http://www.elevyn.com/blog Elevyn is a weekly blog about Elevyn.com, fair trade and social entrepreneurship. en-us http://www.elevyn.com/codenavia/portals/blog/images/rss/blog.xml Hello! This is an email update on Elevyn - in case you're unfamiliar - we're about connecting 1st world buyers to 3rd world producers of handmade items. You are receiving this e-mail because you ar... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Quick+updates+from+Elevyn,+June+2009 Over the course of developing Elevyn as a viable business model to connect buyers to artisans, we constantly keep our eyes peeled for interesting and creative e-commerce ideas. This had led us to l... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Interesting+E-commerce+Auction+Models One of Elevyn's eldest artisans, Granny Rupiah lived till a ripe old age of 100. With much sadness, the Sinompuru Women's Group, Elevyn and other supporters mourned the passing of Granny Rupiah ea... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Tribute+to+Granny+Rupiah+1909+to+2009 On May 26, Facebook accepted a $200 million injection from a Russian investment group, in exchange for a humble 1.96% stake in the company - valuating the site at a whopping $10 billion. Now "bill... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/5+Interesting+Facebook+Stats+That+Entrepreneurs+&+Developers+Should+Know+About Sze Ning shares her thoughts on poverty, ducks, helicopters and bombs, on a trip to Cambodia to get organizations up online on Elevyn.com. This article also appears on Wild Asia. Photos © Puah Sze Ni... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Duck+Duck+Helicopter+Bomb+Bomb Here's an uplifting update on Elevyn's oldest artisan, 80+ year old Gendoi Samah. 7 years ago, Gendoi Samah started passing down the art of weaving pandanus pouches to... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Gendoi+Samah+is+weaving+again We arrived back in Kuala Lumpur today from an exhausting, but rewarding trip to Singapore for the e27 unConference. We left KL on Friday morning in an Odyssey bus. We were sold ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/An+Adventure+Down+South Billed as Southeast Asia's #1 tech start-up event, unConference Singapore will be happening this Saturday, 16th May 2009 at Matrix@Biopolis. Elevyn will be one of two Malaysian c... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/unConference+Singapore+2009 Back in March, Elevyn joined hands with fashion website Tongue in Chic and wedding photographer Anna-Rina to organize an online contest, where participants write a blog about Elevyn. ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Elevyn+Contest+Winners! Artisans d'Angkor is a company unlike any other. Borne from a French development initiative in Cambodia, the organization provides free training to young artisans from rural areas in Siem Reap.... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Artisans+Angkor,+A+Company+with+a+Difference Hi all! Here's a long-delayed update from Cambodia, where team Elevyn has been based for over 3 weeks now. Our journey has taken us from Siem Reap, home of the famous Angkor temples, t... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Team+Elevyn+in+Cambodia We have just launched our first contest with Tongue in Chic. Do support our artisans who make beautiful handmade items. Blog about the artisans and products on Elevyn.com. Embe... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Blog+about+Elevyn+and+win! As Sze Ning quoted, "Never in my lifetime would I have imagined gracing the cover of a magazine!" Well, that was exactly what happened when Kash from Surf Magazine called up not lo... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Surf+Magazine:+A+New+Wave+of+Entrepreneurs Elevyn featured in 65 top malaysian websites on the Edge Daily this week. Some comments by the editors: "The website promises more shops and products coming soon, which will offer users mor... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/The+Edge+Daily:+65+websites+that+we+like Elevyn gets a feature in the March 2009 issue of Personal Money. Yay! Click for larger version. ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Personal+Money:+Online+Entrepreneurs+to+the+Fore Image credit: Grace Chen, The Star Metro The Star newspaper recently ran a feature on Maznah Unyan, an indigenous artisan in Carey Island, Malaysia. The article provided an interestin... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/In+the+Star:+Driven+to+Succeed As usual, I was listening to BFM during my drives, and up came this programme about "productive meetings". Hookay, I thought, expecting the same old drivel we've heard countless times on the sub... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Impact+Point+Meetings+for+Productive+Companies A warm welcome to Tompoq Topoh, the Mah Meri Women's First Weave Initiative! What is Tompoq Topoh? Tompoq Topoh is a group of talented Mah Meri art... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/New+Elevyn+Shop:+Tompoq+Topoh Our newsletter for January 2009 is up! In this edition, we talk about the wonderful occasion where we presented Christmas goodies to the 14 kids from the "Send the Sinompuru Kids to School" cause. ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Elevyn+Newsletter+-+January+2009 The Places We Live takes viewers on an engaging, eye-opening journey into the center of the world's fastest growing human habitat, urban slums. Featuring photos and audio narrations by slum dw... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/The+Places+We+Live Elevyn's pledge to "Alleviate poverty in marginalized and rural groups through fair trade" is a featured Action on Change.org. We also had a write-up in its Fair Trade blog, describing the work ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Featured+on+Change.org With Elevyn, we particularly wanted to focus on communities in rural areas, many were impoverished because they did not have access to markets. As a result, traditional skills like natural dyeing ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/The+Challenge:+125+artisans+in+6+months My first encounter with BFM 89.9,"The Business Station" as it bills itself, was entirely coincidental. As with any other day, my fingers were firmly placed on the channel buttons on ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Elevyn+on+Air:+BFM+89.9 Sometime last year Yung Hui of GreyReview submitted our project to the NetExplorateur,an annual Forum in Paris to recognize innovative ideas on the Internet and digital media. A total of 100... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Elevyn+in+NetExplorateur+100+Projects+of+2008 Last month, Elevyn released some funds from the "Send the SINOMPURU Kids to School" cause, in conjunction with the Christmas festivities and its nearing deadline to the new school ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/First+Christmas+with+the+Sinompuru+Children Elevyn proudly welcomes a new family in Salaam Wanita, an innovative project by the KL-based social enterprise eHomemakers. Salaam Wanita works with disadvantaged urban poor women who ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/New+Elevyn+Shop:+Salaam+Wanita+by+eHomemakers Photo by Michael Lewis from the BBC website. Every now and then, we bump into stories of social entrepreneurs with interesting projects that truly inspire. They aren't just about fancy id... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Vision+2020+for+the+Poorest+1+Billion Photo by Wendell D Gingging who volunteered to help shoot product photos. These few photos were taken by the beach when we went collecting for sea shells used to make crafts. In less than 24 ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Getting+the+Sinompuru+Kids+to+School! As many of you would know, Elevyn was made possible thanks to the MDeC Pre-seed Funding that we received in late 2007. We're now actively spreading the word around to potential entrepreneurs who can b... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/10+Simple+Tips+for+MDeC+Pre-seed+Funding When I signed up to organize Powerpoint Karaoke at BarCamp JB, it was both exciting and scary at the same time. I'm a huge fan of stand-up comedies, but I had never seen a Powerpoint Karaoke being... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Organizing+PowerPoint+Karaoke+@+BarCamp+JB Following up on the successful BarCamp KL and StartUp Camp recently, Johor Bahru will be hosting BarCamp JB happening on the weekend of 6-7 Dec 2008. What's a BarCamp? Not to be confused with... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/BarCamp+JB+-+unconference+in+Johor Our own Devan Singaram joined hands with fellow entrepreneurs to share their experience of applying for, and successfully receiving the MDEC Pre-seed Grant. Held during Startup Camp in KL, the rest ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Useful+tips+when+applying+for+the+MDeC+Pre-seed+Grant Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) Malaysia is happening this week, and Elevyn will be involved in Startup Camp, an "unconference" for the startup community. It will be held at the Plug and Play C... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Startup+Camp:+Making+Money+&+Making+The+World+A+Better+Place When Devan dropped me an SMS on Monday afternoon saying that a reporter from the Star would be dropping by at 4pm, I knew that I had to shelve whatever plans I had for the day to do the interview. Aft... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Elevyn+in+the+Star:+Making+ideas+work Eleventh of November 2008 marked a significant milestone as we quietly released Elevyn.com. There were no fancy launch parties, nor were there any ribbon-cutting ceremonies. We may yet do an "official... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/On+Air,+and+Online Dr Reza Azmi, founder and director of Wild Asia was recently interviewed on the new radio station BFM 89.9. In it, he spoke about the company and some of their recent projects. Surpri... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Elevyn,+Plugged+on+BFM Wild Asia is a social enterprise working to support the conservation of natural areas and the communities dependent upon their resources. We work primarily by forging partnerships with individuals and... