- Center for Entrepreneurial Studies
- Center for Global Business and the Economy
- Center for Leadership Development and Research
- Center for Social Innovation
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Helen K. Chang, 650-723-3358, Fax: 650-725-6750
Stanford Graduate School of Business Launches Social Innovation Podcasting Channel on The Conversations Network
June 2006
STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS—The Stanford Graduate School of Business has launched a podcasting channel, Social Innovation Conversations (www.siconversations.org), offering free audio programs addressing some of the world's most pressing social and environmental challenges.
Spearheaded by the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Social Innovation Conversations is made possible with the collaboration of the Pittsburgh Social Enterprise Accelerator and The Conversations Network.
The channel is designed as a collaborative online platform for experts, community leaders, and scholars to share their knowledge across differing sectors for multidisciplinary learning. Programs on tap include conferences, faculty lectures, speaker events, and expert interviews. In addition, leading professional and academic institutions will be invited to contribute content to the channel.
"With this new information delivery system, we are seeking to put valuable knowledge and best practices insight into the hands of a wide international audience," said Kriss Deiglmeier, executive director of the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. "Essentially, with this one-stop destination, we want to reach people who can use and apply these tools toward developing innovative solutions to deep and complex social and environmental issues around the world."
The Center for Social Innovation builds and strengthens the capacity of individuals and organizations to develop innovative solutions to social problems for a more just, prosperous, and sustainable world. "Social Innovation Conversations will enhance our efforts to promote the mutual exchange of ideas and values across disciplines as well as across the public, nonprofit, and private sectors," said Deiglmeier.
Programs are hosted by Eric Nee and Alana Conner-Snibbe, editors of Stanford Social Innovation Review, published by the Center for Social Innovation. "Our goal is to create a popular channel on the web," said Nee, "a place that provides an engaging and provocative dialogue about the most effective ways we can improve society and the environment."
Podcasts currently offered on Social Innovation Conversations include:
- Panel discussions from Bridging the Gap, the Stanford 2005 Net Impact Conference
- Presentations from the 2005 Effective Disruption Management Seminar
- Interviews with social entrepreneurs around the world from the Social Enterprise Accelerator
The channel concept was piloted by The Conversations Network with test podcasts from the 2005 Effective Disruption Management seminar held at Stanford Business School. Seven audio programs generated 53,000 downloads within three months; nearly half of the listeners came from outside the United States.
For more information on Social Innovation Conversations, contact Bernadette Clavier at 650.723.6519 or clavier_bernadette@gsb.stanford.edu.
About the Center for Social Innovation
The Center for Social Innovation (CSI) exists to strengthen the capacity of individuals and organizations to develop innovative solutions to social problems. The Center is creating a vibrant community of people who are actively engaged in building a more just, prosperous, and sustainable world.
Established in 2000, CSI prepares leaders and organizations to address increasingly complex social problems. The nature of the problems our world faces—such as climate change, poverty, and population growth—will require cross-sector collaborations and multidisciplinary thinking to find and deliver solutions. Few institutions are focused on the intersection of traditional sector boundaries and how sector blurring is effecting social change. The Center is helping to define this emerging field and demonstrate that universities have the potential not only to inform academic theory but also to impact the lives and practice of students, alumni, scholars, and the larger community on an ongoing basis.
About The Conversations Network
The Conversations Network is dedicated to capturing, producing, preserving, and distributing under Creative Commons licenses recordings of the greatest and most inspiring minds of our time. The Conversations Network is a nonprofit spinoff of the successful IT Conversations, the oldest still-operating podcast, publishing continuously since 2003.