Anthology of contributions from the 2013 Skoll World Forum

The Skoll World Forum  on Social Entrepreneurship provides a platform “for advancing entrepreneurial approaches and solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Our mission is to accelerate the impact of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs by uniting them with essential partners in a collaborative pursuit of learning, leverage and large-scale social change.”
A (belated but still relevant) anthology of this years’ contributions and speakers that focused on how to change the way we solve public problems and measure impact:
Patrick Meier, Director of Social Innovation, Qatar Computing Research Institute on crisis mapping:

“Crisis-mapping technology has emerged in the past five years as a tool to help humanitarian organizations deliver assistance to victims of civil conflicts and natural disasters. Crisis-mapping platforms display eyewitness reports submitted via e-mail, text message, and social media. The reports are then plotted on interactive maps, creating a geospatial record of events in real time. The first generation of these humanitarian technologies was powered by free, open-source software produced by organizations such as InSTEDD, Sahana, and Ushahidi….
The pioneers behind the first wave of crisis-mapping technology were typically gifted hackers from the dynamic open-source community. Creating the next generation of these technologies will require additional skills in data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and social computing. This kind of expertise exists today in world-class research institutes staffed by experts who have the wherewithal to carry out cutting-edge R&D in multiple areas of advanced computing.”

Harbrinder Kang , Senior Director of Corporate Affairs, Cisco on Personal Interaction, Innovation and Collaboration:

“Recently Cisco undertook a study of human behavior and the barriers to effective collaboration: how it affects productivity, workplace efficiency, and business results. This study showed without question that collaboration is grounded in human interaction and relationships. One participant even said: “We need to get back to the intimacy.”  We learned that people were more engaged when they could see and hear each other well, basically interacting the way humans have interacted for thousands of years: face to face. When personal meetings were not possible for our participants, they embraced technology, such as high-definition videoconferencing, that most closely emulates human interactions.
We identified four key ingredients for successful collaboration, and they all rely on human behavior.

• Build relationships and networks that lead to trust
• Turn human interactions into results
• Balance decision-making and consensus building
• Evolve the culture for productive collaboration

But one of the most important things we learned–which applies to social change–is that a primary reason people collaborate is to innovate.”

Ehren Reed , Research and Evaluation Officer, Skoll Foundation on Measuring Impact and Big Data:

“We find ourselves today in a world awash with data. In 2012, every day 2.5 quintillion bytes of data were created. To provide some perspective, a stack of $100 bills one meter high would contain about one million dollars. A stack of $100 bills equaling $2.5 quintillion dollars would stretch from the Earth all the way to Saturn and then back again.
We also find ourselves in a world fascinated with data. Increasingly, our decisions need to be “data driven” and our practices “evidence based.” This seems particularly true for social entrepreneurs and other actors striving to tackle large-scale societal and environmental challenges. There is a strong incentive—and, admittedly, one reinforced by funders—for social entrepreneurs to generate and amass data related to their social change efforts.
It is common for an organization to feel overwhelmed by its own data: how to collect it, how to store it, and—most of all—how to use it. All the data in the world is worthless until you make use of it. To do that, you have to make sure you are asking the right questions of your data.”

Jen Crozier, Vice President, Global Citizenship Initiatives, IBM on Big Data and Cities:

“Cities may be built on bedrocks, bricks, and boulevards, but data is quickly becoming their foundation. Vast quantities of information are collected every day — each time a city agency measures its performance, performs a service for citizens, or captures environmental statistics.  Citizens are generating raw information when they post comments on Facebook, post or respond to a blog, Tweet, upload multimedia, or use apps to identify parking spots or report a pothole.
This new level of information makes it possible for civic leaders to use data to better inform a city’s daily operations and long-term planning. Cities can do a whole host of things with data from monitoring daily traffic conditions to assessing the future viability of a city’s healthcare and education programs.”

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