May 13, 2009
New Database Will Spread Information About Social Entrepreneurs
What if there was an easy way for the public to get detailed information about the work of some of the world’s most successful social entrepreneurs?
Would it lead to better ideas that could someday solve some of the world’s most pressing problems?
The Skoll Foundation, PopTech, ideablob, and Civic Ventures are about to find out.
The four organizations said today that they are going to create an open database of social entrepreneurs based on information they have gathered and release it to the public as an application programming interface, or API.
“The Social Entrepreneur API will be the first open database of information about social entrepreneurs who have won fellowships and awards from social-enterprise funders,” the organizations said in a release. “The tool will allow philanthropists, investors, press, and fellow entrepreneurs to find social entrepreneurs based on keyword, location, cause area, population served, and a variety of other factors.”
Lucy Bernholz, a consultant and author of Philanthropy 2173, writes that the tool, if used properly, could help lead to an array of new ideas.
“This kind of sharing is very cool — once you put all these data together the possibilities for seeing new patterns, finding new partners, and identifying new opportunities grows exponentially,” Ms. Berhnolz writes.
What do you think? Will sharing this information lead to new ideas?
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I think it’s a great idea; it will be lead to information sharing and ultimately could have profound impacts on the global community
— Kent E. Seton May 14, 03:40 PM #
The perfect example of social entrepreneurship at its finest: Take the yellow pages, repackage it into an “open database of information” and sell the idea to four foundations. Brilliant.
— Jacob Berkman May 14, 03:58 PM #
Peter, thanks so much for drawing attention to the Social Entrepreneur API. I have to admit, as one of the Social Actions team involved in this project, that I agree with Kent Seton: initiatives like this do lead to new ideas. Aggregating social entrepreneur profiles in this way creates so many opportunities to learn from, support, and connect with these entrepreneurs. We’re only just beginning to appreciate what that potential represents, but I expect it will be much more than the sum of its parts, much more than the repackaging Jacob Berkman suggests.
— Christine Egger May 15, 03:32 PM #