Leveraging Information Technology, Social Entrepreneurship, and Global Collaboration for Just Sustainable Development

Currently, those working for a sustainable development in a vast array of contexts all over the world are often duplicating efforts. In an era where a rapid transition towards sustainability is needed, such wasted effort is no longer tolerable. This paper will discuss current work to overcome this challenge by creating an Open Sustainability Network (OSN) that links relevant individuals, programs, courses, projects, and organizations aimed at just sustainable development. The paper will build an understanding of, and collaboration between, relevant online tools. The paper concludes that the OSN can: 1) develop partnerships with sites with online tools to alleviate some of the technological overhead; 2) help inform entrepreneurs and expanding businesses about the challenges and opportunities presented in social entrepreneurship; and 3) benefit service learning implementation by acting as a repository for appropriate technologies, systems, and policies, while also acting as a clearinghouse for international and local collaborations. (authors)