2008 Global Social Venture Competition

Wanted!
Skilled Volunteers for an
Exciting and Challenging Initiative on Cultural Diversity

The cultural and linguistic diversity of our planet is fast disappearing into an urban monoculture.
‘Living Cultural Storybases’ (LCS) is an ambitious new global initiative to nurture the oral heritage of minority cultures in the digital world. Two approaches are balanced: respectful engagement of endangered or indigenous communities and novel mobile digital technologies. Our aim is an appropriate solution to celebrate and share traditional stories and songs, reconnecting the generations in a dialogue around self-empowering narratives. See http://www.storybases.org

LCS is incorporated in California with a Board of four uniquely-experienced leaders, founders of previous successful community informatics initiatives and has joined the Community Development Institute’s non-profit incubator in East Palo Alto so has 501c(3) status. First approaches are being made to major world foundations for funding plans for our first engagements with desert nomads in Mali and highland peoples in Peru. LCS is fortunate to be guided by an eminent panel of Advisors, including Unesco’s Intangible Heritage section in Paris, who are enthusiastic about our mission and potential impact.

We are recruiting volunteers in the Bay Area for cultural research, software prototypes, promotional and development activities, linking incubation with teams in the field. The ideal candidates would be passionate about our mission, self-organising, methodical and eager for this unique opportunity to learn from diverse cultures around the world. Specifically we seek:

• Computer Science skills for early architectural designs of private ‘virtual cultural networks’ and the software prototyping of interactive audio-based systems and databases
• Project Communication and Fund Raising skills to help in sponsor diligence and the writing of eloquent, persuasive and accurate grant proposals
• Website Design skills to extend a multilingual website, both for external communications and as a project tool.
• Cultural Research and Impact Evaluation skills both to guide our understanding of minority cultures and to define proxies for evaluating LCS impact on the strength of oral heritage, cultural cohesion and identity
• Business skills to lay the foundations of an economic sustainability plan based on the value of cultural diversity, the human creativity it sparks and respectful trade in intangible or tangible cultural goods, ie cultural return on investment (CROI) as well as SROI.

For further information, please contact coordinator@storybases.org with a CV.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Paul Rankin, President LCS Inc., UK

Mannar Inc's Vision

Mannar Inc. has been formed by a graduate of Stanford University's Learning, Design, and Technology program, to develop customizable digital content for K-12 classrooms (interactive Learning Pages, or iLPs). Mannar Inc. was started with the vision that the days of heavy book-laden backpacks will soon be a thing of the past and electronic medium with powerful multimedia-enriched learning content will soon replace textbooks. The move towards digital content is well under way with both big publishers augmenting their textbooks with some kind of digital content and smaller companies cropping up to fill in the gaps.

So, what is Mannar Inc. trying to do that would make its product different?

Mannar Inc aims to develop content that is shaped by current research in Education and Educational technology and not just to digitize existing content with a sprinkling of multimedia.

Mannar Inc's product is modular - each iLP addresses a particular content standard in its entirety (including activity, content, assessment, etc). Teachers wanting a single lesson can get a single lesson without having to subscribe to the entire program or committing to a full textbook (for example buying a song from iTunes instead of an album!)

Mannar Inc. has a component-based approach to the content. This would enable teachers to go to our website and design their own lessons from many different available components to suit their style (activity-based approach, inquiry-based approach, etc).

Mannar Inc's Business Model

Mannar Inc. aims to create a business model that makes use of both an underutilized and under-served work force – stay-at-home parents. The founder of Mannar Inc. who herself was once a stay-at-home parent has been told by many highly educated and motivated parents that they would welcome an opportunity to use their education and talents without having to commit or commute to a full-time job. Because of its component-based approach to developing content, Mannar Inc. is well placed to offer such an opportunity to qualified individuals. Mannar will build a network of such individuals giving them an opportunity to work in their fields of expertise while providing opportunities for training in new fields.

As the founder of Mannar Inc., I would like to invite individuals with a passion to improve education to come and join my team. I would like to partner with passionate individuals in writing a comprehensive business plan, and creating a successful business model. As an early stage start-up, opportunities abound for continued collaboration and compensation.

Please email vidyar1@gmail.com for more information

This venture is based in Fremont, CA