I spent most of my July at the International Development Design Summit at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO, which was only two hours from Boulder. The conference focused on technology in the developing world and brought together people who had village-tested prototypes and were looking to go from prototype-to-product (P2P) or project-to-venture (P2V).
I had previously worked as a member of the organizing staff at this conference in 2008. Some time I should write a post about that as well, but that will have to wait for another day. One of the first things that I learned about IDDS was that it is a sort of "un-conference" since most conferences strive to produce academic papers, while IDDS believes that it is important to produce technologies. And to do that in a month is definitely a daunting task. In 2008, the focus was on design, and everyone was working in machine shops, whereas this year the focus was on disseminating technologies, so there was a bit of shop-work, but much more time spent on business plans.
How It Works
The conference brings together people from all sorts of backgrounds from around the world. This year there were only 57 people including the organizing staff and the conference was just under four weeks (in 2008 there were over 70 people and the conference was just over five weeks). The participants are assigned to teams and are assigned to work on a particular challenge arising in a community or region in the developing world. Examples include developing a thresher that removes the millet grains from the stalk (focusing on west Africa) or developing a solution to prevent the micro-hydro power systems in Central America from repeatedly breaking. The goal is to develop a technological solution that fits within the particular local constraints.
The schedule is pretty packed. There are lectures from faculty and guest speakers designed to develop everyone's skills so that they can effectively tackle their challenge. Then everyone splits into their teams to work on their projects and apply the lessons. Some of the activities put people into random groups, which means that over the course of the summit, participants have the opportunity to get to know everyone. And if that isn't enough, in the early morning, there's football (it's soccer, but mostly organized by Brits and Irish guys), in the evenings, there are cultural events and presentations, and on the weekends, there are outings and activities (some formally planned, some thrown together at the last minute).
My Team
I was working with a group called Running Water International in Nakuru, Kenya. I had the opportunity to visit the project back in March, and I was very excited to work with them. They produce bio-sand filters (BSFs) for water treatment, which operate similarly to many community water systems in places like the US, but in this case, the design has been scaled down to fit in a household and reach a price that is affordable to people earning under $3 per day.
The Kenyan who runs the program on the ground was unable to obtain a visa to come for the conference (definitely a good case for some immigration reform), but we had a strong team anyway. Two of his teammates in the US, who focus on the business side (and came out of CSU's Global Social & Sustainable Enterprise program) were running lead on our project. We also had a Zambian community health worker who brought invaluable wisdom to our team (and had a great sense of humor about everything). We had an Irish guy who had just finished his Ph.D and had a good background in water treatment systems (also a very crafty researcher, which proved pretty handy). We also had a Spaniard on our team with an engineering background (with plenty of water experience) who had traveled extensively and always seemed to have a few thoughts to contribute. And then, there was me, trying to help out wherever I could, but pulled away more often than I wanted for other work. I was definitely lucky to be part of such a strong team.
We spent a lot of time going back and forth about how centralized or decentralized the business model should be. We also dissected the technology to see if we could offer improvements. It was surprising how intense the debate was, since we were all looking at how to minimize environmental impact, and came to such different conclusions. But ultimately, as we debated, we made good progress toward improving the project and put together some strong proposals for moving forward. It was only unfortunate that our Kenyan teammate wasn't there, since we lacked his insights, and made it harder to ensure that the plans would be implemented.
Organizational Work
My role at the summit is titled "partinizer"--that is, participating organizer. So, while I'm working with a team, I'm still part of the organizing committee. When we originally were envisioning the role back in 2008 (there were issues then, since some teams had several organizers, while others had none, and there was minimal structure to the process), I was pushing for a big part of the role to consist of documentation, since I considered it a great tragedy that so much of the work was not recorded, which made it difficult to achieve further dissemination for several of the projects. However, seeing as this was a dissemination themed event, the role was much less about that. The partinizers helped to keep the faculty and mentors aware of how teams were progressing and to make resources available to the teams. Basically, they try to make sure that communication channels are working effectively.
So, as an organizer, I devoted a good bit of time to the evaluations committee. I am very interested in team dynamics, so I took the work very seriously. Of course, one of my main jobs was to keep the evaluations as short and infrequent as possible. I also made sure to read every single evaluation and try to synthesize the feedback for the organizing committee. One of my favorite parts of the summit is that they work to turn on a dime and improve wherever they can. I'm not exactly an impartial judge of this, but I feel as though we do a pretty good job of it.
