How can technology help to create more resilient communities?
Society depends on active citizens doing good to make their communities a better place. Though many people feel the need to contribute to their community, many people lack time or money to become active for causes they care about. They get stuck in their job - or looking for a job - while daily costs and commitments such as taking care of family members, prevent them from investing their precious time in social issues they really care about.
What if we could remove these barriers and empower people and their communities? In the end, we all want a healthier, more social and sustainable world.
During this talk I will present the Possible Pilot Platform that we are currently testing in Eindhoven together with Fontys University and local volunteering groups. This platform not only matches social initiatives and volunteers, but also contains an advanced volunteer recognition system based on blockchain. Inspired by Greek timebanks that make people more resilient in times of crisis, the platform records volunteering hours and values time with Community Coins. These coins can be used for discounts at retailers participating to lower daily costs and stimulate the local economy. On top of that people can build their social resume or earn badges in social projects. This way, the platform encourages more people to contribute their time and skills to the benefit of local communities, while their transaction histories on blockchain help to make social impact measurable and transparent.
Diana Kretschmann (1974) is a social entrepreneur living and working in Eindhoven. She is the chairwoman of the Possible Today Foundation, which aims to enable more people to do meaningful work on a sustainable basis and to increase social resilience in local communities. The foundation is actively looking for new ways of working, living and consuming. To this purpose, the foundation uses social co-design (i.e. designing together with the target groups) and technological innovation.
Diana likes to call herself a “social hacktivist” and considers herself a “radical optimist”, believing that we already have everything that we need to start making things possible today. In 2015 she decided to give up an academic career as a university teacher and researcher in Ancient History and started researching new economic models and developing an innovative platform together with other social hacktivists. Now, three years later, the Possible Today Foundation is running its first pilot with a test platform. In the “Community Coins Eindhoven” project they collaborate with Fontys University and several local stakeholders.
Diana is also the owner of Awareness Academy, providing freelance copywriting, campaigns and project management.