We may not realize it yet, but having an open, democratic discussion on the Corporate Social Responsibilities of organizations in Pakistan is a need of the hour - Let me tell you why.

As with Green & White, Osama and I were working since July 2007 (almost a year ago!) to look at how corporations were positioning themselves as a member of society. It started just from curiousity, and off and on we would talk to MNCs, NGOs, consumers and other people involved in social development issues about their thought process behind the activities occurring in the field.

I was surprised to see how many different definitions of CSR existed in the people we talked to - everyone seemed to differ on what CSR was; why was it necessary; what their role was and how they affected everyone else in the ecosystem.

We met people who denied that their corporations had any role to play to help their society. "Isn’t the investment we’re making in the economy or the jobs we’re creating enough? Why should people hold any expectations from us beyond this?"

We met people who thought that social responsibility was the same as charity - and because of this their companies were missing out on the type of activities that would truly make a difference.

We also saw a lot of very interesting and innovative social leadership activities occuring in Pakistan - the types of things that can make us all proud of being Green - from all over society, sometimes from young people with dreams to change the world.

There are a lot of people in this country who still hope and dream about changing our world of the better, but I wish it was just as easy to do that. Some serious gaps exist in how people, companies, consumers are approaching the problem of societal improvement - a lot of people arent aware of how many different facets make up CSR; there isnt any feedback on social development initiatives taken; there is no sense of joint collaborative ownership of initiatives between people and corporations.

And as we continue to live in this gap of information, discussion, ideas, feedback, cooperation, I feel that very very slowly we are continuing to break apart at the seams as a society and place to live (I’ll be sharing some things later on why I feel that way).

So what we really need - now more than ever - is to start sharing information, ideas, thoughts on how we can come together to look at more strategic, higher-level social development initiatives. How all of us, as members or decision-makers at companies - can work together at identifying where we can spend the time to do so, or why we would want to do that to begin with.

Can a discussion and exploration of these gaps over the next 5-months - creating awareness of these gaps - really help to improve our society? I say yes, especially after looking at how mature and professional online discussions have become recently, in communities like Green & White, Startup Insiders and many of the active mailing lists in the country.

So on behalf of our team, I would like to extend a warm welcome to you to this community of bloggers, thinkers, corporate leaders, researchers and most importantly consumers, humans, people, society. Join us over the next 5 months in a discussion that could affect the future of Pakistan.