Social Innovation Camp

Social Innovation Camp is an experiment in how social technology can create social change.

Through unusual, creative events they bring together talented software developers and designers with social innovators to build effective web-based solutions to real social problems.

The web is a social tool: it taps into and support a user's desire to connect, contribute and collaborate with others.

This has some important effects. Not only does the web enable individuals to create and do things for themselves, but as increasing numbers of people use the web in this way, the network that they are building becomes more than the sum of its individual parts. This allows an individual to affect change by themselves on a scale that previously would have been difficult to achieve.

The Social Innovation Camp is interested in how this phenomenon in the online world can be used to create social innovations in the real world.

Twice a year, the Social Innovation Camp takes six ideas for web-based social innovations and develops them over one weekend. Working with a diverse range of people, participants organise themselves into teams and help accelerate very early-stage ideas into working prototypes - complete with software - in under two days.

Each month, they also run a Social Innovation Meetups for those interested in how social technology can create social change. The Meetups are informal networking and skills-swapping sessions for software developers and social innovators held in partnership with The Hub at Kings Cross.

Call for Ideas for December’s Social Innovation Camp

Social Innovation Camp has just launched their call for ideas for their next weekend event, 5th-7th December 2008. They are looking for the best web-based tools to create social change to develop at the Camp. You have until Friday, 07th November 2008, to apply for a chance to see your idea become a reality.

Social Innovation Camp’s is supported by NESTA, the Young Foundation and the Guardian.

The first Social Innovation Camp ran in April 2008. Find out more here.