OpenIDEO - How might we increase social impact with OpenIDEO over the next year? - Concepting

The Challenge

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How might we increase social impact with OpenIDEO over the next year?

Inspiration 117 inspirations

Concepting 92 concepts

Applause 92 final concepts

472 Evaluations 20 final concepts

Winning Concepts Announced!

Realisation Ongoing

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Local OpenIDEO Chapters

Creation of local Chapters to support the mission of OpenIDEO as "a place where people design better, together for social good."

Creation of local volunteer-run chapters around the world to support the mission of OpenIDEO by actively championing:

Tweetups: a casual gathering of individuals to build awareness of OpenIDEO community (for those who might not have participated yet) and to foster connections with others interested in social good initiatives.
OpenSTORMs: a gathering of individuals to specifically tackle one of the OpenIDEO Challenges. This could be parellel with the Inspiration or Concepting phase.

What kind of social impact does this concept achieve?

The creation of these analog communities are in line with these specific OpenIDEO's Principles: Inclusive, Community-centered, and Collaborative. Not only would this help fellow OpenIDEOATORS build relationships and connections, but it would also build awareness in the community about OpenIDEO for those who might not have participated yet (and potentially for companies to think about future collaboration opportunities too).

Additional future opportunities include:
- Annual Leadership Bootcamp / Retreat: to bring together OpenIDEATORS to practice design thinking principles, and to hear from some of the companies / organizations that have participated in the challenges. (This could be a TEDx-style one-day conference.)
- Service Trips: to bring together OpenIDEATORS to specifically work on one of the Winning Concepts.

What skills are required to take this concept forward?

Identification of a local chapter leadership team. Since these would be volunteer-run chapters, this would require some support from OpenIDEO community managers to support them in structuring the chapter in the beginning.

How do you envision this concept being supported financially?

Tweetups: minor financial support: nametags, potentially food sponorship (or drinks sponsors) to entice more people to come.
OpenSTORMs: minor financial support: white boards, post-its, markers.

Virtual Team:

Nicole Skibola, Sarah Fathallah, Cara O'Shell, Meena Kadri and Ashley Jablow.

I would like to recognize fellow OpenIDEATORs who have co-led the #OpenIDEOSF offline activities over past couple months: Nicole Skibola, Sarah Fathallah, and Cara O'Shell and the OpenIDEO Community Managers: Meena Kadri and Ashley Jablow for the encouragement and support. I would also like to thank everyone who's actively participated and supported these meetups (in person or virtually!)!

24 Evaluations so far

Does this concept increase social impact?

Absolutely! This idea will drive social change
It’s a good start – some impact is likely to be achieved
No – increasing impact is not the main focus of this idea

Does this idea inspire you to take action?

Sure does – I’m itching to get started turning this idea into impact
Possibly – I’d need to know more to make a decision about how to get involved
No thanks – it’s an interesting idea, but it would be best taken forward by someone else

Does this concept help the OpenIDEO community connect and collaborate together?

Yes – it does a brilliant job of enhancing our community connections and might even reach out to external partners
Maybe – it may drive increased collaboration but the concept would need to be further developed first
No – it doesn’t help our community connect or collaborate better

How easy would it be to try prototyping or experimenting with this idea?

Easy – I could have an early prototype running in a few hours
There’s potential but it would take some planning and coordination to make it work
Not really easy – this idea would take considerable resources and planning to get it off the ground

Does this concept clearly outline how it will be funded?

Yes, this idea clearly explains funding sources
Sort of – we’d probably still need to think more about how this idea would get funded
No, this idea doesn’t really explain where funding for implementation would come from

Does this concept increase social impact?

Absolutely! This idea will drive social change It’s a good start – some impact is likely to be achieved No – increasing impact is not the main focus of this idea

Does this idea inspire you to take action?

Sure does – I’m itching to get started turning this idea into impact Possibly – I’d need to know more to make a decision about how to get involved No thanks – it’s an interesting idea, but it would be best taken forward by someone else

Does this concept help the OpenIDEO community connect and collaborate together?

