Third week in September at Dadamac September 22, 2010
This week's review is a mixture of diary dates, chance encounters, and postings to Posterous.
Social Media, Enterprise and Action
Wednesday I was at a meet-up on Social Media, Enterprise and Action
The post to posterous was about discussions after the meeting. September 16, 2010 - Dadamac and "Social Media, Enterprise and Action" I also spoke to Analia Lemmo - one of the speakers from Unltd, as it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps UnLtd might be interested in the Confluence Wiki.
Steam trains
On the way home I saw a steam train leaving Victoria Station (childhood memories!). Since steam train enthusiasts gave me a leaflet about it www.cathedralsexpress.co.uk. Out of my league financially, but maybe I'll try to be at the nearest station next time it steams through.
Eco-stuff
On Friday I was walking with friends in a local woodland and park, and got into conversation with a Rastafarian carrying an African drum. We discovered many shared interests regarding sustainable communities. His degree was related to ecology, and he has land back home in Jamaica which he'd like to use for ecotourism. His ideas are very similar to those of my friend Sam in Kenya, up by Lake Victoria. We agreed to connect up later on Facebook.
Ben sent me an ecolink September 16, 2010 - Machine converts plastic into oil
Confluence wiki
Regarding the Confluence Wiki Hannah and I had been emailing - September 16, 2010 - Skill Swarm Continued (includes link to her plans for the skill swarm) so I went to Brixvill on Saturday afternoon for feedback from her, soem useful lessons had been learned and our ideas have moved on as a result. (No photos, as the phone she took them on had been stolen.) Only one week left for the skill share shop (a “proper paying tenant” is now ready to take over the space).
This posterous post has links to previous events in the confluence wiki story September 21, 2010 - From Leon
Other people at the skill-share shop.
Mamading had been giving a session in the skill share shop, and was just winding up as I arrived, so there was a chance for the three of us to chat.
Two other interesting people dropped in to find out what the skill-share shop was about. The first was Harun Rabbani, who gave his url as www.humantwopointzero.wordpress.com
The other was Alison. As it turned out, she understood perfectly what Hannah and I were discussing regarding critical mass, the confluence wiki, and much more besides. The three of us talked for hours - an interesting and helpful conversation. Hannah stayed longer than she intended, then had to leave for a previous engagement. Alison and I went on to eat and talk for the rest of the evening.
A professional view
The kind of things that I'm struggling with in Dadamac (regarding effective information flows and making an online system that serves everyone's needs) is the kind of thing Alison does for a living - so our conversation ranged quite widely over human-computer issues. The good news is that she was very positive about what we are doing (using Drupal, Google docs, and other bits and pieces) and how we are doing it - and she completely understood about all our re-thinks etc. I often wonder if there is some expensive, off-the-peg system available to business that we would be using if only we had the money. Apparently there isn't - so our struggles in little Dadamac are similar to other people's in big companies. Alison left me feeling quite “leading edge” on socio-technical applications – I'm not sure if that news is encouraging or depressing.
Millennium Development Goals in the News
Sunday - John had e-mailed me, quoting Jeffrey Sachs and saying:
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This is what the FF integrated model is all about, is there anyway we can link up with the Earth Institute to share what we are doing with our restricted resources?
Jeffery Sacchs is one of the authors of the MDGs. Director, the Earth Institute. President & Co-Founder, Millennium Promise
The midterm results of the Millennium Villages Project show that the integrated approach being used is working - including interventions in health, nutrition, education, agriculture, infrastructure and business development - and that these interventions disproportionately benefit women, who tend to be the most at-risk population. As their voices are strengthened, crop yields rise, infant mortality rates fall, educational attainment is increased, and the quality of life rises all around.
If we are serious about achieving the MDGs by 2015, we must make women an urgent global priority. Women make up a significant majority of the world's poorest people. Investing in women and girls pays dividends throughout entire communities and women should be at the heart of our vision for international development. In the coming week, I will be working closely with world leaders at the MDG Summit in New York to ensure that the voices of women everywhere are heard.
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I thought I'd better check out that link and see what I could do. I sent a couple of links to John where feedback was possible. I finished up at a link to Development Guardian inviting responses - so I introduced us in that context September 19, 2010 - @GdnDevelopment comments and Dadamac (On Tuesday I followed up more links about what was happening at the MDG event and joined others in writing a comment, John and I have also exchanged more emails around this.)
The UK-Nigeria agenda
Monday morning was beautiful. (Summer seems to be making a comeback.) I had the usual phone meeting with Nikki to decide on Wednesdays UK–Nigeria agenda. Planning it always helps us to get a new perspective on what is happening and where we are going. Huge frustration at our helplessness in assisting John to get funding. He is doing so much stuff that supports the millennium development goals but can't get the funding he needs–and yet there seems to be money out there. I wonder if this week's meeting of the great and the good on millennium development goals will have any positive impact on John and people like him–or will it just be a talkfest? What if the people there drank water instead of wine for the week and gave him the savings–wow–what an impact he would make with that windfall!
I'd wondered if Comic relief might be any good for him September 19, 2010 - Comic relief, street children and Fantsuam Foundation
There is MDG related news about a clean stoves initiative so I started to check that our with John September 21, 2010 - Dadamac and Secretary Clinton Announces Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves
Meeting with Liam Barrington-Bush
On Monday afternoon I caught up with Liam (http://twitter.com/hackofalltrades). We were going to explore some ideas he'd blogged on trust - and other intangible things that Dadamac has in abundance. How do we share our intangible wealth with those who are rich in money but poor in all that we have? How do we collaborate to pool our resources and build a better world? The answer has to be linked with a better use of our communication systems and greater cross-cultural collaboration. We've been tweeting about it since. He's http://twitter.com/hackofalltrades I'm http://twitter.com/Pamela_McLean
Mobile phones for development
In the evening a public meeting at the London School of Economics on
Mobile phones for development.
Webinar on Social Enterprise & Job Creation
Tuesday evening, Unfortunately I had to miss this - but share the link Webinar on Social Enterprise & Job Creation
Research in Distance Education: Impact on Practice
September 21, 2010 - Centre for Distance Education - Research in Distance Education: Impact on Practice -Wednesday, October 27 Looking ahead to this event