Empowered Community

When I learnt that there was going to be a demonstration on collaborative electronic tools at our dec. 6th conference call, I browsed the web to find something that would give me an idea of what a collaborative tool is. I found a concept offered by Google that enable exchange of documents between group members. They called it “writely”, which allowed me to create a document, the same document my husband could open and edit from his computer and at his convenience, but not in real time. …read more

At present my work is focused mainly on a small software development project for which I write code in php.  I have to write code to interact with a database and generate forms and reports.   Among the tools I am using for this project, Pear::DB and Smarty are more significant. PEAR is allowing me to write code which is database neutral. That is I do not have to write database functions addressed to a specific database. I need to do it only once in a single statement when I connect to a database of my choice. This is a cool concept that allows portability. For example same code can be used to connect to MySQL or SQLite or PostgresSQL data bases with changes only to configuration parameters.  Another tool that I am using is “Smarty templates” for report layout. With Smarty I can   write code separating presentation details from the processing logic. Additionally Smarty allows me to use conditional logic and looping within the template, thus allowing me to separate not only the template but also the logic, this ability to use some level of logic, instead  of just plugging in the variables, gives me more control over the display …read more

The recent (2006) announcement that the Nobel Peace prize has been won by Dr. Muhammad Yunus has caught my attention. Part of the prize is shared by a banking system called Grameen bank. The bank is supposedly working on the principles of community effort, mutual trust, accountability, and micro credit. It is designed to offer small loans to poor people in groups of 5, who are otherwise not credit worthy. The primary requirement for loan eligibility seems to be collective accountability of groups to repay. Because there is no requirement to back their loans with collateral, the poor have been able to invest in some trade for their livelihood. The conditions for loan have helped improve social and economic awareness. This system appears to have uplifted and improved the lives of many poor communities in Bangladesh, among whom a big percentage is said to be women. This indeed is a system of community, networking and collective effort that has not only made a success story but also has received a distinguished recognition. Follow the links for more of this story. …read more

hi This is our first meeting after VISTA leadership change. We welcome our new leaders Daniele and Ben. We look farword to an enjoyable time, and wish for our efforts be fruitful ahead as VISTAs under our new leadership.  This is my first attempt at learning to attach tags to the information I enter into blogs with the help of Daniele's demonstration.