West End Debut for the (Plastic) Baglady

Social innovation can be simple, and singular … at least at the outset.

Shirley Lewis had been a journalist and broadcaster, had practised acupuncture and homeopathy before her concern for the environment led her to the simple – if personally challenging – idea of the Baglady. Not a carry-all-your-possessions-in-bags sort-of baglady, but a Plastic Baglady.

In order to highlight the problems of litter and waste, first in Australia and then in her native Ireland, Shirley dressed up in plastic bags and adopted an ASAP lifestyle. That’s As Sustainable As Possible. From that  flowed lots of appearances, films and – coming soon – a play. In this video the Baglady visits Cookstown. More here at Baglady Productions, and on blip.tv. (read more...)

Sketching the social innovation landscape

It looks as if we’ll have a socially innovative autumn in London, with more opportunities and support for people wanting to do good stuff using new (tech) stuff. Here’s what I’ve picked up recently, and I’m sure I’ve missed a lot, so please add a comment with other events and activities you may know about. This round-up rather shamelessly favours my friends.

Social Innovation Camp last April gave us an inspiring and enjoyable model for developing web-enabled projects by bringing together techies and innovators for a weekend , so I’m delighted to hear from organiser Paul Miller that the team have raised funds from Nesta and the Young Foundation for two more camps and a series of monthly meetups. (read more...)

Socialreporting an event – the inside story

The 2gether08 Festival of social innovation, media and general good stuff, held in London last month, gave me a terrific opportunity to try some concentrated social reporting, and learn what an extraordinary team effort and mix of tools it takes to make it work well.

I (read more...)

Re-connecting with Terry, and 1990s Net optimism

Until recently I had rather lost touch with Terry Grunwald, an inspiring and helpful mentor and friend in my early acquaintance with the web. We met in the mid-1990s while I was in the US finding out about Freenets and Community Networks. Those grass-roots initiatives to connect and support people, and develop local content, were an inspiration to many people who are now developing more sophisticated social technology programmes. (read more...)

Social innovation is happening: will Government join in?

This autumn the UK Government departments responsible for citizen empowerment, tech-supported innovation, and democratic engagement have a chance to catch a wave of optimism about what might be achieved through more open, cross-sector collaborations. But will they rise to the opportunity? There are some encouraging signs. (read more...)