There are plenty of other organizing tasks that we all take our part working on. Sometimes, there's late night shopping trips. Other times, it is helping people call Bangladesh or Ethiopia or Zambia or anywhere else. And I got to greet everyone as they arrived at the airport (19 hours was a pretty long day, but worth it). There were plenty of other small tasks, and then I had some work on organizing events.
One big event was the Unreasonable Institute-IDDS picnic. Everyone was traveling from Boulder to San Francisco, so they stopped by Ft. Collins on the way for a bit of mingling. It was only a three-hour event, but we tried to pack as much as we could into the time. There was soccer, frisbee and cricket; events related to each of the IDDS teams and networking. I ran around trying to introduce people who I thought would have things to talk about. Unfortunately, a few people from Unreasonable were pretty drained preparing for their trip to San Francisco (and wanted to brace themselves for the 25 hour bus ride), but most people seemed to have a good time and really got into the activities.
The People
I really like the people at IDDS every year. I feel the most like myself when I'm around them. The organizing team is a really phenomenal and hard-working group and really inspires me. The faculty always had some input and were incredibly generous with their time (and they're wonderful people). The organizers definitely subscribe to the "work hard, play hard" philosophy, which keeps us pretty busy over the month. The organizers come from all over the world and are mostly in their early to mid 20s, though the majority are still Americans.
The best part though is the participants. They come from all over the world and diverse backgrounds. There was a Brazilian who offers all sorts of art lessons in her spare time, a couple of Nepalis who were always extolling the virtues of bamboo, a Rwandan who was always around at 2 AM when most other people had gone to sleep and people from everywhere in between (oh, and my friend Jackie was there, and a few other people from my past). I tried to learn some of the languages there, so I picked up a couple words of Portuguese, Bengali, Nyanja (one of the main Zambian languages), some rather vulgar Hindi (one friend taught me some good insults, for those situations where you have to offend people), and I got to brush up on my French, Spanish and Kiswahili.
Having Fun
There were tons of impromptu dance parties, which was facilitated by one participant who had brought a portable solar-powered boombox. (We also used the boombox for some music at the early morning soccer and frisbee matches.) Some included salsa lessons, while others included all sorts of African or South Asian or Latin music, while others featured the best (or worst) of American music (such as the Funky Chicken) including a night at a Southwestern line dancing club where IDDS mostly took over the dance floor. Regardless of age, everyone came out on the dance floor and showed off their style.
There was an hour long hike around a nearby park, which was a logistical nightmare in terms of carpooling, but had some really gorgeous scenery. We also had a nice day hike around Rocky Mountain National Park, which was a bit easier, since we just rented out a whole bus. The bus ride was all about games and cultural exchanges. We took a chilly swim in one of the mountain lakes, which was measured at 51 degrees. Most people jumped out quickly, but one by one, about a quarter of the group swam across and sat on a rock to thaw out a bit. A few people might have gotten some mild hypothermia. But most people listed it as one of their favorite events during the summit.
Everyone got really excited about the World Cup final. We had a good balance of Spain fans and Netherlands fans (I was cheering for the Orange, which made it a sad day). We were pretty passionate on both sides, and I was a bit more sympathetic to the Dutch style of play (several of the fouls seemed like the Spaniards were going out of their way to get fouled). It doesn't even matter who wins, it's just nice to watch with friends who are excited about soccer.
One of the most popular annual events is the pot-luck dinner, where we all cook foods to represent our cultures. It was nice to cook, since I hadn't really done so in ages. I worked with Jackie and Becca (Becca is another MIT student who I met in Tanzania when I visited in December 2009) to make North American-East African fusion cuisine. (a.k.a. chapati burritos!) We had a lot of fun cooking together and made a ton of food. When we arrived, we saw amazing foods from every corner of the world. And in spite of the rule that we don't touch the food until everyone has finished cooking and is present, we all snuck a bit of the mango lassi (there was a certain country that was a bit late to the party, and they had enjoyed plenty of refreshments, so we didn't feel guilty). The event was a glorious party (at one point, I was teaching a Haitian how to make S'mores as she helped me practice my French). And of course, after eating, the event turned into a giant dance party.
