Teaching online collaboration for social enterprise

The fine folks at Istituto Europeo di Design proposed me to join the faculty of a new Master course called Design for Social Business (D4SB) (info). It’s quite a visionary idea: they selected eight students from all over the world, found them scholarships and put them to work. The course is taught in English, and it includes two field trips to see social business in action, one in Bangla Desh and the other in Colombia. My contribution will be:

  1. teaching them to design and use online collaboration environment, an ever more important tool for social business and especially social innovators (they need it to compensate the competitivity deficit in other areas, like finance).
  2. dare loro un quadro su ciò che si muove nel loro ambiente competitivo, proprio nel momento in cui in Europa si stanno prendendo le decisioni strategiche sulle politiche per il welfare dei prossimi annigive them an overview on what’s cooking in their competitive environment, at a time when the strategic decisions are being made on redesigning the welfare state in Europe
  3. share methods for writing and evaluating business plans for social enterprise

I am grateful to course director Jürgen Faust, coordinator Massimo Randone and IED for the opportunity to structure my thinking around these issues in the forms of lectures and workshops, and run them in front of such a high level classroom.

2 thoughts on “Teaching online collaboration for social enterprise

  1. internet business

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  2. Sara

    Ciao Alberto, ho avuto la fortuna di ascoltare Yunus dal vivo in una conferenza a Bologna davvero emozionante, ancor prima che vincesse il Nobel. Il suo progetto della Grameen Bank e la sua fiducia nelle risorse di poveri e donne mi hanno aperto un nuovo mondo.
    Incuriosita ho iniziato a fare un pò di ricerche e ho scoperto anche il pensiero e l’opera di Paul Polak che ha fatto una interessante mostra di cui ti invio una recensione.
    In bocca al lupo, Sara.

    The Design Revolution »

    In spring 2007, the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York showcased Design for the Other 90%—an exhibition inspired by Paul Polak—that features affordable and socially responsible objects, including several IDE water irrigation and storage tools. Paul poses the same challenge in Out of Poverty that the exhibition addresses: 90 percent of the world’s designers focus on solutions for the richest 10 percent of the world’s customers rather than the other 90 percent who need it most. The exhibition is scheduled to travel nationwide for two years.

    Currently, Paul is spearheading D-Rev: Design for the Other 90% with the intent of igniting a design revolution. D-Rev will help multinational corporations develop affordable products for dollar-a-day customers, continuing Paul’s mission—bringing prosperity to the world’s poor.

    D-Rev will do this by inspiring, teaching, connecting and creating.

    Reply

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