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- 100 Innovators - the world's most important story has started to unfold
100 Innovators - the world's most important story has started to unfold
Voting Summary (Elevator Pitch):
This decade, the impacts of leading social entrepreneurs will explode. It's the world's most important story, and Innovatorz.org will tell it. We produce and distribute killer online media for award winning social entrepreneurs.
Supporting organization:
Origo
URL:
www.innovatorz.org
City:
San Francisco
State/Region:
CA
Country:
USA
Give and Take: Describe your project's top three needs
Type of expertise needed:
Management Expertise We need a startup guru for advice on project management, fund raising (goal: $200K), business planning. Guidance from people who've been through this process.
Type of expertise needed:
Technical Expertise Our platform is built on Wordpress MU. We need the assistance of a PHP coder with expertise in the Wordpress platform and someone with expertise in server administration.
Type of expertise needed:
Marketing/Media Expertise We want to create as much visibility as possible for the social innovators we work with and the niche online media properties we create. We have a marketing plan, but we would love the input of an online marketing/buzz creating genius.
Project Vision Statement & Potential Social Impact:
Social innovation is reaching a tipping point
Leading social entrepreneurs have developed innovative, scalable solutions to society's problems that are already having significant impacts. Over the next ten years, however, the scale of these impacts will explode as many innovations move past the tipping point. This is the most important story in the world, and Innovatorz will tell it.
Innovatorz will tell the stories of award winning social entrepreneurs as they unfold
Innovatorz has developed a process called “assisted podcasting” that will enable hundreds of award winning social entrepreneurs to share their stories online with a minimum of effort. Innovatorz will work with these recognized leaders to record their ongoing stories, disseminate these widely and develop an audience passionate about social entrepreneurship. As this audience watches the impacts of social entrepreneurs grow dramatically, it will evolve into a powerful community of people dedicated to becoming, supporting and promoting social entrepreneurs.
What we are doing is important
By spreading excitement about social entrepreneurship, facilitating knowledge sharing by social entrepreneurs and documenting the history of the field as it unfolds, Innovatorz will become an important part of the ecosystem of support for social entrepreneurs. Our plan for affordable, technology-driven storytelling will help leading social entrepreneurs collaboratively shape the future of the field while creating a point of entry for aspiring social entrepreneurs, funders, and academics.
We've already started
We have already begun working with a number of leading social entrepreneurs to develop our methodology and prove the concept. For example please see Riders for Health, Scojo Foundation, America's Family, Sports4Kids, the Center for Inspired Teaching, or OneRoof.
(For more information visit innovatorz.org)
Sustainability (financial) model:
Innovatorz will generate revenue through content production fees and sponsorships. We will be financially self sustaining and expect to reach financial break even in the second half of 2008.
Content production fees will be collected from featured social entrepreneurs and the organizations who invest in them. Revenue from sponsorships will be generated from individuals and key players in the arena seeking exposure through our website.
Our goal is to have 200 social entrepreneurs publishing content by the beginning of 2008, while generating revenue from between 5-10 sponsorship agreements with foundations, companies and indivusials in the field.
The majority of revenues would go towards our staffing needs (managerial, content production, marketing, and technology development) with the remainder towards infrastucture and buying online advertisements.
(For more information visit innovatorz.org)
Technology Vision:
We want to make it dead simple for social entrepreneurs to integrate amazing online media into their sites and to find an audience interested in their stories. Our media platform is built on Wordpress MU, SimplePie RSS, and a variety of web services like Amazon S3. We use a process called “assisted podcasting” to enable even the least tech saavy, busiest social innovator to tell their personal story online by recording podcasts with their ordinary telephone.
We are developing a system enabling organizations to not only create their own content for their web sites, but to simultaneously pull in relevant feeds and stories from other organizations and sites.
Potential obstacles:
We believe we face three main obstacles:
- Although "assisted podcasting" enables extremely busy social entrepreneurs to tell their stories easily, the Innovatorz team is not satisfied with the stories we are currently producing. We're working on more gripping, intriguing ways to tell the stories of leading social entrepreneurs.
- We know aspiring social entrepreneurs will benefit most from the stories we tell, and we are working on the best way to find them.
- We need to figure out how to collaborate rather than compete with other organizations using online tools to drive social innovation.
(For more information visit innovatorz.org)
Resource Needs:
Financially, we need $225K in grant funding to take Innovatorz through break even in the second half of 2008. This would allow us to sign on content production partnerships for 200 social entrepreneurs and bring on several sponsors.
Other than on money, our most critical need is access to expertise. On the technology side, we need people familar with Linux server adminstration, widget development and the Wordpress Multi-User platform. On the content side, we'd appreciate input from people with insight into design and storytelling, anyone who can help us make the Innovatorz experience more compelling.
(For more information visit innovatorz.org)
Key Milestones:
Within 90 days we intend to:
- Secure enough start-up funding to take Innovatorz to the next stage
- Secure commitment from organizations such as Ashoka, New Profit, Skoll, Echoing Green to funnel their social entreprenurship towards us
- Sign on 20 additional social entrepreneurs and begin content production for them
- Establish partnerships with 2 high traffic websites
- Generate 2 leads for sponsorships and actively pursue these as a source of revenue generation
(For more information visit innovatorz.org)
Project Summary:
The Opportunity
Leading social entrepreneurs have developed innovative, scalable solutions to society's problems that are already having significant impacts. Over the next ten years, however, the scale of these impacts will explode as many innovations move past the tipping point. This is the most important story in the world, and Innovatorz will tell it.
The Innovation
Assisted podcasting will enable leading social entrepreneurs to tell their stories on an unprecedented scale.
Team & History
We are a team of three young professionals working to drive adoption of online storytelling by leading social entrepreneurs. The Innovatorz project has been in development for over a year. We are beginning the process of scaling up, and aiming to have the organization accomodate more social entrepreneurs and volunteers.
(For more information visit innovatorz.org)
