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  • Tiffany von Emmel 5:10 am on June 1, 2011 Permalink  

    Swim Swim Self! 

    “If you were a grown up right now, what would you do?” Charlie Seashore

    photo by Sietske van Poelgeest

     

    The core tool of a network organization is not software. It is the Use of Self. A network of individuals working together requires that each of us acts as an agent of interrelatedness. Use of Self is actively practicing empathy with our relations, exercising awareness of our own assumptions and behavior in an interconnected world, and then making conscious choices in relationship.  (For more on Awareness and Choice, get to Edie Seashore’s workshop notes)

    Using a metaphor of a vital network in our lives, an ocean, when you see plastic bits of trash in your ocean, what do you do? do you empathize with the ocean creatures as part of yourself?  do you organize a Swim Fundraiser? stop using plastic bags from the store? make art with plastic trash? Create public policy about plastic? Share a link? Do you build a trash picking tool? What is your Use of Self?

    Network organizations work similarly. In a network, there is no boss or parent to tell us what to do. A network is not an institutional organization or family, where it is easy to regress into a passive state. A network can enable life to be richer for each individual. But, if we all expect someone else to be the one, to fix stuff, to pay for what we each use, then we end up with the Tragedy of the Commons. Our commons starts to look like a dump.

    In a network, what you get reflects what you put in. And, what you get also reflects what others put in. For example, Dreamfish Co-operative is a network of individuals working on a common dream to work like humans to realize our dreams. Out of thousands connecting to this vision, a few people are caring for the whole network: 5% of us are contributing time, energy and creativity to the whole network. When it comes to paying for the co-op infrastructure, out of pledged members, 1% of us pay for 90% of our costs. Only 15% of us have purchased our membership and 85% have not yet paid their share. Who gets the most out of the network? Yep, the 5% who contribute the most are the ones who report transformative learning, increased income and professional growth. But, we could do so much more if all of us exercised our Use of Self.

    Part of the reason that the network stats look like this is that I needed to shift my use of self as a leader. To remember that in this school of fish, I do not need to swim alone. So, I am reaching out to you and asking you to swim with me.

    My appeal is especially directed to you who swim in Dreamfish and networks supporting human development. Imagine shifting from a network of followers to a network of leaders. Imagine if 100% of us contributed a small bit of our time, money, energy and creativity to a network to build the support system that we each need. Imagine if each of us was responsible for building capacity that could support our individual work. Folks organizing local events. Senior consultants mentoring women and youth entrepreneurs in rural villages. Folks teaching online workshops. Developers building tools that help us connect. We hire each other. We volunteer to help do something that is easy for us, but may be hard for another. Imagine the value that would be liberated, the impact we could make!

    photo by Sietske van Poelgeest

    Here’s one way that small efforts make a big difference.  Please join me in launching a campaign for the opening of Dreamfish Place Nairobi, a place to physically and financially support the Dreamfish Cooperative’s mission to work like humans to realize our dreams. Your swimming means a lot to the network.  And, your swimming means a lot to me. Swim over here: http://www.indiegogo.com/Dreamfish-Nairobi

    Swim swim Self!

     

    • Suzy Gamblin 8:48 am on June 1, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Tiff,
      You are amazing! I wish much success for you and your endeavors. The world needs you and you are helping to create more good in the world. You’re an angel. Swim! Swim!!!
      XXXX I love ya!
      Suzy
      (cousin)

  • Tiffany von Emmel 12:57 pm on December 31, 2010 Permalink  

    Building community with Tech Entrepreneurs in Nairobi 

    In past weeks, I’ve had the honor of working at the iHub as a guest. Founded by Ushahidi folks, iHub is a technology innovation coworking community in Nairobi.

    iHub fuels innovation by enabling a community of coworkers and providing coworking space and reliable internet to a bevy of creative smart technologists. As Tosh, iHub community manager, can tell you, I came with a bit of skepticism about the three tier iHub membership model, the design to filter the flood of applications for membership.  I wondered whether “community”, a messy peer-to-peer thing, could form well with a centralized organization that filters access to resources. But, Tosh was kind enough to give me a guest pass anyway ;-) .

