Written By admin123 - 24 September, 2009

Bangalore Design Praja Need Help Praja related Praja news

Recent comments and messages from a few members indicate that it may be time for us to take some next steps to "do more". We are trying to see if there are good and practical ideas on "what next" and "do more", this is the place-holder posts to capture your input.

Doing things in consultation with members fits in our culture as we wish to be open and transparent community limited only by practical constraints of time, money and the initial thoughts that started it all. So here is some context before we kick this off.

First, a quick list of the thoughts that bind the set of about a dozen people who joined hands to build what we have today.

• Praja is neither an NGO, nor a journalistic venture. There is space between polarized NGOs, and pure media. NGOs consist of "converted" people (already know a lot), and media prefers to share information and versions that sell. We don't know enough, and can understand stuff a lot better by sharing our observations.
• This is primarily a place for aware citizens to "network" and "talk sense". We don't belittle discussions. Talking sense as in showing willingness to understand as opposed to mere cribbing is the critical first step towards becoming active and aware citizen.
• Going beyond discussions is left to the members. There is no pressure - talk as much sense as you want. On the other hand, you can't come talk, and then demand or expect someone else to do the walking.
• Talking sense, and creating useful content in terms of requirements or factually bright suggestions can lead to indirect influence. More sense we talk, more chances that we will be heard by those in a position to do something with it. We truly believe that positive and constructive talk tends to find its way.
• Beyond this, we do our best to make it possible for members to group together and connect with local bodies. These connects are expected to be carried forward by enthusiastic members themselves. Our long term goal is to build creative, loosely structured, transparent and collaborative ways of facilitating these connects. Remember, there is a fine line between "my suggestion" and "our suggestion". Sending links to consolidated quality discussions (representing a group) would work better than each of us sending our personal ideas to govt email addresses.
• Ideally, with time, we would connect with NGOs, or "do-ers" to direct (or funnel) those who want to go beyond discussions (numbers are usually thin here)
• For those members who will like to collaborate on projects here itself, we are building project management type systems, with time, we will invite NGOs to make use of our tools to run (and publicize) their projects.

Next, and pretty important, a quick note on how it all works today:

• An early set of people built the website. They continue to maintain it, on volunteering basis.
• There is now a Society consisting of donors who pool in money to support 1 full time engineer to help run this Internet based community.
• Praja "donors" is a closed group right now, but we will soon open it up to all registered users so that Praja lovers can donate to support and keep this community running.

Bottom-line - be aware of the thoughts behind building this place, and think practical aspects of implementing what you would suggest.

Look forward to a healthy discussion, this time about Praja itself.

the book idea - a compromise

sanjayv - 24 September, 2009 - 03:50

[off from this comment]

Well, this book idea is a compromise I guess.  Agreed that creating gyan takes time, but we have to start taking the analysis to the next level.  

One thing I am noticing is that there is quite a bit of repetition of discussions and sometimes the same concept can get repeated over and over several times.  The other thing I notice is that lot of folks put out ideas/ whitepapers etc. All that is nice, but we tend to get stuck at a certain level of detail or dimensionality.  That is very natural given the nature of this group.  What I am hoping for is that we go through several rounds of discussions, summarizing after each round and increasing the quality and depth of analysis with each round.  Some ideas may drop off along the way.  But then at the end of it, we will have something really concrete. A solution with analysis and data backing it up! In short, hoping for the 1+1=4 sort of effect.

Hope that does not sound too ambitious.  I am game if you want me to help sort some threads into "books". Go ahead and give me the appropriate privileges and a short tutorial.

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We should move to the next level

kbsyed61 - 24 September, 2009 - 03:53

[context: this discussion]

Sanjayv,

You are right on when you said we should move to new level from present discussion. The next level would be each one of us who have listed their models should now go one step further and add more details and real examples. They might choose one area of the city and show it on paper how their model fits the case. I see 2 ways to do this.

One, with a Skype meeting or next monthly meeting wherein SB, Murali, Naveen and other presenting their models with real examples. It could be 4-5 slide presentation from each one of the presenter not exceeding more than 5 minutes of presentation.

Second, by reaching out to experts like reaching out to Central Institute of Road Transport, Pune and sponsoring a detailed technical proposal to change PT in B'lore. I am sure by now we have good reputation to solicit funds for this sponsorship. Anybody game for this?

Syed

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The Gyan thought from n

silkboard - 24 September, 2009 - 03:58

n's thought was about better use of the dormant "Gyan" feature: http://praja.in/en/blog/n/2009/08/30/gyan

"Been meaning to write this for a looong time - not intended to be personal.  Posting it here as there are (I assume) multiple admins who can all see this post. Some of the below may be very difficult / in the works etc.

Am trying to figure out the direction of the site. Does it want to be similar to skycrapercity forums where people just post, or get more technical? In other words, my focus is on the "know" or gyan part of praja. ..."

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The other thing that binds us is

s_yajaman - 24 September, 2009 - 06:53

That we all genuinely care for our city's well being.  We would all love to see Bangalore as a good place to live in (and not just a city with "great infrastructure" a.k.a lots of roads and flyovers).

My own thinking is that we ought to connect with bureaucrats (many of them are well meaning, knowledgeable people) and hear them out and put our point of view.  But most of us have day jobs and if they expect that we will solve their problems, I think it is unrealistic.

I think with the collective wisdom we have here and our spread across the city, we can do a good job of tracking what is working and what is not.  The discussions help bring out different aspects of the problem.  I think the logical next is to understand (either via direct discussions where possible or through RTI) on what the barriers to setting things right are.  As citizens this is our duty - to ensure public money is well spent. 

Srivathsa

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Citizen lobbying - paid service

swamy - 25 September, 2009 - 07:08

Many people here say in comments - please tell this to BMTC, please take this up with BBMP. Make this into a paid service. For a nominal charge (Rs 100-200 whatever) you deliver complaints suggestions and all to BMTC BBMP BWSSB and all.

Get proof from BMTC BBMP BWSSB and all after delivering the complaint suggestion.

Premium version of this - Higher charge. Follow up also included, and promise minimum one written reply for them.

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