Wokai Adventures

The power of P2P & EduFire

Courtney

There is another innovator out there in the person-to-person web world: EduFire

EduFire is connecting people who want to learn and people who want to teach. Anyone can be a teacher. Anyone can be a student. You choose the topic and you connect via their online video platform.

EduFire is a company to watch. It is laying its foundation on user's desire to consume. We love to consume. We love to learn. Its the very reason the internet exists in the first place. Its why we tune in to random bloggers RSS feeds. Its why we subscribe to newsletters on sites we like. Its why we read our friends status updates on Facebook. We want to know it all. And we want it "all" to be available at our fingertips 24/7.

EduFire knows this. They also know about our desire to share.  Our desire to take our knowledge and pay it forward to the next guy. The internet thrives on sharing. Sites like Wikipedia and Youtube rely on it. And Edufire is hoping to cut its teeth on it as well.

But does EduFire have all the answers? Does it know how we hate to waste time? I can't stand not being able to find what I want. And I can't stand wasting my time on something not worthwhile. Of crucial importance is for EduFire to figure out how to create an easily searchable site and a feeback mechanism. I should be able to find what I want when I want it. I should also be able to reward the good tutors and black list the bad.

What can Wokai learn from EduFire? 

1. Structure, but not too structured - I like that you can learn anything and teach anything on EduFire. It has created a matrix of structure based on users demands and supply, not based on what it thinks users want. Wokai needs to remember this on its information portal.

2. Videos rule - We could read ANY of the content on EduFire from a book. But who likes to read? Video is much more interactive. It is also much more intuititive. We learn by doing. And we have learned by doing way before we learned by reading. The basics work. Lets remember to do that with Wokai. Movies, not pdfs, to share.

Xiong Ning's last words to Muhammad Yunus

Courtney

"Let the poor find their dignity in labor; participate in social affairs equally; and create their own destinies through their own efforts." - Xiong Ning, June 26, 2007

Xiong Ning wrote that in a letter to Professor Yunus just before she was killed in a car accident on her way to distribute disaster releif supplies to the poor in Qinghai .

The letter goes on: 

" As a Chinese person, I love my country very much and I shall "fight" like a soldier to change the status of China's poor people. Here I am wondering how I can start a Chinese Grameen Bank under present national conditions, and how this Chinese Grameen Bank, like your Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, is not just a bank, but it can care about all aspects of poor people. Let the poor find their dignity in labor; participate in social affairs equally; and create their own destinies through their own efforts."

 

And just one year later,  Muhammad Yunus received that letter and responded:

Xiong Ning's passion for poverty alleviation reminds me of why we started Wokai. It is about helping people who do not have the resources to help themselves. It is not about the day-to-day trials and tribulations we face as a start-up non-profit: "What is the next fundraiser?" , "How do we recruit more volunteers?" "When will our website be done?", but instead about the end game: putting more capital in more people's hands to provide them with the opportunity to change the path of their existence.

Thank you Xiong Ning for reminding me of what it is all about. And thank you Muhammad Yunus for elevating Xiong Ning's story - and the need for China microfinance - to the world.

Day 18 - Website battle scars

Casey

I'm sitting here at my computer about an hour away from ending my Thursday workday. Today has been eventful day to say the least. George, who has been with us for 9 months, just returned from a 6 week stint back in England, Chris, a new Wokai intern from U Michigan started this morning and Li Guang, the junior developer on our website, joined us this afternoon to start working at the Wokai office today.

The website has been a major theme for me over the past few days. On Tuesday, we were supposed to do the second round of Alpha (bug) testing on the Wokai website. Four of us were going through test cases and looking for bugs on the site. What we were finding weren't bugs as much as features that were missing all over the site. After about an hour, it became clear to me that state of our site development hadn't yet reached the stage where we should be Alpha testing, instead, Ran Xin, Li Guang, and I should be finishing the development and then we should start Alpha testing. Over the course of a few minutes, I went from thinking we were two weeks into Alpha testing to realizing that we were two weeks away from starting Alpha testing.