    The proof is in the experience, sawa, sawa…

    Messy Serendipity
    My first day at iHub, surprise. As I am sipping an excellent cup of cappucino, made by Pete, iHub Barrista, here comes the first sign of serendipity. Beth Kanter, a colleague from California, arrives to give a presentation on her terrific book on social media, The Networked Nonprofit, co-authored with Allison Fine. Beth and I had been virtually waving with the intent to get together while in Kenya, after Nancy White had connectively nudged us. And here, she arrives on the doorstep. This led to our fun outing of classic Nairobi experiences with orphan elephants and kissing giraffes the next day.

    Leaders as connectors is an excellent sign of community.
    Relational practices as work are typically not perceived as work and are “disappeared” in engineering organizations that values monetary transactions more than relationships. So, I notice well when I see leaders that do the work of relationship-building. Erik Hersman, co-founder of iHub, exercised some relational skills on multiple levels. At a social level, socially constructing new narratives about African tech innovation , and at an interprersonal level, taking the time to explore with me what might align with my goals and connect me with Akirachix, a group of women technology entrepreneurs who work out of iHub. Over the weeks I was at iHub, I saw many similar acts of people weaving people together. Community leaders modeling relational practices makes a difference.

    Mutual value creation emerging

    So, I met up with dynamic tech entrepreneurs, Jamila Abass and Susaneve Oguya. They are both co-founders of Akirachix and M-Farm, the mobile application for rural farmers. Their mission is to empower women at the margins. Akirachix gives technology training to women in Kenya. They invited me to their next meeting of Akirachix. I offered to connect Akirachix with Dreamfisher Java developers in Silicon Valley that want to give free Java training to women.

    with Susaneve Oguya, Jamila Abass, and Shams Amin

    And, YOU are welcome to join our jam of mutual value production. Susaneve is coordinating technology trainings.  Jamila is starting up two new Dreamfish projects to empower rural women in North East Kenya — a coaching group for young women and an essential oils business startup. If you want to get involved, please do connect Susaneve and Jamila.

    Dancing networks

    Since at iHub, a number of iHub folks have joined Dreamfish. A big welcome to Jamila, Susaneve, Linda Kamau, PHP developer, James Muendo, community tech support,  Bernard Owuor, a C++ developer,  OD consultant Mel Mbugua, Huston Malande, WordPress developer, Ahmed Mohamed Maawy, and Evelien of Narobits.

    When a community fosters growth for its entrepreneurial members, networks dance with the networks. Dances of interactions between networks are not like tightly choreographed ballet but rather like improvisational dance-theater. There are too many unknowns for grand plans up front. Networks of networks are built with acts of  minimal structuring, frequent connection,  fearless experimentation, with constant tweaking to follow patterns of aliveness.

    While physically mostly in California celebrating New Years, I am at this moment grateful to also be community-building in Nairobi with tech entrepreneurs.  Thanks to networks of networks – iHub, Akirachix and Dreamfish.

     

    • Beth Kanter 1:33 pm on December 31, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks for sharing this post. Love it. Are you still in Africa?

      • Tiffany von Emmel 11:10 am on January 2, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        Hey Beth, thanks! I am in Santa Barbara, will be in SF Jan 15-30. Hoping we can get together then?

    • Malcolm Arnold 6:42 am on February 28, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Hello Tiffany,

      Thanks for your post. I am presenting on Ruby Nuby at IHUB this Wed, Mar 2, 2011. If the below is inappropriate please let me know. I am happy to edit. My email is below. Your article comes up as one of the top results for tech groups in Nairobi. We are trying to establish our tech do-good, socio-economic program there. We won a grant from British Airways to see about bring our program to Kenya/Uganda. This attracted an anonymous donor to give 500kg free shipping to both cities for a total of 1000kg. We will ship in computers and set up a training lab. Thanks so much.

