As a social franchise, SSE’s brand is important…and is included in our license agreements (along with brand guidelines and the rest). And, as we look internationally as well as to the UK, trademarking in different countries becomes a relevant concern. Unfortunately, our acronym / abbreviation is an increasingly common one, as I discovered whilst buying shaving oil this weekend. That’s right, King of Shaves have "Shave Surface Enhancing" technology. Or, as they call it, SSE.

I was already aware of Scottish and Southern Energy, whose website makes great reading from our point of view: "SSE has consent to build a 288 megawatt (MW) offshore wind farm in Germany"; "SSE supplies electricity and gas to 8.45 million customers"; "SSE owns and operates the UK’s largest onshore gas storage facility at Hornsea in East Yorkshire". Who knew?

Then there are newcomers, like the Stop Stansted Expansion campaign. Slightly less impressive here ("SSE Float at Bishop’s Stortford Carnival"; "Where can I buy SSE’s Calendar, Christmas Cards and Notelets?" etc) but a worthy cause, one could say.

Here’s a big threat: Simple Sharing Extensions for RSS; if Microsoft start bandying that term around as SSE, we’re in trouble…not to mention potentially baffled: "This is a required element of all items in all feeds wishing to participate in SSE-based synchronization." Absolutely.

We also have the Society for Scientific Exploration ("the SSE supports a Young Investigators programme"; sounds mysterious), the Society for the Study of Evolution, various Schools (of Systems Engineering, that sort of thing), and the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Which brings me to the newest, most pertinent arrival: the Social Stock Exchange; here’s to calling it a social stock market from here on in……

A long overdue post: been utterly swamped the last week. But….back in the game:

– The shock from Sarah Dodd’s death has still not dissipated. There’s now a blog to leave tributes, and links there to an online memorial fund + photos (you can upload them to flickr and tag with ‘sarahdodds’)

– Haven’t been able to do a trawl of the honours list yet. I did note that Social Enterprise Ambassador Claudine Reid picked up a gong of some sort….links to follow soon.

– Should you tweet? A guide to Twitter for non-profits….I’ll say no more

– Interesting piece on social entrepreneurship in Director magazine by Rebecca Harding.

– Winners of the Spark award programme were announced recently. it’s a homeless / social enterprise combo, and delighted to spot a couple of SSE Fellows amongst the winners; congrats to Dave Miller’s Bikeworks and Simon Fenton-Jones’ StreetShine

– How ethical business was bought by big business: article in the Independent that’s worth a read, if you didn’t know that Cadbury own Green & Black’s, and Unilever own Ben & Jerry’s that is….

– The reason why, if I start up a charity / social enterprise, it will help dogs…..

– Edge Upstarts Awards shortlist announced

– Understanding social enterprise: for those of you who love the world / debate of definitions….

– How you can give with one-click (but please don’t just do that)

– there’ve been some good podcasts at Social Innovation Conversations recently: if you’ve lost track of this site, it’s worth a (re)visit. recent speakers include Paul Farmer and recent topics include the delightfully titled "Evaluation for Normal People"; given I head up our evaluation, I won’t take that personally….

Lots more, but I’ll catch up with that towards the end of the week. Hopefully more time to blog a more interesting post soon. In the meantime, check out the video from the Shine Unconference by Smarta (thanks Smarta):