This thread just got a lot more interesting. Thank you @mishek, @Vidrij_Da, @K, @Eimhin and of course @iamronen and @Nadia for contributions.
Here’s my two cents: as Nadia said, it’s a balancing act between asking for reassurance and making sure that the caravan, as David puts it, stays mobile. Example from the Rockefeller Foundation debate (thread here): Eimhin’s sharp question prompted me to do some research. The stature and independence of some of the researchers who were funded by RF persuaded me that it was conditionally ok to accept their money, if it came on a good project. Then:
on the upside, Eimhin provided a cue for me to double check my ethics. This made me more aware of the issues at stake.
on the downside, he did not offer any help in doing that. He did not present a balanced argument after looking through their website, so I carried the burden of proving (to myself, more than to him) I am not some kind of evil corporate money taker.
a more telling point is the following. Here's the group that ended up doing the work in the RF application process: Arthur, Lucas, Ilaria, Vinay, Chris Brewster and myself. They did not find any problem with what we are doing! Eimhin might still be unconvinced, but he can simply stay out of this one operation while still being a very active and respected member of the community. Everyone wins.
I worry about organizing things in a way that gives people veto power on something they are not contributing to. “Who does the work calls the shots”, we like to say. Does that imply that “who does not do the work does not get to call the shots”? Perhaps that would be going too far, because I do appreciate Eimhin (or anyone else) to blow the whistle when appropriate, and perhaps prevent me from making some bad mistake. But yes, I am trying to embed a strong pro-doing bias into Edgeryders; at every step I try concentrate on enabling people to do whatever it is they want to do – making the company is a step in that direction, and in fact some people are already doing stuff with it. I think this focus is working reasonably well and has empowered us to get surprisingly far on very little resources. IMHO Nadia proposes a good compromise:
ask pointed questions, yes- but please compliment with at least partial attempts to answer them e.g. by researching for existing instances where people have answered them creatively. That way this becomes a collective learning journey, rather than a small number of people serving answers to a growing number of people asking questions.
Deal?
"Ask pointed questions, yes- but please compliment with at least partial attempts to answer them e.g. by researching for existing instances where people have answered them creatively. That way this becomes a collective learning journey, rather than a small number of people serving answers to a growing number of people asking questions." [source]
Maybe we should merge this with session on generating income?
Hi Everyone, so in this post I suggest taking on income generation in a concrete, hands-on way. As I don’t like to suggest something without having put in some of the legwork myself I have set up this group for those of us who want to experiment with different ways of generating revenue together. It’s the right time now we have the platform up an running. What do you think?
Hey @Nadia@Alberto and others. Before it gets drowned out again I just wanted to say that I probably would not have waddled into the conference today if I would not have had something snazzy to put in the organization field!
It eventually got more and more interesting and I ran into pretty cool people (as I had expected originally). If you have not been in touch with Madame Fatimetou Mint that may change soon.
Later tonight I’ll probably meet with a bunch of bright eyed youngsters from the European Youth Conference. My impression is I won’t have much competition there. Cause they are just kids with no standing in this circus. Easy prey for me…
Also, @Dipti_Sherchan , @anubhutipoudyal , @meenabhatta the meeting with Mathieu Ruillet from Geres and some of his colleagues. I think he has a rough idea of how edgeryders works and will be happy to get into touch with you. He actually speaks perfect English and is interested in hearing more. You’ll see on their website that they usually focus on longer term very green and sustainable solutions - and not on disaster relief. I told him that won’t be a problem as our engagement neither was intended as a one-off gig. Still they typically focus on local craftspeople who will do the actual rebuilding (probably after monsoon season). To which I said: That swallowtails just fine, because it’ll give you some time to stretch out your antennas to build a network that will prove as fertile ground for the help that’ll come some time down the line. I think the last project they supported built about 1000 pretty cool dwellings! So make sure you keep in touch with local craftpersons where ever find them. His email address is m.ruillet atatat geres.eu .
If you’d like more info I may be able to help. He’ll probably be here tomorrow as well.
… ok, I am a bit unfair. I actually don’t know the European Youth Conference. But, in our Council of Europe days, we did meet the European Youth Forum and a whole lot of “professional youth”; these, like their more senior counterparts “professional women”, “professional linguistic minorities” etc., are people who agree to play the part of the stakeholders in Europe’s cherished multistakeholder dialogue. In general, professional youth are young scions of the élite on their way to getting jobs in international orgs, government or politics: portrait of the Eurocrat as a young man. As you can imagine, lack of social/cultural diversity makes that multistakeholder dialogue very low-energy.
With Edgeryders, these people never helped. Not one even registered on this platform.
Bon courage…