions like the Family Bank in Bahrain attempt to provide an answer by offering microfinance services that are fully compliant with Islamic banking laws.

The Family Bank, inaugurated in the Kingdom of Bahrain in January 2010, is the first formal Islamic microfinance bank in the world. While the tiny island kingdom is one of the wealthy Gulf countries, some Bahrainis still live off of government welfare payments. Unemployment strikes women, the youth, fresh graduates, and disabled persons, and the dependency rates are relatively high for the region. While larger banks in the Kingdom offer financing, their smallest product size begins at BD 7,000 (~USD 19,000), which is far too high for the financing requirements of microenterpreneurs. Furthermore, these macrobanks demand collateral, insurance, and a commercial registration in order to apply for funding - all of which the neediest Bahrainis lack.

The Family Bank, therefore, entered the market in attempt to service the need for access to Islamic microfinance. By partnering with Grameen Trust, the Family Bank has merged the lauded Grameen banking model with Islamic finance to produce a final product that can work for the local Bahraini context. All financing is based on trust, requires no collateral or commercial registration for acceptance, is forgiven in the event of death or grave disability, and is offered at fees that are 40 percent lower than competing institutions. As a pioneer Islamic microfinance bank, the Family Bank is actively fulfilling its responsibility to set high standards and craft a successful, replicable model across the Middle East and throughout the world.

The not-for-profit bank offers three financing programs: (1) group-based financing adopted from the Grameen group-based lending model; (2) microenterprise financing for the expansion of an existing microenterprise and; (3) NGO/MFI financing to support their socioeconomic development projects. For each activity the Bank finances, it places special emphasis on income generation, empowerment, and skills enhancement. Clients are also obligated to open a savings account with a mandatory monthly savings deposit to encourage sound financial management and good savings discipline.

In addition to its financial services, the Bank offers non-financial support in the form of entrepreneurial and vocational training, business counseling, and professional networking. The Family Bank's several local and international corporate and NGO partners lead the vocational training workshops according to their individual specialty, and clients are encouraged to visit the Bank at any time to sit with one of its staff members for advice and guidance.

To date, the Family Bank has disbursed loans to 200 clients and one NGO. By the end of 2010, it seeks to meet the anticipated demand of 1,000 individuals, 350 microenterprises, and 5 NGOs in Bahrain.

Organization: William Davidson Institute

Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US

Position Overview: Define and build editorial strategy for, and brand image of, NextBillion.net. The site is a discussion forum on the role of enterprise and markets in addressing the needs of the world’s low-income consumers and producers, a demographic segment commonly referred to as the “base of the pyramid” (BoP).

Basic Functions:  Execute the overall strategy for NextBillion.net.  Build leading content.  Enhance marketing efforts to increase readership.  Create a robust career resource.  Foster online collaborations.  Manage site operations.   Develop and implement revenue streams.  Assist in fundraising for the site. 

Characteristic Duties and Responsibilities:

Work with NextBillion’s Managing Partner organizations (the William Davidson Institute, the World Resources Institute, et al.) to establish editorial, promotional, business, and fundraising strategies for the site,  in collaboration with other Managing Editors and agreed upon by Managing Partners organizations.

Work with Associate Partner organizations, other editors, and staff writers to develop, edit, and post content.  Recruit and train new staff writers as appropriate.

Conceptualize, assess, and implement revenue-generating initiatives for NextBillion. Assist Managing Partners in fundraising for NextBillion. 

Encourage a dialog around important BoP issues.  Spur discussion by posting thought provoking articles/posts or highlighting contentious issues.

Create and manage the editorial calendar.

Ensure that BoP news and research gets posted to the site in a timely manner.

Increase awareness of NextBillion through the use of online advertising, social media (such as Twitter and Facebook), RSS feeds, Google AdWords, etc.

Develop partnerships with other websites and mainstream media to cross post information.

Attend networking events such as conferences and workshops.

Maintain job postings area of the site. Enhance this functionality with value-added career resources for job seekers in the BoP space.

