Global Solution Networks Blog
Recent articles and research reports
New Report
Mobilizing Against Injustice
Global institutions in the twentieth century have addressed global problems and initiated multilateral projects and activities. But their traditional approaches and politics often impede viable solutions for some of the world’s most urgent and intractable challenges. Gender violence is one. The role of women in cultures and families varies—and “abuse” and the issue of equality is a distinct and subjective matter—but global consensus exists against, and this report focuses on, gratuitous violence, rape, exploitation, negligence and enslavement of females. Such maltreatment has been criminalized in developed nations in the past century, but it is still common in many cultures around the world.
New GSN Case Study:
INHOPE
International Association of Internet Hotlines Online child sexual exploitation is global in scope and requires a global response. INHOPE coordinates and promotes international efforts to protect children from online exploitation, as well as supporting member hotlines...
Fix A Broken World
Tapscott urges new graduates to help bring about change
Excerpts from Don Tapscott’s convocation speech to graduates at Trent University last week. Given the complexity, challenges and choice for today’s graduates it makes sense to design your life. Design your vocation and consider new options like being an entrepreneur,...
New GSN Case Study:
C40 Cities
The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group was created by cities for cities. It is now a leading global organization whose membership is exclusively the mayors of megacities around the globe and whose mission is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and the...
Interview: McKinsey Global Institute
The Flow of Governance: An interview with Don Tapscott The topic of business wasn’t on the table at the Bretton Woods Conference 70 years ago, when world leaders convened to determine how the international monetary and financial system would operate in the wake of...
Policy Options: The Network Solution
The emergence of global solutions networks offers hope for a better way to address global problems. But we need to understand how they work and protect them from nation-states that sometimes try to suppress them. Continue reading at Policy Options: The Network...
Orchestrating Global Solution Networks
A Guide for Organizational Entrepreneurs by Kenneth W. Abbott Jack E. Brown Professor of Law and Professor of Global Studies Arizona State University and Dr. Thomas Hale Postdoctoral Research Fellow Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University While global...
New Report:
Watchdog Networks
Revealing Problems and Issuing Calls to Action by Kathryn Semogas Contributing Writer Global Solution Networks Watchdog networks drive public debate, boost transparency and ignite movements for change. In a world where major problems are increasingly understood as...
New GSN Case Study:
The Fab Lab Network
A Global Platform for Digital Invention, Education and Entrepreneurship Can small manufacturing labs, with the tools and computing power to make almost anything, infuse new ideas and possibilities into global solution networks and give a boost to local...
Financial Inclusion:
New Technologies
This week, MasterCard joins more than 1,000 business leaders, heads of state and government, as well as representatives from academia, development organisations, non-profits and media in Abuja, Nigeria for the 24th World Economic Forum(WEF) on Africa. The theme for...
Special PublicationThe way we govern the Internet is a model in international co-operation
In this Special to The Globe And Mail, Lynn St. Amour and Don Tapscott provided an analysis of the next era of Internet Governance. St. Amour, former CEO of the Internet Society, was a delegate to the NETmundial congress in Brazil. Read their analysis of the new...
Special Publication
The way we govern the Internet is a model in international co-operation
In this Special to The Globe And Mail, Lynn St. Amour and Don Tapscott provided an analysis of the next era of Internet Governance. St. Amour, former CEO of the Internet Society, was a delegate to the NETmundial congress in Brazil. Read their analysis of the new...
New GSN Case Study:
Digital Humanitarian Network
Leveraging Digital Networks for Humanitarian Response The earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010 gave rise to a new way of mobilizing and coordinating disaster assistance. Thousands of "digital humanitarians" converged on the Internet to help first responders...
Lynn St.Amour Reporting from Brazil, Pt 2
NETmundial and the Future of Internet Governance
Lynn St. Amour, Senior Fellow, GSN – 2nd in a series of posts from the NETmundial meeting on the Future of Internet Governance in Brazil this week: In Don Tapscott's Understanding the New Multi-Stakeholder Models for Global Cooperation, Problem Solving and Governance,...
New GSN Case Study:
LUUM – Taking on Urban Congestion
A GSN Lighthouse Case Study Traffic congestion is a chronic and costly problem for large urban centers. Further, traffic congestion has significant costs for organizations located in those centers. Efforts to promote transportation alternatives and mitigate the...
Lynn St.Amour Reporting from Brazil
NETmundial and the Future of Internet Governance
Lynn St. Amour, Senior Fellow GSN, is at the NETmundial meeting on the Future of Internet Governance in Brazil this week. Her early report: NETmundial got off to a somewhat slow start given all the necessary formalities. One highpoint though is the signing by...
New GSN Report:
Global Standards Networks
by Rawn Shah Chief Strategy Officer Alynd, Inc. Global Standards Networks create the frameworks for common operations, transparency and interoperability across private, public and civic sectors worldwide. They create common designs that commercial organizations can...
mHealth: Healthcare Reaching Remote Places with Mobile Phones and SMS
Mobile phones seem to be everywhere in Africa, and they’re keeping people in touch with health, education, banking, and community empowerment. “Email and Facebook are problems…but this text messaging – it’s no problem,” says Betty Kazadi Musau who lives in the...