http://www.nextbillion.net/swimbrazil Comments for "Learning to Swim - Back in Brazil" en http://www.nextbillion.net/swimbrazil#comment-229 An interesting innovation in Brazil that would be useful for this discussion is the use of participatory budgeting to set local development priorities. There's an academic paper describing this proces in Brazil at <a href="http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp149.pdf" title="http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp149.pdf">http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp149.pdf</a>. Evan<br class="clear" /> Thu, 08 Sep 2005 14:54:31 -0500 Evan Thomas Paul comment 229 at http://www.nextbillion.net http://www.nextbillion.net/swimbrazil <a title="Catalytic Communities' Casa in Rio" href="http://www.catcomm.org/"><img width="200" vspace="5" hspace="5" align="right" title="Catalytic Communities' Casa in Rio" src="http://www.comcat.org/images/casa/casa%20alone1.jpg" /></a><i>Originally posted to the <a href="http://www.brinq.com/workshop/" title="BRINQ Workshop - Innovation at Play">BRINQ Workshop</a>, Patrick Donohue is a member of the <a href="http://www.BRINQ.com/kenya/" title="Base of the Pyramid Protocol Pilot in Kenya">Base of the Pyramid Protocol</a> pilot team, currently on a side project swimming in Brazil.</i><p /><p>I’ve been very happy with how far my Portuguese has come, especially after having been gone from Brazil for so long, yet my ability to communicate here is like being able to swim in a gentle sea, quando as coisas estão tranqüilas, tudo bom! (<i>When things are calm, all is good!</i>) But while sitting in on <a href="http://www.catcomm.org/" title="Catalytic Communties">CatComm’s</a> open forum, a meeting for feedback from community partners and constituents, I experienced a very different world of linguistic aquatics… visualize the crashing waves at Ipanema, Brazil’s most famous of beaches, where the people are beautiful but the weak stay out of the water. </p><p>Last night, a dozen of us met inside the Casa do Gestor Catalisador, CatComm´s home and technology hub in Rio, located on the edge of the downtown, in a historic district by the bay and the center of the old slave trade. Around us on the Casa walls, on mounted wood or printed t-shirts, hung windows into the world of the favelas, the works of Brazilian photographer <a href="http://www.favelarte.com/" title="Favelarte - a project by Maurício Hora">Maurício Hora</a>, a man with an incredible capacity to capture the spirit of place on film. Maurício sat to my left, Theresa to my right, the rest were spread out in a circle around the room, community leaders and artists, passionate Brazilians all; not quite what my beach and bar Portuguese had prepared me for.</p><br class="clear" /><p><a href="http://www.nextbillion.net/swimbrazil">read more</a></p> http://www.nextbillion.net/swimbrazil#comment Strategy Successful Models Sat, 03 Sep 2005 21:38:38 -0500 _Patrick Donohue 1302 at http://www.nextbillion.net