Manage the administrative aspects of the site, such as: responding to inquiries from the site’s mailbox; managing spam, tagging posts so they are easily searchable, etc.

Investigate potential site enhancements. Work with Managing Partners to prioritize enhancements.  Work with an outside web design firm to implement improvements.

Candidate’s Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Economic Development, Journalism or related field.

Demonstrated paid experience with increasing responsibility in developing and managing a complex website with a robust online community.

Excellent editing, writing, research, analysis, communication, and organizational skills.

Ability to work independently and to work with students, business executives and professors as collaborators.

Experience in e-commerce marketing.  Experience with Social Media marketing.

Interest in market-based approaches to poverty alleviation is essential. Knowledge and/or experience on the same topic is strongly preferred.

Spanish language ability a plus, although not required. 

Ability to perform basic Project Management and reporting functions.

Must be currently authorized to work in the USA.

More About this Position & Compensation: This full-time job is 40 hours/week: 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday. Duties will be performed on-site in our Ann Arbor, MI office. (NOTE: Relocation expenses will not be reimbursed.) Pay will be commensurate with relevant work experience, plus WDI’s benefits package (includes health, dental, life insurances, retirement with immediate vesting, and a generous paid time off package); details will be shared with candidates who are invited to an interview.

How To Apply:

Interested candidates who meet our qualifications should complete WDI's Application for Employment (.pdf) or Application for Employment (.doc) ASAP and then submit it with a cover letter to WDI Human Resources via e-mail: wdi@umich.edu

Sorry! We cannot accept a resume in lieu of WDI's Application. Please do not submit any other documents with your WDI Application -- except a resume (optional).

Recruiting Information:

This position is available immediately. Interviews may be scheduled as viable resumes are received; this posting will be removed as soon as the position is filled. No calls please. 

About WDI:
The William Davidson Institute (WDI) is an affiliate of the University of Michigan; WDI employees are not employees of the University of Michigan. WDI is an EOE.

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Authored by: Rob Katz

Over the past 5-plus years, I've written hundreds of NextBillion blog posts, news articles, research pieces - and edited hundreds more.  Yet, despite my writing experience, I'm finding it rather difficult to put the right words on paper today as I seek to let you - the NextBillion community - know about some important transitions on site.

To wit, I'll just get to it: Today, I'll officially transition from my role as a Managing Editor on NextBillion to that of a Staff Writer.  This transition comes as Acumen Fund, my employer, transitions from its role as a Managing Partner to that of an Associate Partner.

It's hard to believe that a small group of us started NextBillion.net just 5 years back, as our Advisor (and NextBillion co-founder) Al Hammond recently noted.  In those short 5 years, "base of the pyramid" has become a mainstream term, and hundreds of companies, investors, researchers and non-profits have oriented themselves towards market-based approaches to poverty.

Personally, it has been a privilege to come to work every day and focus on NextBillion.net.  I've been lucky to have had a front row seat from which to witness the incredible growth of the BoP movement. 

Fortunately, it's not as if I'm going far - I will remain a Staff Writer, after all!  As I step down from a day-to-day management role, I am confident that NextBillion is in good hands.  The Managing Partners - World Resources Institute and William Davidson Institute - are committed to the BoP sector.  Managing Editor Francisco Noguera is staying on board.  And the William Davidson Institute is now hiring for a full-time Managing Editor, whose sole responsibility will be the management of NextBillion.  (Check it out if you're interested, and pass it along to friends who might be!)

On a more personal note, I will shortly relocate to India, to work out of Acumen Fund's office in Hyderabad.  From India, I will continue to lead Acumen's knowledge work: searching for, synthesizing and sharing insights across Acumen's portfolio of companies serving BoP markets.  You'll undoubtedly hear more about it here, on NextBillion - especially as I have more time to write once the editing responsibilities fall away!

It's been a great run as a member of the NextBillion management team.  Thanks to you - the NextBillion readers and commenters - for making it feel that way.

Authored by: Francisco Noguera

August is around the corner and the summer is slowly starting to wind down. The social enterprise scene continues to burst with activity, however, and here's a brief overview of what's going on in the next couple of months. As always, please reach out and let us know if your event or one you know of is not on this list.

