Pamela's Blog

"First Thursdays" are informal online meetings. This blog post is an experiment in sharing some of our discussions more widely. Introductions As people arrive we introduce outselves. These are the May introductions, in the order that people wrote them: Pamela McLean - UK using laptop at home. In the "Dadamac" collaboration I'm the "mac" part of the name Dadamac. I'm exploring how the Internet can help us to collaborate and learn - especially learning-by-doing and learning-from-each-other http://dadamac.net/ Jeff LaHay - Minneapolis, MN USA using desktop and high speed DSL from work. My colleague Fran and I train people to assemble...

John Dada sent news today about Kazanka Comfort, who was for many years the general secretary of Fantsuam Foundation's micro-finance programme and involved in all other programmes. He wrote: VSO/CUSO have sponsored Comfort to a Women leaders course in Canada and this has been followed by a week of speaking tour Tour details The event series, called Women Leaders in the Developing World , starts in Ottawa on May 21. These details are from the website: Women: The Face of Potential in the Developing World A panel presentation featuring women leaders from Cameroon, Guyana, Nigeria, Jamaica and Ethiopia. Come hear...

I read a book by Michael Rosen which illustrated that there is poetry in everyday language - if you listen out for it. So I listened - and sure enough - I heard some as I was travelling on the 227 bus. It was late on a Thursday afternoon. Two weary women were sitting in front of me, chatting to each other and I couldn't help hearing what they said. When I got off the bus I wrote down their words so I wouldn't forget. The first section was spoken by one woman; the second was the response of her...

Good news on the Cisco "admin glitch"/communication problem which I wrote about previously - Help needed to save Rural Training Centre - do you know anyone in Cisco? and More on Cisco and Rural Training Centre . In those posts I explained how the little rural Cisco acadamy at Fantsuam was being treated like a normal urban unversity department, regarding the bill for an essentiail upgrade. It was thus being placed in a situation which was threatening its survival. John, as a local course provider, had problems connecting with anyone appropriate higher up the administrative chain. Through Dadamac in London...

As I see it I'm a social innovator - but not yet a social entrepreneur. Given that "social entrepreneurship" is a comparatively recent concept, its meaning is still somewhat fluid. I'll therefore explain how I'm using these terms for the purpose of this extended blog, and what I mean by the difference. Then I'll explore some organisational models, including ones where people work "for free", and see what lessons I can learn. 1 - Innovation and enterprise - similarities and differences As I understand it, both social innovators and social entrepreneurs address social issues (i.e. people-related issues) in creative and...