Even the organizer meetings are fun. Somehow the conversation tends to wander and the non-sequiturs are amusing. It was always hard to find time for them, but people always looke forward to them.
Struggles
The staff at CSU were very accommodating considering the craziness of some of our requests. However, most of us are used to how things run at MIT, so we were shocked by aspects such as the fact that the labs were locked in the evenings and the dining hall closed at 6:30 PM until 7 AM (a lot of the people at IDDS are night-owls, so this took some adjusting), which led to several of us just missing lots of meals. Also, we didn't realize until we arrived that it was a dry campus, so some people were a bit cranky about that. I was also dismayed by how well they watered the sidewalks at CSU--inevitably, their sprinkler systems seemed to be missing the grass. We also had to learn a decent bit of the campus in order to avoid getting lost between the dorm, dining hall, classroom, lab and workspaces. Everything was nice on campus, but it was also at times inconvenient (not to say that it's poorly organized for a four-year university, just noting that it was difficult for a 3.5 week conference). Also, the other groups on campus were overwhelming at times (not to say that we didn't bring our on brand of campus).
I also felt the burden of how expensive things are in the states. I missed how cheap it was to go out with friends in Tanzania and Kenya, and tried to save my money as best I could. Fortunately, most of the people there are on a shoestring budget anyway, so I had plenty of company, but in some ways, I couldn't help feeling like I was missing a big part of the experience.
However, the biggest challenge, by far, was the workload. I was trying to keep up with everything at Unreasonable Institute (I made the 1.5 hour drive back to Boulder once so that Amy Smith could give a presentation there, which was pretty popular with everyone at Unreasonable), and bugging all the other fellows for updates. I even flew out to San Francisco for a pitch-fest (the trip that they were all on the bus for during the picnic), which wound up being incredibly hectic, and unfortunately, the event did not really lead to any worthwhile connections (though it was nice to see some college friends and see California for the first time, even if it was for less than 24 hours). On top of that, I was still doing some work for GCS, which meant that I was only half-listening to some of the presentations as I tried to sort through all my emails and support Jodie. And I didn't want to let down my team or the organizing committee (in 2008, whenever they devised tasks at meetings, people's eyes would drift to me, waiting for me to volunteer--I couldn't keep that reputation this time around). So when it came time to figure out what to give up, the victim was usually sleep.
As the summit went on, the sleep deficit and caffeine dependence started to wear on me. I had to leave some sessions early because I knew I couldn't keep my eyes open. (The advantage to being that tired is that you can nap just about anywhere, no matter how uncomfortable.) And I could feel my brain running slowly on account of it. I knew that it was unhealthy, but I also knew that lots of people were counting on me, and I didn't want to let anyone down.
Thanks for reading this far
I have so many stories from July that I would love to tell, however, I think that this is plenty to digest. It really is a remarkable event and one of my favorite parts of the year. I'm already looking forward to IDDS 2011--I can't believe that it will be the 5th IDDS. I know that it has evolved considerably to reach its current stage and I'm really excited about the path that it will take moving forward.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Unreasonable Reflections
I spent my June at the Unreasonable Institute (the name comes from George Bernard Shaw's quotation, "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man [and woman]"--I heard this line more than a few dozen times this summer) representing Global Cycle Solutions. I have to say, the video team collected some remarkable footage, but as I successfully evaded the camera most of the Institute, I figure a few thoughts are overdue. (I liked the film crew plenty, I just didn't feel as natural with them around.)
The Format
The Institute was an incubator for 22 social enterprises. They selected 25 enterprises, but 3 of the fellows were unable to get visas to come to the United States (it's taking every ounce of restraint in my body to avoid posting my thoughts on visa policy). The Institute focused on bringing in mentors from all sorts of disciplines to help develop the ventures. On top of that, they left open time for us to work on our ventures (my favorite spot was in the library, where I could multi-task on the large, speedy iMacs).
CU-Boulder were wonderful hosts and the organizers managed to arrange for us to share a house (formerly a fraternity house), which was great for building community. There was a ping-pong table, a long row of tables in the dining room so we could eat meals as a big family, a volleyball court out front, a nice deck out back and a fantastic lounge that was filled with couches and bean bags and could accommodate all of us plus a few guests. All the spaces got plenty of use.