To close July in a positive tone, NextBillion ally and BOPreneur Paul Hudnut invites us to the closing venues of the noteworthy Unreasonable Institute and International Development Design Summit, both taking place in his home Colorado.  NextBillion will feature special coverage of both events in the next few days, so stay tuned for that as well. We'll also feature a summary of the recent Africa DiasporaCamp, whcih gathered in DC last week to discuss financial innovations to serve SMEs in Africa.

August won't have any shortage of venues and events to discuss different angles of social enterprise. This Monday, DC will see Tech@State: Mobile Money, an event hosted by the  U.S. State Department in Washington with several mobile money practitioners from around the globe. Later in the month, USAID and other NextBillion allies take the stage again for a three-day online discussion on market-based approaches to serve the Base of the Pyramid: "Missing Links of Business Development in Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Communities".

A bit later in the month, the west coast comes back into the spotlight with the Final Presentations at Santa Clara University's Global Social Benefit Incubator. I've had the privilege of being part of GSBI the last 2 years, and this is an event that you should not miss if you have the slightest chance of making it to Silicon Valley for a few days. More information on the final presentations can be found here.

September is still not on my radar (know of anything? Let us know!) but October comes strongly with San Francisco's Social Capital Markets Conference, the New York gathering on the 8th at Columbia University's Social Enterprise Conference and the second annual Enterprising Schools Symposium, focused on market-based approaches to education. 

NextBillion will be a media partner at the first two venues, and will surely be well represented at the third. More very soon on our presence in Hyderabad...

That's it for now. Best of luck to our Unreasonable friends this weekend, and stay tuned daily for more on NextBillion.

Organization: Nike Foundation

Location: Portland, Oregon, US

Strategic Initiatives Manager - Nike Foundation

Description As our Strategic Initiatives Manager, you'll work to influence leaders in the public and private sectors to direct dollars, innovations, policies, staff and other resources towards adolescent girls in poverty. The Strategic Initiatives team at the Nike Foundation is focused on unleashing the Girl Effect (www.girleffect.org) at scale by working to create, shift and leverage major systems to work better for girls. Examples of systems at scale are international aid agencies, private foundations, private sector organizations, social networks and national governments. This role requires the ability to understand complex systems and then lead multi-functional teams to identify and implement elegantly disruptive innovations within these systems. In collaboration with the Strategic Initiatives Director, you'll evaluate and drive high leverage resource mobilization strategies that support Nike Foundation's mission of unleashing the Girl Effect at scale. You'll manage a portfolio of projects that mobilize other's resources for adolescent girls in poverty. Opportunities may come from various sources: NIKE Inc; Other companies, foundations, multilateral and bilateral aid agencies, NGO's and other such institutions focused on and or looking to focus on economic development activities. You'll lead virtual teams across the Nike Foundation, key partners within Nike and key external parties, ensuring that all concepts, strategies and initiatives are born from the collective creativity and intelligence of these networks. In addition, you'll manage all aspects of external partnerships -- communications, governance, operational and contractual issues, etc. Qualifications Requirements for the position include:

• Bachelor's Degree
• At least 8 years' experience in business and or international development
• Masters in Business Administration or Masters in International Relations, Public Policy or Ph.D from a top university preferred
• Minimum 2 years' experience in a leading international management consultancy
• Strong analytical abilities (both quantitative and qualitative); a systems thinker
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including meeting facilitation and presentations
• Proven experience with preparation and delivery of executive level presentations
• Passion for international development, demonstrated by a strong interest and prior exposure to global issues such as economic development, global health, or education
• Detailed knowledge of, and experience in international development programs, policy and advocacy in developing countries
• Experience living and working in different cultures (time spent in developing countries strongly preferred)
• Professionalism and demonstrated experience working with senior officials in the public and/or private sector
• Sensitivity to the political and cultural environments of international public agencies or similarly complex environments
• Ability to work in a fast-paced entrepreneurial, team-oriented, highly demanding environment
• Experience in the conception, design and management of strategies, initiatives and programs related to motivating an enhanced governmental response
• Strong project management skills
• Ability to work independently and drive multiple projects at the same time
• Proven track record of turning ideas into executable strategies and actions
• Strong sense of ownership, work ethic and follow up skills
• Ability to travel up to 50% domestically and internationally
• Ability to learn fast; think big; design and deliver for impact at scale