Yes – it does a brilliant job of enhancing our community connections and might even reach out to external partners Maybe – it may drive increased collaboration but the concept would need to be further developed first No – it doesn’t help our community connect or collaborate better

How easy would it be to try prototyping or experimenting with this idea?

Easy – I could have an early prototype running in a few hours There’s potential but it would take some planning and coordination to make it work Not really easy – this idea would take considerable resources and planning to get it off the ground

Does this concept clearly outline how it will be funded?

Yes, this idea clearly explains funding sources Sort of – we’d probably still need to think more about how this idea would get funded No, this idea doesn’t really explain where funding for implementation would come from

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Comments

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Sabina D'Silva

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September 09, 2011, 06:36AM

Congratulations Anjelika! What I love about this idea is it is work and play, coffee and conversations all rolled in together.....making it a fun way to meet like minded people in the local area and strike up synergies to work together. (Are we still allowed to add on?? :) )Socially oriented clubs and cafes could also be given a sign to showcase saying, "Proud to be hosting the local OpenIDEO for social good here", getting even their customers curious to inquire and to join in.

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Meena Kadri

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September 08, 2011, 11:23PM

So great to see you making the winning hitl-ist with this concept, Anjelika! Especially given you've made major strides of your own with bringing OpenIDEATORS together locally. Gotta love at ideator that can walk their talk!

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Adriana Olmos

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September 03, 2011, 11:03PM

I really like this idea and was nice to read about the SF meets… This is a naive question, but is there a way to find out who is for instance in Montreal - Perhaps adding this in the search filters? - Would be nice to learn about other CAN fellows, even better if within my local area.

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anjelika deogirikar's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

anjelika deogirikar

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September 05, 2011, 04:55PM

Adriana - I had posted this other concept to enhace the profile pages so that hopefully people would be able to find people in their local community easier: http://www.openideo.com/open/impact/concepting/openideator-community-network/

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Mike Hatrick

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August 17, 2011, 12:14PM

Although this is a great concept (I would participate!) I think there are some barriers to making it successful.

I don't want to sound negative so "planning for success" what I feel will need to be overcome is the fact that the people who participate most enthusiastically and effectively in crowdsourcing are in my experience not the same group of people who like to meet-up, brainstorm and actually make stuff happen out there.

Therefore when planning out how to make this happen we would need to consider how to engage both groups of people.

More directly what I mean is that just advertising it on OpenIDEO (for example) may not pick-up the most active activists, which is who would be needed to achieve success.

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Arjan Tupan's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

Arjan Tupan

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August 17, 2011, 03:57PM

Great comment, Mike. Very important point. I think tweet-ups and other ways of meeting OpenIDEATORS in real life are wonderful, but when you focus on realisation, you need to think about having the right people in there. Or... make it a task for the local chapters to bring the concepts to the local realisation-focused communities.

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Meena Kadri's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

Meena Kadri

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August 18, 2011, 01:15AM

Good point, Arjan. I met with a couple of social entrepreneurs here in New Zealand yesterday (realisation/action/impact focused) who are part of a hub that meets regularly. They said they'd be interested in brainstorming specifically on how to take challenge ideas forward on the back of a challenge and they thought many groups like them globally would be. So could local chapters be encouraged to collaborate with these kinds of groups as well as people joining them directly through OpenIDEO? This would require chapter leads to be proactive about seeking these kinds of relationships. What might motivate & incentivise that?

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Paul van Zoggel's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

Paul van Zoggel

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August 20, 2011, 08:24AM

Incentives, I think I would start locally in Romania if I am working on a timeline towards an OPENideo 'event' where virtual openideo and local activity comes together in an openideo 'day'. It works for local TEDx organizers, so why not for us?

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anjelika deogirikar's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

anjelika deogirikar

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August 20, 2011, 07:51PM

I think there's an opportunity to collaborate with other local companies and organizations for the live events. For example, there are already some groups (such as Meetup groups, local organizations like SF for Acumen, Kiva, Commonwealth Club, with local universities social enterprise classes / clubs, or co-working spaces), where there are already a great community to tap into. By co-hosting such types of live events, you are able to expand the reach beyond the OpenIDEO community. Depending on the specific challenge, you can also reach out to these groups particularly if the challenge is in line with their mission.

