“Disruption” was the buzz word at this year’s Skoll World Forum, which concluded today after three days of bringing together leading social entrepreneurs to share ideas for a better future.
The forum covered how to leverage technology for change—videos and photos on mobile devices can show a personal story that’s more likely to accelerate change than politics—and also when to abandon it—recognizing that in our virtual world, collaboration and innovation start with personal interaction, on the ground.
Another theme was the idea of “rethinking”—rethinking business, rethinking what development even means, and rethinking the very way we measure success.
Michael Green, executive director of the Social Progress Imperative, announced a new and improved way to measure impact, the “social progress index” which takes into account social and environmental factors, not just economic ones. Green writes:
Countries need a new measure—as a complement to, not a replacement for economic growth—that assesses and quantifies factors that really matter to real people: Do I have enough to eat? Do I have shelter? Can I get an education? Do I have a fair chance to get on in life without facing discrimination? Economic measures, whether it is GDP or income inequality, are mere proxies for wellbeing. We need to measure wellbeing directly.
The Skoll Foundation curated and produced a steady stream of articles throughout the forum on topics like innovation in unexpected places around the world, how to build an ecosystem for social impact, balancing profit and sustainability, and using technology to design solutions. In the kick-off video for this year’s forum, the foundation asked people to imagine the world 50 years from now.
How do you imagine it?
This post is part of the GOOD community’s 50 Building Blocks of Citizenship—weekly steps to being an active, engaged global citizen. This week: Learn About Your Town’s Sister Cities. Follow along and join the conversation at good.is/citizenship and on Twitter at #goodcitizen.
