tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90800284562812845242024-03-05T07:39:42.418-05:00WebutantesMusings on the Web, Tech, and Social GoodUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger144125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-68045494756255577622014-07-02T12:29:00.002-04:002014-07-02T12:29:13.981-04:00Is Globalization Making Us More Tolerant?
This article originally appeared in the Huffington Post.
Growing up in the U.S. with foreign parents was like getting a glimpse into other universes. Each summer, when we would visit Israel, I would marvel at the artists on MTV Europe -- who was Robbie Williams? And why wasn't TLC on? Every four years, my Chilean father would hole up in the basement watching the Mundial on Univision. These Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-91401984796188204442014-07-02T12:28:00.000-04:002014-07-02T12:28:20.167-04:00Social Good at London Technology Week
This article originally appeared in the Huffington Post.
Yesterday, I moderated a panel on the role technology plays in creating social impact. The Tech+SocialGood panel was held at Google Campus and organised as part of London Technology Week and Plus Social Good, a joint initiative of the UN Foundation, Mashable, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and other notable partners.
The four Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-35082397043562562052014-05-14T04:50:00.001-04:002014-05-14T04:50:24.318-04:00Tech+SocialGood Event in June
I'm excited to be organising this event for London Technology Week on behalf of Plus Social Good!
+SocialGood unites a global community of innovators around a shared vision: The power of technology and new media to make the world a better place. We would like to bring this spirit to London Technology Week. +SocialGood is a joint initiative of the UN Foundation, Mashable, Bill and Melinda Gates Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-20806559552856213462014-03-07T09:07:00.002-05:002014-03-07T09:07:23.717-05:005 Social Good Stories You Might Have Missed
Here is a round up of this week's top social good stories.
Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The GSMA Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) programme today releases its 2013 State of the Industry Report. The report contains key findings and insights on the growth of the mobile financial services sector, including mini case studies and mobile money best practices. This year, for the first time, the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-57252055070109057282014-03-07T08:53:00.002-05:002014-03-07T08:53:30.763-05:00Investing in Women
With International Women's Day only a few days away, it's important to assess where we stand in terms of gender equality. How are women and girls faring globally? The statistics are striking; whilst the issues themselves vary from the least developed to most developed countries, it is clear that we are under-investing in women across the board.
To read the rest of the article, please go to:&Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-27779384064454259672014-02-16T08:57:00.003-05:002014-02-16T08:57:26.944-05:00Teaching at General Assembly London
I'm excited to announce that I'll be teaching two workshops at General Assembly London. Please join me for a Content Marketing Workshop on March 10th and a session on Creating Marketing Campaigns with Instagram, Pinterest, and Vine on March 13th. For more information, go to https://generalassemb.ly/
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-50288524335787403662014-02-16T06:46:00.004-05:002014-02-16T06:46:31.363-05:00Social Media for Social Good: Going Beyond Facebook and Twitter
International organizations, non-profits and social enterprises are using social media to raise awareness, mobilize volunteers and source donations. But many organizations rely heavily on Facebook and Twitter whilst shying away from newer social media platforms. How can non-profits leverage social media for social good with Instagram, Pinterest and Vine?
This post originally appeared in the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-49933625535447562862013-11-20T19:53:00.003-05:002013-11-20T19:53:36.333-05:00To Fix the US Healthcare System, Let's Look to the Developing World
Healthcare in the United States is a mess. In 2011, US healthcare spending reached $2.7 trillion, more than twice that of other wealthy countries, and with worse outcomes. In the United States, life expectancy is lower, infant deaths are higher, and there are fewer doctors and hospital beds available per person than other wealthy countries.
The US healthcare system is not just broken; it is Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-26868126071341332572013-11-19T15:24:00.000-05:002013-11-19T15:24:07.710-05:00What Reverse Innovation Can Do for the Millennial Development Goals
As the
countdown to the Millennium Development Goals begins, ideas are circulating for scalable solutions that improve lives at the base
of the pyramid (the 4 billion people living below the global poverty line) and beyond. Several of the Millennium Development goals directly
relate to healthcare and interest in reverse innovation is palpable.
Reverse innovation (also known as trickle Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-82651180586537073022013-11-12T12:53:00.001-05:002013-11-12T12:53:35.367-05:003 Ways that Business Can Alleviate Poverty
Business has become a dirty word. Doing business with the poor seems taboo, shocking, unthinkable. But what if business could improve the lives of the world's poorest people?
According to the World Resources Institute, there are 4 billion people worldwide who live below the Western poverty line. 1 billion of them live on less than $1 per day. They are known as the base of the pyramid. Anyone Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-45807912247868867692013-10-25T15:05:00.000-04:002013-10-25T15:05:01.567-04:00Technology is Changing the Way We Eat
I have been doing a bit of research on food lately, and I've been particularly interested in the way technology is shaping the way we eat- from the genetically modified DNA of the corn we consume to the way we discover food trends on Instagram. Where is technology helpful and where is it harmful?
On the one hand, I am enthralled by power of human creativity: We use technology to create Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-17541025343120327402013-10-15T09:28:00.001-04:002013-10-15T09:28:27.513-04:00A word from our Advisors and Connectors about...A word from our Advisors and Connectors about... Today, October 11th, is International Day of the Girl. Girl Up , an United Nations Foundation initiative aiming to unite girls to change the world has been promoting #11DaysofAction . We wanted to share some of our thoughts! Our Advisor, Esther Agbarakwe , shared some of her thoughts regarding girls' education: Girl Child EducationUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-23915616181848496812013-10-02T16:56:00.001-04:002013-10-02T16:56:39.208-04:00Reverse Innovation in mHealth: Interview with Kirsten Gagnaire of the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action
I recently interviewed Kirsten Gagnaire, Global Director of the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA). MAMA is a public-private partnership that provides relevant information to pregnant women and local healthcare workers text and voice messages.
