Congrats to Megha Bhagat, Winner of HP Laptop/Printer Bundle Contest that I ran on my blog last month. To enter the contest, readers had to share their "Theory of Change." Megha is a passionate human rights advocate in India and also lawyer. Her blog is here.
Here's her theory of change and social media:
My 8 day visit to India was a whirlwind. I'm still recovering.
Here's why: I attended and presented at the Indian Leadership Forum in Mumbai on Feb 9-11. The Nasscom Foundation in India, the epicenter of nonprofit technology and social innovation, invited me to present as part of the Global CSR track in a session about reaching the Bottom of the Pyramid with technology and social media. I also had the opportunity to facilitate a large group session about whether CEOs should use social media or not and attended a tweet up with David Meerman Scott.
And during breaks from sessions, did a lot of media interviews. Here is a few more clips (1, 2, 3) Thanks to Pink and White Consulting for organizing all this.
Finally, I taught two social media strategy workshops for NGO and CSR practitioners before having two days to get a taste of India and then a 24 hour journey home.
No wonder I am still tired!
You can find my materials and slides on the workshop wiki - CSR and NGO workshops, but always like to do a reflective wrap up post. It always helps me improve practice.
Teaching in an international context
I love designing and delivering trainings on social media and the added challenge of working outside of the US. I've had the opportunity to present this workshop in Romania, UK, Cambodia, Australia, (for a mostly Eastern European audience) and all over the US for different types of nonprofits, different levels, and different perspectives (communications staff, program staff, social entrepreneurs, senior leadership,etc).
When teaching in different contexts, especially outside of the US, you need to make some adjustments to your content. I don't create from scratch, but rather re-frame it. Here are three techniques I use:
First, I try to connect with people in the country or community via social media. If anything, having social media as part of your trainer's tool box makes this an easy task. I used Twitter to get examples of NGOs using social media which resulted in an excellent resource list. Within ten minutes, I connected with social media/ngo experts in India (@apnaIT @paritoshsharma @avinashraghava @gauravonomics @amnigos @neha1989 and a few others). I also did a pre-survey workshop registrants.
Before I get on the plane, I spend a few hours looking over my training materials with a "US Centric Lens." What does that mean? I look at my materials and ask whether or not I have used examples, data, or words/phrases/jokes/humor that are so American that they would not be understood outside of the US? For example, I include information about Forrester's Social TechnoGraphics profiles as part of the social media game which is based on US data. I was lucky enough to discover @gauravonomics work in translating these profiles to an audience in India. Using that information, I was able to customize
I try to keep my curriculum and materials a little fluid. I have a basic structure. I don't over prepare. When I get on site, I focus on listening and soaking up the culture and perspective. I try as much as possible to get into the participants' heads. I'll do the actual customizations when I arrive in country. Doesn't give me a lot free time to play tourist, but I'm there to work.
The last most important is improvisation. It requires listening, thinking on your feet, and being in the moment. I usually prepare a trainer's guide for myself and generally follow it, but also adjust on the spot. And, for discussions, if the truth be told, I jot down a outline while I'm in the room. It takes practice to do well, but I think it improves the learning experience for participants. I am also very transparent with the audience about the challenges of "lost in translation" and include discussion questions like 'How does this translate to an Indian context?"
I faced a major challenge during my time in India. The long plane ride had an effect on my hearing. My ears were clogged and as a result, I had major problems hearing anything with my right ear. Rather than hide, I just let people know. It worked.
Many of my presentations include some visual humor and funny stories. I like those the most, but often have to delete them when working outside the US. Here's where I rely on my host to tell whether or not what I think is funny is actually offensive or disrespectful. Like a stand up comedian, I left on two jokes to see how they played in India, framing it with "this concept might be too American - so if doesn't resonate - that's okay." I was surprised that a number of jokes actually did translate and I had the room laughing.
It's all about the framing ... "Gee I know this might possibly be inappropriate because I don't know your culture, but I don't mean to be disrespectful .. launch into joke."
Corporate Social Responsibility Practitioners
Nasscom Foundation has an impressive Corporate Social Responsibility Program where they work directly with corporations and small business that want to fund social change initiatives. Nasscom provides technical assistance and also manages a knowledge network where best practices and reports are shared. Many of these programs are employee volunteering programs or other social investment programs. Nasscom Foundation also manages an online volunteer matching service and it hosts a Corporate Social Responsibility Track at the Nasscom Conference.
