Renjie Butalid

I heard this a cappella group break out into Superman by Five for Fighting at Needles Hall when I was on the University of Waterloo campus earlier today for a SiG@Waterloo-related workshop exercise.

The things you miss when you are no longer on campus every day.

This group, known as The Water Boys, were out promoting their last concert of the term scheduled for this Friday at 6pm, at Conrad Grebel Great Hall. I was really impressed with their marketing strategy of wandering into buildings across the campus, breaking out into a song, attracting an audience of students and administrators alike, and then leaving behind fliers with details to their upcoming performance.
Not only did they make my day, but they left enough of an impression with me to want to pass on the word. Keep it up!

Download now or listen on posterous

A Cappella.mp3 (1542 KB)

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Posted via email from Renjie Butalid

Anyone planning to attend The Feast Conference hosted by All Day Buffet in New York City on Thursday, October 1, 2009?

I was told by four different people this past week that I should look into attending this conference, and after going through their website, I am considering putting in my application to attend.

From their website:

The organizers are also doing something that I have never seen done before: providing the option for delegates to ‘micro-sponsor‘ the conference, asking those who can afford to pay higher registration prices to do so ($250 individual rate, $1000 corporate rate), which will enable conference organizers to extend the $99 invitations to “awe-inspiring vanguards whose brains get them where their wallets can’t.”

Rolling admission for the conference ends September 1, 2009, which is also when they close the $99 registration tickets.
You can apply to attend the conference here.

The Feast Kitchen and The Feast Workshop will also be taking place in New York City the next day on Friday, October 2, 2009.

Following the supposed ‘leak’ of the newly redesigned University of Waterloo logo yesterday, a large number of University of Waterloo students and alumni have expressed their reaction, providing commentary online through social media forums such as Twitter (follow the conversation using the hashtag #uwlogo) as well as the Facebook group, Students and Alumni Against the New University of Waterloo Logo, which currently has just over 3,200 members at the time of writing this blog post. Jesse Rodgers also has an insightful post on the turn of events, which he calls #uwlogogate.

The current logo and the proposed marketing logo side by side.

For readers unfamiliar with the University of Waterloo, below is a description of the institution found in many official UW publications:

The University of Waterloo is also the alma mater of Mike Laziridis, founder and co-CEO of Research In Motion, makers of the BlackBerry; as well as the only school where Microsoft hires the most number of engineering graduates every year (UW was also one of five institutions, and the only Canadian stop, that Bill Gates visited on his tour last year).

So yes, UW is a major player in tech innovation, and hopefully in the coming years, in social innovation as well, where the University of Waterloo is an important partner in the Social Innovation Generation national collaborative. We are currently in the process of developing a cross-disciplinary graduate program in Social Innovation, as well as supporting the formation of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity & Innovation, among other things.

But I digress.

From my understanding, the newly redesigned logo (on the right) will be used for marketing purposes only, while the official UW seal (on the left), will still be printed on UW degrees and used in convocation ceremonies. However, all of this still has to be confirmed by the university administration.

The majority of the comments found online have been negative towards the redesigned logo, with many people expressing the sentiment that the new University of Waterloo logo does not convey the gravitas associated with institutions of higher education, especially if it comes with a price tag of several thousand dollars in tuition, books and other expenses every semester.

That being said, the more I think about it, the more I see where UW Graphics and UW External Relations are going with their efforts to rebrand the University of Waterloo, especially if we are to look at other institutions of higher education across North America.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Every change to the status quo in any social system is bound to rustle some feathers, and perhaps this would make for an excellent case study. I hope that the administration and the powers that be take into account and listen to the voices of the students and alumni who find this logo unprofessional, and yes, dare I say it, tacky. That being said, I would certainly be open to the administration building on this, and perhaps, redesigning the UW logo but this time, allowing an engaged and captive audience to participate in the process.

When I first started writing this blog post, there were only 3,200 members in the Facebook group. There are now over 3,500 members, and that was only one hour ago. (Time is currently 950pm EST)

And of course, in this day and age where mashups and lolcats are all the rage, the following was ultimately bound to happen. (Note: If you hadn’t already noticed, I also included my favorite mashups with the university logos above).

Edit – 10:15pm EST July 22, 2009 – Posterous was being a bit wonky, so I had to manually fix some of the html code when this was first posted via email. The time is currently 10:15pm EST and there are now 3,640 members in the Facebook group

Edit – 10:30pm EST July 22, 2009 – Youtube video very recently uploaded to the Facebook group

Edit – 12:12am EST July 23, 2009 – It seems that this story (Facebook group, #uwlogo and #uwlogogate on Twitter), has caught the attention of the National Post

Edit – 8:30pm EST July 25, 2009 – A collection of blog posts and articles written about the ongoing #uwlogo and #uwlogogate issue

Posted via email from Renjie Butalid

Guest post by Melissa Richer, 24, Executive Director of the Ayllu Initiative

This blog post first appeared on the Ayllu Initiative website, as a response to my blog post published yesterday on Opportunities to Create Social Change, which focused on my understanding of the process of transformative social change. Melissa is part of a growing number of young people interested and actively involved in social change around the world, that I am ‘meeting’ online though blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other social networking communities.