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Wild+Asia:+Empowering+Communities+Thru+Trade The Nut Graph is an independent Malaysian news site that aims to provide space for columnists and reader comments from as broad a political spectrum, and from as many sectors of interest, as possible... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/The+Nut+Graph:+Technopreneurship+for+Social+Change On 28 August 2008, we released an early beta version of the Elevyn website to a very small group of users, testers and friends. During the period, we've made some product sales on the pilot project st... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Thank+you+for+your+support! Sze Ning has just set up our Elevyn fans page on Facebook. It's a great way to keep in touch with us, see what we've been up to and get involved in some of our decisions like the date ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Elevyn+on+Facebook! "Raised with volunteer trips abroad, climate change on TV and everything 'save the world', today's generation is more aware of the world and doing good than ever before. When it comes to getting jobs,... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/How+to+Make+Money+and+Change+the+World In my years in technology, I’ve seen cumbersome expensive softwares sold to enterprises and governments to make them more ‘economically competitive’. But I’ve always wondered the impact of t... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/The+big+idea+of+small+technology Sometimes, the simplest form of innovation can go a long way, as demonstrated by the Q Drum. Climate change has required people in developing nations to travel greater distances to retri... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Re-innovating+the+Wheel Prior to the recent private beta launch, we made an online purchase from our pilot seller Soning Craft just to test out the logistics of buying an item from an Elevyn shop. We want... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Beta+Purchase+from+an+Elevyn+Shop Back in May, we were one of 19 ventures shortlisted from applicants all over Asia to attend the Youth Social Entrepreneurship Initiative (YSEI) Fellowship in KL. The 5-day workshop paired entrepre... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/YSEI+Results+Announcement A Developed World provides a platform for social entrepreneurs to tell their stories, and as a resource for entrepreneurs to seek and build synergies with other initiatives. We were recent... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/A+Developed+World+Article:+Elevyn+-+eBay+for+the+socially-conscious Following a sputtering start to our delayed launch last Monday, we've been working hard to get it right this time around. Despite this being a beta launch to a small group of friends, we had to get th... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Beta+Launch+-+For+Real! Our very first media appearance! SocialTalkr speaks to Mike Tee about the idea behind Elevyn, how it works, our goals, and more. Click on the link below for the interview. Note: page may not appea... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Elevyn+Interviewed+on+SocialTalkr First of all, a great big THANK YOU to those who signed up as beta users to Elevyn! Quite unfortunately, we were unable to make the beta launch as promised on Monday 18 August due to some logistical... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Beta+Launch+-+False+Start! Finally, after months of development, Elevyn is ready for its first beta appearance on 18th August 2008. Here's an update on what we've been up to, and what the beta launch will offer: 1. The bas... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Elevyn.com+Beta+Launch When one of the world's great business personalities presents an idea that could change the world, it's worth a read! In "Making Capitalism More Creative", Microsoft chairman Bill Gates touched on ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Creative+Capitalism+by+Bill+Gates I couldn't think of a more appropriate term to describe a large gathering of tech geeks to describe the BarCamp events, so I'll just keep it simple and call it a "geek orgy". Starting out in Calif... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Geeks+Unite!+@+BarCamp+Malaysia When tearing down a building, many of us have an idea of how it's done - explosives are placed at strategic points within the building, and the implosion causes the building to collapse onto itself.... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Demolishing+A+Skyscraper,+One+Floor+at+a+Time Heya folks! Sorry for the silence the past few weeks. We've been keeping ourselves very busy for a beta-internal launch of the system within this week. We've managed to rope in a couple of prog... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Elevyn+Progress+Update For my first blog entry, I’m going to recap all the exciting things that have happened over the last two months. First, a brief introduction on how I got involved with Elevyn. In late ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/To+Sabah;+and+back+to+Sabah!+ "Give back to the planet! Buy a tree (which we will plant for you) or organise your own tree planting event. Join us to create new wild lands for wildlife and benefit local people." Our friends a... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Plant+a+Tree+for+the+Planet Members of an uncontacted indigenous tribe were recently spotted and photographed in the Amazon jungles of Brazil. Some of the warriors were shown to be aiming their arrows at the plane, clearly u... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Uncontacted+Tribe+Spotted+in+Brazil Source: www.flickr.com/photos/twisted4rk/2494114970/ ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/We+got+Flickrd The Elevyn project stretches far beyond web programming and development. In fact, the website and its platform make up only a very small percentage of the workload. ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/YSEI+-+Into+the+Finals! YSEF Declaration Ecard from ideals creatives on Vimeo. Many conversations that I've had with friends on my latest venture revolves around the idea of social entrepreneurship - essentia... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Understanding+Social+Entrepreneurship In "About Us", we described the Elevyn platform - which essentially enables communities to market and sell their crafts to a worldwide market via online shops. Sales from the shop will yield income ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Behind+Elevyn:+Problems;+Solutions+&+Opportunities May 1st was Labour Day, but there was no rest. We were tapping away on our computers the night before, all the way until dawn before taking a break to watch Liverpool crash to a heart-breaking defeat ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/May+1st+Reboot+-+The+Lounge+Opens! One of the most important aspect of running a new business is COST. Specifically, fixed costs that need to be paid out every month - such as rents, salaries and utilities. If not managed properly,... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Shopping+for+the+Office Note: The article below should have been dated early April, but due to work overload, I was only able to post it up in May. We received word from MDEC in late 2007 that our application for its Pr... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Funding+Approved;+and+a+Series+of+Remarkable+Coincidences Sometime in 2007, Me and Mike were in collaboration on a web 2.0-ish media for social entrepreneurs. As both of us had existing businesses, it was a little project that we worked at on the sides. ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Getting+Funded I was reading an article recently on Ms Chong Sheau Ching, a malaysian social entrepreneur who founded e-Homemakers. A web based platform for home bound women to market their own products and servi... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/eHomemakers Elevyn is a web start-up developing an exciting web 2.0 project that will help improve lives and make the world a better place. We are looking for a web programmer who is well-versed in PHP and MySQL ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Job+Opening:+PHP+Programmer While posting up the video on the Homeless World Cup, I was interested to know the stories of some of the players themselves who were homeless. In this posting, Tracey Ford talks about her experie... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Tracey+Ford;+formerly+homeless+from+Australia Saoirse, the founder of justfortheloveofit.org, is a believer in the philosophy of free economics. That is, moving from a money based but community-less society to one that focuses more on the communi... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Freeconomy+or+Freakconomy? The Earthship project, a reaction to the increasing waste generated by consumers, is a self sustainable house. It's a concept similar to where spaceships needs to be self sustainable to survive. T... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Earthship+Call+Home Over 1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water. Unsafe water kills 15 people every minute in the world. Lend your support by signing the petition. ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/What+Kills+More+Than+8+Million+People+Every+Year? Who hasn't heard of Facebook by now? It's a social networking tool to connect and keep in touch with friends. According to Wikipedia, the website has 43 million active users worldwide with memberships... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/The+Killer+App+For+Facebook After years in development, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has finally started mass production and is now available to the public. Residents of the US or Canada can get involved in the pr... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/One+Laptop+per+Child Mike and myself, met up recently with Thusita Ranasinghe, an entrepreneur from Sri Lanka, and had an interesting conversation with him. He runs a company called Eco Maximus which prints recycled prod... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Solving+elephant+man+conflict+through+shit! I`ve always wanted to do something on my own as an entrepreneur and in 2004, I had set up an IT business involved in the Portal Services market (a term used liberally to do anything I could get ... http://www.elevyn.com/blog/article/post/Why+Elevyn