Stopping Madonna got us started

Quite a lively conversation at one of the workshops at the HIV/AIDS congress in Amsterdam on World AIDS day (1 Dec). People from all over the world with very different backgrounds. First the conversation centred on adoption and its effects on the adopted child, on the biological parents, and on the adopting parents. All agreed that adoption should always be a last resort and that ultimately poverty was the cause of most cross continental adoptions. First the biological parents, then the extended family, then the wider local community, then adopting parents with the same nationality/background, then foreign well-meaning adopting parents, and then, and only then, Madonna or other celebrities. Being adopted by Madonna seemed like the worst case scenario. What do you think little David Banda?

Then the discussion shifted to how to fight poverty. One of the main premises was to ensure that the money was put in the hands of the poor themselves. But how do we ensure it gets into their hands, and when it does, that it gets spent on the right things? Was this back to square 1 or Aid 2.0?

Time for me to pitch PlanLive: Through the use of Web2.0 technologies and mobile phones we can now ensure the money does reach the poor and follow-up on what that money gets used for. Are we ready?

Stop Madonna!

I have been asked to give a very brief presentation on PlanLive as part of an HIV/AIDS congress on 1 December (World AIDS Day) in Amsterdam. The idea is that we want to Stop Madonna and other celebrities from adopting children affected by HIV/AIDS and instead enable their (extended) families and communities to address the issues related to HIV/AIDS. If not adopting, what could we in the developed world do to help? And what could be the role of PlanLive in this respect?

Please leave your comments and suggestions here so I can include them in my presentation. After 1 December I will blog about the role that I see for PlanLive and the response and discussion of the workshop participants.

can't dummy community

I have been asked several times to show a demo or mock-up of PlanLive, the same way software is often demoed using dummy data. When I do, people are invariably disappointed. 


Friends' vacation photos used to be my father's worst nightmare. He dreaded sitting in dark living rooms watching uninteresting vacation slides without being in control of the remote control. "Let's visit them now before they develop their vacation slides!" He would have appreciated being able to see these photos on Facebook or Flickr. 


When we watch a demo website, we often expect to see National Geographic-like photos but get to see vacation slides instead. The content on community websites acquires its value largely from its authors who are valuable to you; much more so than from the 'objective' quality of the content itself. When we go to see our daughter in a theatre play at school, we don't expect to see a professional actress. We expect to see our daughter show us parents what she and her classmates have been preparing for the past few months. That is important to us. Conversely, when we do go to a theatre play in Amsterdam we expect them to outperform our daughter and her classmates. And if they don't, we demand our money back.


Only a small part of community content is 'portable' to other communities. The vast majority of community content—the content on community websites—is relevant only for the community that created it. Now, with Web2.0 technologies, many communities, however, can and do create lots of content at relatively low cost. Many communities times lots of content times a small part of still equals a lot of relevant and portable content—but that won't show in a dummy demo community. 

Child Protection & Participation 2.0

As soon as you hear internet and youth in one sentence, you think risk. Who is going to protect them and how?

Youth themselves seem to see mostly opportunity and excitement. A chance to say and show what they want, and to whom they want. A long longed for venue to express themselves and to engage or socialise with others. As evidenced by their posts, photos and amounts of friends, risk is not on their radar. At least not for now.

A quick look into one of the millions of Facebook pages easily shows more photos than would fit into a shoe box (yes I will put them into an album!). Rarely do the people on these photos look serious or formal. Casual is the rule and partying not the exception. The one thing that always strikes me looking at these photos is how different they are as compared to the photos that normally accompany a so-called Sponsored Child Introduction or Update. Smiles, pride and self confidence are the norm on Facebook, while shy, serious and uneasy faces feature on most photos Plan sends to sponsors.

