The basic model underpinning businesses is well known and all around us. Markets determine value and value = profit = money. Driven by this same profit motive, whole suites of information and communications technologies have been developed and deployed, usually known by their 3-letter acronyms (CRM, ERP, and so on). Meanwhile, the not-for-profit world, and the international development community in particular, has been struggling to adopt and apply this business model and related technologies to support their efforts to make this world a better place; to have an impact. Frustrated by the lack of success, the high costs, and the endless discussions, we revert back to email, spreadsheets and Skype calls and put our findings in intimidatingly long and complex documents.
Now a new breed of social technologies such as social media, social networks, blogs, wikis and pedias, maps, mobile phones, games, online collaboration, and so on (also known as the Web2.0) is emerging which has both the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds struggling and thriving. In this emerging social world where people volunteer rather than charge for their contributions, where (almost) everyone is a click or call away, and where everyone is a potential publisher, artist or pundit, the profit motive no longer explains nor drives every transaction.
This blog explores the context and contours of a model for development that, where relevant, draws from the lessons being learnt in the for-profit world and builds on the new opportunities created by social technologies.
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