The Mentors
There were some outstanding mentors who came and visited. Some gave formal lectures, while others preferred to have intimate discussions with the whole group in the bean bag room and nearly all of them agreed to have one-on-one sessions with as many ventures as possible. I'll just mention a few of my favorite mentors below (don't worry, there are other favorites not listed).
Paul Polak - I knew Paul a bit from D-Lab at MIT, but it's always nice talking to him again. He founded IDE and is now working to open a water company called Windhorse International. He has traveled extensively and has very strong opinions about development. Even though few people agree with everything he says, he usually asks the right questions about the direction of a venture and can really push people. He led one of the most interesting group discussions over the whole summer and in spite of the fact that he was addressing individual ventures, he seemed to be offering advice that helped everyone.
David Kyle - He is now at the Indian School Finance Company, but he was previously the COO at Acumen and spent a long time in Brazil and other developing countries with CitiBank. My first interaction with him was rather embarrassing. He was due to present, and we all took turns doing introductions, but I was asked by a staff member to introduce him five minutes before he was due to start. The interview was very rushed and I felt like I made a poor impression (he had a fantastically long resume, and thirty minutes, would have been difficult to do him justice). However, after his session, we talked at length about business and he seemed really on board with GCS and we got along really well. We had a series of discussions about the company and he offered a lot of helpful advice. He had some great insights and I will definitely be keeping in touch with him moving forward.
Revi Sterling - She runs the ICT4D (information and communication technologies for development) program at CU-Boulder. She had done lots of fieldwork (that was a refreshing contrast from the majority of mentors who had scarcely worked in developing countries, or if they had, stayed mostly in the affluent parts of the big cities) and the bulk of her experience was in Kenya and India (like me). She was very frank and worried about many harmful projects done in the name of development and always seemed to know what she was talking about when she spoke. I think that her attitude rubbed a few people the wrong way, but I really appreciated her wisdom and insights.
Elnor Rozenrot - He has done extensive work in product development and was most recently at Innosight Ventures. He condensed some pretty heavy content into two wonderful sessions. He was basically teaching us how to frame the questions as we work on our designs and made a powerful impact with his brilliance. He didn't have enough time for one-on-ones with everyone, so I approached him while he was outside on a break and discussed GCS a bit. He had the same advice as Paul Polak, and between the two of them, they really got me thinking in a new direction about important questions.
Neal Baer - He was previously an Executive Producer on ER and then on Law & Order: SVU. I confess that I was initially planning to skip his session to get some work done. However, I met him the evening before and had a wonderfully engaging conversation with him, and made sure that I didn't miss a minute of what he had to say. He was talking a lot about how to tell a compelling story without making circumstances melodramatic. He has traveled extensively and has a long list of connections. Before he left, I had several long conversations with him, ranging from the pros and cons of micro-finance to the hazards of UNESCO offering a prize in the name of a notorious dictator (one of the other fellows raised this cause as a social justice issue and Neal replied the next day that he had it on good authority from an important UN official that the prize would be cancelled) to working in eastern Africa. I really enjoyed my conversations with him.
There were also some rather disappointing mentors and entirely too few mentors with real experience in development. One of them seemed to think that he was doing impressive work by helping poor people who lived around the US Embassy in a certain impoverished country and couldn't answer even basic technical questions about his work. Another person showed off pictures of her smiling next to destitute children and made a string of outlandish claims about the costs of various philanthropic interventions. And another mentor seemed to have nothing interesting to say, but loved to hear himself talk and constantly interrupted mentors giving useful sessions with trivial or asinine thoughts. There were other unfortunate mentors, but these were the most egregious. I was grateful, however, that all mentors (good and bad) allowed us to ask questions and really challenge them on their arguments.