      Malcolm Arnold
      Ruby Nuby, Founder

      Help Ruby Nuby and Agile Activism set up our community based tech and entrepreneurial training in Nairobi where we will train the next generation developers and fund companies they and you may start

      Please RSVP at this link, Location is IHUB:
      http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1370620563

      Please feel free to cross post to other lists and please invite leaders in: Education, Technology, Business, Philanthropy, NGO’s and Community Activism.

      Ruby Nuby has won a grant from British Airways to see about bringing our program to Nairobi. Come learn about Ruby Nuby and how we plan to:

      * Create an environment that allows all to to succeed in a collaborative, cooperative manner.
      * Train the next generation of web developers and tech entrepreneurs in Nairobi,
      * Train disadvantaged and at-risk youths and fund their training
      * Fund startup companies and attract additional funding for your companies.
      * Economically develop the arts.
      * Change the educational system from a pay forward model where one incurs debt without a guarantee of a job to a payback model where one collaborates with and contributes to a community and is placed in a career.
      * Empower women to succeed in technology and create incentives for men to help women do so.

      A 25-minute presentation Ruby Nuby and it’s non-profit arm, Agile Activism, followed by a Question and Answer session. Afterwards, we will brainstorm on how we can best take advantage of the 500kg of sponsored shipping to Nairobi from New York that we have obtained. We will use this sponsorship to import the computer gear necessary to set up our program. We just need the community support to make it happen. By using VolunTourism, we will attract the world’s best developers and business leaders to come guest teach/lecture in Nairobi and then they will go on Safari which will economically develop the region’s tourism industry.

      The mission of Ruby Nuby is to provide an environment that facilitates immersive learning by a Community of Contributors(TM) who contribute, learn and succeed by collaborating, cooperating and supporting each other. We work to promote a path to success where equal access, social justice, equability, diversity and sustainability are embraced.

      I have 2 very recently released Ruby on Rails books and a new netbook that will be Ruby Nuby Nairobi Community owned to start a Ruby Nuby/Ruby on Rails/Tech study group here in Nairobi.

      Map to IHUB:

      http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=100420412648987917911.00047def651452cf80a23&ll=-1.296147,36.794243&spn=0.012871,0.021415&z=15&source=embed

      Thank you:)
      If you have questions, please email Malcolm Arnold at MalcolmArnoldNYC at gmail.com

  • Tiffany von Emmel 11:57 pm on November 19, 2010 Permalink
    Tags: , , kenya, nairobi   

    Networks offer ways to move in new worlds 


    A Way In

    Deepening networks

    It was my first time going to Nairobi, Kenya.  Going to support the growth of local Dreamfish community, I wanted to stay with local residents instead of a hotel, so that I would connect more deeply with people and the city and keep on a frugal budget. So, I drafted a plan and asked my network of friends and colleagues with relationships in Nairobi.  In this way, I met wonderful people with interest in development and entrepreneurship.  Kate McAlpine, Dreamfish Fellow, who launched the 50% Campaign in Tanzania introduced me to Stefan and Esther van der Swaluw. Stefan is a director of the African Children’s Policy Forum. Esther teaches at a Dutch pre-school in Nairobi. I am now staying with them, their three children, and bevy of guinea pigs, monkeys, tortoises, dog and cat. (Tiwi, the cat, is on my lap at the moment.)

    Esther with students at Nairobi Dutch School

    A friend from the U.N. introduced me to Joseph Gichore Kamau who has a taxi business. Joseph got me home late last night from Nairobi city centre.  Nancy White introduced me to CGIAR Gender and Diversity, an excellent resource. Peter Kaminski connected me with Erik Hersman of Ushahidi who just started up Nairobi iHub, a super cool coworking center for technology entrepreneurs, where I am now coworking (While at iHub, I ran into Beth Kanter, a friend from California who heard from Nancy that I was here, but that is another day’s story!).  Lush green landscape, well-paved roads, with over a dozen shopping malls, home to an affluent international community of Kenyan, European, Asian NGO and embassy workers. This is the West side of Nairobi.

