The Buckminster Fuller Institute announces the Call for Proposals to the 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. Recognized as “Socially-Responsible Design’s Highest Award”, the Challenge is an annual global design competition awarding the winner a $100,000 cash prize to support the development and implementation of a solution that has significant potential to solve one of humanity’s most pressing problems. This prize program is a clarion call to the world’s artists, scientists, designers, architects, engineers, students, and entrepreneurs committed to playing a unique and transformative role in addressing the biggest issues we face today.

Winning Criteria

Inspired by Bucky’s call for a design science revolution, The Buckminster Fuller Challenge is the world’s only large scale prize awarding holistic approaches to the interrelated crises confronting the world today.

“We are coming to an era the likes of which we’ve never seen before; we’re in the whitewaters of human history. We don’t know what lies ahead. Bucky Fuller’s ideas on design are at the core of any set of solutions that will take us to calmer waters.” - David Orr, 2011 Challenge Juror

The internationally renowned jury will look for entries with a clear grasp of the ‘the big picture’, focused on a well-defined need of critical importance. Winning entries for the last five years have applied a rare combination of pragmatic, visionary, comprehensive and anticipatory design thinking to tackling issues as broad as urban mobility, coastal restoration and new standards for building performance. 

Additional Support Awarded in 2013

“We are committed to accelerating the implementation of as many outstanding projects as we can, and are thrilled this year to be partnering with a number of organizations and companies to help further support a select number of entries with mentoring, incubation, educational resources, etc. Stay tuned for details as we roll them out over the next 4 weeks!” said BFI Executive Director, Elizabeth Thompson. Partners including international sustainability pioneers Interface, Inc., and the Presido Graduate School’s Center for Professional Development, among others, have joined in supporting entrants of the Challenge in 2013. 

ARE YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW WORKING ON A HOLISTIC SOLUTION TO MAKE THE WORLD WORK FOR 100% OF HUMANITY?
Read below for more information on what we are looking for, download the full Call for Proposals, and APPLY!

Deadline is Friday April 12, 2013, 5pm EST.

The Third Annual Forum on Social Innovation Oaxaca will occur on March 14-17. Please save the date as it we will try to make it the best event you attend all year!  In fact spend the week here if you can as we are creating something bigger and better. Last year we added TEDx Oaxaca to the events happening. This year we are launching a music and food festival. If you know Oaxacan food you can imagine how cool this is going to be. The intention is to broaden the awareness of social innovation and its potential for young people here. With great bands, short videos on Hub Oaxaca social entrepreneurs and Oaxacan cuisine its going to be really special. A whole week of events will be happening under what we are temporarily calling “isFEST” beginning March 10 including films, bands, art installations and more. Many more details to come but please save the date and think hard about coming.

isFEST is a week long series of events and cultural programs including film screenings, the Oaxaca Forum on Social Innovation, TEDx Talks and a Music Art & Food Festival from March 10-17th. This years focus is on Food with special emphasis on the integration of Oaxacan traditions and customs with new and innovative products, designs and collaborations. isFEST starts by mapping the food systems of Oaxaca and then creates a social studio-laboratory environment that merges research, design, culture and collaboration aimed at triggering interventions that improve the food ecosystem and thus the well-being of the people of Oaxaca. The week culminates with site visits to great social enterprises a day long Festival including TedX Talks, presentations and awards to local projects, live music and of course food!

More details here

“Within The eye of The storm” directed by Shelley Hermon and produced by Nisan Katz & Shelley Hermon, tells the remarkable story of Bassam and Rami, a Palestinian and an Israeli, whom against all odds turned from enemies to brothers.

This international documentary film, with partners like The Sundance Institute, France 5 TV, Makor Foundation for Cinema, Gesher Foundation for Cinema and Multimedia and the People’s Peace Fund, brings us a fresh perspective on this International Peace Day, in a year when we need it the most.

