Newsletter: Issue 1

I sent out an email newsletter to all of my friends & contacts when I started.. For posterity, here's a copy of it:

Hi all! Sorry for the mass-email, but I wanted to send out a quick noteto let you all know what I'm up to. A few months ago, I was awarded a fellowship in social entrepreneurship at Stanford called the Digital Vision Program In fact, I just received a call from Bill Clinton! (ok, that was actually a political ad) I’ve taken a year’s academic leave of absence from Nokia to be a visiting scholar at Stanford.


What is Social Entrepreneurship?

My definition is using the tools of business and entrepreneurship toward positive social change; somewhere between making nonprofits more efficient and making adding positive societal impact to for-profit companies. PBS's website defines it as "A social entrepreneur identifies and solves social problems on a large scale." Interestingly enough, they cite historical figures like Teddy Roosevelt and Susan B Anthony as early pioneers in the field.


What am I doing?

One goal of the RDVP fellowship is to develop and launch a project. My project idea is based around camera phones, youth education, and online community. I'm very much in the research phase right now, fleshing out what I'm planning to do, who I want to partner with, and how it'll all come together. The first two weeks have been a whirlwind of seminars, brainstorming, and amazing speakers. The highlight was probably Jim Fruchterman, a rocket scientist who started an amazing company called Benetech that is tackling everything from document processing for human rights groups to landmine detection with bomb detection technology.


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Links
Digital Vision Program
PBS New Heroes
Benetech