Take a look at Nasscom's Social Innovation Awards and you'll notice these are not all nonprofit programs, but also corporate programs. Take for example IRIS Business Service voter project or Steria's Education program to get a flavor. I'll be bold - we, Americans, could learn a lot.
A big question in this workshop was how can these programs incorporate social media effectively? The participants in this workshop had diverse audiences they were targeting, so it was a bit of challenge, although the social media game is flexible to accommodate these differences. I put together some American examples, including a couple that my Zoetica co-founder, Geoff Livingston, wrote about this week on Mashable. I shared them with the caveat "these examples are very "American" so let's try to translate what may work or not."
There was a very productive conversation. The big difference in India - is that CSR is not cause-marketing or geared towards sales. It is purely focused on social outcomes, although I did hear some business goals. For example, employee volunteer programs do have a business goal in that participants observed that having a robust program attracts talented employees.
Geoff Livingston wrote about authenticity in CSR programs. I really wish he had published this two weeks before my visit. He points that in America, "Ninety percent of companies cannot discern the difference between cause marketing and corporate social responsibility. Altruism often fails or is not thought out. In reality, most companies think, “Yeah, we’ll give some money to charity,” and let their executives figure out which ones. In the social media world, now they just outsource it to their communities (in both good and bad ways)."
The Nasscom Foundation program is geared towards helping corporations understand how to invest in social outcomes and get a social return on investment. Geoff talks about three different approaches used in America (Mission, Problem, and Family). My sense is that most of the CSR practitioners in India use the problem approach.
I was very impressed with the way this group did the small group exercise in the social media game
They were able to adapt it to their own programs. I was also impressed with the report out, not only were they brief and to the point, but they were able to clearly articulate social outcomes in the social media strategy.
NGOS in India
This workshop was for the NGO audience. I had the usual range of small, medium, and large organizations. Some organizations are based in India and some were part of worldwide networks. For example, Habitat for Humanity India and GuideStar India were participants. I also had a range of technology comfort and use levels both personal and organizational - this is actually a good thing because it creates an opportunity for peer learning.
Participants were hoping to use social media for a variety of objectives - including online advocacy, recruit volunteers, and fundraising. Many NGOs in India work in networks, so their social media audience was other NGOS. Other organizations, primarily those that worked in rural areas and the "Bottom of the Pyramid" talked about challenges of different local languages, access to the Internet (electricity for that matter) and technology. I encouraged this group to think about their social media use as a bridge and shared the story of Pratham Books and how Breakthrough, a human rights organization, is using the Extraordinaries application in a creative way.
For the report out, Rufina Fernandez, the CEO of Nasscom Foundation, suggested that they do their report as if they're making a pitch to CEO for funding. I played the part of the CEO and asked the hard questions. I had so much fun doing that ... All of the groups had terrific answers!
Network Weaving With Books and Twitter
I discovered a new form of network weaving: book giveaways. I'm closing the triangle between book winner and author via Twitter to facilitate learning after the workshop. As a blogger, I've been given copies of books to write reviews and have also purchased books myself. After I read the book, I like to give it away on my blog because I hate accumulating. Because I do so many face-to-face trainings, I've been incorporating a book giveaway in every workshop I do. I packed copies Chris Brogan's Trust Agents, Shel Israel's Twitterville, Janet Fouts Social Media Book, and Darren Barefoot's Friends With Benefits. I've encouraged each of the winners to Tweet to the authors.
Pallavi Koli, Catalysts for Social action, Friends with Benefits by Daren Barefoot
Diana Peters, Habitat For Humanity India, Twitterville by Shel Israel
Rajeshree Dutta Kumar, Centre for Science, Development & Media Studies
Pranay Swarup, NASSCOM Foundation
Connecting With Local Trainers, Building Capacity
Whenever I teach workshops, I try to identify people in the community who have knowledge. After all, I'm a visitor and I leave. Communities need local expertise. I try to so hard to find and acknowledge those folks. They're so important.
In the picture above, you will see Pratap Ashutosh who is a talented techie and trainer and has been running hands-on social media clinics for Nasscom Foundation. I left behind my printed cards for the Social Media game. And, of course, created a wiki as a resource. There were several very knowledgeable people in each workshop, like @sbharatam and I acknowledged their expertise to the group. There is no such thing as one expert. You need a community.
I agree with David Wilcox, who introduced me to the social media game - I hope we see some Indian versions of the game.