[Imagine me frustrated...what's funny is when I went to search google images under "frustrated" a third of the images that came up had people throwing computers]

What's been confusing, and why I didn't realize this before, was that my tech mentors had been telling me that a site only has to be around 80% completed to start testing. What I didn't realize was that 80% has many meanings. We are definetly 80%, if not more more like 90%, done with the site, but, given the way that our developers are building the site, in which they're working on everything simultaneously, for us that means that every feature is still 10% away from actually working right.

The light at the end of the tunnel is that the process of finding all of the holes made us see how we could improve the logic and structure of the site, and now the programmers are grinding ahead. When we launch we'll have a much stronger site than we would have if we hadn't been continually rearchitecting our systems through the course of development and somehow we'll pull off a completed and bug tested site in time for live Beta testing next month. This is a great learning process, I'm sure future developments will seem like a breeze compared to building the site from scratch, but man, is this frustrating.

New Blog Features and Video Inspiration

Leslie Forman

Leslie is leading Wokai's online social media outreach.  She lives in San Francisco. 

I've been working on making this blog more accesible and interactive.  So far I've added an RSS feed, a Jiglu tag cloud, ShareThis buttons, a favorite posts section, and re-organized links.  I'd like to thank Brian Singh and Jordan Halpern-Leistner from Penn for their in-depth blog viral marketing strategy and family friend Elise Bauer for her helpful presentation on building blog traffic. 

What do you think of these new features?  Are they helpful?  Too busy for your taste?  We really appreciate your feedback. 

I'm also in the process of creating a video explain Wokai's vision, as Courtney described here.  The Girl Effect is still my favorite video online, but I've recently come across two more that have inspired my creative process. 

350.org is an online global initiative to fight global warming.  (The name 350.org stands for 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide, the maximum concentration for a healthy and thriving planet.)  I met its co-coordinator Jamie Henn at a recent event.  Check out this video:

I really like how this video explains a complex concept in simple, concrete terms, that people all over the world can understand.  I love the combination of urgency and simplicity.  I think that cartoons are an especially effective medium for explaining global warming, but I'm not sure if they'd be as effective for China microfinance.  Perhaps for a later video...

Today I also discovered this video, from The Green Children Foundation, which provides a simple and personal introduction to microfinance in China. 

I like the simple, human aspects of this video, though it leaves me wondering about the specifics of the program.  Where in China is this?  How did the man learn to build irrigation systems?  Who is the blonde girl and what is her role in the projects?  (With a bit of research I learned that The Green Children is a band from Norway and she is a singer, but still, it leaves me wanting to find out more about how these projects work...) 

I see some common themes in all three of these videos: strong music, accessible stories, short videos, a clear connection between the viewer and the video's subject. 

We are looking for a musician for our video, which will to explain Wokai's vision to people who are not yet familiar with microfinance and/or China. I am envisioning a one-instrument piece.  It does not need to be an original, but I think it should be recorded or mixed with the video in mind for maximum impact.  I think that a guitar, violin, harp, or piano could work well... though I am no musician!  Do you know a talented musician who might be interested? 

Diagnosing my Founder’s Syndrome

Casey  

Since we brought on Naomi as Wokai’s COO, I have recently discovered that, over the past 18 months, I have come down with an acute case of Founder’s Syndrome.  I share the classic symptoms of CEOs from millions of organizations ranging from 2 person nonprofit start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. What I find most fascinating is that these traits are petty far from my natural character and went completely unnoticed for the past year and a half.

Check out Wikipedia's definition of Founder's Syndrome:

"Founder's syndrome is a label normally used to refer to a pattern of negative or undesirable behavior on the part of the founder(s) of an organization. The term is anecdotal/unofficial and does not actually refer to a medical syndrome. Founder's syndrome is most often associated with non-profit organizations especially those where there has only been one person leading the organization or the board of directors since its inception. The syndrome can affect for-profit organizations, but enterpeneurial activities necessarily revolve around an individual or group and tend to continue so as long as the founder or group is able to compete effectively in the commercial world.

This phenomenon often occurs after the initial growth of an non-profit organization, when its mission evolves beyond what its founder originally had in mind; this creates conflict between newcomers, who want the organization to adapt, and the founder, who wants to keep things the way they were."