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Vincent Cheng's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

Vincent Cheng

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August 21, 2011, 11:03PM

Agreed with everyone that connecting "active doers" to local realization efforts is key. Great job Anjelika at listing some other local organization networks that we could collaborate with in your multiple comments on this concept!

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Paul Reader's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

Paul Reader

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September 03, 2011, 07:13AM

The point is well taken but I would venture to suggest that sufficient of us, particularly those inclined to take this forward would become the natural "linkers" between the real and the virtual. Even if local chapters, cafes or other forms of real world interaction wax and wane some good can always come out of it. Just as most of us may be more enthusiastic about virtual involvement as the community grows there will be wide diversity in adoption of technology amongst the virtual participants. On a personal level I avooid too much involvement with technology like Facebook because I prefer not to be subject to targetted marketing - just like Google was once a really useful tool it now has serious limitations for my personal purposes.

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Paul Reader's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

Paul Reader

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September 03, 2011, 07:20AM

I also think Mike has demonstrated an important aspect of this process here. Evaluation is about true criticism and while encouragement is vitally important it is equally important to share potential stumbling blocks and canvass possible solutions.

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Paul van Zoggel's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

Paul van Zoggel

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September 03, 2011, 11:36AM

@Paul, you are right, to add, I think the 'agent' method used in Urgent Evoke was a good example on being the bridge between the real local chapter and the virtual. There were I recall 3 types of agents: Purely virtual contribution, mostly physical action and the ones '50-50'. Social and Economic personal skill go hand in hand, the world 'social business agent' has this within I guess, to practice yourself what you preach.

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Mike Hatrick's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

Mike Hatrick

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September 04, 2011, 08:20AM

Paul Reader - thank you for your comment. So many of the comments here are "wow, that's awesome!" that I have been very hesitant to add any critical ones!

I hope those that I have added have also been constructive and everybody embraces them in the same manner as yourself.

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Paul Reader's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

Paul Reader

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September 05, 2011, 12:59AM

Thanks Mike - from my perspective your comments are very measured and helpful.
Just to reinforce my feelings about constructive criticism - purely negative comments like "rottenidea" help no-one but "I dont quite see how this would work because...." are simply mini-challenges seeking solutions.
Keep up your good work!

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anjelika deogirikar's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

anjelika deogirikar

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September 05, 2011, 04:36PM

@mike + @paul reader - thank you both for your comments! I definitely think that the commenting in the community should include constructive criticism so that 1) we can further develop / refine ideas, and 2) also helps to clarify the ideas and perhaps identify a different concept to build on. The evaluation phase does allow for this kind of 'blinded feedback.' Personally that's how I find the live events great, because I feel that people might be more open to providing the constructive criticism on the concepts (vs. having writing them online).

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anjelika deogirikar's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

anjelika deogirikar

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September 05, 2011, 04:38PM

@Paul van Zoggel yes, there's definitely a hybrid model of online / offline engagement. The local chapters wouldn't replace the OpenIDEO online community, rather I think it should enhance the online community. Thanks for sharing this idea about 'Urgent Evoke.'

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Martin Johnstone

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August 18, 2011, 02:07PM

I also think that bars, coffee shops, restaurants and hotels can begin to communicate that they are friendly for OpenIdeo meetings and workshops. We could all get a local business to become a place we can gather

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anjelika deogirikar's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

anjelika deogirikar

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August 18, 2011, 03:12PM

Yes, I think there's also an opportunity to collaborate with:
1) co-working spaces (we have quite a few in San Francisco, including http://bayarea.the-hub.net/
2) university campuses (such as Anne's concept: http://www.openideo.com/open/impact/concepting/openideo-university/)
3) and potentially with IDEO offices since there are are quite a few in big cities around the world too (http://www.ideo.com/contact/)

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Paul Reader's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

Paul Reader

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September 03, 2011, 06:53AM

Cassie Robinson suggests avoiding duplication and in some respects I agree but as I said elsewhere even 2 people getting together can be productive. We all have different communities so I think all of these approaches to meeting together are appropriate. Libraries, community halls or (as we have here community houses), hotels, schools and business premises (after hours), even our own homes. I believe growing these organically is probably the key. Informal and occasional "meetings" can become formalised as and when those involved deem it appropriate. Enthusiasm and commitment make these things work, grow, spawn and diversify while at the same time maitaining basic iceology.

