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Posts Tagged ‘david rodriguez’

Does ‘open’ equal ‘accessible’?

Posted in accountability, development, El Salvador, governance, ICT4D, ICTs, mobile and technology, m4D, open data, open development, open government, open knowledge, participation, politics, social justice, social media, transparency, wait... what?, youth, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 20, 2012| 2 Comments »

OK Festival is in full swing here in Helsinki, and if today is anything like the past two days, it will be full of information and exchange on everything “open.”

A number of us have been working hard to pull together the Open Development Stream, which started yesterday and which followed very nicely on Tuesday’s fantastic series of panels on Transparency and Accountability (with a heavy focus on the Open Government Partnership and Open Data) and the Open Data Journalism and Visualization streams.

Here’s a quick Storify summary of yesterday’s last Open Development session “Taking it Local: 10 ways to make ‘open’ relevant in low resource or marginalized contexts,” It was moderated by Soren Gigler from the World Bank’s Innovation for Governance Team and included superb group of panelists:  David Rodriguez, Michael Gurstein, Huy Eng, Philip Thigo, and Barbara Birungi.

For the session, my colleagues David and Max Rodriguez from Plan El Salvador did some really great short videos around transparency, internet access, connectivity and related topics and how they are perceived and lived out in rural communities where they are working.

This first video with Marco Rodriguez (he’s also on Twitter), the Sub-Secretary of Transparency for the Government of El Salvador, is just a small example of some of the realities around “open” and accessibility, and the challenges of engaging every day people in some of the initiatives we are talking about here at OK Festival. (Not to mention it and the other videos with Marco and others have a number of fantastic metaphors and soundbites!)

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Personas como David

Posted in activism, C4D, communication for development, development, El Salvador, ICT4D, ICTs, mobile and technology, m4D, participation, TIC, wait... what?, youth, tagged , , , , , , , on July 19, 2012| 1 Comment »

English version here

A menudo, en el sector de las ONGs, se discute cómo podemos integrar de una mejor manera, las TICs en el proceso de desarrollo de las comunidades. Para mí, este video muestra una de las mejores maneras para lograrlo: contratar a personas como David.

Contratar gente joven y que provienen de las comunidades, personas que entiendan las realidades locales y que además son apasionados/as por mejorar las cosas de su entorno y tienen ganas de hacer cosas nuevas. Contratar personas no pretenciosas, personas que escuchan y que preguntan cuando no tienen la respuesta.

Hay que contratar a personas curiosas, que buscan información y están llenas de motivación propia. Aquellas que no tienen miedo al trabajo duro y que sienten la necesidad de tomar riesgos y además, no le  temen a la posibilidad de fallar. Hay que contratar gente con chispa creativa. Aquellas personas que saben trabajar en equipo, colaborar con otros y aprender de las personas a su alrededor.

Se debe contratar gente joven, que entiendan y usen las nuevas tecnologías y que pasen suficiente tiempo fuera de la oficina para saber cómo se pueden utilizar las TICs como herramienta en el desarrollo y/o en circunstancias difíciles.

Para eso hay que contratar gente como David. Pero no basta solo contratarla.

Una vez contratada, se debe asegurar que tengan las condiciones para crecer y logar su plenitud.

También se debe garantizar que tengan acceso a oportunidades, que participan en reuniones y eventos internos y externos, locales, regionales y globales para compartir sus conocimientos y así  aprender y para hacer contactos y conexiones.

A las personas como David se debe premiarlas, honrarlas y felicitarlas regularmente, aún si están muy ocupadas cumpliendo su trabajo, fuera de la autopromoción y de la política de la oficina.

Se debe asegurar que personas como David, tengan mentores y gerentes que les quiten las barreras para que puedan avanzar con su trabajo y en su desarrollo profesional. Escucharlas y respetarlas. Si, también debe cuestionárseles – pero con la certeza que ellas tienen la capacidad de inventar ideas que pueden funcionar, aún si no son las ideas que usted hubiera inventado. Los mentores y gerentes no deben sentirse amenazados por las personas como David, cuando sepan más que usted sobre algo. Todos y todas pueden aprender del uno al otro si el espacio para el diálogo es abierto y sincero.

Las personas como David son el presente y el futuro de los procesos del desarrollo.

Por las personas como David, me cuesta dar consejos de carrera a las personas en los EEUU que buscan trabajo en otros países. Preferia ver a las personas como David ocupando estos puestos.

David recién ganó el premio del Empleado Nuevo con Mayor Promesa en la región de las Américas durante los Premios Globales de Plan Internacional. Sigue a David al @2drodriguez y aprende más sobre los proyectos que esta hacienda aca: Mis Derechos Ante Desastres, en la pagina del proyecto de Facebook, o al @deantede.

(Gracias a Max Rodriguez por revisar y corregir mi traducción del post)

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People like David

Posted in activism, C4D, children, climate, communication for development, development, disaster and emergencies, El Salvador, ICT4D, ICTs, mobile and technology, smart aid, social media, TIC, wait... what?, youth, youth media, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 18, 2012| 4 Comments »

In the INGO sector, we often discuss ways that development organizations can better bridge development and ICTs. If you ask me, this video shows one of the best ways to achieve it: Hire people like David.

Hire young, local folks who have spent time in communities, who understand local realities, who are passionate about helping make things better, and who are hungry to do new things that make sense. Hire people who are humble; people who listen and who ask questions when they don’t know the answer.

Hire people who are curious, who seek out information, who are self starters, and who are not afraid to work hard, to try, to take risks and to fail. Hire people with creative fire who know how to work in a team, how to collaborate with others and how to learn from those around them. Hire young people who use and understand new technologies and who spend enough time out of the office to know how they can realistically be applied to development issues in difficult settings.

Hire people like David.

But don’t only hire them.

Once you hire them, make sure that they have the conditions to thrive and achieve to their fullest.

Make sure people like David have access to opportunities. Make sure that they get to attend regional and global internal and external meetings to share what they know, to learn, and to make contacts and connections.

Notice people like David. Reward them, honor them, and congratulate them regularly, even if they are too busy getting the job done to spend lots of time on self-promotion or office politics.

Make sure people like David have mentors and managers who can take roadblocks out of their way. Listen to them. Respect them. Question them, yes, but do so with the honest belief that they have the capacity to come up with ideas that can work even if they are not the ideas you would have come up with. Don’t feel threatened by people like David when they know more than you do about something. We can all learn from each other if the space for dialogue is open and sincere.

People like David are the present and future of development efforts.

People like David are the reason I have a hard time giving career advice to folks in the US who are looking for jobs overseas. I’d rather see people like David in these positions.

David recently won the “Most Promising Newcomer” award for the Americas region during Plan International’s Global Awards. Follow David at @2drodriguez and learn more about what he’s up to at the website Mis Derechos Ante Desastres (My Rights in the Face of a Disaster), the project Facebook page, or at @deantede.

**Version Español

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