Need ideas? Check out this initiative for social innovation.

It's been awhile since I've got the chance to post, project presentations, case presentations and mid-term exams catching up with me. RUN! =)

The competition model (for the lack of a better term) is very popular and has been relatively successful. I'm not sure whether such a term has been coined but lately many organisations have been partnering schools and/or organising competitions amongst students. For example, many companies sponsor student-organised competitions for a chance to recruit interns into their company. Some organisations use competitions to generate ideas for new products/services.

Whilst searching for a project for my Social Entrepreneurship course, I chanced upon this competition which is pretty meaningful.

Dell Social Innovation Competition

This competition is organised by the University of Texas in partnership with Dell in search of the next big idea/innovation that could change the world. The purpose behind the competition is very meaningful as we see a decline in effectiveness of the existing donations-based model of allievating social problems.

All the require is that you are studying in a 4-year university and have a good idea that could work. *Disclaimer* the eligibility criteria is more comprehensive than that so please visit their website for the full one *Disclaimer* There are 3 simple parts to the competition and only 10 more days before the deadline for entry submission.

Round 1: Idea submission
Students submit their ideas online and people all over the world can view their submissions and vote.

Round 2: Social Venture Plan & Video
Those who got through the first round will write a plan and prepare a video to pitch their idea to the panel of judges.

Round 3: Final Presentation
Finalists get to go to the University of Texas and present their ideas to the panel of judges.

I think the idea behind this competition is good because even if teams don't make it through, the ability for everyone around the world to view their ideas and get in contact with them serves as a good platform for like-minded people to get together and hopefully put some of these ideas into action.

In SMU, even if you're not interested in taking part in the competition, you can get some inspiration for LTB & other related projects from some of the ideas submitted by the competition participants. Especially good for those interested in social entrepreneurship or community involvement projects.

The call for ideas is definitely good, now all we need are people who are capable enough to execute some of these ideas and maybe then the world will truly be changed.

Bill Gates and Education...

It took awhile but finally I managed to catch Bill Gates in action at TED.

He first talks about malaria, pulling an awesome stunt on the crowd. I'm sure he freaked out quite afew of the guests in the front row.

His second point is on education and he brought up several interesting points which I will talk about below.

Before that, watch the video from TED.com!



On education, Bill Gates gives a couple of interesting statistics.

1. 30% of students in America don't finish high school.
2. You have less than 25% chance to get a 4-year degree if you come from a low-income family and
3. You have a higher probability of going to jail than graduating the 4-year degree course.

The irony of this is that you can only raise your income through education. This of course puts many people into a poverty cycle, something that isn't particularly easy to get out of.

I made a comment on the video which I will post here as well.

Comment on TED.com
I agree with Bill Gates that teachers play an extremely important role, in a child's education. Great teachers make for great learning but finding these teachers is the problem.

Firstly, I agree with his claim that getting further education in the form of a masters degree has little effect on the quality of teaching. I am from Asia and although we share a similar reward structure for teachers in my country, the best teachers aren't necessarily the most qualified ones. Being dynamic and having the ability to engage students is pretty much what a great teacher does. Interestingly, the best teachers are those who practice what they preach. I've never seen a teacher who is enthusiastic and engaging in class not live their lives in the same way and vice versa. In my opinion, getting these people into the teaching profession is probably not difficult but keeping them there is. In my country, teachers are faced with extreme amounts of stress, which I will address in my next point. However, despite this, their remuneration packages are at best average relative to many other professions. After awhile, the job takes a toil on them and many are unable to keep their energy levels and choose to leave. So I feel that the way to get good teachers is to gain support from the government to make teaching as a career more financially rewarding, to retain the best teachers. Then naturally this will bring us to the debate on how exactly should we measure performance.

My second point, is on the suggestion that Bill gave to use video to help teachers share best practices and ideas for improvement. I just feel that this will put immense pressure on teachers, knowing that they are constantly monitored, and really put some of them off. This and his idea on sharing teaching videos with students as assignments to review the coursework assumes 2 things - all students are eager to learn and all teachers are eager to teach better. Both of which are highly questionable.

In conclusion, we need great teachers but these teachers are found and not made. Once we find these people, we better give everything we can to keep them happy and in the system because they will burn out eventually so let's try to delay this as much as possible.

You can't teach a teacher to teach. What do you think?

A Weekend in School

Spending a weekend of makeup classes and meetings in school doesn't seem to be a foreign idea to the average SMU student.

Look, I get it. Business school students have been said to be "hungrier", taking on all sorts of different activities in and outside school. But where does it end?

I'm currently participating in a research that tracks the daily experience of SMU students. I get to rank my satisfaction levels of many aspects of my life daily, including the weather, amount of leisure time and social life. There seems to be one item in common for the past 7 days - low satisfaction for the amount of leisure time.

As I was walking to get coffee today, I started thinking... is what we're doing even possible? I know that a business degree is only as good as what comes along at the side but surely there is a limit to how much we can do.

I really want to poll some students and professors to see how much time should they feel they should devote to certain tasks like projects, studying for quizzes and preparation for classes. With some basic assumptions like 30 minutes for lunch, 1 hour for transport and 8 hours of sleep etc, add them all up and see whether its humanly possible.

Who knows? Maybe it will all add up to a healthy amount and prove that we're just complaining for nothing. Or maybe it will show that we really need more than 24 hours a day. What do you think?

Technology, Entertainment & Design 2009... Be Inspired.