The Fellows
There were some pretty incredible people at the Institute. Nnaemeka works on rural radio programs in Nigeria and had a huge booming voice and a gloriously friendly way about him. Khalida works in rural Pakistan on social justice and made every effort to learn about all the cultures present and teach about hers. Rafael came from Indiana and was working on relief shelters, but more than that, he seemed to work 24/7 and had awe-inspiring humility (and he was one of my wonderful roommates). Pierre from France (working to make sports accessible to disabled individuals in Africa), Fernando from Brazil (working with blind people in Brazil), and Jehan and Simon from Australia (working on sanitation) brought our daily dose of humor and then some and made the house a really fun place to be. Cesar (another wonderful roommate) originally came from Peru (though he's lived in the US for some time now) and was working on housing was so thoughtful and really easy to talk to. Trina was working with trafficked women in India and was always around for a conversation. Jason and Tim from the US were working on bio-charcoal (so obviously, I instantly loved their project) and seemed really on the ball with their work. Zehra from Pakistan (and a fellow MIT alum) was working on using local materials for insulation and was always cheerful and positive, which raised everyone's spirits (and she made me lots of ginger tea when I was sick). Maria from the US had a wonderfully big heart and was so committed to her work on finding employment for street kids in Kenyan slums (we had plenty to discuss). Guido from Venezuela was working on a diagnostic tool for neglected tropical diseases and had an inspiring way about him. Ben also came from the US and was working on linking micro-finance to mobile phones to reach people in Sierra Leone and was just an all-around great guy. Tej from the UK was a constant source of entertainment and also a fountain of knowledge about finances. And Ullas and Anuroop from India, working on educational tools brought such depth and perspective to the program and seemed to be doing great things everyday.
I could certainly say wonderful things about all the fellows, but I worry that I'm starting to ramble, so I'll move on.
Socializing
My favorite social moments were watching the World Cup with different people. I think I offended several Americans by wearing my Ghana shirt (I bought it when I was in Accra in 2008) as we sat down to watch the Ghana-USA match (and cheering at the outcome). I also went on a few diatribes about the Uruguay-Ghana game (long story short, that shouldn't have been a penalty kick in the 121st minute; it needs to be an automatic goal, otherwise the incentives are in the wrong place). There were lots of ups and downs throughout the tournament, but all in all, it was definitely a good shared experience.
There were also regular trips to bars, hookah bars and salsa clubs. I went about half the time, but some people managed to find time to go out most nights. I certainly felt my wallet getting lighter pretty quickly. Still, it was nice to go out and talk with the fellows and staff, and sometimes the mentors would come out and we got to see a different side of them.
Volleyball was my favorite part, though. We usually forgot the score pretty quickly and just played for fun. We liked to shout things across the court in a variety of languages (usually meaningless strings of words) and we played most days (including a few games out in the rain). I was disappointed that we only mustered one frisbee game (there was a game of catch where I got to climb onto the roof after throwing the frisbee up there).
Struggles
In some ways, the Institute was difficult because there were so many ventures working on different projects in different parts of the world facing different challenges. Many of the sessions were great for about half the group and were discussing concerns that were either irrelevant, or too far in the future or past to worry about. The staff had rules that we weren't allowed to have our computers open during the sessions (that was rather detrimental to me, since I work better with my computer in front of me), and told us that they would prefer us to leave sessions if they were not useful rather than use our computers (there were a good number of mandatory sessions). Ultimately I successfully lobbied to appoint a person to be secretary for each session so that we could have some typed-up notes after the fact. Still, I hope that for the future, the staff will bring together a more coherent group of ventures so that it's easier to bring in universally relevant mentors.
I made composting a personal crusade. I did research and phone calls and found out where it needed to go on campus, I set out a separate bin for vegetable waste (we generated lots every day, since it was usually food for 30 and there were several vegetarians), and I tried to rally support among the other residents. Most people were indifferent, but some people made it clear that they felt hassled by this. Guido was wonderful and helped me drag a full bin across campus (I had gotten some bad directions and it wound up being a long trip, but it was a good chance to get to know a really great guy) to the recycling center where they process compost. And then, at the end of June, Guido and I both got a nasty virus and weren't really up for dealing with it at the time. The solution was to throw the compost in the trash and say that there would be no more composting. Now, I'm sure that I was really adorable with my sniffles and weary disposition, but the person who was informing me of this decision was laughing and condescending and really succeeded at making me feel miserable.
***(THIS PARAGRAPH ADDED ON OCTOBER 9) There was a rather embarrassing episode with the mailing lists for the Institute. They created three lists and told us that one was just the UI staff, one was just the UI Fellows, and one was the combination of the two. A week later, as some fellows decided to plan a surprise party for one of the non-administrative UI staff members, they used list number 2 (fellows only) to discuss plans. It was rather disconcerting to learn that the staff member was in fact part of the email list. As was the entire administrative team. The exact description of the list was "only fellows will receive the e-mail". I'm glad that this information came out in a harmless situation, but I know some people would have used this list as a forum for privately raising issues that they didn't want to share with the administrative staff. This administrative opacity arose again with the discussion of selecting fellows to be featured by the TV crew, and I was glad to be gone when that fracas was going on.
