Social Enter Prise

In line with the CAPITheticAL design competition and also linking with the design brief for this unit, we have been asked to reconfigure or adapt an existing government agency, or to create a new agency to suit our chosen strategy theme. Through a study of various agencies carried out in weekly workshops, we investigated:

• Virtual
• Flexible
• Mobile
• Distributed

I am interested in ways we, as a society, could (and should) promote innovation and encourage idea-making; ways in which people can help themselves through encouragement and support. It seems there is little focus on 'social enterprise' and currently there is no agency within government. I am also interested in exploring how this agency could be set up to transcend the physical and virtual realm.

Basically, it refers to an organisation that uses a business model of buying and selling goods or services but, unlike a traditional business, its prime motivation is to fund or support social causes.

Some existing examples of social enterprise:

The Big Issue http://www.bigissue.org.au/

The Big Issue Australia is one of Australia’s leading social enterprises providing creative solutions to the issue of homelessness.

We achieve this by using different mechanisms to connect people with the community, such asThe Big Issue Street Magazine Enterprise (a fortnightly independent current affairs magazine sold on the street by our authorised vendors), the Community Street Soccer Program (a national initiative using the positive power of sport to change lives), and The Big Issue Classroom (that challenges primary and secondary students to break down stereotypes surrounding homelessness and encourage tolerance and empathy towards all people).

McSence
http://mcsence.co.uk/


The McSence Group is an award winning Social Enterprise comprising five operating companies providing a wide range of professional services to businesses and individuals including Managed Workspace, Property Maintenance and Cleaning Services, Conference Centre Facilities, Training Services and Home Help services.
McSence is owned by the Community in which it is based and is governed by an unpaid board of volunteer Directors.

Each of the five trading companies is a stand-alone organisation with it’s own professional management that is tasked with returning profits for the Group. At the end of each financial year, the profits accrued are gifted to the parent company McSence Ltd which is a registered charity. McSence Ltd then uses these profits to reinvested in new business ventures or alternatively to distribute back to the community in the form of community grants. Many voluntary groups in the community have received support in this way including all the local schools and many individuals and families.

Although McSence is focused on the delivery of professional services to our clients, it continues to be a business run by the community, for the community. The Board of Directors form a cross section of the entire community and work on a voluntary basis without remuneration. Since the creation of the business no fees or expenses have ever been claimed by any of the Directors.

Google
http://www.socialenterpriselive.com/section/news/management/20101122/google-supports-social-enterprise-start-ups

Internet giant Google has entered the world of social enterprise to provide a package of support to young social entrepreneurs.

A partnership between Google's Getting British Business Online campaign; UnLtd, the foundation for social entrepreneurs; and the UK's largest network of business leaders, the Institute of Directors (IoD), launched the package last week during Global Entrepreneurship Week.

The ‘Ultimate Myth-Busting Package of Support’ includes funding from UnLtd’s £500-£15,000 award programme, the £205 joining fee of the IoD, which offers access to meeting rooms and networking events, although the annual membership fee of £313 still needs to be paid, and a free website and domain name from Google with free indexing on its search engine.
The complete package aims to support young entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs develop their ideas into businesses.

Features of a social enterprise:

• a continuous activity, producing or selling goods
• a high degree of autonomy
• a minimum amout of paid work
• an explicit aim to benefit the community
• an initiative launched by a group of citizens
• decision making power not based on capital ownership
• a participatory nature, which involves various parties
• limited profit distribution

aims:

• training
• job creation
• provision of local services

social enterprise types:

• Intermediate Labour Market Companies – businesses that undertake commercial work in order to train, support and employ disadvantaged job seekers and then help them into mainstream jobs.
• Social Firms – businesses that undertake commercial work to create employment for people with a disability
• Cooperatives, Associations and Mutuals – member-benefit businesses, formed to meet defined social needs of members, e.g. childcare, housing

Mind map of Social Enterprise, by author

Social Enterprise Models
1. Employment model
If you're looking to provide employment for marginalised people in your community, this model is for you. Your potential employees could be individuals who are elderly, suffer from a disability, have cultural or language barriers or have been isolated from the mainstream job market. In this model, the good or service being sold is less important than providing employment to its target group.
Examples include leaflet drop and newspaper delivery services provided by people with a mental illness, or culturally specific food catering supplied by refugee communities.
2. Goods/services model
Maybe you're not happy with some of the products currently on the market or the harmful methods used to produce them. This model attempts to minimise or remove any social or environmental harm in the creation of a product or the provision of the service. SEOs that offer fair prices to their makers by selling free-trade goods use the goods/services model. These SEOs avoid inequitable tariffs and promote better conditions by refusing to sell products made in sweatshops. Similarly, organisations that provide environmentally responsible goods, such as organic food or products that do not include petrochemicals, also often embrace this approach.
3. Social investment model
If you have a good business idea unrelated to your cause, the social investment model might be the way to go. This model most closely resembles a traditional business. However, unlike a business, this model invests all 'profit' into a charitable cause. This means that whatever you choose to do, you can raise money for the cause that's most important to you.
4. Hybrid model
A hybrid model combining more than one of the above structures is also a possibility. For example, a waste recycling business that hires long-term unemployed people and directs its 'profit' to a variety of charities combines all three models.
http://www.abc.net.au/catapult/basics/s2554740.htm

Creative Commons
Share, Remix, Reuse — Legally
Creative Commons works to increase sharing, collaboration and innovation worldwide.
http://creativecommons.org.au

Creative Commons is an international non-profit organisation that provides free licences and tools that copyright owners can use to allow others to share, reuse and remix their material, legally.

