Providence Research

To better understand Providence and Rhode Island, our class split up to research specific data about Providence that would be necessary or helpful to our social entrepreneurial research. The subject that I picked was the Environment of Providence. The environment not only regards air quality and climate, but also the geography, animals, and soil quality.

GEOGRAPHY

Providence is 20 square miles with 2 main rivers and coasted by the Narrangansett River. 10% of the 20 square miles is covered with water. Rhode Island is the smallest state in the USA with a 400 mile coast-line. In comparison, the US has 12,000 miles of coast-line and is the 3rd largest country in the world. The USA is covered by 13% of water but this number increases slightly yearly. One interesting thing to point out is that although Rhode island is the smallest state, it has a long twisty coast-line perfect for coastal imports and resources.

CLIMATE - PRECIPITATION

Average precipitation in Providence is 46.8 inches/yr. However, the average precipitaion has been increasing by 1.2% every year in Rhode Island. Interestingly, there is a global increase of 2.3% per year while the US is increasing significantly at 5.9% per year.

CLIMATE - TEMPERATURE

The average temperature of Providence is -20 for lows and 85 for highs. In comparison, Providence is slightly colder than most of Rhode Island. This is also apparent as Rhode Island has almost the lowest high temperature average.

GROUND

The soil in Providence is mostly sandy and loamy sediments. They have been categorized as Highly Acidic mostly caused by the high level of humidity. The state rock is Cumberlandite only found in Cumberland. Considered a ferrous rock, cumberlandite is used to extract iron. Being on the coast, the lowest point is the sea level but the elevation only goes up about 200 feet whereas the US have an average elevation of 2,500 feet.

AIR

Most aspects of air quality are at borderline or doesn't meet the minimum requirements giving them an air quality score of 74. Providence also ranked as the 45th most polluted city out of over 40,000 cities in the US.

WATER

Providence is made of old buildings and plumbing systems causing the water system to pollute the water. 21 ppm of Lead and Copper from rust causes problems with the 100 million gallons of water used by Providence in one day. As can be seen in the CONSERVATION section, Providence actually places 2nd as the cleanest water quality in the US, but sadly, by the time the water reaches the people in Providence, it is often polluted.

ANIMALS

Regarding animals, Providence has 14 endangered species. Most are different types of beetles but the Bald Eagle sometimes appears like in much of the New England area. The white tailed deer is the largest land animal found in Providence. In regards to pets, I thought it would be informative to step back and see that 3-4 million pets die in shelters across the US. Over half of the total number of pets who die. Rumford pet center is one of the largest in Providence area.

RECREATION

Roger Williams Park is the largest of over 100 parks in Providence including trails and river parks. They also include 30 ball courts and various public recreational places.

CONSERVATION

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) plants over 450 trees across Providence every year. They also passed the Magnusun Act almost "curing" over fishing all across Rhode Island. After the Act, the number of fish that were fished were cut by more than half. (140 million to 60 million) As stated before, Providence Water cleans and recycles the water to be the 2nd cleanest facility in the US.

Reading Respons #3

"Brewing a Future" by Keto Mshigeni & Gunter Pauli



"The Power of Unreasonable People" by John Elkington

Social Entrepreneurship Research : Q Drum

      Each student in our class chose a social venture to research and create info-graphics so that everyone in the class could be exposed to the current world of social entrepreneurship. My subject was the Q Drum : A portable plastic longitudinal shaft that can be easily rolled for long distances to help people who use the better part of their day fetching clean water. 

     Although the product proved to be very appealing and helpful for the users, its unfortunate that there wasn't enough support (financially and popularity) at the time to continue the venture. Because of this failure, it's difficult to say if the Q Drum was a successful social entrepreneurship. But one can argue that since the idea of the Q Drum still lives on in services like Invent for Humanity or Hippo Roller and continues to help people fetch clean water with ease, Q Drum should still be considered as a product of  social entrepreneurship. 

