2008年7月21日 星期一

A special gift :Taboo, Decoding


~sharing, helping each other,uniting,courage and hornor

My trip to San Francisco was decided more than half year ago.
At that time we don't know we will have Techsoup-Taiwan program yet.
Now, I am so exciting in both go to the "World open space on open space" and visit "Techsoup".

It'a not easy to decide what gift should I bring with me.
Our partner in Taitung, Maciou,one of the best craftmen of Beinan Tribe.(Now we have 14 officially certified tribe.)Sent a beautiful stone, with "for TechSoup" in the back.

She said through the phone:
Our ancient use stone to pass messages,to communicate,to share...
This is in my mind while I am drawing.

If you feel with your heart, you will find
"though the stone looks quiet,you can feel the strength within."

Here is some word about her creations.

Name of this craft:Taboo, Decoding

According to the legends. the ancestors of the Beinan Tribe, one of the aboriginal tribes in Taiwan, was born from "varasa" (stone in the Beinan language). In the old days, their ancestorsrecorded their life through the beliefs of sharing, helping each other,uniting,courage and hornor. Now, begining from "varasa", the craftmen use their creativity and hands to connect the past with the future and to transform the ancient spirit,wisdom,and beauty into delicate ornaments such as necklaces,earings,wrist lace.bookmarks and so on. Introducing the beauty of the Beinan culture through a method more easily accepted by the modern people, these work presents it's culture.

Bring this gift from Taiwan, feel more connected with everyone.


帶著興奮的心情,往舊金山出發。
舊金山行應是半年前就決定了,當時還不知會有「科技濃湯」專案出現。
現在,既要去參加開放空間的年會,又可以去拜訪Techsoup總部,真好。

想要帶個有特色的東西給他們,怎麼想都會是跟原住民有關的。
打了電話給台東的伙伴,問書屋有沒有什麼可以分享的文化產品,
今天,收到了從台東坐飛機來的、美麗的禮物。

謝謝部落工作伙伴的幫忙,也收到了他們分享的心情,帶著這個禮物出發,很安心的。

馬秋說,祖先們用石頭來傳達訊息、溝通和交流,
她也用著同樣的心情來畫石頭。
如果你仔細看,會發現這石頭雖是安靜的,卻充滿了力量。

馬秋說這個作品的名字是:圖騰密碼
謝謝馬秋的創作,讓我們感受到更深的分享、連結正在滋長中。

以下是關於她作品的說明:
台灣原住民族群~卑南
來自台東知本(katipul)遠古的傳說記載
祖先是由石頭(varasa)而生
在那時代
祖先們以分享、互助、團結勇敢及榮譽的精神
紀錄著生活的軌跡

在創意和巧手下,
將祖先的精口生活智慧美學,
藉著鋁線連結過去與未來,
幻化為項練、耳墜、手環、書籤、生活用品....等
美學與實用兼具的精品。
使用現代人較易接受的方式介紹卑南族文化之美,
並傳遞文化的風貎。

法拉撒工作室 varasa studio

2008年7月15日 星期二

有朋自香港來


今天,Techsoup在香港的伙伴團體,香港社聯的Tony,Canny來到了開拓的辦公室。
他們是在Antony的安排下,前來協助我們了解Techsoup的運作流程,並分享他們過去幾個月的運作狀況。

他們很nice地介紹和分享他們的經驗,有點羨慕他們已那麼熟悉整個運作,也才知道他們也有在賣軟體和提供相關資訊課程的。社聯是個歷史悠久的單位,與社會福利組織間有很深的連接。記得有一段時間,台灣的社福單位總會前往拜會和交流。由社聯來推動Techsoup,似乎頗為適當的。

很謝謝他們放下手邊的工作,撥空前來協助我們,很喜歡Tony說的:之前Australia 陪伴他們開始,很高興現在他們可以跟我們分享,更期望以後我們也可以去協助其他國家…

不同國家有不同的環境和開始的過程,這樣的互相陪伴是一個很棒的相互學習,可以為新開始的國家帶來很大的安定感。

期待很快可以像他們那般的熟悉和游刃有餘。

2008年7月8日 星期二

想念夥伴的方式 ( For Antony Chiang )

1. Steamed pork dumplings
2. Pickled cabbage
3. Steamed Chinese-style layer cake
4. Fried rice with eggs
5. Glass noodle soup
6. Hot-and-sour soup
7. Steamed mushroom vegetarian du
8. Noodles mixed in broad-bean sause
9. Steamed mashed red bean buns

Antony and Ray came to Taipei, and worked with us for one week, though they went back for more than one week. We missed them a lot.

Antony mentioned he wanted to go to the famous restaurant DinTaiFung, to taste the small, delicate steamed dumplings. We heard and all of us remembered this.Yet too much work need to be done, we didn’t find time to go till he went back to US.