    Engaging a personal network, the network can share a bounty of learning, allowing a deepening of connections to domain areas more familiar.  Now, what can a new network offer? A network where you don’t know anyone? Another side of town! Things that you want to experience but your personal network may not have easy access to….

    To serve African Dreamfish members, I wanted to engage local youth entrepreneurs who were seeking collaborative ways to work.  So, I reached out to a new network. I surfed Couchsurfing. Why? Because the Couchsurfing community shares attributes with the vision of Dreamfish community- millions of people helping each other to realize adventurous dreams. People freely offer a place to stay overnight to each other.

    And that is how I met Pauline Kimeu, a community connector who has a knack for network weaving.  Pauline hosted me in her home for the first two nights in Nairobi.  Pauline introduced me to the East side of town.

    Navigating a new network
    From Pauline, I learned how to navigate Nairobi, geographically and culturally.

    Taking a Matatu to work

    Pauline lives in a bustling suburban area under heavy construction, where apartment buildings built of grey cement blocks house workers that commute into the city centre.  On my first morning,  we took a Matatu into town. A Matatu is a converted van that packs 14 people. Standing on the muddy side of the road, we examined the many Matatus that came by. Pauline showed me how to look for a “good one” – Get the price up front (it varies between 20-50 shillings depending on demand and supply),  and look for one that has seats nearer the front, because sitting near the front was a smoother safer ride. Because of this education, I am now learning more Swahili, saving a bundle on taxi fares,  and seeing much more of Nairobi life.

    Network growing
    The Matatu dropped us off in Nairobi City Centre. Weaving throughout the crowded street, we went into a building up to an internet cafe, Tropical Communication Center, owned by a woman entrepreneur and friend of Pauline’s. (This then became the location for the first Nairobi Dreamfish meeting a week later.)

    While in town, we visited Right Choice Safaris and Tours, to book a shuttle for me to Tanzania the next day. While there, we made new friends. Above is Pauline taught George Oketch how to Dreamfish.

    Pauline and I then took a bus East out of the city to the country to visit her family, which has a farm, near the town of Tala. Landing in Tala, we then took a motorcycle-taxi the rest of the way. Yes, a motorcycle. We huddled behind the driver, the three of us sharing a seat, riding along a dirt road. We weaved among the life of the village, women carrying water, men with carts, bicyclists, trucks, and children waving at us. With the smack of bugs against my face in the wind, my mind admittedly went to the lecture of the Health and Immunization nurse in San Francisco about malaria and yellow fever. But, my heart was full with the joy of connecting to life.

    Meeting Pauline’s family was food for the soul. Gracious, generous, warm, they welcomed me in and I felt at home immediately. I learned about the work of Chapati making and dress-making.

    Pauline’s sister-in-law and i had an entrepreneurial huddle. She would like to create a sewing business, making dresses. We explored how she could create a support system to grow her business while at the same time care for her two children. We explored the challenges of caring for a family, living 100 miles outside of Nairobi, and ways that Dreamfish can help. Here are pictures from our glorious day.

    To riff on Gregory Bateson, a “network” is not the map that represents it. A network is the generosity of heart and the graceful will of each person, emerging as a powerful dance of change.

     

    • Sandy Heierbacher 4:42 pm on November 21, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      What a wonderful illustration of the power and possibility inherent in the work you do at Dreamfish, Tiffany! I enjoyed reading this, and seeing the pictures from your trip, as Kenya is dear to my heart.

  • Tiffany von Emmel 12:30 pm on January 3, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: , , , , ,   

    We go, girrls…to network 

    It’s time for She’s Geeky, the technology conference for women, started by girlfriend, Kaliya Hamlin. I want to encourage women who may wonder whether they fit in or not, but are interested, to go to this conference, or to reach out. You are not alone…

    On my journey as a woman and social innovator, I have worked and lived at the edge – at the edge of ideas, fields and sectors. This experience of bridging and connecting is more familiar to women. And, in an open source software conference, or in an event for entrepreneurs, I am at the edge as one of the few women in the room. The upside is that I bring multiple value flows such as new knowledge and bridging capital to the table.