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Cassie Robinson

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August 29, 2011, 08:06PM

I think this is a great idea but being a huge advocate of collaboration rather than replication this project needs to connect with and support the fabulous work of Tessy Britton.

Last year Tessy published a collaborative book called Hand Made ( (40,000 online readers) that can be found here:
http://www.socialspaces.org/#460053/HAND-MADE

HandMade 2 will be published shortly and the idea has evolved in to starting to produce local versions of Hand Made. The Community Lover's Guide to the Universe is this evolution: http://communityloversguide.org

Since announcing the project in June 2011 they have 20 confirmed voluntary editors and another 10 or so in discussion. The ambition is to publish about 50 editions in the next 12 months.

This particular section on the website resonates with this idea here on OpenIdeo and really identifies the social impact has been and will continue to be created.

" In the process of gathering the project stories a network of innovators and social designers will evolve into a powerful and connected group. In many places this local network will be new.

Ideas from local editors show that these local networks will quickly become beacons of knowledge sharing and inspiration where they live - connecting with a much wider network of people around the world doing original and creative social design work. Most importantly these hubs will inspired other people to collaborate and experiment with their own projects."

I really hope you get in touch with Tessy - she is blazing a trail in the UK and I know she already has some Editors in many other parts of the world.

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Martin Johnstone

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August 18, 2011, 02:05PM

I think we should team with libraries and create OpenIdeo spaces within them

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Paul Reader's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

Paul Reader

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August 29, 2011, 12:00PM

Yes! See http://www.openideo.com/open/impact/concepting/openideo-a-national-library-program-/ from Vincent Tan. Also schools and other institutions, especially those with underutilised infrastructure and resources.

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James McBennett

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August 14, 2011, 04:56PM

Love it! Could add local Sponsors, in London I think I could have all of that provided free. At the moment I only know one person on OI in London (Louise) , proving the need for local chapters.

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anjelika deogirikar's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

anjelika deogirikar

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August 14, 2011, 06:35PM

Thanks James for your comment! It's great that there could be opportunities to build networks in other cities around the world - as this could be great to connect with people who live in that community, or when one's traveling to that city it'd be great to connect with others.

I just posted another concept to make it easier to find people by adding Facebook/Ning-like functionality on the OpenIDEO platform:
http://www.openideo.com/open/impact/concepting/openideator-community-network/

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Paul Reader's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

Paul Reader

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August 28, 2011, 06:05PM

I think this is a very worthwhile concept. At present I dont have a "feel" for where people are who might constitute a local chapter and Mikes point about preferred way to contribute is well taken. Having said that formation of a local chapter would really only require 2 people and a few resources.
What happens thereafter would depend on the enthusiasm of the initial members and the multiplier effect that generates. While a formal model would be useful as a guide I dont think one should be mandated. The principle of contribute what, when and however you can that applies in the virtual community is also relevant to physical networking. The Geolocator concept proposed elsewhere could provide the necessary link for existing OpenIDEOTERS (?? OpenIDEATORS - someone might enlighten me to the correct term) to become aware of a local chapters existence and hopefully a means of contact. As with any such group membership and attendace will fluctuate and the chapter would remain in existence so long as any two members continue to meet. Meeting times and venues will be many and varied. Costs can usually be kept to a minimum. Larger groups may well benefit from a more formal model or structure and if they become too big could simply become 2 or more smaller chapters. Annual or other periodic or inter-chapter events would be a function of the enthusiasm and commitment of the group formed.

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Ashley Jablow

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August 26, 2011, 07:55PM

Thanks for adding me to your virtual team! :) I think it's a great idea.