Last Friday, we went to eat steamed dumplings for Antony in DinTaiFung. We took pictures of every step we ordered, ate, and finish all those delicious foods for Antony and Ray. The more we ate, the more we talked and missed them. How much we miss them? It is equal to how delicious food there.


TechSoup的夥伴離開台灣已經一個多星期了,辦公室仍然常常提起大家在一起工作的點點滴滴,尤其Antony一直很想抽空去品嚐鼎泰豐有名的小籠湯包一事,我們也一起記在心裏,但科技濃湯的籌備的工作實在太多,一直到他離台前還是沒有機會帶他去鼎泰豐。

於是上周五晚上的空檔,大家決定到鼎泰豐想念Antony和Ray,幫他吃吃小籠湯包,當然啦,除了小籠湯包我們還叫了許多好吃的食物,我們每吃一口就想念他們一下,吃完後肚子飽飽的也有滿滿的想念,很遺憾Antony沒有口福可以吃到這些食物,於是我們決定將這些美食照片寄給遠在美國的Antony,讓他了解我們有多麼盡力在想念他。

2008年7月7日 星期一

夥伴的來信--Antony

另一位夥伴Antony也在回美國後,寫信給Techsoup團隊、合作夥伴、朋友,分享台灣科技濃場(Techsoup-Taiwan)的籌備過程、記者會狀況,他謝謝在這次專案裏協助我們的所有朋友。Antony一直很希望工作之餘,可以有機會造訪鼎泰豐品嚐有名的佳餚,可惜一直沒有工作之餘,他只能期待下次來台灣時再圓夢。

Hi all,

On behalf of the TechSoup Global team, I am extremely pleased to announce the launch of TechSoup-Taiwan! The new program and site (www.techsoup-taiwan.org.tw) went live just last week on June 26, 2008.

“恭喜恭喜!” to Frontier Foundation, our Partner NGO in Taiwan. Shufang Tsai and her staff are simply amazing. Below from left to right is Petra (the new ops person for the TechSoup-Taiwan program, a super fast learner who started only a week before launch and I personally witnessed her hidden karaoke talents in three languages), Miao-Ying (organized the press conference where her former life as a journalist came in handy), Antony (Asia regional lead for TechSoup Global), Shufang (fearless leader, long time social worker, professor in social work department, and tireless), Ray of TSG (who leveraged previous experience in telecom and the Peace Corps, including a prior Taiwan fiber optic deployment, to make his first TSG launch look easy), Debra (while not working continuously on translating our default content or the press conference, tried to keep her precocious young son from giving the weird foreign guys in this picture too much trouble while visiting after school), and last but not least on the far right is one of the many volunteers that magically appeared continuously throughout the week to help.



Frontier Foundation has been working on creating digital opportunities for NGOs for 14 years through training, building websites and other ways to help NGOs reduce the digital divide. Frontier Foundation created the first Chinese search engine in Taiwan, set up the first server for NGOs, started the first training courses for NGOs, and has had significant impact building the online communities for women, the disabled, aborigine tribes and other virtual communities.

Being on-site at Frontier was a treat. Their cozy office is based in Taipei, quite close to one of Taiwan’s major universities with lots of other NGOs in the neighborhood. We literally ran into NGO colleagues on the way to lunch.

The press conference was a great event. In addition to the traditional media, one of the ideas I liked was that Frontier has good relationships with a number of popular bloggers, and several of them posted live during the conference.

http://blog.puncar.tw/2008/06/techsoup-taiwan.html

http://blog.roodo.com/fembooks/archives/6240445.html

http://www.peopo.org/portal.php?op=viewPost&articleId=18395

http://www.womenweb.org.tw/MainWeb/Activity_Show.Asp?Activity_ID=7526

http://www.meworks.net/meworksv2a/meworks/page1.aspx?no=149912&step=1&newsno=53633

http://lihpao.shu.edu.tw/news/in_p1.php?art_id=21941

http://techsoup-taiwan.blogspot.com/

Sample local press coverage:

http://www.cna.com.tw/cnaeng/EnglishTopNews/TopNewsDetail.aspx?strTopNewsDate=&TopNewsSerialnum=1478&strTopNewsID=200806260032

http://e-info.org.tw/node/34714

http://www.bnext.com.tw/StoreView_524

http://news.sina.com.tw/article/20080626/503448.html

http://times.hinet.net/times/article.do?newsid=1592581&option=society

http://www.newstory.info/2008/06/npo.html

http://news.pchome.com.tw/living/cna/20080626/index-12144738088485918009.html

http://www.npo.org.tw/PhilNews/show_news.asp?NEWSID=8613

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national%20news/2008/06/27/162856/Web%2Dsite.htm

http://cms.www.gov.tw/NewsCenter/Pages/20080626/097626056.aspx?CurrentNode=16&NextNode=0&QueryType=1&ShowOrgMenu=0&TranslateMenuName=26032_32862_29031_29255_


Special thanks to …..