    Women are talking… Tara Hunt wrote a blog post about the future of work involving this pattern of bridge-crossing domains. I heartfully agree. The future of work is all about transforming the box into networks.

    The flipside for me, when working at the margins, is that it has been easy to delude myself that I am alone, or to wonder how all this bridging is of value. But, all it has taken is some use of self to reach out and get feedback on the worth of bridging capital and relational knowledge. To get a wake up call, all I have to do is to go hang with the Girrls at She’s Geeky.

    Can you relate? Come out on January 29-31st to Mountain View.

     

  • Tiffany von Emmel 3:59 pm on December 26, 2008 Permalink  

    Dreamfishmas Party 

    The day of prepping for our holiday party was intense. It was going to be a cold rainy night, and 50 people were coming. We were also preparing to go on a dreamfish retreat the next day. And then, the party emerged.

    As I looked around, I felt joy to be a part of such an amazing community of brilliant caring people. And, joy to be at this fabulous party, celebrating together, thanks to the creativity and energy of Paul Loper, Johannes Klose, Dietmar Brinkmann, and Marie-Anne Haour. As people came to the party, Marie-Anne gave each person a paper fish nametag to write two things we love on it. This design was to connect people with the love of one another. And, Dietmar handed out German Gluhwein and hot cider to keep us warm. I certainly felt touched and warmed.

    As people walked into the space, they entered a Treequarium, a dreamfish interactivist invention that Paul and Johannes created to turn inside-out the concept of ‘christmas tree’, to be a relational container rather than a vertical projection. Everyone at the party was given a paper fish, in which we wrote a wish for the new year, and then pinned the fish in the Treequarum.

    Being together at the holiday party, talking about what people love, sipping hot mulled wine, with pouring rain dramatically surrounding us, was a blast. I realized how much I value coming together to celebrate. Thank you so much to everyone who came out to the party! Here are a few pictures, that Johannes took.

     

  • Tiffany von Emmel 8:28 am on September 22, 2007 Permalink
    Tags: , , , , ,   

    Giddy Up! I’m going to She’s Geeky: Women’s Technology Un(conference) 

    Kaliya Hamlin is organizing an (un)conference for women in technology. I was giddy to get this invite.

    Because it addresses a personal growth need of mine. I have felt in wild territory, starting up Dreamfish as a new category in a mashup marketspace of Social Networking…. as we stitch together the divides between the contexts of professional in-person social networking, traditionally the expertise of organization development and applied behavioral sciences…. and online social network services, the area of technologists. This evolving integration of collaboration and social design services is exciting. Eugene Kim of Blue Oxen Associates has taken a lead in bringing process experts and developers together to think together about both creating space and tools of collaboration.

    As a woman into creative technologies of social networking, online and offline, I can't wait to be with hundreds of women in one room, networking to collaborate, learn and grow in the space o technology. That's a thrill. More women tend to work in our field of in-person facilitation services. Facilitation and networking is so relational, so fem. Women traditionally are the ones building connections and holding SPACE for the growth processes of systems. Yet, when with technologists, I am often in a room with hundreds of men, talking about the TOOLS of social networking. (That's a thrill, too.). Then, I am happy to see Kaliya there, whose passion is bringing people processes to IT. Here's a nugget from Kaliya's article on Face-to-Face Collaboration in O'Reilly Network , where she explains why narly IT problems need to be addressed by human processes..

    "such issues can't be solved by protocol alone; they must be solved in a web of human relationships and high quality process that fosters a culture of trust through growing mutual understanding, and shared meaning. If these issues are not addressed successfully and rapidly, I am fearful that we will lose the open network–and perhaps one of the most amazing transformative forces for good on the planet.

    You go girl! So, what will happen when hundreds of women hold space and tools?! Can't wait. Woopee!!

