Showing posts with label Anna Hazare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anna Hazare. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Digital Sharing: How It Could Work

The ultimate step is to pass a bill in the national parliament. But the powers that be will not do it. Because the very idea of the bill is an admission that there is massive corruption in the country and it might go on a hyperdrive during the muddy waters of the relief and reconstruction work. This tragedy is not for the corrupt to get rich but for the needy to get help, to get back on their feet.

Step 1 would be for Vivekshil Nepali to keep expanding organically. They have to take the lead on making their work transparent. Keep the book keeping online, update in real time. Let the world see the money coming in and going out, to the last paisa. Use multimedia, photos and videos. Yes, you do have to advertise the work that you do. That is what makes fundraising possible. If you do a good job of "selling" the good work you are doing with 500 volunteers, people will donate so you can go on to 5,000 volunteers and beyond.

There is work that you do, and there is the scope of the disaster, and there is work that everyone else is doing. I believe there is a group that is updating a map in real time showing where the needs are, where the damage has been. That would be a good group to rope in.

Make a list of all organizations that are in the field working through publicly available data: governments, NGOs, INGOs.

Then agitate for a bill to be passed by the national parliament. Rope in Dr. KC, Nepal's Anna Hazare. You give an ultimatum. You go meet all the political leaders. You try to talk sense to them. If that lobbying does not work, if a public awareness campaign does not work, Dr. KC needs to go on a fast unto death to put pressure.

All this has to happen within weeks. The effort has to materialize before the monsoon hits.

What is the bill?

The bill does not take away powers or funds from any organization, government, NGO or INGO. All the bill does is create a volunteer corps of IT professionals who help bring about 100% online real time transparency to the entire relief and reconstruction effort. The transparency enhances effectiveness, clamps on possibilities of corruption, and makes possible fundraising. Inevitably some idiot will blow up some cafe somewhere and the global media will lose interest in Nepal. And media attention is what has brought in all the help and funds so far. You need media attention. So what do you do when mainstream media moves on? Because the work has to go for months and months. You use social media. The 100% online transparency effort will be designed to feed in pictures, video clips, infographics, and articles and blog posts about work that gets done. Everybody is on Facebook these days. If only the Nepali diaspora keeps sharing those pictures and videos, funds will keep coming in. Ordinary people will contribute. Remember, Facebook raised more money than the US government for Nepal. This effort will enhance the fundraising capacity of a-l-l participating organizations.

So there is a map of the need. And there is a map of where work is being done. We go down to the project level. Each project gets highlighted. If we do it right, we could get individuals across the world to adopt individual families. As in, here's $200 so you can buy some goats and start a new life. Because I know the money is going to you, I see your face.