Thanks, everyone. Thanks. Thanks, guys.
We have met here in India. What do you think about the collaboration, linkages, meetings?
I think there's, you can't overemphasize the value of meeting face-to-face.
I think we all have the opportunity through the internet, through conversations, through conference calls to talk
and try to formulate ideas and collaborative opportunities.
But meeting face-to-face, being able to sit down with someone and really understand what they do
and help them to get a better understanding of what you do and search for ways to collaborate and create leverage
is really, is fundamental in it and it's one of the real keys to success, I think, of these types of meetings.
Yeah, sure. In fact, collaboration is the key where Ashoka tries that if everybody is a changemaker
then how collaboratively can more number of people, fellows indeed can scale up the work that they are trying to do
at a much larger level. Maybe it's an idea that could be scaled
or it's a work that could be scaled beyond the limit of the reach of each other's work that we see.
Well, I think it's pretty easy to be overwhelmed by the scale of the different kinds of activities that are here
if you were to just read this or look it up on a web page to try to go from the solid waste management
to training rats to sniff out landmines to mobile telephony.
But if you can actually sit and have these conversations in person you can process a lot more of it
and you can begin to see the things that connect it which is primarily I think the focus on the beneficiaries
and the focus on the social aspects of the enterprise.
I think it's also helped us in terms of really being able to face the real challenges
because when I'm back in Nairobi and I think I'm the only social changemaker struggling all the way
and yesterday we had a session here on treads in Africa
and after the session in the evening the African team from seven countries met yesterday
and it was amazing what we came up with. You know Africans without bonda
as a pool of expertise on different fields, medicine, engineering, urban planning
and we are hoping to have that pool like a platform in Africa
trying to bring out the expertise and the experience, practical experience from every individual
and bring it out there to the consumer because those are the guys who need this knowledge most
the communities, the governments, the civil society who are struggling looking for answers
so to me I think it's really a valuable experience being here and meeting different people
not only in Africa but globally, you know, sharing what Greg is doing and other colleagues
in different fields from IT when you're talking about basic of toilet and sanitation
and we're hearing about IT treads and we still need to catch up
and how do we make toilets to that level of innovation of IT?
I don't know. John?
Well I mean I think one of the benefits to doing this in person is that when you leave
you actually have the ability to have those conversations
and you know when someone's being sarcastic, when someone's having fun with you
and when someone's being serious and being able to make those connections
I was in the trends on Africa panel yesterday and I talk a lot
and I actually wound up listening the entire time
because it's a chance to hear so much from so many different pieces of the puzzle
and so the hope would be that if you can break down some of those barriers
make some of those personal connections
and then each of you can actually take those back into your own daily lives
and work and you're not going to have any of the misunderstandings that would come
if you tried to meet solely over the internet.
I think that's one of the things you only get in a face-to-face meeting
is why we all get on planes and travel a long way in order to be here.
In fact I had an exciting time meeting so many people
and somehow link up with them to understand what they're trying to do
and they suddenly realize that during the discussions we are having on the kind of work we are doing
that does match up with what they are trying to do.
Say for example, they are looking at scaling up their work on water awareness
but they forgot somehow, just misplaced that notion that information technology can actually help them
scale up that work in a much larger fashion to reach out to a larger...
The link between water and IIT is never thought of
but it stuck and now hopefully we will be working together hopefully.
I think that to add to all of that, the overall sense that you get of being in a peer group
and you're out working in Nairobi and I'm working in Guatemala and working in India
and you've got your head down and you're doing your thing
and then to be able to come together with people who share the same challenges
and the same goals and objectives and be able to exchange best practices and learn from each other
and learn that our challenges and the needs that we're trying to address are unfortunately universal
but to try to come up with ways to tackle this together.
But again I think also the bigger challenge is
we're almost now coming to the realization of the global village, the world being this small
but again to our poor communities in India, in Africa, deep inside
they don't see the other world and that's why climate change is going to hit us in a bad way
so I think it's needed using the IIT and other mode of communication
to ensure that our people also see the reality because with this globalization and really
we are all together now whether you're polluting in China, it still affects the poor women in Africa
so again some of these challenges we are able to discuss really and share experiences
and that I think goes a long way in terms of when we go back
these are the messages that we need to tailor in.
One good thing about meeting in person is
one of the discussions I was having was on a game
that how game allows you to have an interactive community which you have never met, you have never known
but still the common purpose of winning the game makes you collaborate with each other
much more effectively than ever does.
It's a very nice notion of how the idea of a game or the trust that you build up in the game
is leading for you towards collaborating together to find a social challenge
and try to find an answer for that challenge.
This is something I discussed with the group and it was fascinating.
I have been interested in the video games area, online games area
but the discussion was fascinating on the front that it builds trust
and the good part of Ashoka Group as a global village is that the trust is already there
you place it in the process that we go through, the gruesome process that we go through
to become a fellow in the first place, then the trust is automatically there
and this guy has also been through that process and I think it's the process-based innovation
which generates the trust.
Initiation.
It initiates the collaboration.
I agree.
That was awesome.
Thanks everyone.
Thanks guys.
Thank you.