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Carlos Guyot

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August 21, 2011, 02:30AM

I love this concept. The idea of having “analog” meetups sounds like pushing OpenIDEOS frontiers. On the other hand, it may works as a way of having local teams working “behind“ the digital platform. Is there something to learn from TEDx way of getting local?

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Mihir Vaze

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August 18, 2011, 06:28PM

agree with Ankita Dewan!

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Ankita Dewan

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August 17, 2011, 10:49AM

I liked this idea. But if there could be 1 person appointed to represent from each offline group, showing their process and progress online too(can be through a group on openideo) could be a help to everyone around the world. As it would be a broader way to get connected to rest of the online contributors.

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Arjan Tupan's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

Arjan Tupan

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August 17, 2011, 11:01AM

I think that it is very important to maintain the connection to the online platform and the wider community. A very important element in all offline activities would be the online reporting on it.

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Ankita Dewan's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

Ankita Dewan

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August 17, 2011, 11:26AM

Thank you arjan, for Pumping the idea, as so many contributors are conceptualizing on online to offline connection.. it gave me a trigger to think opposite. which is equally important, as i m already in a process to create a concept for offline to online reporting, Will be up in 1 or 2 days, i still need to think lots on it.
Thanks to Anjelika for the current post & Anne Kjaer's Travel guide for social innovation (http://www.openideo.com/open/impact/concepting/travel-guide-for-social-innovation-/) and
open ideo geolocater (http://www.openideo.com/open/impact/concepting/openideo-geolocator) for inspiring me.

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Arjan Tupan's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

Arjan Tupan

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August 17, 2011, 11:28AM

Great, Ankita. What you could also do is add your concept today, and see what replies you get to further build on it. Always helps the thinking process.

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Ankita Dewan's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

Ankita Dewan

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August 17, 2011, 11:54AM

Thank you :)

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anjelika deogirikar's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

anjelika deogirikar

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August 18, 2011, 03:15PM

Ankita - were you able to post your concept yet? (Just wanted to make sure I didn't miss it...!) When I've hosted the Tweetups/OpenSTORMs, the first part in making introductions was also to include how you participate in the online community and what were questions/challenges. I was happy to hear that some of my fellow OpenIDEATORs had similar experiences about participation in the online community, so we were all able to share our different experiences on how best to use, participate, and collaborate on the OpenIDEO platform.

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Arjan Tupan

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August 15, 2011, 06:20AM

This is a great idea. And maybe we can take it a step further by shifting the focus of the local chapters to realisation of concepts to tackle local issues. Challenges like the Jamie Oliver one, or i20 and bone marrow challenges, resulted in many concepts that can be realised locally. I would like to see the local chapters focusing on making it real and reporting back. In a next phase you could even use the open source OpenIDEO platform Avi submitted as an inspiration as a platform for taking on local challenges. Reporting back to the main platform would be a mandatory part of it, so that others can learn from experiences.

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anjelika deogirikar's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment

anjelika deogirikar

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August 15, 2011, 06:44PM

Thanks Arjun for your feedback! I actually think this engagement component could be fleshed out as a separate concept. The local approach can tackle two opportunities: 1) increase participation in the online OpenIDEO challenges (through these informal tweetups and OpenSTORMs), and 2) actually implement some of the winning concepts from the challenges in the local community. This is very exciting to think about the potential opportunities we have to make change in our communities :-)

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Meena Kadri

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August 14, 2011, 10:07PM

Great stuff, Anjelika. Perhaps to strengthen your concept you may want to draw on some of your learnings from being involved in the Acumen SF chapter – like the kind of of support & guidance they provide? Though I mentioned a few of these in the Inspiration you've linked to here – our rocking Advisory Panel will be judging Concepts based on what's included in the actual post – so get all that goodness in there if you want to catch their attention ;^) I'm loving what you're suggesting here and would love to see the idea fleshed out a bit in terms of the practical side of things. And hopefully you'll get more support and suggestions in the comments section along the way...

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anjelika deogirikar's reply to Sabina D'Silva's comment