Innovation in Software

One of Vagueware’s more established clients has developed a product called CAESER to help organisations understand how their suppliers behave in terms Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

In order to try and raise CSR as a topic within the business community as a whole, the team have recently been blogging and twittering their thoughts, and an article this morning by Miana Capuano caught my eye:

Whilst unemployment in Britain rises as the nation struggles to deal with the current economic climate, it is no surprise that companies are cutting their corporate giving and charitable support. Research in the UK has shown that while donations to charities have dropped, demand for their services has grown. In such turbulent times the impetus for responsible business practice is now even greater than ever before. With a lack of funds, companies need to move away from philanthropy and explore more innovative ways of supporting their communities. By integrating CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities to core business objectives, engaging in partnerships with organisations such as other businesses, social enterprises and charities, adopting environmental strategies that save energy (and money!) and engaging in pro-bono work, it will help to ensure that responsible business practice is not swept aside in these difficult economic times.

Over the last few years I – through Vagueware – have attempted a few projects aimed at engaging with charities, social enterprises and community groups, including:

• Substantially discounted rates for charities and non-profit organisations for larger projects
• Discounted rates for local businesses, in order to increase take up of new technologies locally
• Support for community technology groups in general
• Training/Development of school kids who don’t have access to technology mentoring – a project that has stalled but “watch this space”
• Speak to a Geek. I loved doing this. I think all of us on the panel did
• Co-working groups, encouraging collaboration within the scene, etc.
• The occasional charitable contribution to community groups in need of some technology to keep going

And yet, what has it amounted to? What impact have I actually had on the local charity/non-profit sector? Offering to throw some money into a pot for a new motherboard for a community cybercafe is one thing, actually helping to run the cybercafe and turning up to do some training on technology is something quite different.

We could collectively as a community be doing a little bit more. “Software runs civilisation”, as they say, and most of you reading this blog post are in the higher priestly order of “alpha geeks”, armed with knowledge that could revolutionise a charity or non-profit for the better. We could help with social media, development of technology, general IT literacy and support, and more.

I’m not suggesting we start to wear hair shirts and abandon our business plans in favour of forming a socialist utopia, but we can start something interesting.

There are notable existing efforts, of course. We could all put some 20% time into Circuit Riding and get a warm glow every time we get on a bus to Hulme or Cheetham Hill, but isn’t there something more we could do?

I think there is. I think you have ideas too. So I’m going to bully you into sharing your ideas.

Whilst the services idea bank has stalled a little over the last few months, I think the concept of collating and voting on ideas is perfect for brain-storming and prioritising what we could do together as a community.

I’ve kicked off a Geek Social Responsibility forum to collect ideas and votes, and seeded it with a few simple ideas of my own. For the next few weeks my 20% time will be spent in part trying to drum up interest in these ideas and getting some of them rolling.

For me there are a couple of key areas we could address:

• Increased access to technology
• Increased access to knowledge about technology (including empowering groups and individuals with the ability to create new technologies)
• Better collaboration and co-working for community and charity groups (i.e. adopting working practices we’ve pioneered as a sector)
• Substantially discounted/free access to specialist skills and knowledge for charities and communities

P.S. – one of the next areas to be addressed by the CAESER team is Equality & Diversity. I’ve mentioned on more than one occasion, how broken we are as an industry in that regard, but the industry is currently so heavily dominated by misogynistic pricks, I don’t even know where to start on that one.