EMPATHY + DESIGN APPROACH

     The idea sprouted from what Pieter Hendrikse observed during his volunteer program in South Africa. It's clear that Hendrikse took a pain point and improved it in many ways. Through his process he developed ways to cut down the work and time used by making the containers store water, transport with ease, and usable by anyone. The Q Drum is a product addressing a clear social issue that simply didn't have enough support to  

      The main problem stemmed from the lack of support social entrepreneurs had in the early 1990's. Hendrikse stated that the Q Drum was an idea ahead of its time. Sponsors and stakeholders didn't see the point in investing in a non profit idea just to help people in need. Hendrikse drew from private financial sources to keep the Q Drum alive until he was forced to abandon the project. 

COMPARISON 

       One of the other social ventures a classmate researched was One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). OLPC was targeted to increase education in developing countries by making an affordable laptop to be given to students at schools. Like the Q Drum the solution became a product that was manufactured. One of the biggest differences with OLPC and the Q Drum is their financial backing. OLPC sold their laptops to governments who distributed them to schools for free. They also had a board of sponsors who helped fund the laptops. Although, like the Q Drum, OLPC also became abandoned, it wasn't because  of funding problems. It was simply not effective in solving the issue it was supposed to improve. There was only a minor increase in attendance and students actually spent less time reading.  

      Overall, OLPC took the inventive approach in developing their idea. The founder speculated that if children can have free access to the internet they would open up new ways of learning. However, because they began by coming up with the technology to achieve a $150 laptop and then finding the users with the need, OLPC failed to realize the real needs of the users. 

Reading Response 2

"Better By Design" by Timothy Prestero

"Professional training becomes a lens through which we see the world." In many cases this is true, even with just 4 years of industrial design training, ID thinking has influenced my life in conscious and unconscious ways. I constantly look for clues (before I use an object) as to how objects are made and fit together for a function making. My education causes me to sit and finish fixing a broken bike, even if I am late to class. This new "lens" also spurs students into improving various random household projects (such as making a dog house out of leftover cardboard from moving or making canvas walls to create more rooms) that they wouldn't have started without the years of ID thinking embedded in them.

Prestero goes on to describe a more specific design approach "in terms of a problem-solving methodology that uses empathy to identify and contextualize needs, and then translates those needs into a set of specifications to guide the development of new products and services." He describes a design thinking very much like social entrepreneurs should, by finding a problem as it relates to people and communities and executing solutions with "empathy".

The author also differentiates two approaches that can solve problems. He states that design is "an alternative approach to invention." Where invention is usually a technology looking for a need to fill, design starts from the need and work up to the technology or solution. It is apparent that the invention approach has some flaws in fulfilling the goal of executing solutions with "empathy." Because it's not specified for a user, the user must carry the burden of adapting and changing their own lives to use the technology. "Another common failure is that many inventors attempt to create a 'one-size-fits-all' solution to a general global problem." "One-size-fits-all" rarely actually "fits-all" and with such a generalized solution, it creates excess "help" that may not be needed and could further burden the user. Also, in a global perspective, there are too many variables such as local resources, accessibility, climate, and even cultures that can hinder the solution.


Prestero further focusses on "empathy in design, or why kids hate getting clothes for their birthday." Often times what we think a user needs is not what they think they want and to design with empathy we must know what the user truly wants. Firstly, "there are no 'dumb users,' only dumb products." If the user can't figure out how or struggles to use a product, it fails to cater for their needs with empathy.
In addition, "many products are developed with embedded cultural assumptions that prove to be crippling liabilities in the context of a developing country." A cell phone that isn't water proof may be fine for people who can stay sheltered from the rain, but in a country where many people can't keep their phones dry water-proofing is a huge issue.