     

  • Tiffany von Emmel 4:54 am on March 29, 2007 Permalink
    Tags: ,   

    Network versus organization 

    Yesterday, I was talking with Kaliya Hamlin, the Identity Woman. We had both been at Nexus for Change and were debriefing. We were discussing the difference between networks and traditional organizations and how change methods developed for organizations don't necessarily apply to transforming social networks of individuals. Online community-builders and community organizers may be more familiar with influencing networks. But, organizational consultants are not generally trained to have a network mind.

    Networks can be decentralized, clustering, or centralized. Traditional organizations may seem to have a clear center of power and influence. Some organizations are organized more like decentralized network. Ori Brafman's Starfish and the Spider gives a great introduction to these artful things. Now, organizations also have social networks, which are usually not apparent at first glance, but they can be identified with Social Network Analysis. In decentralized networks, individuals are more loosely coupled. So, getting everyone into the same room for a visioning process is not doable, because who is everyone in the system, anyway? Identity is fuzzy and in flux.

    The way that I think about networks comes from my former life of being a Shiatsu therapist, using Chinese Medicine. Seeing the self as a network of energy meridians in a large ecosystem of meridians, I think similarly about social networks. The task of influencing change becomes one of tracking, attracting and dispersing energy to create vitality and dynamic balance. The use of self to influence becomes much more important in a decentralized network.

     

  • Tiffany von Emmel 2:02 am on March 9, 2007 Permalink
    Tags: , , , , , participatory   

    Nexus for Change 

    In a few weeks is the Nexus for Change conference, which is all about advancing participatory change methods. I am going to be there with flippers ready. This event promises to be a fertile one. Facilitators, community organizers, leaders, researchers will come together to explore how we facilitate positive change with participatory methods for groups, organizations and communties. Participatory in its design and content and offered at cost, it is more of an unconference. Dreamfish will be there. I hope to see you.

     

    Here's what the organizers say…

    "Our focus will be on leveraging the power of over 60 approaches being used to transform whole organizations and communities as they tackle 21st Century Challenges. These approaches are broadly referred to as large-group methods/interventions, whole system change, or large-scale change. What make them unique are two foundation assumptions: high involvement and a systemic approach to improvement. At this conference, we will be working side-by-side to:

    • Address critical needs at local and global levels,
    • Expand the reach of the methods around the world,
    • Design significant field research projects,
    • Invent new tools, techniques, and applications,
    • Incorporate technology to leverage existing methods,
    • Connect with others to form joint ventures,
    • Innovate educational programs and courses,
    • Craft a common language, and
    • Articulate a platform for this body of work.

    The NEXUS is an opportunity for us to transcend our individual contributions and achieve something bigger than we ever thought possible. We will not know what "bigger" is until we get together."

    $299 registration >

    Here are some of the people who will be there…

    Billie Alban, Emily & Dick Axelrod, Jean Bartunek, Peter Block, Juanita Brown, Barbara Bunker, Tom Devane, Susan Dupre, Merrelyn Emery, David Gershon, Peggy Holman, Cheryl Honey, David Isaacs, Jake Jacobs, Jim Rough, Sylvia James, Sandra Janoff, Stewart Levine, Harrison Owen, Gabriel Shirley, Nancy White, Marvin Weisbord, Diana Whitney, and many many more…

     

     

  • Tiffany von Emmel 4:48 am on February 22, 2007 Permalink
    Tags: , , ,   

    self organizing for the world 

    Idealist.org is a creative intersection for networking for good. Their open business model is inspiring and innovative. The site connects up people, projects and over 65,000 organizations worldwide that are making a difference. Here, you’ll find their powerful search tool.

    You can start up meetings for a better world somewhere in the world via Idealist. Currently, there is an initiative to create a global network, that you can help grow. In the last month, there have been 300 meetings in 70 countries. In March, there will be a second round of meetings. Check out this lively video clip of the meeting in New York:

    For information on Idealist.org’s initiative…

     

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