This community — via an open, collaborative, and crowd-sourced model of operating — could
(1)
collect stories of effective socially-conscious business efforts,
(2) develop platforms and venues for
sharing these stories,
(3)
award effective business initiatives (and organize against businesses that actually damage their social environment),
(4)
share tips, best practices, and ideas around designing and implementing social business initiatives, and
(5)
further enhance social-business-initiative ideas via a crowd-sourced model (similar to how ideas get developed and improved on OpenIDEO).
Furthermore, if this community is able to establish sufficient public credibility and support, it will be able to
sway larger public opinion about the relationship between businesses and society, resulting in some businesses proactively seeking out recognition from this community and thus an increased number of socially-conscious business ventures (think: grape retailers and consumers starting to buy only UFW-approved grapes in the 1960s).
This community (which I'm tentatively referring to as CORPeration Commons to tap into the interplay between "corporation" and "cooperation" in this concept) could achieve the above goals through a variety of methods, including:
*
Interactive website, where the community collects and shares ideas for socially-conscious business initiatives. Companies are also allowed to submit their ideas and initiatives. This website is also a place where the community can comment on and vote on their favorite business initiatives, similar to how OpenIDEO itself functions.
*
Annual conference, at which business representatives exchange stories, ideas, and best practices around initiatives that generate sustainable value. This could be both a working conference (where ideas get shared, developed, and enhanced in a collective setting) AND an awarding conference (where the best ideas are recognized publicly — "best" could be determined by the community via the website mentioned above and/or via a judging panel).
*
Quarterly magazine, which shares news, stories, trends, and tips in the field of socially-conscious business ventures.
* There might be other methods/venues for the CORPeration Commons community to achieve the above goals too. I encourage the OpenIDEO community to add them.
Community members could be individuals or organizations.
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CommentMike Hatrick