My first step

Wendy, Dafna, Kelly and I met online on Skype on October 14. We started with a brief round of introductions and talked about why we engage with World Pulse. I got to share a little about my journey with World Pulse, starting off in 2011 as a UN Online Volunteer who was looking to write and read and learn, and how that still continues. Wendy, Dafna and Kelly each talked about how this is their first official time they’re engaging with World Pulse, and shared that they are looking forward to staying engaged with the program and the forum, and look at it as a way of paying forward with their skills.

We then talked a little bit about my project and the work that I’ve done so far. I took them through the intention that backed my project, and shared a little about how I was looking at a few countries at first, and then realized that the information glut and social burdens on access to information (i.e, cultural barriers, lack of financial resources or infrastructure). I also shared the results of my needs assessment and the surveys I did before taking the work up, and the rationale I had in mind for the situation of my project on an Ushahidi platform. Wendy was incredibly supportive and offered me a really cool insight on how I could consider looking at listing services with breadth (i.e, a wider network) and with depth (i.e., with a greater concentration in one / few spaces). This then helped me see how I’d like to approach the goal of networking for partners and collaborating to increase number of listings on the map. For now, we decided mutually that it would be great to start wider, and with time, go deeper. Wendy also talked about considering the One Love Foundation and their videos to go as a sister site with the existing website, and perhaps approach them to partner with them to use their videos on the app, to help survivors understand what they’re facing.

We then talked about my second goal of using the map to create a mobile app, and Dafna had a really interesting tip to share with respect to validating a survivor’s need to approach a provider on the list. She suggested that we could think of putting up prompts on the map that could help a survivor make a decision – for instance, if she visited the app a couple of times to check it out, the app could throw up a prompt to the effect of “You’ve visited the app three times so far, why don’t you reach out for help?” and such. Kelly and Dafna also talked about ways to integrate more organizations in the future with a bit of a push-button-to-rescue option that we could then weave into the app.

So here’s where I am: The Perfect Place. To me, the advice and the help Wendy, Dafna and Kelly offered have been extremely validating and encouraging of the dream I approached them with. It is so beautiful to sit in your room and feel the astounding sense of power overwhelm you. Here I am, with this one-woman-one-laptop system in place and a big, hairy, audacious dream that I did hope would come to fruition. And here are these three amazing women, and a whole platform that believes in my dream, validates it with the Impact Leader Program, and leaves me feeling so empowered, so profoundly inspired. What more can I ask for?