Here are some of my symptoms:

•    Being bossy instead of being the boss

As I listened to myself speak in our Friday meetings over the past two weeks, it was evident that I had crossed the line from being the boss to being plain bossy. While I might have been able to mask my bossy-side managing young college interns, this weakness has become painfully clear now that all of my coworkers are my peers who would be my equals or even cooler than me if we were to meet as strangers at a bar or dinner party.

•    My-way-or-the-highway-ism

We are a pretty talkative group in the office. Over the course of our conversations, I started noticing the pattern that I am always the first to respond to a question or comment, even when it turns out that I am wrong. It looks like I have the casebook Founder’s Syndrome symptom of always having to be right, even you’re wrong.

•    Hyper-sensitivity to criticism

From the moment that Naomi stepped into the office, she has had a host of great ideas of how to improve the way we operate at Wokai. On an intellectual level, I know that these qualities are great and make her the perfect person to lead Wokai. But, on an irrational emotional level, I can feel myself interpreting her fresh ideas as criticisms of my baby.

They say the first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem.  Well, I admit it. My name is Casey Wilson and I am a Founder.

Day 11 - Making progress towards launch

Casey

It's really exciting to see the progress that Wokai has made over the past eleven days.

The Beijing team has undergone a pretty radical transformation. Three weeks ago, before I left for Vietnam, our office had fourteen people, all but three of which were under the age of 21. That week we had a mass exodus of college interns, and our office occupancy went down to Zhang Sheng and I. The Monday before last, Liz, a volunteer who just finished her law degree at UVA joined us for a month stint and Naomi, our new COO, started two days later. The college group that we had this summer was awesome, but it has also been refreshing to work with my peers who bring expertise and insights to the table that will take the organization to a new level and share the burden of stress and pressure.

Our developers are driving through the website. On Monday night we finished our first round of Alpha (bug) testing and reported all of the bugs and missing features that have to be finished for launch. All said, it totaled to two hundred and forty bugs and enhancements. Luckily, Dan and Shobhit, two recent Wokai volunteers who happen to do software and website testers for a living, are leading us through this stage of development. We're planning on first finishing all of the frontend by Tuesday, then moving on to the Field Partner related admin systems so that we'll be ready for Zhang Sheng's to head to Chifeng for training on the 18th, and finally adding the finishing touches in time for us to transfer the site onto our servers by the 1st of October.

As I mentioned before, Naomi stepped on as Wokai's COO last week. Even though she has only been with Wokai for a week, she has already added a huge amount of value, both in terms of actual work as well as adding a positive presence and strength to the Wokai team. It's exciting to bring on a fellow "Chief" and potentially double the impact that Wokai will have.

Wokai is on the verge of launching version 2.0 of our business plan. Liz started are redo of our original business plan that we had published back in May of 2007 which should be ready by next Friday. This is exciting both because it will provide a strong document that we can present to potential board members, donors and foundations as well as provide us with an added level of accountability for what we need to achieve over the next 1-3 years to meet our goals.

Courtney has launched our search and development of a long-term active board of directors. Thanks to the hard work of Michelle, Carlye, and Nicholas from Penn, who spent the summer developing Wokai's board structure, strategy, and recruitment materials, we're able to start the process of picking the right people for our board and creating a strong governance structure for Wokai.

More comments on HSBC's rural bank expansion

Casey

Here's some more background about rural finance in China and a follow up on the HSBC Rural Bank article that Courtney posted in her last entry:

Traditionally, financial service providers have been isolated to urban areas in China's eastern costal provinces. Du Xiaoshan from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences estimates that only a quarter of rural inhabitants have access to credit. There is also very little credit availabe for SMEs (small to medium enterprises) in rural areas. Most of the financial services in rural areas come from Rural Credit Cooperatives, the Postal Savings Bank, and the Agricultural Bank of China which are all state-owned banks.