We're interested in learning more about you and appreciate you taking the time to apply online. Nike, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer (EOE) that strives to create a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. Job  Corporate & Social Responsibility Primary Location OR-Portland Schedule  Full-time Travel  Yes, 50% of the time Drug Screen Required  No Background Check Required  No Relocation Available  Yes Non-Compete Required  Yes
To apply: https://nike.taleo.net/careersection/10020/jobdetail.ftl?lang=en&job=239754

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Organization: Mountain Association for Community Economic Development

Location: Berea, Kentucky, US

Ed. note: While not operating in the developing world markets that NextBillion's Career Center generally covers, we felt that MACED's approach is very relevant as it is aimed at enterprise development for the base of the U.S. economic pyramid.

Overview
MACED is looking for a highly motivated and experienced manager to join its staff as the enterprise development director. This senior position will guide MACED's efforts to grow enterprises (for-profit and nonprofit) that create employment, strengthen important sectors and foster entrepreneurship. Central to this position is a commitment to sustainable development and experience with rural community development, enterprise development and commercial financing. The enterprise development director will manage our growing enterprise development effort and focus on strengthening enterprises related to new energy (energy efficiency and renewable energy) and sustainable forestry. The enterprise development director serves on MACED's management team.  

 

Background
The Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) is a 34 year-old multi-strategy sustainable economic development organization that seeks to create economic alternatives that work for people and places in need throughout Central Appalachia (eastern Kentucky, southeast Ohio, southwest Virginia, northeast Tennessee and West Virginia).

 

MACED is a fast-paced, dynamic and growing organization with a 25-person staff that manages $17 million in total assets. The organization focuses its efforts on sustainable development and change strategies that generate economic and environmental benefits to local people and places. These strategies include: 1) providing financial capital and expertise to individuals, businesses and communities, 2) conducting research and engaging in effective communications to support good public policy, and 3) demonstrating effective community economic development efforts that make a difference. MACED has recently completed a new strategic plan that focuses on two sectors (new energy and sustainable forestry), deepens our commitment to entrepreneur and enterprise development, and promotes the development of a new economic vision in Appalachia.

 

Enterprise Development
MACED's enterprise development program combines two of our core strategies-investing capital and providing capacity building efforts to grow entrepreneurs and community leaders. MACED provides loan capital, technical assistance and market knowledge as key tools to help build enterprises and entrepreneurs that provide important development benefits to the region. We lend between $2 and $3 million and provide meaningful technical assistance to more than 50 entrepreneurs a year.

 

Our efforts are currently focused in three directions-1) developing efforts to strengthen energy efficiency and sustainable forestry related enterprises and opportunities, 2) focusing on enterprises in the community services, natural resources and cultural assets areas, and 3) refining our efforts to provide effective support to micro-entrepreneurs and enterprises. The Enterprise Development team partners closely with other MACED programs with sector expertise. The enterprise development program staff will soon anchor a new MACED office in southeast Kentucky. Our technical assistance strategies include staff- and consultant-delivered one-on-one technical assistance focused on financial systems and reporting, business planning and marketing. We also provide some classroom-based training. 

 

Our enterprise development team is consists of four full-time staff. We work closely with our portfolio support team to monitor the health of our loan fund. We are working to expand the team to six full-time staff. We currently operate from two Kentucky offices, in Berea and Paintsville.

 

We are seeking an enterprise development director who can build from the strength of the current team and emerging strategy by deepening the impact of these efforts on low-income people, communities in the region and the natural systems we all depend on. This position should also help the organization identifying ways in which the strategic investment of capital grows meaningful sustainable development opportunities in the region.

