Last Saturday I attended the Craigslist Foundation Bootcamp in Berkeley, California. I honestly didn’t know what to expect, however, was pleasantly surprised with the massive turnout and the caliber of talent and knowledge that was circulating throughout the UC Berkeley campus.
Thousands of passionate people gathered to translate ideas into reality and meet and greet with some of the innovators in the space. The theme was less about the non-profit sector and being philanthropic and more about how to create 
sustainable, automated change through technology, and even more specifically internet tools and web resources.
My favorite panel was on Social Entrepreneurship presented by Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anderson School and Nora Silver from Haas School of Business. This session provided case studies and information behind brands integrating social good themes within their products appealing to a certain segment of the consumer population.
Interface, Ethos Water, and TOMS, achieve widespread brand recognition and record sales while remaining true to their original principles. The session also integrated a hands-on workshop that enabled us to connect with our neighbors to discuss what social enterprise means to us. My neighbor and I decided that it is the intersection between passion and execution. You can’t have one without the other to succeed in this space.
Another highlight was learning more about the Extraordinaries, which proposes to deliver skills-based volunteer tasks to people whenever and wherever they are available by mobile phone. Essentially it’s crowdsourcing on steroids.
Over 80% of the adult U.S. population carries a mobile phone in his or her pocket and the higher-end of these diminuative devices, so called “smartphones,” are as capable as any laptop computer. Nearly anything that can be done on a personal computer can be done on a smartphone. The Extraordinaries dramatically reduce the barriers to giving back by enabling people to volunteer on-the-spot and on-demand.
I left the Bootcamp inspired and even more amped about what technology can do to help the world around us and those in need.
*photos courtesy of the Craigslist Foundation
