Most orgs I know have the same problem: we do a lot (with very little resources), but nobody knows about it. It is certainly the case with Sula Batsu: this super talented group of people do crazy amounts of work during the year, and we rarely get to write about it. Last week I asked Margarita Salas to help me with a few paragraphs about the coop’s projects on social media and web training.
Our cooperative, Sula Batsu, has been a promoter of the strategic use of web tools among organizations of the not-for-profit sector as well as in local communities in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our approach to these technologies has always been grounded on the needs and realities of the organizations and communities, adapting and portraying uses that strengthen the organizations and contributes to the achievement of their objectives. Here’s some examples of our work in this field. Click on the links to expand.
Workshops on Digital Tools and Learning Networks
http://www.sulabatsu.com/enredamiento
During February and March 2008, Sulá Batsú developed two workshops on digital tools and learning networks. One of them was carried out in San José, Costa Rica for the Central American participants and the other one in Lima, Peru, for participants from the Andean region. Each workshop brought together over 30 participants from organizations that work on human rights, gender, environment, youth, disaster management and other development topics.
The workshops had a participatory methodology that began with a preparatory process before the participants arrived. A listserv was set up among the participants and the facilitation started a dialogue to warm-up the encounter. There was sharing of expectations, photographs, personal and professional background as well as areas of special interest in the web 2.0 field. This allowed Sulá Batsú to tailor the methodology to the characteristics of the participants.
Each workshop lasted three days and combined conceptual issues, knowledge sharing techniques and hands-on computer training. Among the topics that were approached were: knowledge processes, learning networks, different types of ICTs, facilitation, online & offline interaction, planning and developing networking and knowledge sharing spaces. Some of the tools participants learned how to use were wikis, google documents, blogs, social tagging, photosharing, basic audio and video editing and uploading.
Some of the techniques used to carry out the workshop were simulation exercises, interactive panels with online presenters using video-forum, creation of collective conceptual maps, break-out groups, talk shows and other participatory techniques.
After the workshops interaction continued through the listservs and as part of the documentation process we made available the “yellow pages” of participants, the videos they created, the user guides for the tools as well as a palette we created of basic questions for network development (all available in spanish).
Course on Web 2.0 for social economy entrepreneurs
Sulá Batsú developed a course on strategic uses of ICTs for social economy enterprises; the 40 hour course was part of the broader offer of La Catalina knowledge sharing center. The methodology combines formal presentations with participatory techniques, case studies, group work, etc. The target population was senior and middle management of social enterprises that had basic ICT skills (e-mail, web browsing, office suites) and wanted to develop their skills to use ICTs strategically to optimize information, communication and knowledge processes within their organizations. The topics of the course were the following:
* Basic elements of communication for social entrepreneurs.
* ICT for internal communication: constituency, workers and governing bodies.
* ICT for external communication: community, cooperative sector, media.
* History of Internet and web based services.
* The digital gap in the social economy sector.
* Open source software and proprietary solutions.
* ICT tools for collaboration: email, listservs, virtual communities, social networks, wikis.
* ICT tools for communication: image, audio and video editing.
* ICTs as a source of information for social economy entrepreneurs.
* E-management and customer relationship systems.
* Telework and social economy enterprises.
Community Digital Stories
http://historiascomunitarias.wordpress.com
Sulá Batsú is one of the participants of the IKM emergent (Information and Knowledge Management), a global project that reflects about knowledge processes and also seeks to connect different types of knowledge. Within this project we work with partner organizations in local communities interested in using technologies to tap into local knowledge and make it more visible through community digital stories.
We work with different populations (for example children, youth and women) in different types of communities (rural, urban, marginalized). The participants develop the capacities for the strategic use of audiovisual technologies (digital cameras, video, digital recorders) and software programs to manipulate the outcomes. They also learn how to carry out community research, interviewing techniques, observation and development of life stories.
This project combines online and offline outputs, hence there’s a blog that gives an account of the project development but there are also other types of outputs. For example, in a rural community where we worked with children, the photographs taken by the children themselves were transformed into several games: a Bingo cardboard game, a memory card game and a charade card game.
CECIs: Community Intelligent Centers
http://centroscomunitariosinteligentes.wordpress.com
http://cecisanisidro.wordpress.com
In Costa Rica, the latest national government telecentre project is called Community Intelligent Centers (CECIs). Sulá Batsú is currently training 300 people in the CECIs of 10 communities in Heredia to use social media tools. Since the groups vary in age and background, the training includes a first approach to the computer, regular office package programs and then a whole web 2.0 suite.
Each group is facilitated by a professional in social sciences with high technological skills. Participants develop both an individual product and a collective one. The individual outcome reflects the types of uses each participant may want to do related to his/her work, studies or bussiness. The collective outcome is focused on the discussion about the community, its culture, its means of production, relevant characters and landmarks. The course has a total duration of 40 hours and in each community the facilitator agrees with the participants how they will approach the knowledge process.
Lanza capacity building project
http://gira-lanza.blogspot.com
In this capacity building project, Sulá Batsú provided social media and web 2.0 training to organizations in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
Lanza’s objective was to strengthen the capacity of entrepreneurs and the negotiation and deliberative capacity of local youth in five Central American communities, using ICTs as tools for communication.
With a local partner organization in each country, Sulá Batsú was in charge of the monitoring of the overall project, as well as a facilitator for an online learning network.
Imark Module development
http://www.imarkgroup.org/
iMark (Information Management Resource Kit) is a partnership-based e-learning initiative to train individuals and support institutions and networks world-wide in the effective management of agricultural information. IMARK consists of a suite of distance learning resources, tools and communities on information management.
Sulá Batsú has been localizing iMark learning modules into Spanish, using local examples and local learning resources. Sulá Batsú was was also involved in the authoring of the Social Networking modules both in English and Spanish, with topics such as Social Media for Development, Privacy, Intellectual property and Security, and practical instruction on Social Media tools and services.
We also have written some research materials, for example, we have the upcoming publication of a paper on the role of social media on the political process for the approval of the Central American Free Trade Agreement in Costa Rica, and the mobilization of social change organizations around the referendum process. When that’s published and ready in English I’ll make sure to link it here.
During our research on Free Software communities in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2005 and 2006, I had the chance to work with partner organizations in 6 different countries of the region. In Argentina we worked with several different Free Software groups. At the time there were very different ideas of what a Free Software user group would look like. Would it have a political role, an advocacy role, an educational role? Would it be a support desk for new users, a forum for entrepreneurs? Many of these questions were already present all over LAC, and they were quite apparent in the final drafting of 
In November 2008, 
El libro “