"We are a nation of whingers," says Anna Maybank , director of Social Innovation Camp. "When stuff goes wrong we like to complain and blame the government and councils for it. What we are trying to do is create a way for people to stop whinging and start fixing stuff themselves."

Citipedia  (or Google maps meets Sim City) is proposed by graphic designer, illustrator Lyall Bruce and inspired by derelict sites in Dundee. An online public town planning tool would allow derelict sites marked for development to be highlighted and made open to the public to suggest how they could be developed or to review proposed development. The concept of interactive city maps is not new, but the ability to highlight unused or primed space and allow people to interact with this to the level of potentially creating their own real world urban environment is.

Community Investors Club. Proposed by Geek Girl founder Morna Simpson. A web-based product to encourage people to form clubs to invest small regular sums (eg. £100/pcm) in small and micro-businesses in their community, supporting and promoting businesses.  Each business success equates with an investment success. Small businesses to pitch for sums to cover particular expenses eg. to employ admin staff during growth in return for shares or interest returns. Emotional engagement with community business will strengthen community and the economy, incentivise success, and help secure local jobs. Zopa.com is perhaps the best known online product for small investors. But, specialising in personal loans it plays out entirely online, without impacting local community relationships.

Ex-Changing Places.  A user-generated map of all public lavatories is proposed with data about accessibility and a way for individuals ( perhaps companies, shops and restaurants) to make  toilets available and accessible to anyone. Proposer Rosie McIntosh, PR and marketing co-ordinator at ENABLE Scotland notes The British Toilet Association exists to campaign for better public loos and now Changing Places is pushing for better facilities for those with profound and multiple learning disabilities. But there is currently no searchable map of public loos in the UK.

Fix the Freakin Buses
It would put all the bus timetable data into a searchable, accessible form and plotting them on a map which would highlight places where’s a real demand for transport but no provision - a particular problem in rural areas. It could get users to a stage of uploading  journeys made, but poorly served by existing transport links to surface demand for new routes. And it could incorporate ways for people to solve transport problems through using tools like Liftshare. Student Sam Collins is founder of Tech Meetup,  a not-for-profit community movement to bring together the tech scene around Edinburgh, Glasgow and soon Newcastle and Aberdeen. He works full time with Hedout, a mobile startup as the strategy/marketing/biz dev/finance team.

MyPoliceService
This wants to create a feedback tool for the public to comment on police service (resembling a US  application RateMyCop) do what the Patient Opinion is doing in the NHS,  for the police. Proposer Sarah Drummond is a service designer about to graduate from the Glasgow School of Art. She wants to have police feedback and case updates on the web and get the police to tell and show what they’re doing, use new technologies to handle crimes, know what is happening in communities, where police officers are and encourage communities to be proud of their officers on the beat.

Social chain gangs
A website for people to register for either or both the willingness to set aside a specific day, on a calendar, to join a social chain gang to blitz a day's work on a project  or suggest  what needs done in a day and the benefit and then allocate days when it could be done, and who would help manage it.  Gavin Robertson, the proposer works for a new start up looking to network public transport information with social networking.



The best will be chosen in a Dragons' Den-style finale, and get £1000 to make it a reality. Organisers said the camp will show that the virtual world of web and digital technology can affect real social change.

Supported by the Big Lottery Fund, Nesta - the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts - Skills Development Scotland, and 4iP, Channel 4's fund for digital innovation. Ewan McIntosh, 4iP's digital media manager, said the ideas produced at the camp could either "earn you a million or a knighthood. It is a heart-warming project," he added. "Maybe some people are thinking I'll get a job out of this,' but at the heart of every one coming is to do something good".

Inspired by the US, the first Social Innovation Camp in London in April 2008. The winning idea at the second camp in December 2008 was The Good Gym, "helps you do good while you keep fit." After signing up to its website, joggers would run to the homes of isolated people and the infirm, deliver something nice, have a chat, then be on their way.

Sunday Herald