Reflections on a good week at Dadamac - the parts and the whole March 21, 2011
Not so long ago, if I wanted to explore ideas and concepts and possible actions with other people I had to do it in writing. Not any more. Increasingly, I'm spending time with people whose interests overlap mine, who are focused on practical projects, and where there is sufficient similarity of vision to usefully exchange ideas and explore collaboration. In addition, luxury of luxuries, we can do it in real time and by talking to each other.
Tuesday - and smart phone software
Tuesday, I was catching up with Paul Robinson of Acumen Insights Ltd about the work we are starting together on mobile phone use in Nigeria (about better user experiences when phones are used to access the Internet). Later on we'll fix a time for Paul to join a Dadamac UK-Nigeria meeting, so he can meet some of the people in our team who will be his end users, trying things out, and giving him feedback.
Wednesday - Indigo - and ICT use in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Wednesday was my first meeting with Loren Treisman exchanging anecdotes about Africa, and exploring areas of possible overlapping interest. She was about to take her first trip to Nigeria on behalf of the Indigo trust. I was learning about the trust and telling her something about Fantsuam Foundation and Dadamac.
Thursday - developing Dadamac.net
Thursday is usually the day when Nikki, Andy and I try to cross paths. Our focus is on Dadamac net: a mixture of long-term planning, routine tasks, development of new features, and feedback from Nikki and I on features we've been trying out that Andy has set up for us. It's all part of making sure our information will flow smoothly and that the site will ultimately fulfil our vision for serving the needs of our community - and other people too.
Flexible Fridays
Fridays are flexible: all kinds of things happen, and this one was a lovely mix.
Think Africa Press - Information sharing and visibility
Rom Bhandari and I discussed media partnerships and how Dadamac and Think Africa Press can help each other. Rom and I discovered overlapping interests in teaching and learning, and what ICT means to emergent 21st-century education systems in terms of our relationship to information and how it is generated, stored and shared. (Ben Carson
who introduced me to Rom is another teacher–journalist–communicator at Think Africa Press, and he is keen on building cross-cultural links there, so there are great collaboration possibilities to explore together). I've also introduced Rom to IRIN and Kabissa as possible media partners.
Culture and mobility in the Dadamac community
Next, I spent time in discussion with Colin Hicks. The overlap between his interests and mineis less obvious - (culture and mobility for him, ICT in Education and Development - emergent systems for me. However, Tim Jones had recognised something and introduced us, so Colin and I had a conversation and found plenty of common ground. It seems that an introduction to Ken Owino and the Naafsi Acrobats would be a good next step for him within the Dadamac community. Regarding technology, we agreed to have another conversation to explore overlapping interests there. It seems he wants to explore some issues around communication beyond the normal Internet enabled limits. Two things came to mind:
- “Ricardo” (Richard) and his work in Minciu Sodas on the sneakernet.
- My work with Oke-Ogun Community Development Agenda 2000plus and the “information pathways” that we developed in order to take our information back and forth between the rural and urban areas, beyond the reach of the Internet and the established “information highway” that only served the cities.
Systems thinking around education, ICT, the Internet, and “socio-tech”.
Finally on Friday, I joined Paul Horan for a relaxed, lazy-evening, social meet-up. We already had some idea of shared interests through Coalition of the Willing CotW) and Dadamac learners, but it was the first time we had set aside time simply to get to know each other better. It was a good thing we were meeting online, and not in a coffee bar or restaurant around the corner from my place (i.e. UK time). The staff would have wanted to clear the tables and go home long before Paul and I had finished talking .
Paul is a teacher and systems thinker - so that alone would have given us plenty to talk about. I think Paul said that his systems-thinking teacher, C. West Churchman, taught Peter Checkland, whose books were a major part of my open University studies on systems, but I'd need to check that with him. Connected or not by our teachers we certainly connected through their ideas (Wow… the power and reach of ideas and education!)
