The Minerva Project

Startup Companies in SF Bay Area Uses High Tech to Facilitating Doing….Better

Seventy four (74%) of adults so they don’t volunteer because…they don’t have time or…they don’t know how to “plug in.”  Given that there is a “kindness” gene (see Adam Phillips, On Kindness), volunteering more would make us feel better.

Are there lessons here — from “The Extraordinaries”  and “Aardvark.com” — for the rest of us?  Can we really use technology to be of more help to each other, the world?

Extraordinaries uses the brief moments of “spare” time — waiting for a bus, standing in the grocery line –when they can present something, on a digital hand-held, for the volunteer to do, to help with.

Aardvark uses volunteers to help answer others’ questions — gardening, parenting, using the Web, etc. — in a short time frame. In February, they joined behemoth Google.

This leads me to more questions: 

1.  Does / can technology facilitate access to situations that provide a chance for meaningful opportunities to be of help? (they’re working on that and finding some formulae that work)
2. How can we use technology and systems to exploit the “kindness gene” in humans?  

The Extraordinaries start-up organization, funded by Angel money, provides a fascinating look at how we can harness a new view, a new perspective — along with new technologies — to achieve even a small breakthrough.

One of the most compelling aspects of their work is their continual, daily even, experimentation with methods and, like scientists, continual measurement.  Kudos.

Right now, neither The Extraordinaries or Aardvark is hitting the “nail on the head” when it comes to solving nagging social problems — like poverty, employablity, health,  literacy, etc.  But they’re pushing the envelope enough and measuring enough — that they might just, a la Thomas A Edison and others, stumble upon a code, of sorts. 

Below are the slides used by Ben Rigby, Chief Technology Officer of The Extraordinaries,  in a presentation he gave on July 26th to a crowded room at TechSoup in San Francisco.

Local PBS Affiliate Re-Broadcasts December 2009 Interview

The local PBS Affiliate cites The Minerva Project, once again, for its breakthrough collaborative.  The initial interview is set to air the week of July 12.

Citing progress that the collaborative has made, the North Bay Report’s News Director, Bruce Robinson, said that it was time to give it another dose of publicity.

The Minerva Project has completed more than fifteen discrete projects for twelve non-profit clients — serving mental health needs; at-risk youth; environmental initiatives; volunteer management; education —  in Sonoma County.  It is expanding its reach to Alameda County with an affiliation with the CSU East Bay during August 2010.

Click here KRCB Interview for the audio version of the interview.

Jim Plaisted, ED of ATFC, Chimes in on Coffin and Green

“We are thrilled with the direction ATFC (Actors’ Theatre for Children)  is moving now, and with the new energy and commitment that has been generated. Jerry Green and Jed Coffin have done an outstanding job empowering all of us in ATFC. We look forward to working with them as often as they are willing to put up with us.”

Jed Coffin, IV and Jerry Green are two representatives of the Minerva Project Consultants: talented; giving; tenacious; skilled.  And, yes, of course, modest: better for others to sing their praises than for them to “blow their own horn” (like some of us, myself included, ahem, feel the need to do!).

Nice work Jerry and Jed: thank you for being such productive ambassadors for our Minerva Project Consultant Collaborative.