I also have to say that I was amazed at the level of support from Microsoft Taiwan, from supporting four NPO events around the country leading up to the launch, to the press event itself. That’s Davis Tsai, the GM of MS-Taiwan in the 2nd picture on the left speaking at the conference, and I wish I had a good photo of Charles, Angela, and Hope who invested just a tremendous amount of time and energy in support of the TS program coming to Taiwan. One of my favorite moments was when we were meeting with a room full of NGOs after the press event, Charles was speaking and then he paused for a moment, then he said just how proud he was to help bring a program like TechSoup to Taiwan. If that wasn’t enough, Audrey from the Microsoft Asia Regional HQ came personally to the Taiwan launch week to better understand the TechSoup model and how she could better help bring the program throughout Asia. And to top it off, thanks to Lindsay and Jane of Redmond, for paving the way for Taiwan and the program as a whole.


“Couldn’t have done it without you …”

As always, the launching of a new country would not have been possible without the critical help from folks here at TechSoup and its partners. Deserving special mention: Ray (managing his first successful deployment), Kevin Lo (critical help with site review and translation), Alexis (great PR support for the launch), Helen (tireless in training and site review as usual!), Kat (site and catalog), Tony (eligibility and donor programs), the global tech team (Aletha, Dave, Mark, Sehat, Philip), Aron (site installation), Ted and Mike (database assistance), Olan and Jim (back office support of test orders), Carol, Susan & Monica (donor programs implementation), Tony / Canny / John of HKCSS (for last minute help in translation), Nick (deployment support), Vyria, Djeneba and Mark (global team relations and PNGO set up) and Mike and Rebecca for their guidance.



- Antony

Antony Chiang

TechSoup Global

www.techsoup-global.org

www.techsoup.org

夥伴的來信--Ray


記者會前六天,Ray從波蘭華沙來到台灣支援,由於華沙飛台灣的機票很貴,於是Ray選擇較便宜的票價--先從華沙飛到倫敦,再從倫敦飛到曼谷,再從曼谷轉機到台灣,轉了三次機才到台灣,而到台灣的隔一天就馬上上工,相當辛苦。

記者會後清晨,Ray又再次風塵僕僕地趕回波蘭,因為波蘭也有新計畫在進行,幾乎沒有歇息的時間。回到波蘭華沙,他寄給大家一封信:

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to take the time to thank everyone for contributing to the success of the Techsoup-Taiwan launch…

Shufang, Petra, Debrah, Miao-Ying, Kung-Ming and everyone, I enjoyed working with you and I know this project is challenging and difficult so I thank you for your patience and understanding. It was really nice to work with Frontier Foundation, and I am happy to have had the chance to work with such a friendly, hardworking and hospitable partner. Likewise, I would like to thank Microsoft for their hospitality and kindness…

And for those on the TechSoup team, all the things you did behind the scenes made all the difference to us in Taiwan… Thanks for pulling together in the 11th hour to make this launch successful!

Sincerely,

Ray




一直到今天,Ray都還在線上跟我們一起工作,協助我們熟悉平台操作,很謝謝這位一直在旁邊協助我們的夥伴。

2008年7月1日 星期二

記者會小插曲

(右上圖開拓董事蕭景燈,右下圖台灣微軟Hope Wang副總,左上圖台灣微軟Charles Chao副總,左中圖宜蘭感恩基金會董事長陳成龍、總幹事張錦華,左下角環境資訊協會祕書長陳瑞賓)


人說計畫趕不上變化,王院長來參加記者會是頗確定的行程,
然而,時間到了他卻仍因監察委員的到訪而無法前來。

悄悄地走到聯勸文良旁邊說:王院長會晚點到,你多說點聯勸的想法好嗎?
文良很棒,幫科技濃湯的啟動鋪陳了很好的論述。

王院長還是沒到,於是又悄悄地走到Antony旁,善解人意的他當然是點頭了,
但要多說話,顯然就得有人幫忙翻譯了。於是,我拿起麥克風,陪他上場。
謝謝他把Techsoup來台灣的重要性,講得清楚和美好,也謝謝他稱讚開拓的伙伴。

終於院長還是沒能趕快,但也很有心的派了秘書前長宣讀他的賀辭和呼籲,很謝謝他對這項公益計畫的支持。

很愛這種跟一群非營利組織伙伴一起工作的感覺,
總是可以互相支援、互相體貼,所以,忍不住想在此多記一筆,多說一聲謝謝!