Next Tiny Steps
The big challenge with training is putting what you learn into practice. That can be difficult with a one-day workshop. One of the technique I use is to ask people to write down on an index card one small step they will take following the workshop. I organize the list in clusters by similar action steps and include a link to a how-to resource. This creates learning clusters.
Evaluation
While I got great verbal feedback from participants, I always do a follow up survey to ask for constructive feedback. This is where the bulk of my learning takes place.
As I was getting ready to go back to the United States, Vicky Davis or CoolCatTeacher on Twitter let me know that she was headed for Mumbai to teach some workshops. I connected her to my friends at Nasscom Foundation. I can't wait to read about her experience and her suggestions for teaching in an international context.
Are you going international? Here's a good list of resources.
I hope the jet lag will lift soon and be back to regular blogging ... reactions? Comments? Learnings? Let me know in the comments.
View more presentations from Beth Kanter.
On Thursday, I was honored to be part of a panel at NASSCOM CSR Track called "Reaching out to the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) Through Technology Services and Media." The moderator was the Seemantinee Khot, CEO, Suzlon Foundation. The other speakers Gaurav Mishra, CEO, 20:20 Social, Vijay Talwar, CEO, William J Clinton Organization.
The phrase "Bottom of the Pyramid" refers to the largest, but poorest segment of the population or the billions people living on less than $2 per day, as first defined in 1998 by Professors C.K. Prahalad and Stuart L. Hart and expanded on their books: The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid and Capitalism at the Crossroads. The phrase “bottom of the pyramid” is used in particular by people developing new models of doing business that deliberately target that demographic, often using new technology.
Khot started the panel asking the audience to reflect on why companies were talking about the bottom of the pyramid and questioned whether technology services should come before basic needs and services. She questioned the
motive for targeting this 'bottom of the pyramid', asking whether this was just marketing. She emphasized that technology services for the bottom of the pyramid need to be designed with their needs in mind, and not to make presumptions.
Vijay Talwar defined the differences between and fine lines between cause marketing and corporate social responsibility programs based on his experience working at Nike. Guarav Mishra showed some examples of how mobile technologies were helping to deliver services to the bottom of the pyramid.
My main point about social media was that it can be used as a bridge between the top and the bottom of the pyramid. I suggested that social media tools can be valuable in connecting professionals working in a particular field or cluster of NGOS with one another. I shared the story of how Pratham Books used Twitter to help get children's books to children in rural India. I also shared a brief case study of Red Cross over the past five years of integrating social media.
A detailed description of the panel and discussion points can be found here by Ashutosh Desai
The NASSCOM India Leadership Forum has multiple tracks based on theme. It also has a track that takes place in a large room with roundtables and a designated discussion topic and facilitator. These sessions are not for presentations, but for disscussion and sharing of ideas. I was asked to facilitate a session on the question, "Should CEOs and Executive Directors Use Social Media?"
In preparation for this session, I asked colleagues here in the US to share their collective wisdom so we could see the US perspective. In addition, during a roundtable on social media at the conference, I was fortunate to meet social media experts in India (@nirav@amnigos @pranavbhasin @paritoshsharma and @avinashraghava ) who shared some examples.
In order for social media to have full impact, it needs to scale within an organization. Your organization's social media strategy should be not implemented by one lonely intern sitting in the corner of your communications and marketing department.
You may be wondering if that means that your executive director and CEO needs to write a blog or have their own Twitter account to share their wisdom. I think it depends.
There are definitely some benefits to having your executive director or CEO being present on social media channels. They can provide a human face to your organization's work, a unique viewpoint, and serve as a thought leader in your field. And if your organization finds itself in the middle of groundswell or if there is a major news event or a public relations crisis happens and it is being discussed on Twitter or other social media spaces, your CEO can join it without having to get up to speed.
But it is also important to understand that there are definitely challenges to be overcome as well. These includes investing the time to make it successful because a CEO presence on social media is nothing that should be "ghost" written. It has to be authentic, reflect the CEO's personality. There is also the issue of comfort - both with the technology and being transparent.
Here are some good examples of CEO and Executive Director use of social media in the US social sector:
Holly Ross is the executive director of NTEN, the nonprofit technology network in the US. She uses Twitter to share what's going on at NTEN, announce new initiatives, and have conversations with NTEN members. She often uses Twitter to get ideas and feedback on NTEN's various programs. Checking her Twitter stream and sharing some tweets probably takes her 15 to 20 minutes a day and is part of daily routine.
