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www.ssireview.orgwinter 2008 / STANFORD SOCIAL INNOVATION REVIEW
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EVERYBODY LOVES A CONTEST, it seems, from high- brow tests ofknowledge like “Jeopardy,” to rollicking dis-plays ofartistic ambition like “American Idol,” to less strenu-ous undertakings like bingo and sweepstakes. These contestsare often associated with profit because they entice people totune in, get exposed to advertising, and, inevitably, buy. Now Ashoka’s Changemakers.net is tapping into the same sport-ing instinct to inspire people to think, connect, and help.The Arlington, Va.-based group hosts online competi-tions in which contestants offer solutions to specific socialproblems. Recent topics have included how to reduce domes-tic violence, how to prepare and respond to disasters, andhow to use interactive computer and video games toimprove health and health care. Anyone can submit his or her program, and anyone with access to the Internet canread and compare the submissions, which are all postedonline. And, as in “American Idol,” anyone can be a judge andvote for his or her favorite entry.The top three winners get not only a modest prize of $5,000 each, but also priceless exposure. Meanwhile, corpo-rate and philanthropic sponsors get access to new ideas,groups, and projects. Perhaps the most important outcome,says Changemakers’ Executive Director Charlie Brown, is thecreation ofan international community ofsocial innovatorsall focusing on the same issues. After reading each other’ssubmissions, many contestants end up working together, henotes, which is why the contests have the oxymoronic name“collaborative competitions.”The breadth ofentries is a testament to the unifying potential ofthe Internet – and to Changemakers’ inherentappeal. Submissions come from major organizations likeProcter & Gamble and Kaiser Permanente, as well as fromcitizen groups in rural India and Mozambique. They arrive inEnglish, Spanish, Arabic, and Persian, among other lan-guages. And they come from surprising groups, such as theU.S. Army soldiers stationed in Southeast Asia who submit-ted their program to keep young men from joining terroristgroups by finding them jobs.The entries inspire unlikely authors, such as the Mexicanman convicted ofdomestic violence who wrote from prisonabout the program he had started for other abusive men. And they encourage strange bedfellows, such as the Tel Aviv- based Peres Center for Peace initiative to unite Palestiniansand Israelis in the shared problem ofimporting and export-ing goods.Changemakers’ success is evident in both its roster ofpar-ticipants and its growing budget. Since the group launchedits collaborative competitions three years ago, it has receivedmore than 1,400 innovations from more than 100 countries. According to Brown, a recent competition called “DisruptiveInnovations in Health” generated more than 310 entries from27 countries in a 10-week period. And Changemakers’ yearlyoperating budget has ballooned from a shoestring thatBrown didn’t even want to specify to $800,000.
Geeks for Good
Changemakers started out as an online journal ofarticlesabout social change. But soon its directors were hungry for more action-oriented work, and so began experimenting with ways to engage readers directly. Harnessing the interac-tive capabilities ofthe Internet, they created their hallmark collaborative competitions.“We call ourselves ‘geeks for good,’” says Brown, who is29 years old and, like many ofhis cohort, began his career working for a dot-com company. He and his staffset up thetechnological infrastructure for the collaborative competi-tions, keep it up and running for users worldwide, and pro-vide the translators for entries in foreign languages.
Competing for a Change
How Changemakers’ “collaborative competitions” harness the wisdom of crowds
by Leslie Berger 
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Jadwiga Lopata founded the European Centre for Ecological Agri-culture and Tourism to help small-scale organic farmers survive inthe European Union. Her program was a Changemakers.net finalist.
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