91亚色 is an academic partner in a new summit exploring the power of crowdfunding. Hosted by the 91亚色 Region Business Innovation in Changing Times Conference Series, which focuses on听providing businesses access to ideas, insight and resources to help them adapt to the fast-changing marketplace, the Crowdfunding Revolution summit is set for Thursday, Aug. 22, from 8:30am to 12:30pm, at the Vaughan City Hall.

Crowdfunding, which is also known as crowdsourcing, crowd financing or equity crowdfunding, harnesses the power of a group of individuals who network and pool their money to support people or organizations, research or new business ventures. Crowdfunding is used by the film industry to gather startup costs for new productions, and it supports disaster relief, citizen journalism, new product development and more. The Crowdfunding Summit will highlight strategies to successfully crowdfund a business venture, social enterprise or social cause. Participants will have an opportunity to network with leaders in the field and hear about potential regulatory changes to address the opportunities presented by crowdfunding.

Debra Chanda, founder of launch120.com and the global ambassador for Singularity University, is one of the featured presenters at the Crowdfunding Revolution summit

鈥淲e look forward to participating in the Crowdfunding Summit,鈥� said Lisa Philipps, 91亚色鈥檚 associate vice-president research. 鈥淥ur involvement 听in this conference series highlights one of the many ways in which 91亚色 works with government, industry and community partners to mobilize knowledge to meet the needs of this rapidly growing, diverse region.听 These events are outstanding opportunities to learn about what is going on in 91亚色 Region and to network with potential research and learning partners.鈥�

Those who attend will:

• gain a better understanding of the impact of crowdfunding on business, not-for-profits and social ventures;
• get an overview of crowdfunding platforms and systems available in Canada;
• learn the steps to designing a crowdfunding campaign;
• hear about best practices and strategies to employ;
• receive updates on the innovative Social Venture Exchange (SVX) initiative from the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing;
• get the latest updates on proposals and issues about crowdfunding for equity in Ontario; and
• join a discussion with other organizations about collaborating on a crowdfunding pilot in 91亚色 Region.

This conference series is the result of a collaboration among the 91亚色 Small Business Enterprise Centre, chambers of commerce, and municipal, region and provincial governments. The Regional Innovation Centre, the United Way of 91亚色 Region and local enterprises of all sizes are also involved in the conference series. 91亚色 and Seneca College are academic partners in the series.

Christopher Charlesworth, co-founder of HiveWire.ca and Centre for Social Innovation鈥檚 Catalyst will also be a featured presenter at the summit听

Speaking at the crowdfunding summit are: James Turner, vice-chair of the Ontario Securities Commission; Debra Chanda, founder of and the global ambassador for ; Adam Spence, manager of social venture exchange for the ; Christopher Charlesworth, co-founder of and Centre for Social Innovation鈥檚 ;听 Daniele Zanotti, CEO of the United Way of 91亚色 Region; and Jeff Dennis and Tracy Hooey of Fasken Martineau, an international business law firm based in Toronto.

Tickets are $50 plus HST. For more information, visit the website. Click to register for the conference.

The post Harnessing the power of many: 91亚色 participates in crowdfunding summit appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Now, 91亚色 sociology Professor Deborah Davidson (right), along with a cross-disciplinary team of researchers, plans to capture these images 鈥� and the stories behind each act of remembrance 鈥� as part of a new project funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to build the framework for the world鈥檚 first comprehensive public archive of memorial tattoos.

鈥淢emorial tattoos both embody memory and serve as a kind of translator of memory into a language readable by others 鈥� a way to hold and share memories,鈥� says Davidson. 鈥淭o date, I have not found a digital or physical archive of memorial tattoos and their contextualizing narratives, so such an archive will be significant because it will serve as a cultural heritage site, acknowledging important memories and sharing them publicly, and provide scholars with a digital database of memorial tattoos and narratives for analysis.鈥�

Davidson says the archive will not just be an academic tool, but will also serve as a place to foster new relationships between academics and individuals with memorial tattoos, along with tattoo artists and community groups. In addition, it will offer users the option to become a part of the project by uploading their own images and stories.

Having already collected dozens of stories and photos for earlier research, Davidson is now in the process of crowd-sourcing more potential contributors. Moving from memorializing the deceased to a broader definition of memorialization, Davidson and her team are looking for potential participation from persons with 鈥渢attoos in remembrance or honour of a person, place, animal, relationship, event or transition within the life course.鈥�

With a goal of 500 images and stories to start, Davidson says this archive is just the first phase of a larger international, interdisciplinary collaboration, comprised of social science, humanities, electronic library science and computer science scholars at 91亚色 and the University of Toronto, the University of Bath and Plymouth University in the U.K., and Monash University in Australia.

鈥淥ur project is directed at both the co-production and mobilization of knowledge. The archive will provide a rich source of data for researchers engaged in a broad span of work, including in memorialization, memory and visual narrative and computer-assisted data collection methods. The importance and contributions of this project lie precisely within the intersections between the public and the private, providing a valuable resource for the collection and sharing of memorial tattoos and the stories that are embedded within.鈥�

To find out more about contributing to Davidson鈥檚 project, e-mail yorktattooarchive@gmail.com 听

The post Inked in: 91亚色 prof to launch first digital archive of memorial tattoos appeared first on Research & Innovation.