This week’s guest speaker was Edward Happ. Who had worked with the Red Cross and with NetHope. He was debatably the best speaker we have had thus far in our class. The reason for this is because he had a great variety of knowledge that we as the students tried to soak up and incorporate in our lives. One of the most impressive features and or accomplishments to Edward is the fact that he was the co-founder of NetHope. For those of you who do not know what NetHope is, it is a group of 32 international non-governmental organizations or NGO’s, which have a mission to improve information technology among humanitarian organizations in developing countries and areas that are affected by disasters. This was a great attribute to the disaster relief world. This weeks speaker just got off the plane and had tremendous jet lag so we had to push our class time back by forty five minutes which proved to be a good thing because it gives students like me more time to look more into the background of Edward and really get some good questions ready for him. For some of you that are reading our SRA blog entries may wonder why these high caliber speakers are making special trips just to speak with us. Well, the answer is that our class is going to be the new members of these organizations that they work for, and by them talking to us, we hear what needs to be improved and we will be studying and doing research on how to improve the things that are needed.
Another great thing about Edward Happ is his desire to succeed. He has already had three carriers and his looking for his next too. That is great because he is going to be spreading his knowledge in all different types of government agencies and even some non-governmental agencies. I wish that I had that sense of ambition to want to have five different carriers. If I did I feel like I would be a lot more successful in life.
Attached I have posted a you tube video that is an interview with a NetHope advisor that talked about outsourcing. This will give people who do not exactly know what NetHope is, a good idea of what they do. For more information visit their website or search them on Google.
Something else that I found interesting about our guest speaker Edward Happ was the fact that at the end of our speaking session we had asked him what he in his career path needed in order to make his job easier or more proficient. His answer surprised me. He didn’t really give us a straight answer and just wanted up to use our imagination. This puzzled me for a little bit but then I thought about it and it was actually a great answer. It is necessary for new people coming into the career path to have new ideas and not necessary take after the people that are already in place. New people should mean new ideas. All in all this was a great class and I thank Edward for coming to speak with us.
Like you, I was also puzzled at his approach in the end. I think for at least two questions, he did not want his perspectives to constrain our ideas for the final project. While I get the gist of why he’d do this, I think it is limiting that we are outsiders to the field that he works in. In order to create some helpful innovation or slightly improve those that exist, the most valuable thing we can get is the speakers’ own perspectives on this. After all, the people who we have been speaking with have had 15+ years of experience. We’re completely new and just learning the very foundations of what they’ve dedicated their whole lives to. Of course, it’s not like we’re going to use their visions as a crutch, but something by which to inform our own developing ideas. Overall, I hoped he could have pointed us in some general direction. His presentation was well-formatted and I liked integration of the personal stories. I kind of hoped that Happ would have allowed for questions within his presentation because there were many times I wanted to stop him to inquire about a point made. It was helpful, however, to have some perspectives from someone who works almost solely with NGOs. We’ve been kind of questioning whether their efforts and even existence will be futile in the IT sector of emergency response, but Happ’s speech about collaboration/hunger/perspectives on failure made me somewhat optimistic.
ReplyDeleteYou made a great point about why the speakers are coming to talk to our class. I agree with you, our class is going to be the new members of these organizations that the speakers work for, and by them talking to us, we are able to understand what they need and what can be improved. It gives their future employees a chance to grasp the situation and give them a chance to study and research improvements that can be made for these humanitarian organizations. It’s awesome that Mr. Happ as had so many careers and is still looking forward to new careers. It’s awesome that he is able to spread his knowledge to all these different types of government agencies and non-government agencies.
ReplyDeleteNew people should mean new ideas. Much like our other speakers said, it’s time for the humanitarian organizations to stop living in the past and start living in the future. I agree with you that new employees to the organizations shouldn’t just “fallow footsteps” they should develop their own ideas and be inspired implement their new ideas. I enjoyed reading your blog and watching the video you posted. It did a great job proving information about what they do.
I don't think there is much debate to be had - the overwhelming consensus from this week's blogs seems to be that Mr. Edward Happ was the best of our speakers thus far. Not only did his vast experience in the humanitarian field shine through his lecture, but his person skills were paramount in the presentation's success. What really made his speech stand out to me was actually his personal touch - his stories were insightful, interesting, and remarkably on topic. I felt he incorporated better take-aways than any previous speaker because, just as he had said, even once we forget everything else he spoke about, we'll remember the stories and the related concept.
ReplyDeleteI, too, was a bit puzzled by some of his cryptic answers pertaining to career tracks and the final project, but as others have said, I don't terribly mind it since he was just trying to make sure we didn't sell ourselves short or simply mimic something he said. It isn't surprising that such a unique and interesting character such as Mr. Happ would consider it a mistake to try to typecast key humanitarian roles or suggest any specific lines of program development to aid disaster response. On top of that, he couldn't exactly give us the best ideas he or others have conceived, considering he was a key judge in the Imagine Cup.