"Design Thinking for Social Innovation : IDEO" by Tim Brown and Jocelyn Wyatt

        The authors describe how IDEO began to use design thinking for helping social innovations. They said, "Nobody wants to run an organization on feeling, intuition, and inspiration, but an over-reliance on the rational and the analytical can be just as risky." Helping others in the community always benefit somebody. In regards to design thinking, they divided it into "three spaces." Processes rotate around these spaces of inspiration, ideation, and implementation. Inspiration comes from observing problems and experiencing people's needs. In ideation, the data is analyzed to find insights for concept sketches. Finally, in implementation, prototypes are tested and iterated. To further implement, ways of communicating these ideas to others must also be considered. They conclude by describing the importance of design thinking in social innovations. "Design thinking can lead to hundreds of ideas and, ultimately, real-world solutions that create better outcomes for organizations and the people they serve." I also agree that design thinking not only benefits communities but also individual people's lives.

Sketch Exercise

       This sketch exercise focused around the problems of being homeless focused in Providence, RI. Using just one video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Bi5rzDs1zE) as the primary source for our brainstorming. I grouped up with Pierre Lai and Alex Nam to summarize some of the main points of the video by looking for clues in what they were saying and their behaviors. With this, we branched off to find smaller problem points such as identification issues and the constant battle against time. Our problem statement focuses on these issues:

“With the rise of homelessness and a lack of permanent housing in Providence, emergency shelters have become greatly overpopulated. The homeless depend on these shelters because of the difficulties in obtaining a stable income and home. Time conflicts and limited transportation placed by homelessness further hinder their ability to obtain a stable lifestyle and ultimately a “normal” life. With so many different conditional needs that are interdependent to each other, meeting them all at the same time to escape homelessness can be extremely arduous.”

       As can be seen above, our group decided to quickly generate our ideas on post-its for many of the small problem points that we found in the video. After some critiquing, we each picked our areas of interests and developed them individually.

       The first idea that I was drawn to was a system for getting homeless people blue collar jobs that required easy and simple skill sets. This system is very similar to the system used often in California. A customer wants to hire someone to help him make a deck in the back yard. The customer would go to, lets say Home Depot, and buys the materials needed. In the parking lot, there is a small tent or shelter with a volunteer supervisor. The customer can request help and the supervisor will find the best match for the job. The supervisor also teaches the workers and provides them with simple tools. The system also serves as a rest spot for the workers during their wait.
   
       Some issues I found were that in order to ensure safety and pay, a government backing would be best but will they be willing? There is also the issue of finding companies such as Home Depot who would be willing to allow such a service. With that in mind, I began to tackle a smaller problem point that I was personally interested in.

      

       My apartment is located in downtown Providence right next to the bus station, Kennedy Plaza. Everyday I walk by and someone (homeless and young people alike) always asks for some change for their bus ride. Giving just change to someone can be daunting (would they really spend it on something good?) but I was always curious to know if they really needed "bus money"Although I can't be sure if they are all being truthful, in the video it was clear that many homeless people spent a lot of time on the bus to and from soup kitchens and emergency shelters. They also talked about how they constantly "hurry up and wait"through out their day and I wondered if sometimes they couldn't get on the bus at all. With this in mind I began to develop a project that enabled homeless people (and anyone desperate) to obtain free transportation without trouble.

     Anyone who has spare change and want to help the homeless can throw in their coins into the machine. A homeless person can and press the button (also photographing the fingerprint) to obtain a free pass. The machine only gives out one ticket per person for a set amount of time (need further research).The graphics serve to raise awareness and to also indirectly prevent abuse. With this system, homeless people save money and possibly time. Bus stations also keep their revenue by taking the money in the machine, while everyday people can be assured that their money is being used for a good cause. Although iterations with more interaction for the donator was originally thought of, I felt that they just added more to the cost of the product. I also hoped that the graphics will be informative enough to motivate people to help the homeless. There are still some issues with how expensive it would be to make a button that also identified people, and there is always the chance that people would abuse this system.

     Throughout the project, I actually had one looming thought over me. The problem points that we focused on were problems that should be addressed, however, the main problem that should be cured (and will ultimately fix the smaller problems) is to move the homeless into permanent homes. Keeping this in mind, most of the ideas solving these problems almost seemed futile.

