My blog is late. My eyes are bleary. I'm weak with fatigue. I finished lecturing yesterday at just after 3 pm, then we got in the car and drove home. All the way from New York City to Toronto. Everything was going well and then we hit the outskirts of TO and we hit construction. We crawled for over an hour along the Queen Elizabeth Way, exhausted from the drive, sitting in a hot humid summer night only a few clicks from home.But we made it.
I'm up and in a few minutes I'll call Joe and then we'll get ourselves ready and I'll get into work. I'm not scheduled in today but I'm excited about stuff that happened in New York and I need to get in to share some of that excitement. You see while there I had lunch on both days with Perry Samowitz and Bobra Fyne ... the two in the picture ... of YAI. They are both very vital people and we talked a lot about opportunities to collaborate across agencies and across nations. Perry has a very big view of the world and he believes that there is a way that the web can be used to create a repository of programmes, policies, protocols and procedures from around the world, a place where someone can go and research what's out there, what's worked and then simply download and use - we all say 'why reinvent the wheel' - that's fine, but where do you find the wheel?
So I trained during the day and got inspired at lunch. Bobra wants to come up to Vita to talk to us about our use of their consent tool and get our help to create something new out of that work, a unique teaching tool about consent. They see agencies working in collaboration as a fundamental in an ethical way of doing business. It's about sharing not competition. It's about the work not the spotlight. Very cool.
This morning I have much to talk to the boss about, much to mull over. This is one of the reasons I like to travel and train others. It's about the training I get myself.
I get paid for this.
Very cool Dave.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back.
One good source of inspiration for the kind of web-based database I think you're shooting for is at
ReplyDeleteAskSource.info
(See their section on disability and inclusion)
Another, on a different topic, is at http://www.humanrightstools.org/ (links to a whole bunch of human rights resources on-line)
They both have somewhat different approaches to organizing their information. You might want to browse around both and see what ideas they spark for you in terms of organization, structure, presentation, etc.
Oh, and also see the Resource library here:
http://www.deafchildworldwide.info/learning_from_experience/resource_library/index.html (for people who work with deaf children in developing countries)
None of these are quite exactly the resource that you seem to have in mind to create (at least, not if I understand your goals), but should be similar enough in mission (i.e., exchange of knowledge and experience) that they could maybe serve as possible models.
I've always heard that if you find something you love and somehow find a way to make it into a living, then you never have to go to work again. How wonderful that would be and it seems that you have found what is your hearts desire. You are blessed. And thank you for sharing your blessing.
ReplyDelete*smile* Very cool! well, not the traffic part.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your day~
Isn't it great to get paid for a job that you love and sometimes doesn't even seem like work?! It's why I'm quoted almost daily as saying I love my job! I'm glad you love yours too, and I'm so glad you are there to do it, the rest of us a grateful and blessed by it!
ReplyDeleteWelcome home and it sounds like a very productive trip.
ReplyDeleteOh...by the way- LOVE that you figured out how to post pictures to share with us. It really adds to the blog. Not that it wasn't fabulous without them.