As part of our preparations for PlanLive we research and engage with several of the major online social networks. Today I was quite shocked when I visited the Hi5.com social network site that is very popular in many African and Latin American countries. Hi5 has a so-called flirt feature where you can click through photos of members of the opposite sex and—apparently—of a much younger age. Want to flirt? You can click Yes or No. Click No and you see another girl (haven't tried simulating being a woman, so not sure how that works), click Yes and you can send the girl or young woman a message after you have paid a modest sum of Hi5 coins, a virtual currency.

How is PlanLive going to deal with this? We have created a Child Protection Task Force to further look into this important issue, and to continue doing so in the future. We are looking at it from the perspective of children and youth, of their caretakers (parents, teachers, community leaders, etc.), of Plan, and of the social networking technology. For each phase of the pilot we want to establish the necessary mitigation measures to be taken in terms of awareness raising, policies, procedures, training, alert and reporting mechanisms, monitoring and so on. If you feel you have something to contribute to this Task Force we would urge you to contact us.

PlanLive kicked off

Haven't blogged for months, haven't seriously tweeted for weeks. The longer you stop the harder it becomes to start again because somehow you feel guilty or ashamed for standing by, lurking, for being busy but not engaged. No more!

A quick recap of what has happened the last few weeks. Last month we had a PlanLive Pilot kick-off workshop in the US with participants from the 8 countries participating in the pilot (Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, India, Kenya, Netherlands, UK and US) and from Plan's headquarters. Before kicking off we had to make some adjustments to the original plans. The most important adjustment was to focus more on learning if and how Plan can use Web2.0 technologies instead of trying to generate a few short term results in terms of revenue and engagement. Web2.0 technologies such as social media, social networks and online collaboration tools can be used to support a range of Plan functions like fundraising, programmes, learning, building relationships, advocacy, research and so forth. The workshop further strengthened the notion that the primary added value of PlanLive is the content of, by and for the communities in the programme countries.

The outcomes of the kick-off workshop were then discussed with and amended by the PlanLive Pilot Board and then given the go-ahead. In other words: kicked off!

I will blog tomorrow about what that means in practical terms for the pilot and how you can get involved.

Tribeless

In my wife's country it is totally acceptable to ask someone which tribe they are from. When you register at an hotel you write the name of your tribe next to your ID number. I normally just write Mholanzi which means that I am from a tribe called Holland. But it always leaves an awkward feeling of tribelessness.

Team is about as close as I have been to a tribe, but they rarely last. My family is another tribe altogether but that doesn't really count.

To address my modern affliction I sought modern medicine: bought a book, watched a series on TV, YouTubed tribes and even joined tribes online. It only made matters worse. I felt more tribeless than ever.

Of late, my feelings of tribelessness are relieved by fleeting but increasingly frequent sensations of belonging to a larger tribe that is all around me. I don't want to name or brand it for fear it might disappear, but it's great to be part of it.

What the world wants to know

While my daughter was horseback riding, I was listening to a podcast from Appfricast on a Grameen initiative called Question Box with Community Knowledge Workers (CKW) in Uganda and India. I have worked with Community Development Workers and Creative Development Workers, but this term was new for me. Essentially the idea is to have someone with a mobile phone in each village who can call or text in questions from villagers that are then answered by people with access to knowledge a.k.a. the internet.

Interesting to see what the villagers ask:

• What causes banana bacterial wilt?
• Who is the president of Lebanon?
• Why is it that girls feel pain while in their periods?
• Best feeds to give a dairy cow to ensure it gives a lot of milk?
• Who is the president of Sao Tome?

And the list goes on. All could fairly easily be answered with a little internet surfing, especially the factual ones. It reminds me of a guy who we could ask one question as part of a getting to know each other exercise. I asked whether he could tell something about himself and he said: "yes". No chance for follow-up questions.

Most questions, and certainly internet searches, lead to more questions, particularly the ones with good answers. Giving a bad answer is the best way to keep people from asking follow-up questions. A question is more of an invitation to share and collaborate. Just as the classic "Would you like a drink?" question is not meant to quench your thirst, but to get to know you better.

The internet has two good responses to these invitations: wikipedia and social networks. Access is the answer.