If not for Twitter, I would not have discovered the amazing work that the Ayllu Initiative is doing in Brazil, together with Ashoka and Artemisia, in supporting young social entrepreneurs to develop sustainable and innovative business models with the potential to move millions out of poverty. The Ayllu Initiative has an ambitious goal of being present in 10 countries in 10 years, having impacted 10 million people by that time.

In the blog post below, Melissa clearly articulates why young people are drawn towards ‘world-changing activities’ in massive numbers everywhere, not out of ‘youthful idealism’, but rather, as an imperative need to survive in a world faced with intractable and increasingly complex social problems.

Follow Melissa and the Ayllu Initiative on Twitter: @ayllu

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Survival of the Fittest: Why Young People want to Change the World

This morning, a buddy from Twitter, @Renjie Butalid, wrote a blog post about young people and their role as world changers. As an example of this trend, he featured my efforts to kickstart Ayllu. Renjie’s post is part of a widespread, dynamic conversation, which revolves around the economic crisis, young people’s alternative career choices, and their distinctive participation in ‘making-a-difference-efforts.’ A good place to look for consistent, mainstream reporting on this topic is the New York Times, where Nicholas Kristof has showcased a slew of youth/social change articles over the last few years.

Targeting poor, unemployed young adults (under age 35) to run social enterprises is a major part of Ayllu’s strategy. People often ask us why. I’d like to respond to Renjie’s post by explaining why I think global problems will never be solved if youth are not part of the equation.

Youth population statistics are astounding. Before I’m even old enough to retire, the global population will grow by the same number (in billions) of people that it has since my great-grandmother was born in 1896. The sheer magnitude of people that are arriving is unfathomable to me. Almost all of this growth will happen in developing countries (as represented in blue). This is everyone’s problem because it will affect those of us from industrialized nations in every way: water, climate change, food security, national security, health, energy…

Right now on July 18, 2009:

• Over 50% of humanity is under 25 years old (UNFPA)
• Over 50% of unemployed humanity is under 30 years old and seeking work (UNFPA)
• Of 2+ billion youth, 50% will never be employed in their lifetimes (Andrew Zolli)

Anyone who assumes my generation is gravitating toward ‘world changing activities’ in droves because of youthful idealism, is out of touch with the consequences of inaction. I think Darwin would agree that my peers and I want to change the world because we want to survive in it, in the most fit way.

Based on my experience over the last 2 years as a 24-year old trying to change the world by employing youth in problem-solving business, I can say that almost everyone I meet of all ages understands why youth are so important to the equation. Most of the naysaying that goes on has to do with investing in a youth-run organization with no track record, not in the inability of youth to change the world.

What I’ve seen [in Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, The Netherlands, Germany, France, Qatar, Russia, Tanzania, South Africa... ] is that young people under 35 years of age feel an obligation to act. This isn’t rooted in altruism, but in survival. As a result, the lines are blurring: doing good is no longer distinct from what we do in the rest of our lives (a lot of parallels/connections can be drawn here to the role of online social networks in youth culture). In Brazil, almost every social enterprise I’ve run across is run by young adults. I’ve been told by Artemisia, the pioneer in social enterprise here, that this is a turf held almost exclusively by young entrepreneurs.

So to answer the question “why are youth important to social enterprise?

• Youth are the most chronically unemployed group in the world and they make up half the population. Social enterprise offers new job opportunities.
• Youth feel an obligation to act, so solving problems through business makes sense to them.
• The 1-2 billion people arriving by 2050 will ALL be young and they will need work. We believe social enterprise will have explosive market share over this time. Based on demographics, if social enterprise reaches it’s full potential, young people will be at the helm.

I do not intend to downplay the crucial role of seasoned professionals in enabling young changemakers to succeed. Such people include Bill Drayton, Mary Gordon, John Wood, and Robert Egger. These people have made it possible for my generation to rise to the complex challenges that Renjie says need ’systems-changing solutions’. Bill Drayton, grandfather of social entrepreneurship, believes that in order for systemic solutions to take hold, youth must be empowered. This is why Ashoka’s Youth Venture was founded in the first place (Ayllu is collaborating with YV in Brazil).

Yesterday, I attended a Youth Venture Selection Panel in Cubatão, a Brazilian town where ~70 low-income youth presented their social change projects. Cubatão was, until recently, rated the worst place to live in Brazil. The pollution is so terrible that your eyes water and your nose immediately clogs up. Most of the income-generating projects that were presented focused on environmental change through conservation and recycling. When I asked the youth about why they chose the environment over other social problems, one of them actually said, “because in Cubatão we have all the environmental problems, so we’re fittest to solve them.”

