Here is some great news for social entrepreneurs who are using Creative Commons Licences for their work! Digital Pioneers and OpenBusiness have partnered to create new funding opportuntties for internet initiatives that promote social innovation.The theme of the 12th round of the Digital Pioneers incentive scheme is ‘International’. Under this theme participants can submit a project proposal that is aimed at introducing an initiative that originated abroad into the Netherlands.

There are plenty of examples and sources of inspiration. Wikipedia, which has a national base of a large number of volunteers in many countries, is of course well known. Less well-known perhaps is a project that Digital Pioneers supported in the past, Face your World, which was set up by Jeanne van Heeswijk in Columbus, Ohio. The project allows young people to design their own neighbourhood with the aid of interactive representation of the neighbourhood, assisted by a virtual urban planning coach. Van Heeswijk introduced her project in The Netherlands in 2005 in collaboration with the VMBO schools. An initiative that was set up in the United Kingdom by Tom Steinberg could also be considered as this could easily be introduced in The Netherlands using few resources.

If you want to read more and/or apply have a look at the OpenBusiness Blog.