At the beginning of class, Prof introduced an amazing website, TED.com. It is a conference which brings together the world's greatest minds, challenging them to make an 18 minute presentation of their lives. Speakers talk about a wide range of topics so there will be something up everyone's alley. Every year, 3 speakers will be crowned as winners and be granted one wish, called TED Prize. They get one chance to change the world with their wish and one year later, they unveil their wish during the conference.

TED2009 is now underway! Check out their blog as the conference goes on. First day speakers include Bill Gates who pulled an interesting stunt. Read more about it here.

Personally, I've been inspired by many TED videos. Will be talking about them in later posts as well as some thoughts on this year's speakers.

What will they say... when it all ends?

Morbid as it may be, ever think of what your eulogy will say? How will you be remembered? What will you be remembered for?

Many of us trudge through life chasing deadlines and "dreams". Deadlines imposed on us by ourselves, dreams thrusted upon us by society. If you are currently pursuing internships, joining competitions, running for leadership positions and taking part in overseas programmes, maybe you have entered a race... a rat race.

Sometimes I wonder why we do what we do. Call me sheltered but I am surrounded by a large majority of people who want the best things in life. A high-powered career, a luxury car, a beautiful house and quality items around them. Unknowingly, many of us have been sucked into a vortex. A hole with no bottom, a race with no end.

Remember how back in primary school your teachers used to tell you that primary school is like a 6-lap race around the school track? In primary 6, they motivated you by telling you that you've already run 5 laps and with the final lap in sight, you should work harder and finish with a bang.

Guess what? It's a decade later and you're still in that damn track. Running and running, never stopping because people beside you seem to have boundless energy and only stop to mock those who have lost their strength to keep running.

At this point I'd like to share an interesting article.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/01/scientists-find.html

"Researchers have found that low self-esteem and materialism are not just a correlation, but also a causal relationship where low self esteem increases materialism, and materialism can also create low self-esteem. The also found that as self esteem increases, materialism decreases."

I believe many will find some truth in this article but won't have the strength to take a stand. Hey, I'm one of them. Still, sometimes I wonder whether there's more to life than running this race. There must be a reason why I'm here in the first place. Maybe that's why I'm venturing into social entrepreneurship... to use what I've learnt to benefit people. How? I shall write about that in the next post. For now, back to that one thought...

What will your eulogy say? How will you be remembered and what will you be remembered for?

Too Many Tools... Too Little Time

I've got a couple of thoughts I really want to lay down on this blog but before that, this one thing keeps bugging me.

Where does everyone get enough time to explore all these social media tools?

There's always the argument that we have tools to combine everything into one easily accessible page/program. The only problem is, new versions of these tools seem to keep popping up everywhere.

There has been quite some buzz about social media and web 2.0 being the next big thing in communications. I cannot claim to be an expert in the subject at present, but as a beginner, I can say that everything is overwhelming. Whilst I can visualise the benefits of employing such tools for communication, I believe it will take quite some time, effort and resources before it becomes really applicable for the average business.

After a couple of weeks trying to play around with what's available in the market, I only have one conclusion - Web 2.0 is a lifestyle. Without immersing yourself into it, there is little chance and hope of being able to fully benefit from its functionality. The only problem and difficulty is, how to find the time to make it your lifestyle.

More thoughts on social entrepreneurship, social innovation and presentations coming up in the next few days. In the mean time, here's hoping that I succeed in becoming 2.0... that's Web 2.0.

Social Networking with a Difference

I am going to make it a point to add some fancy gadget/zhng (upgrade) my blog every time I post. Maybe this will get me some momentum and after awhile, this place will start looking more like a blog.

Today I will begin by sharing a video with you. I can't seem to embed it so I'll just post the link.

http://en.eyeka.com/video/view/409308-Ammado-animation-MP4-web

Imagine having the ability to make a difference in the world at the touch of a button. Imagine being able to stay connected with the organisations that reach out to the people who really need help. I have to admit that I'm not a particularly enthusiastic donor myself, having been a part of our "hey-I-need-CIP-hours-so-lets-do-flag-day" system. But this ties in very much with what I'm interested in... Social Entrepreneurship. It seems as though Ammado has managed to create a platform to benefit non-profit organisations whilst earning revenue through providing software-as-a-service to companies.

I will briefly talk about what Ammado is about, if you are interested to find out more please log on to their website.

Ammado is a social networking site with a difference. It has all the bells and whistles of a regular social networking site not unlike Facebook and Friendster, but it has one additional function - the ability to make donations to its member non-profit organisations at the touch of a button.

It has a feature called the Ammado Giving Circle. It basically records your donations and categorises them into various causes, E.g. Medical, education, environmental etc. This allows your friends to see what causes and non-profits you have donated to.

Ammado also allows non-profit organisations to interact with their doners, giving them thank-you messages or uploading videos and photos of their recent projects. It makes donating much more personal and tangible, when you can see the results of your charity.

From a social entrepreneurship standpoint, the possibilities of Ammado are endless. Different types of projects can spin off from this. Mini ones include having a group of volunteers set up an account and maintaining it for their adopted non-profit organisation until they are ready to take over. Large scale projects could include consolidating all the smaller non-profit organisations and organising a charity drive through Ammado to raise awareness of both their causes and this new donation facility.

My gut tells me that Singaporeans might be more wary of making donations online since the recent charity scandals. However, I believe Ammado might be on to something new... online micro donations. A quick google search will show you the potential of this method of fundraising.

Perhaps one day online donations will become the modus operandi for fundraising in Singapore. But until then, there's always the metal tins held by students along Orchard Road to go to.

Terence Tham