#skokowski

I have to admit I was a bit confused one week ago. Now, I’m slowly starting to see the light.

Due to my confusion, I think I didn’t give my best to write the first blogpost. Therefore, this one probably will be much longer. My potential readers – please remain patient and attentive.

First of all, I have to admit that I’m a kind of chaotic person. Some steps have already been taken in order to yoke the chaos, but the process itself is not so easy at all. Luckily, in my group, I have people who can balance me and stop me of going too much ahead. So I think, right now, we are on the good track.

My main task in the project will be to create the plot and video for the final report. I will share this task together with Jonatan. Currently, I join the group-brainstorming and actively participate in discussions and group-meeting (Yes, the Crabs have already started to have business meetings!)

The purpose of my group is to find the way in which our NGO – Children o Mexico can make a use of crowdfunding and crowdsourcing. The term is relatively new, so allow me, dear reader, to explain it here:

Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people, typically via the Internet (Wikipedia)

Crowdsourcing is the process of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers (Wikipedia)

Honestly, I’m happy that we have chosen this issue. Over the last year I have been interested in travelling matters and the clever way how to sponsor these adventures. One of my idols is a Polish traveler – Przemek Skokowski. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any link in English to illustrate the way in which Przemek used crowdfunding. Such a pity! L  

 I think myself that this is a wonderful tool for future designers. We can have the great ideas, but, I can assure you, that we will need some money to realize them. Crowdfunding is just perfectly tailored for this. Somehow, I have this feeling that this method is partly close to my heart because of my nationality. Comparing to other European countries Poland is not the richest one. Additionally, the history didn’t allow us to trust too much in the right (normal/top-down) way of getting things done. You can understand it more by reading an explanation of the Polish word “załatwić” ---> http://listverse.com/2010/09/23/10-words-that-cant-be-translated-to-english/ . It doesn’t mean illegal, it means unconventional.

Internet give us an enormous amount of possibilities. We can reach people or clients from the parts of world we can never even dreamt about to visit before the technological boom. Our last lesson was about the technology stewardship. Technologies make a lot of things easier, but they can be also intimidating. Technologies are of great use for future designers. The sooner we learn how to use them, the better it is.

POSTCARDS FROM EUROPE

A postcard for us it’s just a piece of card, which we usually get from friends and stick it on our wall or we just put it with other unimportant pieces of paper. This is because most postcards show places, which we can visit whenever we want to. They don’t show awe-inspiring pictures from other parts of the world and that’s the reason we don’t truly appreciate them.

We believe that we can use the simple postcards and technology we already have to directly connect with kids in need and help in a way that’s tangible for everyone.

www.polakpotrafi.pl