Through an experimental class at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business that tries to use social media for the public good, a trio of students posted a video to YouTube this spring promoting an organization that hopes to save the lives of millions of prematurely born babies in India by creating an innovative low-cost baby incubator.
“The Power of Social Technology” is a new class that Stanford business professor Jennifer Aaker was inspired to teach after watching one of her students launch an effort on the Internet to find South Asian bone marrow donors for two friends who were critically ill with leukemia.
Enlisting an all-star cast to help teach the course, ranging from entertainer and Twitter apostle MC Hammer to executives with Pixar and the international micro loans organization Kiva, Aaker is trying to make the point that a company can earn a profit and help social change, and that platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can be powerful tools for that change.
“Everyone gives business schools a bad rap, and everyone gives for-profit companies a bad rap,” but both have great potential to be vehicles for the public good, Aaker said.
(READ the story from last week at MercuryNews.com)