Lots to discuss
Seems like there’s lots to discuss, looking forward to that call 
Available for Armenia
Hi all,
I see that you already have candidates from Armenia. That’s great. Please count me as well I joined Edgeryders 2 years ago I think, but I got acquainted with you IRL only last year October in Matera.
A short update on what I am doing right now: I am a student at American University of Armenia (so I get in touch with many students and student organizations daily). I am board member of Wikimedia Armenia and project manager of Utopianlab (coworking space). Thanks to this two organizations I know a quite broad network of people in Armenia, mostly young and aspiring people, who are interested in media and technology, social innovation and activism.
I also (in many cases personally know) people from other similar organizations in Armenia and have the experience of working with media companies here (TV, radio, press). So if I can be useful to this project, please let me know
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Hey, long-ish time!
Nice to hear from you Vachagan. Somehow we did not manage to have a proper chat at lote4, hopefully this year it will be different 
Ok so I have boiled down the practices/routines for doing this work into an overview here. Have a look and see if it is aligned with your expectations?
I hope so too, I also hope to be present at least one Edgyders event this year and meet you guys again.
The list of activities is pretty much what I love to do, so I will follow your guidelines below and, think about 3 projects
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Gaumarjos!
Hi all! Great to see last year’s initiative is taken a step further! Georgia’s been doing great on the projects part, and people are still eager to come to the meet-ups I organize, not always a lot of people, but always people with great ideas to share.
I am writing this right now from my kitchen table with a 4 day old baby next to me! We got home from the hospital yesterday :)). Little Leonard will join the futurespotters community right away!
So what’s been happening in Georgie? Well, to start with, I am slightly biased as I got a part time advisor position at Iare Pekhit (the pedestrian rights organization) to help them set up a membership based association (funded by undef). So what’s happening on the pedestrian rights front I now know all about ;). Actually, today there’s an event where the winner of a public art contest will be revealed. Unfortunately I will not be able to join, but I’ll make sure to post some pics to the Georgia group later on.
For a few months different public space related grass roots organizations joined efforts in order to stop the building of a shopping mall and cable cart in old town under the name ERTAD (together). Several meet ups and one large protest march were organized. Unfortunately the group fell apart due to some miscommunications amongst the members, but for as long as it lived it showed great progress. I guess in the future with other large projects which may harm the urban space, this will be able to be set up again.
The last few months an artist duo has been tagging the city with phrases which should make people think about the space they live in. It’s an art and social development project by Mariam Natroshvili and co. It’s really cool to be in the suburbs somewhere and see a prhase and know it’s them. The other day I was hiking (when I still could 
) in the hills behind our flat and found a text stenciled on an abandoned trailer in the middle of nowhere. It’s very powerful. It would be great to find out more about the project and the artists’ goals.
What else? Oh yes, in fall several people came together (elva, undp, remi from cospot, me, charlotte from new ngo chaikhana, eric from jumpstart) to brainstorm about setting up a social innovation hub. We held several different meetings about how and what and were offered a place in the national scientific library. By January we were convinced we would somehow be able to make this happen, when the director of the library told us he had gotten a large sum of the government to renovate the place themselves, we would not be able to use the space permanently as a result. Although this was disappointing, UNDP offered the library to help them set up a workshop to see what users would like the library to be (co-creating). The Social Innovation Hub has been a bit quiet since, but that’s ok. In the mean time we have learned of several other different hubs being set up: one at a university, and one by a local youth NGO with the support of businesses. There may even be more, but I cant tell you from the top of my head ;).
There are many more interesting developments, such as the creation of the NGO chaikhana, which supports journalists; several different small social start-ups have seen the light; and probably many many more.
So, why this summary of how Georgia is doing? Well, as many of you know I was Georgia’s community builder last year for the Spot the Future project. I loved doing the work (it doesnt even feel like work!). And, I would love to take on the role again. I have time as well, as I ditched some projects pre-birth that I didnt like, to have more positiveness in my life. And, as I already know from last year how it works (I do know there are several different changes, but nothing to major as I understand), I will be able to work efficiently! :))
Now, this is a quick post from my kitchen table, still a bit sore from giving birth, but I could not NOT reply ;). Anyway, shoot if you have any follow up questions. I’ll be following the group closely and see what’s happening.