There was a heavy atmosphere of self-congratulation. A lot of people seemed to be patting themselves on the back. Of course, there were some pretty remarkable accomplishments and I was really impressed by what some people pulled off. But, I always feel like I should be working harder and doing more, so the whole process left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm totally on board with encouraging people going through a rough patch, but I got tired of the celebration of tiny victories pretty quickly.
Also, we were planning to split the time at the Unreasonable Institute between Jodie and myself. There are a lot of aspects of the company where I'm not really the best person to take the lead. However, things became super-busy in Tanzania (that was definitely great for the company), so I tried to ask the questions that I had and come up with questions that Jodie would ask if she were around. There were times when I found myself in a bit over my head. But Jodie and I were sending a few emails back and forth most days, so at least I knew what was happening on the ground and she knew what was going on in Colorado.
And of course, when you get a bunch of 20-somethings together, there's bound to be drama. I tried to steer clear, but found myself pulled in a few times. There were difficult romances and frictions between cultures and other random tensions. Fortunately, most people were pretty laid back about everything and most things worked themselves out in the end.
Thanks for reading this far
The Institute had its ups and downs, but it was definitely a memorable experience at the Unreasonable Institute. They brought together some remarkable people and provided some great resources for GCS. The $6500 price-tag (well, it's a little more complicated than that) seemed a bit high for the program, but they did fly in a lot of people. And I appreciate the fact that they listened to all my feedback (and I had a lot) and seemed grateful for everyone's opinions. It will be very interesting to hear how the second institute turns out.
The Format
The Institute was an incubator for 22 social enterprises. They selected 25 enterprises, but 3 of the fellows were unable to get visas to come to the United States (it's taking every ounce of restraint in my body to avoid posting my thoughts on visa policy). The Institute focused on bringing in mentors from all sorts of disciplines to help develop the ventures. On top of that, they left open time for us to work on our ventures (my favorite spot was in the library, where I could multi-task on the large, speedy iMacs).
CU-Boulder were wonderful hosts and the organizers managed to arrange for us to share a house (formerly a fraternity house), which was great for building community. There was a ping-pong table, a long row of tables in the dining room so we could eat meals as a big family, a volleyball court out front, a nice deck out back and a fantastic lounge that was filled with couches and bean bags and could accommodate all of us plus a few guests. All the spaces got plenty of use.
The Mentors
There were some outstanding mentors who came and visited. Some gave formal lectures, while others preferred to have intimate discussions with the whole group in the bean bag room and nearly all of them agreed to have one-on-one sessions with as many ventures as possible. I'll just mention a few of my favorite mentors below (don't worry, there are other favorites not listed).
Paul Polak - I knew Paul a bit from D-Lab at MIT, but it's always nice talking to him again. He founded IDE and is now working to open a water company called Windhorse International. He has traveled extensively and has very strong opinions about development. Even though few people agree with everything he says, he usually asks the right questions about the direction of a venture and can really push people. He led one of the most interesting group discussions over the whole summer and in spite of the fact that he was addressing individual ventures, he seemed to be offering advice that helped everyone.
David Kyle - He is now at the Indian School Finance Company, but he was previously the COO at Acumen and spent a long time in Brazil and other developing countries with CitiBank. My first interaction with him was rather embarrassing. He was due to present, and we all took turns doing introductions, but I was asked by a staff member to introduce him five minutes before he was due to start. The interview was very rushed and I felt like I made a poor impression (he had a fantastically long resume, and thirty minutes, would have been difficult to do him justice). However, after his session, we talked at length about business and he seemed really on board with GCS and we got along really well. We had a series of discussions about the company and he offered a lot of helpful advice. He had some great insights and I will definitely be keeping in touch with him moving forward.
Revi Sterling - She runs the ICT4D (information and communication technologies for development) program at CU-Boulder. She had done lots of fieldwork (that was a refreshing contrast from the majority of mentors who had scarcely worked in developing countries, or if they had, stayed mostly in the affluent parts of the big cities) and the bulk of her experience was in Kenya and India (like me). She was very frank and worried about many harmful projects done in the name of development and always seemed to know what she was talking about when she spoke. I think that her attitude rubbed a few people the wrong way, but I really appreciated her wisdom and insights.
