Open Forum is located on a wide street surrounded by embassies and well-heeled international organizations. Save the Children isn't far away. Tabitha, a nonprofit that sells silk products to benefit rural development and well-drilling, is next door. All the buildings in this neighborhood are set inside high walls, and Open Forum is no exception, with a guard at the gate. Some of them even have little concrete gatehouses for their guards. Open Forum's guardhouse is a wooden affair, and the guard is a sweet brown-faced old man with steel teeth who speaks very good French.
Inside the fence, everyone who works in the building parks his vehicle, mostly motorbikes, though Jens rides a bicycle and one of the boys actually drives a car. I was so astounded the day we went to lunch in the car that I couldn't manage to ask how such a feat could be accomplished. Open Forum is a hodge-podge arrangement of buildings, staircases, and offices. One room is clearly a reception area and another is clearly a kitchen, with a fridge and constant tea in an aluminum pot.
Just behind the reception room is KhmerOS, Javier Sola's outfit. Every time I walked in there, I thanked God for inventing air-conditioning. It's a blissfully cool room, with a lot of people sitting at three long tables, their computers lined up, facing out.
I went to Open Forum's web site before I came to Cambodia, but to tell you the truth, I couldn't really figure out WHAT they were up to. I mean, there's a list on the site, but it seems so haphazard, so all-things-to-all-people, I wondered what the original plan had been.
I quote from the Vision statement: "The vision of the Open Forum of Cambodia is to provide means and human resources to Cambodian citizens to develop their understandings for the basic uses in decision-making and as experiences to contribute to build a stronger civil society in Cambodia." Huh?
I learned more at a meeting Javier invited me to attend, at which he was speaking on Freedom of Information. I think it was a United Nations workshop, but I'm not sure. I arrived in time for his panel, having missed a morning's speeches. Norbert Klein , one of the founders of Open Forum and editor of one of its publications, spoke about starting Open Forum in the wake of the Khmer Rouge disaster, where all public discussion had disappeared entirely. There needed to be some way to begin public debate, he said, and Open Forum was created to fulfill that mission. It spawned two publications, one in Khmer and another in English, aimed at the reading public, dedicated to the idea that a democracy is built on an informed citizenry.
Open Forum also started the first email system in Cambodia. When Norbert heard about email, he said, he thought it would be a good thing for the country, but nobody seemed to be setting the system up, so he did. Now that there are plenty of for-profit email systems in the country, Open Forum is phasing its own system out.
You have to picture the scene: It's typical hotel conference experience. Registration table on the mezzanine, tables with lunch-like food and drink being cleared away. In the conference room, a long u-shaped table formation with workshoppers or conference delegates, whoever they were, sitting facing one another. At one end, on a raised dias, is the panel with Javier, Norbert and a guy from Canada who has already talked about how they do Freedom of Information in Canada. In fact, his point is that freedom of information and PRIVACY of information go hand-in-hand. All around are these headphones.
When the panel moderator starts speaking in Khmer, and I notice the foreigners all reaching for the headphones, I figure the situation out. I've never been anywhere there was simultaneous translation before, but it's pretty interesting. When your guys are talking, you take off the headphones. When the other guys are talking, you put them on. There's the voice of your translator, not the perfect UN-New York version, but pretty good.
Javier cleared his throat and started speaking in Spanish. Everyone reached for headphones and then took them off again. Confused faces around the room. Javier's point was that unless information is in a language you can understand, it really isn't free to circulate, no matter how open the conference-- or government is. He went on to talk about KhmerOS's mission--open source as the basis for Cambodian computing, and everything--software, browser, operating system, the whole kit and kaboodle-- in the Khmer language.
At least KhmerOS has a clear idea of where it's going. I saw the cracks in the edifice of Open Forum that very first day. Not only is the KhmerOS team air-conditioned while everyone else is not, Javier made a speech about end-of-year bonuses to the effect that there wouldn't be any. It's a lean time at Open Forum and they're looking for some help with their overall organizational development.
My ears pricked up. "Management consulting? We've got a staff member who does just that!"
Javier's eyes brightened. "Let's set it up," he said. That's what I like about Javier. Stuff gets DONE around him. We decided that because of some health issues, Gilda wouldn't be able to get away, but that our board chairman, David, would be free to come do a management evaluation and then look at a deeper analysis of the whole organizational structure of Open Forum.
This makes sense anyway, since wherever there's technology, there needs to be a very clear sense of the organization's mission. The technology has got to SERVE the mission of an organization. There's just a whole lot a good web site and a well-designed database system can do for a nonprofit: keep track of donors and volunteers, help plan projects and set timetables, keep the financial records open and above board for all to see, plan events and register participants, and...as I said yesterday...help build community, foster a cohesive spirit.
But none of this happens if you don't know where you're going.
David may be in the final packing stages, getting ready to show up in Phnom Penh at Open Forum. I had to leave before he arrived, but if he does come to terms with that group, I'm sure everyone will benefit.
As for me, I started out just meeting the main man, Morn Vutha, the Community Information Web Portal coordinator. Morn, by the way, is his FAMILY name. Vutha is his given name. I got the impression that Vutha was just a bit leery of me and what I was supposed to be doing.
Javier told him four times that I wasn't going to actually DO anything. That no matter what, I was just looking for information. Nothing, whatsoever, was going to be accomplished!
Well, that's putting our cards on the table. I'll be coming in to work, but don't worry, I won't be actually working.
That first day, I had a total of about ten lines on a notebook page about the task Javier had set for me. Find out what's wrong with the current site. In fact, find out everything you can about the site. And then look into possible alternatives...open source alternatives, naturally.
Tomorrow: A dog on a bone: Trish at work.
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