“Be a fly on the wall – understand what people are saying and what they need!”

After having a blast at the 48 hour film festival in Greensboro this past weekend, and coming home to an appropriate, parallel article in regards to a film making entrepreneur- I decided to blog about it.

If you are a Social Entrepreneur and haven’t heard of the Social Edge website by the Skoll Foundation- please check it out. This week they focused in on Ari Sznajader. He is had a wealth full of experience helping others; conducted renewable energy assessments for mining companies in Mozambique, directed a documentary film entitled “Rivers, Wats and Riots” and consulted for USAID in Cambodia.  Today he is helping train bright, future leaders in Nigeria. The title of this blog post is a quote he mentioned in the interview. It got me thinking about how I want to change the world. Here is the podcast:         

Ari Sznajader\’s Social Edge Interview

What are you going to do to change the world? I finally cemented a great idea that I am looking to roll out in the next few months. I get questions all the time, “I love your blog, but what S. Entrepreneur ventures are you heading up?” It took awhile because I wanted to do it right- but it has finally hit me!

Follow me on Twitter for more updates www.twitter.com/taylorbarr

Peace,

Taylor

It’s not a laptop project. It’s an education project.

Happy Sunday Funday-

To my beloved Social Entrepreneurs: I came across the “One Laptop per Child” initiative awhile back, ironically while at work. About three weeks ago, I was Recruiting on Mesh Networking engineers for one of my undisclosed clients. To limit the technical jargon for the sanity of my readers- Mesh networking is part of wireless technology that allows a wireless network, per se, to function interconnectively (yes I made that word up). this means, when one site (say a laptop in this case) loses signal from a base station, it can retrive a signal using a laptop near by (rather than searching for the core site). Cool and advanced stuff! Anyways, I wanted to get more insight into how I can find these specialized skill sets- and the CTO suggested I check out the “One Laptop Per Child” Project:

to put things plain and simple: This kind of stuff excites me. To allow children in underdeveloped countries an adaptable resource that functions as well as some of the computers in the tech market- opens great opportunites. Not only does it give children ways to communicate their ideas to others, it allows our “closed off from the rest of the world,” American society to listen to ideas far from earshot distance. Education is empowerment and the more lives that get equal opportunity to it- the greater our global community will be.

Check it out http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/index.php at A simple donation of $200 will pay for and deliver one XO laptop to a child in a developing nation, $400 will pay for and deliver two XO laptops, and so on. Your entire contribution will be tax-deductible.

All my Best,

Taylor

Triangle Social Entrepreneurs- Get Hip, and join today!

Hello all,

Alas! I am back. I was stuck for the past week and a half, riding the flu/cold sickness wave, but I am ready to get back into the swing of things. Since being sick I have created a group for social entrepreneurs in the Triangle area, to come together (via the web) and share their ideas on social change. Still don’t know what this whole social entrepreneur thing is? google it. wikipedia it. It is a great thing!

Below is the social network website (click on the link) I use to create the group. www.ning.com allows you to create your own social networks centered around the ideas or or things you enjoy. If you are completely new to the whole thing, or have been active in the social entrepreneurship community- please join. If you create a network on the website, let me know! I am interested in what everyone is into these days…

 www.socialadvocates.ning.com

Ciudad Saludable: Helping Others Turn Trash in to Cash!

**Short note from the author: I wanted to thank each and every one of you for checking out my blog.  After introducing it to the public three days ago, I have already received 110 new member hits! Please help me promote my cause for social entrepreneurship by passing the knowledge and information to others. My first goal is to hit 100 hits in one day. Can you help me out? I will dedicate a blog post to ALL the people who post links in blogs, email newsletters, etc.**

 Señoras y Caballeros,

 While reading through a few profiles on PBS’ “New Heroes” website, I have stumbled across a story of a woman from Lima, Peru who has truly inspired my personal efforts for social change. Albina Ruiz started to notice a true problem with Peru’s government and there lack of action towards the country’s accelerated waste management problem.  Basically, many cities in Peru produce more than 600 metric tons of garbage daily. The municipal government, on the other hand, can only process about half of its city’s waste a day (leaving the other half piling up in crowded streets, parks, lakes and reservoirs). To add to the potential environmental threat this is causing the citizens of Lima, a majority of these individuals are suffering from extreme poverty. Instead of waiting for the government to step in-one woman took a chance.

 Albina established “micro-businesses” to provide a solution to the detrimental city problem. Spearheading a campaign to clean up the city, she divided the tasks and motivated the unemployed to step forth as bonafide entrepreneurs, as you will, to capitalize on the daunting project. Wait, I know what your thinking…Why did he use the word capitalize when all these people will be doing is picking up trash? Answer: Recycling= $$$ (well maybe not three dollar signs, but enough to provide for people who are considerably below the poverty line- surviving on less than $1 dollar a day.) Please click on the picture below. The short video will provide you with way more insight:

                                                                                               

One thing that I took from Albina’s story was the proof that you don’t have to be rich to make a revenue generating, yet socially responsible business plan. If more people can understand that it is not all about pure gain but more about how you use the resources you have to make sound judgment, than this would achieve a less “consumption-able” world.

 I write about these stories to change perception of thinking.  I want people to be inspired to look outside and see what is going on around us. I plan to create a foundation that will provide support for others to participate in actions of social change. Please contact me or comment on my blog if you are interested!

 Until next time,

Taylor