A dynamic community of global leaders coming together to discuss a big idea: the power of innovative thinking and technology to solve our greatest challenges.
BY MAGAZINE COLUMNIST JOSH POLLOCK
and MAGAZINE EDITOR SUSAN MAIER-MOUL
Website SGS at Mashable.com
Website Ericsson Networked Society
Website UN Foundation
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Coverage continues. Watch this page for updates as Josh and Susan resume The Magazine of Yoga coverage of United Nations week from the Digital Media Lounge of the Social Good Summit.
2:50 Susan>
Jose Andres, Culinary Ambassador, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is a thrilling presenter – so passionate!He learned in Haiti about the danger and the health issues of cookstoves and formed a social business to address it, among other things creating a solar kitchen.
2:45 Susan
Next up, Brandon Litman, Co‐Founder & Executive Producer, One Day on Earth & Boaz Paldi, Head of Video Unit, United Nations Development Programme
One Day on Earth – Motion Picture Trailer from One Day On Earth on Vimeo.
The archive of this project is a public archive! archive.ondayonearth.org
Think of what you’ll be able to do with the footage to promote social engagement. If you are a videographer and you donate footage to the project you get to download the entire archive free!
These people are such love yogis.
2:40 PM Susan
We are Skyping with a NJ classroom – the kids are all waving at us from the screen at the front of the Summit conference hall. Love it! A fun and convincing demonstration. The kids are so excited and engaged!
As a parent, I’m totally thrilled to look at this application of social media.
Bates closes
What we have here, simply and easily out is the classroom of the future. It doesn’t come from a company – it’s growing organically. Why couldn’t we get to a million connected classrooms.
2:30 pm Susan
Tony Bates, CEO of Skype takes the stage to talk about the transformational power of Skype in the classroom. When he asks first of all how many of us use Skype, almost every hand in the crowded room goes up.
Universal. Useful. Wonderful.
“As accessible as we can make it. It needs to solve problems, and it needs to create wonderful moments,” like the kitchen table in your home. Tony shows a face to face video conference using a mobile phone in Tanzania and a classroom of Western students learning about the Maasai – by speaking with them over Skype.
Then a Skype “pen pal” program with Massachusetts students and school age Afghanistan girls.
With very little expense, teachers can “take” their students on viscerally real visits to almost anywhere. As Bates heard these stories, he began to think about how to do more to support education. (He mentions that 1M people download the Skype program for free everyday.)
Rapidly, well over 16,000 teachers have joined this effort at education.skype.com There are 60 languages represented, with teachers who are willing to teach in other countries using Skype.
How to find a project on Skype in the classroom from Skype in the classroom on Vimeo.
In New York, for example, using the new educational initiative there’s a teacher who is teaching in two schools at the same time, because of budget pressures.
He goes on to describe a kindergarden teacher who reached out on the educational network to a beekeeper to show up close and live how a beehive works. Bates laughs and says in this case the teleconference is a better option as almost no one wants their kindergarden class to play with bees!
2:00 pm Susan
Matthew Bishop of The Economist speaking with Dr. Muhammad Yunnus who founded the Grameen Bank for the Poor in Bangladesh says is first question is “Are you ok?”
Dr. Yunnus explains the work of the bank -
You can create a business whose sole purpose is to create jobs. You can design the whole business that way.
In a social business, the owner doesn’t make any money, but puts the money back in.
“When we designed micro business we had no intention of making a profit personally,” says Dr. Yunnus.
“What do you regard as an acceptable definition of micro credit?” asks Bishop.
Cost up front +10% is Yunnus definition of microfinance. Beyond that he feels it should be called something else in order not to dilute the reputation and purpose of microfinance.
“Should you be taking a vow of poverty?” asks Bishop if you are a lender, or can you be a profit motive lender.
Yunnus simply says he doesn’t like to become wealthy himself. As long as you don’t charge more for the money you lend, it’s microfinance. “Myself, I like to help the poor,” rather than become wealthy.
In very funny moment recalling the passing of various technologies (“We began with stencils and typewriters.”) Dr. Yunnus says young people ask him “Walkman? What is a walkman?”
He sees this pace of technology development as a great hopeful sign for us, because the full potential of the new technologies is still ahead of us.
If you are a young entrepreneur in a developing country, first of all, don’t give up. You are the explorer. You are making the path for everyone else.
Dr. Yunnus advises us to remain practical as well as to challenge the stays quo.
I’ve never seen failure as a separate issue. Failure is never a ‘last word’.It’s a kind of step. There’s are lots of things that didn’t work the way you thought it would work. You are integrated in a whole system, and you have to learn from that how to succeed.
1:45 pm Susan
First Lady, Mrs. Zuma of South Africa, First Lady, Mrs. Odinga of Kenya & Yvonne Chaka Chaka, UN Goodwill Ambassador & South African singer
Yvonne Chaka Chaka open the presentation with her beautiful voice – singing to us!
So much attention has been given to communicable diseases. Mrs Zuma intends to focus on women’s health in acute disease, especially cancer.
Mrs. Odinga champions social media to care for women’s issues even in the most remote areas:
Every woman has access to a mobile phone – thru SMS support groups, we can work for their health.
Yvonne Chaka Chaka, UN Goodwill Ambassador & South African singer wants us to know -
First ladies don’t come to NYC just to shop – they come with their spouses and are getting down to work!
Well organized men – that is a woman.
1:30 pm Susan
Good. Not good enough. Our aim is to do more. We want to get the point where not a single woman will die in childbirth or of complications.
To achieve this invested heavily in a nationwide broadband network to connect e-education, ehealth, and government. We focused on maternal care, increased support staff in hospitals, meet large need for ambulances through motorbikes-
Innovation. Thinking out of the box. Results in the lives of women. Jai!
1:25 pm Susan
President Kikwete of Tanzania & Peter Yeo, VP of Public Policy, UN Foundation.
Peter Yeo, VP of Public Policy at the UN Foundation just gave the #socialgood award to Jakaya Kikwete, President of Tanzania in honor of his prioritizing maternal and child health issues in his country. In accepting the award President Kikwete opened his remarks
It is not fair for a woman to die while giving birth to another human being.
1 pm Susan
In an presentation billed as First Ladies, First Tweets three first ladies of of African countries take their first social media steps.
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