The practice lead for this area of work is John Loder.

The power of the Web to connect, mobilise and empower people provides individuals and communities with new tools to help shape their environments. It can strengthen civil society's ability to stimulate social action and provides government - central and local - with valuable platforms to engage the public.

The Young Foundation has a strong track record of developing innovative web-based solutions to address some of society's most pressing issues and supported several projects that use the Web to meet social needs including:

• Maslaha - a web based organisation that provides accessible Islamic guidance on issues facing Muslims today, as well as essential advice to public service providers. Maslaha aims to provide a greater understanding of Islam and its practices for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

• Local 2.0 - A programme of work to explore how public services can empower communities through the use of hyperlocal media. The project has partnered with three local authorities - the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, King's Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council, and Kirklees Council - to explore how tools such as blogs, social networks and mobile phones can be used to support local action.

• FixMyStreet - A web based mapping tool that makes it easier for people to report problems with their physical realm to the appropriate authorities. From broken pavements and faulty streetlamps, to dumped waste or graffiti, people can easily make authorities aware of the problems and authorities can easily feedback progress on tackling them. Developed with mySociety.

• First political memory - A lively online memory bank, created in partnership with Operation Black Vote, aimed at reconnecting people's lives with politics and decision making institutions.

• School of Everything - A web platform that connects people who want to learn with passionate teachers in their local area. The award-wining site is free to join for both people who want to learn and people who want to teach.

• Enternships - An organisation that provides ambitious and dynamic students and graduates with an opportunity to learn about business and enterprise through work placements in entrepreneurial and innovative environments, from start-ups to global venture funds around the world.

• Network London - As part of the Young Foundation's London Collaborative, this online network aims to facilitate connections and collaboration between senior people involved in delivering, planning and researching public services in London.

• Social Innovation Camp - Social innovation (SI) Camp brings together ideas, people and digital tools to build web based solutions to social problems - from hacking together software to working out how ideas can be sustained.

• The Social Innovation Exchange - a global community of over 400 individuals and organisations - including small NGOs and global firms, public agencies and academics - committed to promoting social innovation and growing the capacity of the field

• Social Innovator - A website that guides users through hundreds of different methods used to generate and grow social innovation from across the world.

• Future Communities - Brings together local areas and national stakeholders to develop fresh thinking about how new housing developments can become socially as well as economically and environmentally sustainable.

Key publications:

• The Young Foundation and the Web: Digital Social Innovation (September 2010). The Young Foundation researches and tests the potential of digital technology as a tool for social change - showing how digital technology is leading to increasingly creative responses to social issues.  This working paper details how.

• Plugged in, untapped: Using digital technologies to help young people learn to lead (September 2010). How can we tap into the leadership potential of young people who are plugged in to digital technologies?  This report looks at the benefits and limitations of these resources and provides practical recommendations to policy makers.

• Joining the Conversation: an introduction to hyperlocal media (August 2010). People are increasingly using the web as a platform to discuss, share and collaborate, rather than simply to absorb information. This change is reflected in the rise of websites such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, the latter now the second most visited website in the UK. These websites are all forms of social media - tools which allow people to share and discuss information. This paper provides examples of hyperlocal media - internet and mobile services that connect people with the neighbourhoods they live and work in.

• Listen, Participate, Transform: A Social media framework for local government (June 2010). This think-piece, the second in a series from the Young Foundation's Local 2.0 project, provides local authorities with a simple, practical framework to base their social media activity on.