2 great new positions are now available with the TACSI team.

If you've read all about the exciting stuff going on with the Bold Ideas, Better Lives Challenge and think you've got what it takes to support, guide and enthuse these 8 projects then check out our Venture Support role.

If you're a born connector and communicator with a passion for social change then we want to hear from you for our Connector/Communicator role.

Full job descriptions are available at www.tacsi.org.au/jobs-with-us

Despite being an incredibly generous and hospitable people, due in large part to their strong Confucian tradition, the concept of a charity store, like Goodwill or St Vincent de Paul, was literally a foreign concept until a few years ago.

In Korean culture, it was traditionally seen as bad luck to re-use second hand goods as they may come laden with bad associations. It took an inspiring civic leader to challenge this cultural taboo and in doing so break new ground in creating organisations that could create social impact.

Social innovation – the art of finding new ways to address unmet social needs – is not a new phenomenon; society has been innovating ever since we harnessed fire, created cities, developed agriculture and invented the wheel.

In recent years, there has been a renewed focus on new ways in which society can explore new solutions to its many challenges. Governments around the world are increasingly keen to understand the role of public policy in supporting greater social innovation.

On being invited to Vienna to attend the CSI's event "The most needed social innovations of the 21st century", I thought it best to use the opportunity to take a look at what's happening in social innovation in Europe as we prepare to formally launch The Australian Centre for Social Innovation in 2010.

USER-CENTERED DESIGN THINKING

In these times of great change and budgetary constraint, we need to find new ways of addressing our problems as our existing solutions become obsolete. Design thinking presents a new way of working with users and communities to tackle problems - a divergent approach to explore new ideas and alternatives that have not existed before. This TED talk by Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO explains design thinking in more detail http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_brown_urges_designers_to_think_big.html.