Posts tagged change

Are you a creator, tinkerer, or do-er of some sort? Do you like ideas and having fun? Are you well-connected in your area and do you know how to reach out to different networks? Are you ok with blagging stuff and do you like getting things done?

If so, You Can Hub needs you!

What are you on about?

We’re looking for potential co-organisers of a Cambridge group of Good for Nothing-ers – smart folk who would love to get the creative and tech communities of Cambridge collaborating for social good. Cambridge is a rich source of creative and tech types as evidenced by the sheer number of networking groups on these topics alone – which I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, as you probably go to most of them! We think it’s time these groups combined forces with the social innovators and change makers of Cambridge to get stuff done. Good for Nothing brings together creatives, tech experts and social innovators to collaborate on challenges with social goals. Challenges have clear specific outcomes, such as a web interface of video that supports a specific campaign that the social innovator is working on e.g. putting together a video that communicates the idea, such as the video that was made for DoNation, or putting together materials that will attract more corporate partnership for Only Connect at Future Youth.

Good for Nothing put it like this:

Good for Nothing is a community of thinkers, do-ers, makers and tinkerers applying their skills and energy to accelerate the work of cause-led innovators and change makers; it’s about diverse groups of people collaborating together, working in new, faster, fun and better ways by supporting ideas and people that are leading the way to what a flourishing 21st century society might look like.

If you still need convincing, here’s a little movie that explains a bit more:

Right, I’m on board. Who are you looking for?

We need at least three co-organisers in total:

1. someone with strengths in coding and tech
2. someone with strengths in design and communications
3. someone with strengths in social innovation and sustainability

One of those sounds like me…What do you want me to do?

If you’re interested in getting involved and you want to know more, come along to the You Can Hub Pub Social on 12th February. It will be an opportunity to meet everyone interested and chat through the idea and next steps some more. We can’t wait to see you there!

I’m interested in the idea but I don’t want to co-organise. Let me know when you’ve got a challenge ready and I can just rock up and do my thing.

No problem! Sign up to this mailing list and you’ll get the latest info as and when we get it.

Our Impossible Prompts from yesterday’s social

Yesterday we had our first social of 2013. Following on from our amazing conversations at our last Check It Out Team meeting about what the word “Impossible” means (thoughts to follow in a later post) we decided to start the year by setting ourselves an “impossible” – or at least exploring the idea! We had some prompts to help us (and some “Time for Review” inspired by our previous blog post).

We found that people have lots of different dreams and hopes and our conversation came around to the question “why?”

Why do you want to do that?

 

It’s just something I’ve always wanted to do.

People felt that things seemed much more impossible if they weren’t sure why they wanted to do them. And sometimes they knew the reason, but they didn’t feel very interested in it.

This reminded me of a conversation I had last year with a UX designer, who said he was “bored of making apps full of kittens to sell cat food.” The “Why” here is clear – to sell cat food. But this “Why” was clearly not of interest to the person I was talking to.

Enter Good for Nothing. This fabulous crew bring together all sorts of creatives including techies, designers, illustrators and projects that are working towards social aims (or as they put it, “thinkers, do-ers, makers and tinkerers”). The social aims include sustainable food, smart energy, community, youth… and more. Something for everyone! Check out their video:

Good for Nothing started in London, and there are now other versions hatching across the UK. Nothing in Cambridge yet though… so time for a crucial question. What do you think of a Good for Nothing in Cambridge? Would you join us to form a crew? Would you be a thinker, do-er, maker or tinkerer? Would you be a cause-led innovator or change-maker? Let us know in the comments below, or tell us over on Twitter.

**UPDATE** If you are interested please come to our social in February: http://youcanfeb2013-eorg.eventbrite.com/

If you’d like to read more about the importance of Why, see this TED talk from Simon Sinek on the Golden Circle:

Let us know what you think!

Small firm from Teesside, UK, creates fuel from water and air… sounds too good to be true?

Air Fuel Synthesis, based in Stockton on Tees, was featured on the BBC website last week because it has found a way to convert carbon dioxide and water into a hydrocarbon fuel. And the process is carbon neutral. And they’ve already used the fuel to run a small motorised scooter. Pretty amazing huh? There are still tests to be done to check the energy efficiency of the process and to seewhat happens when production is scaled up. But we think it’s pretty amazing that they got this far.

They made the front page on the Independent and the Material World programme on Radio 4 will be re-broadcast today at 9pm. Makes you think doesn’t it… is it really impossible to create a future where we’re not dependent on fossil fuels?

So… what’s your impossible? And isn’t it about time you got started on it?

Nothing can measure someone’s potential. It’s impossible to tell what people are capable of once they catch fire

Carole Dweck

Here at The You Can Hub, we love upcycling. Didn’t we mention that already? Our friends over at Recreations Up are constantly wowing us with pretty and useful things they make from other people’s rubbish – so much so that when I got married, I chose them to make all of the decorations. Interest in upcycling is growing, but we think it’s more than just a trend, and it turns out someone else agrees – as Poor Pitiful Pearl says, it’s a lifestyle!

Shauna, the lady behind Poor Pitiful Pearl, was interviewed by Etsy about how she got started, and we noticed just a few aspects to her story that sounded familiar:

• desire for change often comes out of a crisis – in Shauna’s case, the loss of a close friend. Maybe this is just another type of upcycling – creating something positive out of a difficult experience!
• whatever change it is you’re trying to make, the most important thing to do is Just Start
• Shauna’s interest in working towards balance and flexibility
• wanting to make a difference – which Shauna does through choosing to donate 10% of sales to charity
• embracing imperfect beauty

We find these themes are coming up again and again for us, and people around us. Which of these themes resonate with you? What changes have you made that were inspired by a crisis?