Creative Commons Australia is the affiliate that supports Creative Commons in Australia and administers the Australian Creative Commons licences.

Creative Commons is a world wide project that encourages copyright owners to allow others to share, reuse and remix their material, legally. We offer a range of free licences that creators can use to manage their copyright in the online environment, each providing its own specific protections and freedoms. We have built upon the “all rights reserved” of traditional copyright to create a voluntary “some rights reserved” system.

Social Traders
http://www.socialtraders.com.au/

Social Traders is a social enterprise development agency that was launched in June 2009. Based in Victoria, it came about in response to the need for systemic change required to support the development of social enterprise in Australia. Whilst much of Social Traders’ direct work with social enterprises will occur in Victoria we will be undertaking research and advocacy at a national level.

Social Traders
• is developing a social enterprise development fund which will provide training, support and investment to a number of Victorian social enterprises every year;
• will be investing in measuring the social impact of social enterprises;
• organises events and opportunities for social enterprises to network;
• undertakes research and policy development to further the interests of social enterprise;
• is leveraging funding into the social enterprise arena;
• is undertaking projects that will open up markets and business to social enterprise.

Examples

The social enterprises that are most visible in Australia are the opportunity shops that are located in every suburb and town. Some of the more well known social enterprises include the Bendigo Bank Community Branches, The Big Issueand Fifteen Restaurant. Behind these well known identities are thousands of other social enterprises that operate in most communities across the country.

Why do people develop social enterprises?
There are 3 principle motivations for developing a social enterprise:
1. Income generation - Many nonprofit organizations see social enterprise as a way to reduce their dependence on charitable donations and grants through commercial activity
2. Employment – Many people see employment or engagement of marginalised groups as the principle motivation for social enterprise.
3. Service delivery – Social enterprise has the capacity to create or retain services needed in communities.

Like any other business, setting up a social enterprise requires substantial advice, investment, and support. The Social Traders web site provides links to a range of tools and resources that will help people to develop a social enterprise. Much of the support available to mainstream business may be relevant to social enterprises starting up, as they often face many of the same barriers.

Urban Infomatics
http://www.urbaninformatics.net/
The increasing ubiquity of digital technology, internet services and location-aware applications in our everyday lives allows for a seamless transitioning between the visible and the invisible infrastructure of cities: road systems, building complexes, information and communication technology and people networks create a buzzing environment that is alive and exciting.

Driven by curiosity, initiative and interdisciplinary exchange, the Urban Informatics Research Lab at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a transdisciplinary cluster of people working on research and development at the intersection of people, place and technology with a focus on cities, locative media and mobile technology.

Urban informatics is the study, design, and practice of urban experiences across different urban contexts that are created by new opportunities of real-time, ubiquitous technology and the augmentation that mediates the physical and digital layers of people networks and urban infrastructures. (Foth, Choi, & Satchell, 2011)

Our team comprises and collaborates with architects with degrees in media studies, software engineers with expertise in urban sociology, human-computer interaction designers with a grounding in cultural studies, and urban planners with an interest in digital media and social networking. Being hosted by the Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation at QUT enables our projects to embrace the creative energy of a range of disciplines across design, performance, production and writing.

Civic Media
http://civic.mit.edu
The MIT Center for Civic Media creates and deploys technical and social tools that fill the information needs of communities.

We are inventors of new technologies that support and foster civic media and political action; we are a hub for the study of these technologies; and we coordinate community-based test beds both in the United States and internationally.

Civic media is any form of communication that strengthens the social bonds within a community or creates a strong sense of civic engagement among its residents. Civic media goes beyond news gathering and reporting. MIT researchers and students are experimenting with a variety of new civic media techniques, from technologies for protests and civil disobedience to phone-texting systems that allow instant, sophisticated votes on everyday activities. The Center amplifies the development of these technologies for community empowerment, while also serving to generate curricula and open-source frameworks for civic action.

Transforming civic knowledge into civic action is an essential part of democracy. As with investigative journalism, the most delicate and important information can often focus on leaders and institutions that abuse the trust of the communities they serve. By helping to provide people with the necessary skills to process, evaluate, and act upon the knowledge in circulation, civic media ensures the diversity of inputs and mutual respect necessary for democratic deliberation.