 

Position Description
The duties and responsibilities of the program manager include but are not limited to the following.

Program Management and Development 

 

• Ensure that the enterprise development program is aligned with MACED's overall mission, vision and goals.

• Guide the enterprise development team in sharpening MACED's overarching enterprise development strategies, approaches to our work and how we communicate them to others.
• Coordinate with operations and finance director to oversee the loan fund, monitor its overall health and take action as needed to improve operations of lending and technical assistance.
• Work with program staff and the president to develop innovative new program through research, discussion and grounded learning.
• Participate in and, where appropriate, lead program evaluation.
• Ensure integration of enterprise development efforts with MACED programs, related sector strategies and support functions.
• Manage the successful implementation of MACED's enterprise development activities through supportive coaching, problem solving and other forms of direction and assistance.
• Prepare and monitor program budget including earned revenue.
• Supervise enterprise development staff.
• Identify and assess potential new sources of grant funding and earned revenue.

 

Enterprise Development Assessment

• Identify meaningful enterprise development opportunities.
• Help staff assess and improve enterprise development opportunities by marshalling resources, connecting to partners and developing innovative solutions.
• Review and approve loan proposals before they go to loan committee.

 

Networking and Marketing

• Develop and implement new ways for MACED's work to be informed by connections to ideas, people and institutions across the region and across relevant practitioner networks across the country.
• Participate in relevant networks of community economic development and sustainable development practitioners across the state, region and country.
• Develop and implement a program marketing plan that utilizes network relationships as a primary referral resource.
• Identify and develop new markets for lending and consulting services.
• Work with staff to communicate about impact of our work and share stories of partners.

 

General Management

• Ensure effective annual and trimester work planning.
• Participate actively on MACED's management team.
• Assist in the development of written proposals and assist in fundraising efforts as needed.
• Represent MACED at conferences, events and functions when needed.
• Practice safety in all aspects of the job.
• Other duties as assigned.

 

Minimum Qualifications and Characteristics

• Commitment to sustainable development.
• Minimum of five years of broadly defined community economic development experience, including experience with lending and capital-based programs.
• Minimum of a four-year college degree in business, economics, management or related field.
• Successful experience in project design, planning and management, including budget responsibility.
• Successful experience in supervision and group facilitation; able to work successfully on a team with diverse members.
• Ability to skillfully and respectfully supervise the work of others.
• Strong written and interpersonal communication skills.
• Committed to strategic thinking and innovative action.
• Strong computer skills.
• Highly self-motivated.
• Commitment to economic, environmental and social justice.
• Well-organized, attentive to detail, creative, able to work on multiple projects at once.
• Keen sense of humor!

 

Preferred Qualifications and Characteristics

• Significant knowledge of and appreciation for the Appalachian region.
• MBA.
• Entrepreneurial experience.
• Experience in accounting, spreadsheet development and financial analysis.
• Experience with evaluation.
• Understanding of marketing.

 

Additional Information

The position offers a competitive salary, based on experience, plus a generous benefits package. Position is based in Berea, Kentucky. Berea is a beautiful, small college town, an hour south of Lexington, on the edge of the Appalachian region. MACED is an equal opportunity employer.

 

 

Please e-mail your resume, three references and a cover letter specifically explaining why you are interested in working in Appalachian Kentucky and why you are a good fit for this position toDirector@maced.org. Application review will be on-going and continue until the position is filled. For more information about MACED, visit www.maced.org.

 

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Authored by: Tayo Akinyemi

This post is part of a series that introduces iuMAP, a web-based social enterprise directory developed by Ayllu and launched in media partnership with NextBillion. The purpose of the series is gathering feedback from the NextBillion community as the map unfolds and to share some of the information we've collected and analyzed. You can help triple iuMAP's size by submitting social enterprises and giving feedback. You can also catch up on the series reading the first, second and third entries.

