Code for Love
A unique startup event to bridge technology and humanity
At one level our world is in the best shape that it’s ever been in. The average person has never been better fed than today. Infant mortality has never been lower; Child labor, illiteracy and unsafe water have ceased to be global norms. Democracy is in, as slavery is disappearing. People don’t have to work as hard to just survive. A bicycle in 1895 used to cost 260 working hours, today we’ve gotten that number down to 7.2.
While things have tremendously progressed at one level, at another level the story isn’t that great. The suicide rate for Gen X went up by 30% in the last decade, and 50% for the boomer generation. Carbon levels have surpassed 400 PPM for the first time in human history. Considering that we live in an era where Facebook has spawned 150 billion “connections”, the average American adult reports having just one real friend that they can count on. Just one. And all this is just the tip of the iceberg.
At the core of all of today's most pressing challenges is one fundamental issue: we have become profoundly disconnected. By losing connection to nature, we have created an ecological divide; by diluting connection with each other, we have manifested a social divide; and by ignoring connection with ourselves, we have deepened our spiritual divide. As these chasms widen at an alarming rate, many are rising-up to forge bridges that reconnect us.
Some of these bridge-builders take the path of social entrepreneurship. Some of the ideas that these entrepreneurs are inspired by are - ‘The fortune at the bottom of pyramid’, Designing For the Other 90% , pursue efficiency possible through technology, invent greener technology, etc.
While these ideas are excellent, why is it rare to find enterprises like Aravind Eye Care? How did it pursue its mission of eliminating needless blindness?
Is there a need of an additional ingredient? Is Heart, Compassion, Love that ingredient. Some of the most effective bridge-makers like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Mother Teresa seem to have tapped that in their own fields. Deep within, we know that compassion is the innate quality of our being.
Some relevant questions in this context are: How do entrepreneurs lead their social change work with love and inner transformation? Are entrepreneurs ready-within to tap into multiple forms of capital (including financial capital) that becomes available when work is rooted in inner transformation? can we create "many-to-many" distributed clusters of bridge-builders -- a community of communities? Can social network do better than connecting loose ties & that too without dramatically cheapening our deep friendship? Would technology take a different shape when the design center shifts? What would be design principle of such technology?
To explore these questions in a practical way, we are organizing a two-day Startup event – Code For Love. You are invited to conceive and pitch your idea for social change based on this approach. Over two days, you will work with other aspiring social entrepreneurs guided by various inspired change-makers, who have not only impacted the world but led with "being the change". The process aims to help you refine your idea and/or garner support needed to take your idea further.
Among the invited guests are:
The event is being organized on 16th, 17th Dec 2019 at Anahad, a farm-community near Hyderabad. Anahad too is a start-up of different kind that was deeply influenced by a similar event held about 4 years back.
To join us for this event, please RSVP below. Sooner the better. :) One of the coordinators will then email you all the necessary details, few days prior to the gathering. We look forward to collectively learn from and be inspired by each other.
At one level our world is in the best shape that it’s ever been in. The average person has never been better fed than today. Infant mortality has never been lower; Child labor, illiteracy and unsafe water have ceased to be global norms. Democracy is in, as slavery is disappearing. People don’t have to work as hard to just survive. A bicycle in 1895 used to cost 260 working hours, today we’ve gotten that number down to 7.2.
While things have tremendously progressed at one level, at another level the story isn’t that great. The suicide rate for Gen X went up by 30% in the last decade, and 50% for the boomer generation. Carbon levels have surpassed 400 PPM for the first time in human history. Considering that we live in an era where Facebook has spawned 150 billion “connections”, the average American adult reports having just one real friend that they can count on. Just one. And all this is just the tip of the iceberg.
At the core of all of today's most pressing challenges is one fundamental issue: we have become profoundly disconnected. By losing connection to nature, we have created an ecological divide; by diluting connection with each other, we have manifested a social divide; and by ignoring connection with ourselves, we have deepened our spiritual divide. As these chasms widen at an alarming rate, many are rising-up to forge bridges that reconnect us.
Some of these bridge-builders take the path of social entrepreneurship. Some of the ideas that these entrepreneurs are inspired by are - ‘The fortune at the bottom of pyramid’, Designing For the Other 90% , pursue efficiency possible through technology, invent greener technology, etc.
While these ideas are excellent, why is it rare to find enterprises like Aravind Eye Care? How did it pursue its mission of eliminating needless blindness?
Is there a need of an additional ingredient? Is Heart, Compassion, Love that ingredient. Some of the most effective bridge-makers like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Mother Teresa seem to have tapped that in their own fields. Deep within, we know that compassion is the innate quality of our being.
Some relevant questions in this context are: How do entrepreneurs lead their social change work with love and inner transformation? Are entrepreneurs ready-within to tap into multiple forms of capital (including financial capital) that becomes available when work is rooted in inner transformation? can we create "many-to-many" distributed clusters of bridge-builders -- a community of communities? Can social network do better than connecting loose ties & that too without dramatically cheapening our deep friendship? Would technology take a different shape when the design center shifts? What would be design principle of such technology?
To explore these questions in a practical way, we are organizing a two-day Startup event – Code For Love. You are invited to conceive and pitch your idea for social change based on this approach. Over two days, you will work with other aspiring social entrepreneurs guided by various inspired change-makers, who have not only impacted the world but led with "being the change". The process aims to help you refine your idea and/or garner support needed to take your idea further.
Among the invited guests are:
- Nipun Mehta, founder of ServiceSpace
- Prof Rajeev Sangal, former director IIIT Hyderabad
The event is being organized on 16th, 17th Dec 2019 at Anahad, a farm-community near Hyderabad. Anahad too is a start-up of different kind that was deeply influenced by a similar event held about 4 years back.
To join us for this event, please RSVP below. Sooner the better. :) One of the coordinators will then email you all the necessary details, few days prior to the gathering. We look forward to collectively learn from and be inspired by each other.
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