Our discussions ranged far and wide; each topic we touched on just opened up more areas we wanted to explore further. Given the years I've spent with the limitation of exploring ideas in writing, because there was no one close enough to share them with verbally, I revel in the greater fluidity and spontaneity of the spoken word. It was blissful therapy to discuss things with Paul. I loved hearing his hopes, ideas, background, actions (past and present and "hoped for in the future”. We shared our perceptions of challenges that we are tackling, together in CotW and separately elsewhere. We talked literally for hour after hour, and look forward to meeting again soon.
(I'm writing elsewhere of the value of this kind of meeting).
Wikis, Diigo, Dadamac and tagging
On Saturday I popped into the Coalition of the Willing (CotW) online “Breezy Tavern”. Michael Maranda and Charley Quinton were there – they are both people that Paul and I had mentioned with warm appreciation during our "socialising". They were pleased to have good feedback, because the "Paul and Pamela socialising session" was part of the CotW “ProM” project.
Charley is Paul's “wiki mentor”. He would be mine too, but I'm digging my heels against CotW peer pressure to get me to wiki-ise whatever information I bring. My feeling is that I've worked hard enough already to find (or create) the knowledge and networks that I offer, and I have already presented the information online one way or another - just not in a wiki. I'm happy to offer my information freely as it is. However, if it needs repackaging, then that involves a whole load of extra work, and time is limited. No matter how good the cause, I simply can't offer to do all that extra work for nothing.
Charley and I checked some links together - mainly from his wiki and my website. I explained more about the Dadamac community including a newcomer I had just come across, who I was trying to make welcome (see Kenyan interest in ecodome and permaculture ). I told Charley a bit about Dadamac learners and collaborators connect too, and how I was not having enough time to nurture those groups. We checked more links, including a video, to fill in the details and Charley was interested in what he saw. He's taking some of my information to feed into his wiki - so that's a task I won't have to think about any more. Given Charley is a techie as well as a wiki enthusiast he'll be looking at how that process can be made easier and more automated. We started to talk about tags, and some appropriate ones to use in common. Fortunately Nikki, Andy and I are currently reviewing our tagging system within Dadamac.net so it's a good time to develop a shared set with Charley.
Linked in with this, since last week's ProM meeting, we've got Diigo to use for CotW, so from my point of view that is another step in the right direction i.e. somewhere I can just drop links for other people in CotW to use later as they choose. We'll be working on the tags there as well.
ICT for climate change - and other purposes - how to avoid talking past each other.
I introduced Charley to the “three legged stool” way of looking at collaborative projects, if they involve ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). It's a technique that helps people to avoid talking past each other. There are now two of us seeing CotW as an “ICT for climate change” project, according to the “three legged stool” model. He appreciated the approach and posted a noted about it back at the Tavern. Charley particularly liked the centrality of the “C” for “communication” (or, more importantly, for "community'). The idea is that if you have a group of people, with a shared purpose, who are communicating with each other, then there must be some kind of community (which may already exist, or may need to be brought into being and nurtured). Given that Charley's own physical place is very much “open house” and buzzing with people I should have guessed that he'd pick up on the community aspect.
Summary
So, where does that leave us?
I'm encouraged as I look back over the week and think about Dadamac (which is ICT for Education and Development) and mentally tick off our progress against the three legged stool model. Every “leg” has been strengthened (i.e. information, communication/community and technology) and we have also made progress in various aspects of our integrated approach to ICT for Education and Development. I won't tease them out here in detail, but I'll point to some.
- Information creation and sharing - media partnership with Think Africa Press
- Community - our network continues to grow–of all the names I've mentioned, Michael Maranda, Nikki and Andy are the only ones I have known for more than a few months, and some are completely new contacts
- Technology – right at the heart of CotW, Charley and the rest of the techie team are doing great work. The tools they develop will be available for all kinds of information handling and online community building and support, not just for climate change issues. In addition people like Paul will help to make the information easily available in the palm of people's hands anywhere that a mobile phone can pick up the signal. It remains to find ways to lower the barriers of affordability regarding the use of smart phones.
Apologies for a long blog, but it is important, at least sometimes, that I try to give something of the parts of Dadamac and the whole of Dadamac all together at the same time, instead of in the usual fragmentary way. This review of conversations over the past few days gives a snapshot of Dadamac's integrated range of activities, its concerns, knowledge and networking, and how it all fits together - with every part being important to the whole.