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This post is the second entry in a series focused on microfranchising, a common way many social enterprises distribute their products.  There has been some great discussion of microfranchising recently (such as this SSIR article).  This series provides an overview of different types of microfranchising, profile many enterprises that are employing the method, and provide information for both investors and those looking for funding.  The last post gave a general overview of what will be covered in the series.  This post focuses on one of the most common models- the business-in-a-bag.

Business-in-a-bag.  It's a blissfully self-explanatory moniker.  For  VisionSpring, a social enterprise that trains men and women to sell reading glasses to members of their village communities and beyond, the business-in-a-bag contains everything its vision entrepreneurs need to run their microfranchises- eyeglasses, eye charts, repair kits, uniform, marketing materials, forms, etc., "Like Subway has a franchise store, our backpack is our unit of franchise. That backpack has all the contents people need to start their little business," says VisionSpring founder Jordan Kassalow.  The same is true for LivingGoods, a social enterprise in East Africa with a similar model that focuses on the sale of health products, which prevent or treat diseases like malaria and promote family planning, reproductive health and personal care.   LivingGoods was born out of the realization that prevention and treatment for diseases like malaria and diarrhea weren't lacking, but a systematic mechanism to distribute such items to those in need certainly was.  Another example is ToughStuff, which sells solar panels through village entrepreneurs in Madagascar with a 'Business in a Box' model.

Continue reading this story...

Authored by: Rishabh Kaul

This is the second post in the Stories from Sarvajal series, where Rishabh Kaul describes his experience during this summer working at Sarvajal, a for profit enterprise trying to solve the water crisis in India. To get the maximum out of this post, do check out part 1.

After spending some time in North Gujarat, where things run pretty smoothly as far as issues of pricing and competition go, I made my way towards South of Gujarat. And boy was this was a whole new turf. 

The South of Gujarat, especially the Valsad district, is a major industrial hub. In fact, Vapi, a major city in this district which is home to many chemical industries houses Asia's largest Common Effluent Treatment Plant and is amongst the most polluted places in the world. This means there is a clear demand for purified water. 

However, the pricing of the water brings into account various factors at play. Unlike the villages in the North where our machines are located, the south - apart from having regular houses - also has apartments (with no elevators). Also, unlike the North, labor costs are quite high. To transport the bottle from the ground level to the 4th floor, one has to pay up to 25 Rupees.  Existing pure water players sell water in the range of Rs 25-40.

However, a bigger challenge that confronts new players is the existence of water syndicates. These syndicates have strong tie ups with the local communities.

How can Sarvajal operate under these conditions? The challenges are numerous.

Firstly, we have to understand that our franchisee owner/operator is from the village and hence is aware of these forces. At the same time, for us to ensure that he adheres to the rules without feeling like it isn't a profitable business, we have to sit down with him and clearly make him understand how it is that a low margin high volume business works.

Secondly, what should prevent him from directly supplying to the syndicates at our rate (Rs 9) and then letting these syndicates sell the water at whatever price it is that they want to sell? After all, using this tactic, he can enter communities which he doesn't have access to.

Some might think that the second bit isn't really a challenge. Some of the cleverer lot might even suggest why not bypass these middlemen and directly enter these communities and market forces will take care of the rest, right? It makes good business sense right?

Well, not really. One reason is because, if the franchisee directly supplies to these communities (that have been served by syndicates for a long time) his fuel costs increase. Let's suppose that due to the high volume of customers, that's not an issue. There's a bigger problem of the syndicate attacking the operator, his house, our machine or his delivery van while he is in their territory.

This is where tough choices have to be made. In such cases our marketing efforts have to be carefully executed. True, it's a tough business and one has to move in aggressively, especially in the summer months when the demand is high, however one has to be tactful in doing so. So in my case, I suggested the franchisee operator to focus on areas that had no reach, to go to the poorest of the poor and explain to them the hazards of drinking contaminated water.

In my case, I was living with the franchisee operator so I got to interact with his neighbors and increase the word of mouth marketing of our product. One way of increasing market share was by using existing linkages. Say, if we're supplying water to a shop, we'd ask him to consider buying water from us for domestic usage and thus enter into his community.

It's still risky, mind you.