Response to Readings

Our first assignment is to read and respond to a series of articles defining social entrepreneurship in several different ways.

Response to “Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship” by J. Gregory Dees

“What does social entrepreneurship really mean? What does it take to be a social entrepreneur?” These are some of the questions that Dees tries to answer in this article. He first describes the origin of the word “entrepreneur” first used to describe an “undertaker” of a “significant project or activity.” He goes on to differentiate different interpretations of the word focusing on how entrepreneurs strive to make changes rather than just simply creating a business. He also states, “Wealth is just a means to an end” which I strongly agree with because when thinking of social entrepreneurship, thinking of only the money profit can often go against helping the bigger cause. Dees combines several ideals that define social entrepreneurship to come up with this definition.

Social entrepreneurs play the role of change

agents in the social sector, by:

•  Adopting a mission to create and sustain social value (not just private value),

•  Recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission, 

•  Engaging in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning, 

•  Acting boldly without being limited by resources currently in hand, and

•  Exhibiting heightened accountability to the constituencies served and for the outcomes created.

I agree with all of these aspects and was enlightened by one in particular. “Exhibiting heightened accountability to the constituencies served and for the outcomes created.” This means that as a social entrepreneur one must be constantly aware of the effects of every decision that one makes. Including the negative consequences that may come from bad decisions. The author also goes on to describe how entrepreneurs should be respected for their typical skills of being a "leader" of change for a bigger cause. I liked the idea of entrepreneurs as a "rare breed" because it is rare to find a business man who is concerned with social issues just as much as with entrepreneurship. However, I must point out that social entrepreneurship is not an individual effort and often requires help from many different fields of studies.

“Reshaping Social Entrepreneurship” by Paul C. Light

Light describes that thinking of a social entrepreneur as an individual is wrong and doesn’t encompass all of the fields covered by a social entrepreneur. Many definitions of social entrepreneurship define attributes of leadership and individual traits, however, after much research they failed to prove that personality traits contribute to entrepreneurial success. One of the things that I agree with strongly is that these individual talents or skills are not as valuable as the skills that can be taught. If these “teachable” skills are found and practiced, more and more people can learn the skills necessary to be a social entrepreneur. Most importantly Light suggests that success requires a variety of specific fields conditional to the project itself, meaning that group work and group thought is crucial in success. I personally feel that this is very true but individual talent is also very useful and completely taking it out of the definition may not be constructive.

“Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition” by Roger L. Martin & Sally Osberg

            In this article, the authors define social entrepreneurship similar to Gregory Dees’ definition in the first article. Social entrepreneurship is a “drive” to fix and change unsatisfied needs of people who are not capable. They describe that the entrepreneur must continuously strive to make their belief and ideas into reality. I find it interesting to see this as a specific trait but I do believe that entrepreneurs must be very passionate and dedicated to their work. In addition to making their ideas come true, the authors state that they must keep it sustainable so that anyone can learn to keep the project alive and up to speed. This part about sustainability is very important to me because I like to think that even after I am gone, something that I made is still effecting and impacting our world.

“The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur” by David Bornstein

            David Bornstein mainly wrote about how the current world today is bringing about the “rise of the social entrepreneur.” He states that even everyday citizens in the world today can become a social entrepreneur if they had the drive and creativity to. In addition, with education globally rising, there are much more people in the world who can bring about changes that the government or other organizations couldn’t solve properly. He goes on to describe the impact of social entrepreneurs. They are not just businessmen but people who deliver products and systems that serve to only help and influence people to improve themselves and the world around them.  

My Own Definition

In light of all the reading, I began to piece together my own definition of social entrepreneurship. Here it goes:

Social Entrepreneurship describes the global ideals of a group or individual with the passion to make their dreams a reality, constantly striving to improve and change the lives of people in need.