design + social innovation …. looking for project partners

Dear _____
As I know you are people working with the challenges of design education I have decided to approach you with a project proposal that I think might catch your interest.

I am in my last year at the Kaospilot, a creative business school with a lot of enfasis in social entrepreneurship. After a fantastic 3 yr ride I am working on my final (or as I see it “begining”) project.

With a background in Design, Education and Technology (visit www.pataleta.net to see more about me); the places I have been to, the people I have worked with, the realities I have tried to understand and learn from. I find myself with a great interest in investigating the intersection between social innovation and design.

On the one hand I see the design profession having developed an important practical approach in relation to prototype development, dealing with alternatives, solution finding, sense making etc. And these are portrait a relevant way of thinking when talking about social change.

This leads me to think that the design profession can play a very prominent role in the building of our future. However, when I look at what design education is based on (and I might be outdated, but this is my perception) I see that it is mainly geared towards answering the needs of an industrial society: Design products or services, promote consumption… but what is the future of design when not working towards an industrial society? What does design do in a knowledge society? What is the responsibility of design in the building of a better world? And from this question, the one that I really feel passion for:
Can we, or should we change something in design education to promote the intersection between design and social innovation?

I am looking for project partners, people that could be interested in the same topics, and that would like to play a role in this project.

My plan is to engage in an open research adventure, I have an overview of interesting things going on in the world in this regards, but I would like to deepen and gather that knowledge. The idea is to create a simple online platform for publishing interviews in the form of vod/podcasts. I want to interview people working with these topics, hear their challenges, their best practices, their motivation, their dreams, their burning questions, their inspiration… and with this information develop a an educational module, to be tested of as a pilot with a group of design students.

The time frame for the project up to the pilot is from now until the end of april.

Are you, or do you know anybody who could be interested in playing and working with meon this project?
Send me your comments, your questions, concerns and smiles, that takes me one step further in the process.

Download a short presentation of the idea.

Thank you.

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Trabajo final idea 2.

A raiz de las cosas que he estudiado, los sitios en los que he trabajado, las charlas inspiradoras que he tenido, los sitios que he visitado y las realidades que he tratado de entender y de las cuales he tratado de aprender, tengo un gran interes en investigar la intersección entre el diseño y la innovación social. Por un lado considero el ejercicio del diseño cómo una profesion de la cual se puede aprender mucho con respecto a desarrollar prototipos, presentar alternativas, encontrar soluciones a problemas y eso considero que es una manera de pensar muy relevante cuando se esta hablando de cambio social.

Esto me lleva a pensar que el la profesión del diseño puede jugar un papel muy importante en la construcción del futuro. Sin embargo, si miro en que está basada la educación del diseño, veo que en gran medida esta pensada para responder a las necesidades de una sociedad industrial, diseñar productos, promover consumo… pero entonces cual es el futuro del diseño al no funcionar en pro de una sociedad industrial? que hace el diseño en una sociedad del conocimiento? cual es la responsabilidad del diseño en la construcción de un mundo mejor? Y a partir de esta pregunta, una aun más importante, se puede o se debe cambiar algo en la educación del diseño que promueva la interesección entre el diseño y la innovación social?

Inicialmente lo que quiero hacer es mirar que esta sucediendo en el mundo con respecto a esto, tal vez hacer entrevistas, recolectar información, inspiración, hacer una investigación abierta a manera de blogs y con entrevistas en video que muestren reflexiones de gente interesada en este tema. Y posteriormente, si logro encarretar a alguna escuela de diseño en el cuento, desarrollar un taller piloto con miras a crear tal vez un modulo, o un posgrado, o un curso, o alguna manera de integrar esta opción en la educación del diseño.

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learning organizations – schools as factories

Recently I had a chat with a guy studying “school design” in Holland. He was saying how education needed to be optimized and how it needed to be seen as a factory. Where students at the end of their studies are the product of this factory…

It seems to me that many industries are thinking about innovation, and about learning, and about changing the paradigm from a newtonian, cause and efect, linear way to look at the world to a more systemic way of understanding organisations and processes.

And I thought it was strange that schools want to be like factories, and factories want to be like schools…

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creative leadership workshops (in cross-cultural settings)

This is one of the possible ideas for my kaospilot final project. What I am thinking of is developing what we started in Cuba, try it out in Colombia(and perhaps in the future extend it to Latin America). A way to plant seeds and promote social entrepreneurship in Colombia.

