It has been a busy start to the year, and it seems like that is the case for everyone. Certainly everyone I bump into seems to be working very hard indeed, as the end of March 2011 looms large….No different here at SSE (lots of work across the network, graduations, launches, new programmes and more). Which is partly by way of explanation for why blogging has been a bit infrequent (many thanks to current intern Ryan for filling in), and why this is the first round-up for a couple of months. Anyway, here are the most interesting and (hopefully) relevant links from the last month or so:

– My favourite post of the month was from Craig Dearden-Phillips, on how social enterprise is like religion: Losing my religion? The theology of social enterprise

– My favourite iPhone app of the month? The new one from Smarta

– Been interesting finding out more about Right to Request, and about the reality of where social enterprise meets public sector meets unions. David Floyd delves deeper into the unions / social enterprise issue

– I love lists, and so: the 9 new rules of branding your business online (from Inc.com) and 6 choices you need to make in social media (from HBR) and 20 start-ups to watch in 2011 (from Director mag)

– Interested in what happens to our forestry and waterways? Then Ben Metz’s piece advocating for community ownership is a must-read (and just the start of a debate we will hear much more about)

– This doesn’t strike me as anything particularly new, but apparently if becomes more interesting if different people (read mainstream business gurus) are saying it. So here’s Michael Porter / Mark Kramer on ‘creating shared value’ (a new future for business). You can also check out the Peter Day interview with Porter for more detail.

– I was inspired by the quiet effectiveness of the Aspire Foundation (Owen Jarvis and Paul Funnell) and their work in Tower Hamlets.

– Muhammad Yunus has been in and out of court in Bangladesh: good round-up from earlier in the month here, but this is very fast-moving; see the latest on the BBC here

– Also internationally, British Columbia’s government have established an Advisory Council on Social Entrepreneurship; marking exciting developments in Canada

– Liam Black guest-posts on Allison Ogden-Newton’s blog: entertaining and relevant as ever on social enterprise and the dangers of the public service delivery agenda:

“under Labour – which let us not forget kick started the social enterprise sector which the coalition wants to co-opt. – there was plenty of money about. Intermediary bodies sprouted up everywhere and much horse shit and awful service poured forth!”

– A note on humble leadership fro the IoD: “The best CEOs are the ones you’ve never heard of”

– Ralph Lewis’ article on relationships, belonging and servant leadership in the context of Big Society is fascinating

– Paul Harrod talks about his experience as a social entrepreneur and coming back from adversity

– And finally, I spent a bit of time between Xmas and New Year collating all the various videos by SSE schools and involving SSE students and Fellows. Check out the SSE Vimeo Channel and the SSE YouTube channel

Cheers!