I have a pretty good idea on the technology part but need some help to write the bulk of the content and structure from business and organizational structure point of view. Below is my intro text
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The 4th Sector is a new sector of organizations that are at the intersection of the Public, Private and Social Sectors, it is a class of for-benefit organizations with two main characters:
1.Similar to traditional Social/Nonprofit sector, for-benefit organizations are primarily driven by social, community economic and/or environmental purposes.
2.Similar to traditional Private/Business sector, for-benefit organizations earn a substantial portion of their income through business activities.
The 4th sector concept is best articulated by Heerad Sabeti in his paper titled “Emergence of the Fourth Sector” (Sabeti, 1998); It is envisioned to have better potential to deliver solutions to a broad array of social, economic and environmental challenges and fills the gaps of existing Public, Private and Social sectors, such as:
•Providing better transparency, accountability and effectiveness to the traditional nonprofit activities
•Shifting business from purely stockholder and financial return focused to stakeholder and value creation that enhance the quality of life and sustainability of our planet.
•Producing measurable results that increase the trust and confidence of social investors, philanthropists and governments; and to entice a new investment model that is based on impact performance.
A range of new policies and initiatives, such as hybrid business structures and impact investment vehicles, are being developed to accelerate the growth of the 4th sector, wold wide. Most of these efforts, however, are hampered by lacking of a common framework, shared taxonomies, established data, knowledge and tools to function effectively.
There is a critical need to undertake a comprehensive research agenda to help better understand and address barriers facing the 4th Sector, and to determine the strategy to promote the sector’s growth and impact. (“Mapping of the Fourth Sector”,2014)
The believe of the emerging Fourth Sector is that “A new class of organizations with the pottential for generating immense economic, social and environmental benefits is emerging – and this sector can be consciously developed and expanded through broad recognition and engagement.” (sabeti 1998)
The hypothesis of this research project is that : A technology enabled framework can be defined to support the Fourth Sector movement, by building upon prior research work of Digital Business Ecosystem and combined with deeper understanding of the characteristics of the 4th sector, perspectives of the stakeholders and associated business architecture.
