Creative Governance from TIME 100

I find TIME 100 (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/0,28757,1733748,00.html ). 5th annual list of the world's most influential people fascinating. The list is divided into 5 key categories. They are:

• Leaders & Revolutionaries
• Heroes & Pioneers
• Scientists & Thinkers
• Artists & Entertainers
• Builders & Titans

The complete 100 list can be found at http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/completelist/0,,1733748,00.html

I look at the lesser known names of the Scientists & Thinkers list and selected two people whom I think embody the spirit of Creative Governance .

1. Wendy Kopp - Teach for America
(http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1733748_1733754_1736227,00.html )

According to Wikipedia:

In 1989, Wendy Kopp proposed the creation of Teach for America in her undergraduate thesis at Princeton University. She was convinced that many in her generation were searching for a way to assume a significant responsibility that would make a real difference in the world and that top college students would choose teaching over more lucrative opportunities if a prominent teacher corps existed.

An extract from the TIME 100 write-up :

In 1990, Kopp, then 23, raised $2.5 million to get her teaching corps started. From that beginning came, a nationwide organization that today boasts more than 5,000 member teachers, who work in communities all over the country and reach 440,000 kids. Some 12,000 veterans of Teach for America have continued their teaching careers, often providing leadership for troubled schools in their own communities. A 2005 study showed that 75% of school principals consider Teach for America teachers more effective than other teachers, and a 2004 study showed Teach for America students do better than other kids in math. Deranged or not, Kopp's idea is working—and as a result, more kids are learning.



2. Mary Lou Jepsen - One Laptop Per Child program (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1733748_1733754_1736211,00.html )
.
An extract from the TIME 100 write-up :

In 2005 Jepsen and Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte launched the nonprofit, open-source One Laptop Per Child program, which, as the name suggests, was an attempt to get a computer to every child in the world who needs one. The machines would have to work in extreme climate, amid spotty power and Internet connectivity, and be readable in direct sunlight. Oh, and they would have to sell for around $100 each. Negroponte ran the project, but Jepsen was the lead innovator and architect of the hundreds-strong team that would design the machine.

Within two years they succeeded, creating a computer that can run on solar power, with five times the screen resolution of other laptops and a wireless system that creates its own network..


Talk on Creative Governance

Please email me at DrYKK@mindbloom.net if you want to invite me to present an illuminating one hour Talk on Creative Governance and thereafter to facilitate a session to help solve a prevailing public and social problem in the spirit of Creative Governance.

I would appreciate if you could share Creative Governance stories with me so that they could be featured here. Please forward your response and contributions to DrYKK@mindbloom.net