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This has been an exciting day. The VSA attended the re:campaign in Berlin. Day one was filled with presentations and talks, which gave me new ideas and motivated me to take the next steps that need to be taken to grow our German community.

• Listen and talk even more to our potential members, engage them in discussions, then produce content and tell our own story (Betsy Hoover).
• Use open transfer strategies to move the knowledge from South Africa to Germany, work on a concept for collaboration of the two VSAs (Katarina Peranic, Henrik Floor).
• Use the YouTube Platform for non-profits to reach more people, have them become members and donate (Sabine Frank).
• Produce a video with a story and a new concept (Film4Change) with a fresh vision!
• Offer more to the volunteers, e.g. responsibilities and being part of a larger community (Hannes Jaehnert).

Who feels motivated and addressed by this? Who wants to be a volunteers for the VSA Germany? Contact me, we can work together and you will have your own field and responsibilities! I am looking forward to hearing from you!

The first SenseCamp for the VSA turned out to be very successful and also great fun! MakeSense Berlin invited into the Social Impact Enterprise Lab last Saturday (9/2/13) and almost 200 SenseMakers came. There was an amazing atmosphere in which creativity, social ideas and motivation was sprouting out of everyone to form a lively, sizzling and sense making community of change.

The VSA had the privilege to give a hold-up, moderated by Ismail Chaib, in which 12 SenseMakers brainstormed around a tricky problem awarenet users have. The challenge was: How do you make first time Web 2.0 users remember their password, handle it on their own and not share it with anyone else?

More than 100 post-its were filled and placed on the table before 3 more concrete ideas were selected and elaborated by 3 different groups. They came up with fantastic ideas, of which one or a combination of all will definitely be implemented into awarenet. I will go into detail in one of the following blogs.

Just this for now: What I have learned is that the main key to success is to make use of emotions. Thank you very, very much, SenseMakers for your involvement, passion and applied knowledge! Hope to see you soon again and give the favour back!

Have you actually wondered what a Hold-Up is? We have announced the event in a previous blog, but watch this video to find out exactly what the VSA is planning to do on the 9/2/13 at the social impact enterprise lab in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

Make Sense/Hold Up Introduction from GUST PROJECT on Vimeo.

The VSA presented awarenet at OuiShare #3 and generated a lot of interest.

For the full 5 min presentation, please follow the link below. If you have questions or if you are interested to collaborate with us or to use awarenet, please contact us.

awarenet@OuiShare

During the last SenseDrink #13 at the Luzia Bar in Berlin, we were invited by Ismail Chaib to give a Hold-Up during the next SenseCamp on the 9th of February in Berlin. Thank you for inviting us, @iChaib, we are very much looking forward to the event!

The VSA took part in the bi-monthly meeting of the socialbar in Berlin this week, an event at which talks are held and space for discussions are given. Participants came from the various fields of social work and fundraising. The VSA participated to find out more about the local scene and their view on and experiences in traditional and electronic fundraising using social media.

Socialbar’s motto is “online networking, offline movement” and their concept is “that [they] enable other people to build their own event in their towns (openness).” So, most people come to find out what the “social media hype is all about and whether it has any relevance for their organisation”.

It was a very interesting event and we had the chance to talk to the people behind fraisr – commerce with a cause. This is also a very interesting concept worth checking out. We might be one of their beneficiaries, depending on if we find and be able to persuade people like you to dig in their backyard and sell unused stuff – a very first world concept for people who want to do good, but don’t feel quite “rich” enough. It also triggers the question again whether donating is still up to date or – in the context of development in Africa – counterproductive. On the other hand, trading is truly in African spirit and fraisr probably the closest you can get to sensible support for African development through donations – if your donations go to the VSA.

Thank you very much to all the volunteers from @socialbar. Looking forward to the next event in February.

The VSA will present the awarenet programme at this year’s Online Educa Conference in Berlin (28.-30.11.12). The title of the Talking Heads Session is “awarenet: Educating Socially Responsible, Collaborative Minds” (29.11.12 at 2.30pm in room Potsdam III). Come if you are skeptical about social media in the classroom, but enthusiastic about cultural exchange. Try awarenet‘s safe social and collaborative approach! It gives you full control over your classroom-based outreach project.

Talking Heads Sessions are Show&Tell Sessions that “showcase the latest projects and products available in technology-enhanced learning. Standing at small bistro tables, facilitators in these sessions are offered a platform to display expertise and materials to a dedicated audience. Participants attending are free to move around the large room to visit concurrent Talking Heads Sessions. They have the opportunity to discuss products and projects of interest on a one to one, informal basis.”
We are looking forward to meet a lot of interested people and to hear their opinion and to exchange experiences and ideas.

The VSA was invited to a panel discussion about “Business cooperation and digital Operation – Must-Haves for successful social entrepreneurs?!” On the panel were Dr. Hartmut Kopf, Head of the World Vision Institute For Research and Innovation, Carolin Silbernagl, Chairperson und Founder Member of dotHIV, Nadine Schön, MP, Norbert Kunz, CEO of iq consult, and Tanja Kufner, Director of the Wayra Academy Germany. They were invited by Telefónica Germany and moderated by Thomas Friemel, Chief Editor of the enorm Magazine.

Everyone was very positive about the possibilities and the potential win-win-situations that result from cooperations between traditional businesses and social entrepreneurs. Traditional businesses can learn more about how to work under extreme financial and time pressure. Social entrepreneurs bring a new dynamic into the “old business”, also because of their innovative and intuitive way of using digital means to reach their goals. In return they can profit from professionalism and seed funding, access to information and contacts.

We see this development in Germany as a great opportunity for the VSA. It is wonderful to see how positive people from all fields think about the possibilities for our society and the future that arise from such cooperations. We are working hard to also be a partner of such a cooperation, soon, and have applied at iq consult for participation in the MENT Programme.