Some people have been talking about the possibility of starting a kaospilot school in Colombia, or in Latin America, I kind of think that it is perhaps too early for that, and that if open rigtht now, such a school would be mainly targeted to young privileged people, people who have the economic means to try out this kind of education, I think this might not be the right approach for the social needs of Colombia.

Before actually starting a school, I would like to develop a program of short courses, a more flexible way of working with the same kind of issues as the kaospilos school works with that would allow the program to reach more people from a wider social spectrum. That would empower and inspire those that need it the most, and that is not dependant on a big infrastructure in order to survive.

I would like to work with young people who would not otherwise have the opportunity to access further education, and in whom I see a great potential for making a possitive contribution to their communities.

My idea is be to design and carry out two week workshops with groups of no more than 15 people in a very hands on approach training skills such as team work, communication, proactive planning, personal leadership, creative project management, problem solving, techniques for idea development and prototyping and the use of invormation and communication technologies.

Ideally the participants will come to the course with an existing project that they are working on or are interested in, and that would like to develop, the projects should have a social perspective, intending to generate a reflection about a social issue and a possitive impact in their communities.

An important perspective of the course is to work in a perspective of co-creation. It is not about taking the european or first world way of thinking and impossing it onto other people, it is not about comming with solutions or recipies, that has been tried many times before, and has been proven unsuccessful more than enough times. What I think is interesting is the perspective of empowering people to find their own solutions, to take responsibility for their lives, to be part of making a better future for themselves, to learn to free themselves from the self-image of being victims.

This is also an invaluable opportunity for me to learn. Working with motivated people and having the privilege of sharing their dreams is perhaps one of the most amazing gifts life can give one. I don’t see it as a transfer of tools, as me filling empty buckets with information, I see it as an oportunity for all the participants including me to engage in a learning adventure together. More than answers I am interested in people getting better at asking questions, at being curious, at trying new things, at thinking of the common and not only on their own personal gain, I am interested in people exploring their natural abilities for learning, for knowing themselves, for inspiring others.

And inspiration is a very important aspects, one of my objectives is that after the course some of the participants would be involved in designing a new course, and would be part of facilitaing. It is very important that the project is not dependant on me, I would like to see myself as the one planting seeds, and that seeds will fly and start new crops in other parts with other groups. I would like to see this project growing organically not industrially, and certainly not dependant on bureaucratic
The vision I have with this workshops is that they can be carried out in different parts of the country (I love travelling my beautiful contry, so that is not a bad thing) and that they should be accompanied by an online community platform where the participants can post information on themselves, the course and the projects they are working on, using text, pictures, video and sound. The intention with this is in different areas:

• Extend the time and geographical reach of the workshops
• Familiarize participants with the use of new media and information and communication technologies
• Inspire others
• Promote cross polination of projects and hopefully in the future see how collaboration emerges among participants throughout the country

I am right now looking for partners and people that could be interested in trying this out, I have made this website

liderazgo creativo

Let’s see what happens…

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preguntas

que voy a hacer del proyecto? que voy a hacer de la visa? que voy a hacer para ganar plata? que voy a hacer para no tener que pasar el invierno aqui? tengo que conseguir un trabajo de tiempo completo? cuando? cuanto tiempo debo permanecer con el bebe? cuanto tiempo debo dedicarme a mi? cuanto tiempo debo dedicar a mi relacion con rowan? puedo inventarme algun proyecto que me permita sobrevivir económicamente sin depender de un empleador? es irresponsable de mi parte no tener un trabajo de tiempo completo? que quiero conseguir con mi proyecto final? es irresponsable estudiar mas? que es importante para mi para sentirme motivada y contenta? para que soy buena? con que tipo de gente me gustaria trabajar? que es interesante para los demás de mi? cómo se benefician los demás de mis experiencias, de lo que he estudiado? a que tipo de gente le gustaría trabajar conmigo? a quien le interesa lo que yo tengo para ofrecer?

Tal vez la manera cómo he llevado mi vida ha sido un constante ir y venir entre la incertidumbre y la busqueda de la certeza. Tener preguntas es lo que me mantiene viva y motivada, tal vez lo que me gusta es tener preguntas y no tanto respuestas.

La cosa es aprender a aceptar el mejor provecho de esa manera de afrontar la vida, de no dejar que el juez interior y la autocensura me maltraten e impidan avanzar. Vivir el proceso y sacar provecho de mi capacidad para navigar la incertidumbre y generar nuevas realidades.

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