To counter the first problem, it's only the numbers that can motivate the operator. So we embark on a massive marketing spree where we visit each household in our catchment area. Within a matter of 2 days, we were able to increase his customer base by 70 customers (or 140%). This showed him that people did like the value proposition that we offered. Slowly, over a period of time, these people would spread the Sarvajal message to their neighbors (who were paying nearly 4 times the price) who would then approach the operator to sign them up as well. This is a much different approach than aggressive marketing in other providers' catchment area and risking the security of our operators and their assets.

Organization: Villgro Innovation Foundation

Location: Chennai, IN

VILLGRO INNOVATION FOUNDATION

Previously known as Rural Innovations Network, Villgro Innovations Foundation was established in 2001 by its founder, Paul Basil, to empower rural development by identifying and incubating innovations that positively impact the rural poor. Since its inception Villgro has identified over 1,500 innovators, funded over 40 start-ups, touched over 350,000 lives and created social returns of ~$5 million.

Villgro is establishing a fund management company with the aim to raise and investfunds in social enterprises in order to scale sustainable business practices that benefit the poor while encouraging their participation and growth in the economy.

The fund aims to bridge the gap in financing encountered by very early stage enterprises that have outgrown their startup capital but are not able to attract the attention of mainstream venture capital despite being poised for growth. The fund will maintain a strong rural oriented outlook with a focus on agriculture, energy and livelihoods generation amongst other sectors, and will place a strong emphasis on supporting technology and service innovations.

JOB POSITION:

Chief Executive Officer, Villgro Ventures Pvt ltd

Villgro Innovations Foundation invites applications from highly driven individuals to spearhead and direct the creation of a proposed fund management entity “VillgroVentures Pvt Ltd” and engage in the raising and execution of it’s first fund “Villgro Fund for Innovation and Rural Enterprise – V.FIRE”

Reporting to the Board of Directors, this role will initially revolve around the establishment and registration of the fund vehicle and the fund itself and later drivegrowth and profitability by providing direction in the execution of strategies in order to achieve Villgro venture fund’s social and business targets.

JOB LOCATION:

Chennai, India

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Fund Raising and Fund Vehicle Establishment

·      Utilize the infrastructure of Villgro Innovations Foundation to establish, register and market the proposed Villgro venture fund vehicle;

·      Lead the ongoing fund raising activities;

Fund Management and Leadership

·      Direct, develop and execute policies and strategies aligned with the fund’s social and business objectives;

·      Ensure portfolios are managed effectively and in line with their respective

·      investment guidelines and in compliance with all regulatory/legal requirements;

·      Oversee the development of investment vehicles company research and portfolio construction;

·      Oversee development of client base through marketing efforts; advise existing
and prospective clients on the fund’s range of investment products

Team Building and Operations Management

·      Build his/her own team;

·      Manage a professional team including performance , career development,retention and other employee development initiatives;

·      Prepare regular reports on investment performance, highlighting effectiveness and future plans

CANDIDATE PROFILE AND QUALIFICATIONS

·      Proven fund management / direct investment experience;

·      An existing network in which to raise the fund, preferably in one or more financial markets, including India;

·      Strong leadership and management skills;

A master’s degree, preferably in Finance/Accountancy /Business/Economics/ an

·      Agro-focused or engineering discipline or equivalent with significant experience in dealing with innovation, agriculture and social investments.

·      Minimum of 10-12 years working experience where at least 5 years work experience in a managerial position in an established investment bank, capital management or asset management company, or micro finance fund. Alternatively, the candidate should have a mix of experience in establishing andmanaging an enterprise combined with direct involvement in finance, investments or fund management, totalling 10-12 years.

The CVs of the interested candidates are to be sent to villgrofund@villgro.org.

 

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Authored by: Rebecca Regan-Sachs

This is the first post in a series that will focus on the impact of corruption and poor governance on enterprise and development in the "bottom of the pyramid."

