Bricks and Mortar

It’s been almost a year since I released my third book, Impact. It has sold well and I’m having lots of fun travelling around and meeting social innovators.

There have been many surprises.

One was a recent call from google Canada. Apparently there has been a surge in searches for the word ‘impact’ in Canada (up 23.74 percent) which they are attributing in part to my book. I’m not alone as a ‘courier des paroles’ (google’s term not mine.) They are gathering twenty-one ‘word runners’ who have accelerated usage of a particular word on google. We are meeting at the beautiful Fogo Island Inn off the coast of Newfoundland on July 1^st long weekend. I can hardly wait. I’m heard so much about the Inn’s design and architecture. It is surely our most iconic social purpose business.

There’s one catch to the google gathering. They asked what obscure word is catching my fantasy these days. Between now and July 1^st, google will count the web usage of the word chosen by each of their ‘courier des paroles.’ Apparently it’s easier for them to track a word, not in common use. Whoever has the highest tally gets $25,000 to donate to their favourite social enterprise.

I chose bricolage.

Bricolage is a concept new to the social innovation world. It is used to measure the precise time between short-term and long-term impact. Which is of course what my book is all about. Like so many concepts bricolage is borrowed. This one comes from the construction industry where it refers to the lag time it takes for bricks and mortar to bind together.

The social enterprise I’ve chosen is No – Fish On Our Land, a hybrid Intuit environmental group that is pioneering vertical underwater ocean farming. They are situated off the coast of the April islands, which surround Fogo Island.

You can help me win in 2 ways.