Holly also shares more of her in-depth thinking about the nonprofit technology field on NTEN's blog. It is not a "CEO" blog where she writes daily, but a blog that includes the voices of NTEN staff and members. This is a good option for CEO's who don't have the time or bandwidth to write a whole blog along, but still want to be present in the blogosphere.
Holly's Twitter account is her personal but it is clearly branded as NTEN. Even the user name, "ntenhross" incorporates her organization's brand. This is a good example of a "Blended profile."
Scott Harrison is the CEO of charity:water. charity:water has a huge Twitter following of over 1 million fans and supporters and has a great deal of expertise using social media to leverage fundraising and raise awareness of their work. The Twestival and Charity Water's house social network are stellar examples. As CEO of
charity:water, Scott is often visiting charity:water projects all over the work. Through his twitter account, he is able to easily first-hand reports and photos of the organization's work. He is using Twitter for donor accountability. Scott uses his personal account to Tweet which is separate from the charity:water organizational account.
There are a couple of corporate Foundations where we have good examples of CEO's using social media effectively - in this case Twitter.
Steve Case is the co-founder of AOL and now Chairman of The Case Foundation and of Revolution (investor in Revolution Money, Exclusive Resorts, Miraval, Zipcar, Waterfront, etc). His Twitter stream is where he shares what he reading about philanthropy and technology but also his travels to different social sector and technology conferences. You can regularly see him discussing issues on Twitter with other thought leaders and journalists. His Twitter account is his personal account, but he identifies himself with his foundation and businesses.
Reeta Roy, president and CEO of the MasterCard Foundation, is sending tweets from her site visit to Uganda and Kenya. As background, the mandate of the $2 billion Foundation is to enable people living in poverty to improve their lives by expanding their access to microfinance and education. Reeta is currently in Uganda, where she’s learning first-hand about the Foundation’s partnerships and programs. While the account is the Foundation's branded Twitter account, she is using it for a project to report on their work in the field.
This is an example of a good idea of how to get your CEO started tweeting. Have them Tweet from the organizational branded account for a specific project. This will help learn the work flow, have more comfort, and see first hand if the social media presence provides a benefit for the organization's work.
At a roundtable, I had to chance to discuss this question with social media experts from India. They pointed out a couple of examples and I hope to learn more later today.
Anand Mahindra s the vice chairman and managing director, Mahindra Group, a large corporation in India. He tweets about many different things, from his company to his family and travels. He interacts with customers addressing their questions and complaints. Take a look at his Twitter stream and you will see personal insights, news about his companies, and insights about social media.
Mahesh Murthy is founder and CEO of Pinstorm, a digital marketing firm. He also writes a column for the Wall Street Journal. He uses Twitter to share information about company, connect with people, and to research for writing his blog posts or encourage conversations in the comments of his blog.
When Should Your CEO or Executive Director Just Say No To Social Media
Of course, using social media may not be for every CEO or Executive Director. If they can't sustain their presence on Twitter or blogging, they should stay away. This isn't to say that they can't have an assistant who might do some of the scanning and flag items to respond to, but if a CEO starts engaging with people on social media channels and then there is silence - that is not a good thing.
It is also important that CEOs and Executive don't just tweet or blog for the sake of doing it. They should must have someting to day that is of value or use it for relationship building. Finally, if the CEO cannot take public criticism or wants to have control over what followers or commenters say, then they shouldn't use it and delegate the role someone else in the company or organization.
Tips
1. Listen First: Before jumping in, it is useful to do some listening first. Are there other organizations or businesses in your sector where CEOs or Executive Directors are using social media. Find those and review how they are using it.
2. Safe Place to Practice: It is a good idea to do a little bit of coaching with your CEO or Executive Director to show them how Twitter works and to avoid too much "public learning." Some organizations use software like Yammer which is an internal Twitter to practice before setting up on Twitter.
3. Get Past Information Overload: It is important to let busy CEOs know that they don't have to be on Twitter 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is also a good idea because the thought of opening up another communications channel might be overwhelming for a CEO is already concerned about email and information overload. Help them learn a quick and efficient way to use Twitter.
4. Pick a Small Project First: Before launching a CEO blog or CEO Twitter account, it might make sense for the CEO to start off using the organization's branded account or blog, particularly if they are not very comfortable with the tools or plan to devote a small amount of time.
