Everyday across India, people are mobilizing communities and creating impact at the grassroots. Through micro volunteer ventures, social enterprises & community set-ups – citizens are advocating transformation, protesting injustice, and petitioning social inclusion.
There is a quiet revolution brewing in urban India
Communities Of The Future Summit
The summit is an annual experiential gathering bringing together the budding entrepreneurs, change-makers, neighborhood volunteers, students & faculty in this space and working to improve communities across sectors, including technology, social inclusion, education, agriculture, solid waste management, climate change, participatory governance, micro finance, sustainability and allied areas.
The COTF summit is a countrywide celebration of this tremendous citizen movement in the 21st century, brought to you by the University of Commons.
The uniting purpose is to create better, responsive, and inclusive societies.
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COTF IDEATHON
In line with departments of University of Commons, viz. department of stories, department of journeys and department of engineering, we invite ideas that will shape communities of the future. An early stage venture (not older than three years), a promising idea or a neighborhood drive that could create sustainable social impact can apply in the following categories.
Social Fiction Challenge – by Department of Stories
Submit your piece of social fiction on future of societies.
This can be an elaborate write-up, short story for children, short video, movie, comic strips or even an un-published book. Your version of social fiction should fuel the imagination, broaden the horizon of people & inspire the world to inch towards making your fiction a reality.Social fiction is a subgenre of science fiction, concerned less with technology / space opera and more with speculation about human society. In other words, it “absorbs and discusses anthropology”, and speculates about human behavior and interactions. And since it’s a fiction, it is unreal but when you put it on paper – you create the possibility for someone else [or yourself] to make it a reality. The first airplane, touch-screen devices, journey to the moon/space, robots – were laughable fictions once.
Social Enterprise Challenge– by Department of Journeys
Ideas, start-ups and neighborhood improvement initiatives (not older than 3 years) aiming towards more inclusive, responsible societies should apply in this category.The Department of Journey invites budding social entrepreneurs across India. So, whether you are a student, faculty, working for corporate or an active citizen – this challenge is an opportunity for you to begin.Every journey has a beginning, a middle and an end. Social entrepreneurs begin theirs with belief, the journey of personal and societal transformation.
Social Engineering Challenge – by Department of Engineering
We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. It is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical and the digital. Engineering will drive communities in to the future.
Entrepreneurs with tech & non-tech engineering ideas, will be a key to manage social change and regulate the future development and behavior of societies.So if technology is the core your social enterprise, whether a mobile app for farmers, wearable for women safety or an Uber of x, apply in this category.
WHO IS INVITED?
We encourage teams who have an existing venture, concept or an idea that can create sustainable social impact.
#JOINUS
#tomakecommunitybetter #todogood #tobechange
Connect
with like-minded professionals who have started, supported or financed social enterprises.
See, learn and buy
See, learn and buy from social enterprises
Get motivated!
Learn about innovative social enterprise ideas from the pitches of the finalists. These social entrepreneurs will share their vision, growth plans and the social impact of their businesses. Get inspired, and plan to participate in the next edition of COTF!
Network
with the founders of the University of Commons & partner organizations