3 Responses to What I do for a living

1. 

   Tony Hall

   February 7, 2009 at 2:22 pm

   Great, how do I engage with this video, this narrative between two people in a glass-walled office in London talking of people making water projects work a few thousand miles away, and donors, wherever they are, who are funding these projects.

   I presume the model is of a project getting/giving funding for equipment/maintenance/initial support, with intention of these projects becoming self-sufficient – and how to make this a sustainable model for water or any other project, local or global, run by hub organisations.

   I look out the window of my flat in central London, a couple of cars drive slowly down the street; one car is a Porsche, costing around £35,000, the other is a 4×4 probably around the same cost. Ummm, now if only these people could be persuaded to re-think their values; use bicycles, walk more, maybe live a simpler home life, maybe use some of their excessive incomes in helping people less fortunate than themselves?

   I drift away here … maybe, a need to see a direct correlation between what is given and how that income is used, a transparency (social media / socially mediated) of giving .. and maybe then becoming involved in other ways; through networks of involvement, networks of giving, networks of support. Seeing how ‘their’ money can work for the benefit of people rather than than the detriment of people (the expensive, fast car adds to polluting the atmosphere, injuring pedestrians, using up precious resources).

   The Question Is.
   How to persuade the person who is about to buy a Porsche to actually use some of that money to buy a bicycle or two, and use the rest of the money to help people with water and sanitation in far away places?

   The answers (selling the idea) works in different ways on different levels:
   • relationships can be built up between (ordinary) people, between the donor (nearly Porsche owner) and the doer (villager, digger, facilitator, documenter, co-ordinator). Like any good story, these ‘characters’ have names, things happen, life is shared.
   • these relationships can manifest themselves through internet networks; pictures, video, writing.
   • accountability: how money was used, in a general way.
   • transparency: open relationships using simple tools (at the moment digital camera, wifi phone/camera, local wifi networks, Flickr/Twitter/Blogger)
   • support (learning) through the hubs; developing self-sufficiency, balanced relationships, how to involve other people in a positive way + wider issues of infrastructure and how this develops beyond local community and value. This is two-way (question-driven, specific, related to practice) learning environment, the hub organisation facilitates the processes.

   So money can be the First stage of involvement, the first chapter in the story, from there the ‘donor’ can become involved with the doer(s) in different ways.

   The hub (akvo-type) organisations become the facilitators for these processes to take place and grow.

   In effect this is about creating a transparent and represented learning environment that people can involve themselves in, becoming characters in, and the ‘story’ is facilitated by the hubs. The donors and the doers benefit through sharing their stories, and many other ways.

   Time for lunch, and a glass of water.
2. 

   happyseaurchin

   February 7, 2009 at 4:10 pm

   excellent vid
   would be nice to edit the bit mark says
   very clear

   i also like vinay’s commentary
   his language and models are useful

   and tony’s comment too
   so…
   i guess we have to wait while you get this thing off the ground?
   i will start with my little attempts too 🙂
   i got friends, family, heheheh

   good work!
3. 

   happyseaurchin

   February 7, 2009 at 4:17 pm

   hmmm
   two thoughts:
   1
   you emphasise doing
   and yet your tag line is
   who are you?
   2
   resonates with my approach
   which seems to be even lower than yours:
   http://www.2020worldpeace.org/mediawiki/index.php/Actuator

   will come up with something useful soon…