5. Share Unique CEO/Executive Director Insights: CEOs have perspectives that others in the organization may not. Whether using Twitter or writing blog posts, they should share their thought leadership, know how, and vision with their fans and followers. A good way to do this is share what they are reading and learning.
6. Let Them Be Who They Are: CEOs and executive directors who are using social media, above, just need to be themselves and let their personality shine through.
Resources:
8 Nonprofit CEOs Who Tweet by Beth Kanter
Foundations That Tweet - Different Patterns by Beth Kanter
CEOs Take To Twitter from Businessweek
The CEO's Secret Handbook from Money Magazine
CEOs Are Social Media Slackers from Wired Magazine
First CEO to Tweet Resignation from New York Times
The CEO's of Social Media from India Leadership Forum
The Many Challenges of a CEO Blog from Jeremiah Owyang
CEOs Must Use Social Media from Community Organizer 2.0
If Chris Brogan was CEO of An Airline and Used Social Media
CEOs Who Tweet
Lighting of the lamp is a traditional way to begin a conference here in India.
I'm still very jet-lagged and adjusting to both the time zone and culture in Mumbai. I was lucky enough to have a front row seat in the reserved section with laptop and digital camera in hand to cover the opening ceremonies on Twitter.
Following the #nilf was an excellent way to gain a better of understanding of what was happening on the stage.
The opening session started with the lighting of a lamp and welcome from NASSCOM officials to the crowded ballroom fill with 1600 conference attendees from 27 countries, including a delegation from Pakistan. You could feel the energy in the room - a convergence of IT leadership from business, government, social innovation, and nonprofit sectors. In the US, many of IT conferences are often silos of these different audiences. Nasscom celebrates a wide open conversation and spreading thought leadership between the various sectors represented.
Chairman @nasscom Mr Bhasin welcomed and expanded on the theme of the conference. He sees many opportunities on the horizon. He asks questions about how IT can accomplish the following social impacts:
The NASSCOM Social Innovation Honours recognizes excellence and encourages innovation in social development initiatives. It showcases projects that demonstrate best practices in technology in the area of social change. It not a PR gimmick, the idea is to inspire the use of ICT across sectors for authentic social change.
The judging criteria looks at both processes as well as results. On the process side, they look for projects that incorporate a systems based transfer of knowledge across public, private, and nonprofit sectors. They define social innovation as a product, process, or a technology - as well as a principle. The latter can be an idea, piece of legislation, a social movement, an intervention, or some combination. There are six different categories covering nonprofits, business, corporate social responsibility, e-governance, multi-stakeholder partnerships, and environmental project.
There was a large volume of applications. A short list of 18 nominees selected by a panel of highly respected
IT experts and leaders in the field who met via video conference. The awards has six categories:
1: Non-Profits
2: Business Innovation for Development
3: Corporate Social Responsibility
4: e-Governance
5: Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships
6: Environmental Project
The overall goal of the award is to inspire creativity and imagination to bring about social change for ICT in development.
One of the e-governance winners - Information and Public Relations Department, Orissa "Making governance efficient, transparent, and faith-inducing with e-correspondence."
The full list of winners has been posted on the NASSCOM blog. The winners include a variety of agricultural rural projects, healthcare, and more.
I arrived in Mumbai on Monday morning in the very early morning hours (3:00 am) after a trip that lasted nearly 24 hours and hopped across 12 time zones. I greeted at the airport with a sign that read "Nasscom Leadership India Forum - Miss Kanter." The driven took me to the Grand Hyatt Hotel saying that during the day the traffic is much different. The conference hotel one of the largest hotels in Mumbai with many rooms and a large convention area.
After going through security to enter the hotel and registering, I got into my room and then I crashed.
Although my body still thinks it is the middle of the night, I got this morning to register before the opening session. If there is one thing that is unverisal around the world - it's that Technology Conferences have schwag.
And the Nasscom India Leadership Forum is not different. Here's a quick look at the schwag I found inside my conference bag:
The conference bag is a beige canvas messenger bag with leather accents. The flap is imprinted with the conference name.
The bag was filled with brochures and other goodies from conference sponsors, including branded items like a pen, pad, T-shirt, and more. It also included the NASSCOM official conference book that was a convenient weight and size to carry around for reference (6 x 9).
A really useful item I found tucked in my conference bag was the conference "Facebook," a booklet about the size of a business card that had photos, titles, and sessions for the speakers.
