The Promising Game-Changers in Global Development: Social Innovators

Original: ONE Partner
Mar 28th, 2012 12:52 PM UTC

Paul S. Mason, president and CEO of independent broadcaster and media organization Link TV, shares insights about the value of social innovation in addressing some of the world’s toughest global poverty challenges. Link TV’s ViewChange project collaborated with McKinsey & Company’s Social Sector Office and Huffington Post Impact to spotlight promising innovations in the half-hour documentary “ViewChange: Unleashing Innovation.”

Turning on a light, warming a house, and using an appliance are activities that most of us take for granted. But in many parts of the developing world, access to electricity is scarce. Enter “sOccket,” a soccer ball that harnesses the kinetic energy of play to generate electricity. When kicked, it creates energy that can be stored and then used later to charge a battery, sterilize water or light a room.

sOccket has received a lot of attention recently – from the likes of Aneesh Chopra, the first White House chief technology officer, to former President Bill Clinton, who called sOccket “quite extraordinary.” The attention isn’t surprising – the invention is clever, it’s creative, it’s relatively cheap, and it takes on one of the biggest challenges in the developing world.

The soCcket itself is unique, but it’s one of a growing number of projects with a similar goal: tackling the world’s toughest problems from surprising and inventive new angles. The approach is known as “social innovation,” a way of thinking that draws upon the expertise, entrepreneurial spirit and commitment of many sectors working together – nonprofit, private, government – with truly unexpected ways of doing business.

This concept is the spotlight of “ViewChange: Unleashing Innovation,” a new documentary half-hour special produced by Link TV’s ViewChange project, in collaboration with McKinsey & Company’s Social Sector Office and Huffington Post Impact. The show premiered, March 28, at 11 a.m. EST on HuffingtonPost.com (and again on www.ViewChange.org on March 29, and on Link TV on Wednesday, March 28 at 8 p.m. PT/11 p.m. ET and again on Friday, March 30 at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET.).

ViewChange: Unleashing Innovation (Documentary)

As some of the world's greatest social innovators come together at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, Link TV's ViewChange project and Huffington Post Impact, in collaboration with McKinsey's Social Sector Office, have joined to take a look at some of the most exciting social innovation taking place around the world. From bomb-sniffing rats to electricity-generating soccer balls, the half-hour documentary special "ViewChange: Unleashing Innovation" showcases the unexpected ways that innovators are working together to improve lives.