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Congratulations
Wow. Is lola jealous? Yes I guess you saw the wiki I posted already?
There are some differences from last year for one thing we will not organise a large-ish meetup this time around and will expect engagement managers to share responsibility of running the weekly community calls.
The main challenge is really engaging ourselves, both the existing network of people and projects and new ones, in articulating a shared program for new ways to support grassroots initiatives (based on findings from STF). These ways need to be co-designed by the community so as to encourage collaboration, and not distort incentives or otherwise ruin whatever it was that made the initiatives promising in the first place. We also need engage people working on projects about which we do not know, and who may not comfortable working/communicating online into participating in the calls as a soft landing.
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exactly
Lola finds the baby interesting, but we have a second dog (Kush) - a german shepherd mix - who is absolutely intrigued by Leon and follows him around wherever we go :)).
I totally get your points. Definitely challenging, engaging people merely online is not an easy job, but I guess that’s what the engagement managers are for who actually live in the countries involved ;).
Also, as the name indicates, this should mainly be focussed on youth projects? One interesting example I just recently discovered is about Ucha Kemashvili who lives in a remote village in western Georgia. He saw how devastating the braindrain of young people from his village was (everyone goes to tbilisi for jobs/education) and decided to create an incentive for them to stay: free wifi on the main square with a board which tells the inhabitants what kind of events are going on. It completely changed the village, a real community feeling was created. There’s also Kedeli community in Sighnaghi (inga may have written about them last year?), a family who is helping people with disabilities - they live with them, are being cared for and help around if they can. For the ones who are able enough, they set up a social cafe where they work in the city center, to empower them. It’s not youth, but a great example of grassroots initiative, and they often have young german volunteers helping ot for several months in a row. May be worth a follow up as well.
Anyway, I’ll check some other things that were posted later.
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Welcome to Leon!
Thanks for the updates on Georgia, Inge! Good to know there are positive developments there! Would love to report on Armenia, maybe once I get there and meet the participants of Spot the Future 2014. Can’t believe you managed to write this all on Day 1 at home with Leon! I’m so happy the mothers’ community is growing @ Edgeryders! Lots of love and positive healing energy your way! 
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Thanks! Would love to hear about Armenia as well! And Egypt! We had a great meet-up last year, it was really inspiring! As I understand it wont be this year, but online a lot of creativity and inspiration can be shared as well! (and I will anyway see you this summer!)
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Hi everyone, moving forward this week
We’re still waiting for the news to spread and more people to have a chance to apply and then I would like to schedule calls with the candidates later this week, starting from Thursday, giving us enough time to talk with all of you and hire two people by Monday. I hope that you will have time for a skype call with me?
Ahead of the call I have two questions for the people for whom this would be the first time doing engagement management with Edgeryders (@rostika, @zaraavi, @Amalia_Kamalian, @SamarAli, @fatmaabdelnabi, @Hegazy and @vgratian):
1. Can you think of three projects that you would reach out to and involve in this project? Please add them to the Case Studies Adventure wiki by editing it (make sure to include your name so we know who has contributed what).
2. Could tell me, what’s your idea to use social media to engage people in this online platform - first to bring them here, and them make them use it on a longer term? How do you make connections with people most effectively in your country? (We know people are used to face to face meetings, but we still want them to use this online platform for dialogue).
Once you have answered the two questions, suggest time slots for the call with me here.
Looking forward to meet you soon.
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Hi Nadia,
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editing the wiki is not working yet
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With my network, i know who would be interested to join & simply approach. Outside of my network, I approach face-to-face to give an otherwise anonymous online space, well, a face. Either way, I think hard about how they can benefit from cross-border participation and a globalised network; i.e. how EdgeRyders can benefit them.
Yes, managed to botch it Im afraid
… am on the road on funny connectivity and Noemi came up with solution- post replies in comment below, instead of directly editing into, wiki. Sorry!
Case Studies Adventure Wiki
Hi Nadia,
- Yes, I've already contacted two of them Reefy, Mwazna and the third I'm trying to see another project in Siwa or Upper Egypt where communicating through Internet isn't great..
- For Reefy as an example, it's related to how they can show and tell people about their products to the EgdeRyders community, it'd be also benefit them the contribution of the EgeRyders community members on howto market the product and open new funnels for that purpose. For Mwazna, as the two men behind itare interested in OpenData and its activities, it'll be good to show their project to others who can do the same in other countries like Georgia, Armenia, Morocco, etc..
Most of my communication is done through social media then telephone and/or Skype call and if there’s a need for a face-to-face meeting, we just do it.
Engagement of people in Belarus
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Case studies done.
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Engagement of people: i think the main motivation for people to come and to use the platform would be (1) finding partners for future projects and (2) learning and getting inspiration from others’ projects.
I would suggest to organize also thematic posts, e.g. cases on social business, inclusion, eco-friendly way of life, etc from each participating country, so people could present themselves, and discuss challenges and solutions. Then it would be easier to promote the platform online, in social networks and etc. I would suggest the initiatives/projects we are presenting as cases, are taking some points of discussions, and involve their team/colleagues/partners into dialogue (to make the agreements with them before posting). Presenting the platform at face-to-face events, with possible discussions they could take part right away.
Hello Nadia
Second question
I hope you are well
I think for some people its difficult to believe and to trust to virtual communication and insertion to online platform can realise very slowly. Of course it’s more effective to communicate and to meet face to face because like this you recognize a person well but in our times online communication gives us possibility to save the time. After all it’s easy to involve the young people to online social media.
P.S. Հայաստանում միակ խնդիրը անվստահությունն է: Այստեղ շատ են այսպես կոչված ցանցային թակարդները: Edgeryders-ի դեպքում ներգրավելը ավելի հեշտ կլինի, քանի որ կա կոնկրետ կայք, որտեղ տրված է կազմակերպության պատմությունը, ծրագրերը և նպատակները:
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I second you on that it will take time in Armenia to engage projects from remote areas @zaraavi jan, but could you please elaborate why would people have trust issues with online platforms?
Cheers,
Anna
Dear Anna
Hello Anne
I hope you are well.
I think sometimes it’s difficult to decide what site is legal and don’t contain some viruses or it’s not haker’s site or way to thieve money . It’s distrust. But it’s become rare and now young people prefer to work and to communicate online.
That is a bit odd as I have not heard of e-frauds in Armenia…is that actual now?
Thanks
Barev/Salam
Hi Nadia, how are you?
Wow there are indeed many candidates for Armenia so maybe I’d be more useful for Morocco? Either way, I would love to get engaged in this project for either Armenia or Morocco depending the time frame the project is going to run. I just quitted my full time job in tourism industry in Morocco(still helping my husband with his projects in the High Atlas) and will be based in Armenia all summer! Would love to get involved as I have decided to only take up jobs that make me happy while still being able to homeschool my girl +my skills and experience match your requirements:
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I’m a translator/interpreter(English, Russian, Armenian, Polish, French, Arabic)
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I have attended Spot the Future 2014 in Tbilisi and I have an idea of how Edgeryders work
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I have lots of contacts with people engaged in innovating projects both in Armenia and Morocco and I would like to deep dive and share the inspiring stories about their work
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I used to be an EVS volunteer so I understand the importance of this project in creating new volunteering opportunities in the future
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I am used to working online and in distance as I have worked from home the past 2 years
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I am super curious and sociable so it’s going to be easy peezy for me
I will think of 3 projects in Armenia and 3 in Morocco and add them to case studies
One project I’m most interested in is creating a coworking space for parents who can bring their kids along and let them play under supervison of a qualified professional while the moms work in an adjoining space! I think @SEDAchka is developing this project in Yerevan already!
@vgratian - OMG finally! Co-working space in Yerevan!!! Congrats! I can’t wait to come and check it out! Checked the website but there aren’t many details there, like the fees, etc Can you tell us more about how it works?
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Wh00p!
I totally endorse Anna (of course), and I think the positive and very constructive input last year at the Spot the Future conference were undeniable! And she had a great tiny assistant as well ;).
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