Wiki reaches US$6m target

I’m sure everyone is acquainted with Wikipedia. However, perhaps not many will know that Wikipedia is a non-for-profit organization, which means that the organization runs on public donation. This is one of the latest internet business models to emerge, and one which only few organizations can utilize and succeed. so, kudos to Wiki!

Bigger libraries at malls

Nicely done. Speaking of libraries, they remind me of my 5 years old little nephew. My little nephew was recently diagnosed with myopia, and being an avid reader, the doctor’s advice for his mother was “Don’t bring him to the libraries, that will do more harm to him”. I thought it was certainly ironic

Social Entrepreneurship

Just to build on the previous post on how the rich gets richer, and the poorer and less educated seem to be left behind, I realised that increasingly, social entrepreneurship has been actively promoted in tertiary education. Personally, i have a few friends that are pretty into it. One of the more prominent groups i have heard of is SIFE (Student for Free Enterprise). Check it out at http://www.sife.org

Well, they say to teach a man how to fish rather than to give a man fish. That is supposed to be the gist of social entrepreneurship (Like all other big terms, academia can debate on the definitiion, but for simplicity sake, I’ll just stick to the fish analogy). However, i feel that in the Singapore context, the social entrepreneurship scene is still in its infant stage.  It seems to me that alot of people mix up volunteer work (give a man a fish) with social entrepreneurship (teach a man how to fish).

I have a friend who interned at one of the local stat boards that gives out funding for social enterprise. We had a chat about social entrepreneurship, and agreed that because there isn’t alot of people involved, the social enterprise ideas being generated are rather stale. I guess we cannot expect to see results overnight.

In short, I feel that SE still has a long way to go, but raising awareness amongst the population is probably the first and most effective way to go about for now.

(Since Social entrepreneurship is such a  big topic, it would be great if views are shared. Leave a comment )

More youths on mercy trips

About 5 years back, I went on one of the trips described in the article. Despite what the title suggested (mercy, in my humble opinion, does not seem exactly a very suitable word to use actually. Alas, no big debate into the choice of word from me, for now at least), nor what the article painted, I feel that the biggest beneficiary might have been myself, and most other Singaporeans that might have gone for such overseas community trips.

Think about it, Singaporean students giving a shot at constructing a kindergarten. I mean, physically wielding a shovel and digging soil. Or SIF sponsoring a couple of hundreds for each singaporean student that went on such trips. It doesnt really make sense, does it? However, it doesnt mean that I’m against such trips. If these trips allow Singaporeans to go out of their comfort zone, see the world, learn and mature, and at the same time benefit the overseas community (mainly in the form of cash assistance), I think it kills 2 birds with a stone.

The only part I disagree with is the passive disguising of self-beneficiary activities as volunteer work. Well, but I’m not complaining, afterall, we all take news in Singapore with a pinch of salt.

Tabla! launched

Here’s something for our Indian friends. But makes me wonder, what do they have in there that will not be in the normal english newspaper a.k.a straits times? For all the newsworthy news, they should be present in all newspaper. So maybe the entertainment part? Not too sure.

Technopreneurship

For those keen at technologies and businesses, or in the local context, fondly known as “technopreneurship”, there are a few websites that might interest you.

Tech Crunch

Group-edited blog about technology start-ups, particularly the Web 2.0 sector. (my personal favourite, rather amazed by the amount of money VCs pump into web 2.0 start-ups.)

Gizmodo

An online review dedicated to gadgets, gizmos, and cutting-edge consumer electronics.

Engadget

A multilingual technology weblog and podcast about consumer electronics

Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of eight books including The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way

Do you know more of such websites? Care to share?

Wikipedia is my Best Friend

How about you?

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