MAMA credits its success- reaching 530,000 mothers in 60 countries- with a focus on local relevance and rapid Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-47258151928094488202013-09-29T22:35:00.000-04:002013-09-29T22:35:26.749-04:00Reverse Innovation in Health: Interview with Patty Mechael, Director of the mHealth Alliance
During the Social Good
Summit, I had the privilege to interview Patty Mechael, Director of the mHealth
Alliance, a public-private partnership to provide valuable health information
through mobile phones. Mechael was an early proponent of mobile health
(mHealth), writing her PhD on mHealth in Egypt, a country that only had
3% mobile penetration at the time.
"Mobile health in
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-28079445012170294502013-09-24T17:35:00.002-04:002013-09-24T17:35:29.405-04:00The Social Good Summit and Importance of Caring
I have been fortunate enough to attend the Social Good Summit these past few days, a conference about social good that runs in parallel with UN week in the States. The conference provides an open platform for diplomats, entrepreneurs, business and civil society leaders to share their thoughts on the opportunities for social change.
One of the recurrent themes was the importance of feeling a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-56447037130574078282013-09-18T13:40:00.002-04:002013-09-18T13:40:40.190-04:00Three Elements of a Successful Social Campaign
Peace Day is an annual event that takes place on September 21st. This year, for Peace Day, the organisation Peace One Day has launched a social action campaign encouraging people to answer the question "Who will you make peace with?" The Global Shapers Geneva Hub has embraced the campaign and sparked a call to action with the entire Global Shapers Community. A number of other hubs, from Guyana Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-77005606201818084782013-09-13T03:34:00.000-04:002013-09-13T03:34:37.100-04:00Why Support Networks Matter for Entrepreneurs
I was speaking with a friend this morning, an early-stage entrepreneur who has invested the past two years in her start-up. She has made progress- there is a product, a team, and some seed funding. But she still feels far away from the vision that drew her to launch the company in the first place. And there are many day to day challenges as an entrepreneur- from raising funding to dealing with Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-88065813321843245082013-09-05T08:45:00.001-04:002013-09-05T08:46:10.899-04:00What does Facebook's Decline Mean for the Industry?
A lot has been written lately about the Facebook "exodus". Teenagers are not on Facebook, and as 13 year old Ruby Karp mentioned, "All of our parents and parents' friends have Facebooks." And teens do not want to socialise where their parents are. Beyond losing its cool factor with teens, many of Facebook's current users are leaving. This spring, Facebook lost 6 million US visitors in one month Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-38321317974048259902013-09-04T07:15:00.001-04:002013-09-04T07:15:03.644-04:00+Social Good Advisors and Connectors
+SocialGood is a global community movement made up of innovators, social entrepreneurs, and thought leaders from more than 120 countries around the world working together to accelerate positive social change through technology and social media, and is a joint initiaitive of the United Nations Foundation, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Nations Development Programme, the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-9710239916313696642013-08-30T10:51:00.000-04:002013-08-30T10:52:33.981-04:00Integrating Simplicity into Innovation
Thanks to @VivaDadwal, I have just finished reading a series of articles on reverse innovation in the healthcare sector. I was fascinated to learn that current antimalarials draw their origins from Chinese medicine and that variolation in Africa and Asia was a precursor to modern inoculation and vaccination. Clearly, the concept of reverse innovation is not new. And the beauty of innovationUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-43386066158126691542013-08-23T05:21:00.001-04:002013-08-23T05:22:38.117-04:00Could Slums be Communities of Opportunity?
About a month ago, I was fortunate enough to hear Ralph da Costa-Nunez speak about turning homeless shelters into communities of opportunity. The concept has thoroughly inspired me, and since then, I've been thinking about this concept with another type of informal housing: slums.
The UN estimates that over 1 billion people around the world live in slums and that the number could increase to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-27976860984009114402013-08-16T17:07:00.003-04:002013-08-16T17:08:34.073-04:00The Long-Tail Impact of our Social Media Posts
I just got home from the welcome dinner of the second Annual Curators Meeting of the Global Shapers Community, where I met Mykolas Majauskas, the Curator of the Vilnius Hub in Lithuania. Lithuania has a troubled history with Poland, and after an anti-Lithuanian banner was held up at a Polish football match, tension was high.
Lithuania responded with a viral campaign based on the Israel loves Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-79386687520941536762013-08-08T17:18:00.001-04:002013-08-08T17:20:12.189-04:00The Debate Over Artificial Intelligence
I've been reading quite a bit about artificial intelligence (AI) lately, and I'm fascinated by the polarisation surrounding the topic. Today's breed of smart computers and robots can beat humans in chess and outperform financial traders in investing stocks. They can also auto-drive cars, detect tumours, and, in the case of drones, drop bombs without any human intervention required. Like allUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-88530794109346396102013-07-29T11:47:00.002-04:002013-07-29T11:55:03.103-04:00Finding Home
One of my best friends shared this TED talk with me the other day. In a world where so many of us have lived in several countries, hold multiple passports, and speak at least two or three languages. where is home? Do we feel at home in a community of travellers? Do we feel at home when we spend time with the people we love? Do we feel at home when we find time to stop and reflect?
It is Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080028456281284524.post-40960869934622560422013-07-19T10:31:00.001-04:002013-07-19T10:31:51.021-04:00Adapting to Climate Change
I have been spending this week on a Global Leadership Fellows training at Columbia University, working with the Earth Institute and the Mailman School of Public Health to understand the impact of climate change on urban areas. In particular, we have been looking at New York City's climate change adaptation plan in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
The Economist estimates that 64% and 86% of the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0