E-petitions – voice your opinion

In the last week I have signed two petitions; one for the review of compulsory teaching and assessment of reading and writing in 3-4 year old children (leave those kids alone..!) and the other for reviewing the UK’s position on internet radio (RIP Pandora).

While I am personally skeptical about the Government’s ability / willingness to respond to my oppostion, it makes me feel good to be able to voice my opinion.

You can view and sign any current petitions, and see the Government’s response to any completed petitions. If you have signed a petition that has reached more than 200 signatures by the time it closes, you will be sent a response from the Government by email.

All petitions that are submitted to the website will be accepted, as long as they are in accordance with the terms and conditions. The aim is to enable as many people as possible to make their views known.

The Independent newspaper searches for top social entrepreneurs

Back in May 2007, The Independent newspaper launched its search to find the top social entrepreneurs of 2007. The exercise was carried out in partnership with The Schwab Foundation and the Boston Consulting Group. It’s pretty close to Fast Company’s Social Capitalist Awards, but this time, from a UK perspective.

The winner will be announced later today (14th January) based on this shortlist of six:

Belu Water – sells bottled water and uses 100% of the profits to fund clean water projects.

MEND – the MEND (Mind, Exercise, Nutrition, Do It!) programme was set up to offer children and families free after school sessions for a 10-week period. The programme focuses on lasting change and has had very positive results. It has secured further funding to roll it out to 27,000 children across 300 sites by 2010.

The Hub – according to founder Jonathan Robinson, The Hub’s mission is to “inspire and support social innovators to realise imaginative initiatives for a radically better world.” The idea is based on the members club principles, but clearly it has a different raison d’être. There are six hubs (Rotterdam, Sao Paulo, London, Bristol, Soweto and Jo’burg).

Community Food Enterprise – based on a belief that eating healthy food should be a right, not a privilege, CFE provides affordable fruit and veg through mobile shops.

The Eden Project – established as an educational charity, this amazing project brings together science, art, technology and commerce by showcasing 1m plants in the world’s biggest conservatories.

Cosmos Ignite Project – its mission is to provide a cheaper alternative to 1.6 billion people without electricity who currently use kerosene for lighting.

I will post details of the winner when it is announced later.

Using the web to improve the neighbourhood

mySociety are best known as the people who built E-Petitions for 10 Downing Street.

But they are a hell of a lot more than that. With a mission statement that promises to build websites that give people simple and tangible benefits to their lives AND to also teach the public and voluntary sectors how to better use the internet to improve lives, they are responsible for a number of local projects including HearFromYourMP and PledgeBank.

I have just come across their latest project, FixMyStreet, which is a UK website that aims to enable people to report, view or fix local problems. The idea is, you spot some graffiti or vandalism, you go to FixMyStreet, type in the postcode and pin point where the problem is on the map. FixMyStreet then reports this to the local council and (critically) reports back on the website when the problem has been fixed. This is a very simple idea but that could make a big difference to local communities.