The Realist Idealist

On the Social Sector, Politics, Using Technology, and Making Good Things (actually) Happen

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Entries Tagged as 'Silicon Valley'

CarrotMob: WE Are the Economy.

Posted by Jake · May 31st, 2008 · 2 Comments

The buying power of the casual consumer can be harnessed to impact the environmental actions of business. We can get companies to make choices that are sustainable and transformative. And we can do it with the carrot …not the stick.
Watch this video (highly recommend the longer version) to see exactly how it works.

CarrotMob is [...]

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Category: Community Organizing · Corporate Social Responsibility · Environmental Responsibility · Innovation · Silicon Valley · awareness raising
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Ultra High Speed Internet for Low Income Areas!

Posted by Jake · March 29th, 2008 · 3 Comments

Yesterday, I got sent a press release about the Internet Archive, a San Francisco-based organization I’d never heard of dedicated to preserving a record of the Internet and to increasing access to the Internet. This week, the little known organization began offering free internet service to public housing projects at speeds far greater than [...]

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Category: Business · Nonprofits · Silicon Valley · Social Media · awareness raising
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Mountain View, CA: Saturated with Innovation…

Posted by Jake · March 6th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Sitting here in Red Rock coffee shop in downtown Mountain View, CA - the fabled home to tech giants like Google and innumerable startups - you can almost feel the innovation pulsing through your veins. It permeates the air. You suck it in with every breath.  Like politics in DC.
I’m in a chair [...]

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Category: Innovation · Nonprofits · Silicon Valley · Social Media · Technology
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Mashups for Good - NetSquared Mashup Challenge

Posted by Jake · March 1st, 2008 · 5 Comments

Mashups make great sense when it comes to getting things done. I mean, why build it when you can mash it? Nonprofits, however, have mostly been slow to jump in the mashable fun.
As a meeting I was at recently of foundations at the Aspen Institute suggested, the majority of nonprofs are still asking questions [...]

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Category: NGOs · Nonprofits · Silicon Valley · Social Media · Social Networks · Technology
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When You Build It, They Don’t Come …Right Away.

Posted by Jake · February 15th, 2008 · 3 Comments

My great friend Marissa and I were talking on Wednesday about how actually accomplishing many of the best things we want to see in the world will probably mean a lot of – for lack of a better term – “suckiness” and time to get there.
Earlier in the day I was at an event [...]

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Category: Business · Silicon Valley · Social Enterprise
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Nonprofit Innovation With Salesforce.com

Posted by Jake · February 13th, 2008 · 6 Comments

I’m a cyclist.
Stick with me here; this is relevant.
One of the things I’ve always loved about cycling is that if you care enough about the sport you can have access to the exact same equipment or tools that the best riders in the world use. That is to say, I can [...]

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Category: Business · Events · Nonprofits · Silicon Valley · Social Enterprise · Social Responsibility · Technology
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Would Microsoft Buy a Company Without Its Top Talent? …or Any Talent?

Posted by Jake · February 5th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Same article on Huffington Post - jake brewer
Granted, the answer may very well be as two analysts recently told me: “Of course they would if the purchase means online properties and market share in profitable markets. And also, they’re Microsoft. So…yeah.”
But what if “yeah” was wrong? What if human energy, organizational memory, the brain power [...]

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Category: Business · Community Organizing · Silicon Valley
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No More Business Bullsh…I Mean Buzz. Please.

Posted by Jake · October 22nd, 2007 · 1 Comment

Original post on HuffPo - jake brewer
“…Our organization offers innovative and competent services to empower communities and organizations aimed at stimulating collaborative initiatives; while simultaneously developing harmonious relations which leverage…”
I can’t finish.
Last week I got an email that used that line to describe a company’s socially responsible work. This email follows hundreds of others this [...]

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Category: Business · Corporate Social Responsibility · Events · Nonprofits · Silicon Valley · Social Enterprise