Cambodia Calling: Collaboration on the Internet

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Collaboration on the Internet

I am finally able to have active links on my blog! Yay! I have not been adding active links cos Blogger's "link" icon does not work for some reason. So I end up just adding the entire URL but readers have to cut and paste the URLs onto their browser if they want to read the linked article.

But the other day I quoted wiseGEEK for the explanation of how broadband satellite works. The very next day I got an email from Catherine in the US who works for the company that owns wiseGeek. She thanked me for quoting them, but could I please put an active link to wiseGEEK?

I explained I was having problems and Catherine very kindly taught me the HTML coding for adding active links! It is exactly the same HTML coding which appears when I click on Blogger's "link" icon, but for some reason, manually typing it works but clicking on the icon doesn't.

Anyway the point is that Cambodia Calling will now be a better experience for readers. And all thanks to someone on the other side of the world.

This is what I love best about the Internet -- its potential for collaboration. An excellent example is Wikipedia, a collaborative effort where people all over the world share knowledge for free. Open Source Software, free software written and improved on by a community of programmers and developers, is another example.

In fact, 24th September was World Day Against Software Patents. I joined many others in the petition because software patents have become so wide-reaching and trivial, it discourages innovation, especially from individuals and smaller companies.

From Stop Software Patents.org

Brussels, 2nd September 2008 — A global coalition of more than 80 software companies, associations and developers has declared the 24th of September to be the "World Day Against Software Patents". Five years ago, on 24 September 2003, the European Parliament adopted amendments to limit the scope of patent law and thereby protect small software companies from the harmful effects of broad and trivial software patents. A global petition asking to effectively stop software patents worldwide will be launched on 24 September 2008, together with specific additional requests for certain regions such as Europe, the United States or India....

...Marco Schulze, manager of Nightlabs, a professional supplier of ticketing solutions based in Freiburg, Germany, says: "Small Software companies cannot afford to go to court or pay damages. Who is this software patent system for?"

Jean-Paul Smets, founder of the Noepatents petition in 2000 and CEO of Nexedi software publication, considers that "European Union is the world most friendly region for software innovators. Unlike in the US, Software Entrepreneurs can focus on R&D and do not need to worry about the risks of costly patent litigations or absurd software patents trolls."

Richard Stallman, Founder of GNU Project and Free Software Foundation, says "Software patents are a threat to all software developers and all software users. Just one patent can ruin years of work, and no software project is safe: with each design decision, there is a chance you will step on a patent that will explode and destroy your project. To make software development safe for the developers and the users, we must abolish software patents."

Bruce Perens, creator of the Open Source Definition, and advisor to governments and industries, says "Software patents are a drag on innovation in the countries that have implemented them, vastly increasing the cost of producing real products in the proprietary software world because they replace innovation with litigation. But we're most concerned with them because they are entirely incompatible with Open Source, which is the strongest driver of innovation in software development today."

You can find out more about the impact of software patents on your life and how you can change this on the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure website.

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Some argue that "Shopping is more important than voting", and that the disposition of money is the most basic role we play in any system of economics. Some theorists believe that it is the clearest way that we express our actual moral choices, i.e., if we say we care about something but continue to buy from parties that have a high probability of risk of harm or destruction of that thing, we really don't care about it; we are practicing a form of simple hypocrisy." - Ethical Consumerism, Wikipedia

THE BLOOM MANIFESTO

1. We believe in the right of all people to a decent life, free of poverty and with access to education

2. We believe you will be enriched helping the poor

3. We believe women hold up half the sky

4. We believe workers should always be paid a fair wage

5. We believe if you knew the truth, you would not be an accessory to the exploitation of workers

6. We believe exploitation is evil

7. We believe in the power of good over evil

8. We believe in the power of the individual to bring about change

9. We believe your bag is a reflection of you - are you really a sheep?

10. We believe quality is worth paying for

11. We believe in love at first sight - at least where our bags are concerned!

12. We believe in life, liberty and the pursuit of handbags!

WHAT IS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE?

A social enterprise has as its central objective, a social or environmental purpose, and not the obsession with profits. Yes, of course we want to be profitable, but it is so we can hire even more people in unfortunate circumstances, and offer them a shot at a better life, and not because we want to "increase shareholder value" or for the sake of lining our personal pockets. In fact, the only foreign staff (and founder/funder) does not get a salary from Bloom.

At Bloom, our mission is to alleviate poverty and save the environment at the same time, through our recycled bags.

As a social enterprise in Cambodia, we are competing with many NGOs on the one hand (which get donations) and for want of a better word, capitalistic businesses (which drive down costs in an effort to maximise profits). We recognise and accept the challenges that face all business, but are committed to principles of Fair Play, and will NEVER sacrifice those principles in order to be competitive. This means, for instance, we will never sacrifice workers' pay just so our bags will be cheaper. The average pay at Bloom today is 2.13 times the market rate.

So please, before you ask us to discount our bags, remember that we are not a minimum wage factory; we are a social enterprise. If you want a cheap factory-made bag, Bloom is not what you are looking for. If you agree that workers (where-ever they are--Singapore, Germany, France, the US) should always be paid fairly and are not here to produce goods and services at low wages for the profit of big business, then please consider Bloom. Bloom bags are all hand-made by our small team who spend our working hours dreaming up and making bags.

All Bloom profits go to our Khmer staff and to growing Bloom. Ultimately the aim is for Bloom to be a workers' cooperative, where workers own, manage, grow the business and share the profits.

WHO WE ARE

Bloom is a social enterprise established in Sept 2006 with the intention of providing fair-paying jobs to abandoned, widowed and divorced Cambodian women. Bloom is not a factory. We are a small workshop of nine people who work closely as a team to produce original, quality handmade bags made from recycled rice and fish feed bags.

Every Bloom Bag is meticulously designed, cut, glued and sewn by the Bloom team in our workshop in Phnom Penh. Each bag is handmade with love and attention to detail (the Bloom team really enjoys making bags!), resulting in beautiful, unique bags we are sure you will love and your friends will want!

All Bloom Bags are handmade by our team. We do not outsource to other sewers because we want to be in control of the supply chain, to ensure that everyone involved in making a Bloom Bag is paid fairly. There is no middleman taking a cut and passing on the work to another.

Please Visit Bloom's new workshop off Norodom Boulevard in Phnom Penh and our retail outlets. Bloom is next to Warehouse Pub in the Old Market Area in Siem Reap and at No.808 Russian Market, Phnom Penh.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Collaboration on the Internet

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