There is a curious phenomenon in international development-one that has been a taboo subject for many years. It eludes the calculations of economists, confounds private sector growth, and interferes with the proper functioning of public services. And it helps explain the following facts:

• In 1950, Kenya's GDP was higher than South Korea's-they ranked 37th and 39th in the world, respectively. Today, South Korea ranks 15th in the world, and Kenya ranks 83rd.
• After more than six decades and $2.3 trillion in foreign aid (p.4), the combined annual GDP of the 58 "bottom billion" countries is $350 billion-smaller than the GDP of metropolitan Chicago.
• According to some estimates, more than 50% of aid in some African countries never reaches its intended targets.

International development is a notoriously complex process, and many factors lie behind these grim statistics. But there is one particularly noxious culprit: corruption.

"[T]here is now growing recognition that corruption and bad governance play an extraordinary role in the effectiveness of development," noted a 2007 Center for Global Development report. Such acknowledgments were once all too rare at institutions like the World Bank, which until about 15 years ago regarded the problem with a mixture of apathy and denial, vowing (somewhat hypocritically) that it didn't interfere with countries' internal "politics."

But the widespread misappropriation of funds across sectors has been directly linked to lower national GDP and lower growth rates for private enterprise-and some of the best data come from Bank institutions themselves.

A 2000 IMF study found that an improvement of one standard deviation in a country's control of corruption could lead to between a 200% and 400% average long-term increase in that country's per capita income. It would also lead to an average three percent higher annual growth rate for private enterprises (and incidentally, an average 75% drop in child mortality).

While the perception still lingers that corruption can "grease the wheels" of an inefficient economy, increasing evidence shows that it in fact stifles competition, discourages entrepreneurship, and hinders a country's overall development. Small businesses are forced to pay bribes to crooked officials, diverting capital that could otherwise be invested in expansion. Large corporations strike shady deals for lucrative government contracts, robbing profits from deserving firms and generally lowering business standards.

"Who loses?" asks development policy expert Russ Webster (p. 133). "Workers who could have received a better wage working for a more competitive enterprise; consumers who could have gotten better quality goods or services at a better price; ultimately, the economy, which could have generated a better standard of living for all citizens."

The prevalence of the problem is highlighted in recent enterprise surveys conducted by the World Bank. In OECD countries, only 8% of firms reported corruption as a "major constraint" to their business. In sub-Saharan Africa, that total was 35%; in Latin American and the Caribbean, it reached 54%.

While businesses in developing countries often cited factors like lack of electricity or access to finance as their biggest impediments to growth, these too can be traced to corruption. Banking reforms and investments in power generation are frequently thwarted by corrupt interest groups, although businesses may not make the direct connection.

Knowing the effects of development's "dirty little secret," the statistics at the beginning of this post start to make more sense. South Korea's government invested heavily in industry and courted foreign investors; Kenya was led for 24 years by Daniel arap Moi, whose family and associates stole more than $1 billion from the national coffers. Part of the $2.3 trillion in foreign aid since 1944 has gone to countries whose governments, while not perfect, are at least reasonably stable and responsive. That leaves the "bottom billion" with their Chicago-like combined GDPs and largely corrupt governments and institutions. With this in mind, the last statistic on diverted aid dollars is not so mysterious after all.

So what can be done about this enormously pervasive and destructive problem? Part of the answer lies in finally shining a spotlight on this "dirty little secret". Groups like Transparency International and Global Integrity publish frequent reports and "scorecards" monitoring corruption and governance issues in most countries in the world. The Millennium Challenge Corporation, established six years ago, makes aid funding directly contingent upon factors like government effectiveness and control of corruption. Mo Ibrahim, the Sudanese telecommunications magnate, created an influential foundation that works to improve governance in Africa and to reward African leaders who embody democratic principles.

This blog series will take a closer look at the people, the organizations, and the trends behind governance and corruption issues in the developing world, with a particular focus on the problem's impact on the "bottom of the pyramid." For these are the people most in need of true development assistance, and thus the ones who suffer most when such assistance is thwarted by mismanagement, favoritism and greed.

The web site for the Mo Ibrahim Foundation puts it succinctly: "Development cannot be achieved without good governance."