Elnor Rozenrot - He has done extensive work in product development and was most recently at Innosight Ventures. He condensed some pretty heavy content into two wonderful sessions. He was basically teaching us how to frame the questions as we work on our designs and made a powerful impact with his brilliance. He didn't have enough time for one-on-ones with everyone, so I approached him while he was outside on a break and discussed GCS a bit. He had the same advice as Paul Polak, and between the two of them, they really got me thinking in a new direction about important questions.
Neal Baer - He was previously an Executive Producer on ER and then on Law & Order: SVU. I confess that I was initially planning to skip his session to get some work done. However, I met him the evening before and had a wonderfully engaging conversation with him, and made sure that I didn't miss a minute of what he had to say. He was talking a lot about how to tell a compelling story without making circumstances melodramatic. He has traveled extensively and has a long list of connections. Before he left, I had several long conversations with him, ranging from the pros and cons of micro-finance to the hazards of UNESCO offering a prize in the name of a notorious dictator (one of the other fellows raised this cause as a social justice issue and Neal replied the next day that he had it on good authority from an important UN official that the prize would be cancelled) to working in eastern Africa. I really enjoyed my conversations with him.
There were also some rather disappointing mentors and entirely too few mentors with real experience in development. One of them seemed to think that he was doing impressive work by helping poor people who lived around the US Embassy in a certain impoverished country and couldn't answer even basic technical questions about his work. Another person showed off pictures of her smiling next to destitute children and made a string of outlandish claims about the costs of various philanthropic interventions. And another mentor seemed to have nothing interesting to say, but loved to hear himself talk and constantly interrupted mentors giving useful sessions with trivial or asinine thoughts. There were other unfortunate mentors, but these were the most egregious. I was grateful, however, that all mentors (good and bad) allowed us to ask questions and really challenge them on their arguments.
The Fellows
There were some pretty incredible people at the Institute. Nnaemeka works on rural radio programs in Nigeria and had a huge booming voice and a gloriously friendly way about him. Khalida works in rural Pakistan on social justice and made every effort to learn about all the cultures present and teach about hers. Rafael came from Indiana and was working on relief shelters, but more than that, he seemed to work 24/7 and had awe-inspiring humility (and he was one of my wonderful roommates). Pierre from France (working to make sports accessible to disabled individuals in Africa), Fernando from Brazil (working with blind people in Brazil), and Jehan and Simon from Australia (working on sanitation) brought our daily dose of humor and then some and made the house a really fun place to be. Cesar (another wonderful roommate) originally came from Peru (though he's lived in the US for some time now) and was working on housing was so thoughtful and really easy to talk to. Trina was working with trafficked women in India and was always around for a conversation. Jason and Tim from the US were working on bio-charcoal (so obviously, I instantly loved their project) and seemed really on the ball with their work. Zehra from Pakistan (and a fellow MIT alum) was working on using local materials for insulation and was always cheerful and positive, which raised everyone's spirits (and she made me lots of ginger tea when I was sick). Maria from the US had a wonderfully big heart and was so committed to her work on finding employment for street kids in Kenyan slums (we had plenty to discuss). Guido from Venezuela was working on a diagnostic tool for neglected tropical diseases and had an inspiring way about him. Ben also came from the US and was working on linking micro-finance to mobile phones to reach people in Sierra Leone and was just an all-around great guy. Tej from the UK was a constant source of entertainment and also a fountain of knowledge about finances. And Ullas and Anuroop from India, working on educational tools brought such depth and perspective to the program and seemed to be doing great things everyday.
I could certainly say wonderful things about all the fellows, but I worry that I'm starting to ramble, so I'll move on.
Socializing
My favorite social moments were watching the World Cup with different people. I think I offended several Americans by wearing my Ghana shirt (I bought it when I was in Accra in 2008) as we sat down to watch the Ghana-USA match (and cheering at the outcome). I also went on a few diatribes about the Uruguay-Ghana game (long story short, that shouldn't have been a penalty kick in the 121st minute; it needs to be an automatic goal, otherwise the incentives are in the wrong place). There were lots of ups and downs throughout the tournament, but all in all, it was definitely a good shared experience.
