While I was busy not liveblogging the OCHA +5 Symposium, David Goodman and Chad Sutton of IRC were very busy liveblogging the NetHope 2007 Summit in Panama. I’m going to read through their blog and probably commenting, but I’d like to congratulate them on making it all the way through and coming back with some really interesting feedback on the event. David’s closing thoughts sum up the importance of NetHope, which is something that has nothing to do with technology:
I still wasn’t sure how NetHope was going to help me. I kept looking for the knowledge-sharing opportunities with the other members, but since I didn’t know many of the members, these opportunities didn’t readily present themselves… Finally, on the last day, I broke through. It started with a conversation with Kelvin, the CIO at Plan International. We started talking about what he’s doing with respect to connectivity in Africa, and it became clear that he’s solved many of the issues we’re struggling with. He introduced me to a few of his African IT staff who were there, and we talked a bit about what they did, traded business cards, and promised to stay in touch. Bingo – something real and actionable that I could take away from the meeting… In the end, like so many things, it’s about the relationships. I met some great people in Panama, and I will now make much more of an effort to continue these relationships since there’s clearly significant value to be gained.
Hopefully for the next NetHope Summit, there’ll be a group blog with a wider range of participants contributing!
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