Photos of Cubatão Panel, led by Ashoka’s Youth Venture – Brazil.

Posted via web from Renjie Butalid

Understanding the process of transformative social change and how young people can become a part of the movement

I facilitated my first social innovation-related workshop on Thursday evening this past week and the response from the participants seemed positive.

To recap, I started out by playing the Playing for Change music video, Stand by Me, as people were filing into the workshop. I primarily used this to set the right tone for the evening, showcasing how this one particular song could unite musicians and inspire people around the world through music.

After introductions, I played the Yes We Can video from the Obama campaign, and as it played in the background, I talked about how Obama is easily the most visible transformational leader in recent times, and why many people, especially young people, were drawn to him and his inspirational message of hope in record numbers throughout his presidential campaign last year.

To further illustrate my point of young people being engaged in social issues more than ever, I also showed the Greenpeace “Angry Kid” video, going to the other extreme of young people being ‘angry’ at adults for not doing nearly enough to combat climate change.

I related it to what I know many young people are searching for in their lives right now:

The capacity to pursue their passions, and find meaning and fulfillment in the work that they are doing.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

I come across many examples of this everyday, including a number of friends who are currently overseas doing international development work right now after having recently graduated from university: Kristina Lugo in Malawi, Ruby Ku in Botswana, and Majid Mirza in Pakistan.

I also shared my own story of literally stumbling into the field of social change back in September 2007, and this happened when my friend Andrew Dilts asked me if I was interested in helping him run a conference on ’social entrepreneurship’ at the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University. I said sure, not knowing what I was really getting myself into.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

In any case, the point that I was trying to make was that as soon as my interest was sparked in social entrepreneurship and social innovation, I did my homework and began to realize that there were many organizations and people out there involved in the process of transformational social change, adopting innovative solutions and sustainable business models to tackle complex and intractable social problems, in order to have a positive impact in peoples lives around the world.

People such as Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank and Bill Drayton of Ashoka have been engaged in this process of transformational social change for over thirty years now. And I know for many young people, including Dev Aujla of DreamNow, who spends his time between Toronto and New York City; Melissa Richer of the Ayllu Initiative currently living and working in Brazil; or Brooke Estin, who works for Kiva, ChangeFusion and All Day Buffet and is based in Thailand; they are involved in this process in a leadership capacity and I know that they are loving every minute of it.

What is inspiring to me is that there are certainly many more young people out there just like Kristina, Ruby, Majid, Dev, Melissa and Brooke who are passionate about having a positive impact in the world today.

But what is transformational social change?

In order to address this question, I felt that it was necessary to provide some context on the nature of problems: simple (similar to following a recipe), complicated (sending a rocket to the moon) or complex (raising a child); and why for intractable social problems such as poverty or homelessness for instance, that have many underlying factors that contribute towards them, the simple and conventional approach of allocating more funding towards homeless shelters and food banks, hoping that more of these will simply solve the problem in the long-run, does not seem to work.

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that homeless shelters and food banks are essential and do provide a great service for those in need in the short run. However, if the goal is to really get at the root of the problem of homelessness and poverty, i.e. for a developed country like Canada, why are there even homeless shelters and food banks in the first place? - then perhaps a different approach needs to be taken.

And this is exactly what the Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty Reduction is doing with their approach to reducing poverty in Hamilton. Rather than taking the conventional approach, they are working in a multi-sectoral, collaborative manner to make the city of Hamilton the best place to raise a child. I think this approach is brilliant and have also blogged about why I think it is so, here. I am also glad to see that the Government of Ontario is using the same approach and way of thinking with their province-wide poverty reduction strategy Breaking the Cycle, as well.

This is where Social Innovation Generation’s definition of transformative social change, or social innovation comes in:

In other words, social innovation or transformational social change, should have the capacity to impact a broad number of people on an ongoing basis, scaled across multiple sectors and communities spread apart by large geographical distances, and can adapt and respond to massive change while still maintaining the integrity of the original. It is important to note that I use the word resilience instead of sustainability in this case, as resilience is about having the capacity to adapt to change, whereas sustainability, focuses on maintaining a stable state at any scale.

I also went through the Adaptive Cycle, using the birth, growth, destruction and renewal of a forest, to demonstrate how patterns found in ecological systems, can also be applied to social and political systems as well. Social Innovation Generation has a great primer on resilience and the adaptability cycle on their website, for those of you who would like to gain a deeper understanding on this topic.
And with that, I rounded off the workshop with an exercise and a facilitated discussion that I hope helped to illuminate further understanding of the concepts that were presented in a short amount of time.

I hope it was a great learning experience for everyone who attended. It was certainly a great learning experience for me as well, helping to solidify my understanding of the theory behind the work that has sparked my passion and interests for close to two years now. I am certainly excited for the road ahead.

Posted via email from Renjie Butalid