There were also regular trips to bars, hookah bars and salsa clubs. I went about half the time, but some people managed to find time to go out most nights. I certainly felt my wallet getting lighter pretty quickly. Still, it was nice to go out and talk with the fellows and staff, and sometimes the mentors would come out and we got to see a different side of them.
Volleyball was my favorite part, though. We usually forgot the score pretty quickly and just played for fun. We liked to shout things across the court in a variety of languages (usually meaningless strings of words) and we played most days (including a few games out in the rain). I was disappointed that we only mustered one frisbee game (there was a game of catch where I got to climb onto the roof after throwing the frisbee up there).
Struggles
In some ways, the Institute was difficult because there were so many ventures working on different projects in different parts of the world facing different challenges. Many of the sessions were great for about half the group and were discussing concerns that were either irrelevant, or too far in the future or past to worry about. The staff had rules that we weren't allowed to have our computers open during the sessions (that was rather detrimental to me, since I work better with my computer in front of me), and told us that they would prefer us to leave sessions if they were not useful rather than use our computers (there were a good number of mandatory sessions). Ultimately I successfully lobbied to appoint a person to be secretary for each session so that we could have some typed-up notes after the fact. Still, I hope that for the future, the staff will bring together a more coherent group of ventures so that it's easier to bring in universally relevant mentors.
I made composting a personal crusade. I did research and phone calls and found out where it needed to go on campus, I set out a separate bin for vegetable waste (we generated lots every day, since it was usually food for 30 and there were several vegetarians), and I tried to rally support among the other residents. Most people were indifferent, but some people made it clear that they felt hassled by this. Guido was wonderful and helped me drag a full bin across campus (I had gotten some bad directions and it wound up being a long trip, but it was a good chance to get to know a really great guy) to the recycling center where they process compost. And then, at the end of June, Guido and I both got a nasty virus and weren't really up for dealing with it at the time. The solution was to throw the compost in the trash and say that there would be no more composting. Now, I'm sure that I was really adorable with my sniffles and weary disposition, but the person who was informing me of this decision was laughing and condescending and really succeeded at making me feel miserable.
***(THIS PARAGRAPH ADDED ON OCTOBER 9) There was a rather embarrassing episode with the mailing lists for the Institute. They created three lists and told us that one was just the UI staff, one was just the UI Fellows, and one was the combination of the two. A week later, as some fellows decided to plan a surprise party for one of the non-administrative UI staff members, they used list number 2 (fellows only) to discuss plans. It was rather disconcerting to learn that the staff member was in fact part of the email list. As was the entire administrative team. The exact description of the list was "only fellows will receive the e-mail". I'm glad that this information came out in a harmless situation, but I know some people would have used this list as a forum for privately raising issues that they didn't want to share with the administrative staff. This administrative opacity arose again with the discussion of selecting fellows to be featured by the TV crew, and I was glad to be gone when that fracas was going on.
There was a heavy atmosphere of self-congratulation. A lot of people seemed to be patting themselves on the back. Of course, there were some pretty remarkable accomplishments and I was really impressed by what some people pulled off. But, I always feel like I should be working harder and doing more, so the whole process left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm totally on board with encouraging people going through a rough patch, but I got tired of the celebration of tiny victories pretty quickly.
Also, we were planning to split the time at the Unreasonable Institute between Jodie and myself. There are a lot of aspects of the company where I'm not really the best person to take the lead. However, things became super-busy in Tanzania (that was definitely great for the company), so I tried to ask the questions that I had and come up with questions that Jodie would ask if she were around. There were times when I found myself in a bit over my head. But Jodie and I were sending a few emails back and forth most days, so at least I knew what was happening on the ground and she knew what was going on in Colorado.
And of course, when you get a bunch of 20-somethings together, there's bound to be drama. I tried to steer clear, but found myself pulled in a few times. There were difficult romances and frictions between cultures and other random tensions. Fortunately, most people were pretty laid back about everything and most things worked themselves out in the end.
Thanks for reading this far
The Institute had its ups and downs, but it was definitely a memorable experience at the Unreasonable Institute. They brought together some remarkable people and provided some great resources for GCS. The $6500 price-tag (well, it's a little more complicated than that) seemed a bit high for the program, but they did fly in a lot of people. And I appreciate the fact that they listened to all my feedback (and I had a lot) and seemed grateful for everyone's opinions. It will be very interesting to hear how the second institute turns out.
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