Top Trend 2010 #3: Sector Blending

I predict that in 2010, the sector blending that is remixing the idea of social entrepreneurship through the lens of design, technology, and other fields will continue, adding shape, context, and scale to social innovation.

Pop!Tech is full to the brim with social entrepreneurs, but you don't often see that phrase on their website or in their publicity materials. Instead, you see an idea that social innovation is driven by creative people who come from lots of different backgrounds, and who use the best of their respective fields to create scalable change. The awesome projects and collaborations that come out of their network are testament to that approach.

In some ways, "social entrepreneurship" exists in this weird ether that is on the one hand an outlook and on the other hand, a set of practices quickly being absorbed into a field. While it may sometimes be relevant or useful to understand the space as a field with specific boundaries and best practices, it seems pretty clear to me that where it intersects with your average person are the ideas behind it.

It is the idea that you can leverage markets for good, that achieving scale in social change not only matters but is possible, that the old ideological constraints that dictated the way people viewed the best path to progress are becoming less stringent and more contextual. It is this set of outlooks that are captivating new audiences.

This matters because while I do believe that there is immense value in the research and review that enables an understanding of where and how social enterprise strategies work best, I think that there are people and organizations in literally every industry thirsting and bursting for something right now that is not a banal corporate social responsibility but is an active social engagement that taps into the core competencies of companies and their employees to solve social problems.

The web tech industry and the industrial design world are the overlapping industries that already see the greatest overlap. Organizations like Samasource, Extraordinaries, Vittana, Supercool School, Appfrica and half a dozen others I'm not thinking of right now ride the line between consumer web companies and social enterprises. In the design space, Catapult Design, Project H Design, Design that Matters, D-REV, and projects at marquee firms like IDEO, frog, and Fuse Project all have an explicit emphasis on social good and design for the developing world.

Other industries, like Cleantech and perhaps even Microfinance, are directly related to social enterprise but have already jumped into their own worlds. And startups in areas like Health care are often tapping into the socially-minded entrepreneurialism that drives groups that self-identify.

This exchange is being facilitated by the internet, events, and the general increase and flow of information not just within but across industry boundaries. I think this is an immensely positive thing, and I'm excited to see how social entrepreneurship both shapes and is shaped by these related fields in the year to come.

(Photo: euzesio)