You are invited to be part of this momentous occasion, by checking out the website with a trailer, info and updates & sharing with friends and colleagues.
For a limited time only, the film will be available for viewing on the website after the 22nd of September.

withineyeofstorm.com
Our facebook page: www.facebook.com/withineyeofstorm

The Studio Xaquixe Collection is handblown from up-cycled glass waste collected from the local communities surrounding Oaxaca, Mexico. The studio’s furnaces run on bio-fuel and the studio employs and trains unemployed youth from the local community to blow glass creating sustainable livelihoods in Mexico.

Booth 31010
Artisan Resource at Pier 92
New York International Gift Fair
August 19 – 21, 2012
Please RSVP so we can let you know about our show specials!

In August, we will be featuring tableware and home textiles from our artisan partners in India and Mexico: Tilonia, Avani, Hao Craft, ROPE, Colectivo 1050° and Studio Xaquixe. We’re excited at the opportunity to introduce these artisans to American buyers. Take a peek at their online catalogs and see why!

The Studio Xaquixe Collection will be available from Tilonia for the first time at the NYIGF. If you can’t make it to the show, please contact us at shop@tilonia.com to place your order.

So the workforce got creative. Those who had been harboring secret hatred for their cubicles decided to look on the bright side. They jumped off the corporate ladder willingly. Many gathered up their talent and their networks, and went into business for themselves. After all, if your future’s going to be uncertain, shouldn’t you at least get to hold the reins?

According to the most recent BLS data, between 8-10 percent of all working men and women in the U.S. are self-employed. Although big corporations usually garner all the praise for job creation, new research shows that it’s actually these freelancers, contract workers, and self-starting entrepreneurs who are making a difference in small local economies.

A study by Stephan Goetz, professor of agricultural economics and regional economics at Penn State, found that the number of self-employed workers in nonmetro American counties significantly predicted personal income and job growth, as well as declines in family poverty levels.

“We often look at self-employment as a stopgap measure, something done out of desperation,” Goetz says. “But, in fact, self-employment has a tangible effect in raising income growth and lowering poverty.”

During his research, Goetz, along with associate Anil Rupasingha, examined statistics from the Bureau of Economic Analysis on self-employed rates in 3,000 metro and nonmetro counties. They found that between 1969 and 2009, the number of the self-employed in nonmetro areas has risen from 2.9 million to 5.6 million, an increase of 93 percent. When analyzed in relation to economic trends over the past few decades, it was discovered that self-employment helped drive positive growth in these communities.

Of course, self-employment isn’t completely fail-proof. Just like brick and mortar businesses, the self-employed depend on demand for their goods or services, and can be affected by economic downturns, though not as severely.

That’s why coworking spaces, especially in rural areas, are so important. Yes, as Goetz found, self-employment can revitalize and empower local economies. But who empowers and supports the self-employed? The global coworking community, that’s who.

Goetz says to encourage growth, leaders should help the self-employed by organizing networking meetings and alerting them to exporting opportunities. “Economic development groups also can assist entrepreneurs with credit and grant applications,” he explains.

Or, those same government leaders could help plant coworking spaces in their communities. Shared office spaces are the perfect, fertile mix of business incubator, think tank, professional network, therapy group, all rolled into one.

Freelancers and small business owners have been shown to thrive when exposed to the open sharing that occurs in coworking communities, and the coworking spaces themselves are small businesses that can act as lightning rods for innovation and economic growth.

See the original article.

Lucina Jimenez, Director of ConArte, talks about the importance of art and music in our culture and in Mexican schools. Working with students in communities devastated by trajedy like Ciudad de Juarez, she describes the critical importance of cultural and individual identity in the creation and healing of our internal and external architecture – the neuroscience and economy of creativity – and an investment in the culture of peace.

This year we have been laying the groundwork for a cooperative worm-composting center to be founded in 2012 (see video).

SiKanda has obtained 70% of the funds to set up the WCCO. In order to build the facility and implement its  educational programs, we need to raise $15,000 usd in 45 days, through our Indie go go campaign
(donate here)

The Worm Composting Center of Oaxaca (WCCO) will provide continuous, hands-on training in worm composting for families, schools, and communities living in marginalized neighborhoods and fringe areas.

With one click we can make a difference!