Announcing Online Subscription to New Social Entrepreneurship Series

Last month, The Commonwealth Club launched an important new series focusing on Social Entrepreneurship in America, featuring innovators and pioneers bringing an entrepreneurial spirit and rigor to solve societal problems.

The leadoff speaker for the series was Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Prize winner for his pathbreaking efforts to bring finance to the poorest of the poor.

The 13-event Social Entrepreneurship in America series, directed by The Club's Social Entrepreneur in Residence, Ruth Shapiro, includes social entrepreneur leaders Conchy Bretos (CEO, MIA Consulting Group), Sally Osberg (president & CEO of The Skoll Foundation), ShoreBank Corp. President Mary Houton, Ashoka founder & Chairman Bill Drayton, and many more.

Now, for the first time in its 107-year history, The Commonwealth Club is teaming up with our friends at Fora.tv to offer this series to global audiences in the form of a premium online video package. Subscriptions are available on monthly or complete-series packages, all delivered with great sound and video.

To learn more about the subscription package, and to read about the upcoming lineup of speakers in this series, visit the series page at Fora.tv.

Our 400th Video on Fora.TV! Amartya Sen

Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen, who spoke at The Commonwealth Club in late February 2010, was the subject of the 400th video of Commonwealth Club events to be posted to the popular Fora.tv online video site.

There have been about 5 million views of Club programs on Fora in the past couple years.

Also, check out our YouTube channel, which is in the top 100 nonprofit channels on YouTube!

Video of Michael Moore at The Commonwealth Club

We always love it when a program here at The Commonwealth Club of California sells out and has a standing-room-only audience. But we also know that means that many people who wanted to attend the event were unable to.

Thank goodness for radio, podcasts, and internet video, then, right? Courtesy of our online video partners, Fora.tv, we have the above video of controversial political documentarian Michael Moore's appearance at The Club on September 17. For an overview of his conversation at The Club, see yesterday's blog post.

Robert Heller: How to Heal the Financial Markets

The economy and financial system may look like messes today, but they can be fixed. Robert Heller, a former governor of the Federal Reserve Board and the former CEO of VISA U.S.A., told The Commonwealth Club on April 29 that there were several things that needed to be done to restore confidence in our financial markets.

First, we need to "sharply limit or even eliminate" the ability of certain financial institutions to take speculative positions. Second, let corporations choose a set of rules under which their securities are traded (to, for example, require buyers to hold their securities for a week before reselling them). Third, establish a safe pension system.

Find out how he thinks these things will have an impact. Watch the video: