Over this past week, you have been busy working on your case study on how citizens or grass-root groups are using social media or technology to mobilize and to claim rights. I hope we will be able to assemble a good set of examples from around the world for comparative purpose.
In the meantime, on Oct. 24th, I had the opportunity to record an interview with Melanie Gorka, an alumnus of the IDS program at UTSC, who recently co-founded a social enterprise named Commons 11, with the aim of working with grass-root organizations as well as large development agencies to design appropriate technology solutions for local community needs. Please take time to review the interview, as I am sure you will draw plenty of inspirations and ideas for your case study and for the group work.
Melanie has kindly agreed to answer any further questions you may have regarding her work and her organization. Please contact her via this link:
http://www.commons11.com/contact-us/
|
Conversation with Melanie Gorka, Part 1 from Leslie Chan on Vimeo.
|
n this first part of her conversation with Leslie Chan, Melanie recounts her journey from her graduation from the IDS program at UTSC, to her current role as co-founder of a new social technology start-up called Commons 11. Melanie talks about her with with Crisis Commons and with Random Hacks of kindness, and explains what "hacking" has to do with finding appropriate technologies for solving local development problems. She talks about how her education and experience in international development studies inform her approaches with working with technologists and with community groups, and how her training enables her to act as a bridge between these communities. She shares important lessons on participatory design and the need to involve local users in order to develop truly appropriate technologies that have positive social and environmental impact.
This interview was recorded on Oct. 24th, 2012 at UTSC.
|
|
Conversation with Melanie Gorka, Part 2 from Leslie Chan on Vimeo.
|
In this segment, Melanie talks about the opportunities and challenges of working with open source tools and the technology communities. She provides insight into some of the emerging business and sustainability models make possible by social collaborations and new forms of financing. In particular talks about the inspirations between the founding of a start-up called Commons 11 with her partner Clare Buré, the approach they take in working with NGOs and other organizations in need of technology design and support, and she provides examples of some recent projects she worked on, including a crowd-sourcing project called Water Voices. Melanie also provides some ideas on how students could enrich their technology skills through online courses and open educational resources, She ends with some comments on the interplay between gender and technology and how the collaborative nature of the open source community is generating new opportunity for bridging technology and international development.
|
Comments (4)
Paola Denisse said
at 10:49 am on Nov 2, 2012
Hi,
not sure if maybe it's my computer but I am play both videos; tried to go to Vimeo to play them however they seem to not work. :(
Paola Denisse said
at 10:50 am on Nov 2, 2012
I am not able*
Leslie Chan said
at 1:34 pm on Nov 2, 2012
I've tested these videos on different machines and they work fine. Sometimes it has to do with Internet connection as they do require fairly high bandwidth. I suppose this is an accessibility issue I need to pay closer attention to. Anyone else having problem viewing these videos?
Naseem Khan said
at 1:49 pm on Nov 2, 2012
They work for me
You don't have permission to comment on this page.