A new Environment for Social Entrepeneurs
The theory of Six Degrees of Separation says that everyone in the world is six steps away from any other person in the by a chain of a friend of a friend[1]. But, is this theory still true? In a world with 93% of mobile penetration, 50% of Smartphone penetration and 35% of the population with access to the Internet is difficult to believe that we still six steps away from anyone[2]. The reality is that with a click on our Smartphones, we can reach more than 6.500 million people around the world.
This reality has huge social implications, as Samartphones have become the “epicenter” for everything from buying to communicating through travel and learning[3]. That creates the perfect environment for social entrepreneurs to innovate and impact in a bigger scale than ever.
One of the bigger problems of social entrepreneurs is the social scaling. The impact of any action comes through the dissemination of the action or idea. The biggest dissemination, the biggest impact. The use of Smartphone and online platforms as a way to reach people could help social entrepreneurs to avoid the current dissemination problems:
- Market forces don’t work due to the small return → The dissemination is not base on the return anymore because is the dissemination what create the return.
- Not enough resources → it needs less recourses to reach more people.
- There’s not economy of scale → Apps and platforms are that much affected by economy of scale.
Therefore, it is normal that many social entrepreneurs are using apps and online platforms for develop their activities base mainly in collaborative economy and crowdsourcing. For example: (More examples in www.apps4citizens.org)
- Countable Congress (US): Countable is a platform that makes government easy, empowering voters with the knowledge and tools necessary to directly influence policy and keep track of their congressional representatives.
- Libres (Spain): App promote by the Spanish government to help battered women and their families to end with the violence situation.
- Celicity . Gluten-Free Socialnetwork(Spain): Platform for celiac people that recommend place for buying and eat without being worried about what you are eating.
To conclude, there’s a new way of communication through Smartphone that can reach more people than ever. Therefore, it creates the perfect environment for social entrepreneurs to increase their impact and scaling their ideas in an easiest way.
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation
[2]http://www.slideshare.net/wearesocialsg/social-digital-mobile-around-the-world-january-2014
[3]http://www.eldiario.es/alternativaseconomicas/brujula-Apps-colaborativas_6_387121309.html
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13 May 2015
por
Nadia Gutiérrez
IMSD /
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