And of course my conference badge. The title I entered in the registration form was something like, "Blogger, Trainer, Consultant, CEO Zoetica, and Scholar" got translated into "Social Media Expert."
Well off to the opening session followed by the Social Innovation Honors which recognizes innovation in the use of information technology that brings about positive and sustainable social change.
More conference information and reports here: Twitter and conference blog and hashtag: #nilf
In less than 24 hours, I will be boarding a plane bound for Mumbai to present at the NASSCOM conference called NASSCOM India Leadership where I'll be on a panel on NGO and Social Media as well as lead a discussion at an unconference on whether CEO/Executive Director's should use social media. I will also have an opportunity to lead two social media strategy workshops which features the Social Media Game.
I've using the social media game as a teaching method for nonprofits experience a strategy brainstorm that links to a communications objective or theory of change. It starts with audience identification, followed by selecting tools. My version of the game includes "life happens" cards where groups gain points if they solve certain problems like staff resistance or define metrics. I've played the game outside of the US - bringing it to Cambodia, UK, Australia, and Romania.
I've been obsessing about the "People" cards which are based on Forrester's Social TechnoGraphics profiles. My cards all have US data. I have seen the framework used in other countries. For example, when I did this workshop in Australia, I met Dr. Linda Kelley who had just finished an analysis of the technographics of Australian museum goers.
What to do? Tell them to ignore the numbers, but focus on the profiles? Make assumptions about social media participation in India.
Kismet! One of fellow panelists is Gaurav Mishra who I very much respect and he has been a guest blogger for me. And then it clicked, he did an analysis of Forrester's Social Technographic profiles in India using secondary data. So, using the information in his post, I was able to create a translation of the people cards for India!
Social Media was at one point of time just about what we read or saw in news or heard over the radio. Then came in social media as an effective mechanism to be able to catalyse change.Maybe the attention its got is relatively new but no denying that its become today such a strong change maker.
I am a lawyer by profession and presently a student of human rights law in my masters at India. Going back to my under graduation days i can say social media helped me bring together people for a cause time and again. Today i use it effectively with maybe another handful of lawyers spread over the country who communicate via mails and help in their own small ways . My theory for a change has some linkages to my law specific profession:
1. How to get Communities like the litigating, practicing lawyers effectively engaging on social media: It is still a fact that in India the lawyers who are practicing,are working in firms have a very very closed view on usage of social media tools. It is important to get them initiated into usage of social media. This becomes important for pro bono services. Some lawyers are ready to help people in distress in pro bono cases and in India you need a strong network of such lawyers. Getting the practitioners all across connected via social media tools ensures that this network is able to deliver services for the masses who donot have enough means for access to justice. Today i am a part of a small group like this, but we are people who are in a younger age bracket and have been using social media for sometime. The change is needed in the whole fraternity where in the sensitivity and readiness of lawyers to take up pro bono cases is encouraged by teaching them how effective social media tools can be for conversing with other like minded professionals etc.
2. Breaking the Myths about Social media: For a community like the lawyers its important to introduce them to the new age social media and what it has come to mean. It is important to make this community to realize that their services can bring about a change in societal access to justice delivery system and more importantly that social media is now not a waste of time but an effective tool for sharing experiences and getting motivated by work that others in their community do. Even as social media experts/trainers engage with professionals from all walks of community it is important that this community is also engaged in breaking their myths, apprehensions etc.
3. Every individual is a change maker: My experience with social media tools has been that conversations, discussions, arguements shared on discussion boards, forums, groups has brought the unconventional professionals to come ahead with ideas that can bring change. A lot of times these discussions have brought ahead an individual who probably would not engage in a certain type of case but is inspired and motivated by following the discusisons and gives his input which becomes an important idea for people like us who are into human rights practicing. It is therefore pertinent to constantly realize that, to bring together an effective change maker group of lawyers who are ready to provide justice delivery services, every lawyer we train in social media tools or even get introduces to such tools becomes an individual who can have an amazing idea.
For me personally i can envisage a system where in we have trained lawyers from all walks of practice in India, in effective communication via social media and such engagement can bring about at least a start of coming together of ideas, brain storming of changes needed and more importantly networks of professionals who are readily available for getting justice to the under served masses.
Megha Bhagat
Advocate
LLM student, NLSIU, Bangalore(Human Rights), India
[email protected]