Sphaera Solutions, a leader in social change enablement, and Induct™ have entered into an agreement whereby Sphaera and Induct will integrate their cloud-based platforms to create a novel social change innovation ecosystem. Sphaera and Induct’s shared goal is to accelerate the pace of social change by making an abundance of best practices and proven innovative solutions discoverable, reusable, and adaptable …
Nearly every problem has been solved by someone, somewhere. The challenge of the 21st century is to find out what works and scale it up. — President Bill Clinton In preparing for a panel at the Skoll World Forum next month, I’ve been reflecting on that quote by President Clinton, the state of philanthropy, and the power and potential of technology — and technologists — to disrupt …
“I believe in the competitive advantage of collaboration.” Recently Astrid Scholz, Sphaera’s Chief Everything Officer, spoke with Tony Lloyd about Sphaera’s solution-sharing social enterprise on the Social Entrepreneur podcast. Have a listen here: http://tonyloyd.com/048/ Also available via iTunes, SoundCloud, and Stitcher
Whether you are optimistic or pessimistic about the potential of the Paris Agreement to usher in a new era of tackling climate change, the pragmatists among us are asking “What’s next?”.
The commitments made by over 190 states don’t yet add up to the 1.5C target proclaimed in Paris, and many commentators lament the lack of an enforceable implementation mechanism to help government achieve this target. There is also reinvigorated interest and hope for the role of the private sector, but realistically, given the short-termism brought on by corporate charters and structures, can we really expect companies to pivot effectively and lead the charge?
In several recent online and in person conversations, I’ve found myself grasping for ways to describe the kinds of makers, creators, innovators, workers we’ll want in the economy and society we’ll need to build to live well in the 21st century. Here’s a partial list:
A new data exchange for the emerging social capital market is connecting isolated pockets of information about social enterprises and impact investments.
A group of leading foundations and NGOs, including the Rockefeller Foundation, Oxfam and the Skoll Foundation have launched a peer-to-peer platform to make solving pressing social issues easier.
Sphaera (pronounced s’faira) is a peer-to-peer online platform that will collate the knowledge of funders and practitioners working to solve social and environmental issues around the world.
Organisations will share their evidence-based solutions and research within the portal, which will then repurpose the information into tools, processes and frameworks that can be used by others. In theory a solution that helps fishermen log their catch could be repurposed for healthcare workers to track and improve treatment of contagious disease.
Everyday around the world, people are coming up with new ways to tackle the greatest social and environmental challenges of our lifetime. Whether we’re focused on solving problems across time zones or in our own backyards, when we can learn from our collective successes and failures we are better, faster, and more effective at finding solutions. Sharing our knowledge allows …
Astrid Scholz can’t help but look magisterial. Wearing jeans, a simple sweater and a scarf, she is seated on a lounge at Glyph Café in Northwest Portland. It’s one of those chairs that articulate and bounce with the sitter’s every movement, but Scholz still manages a commanding presence. The coffee shop, just a few blocks south of her old digs …