Re: <amarc-1> Greetings: Bienvenidos: Bienvenue

["Jan Haverkamp" <jan.haverkamp@ecn.cz> (by way of Bram Dov Abramson <bram@tao.ca>)]

Ahoj!

> As each of the opening interventions reminds us, strategy is
> tricky. Rafael echoes the thoughts of many participants in the last
> phase of our discussion: how do we avoid "the risk of developing
> just a dialogue among initiated people"?
> 
> To begin with, then, I invite all subscribers to let us know where your
> thinking stands on this question, at this point in the discussion -- along
> with a short re-introduction of yourself.  Onward!

This is Jan Haverkamp. Working for ECONNECT, the Czech member of the 
Association for Progressive Communication - which means we are an 
Internet Service Provider for Non Governmental Organisations and 
others from the civic sector..... slowly becoming a Communication 
Service Provider (CommunISP ;-)  - moving away from connectivity to 
developing full communication strategies using new media )... I also 
work for the APC Promotion of Strategic Use programme and as 
organisational management adviser for several environmental, human 
rights and women's NGOs. Until two years ago, i worked ten years in 
the co-operation between West European and East European 
environmental NGOs [before, during and after the political 
revolutions in this part of the world], mainly in the field of 
organisation and strategy development. I have an education as 
environmental scientist and communication psychologist at the 
Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands. Age... 38, 
male, father of two kids, emigrated from the Netherlands to the Czech 
Republic and currently living in Prague.

I think that most of these discussions indeed do defer us from our 
real work, which is on the basis, in grass-root organisations, trying 
to make a difference to the petty state our world is in... It is for 
me the large dilemma we face. The monopolisation of media shows it 
for TV and radio: if you want to be heard, you have to work for the 
big ones, but then your communication gets bugged. If you 
don't want to compromise on your message / opinion, you're 
squeezed out of the air (remember the story of AdBusters in group 4 
of the conference). If you work using the Internet, the possibilities 
seem larger - but it eats away a lot of the time and energy we have - 
and still we - as progressive movement - have to be there, to compete 
with the other actors in the social field (the big companies, 
governments, political forces), who so often plainly lie on this 
medium... We have to be there, because more and more people retreive 
more and more information - KEY information - from the Net. To strike 
the right balance between trying to keep up with the work on the Web 
and answering the flood of e-mail everyday on one hand, and on the 
other work on realising projects on the ground opposing bad 
developments and/or creating sustainable (in all senses) 
alternatives.... it's very very hard... I see that i spend too much 
time in the meta-world of cyberspace and too little with my hands in 
the earth...

Jan Haverkamp
ECONNECT
 
|
| Jan Haverkamp
| ECONNECT
| computer network for not-for-profit citizens organizations
| member of the Association for Progressive Communication (APC)
| Ceskomalinska 23
| tel.: +420.2.24311780
| fax:  +420.2.24317892|
|
| WWW: http://www.ecn.cz
| e-mail: janh@ecn.cz
|


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