Two comments about HSBC's Rural Bank expansion:

1. This a great movement towards developing rural economies. Since 1979, almost all investment has been focused in coastal urban areas. The coast has therefore developed rapidly, while urban areas have experienced static growth. Over the past 29 years, the gap between rural and urban areas has expanded rapidly and income inequality has gone from almost zero to rank as one of the most severe of all Asian countries. The only way that this this gap will begin to decrease is if there is a huge increase in investment and development in rural areas.

2. It's important to keep in mind that HSBC's Rural Banks are providing SME, agro-business loans and not microcredit. SME finacial services are definetly a complement to microfinance, but not a substitute.

Some Interesting Facts on current rural financial service providers:

Rural Credit Cooperatives

- Total portfolio of 1.58 Trillion Yuan
- 12% of total financial sector

Postal Savings Bank

- 1.48 Trillion yuan ($158 Billion) in savings deposits
- 36,000 branches in China
- Decided to begin microfinance pilot projects in 2006

Agricultural Development Bank

- 1 of China's Big 4 state-owned banks
- 2.5 Trillion Yuan in loans

HSBC gets into rural China

Courtney

This was sent over to us from Peter Zetterstorm who heads up the microfinance efforts of the United Nations Development Program. Looks like MAJOR banks might be getting involved in rural consumer finance. My question is always timing: How long between this article and when it actually happens on the mass scale? My guess a pretty long time...

By Sean Farrell
Wednesday, 3 September 2008 
The Independent

HSBC opened its second rural bank in China yesterday, and pledged to launch up to four such banks a year to tap the need for agricultural finance in the world's fastest-growing major economy.

Dazu HSBC Rural Bank will provide services such as deposits and supply-chain finance to farming businesses and individuals in Dazu County, which is 80km north-west of the city of Chongqing. HSBC said the launch marked the first entry by an international bank into the rural market in western China.

China's transformation has largely been in the industrialised east of the country and big rural conurbations. But the government wants to combat inequalities between rural and urban dwellers and attract finance to boost output of staple foods whose prices have soared.

Richard Yorke, HSBC's chief executive in China, said: "The rural economy in China is home to about 750-800 million people. It is a very fast-growing part of the economy and it is quite under-banked."

HSBC opened the first rural bank run by an international lender in Suizhou in the central Hubein province at the end of last year. Britain's biggest bank wants to build its network to tap into agricultural businesses' need for capital to grow.

"We would expect to open by the end of this year at least another two more [rural] banks and we would expect to open three to four banks a year going forward," Mr Yorke said.

HSBC, the biggest international bank in China,has 74 outlets in 17 cities and plans to open between 25 and 30 a year to capitalise on the country's fast-growing economy, which is increasingly fuelled by domestic consumption.

That trend is attracting foreign companies looking to sell goods to Chinese consumers and not just to source cheap manufacturing, Mr Yorke said.

Dazu HSBC Rural Bank, which is fully owned by HSBC, has 20 staff and RMB40m (£3.26m) of paid-up capital.

Grameen, Microfinance and the Sun...yes...the Sun

Courtney

We already know Grameen is a visionary. He was a step ahead of the world's financial institutions like in seeing the HUGE untapped market for consumer financial services to those without credit. 

And now he is one step ahead of the big energy companies in seeing the potential market for energy solutions to that same population.

Grameen Shakti - an affiliate organization of Grameen's - is providing microentrepreneurs with solar panels, green cooking stoves and wind turbines as well as the financing to purchase those technologies.

Grameen Shakti, located in Bangladesh, defines itself as providing an integrated approach to promoting renewable energy technologies. Solar panels have been the primary product since inception. To date, Grameen Shakti has installed over 100,000 solar panels like the one below in microentrepreneurs homes across the country.

 

And that is not all they do, they are also in the business of biogas. Grameen Shakti provides "green" stoves that are fueled with methane gas sourced from animal excrement. Animal waste is aggregated in contained areas. It then naturally breaks down into its elementary particles - namely methane gas- overtime via a process called anaerobic digestion. The gas is ducted over to a stove and then used for cooking.

And the clean technology applications they have implemented in the past or plan to implement in the future goes on and on: micro-wind turbines for power generation and organic fertilizer for increasing crop yields.

The organization has won a number of awards for its innovative technology. Most recently it was named the 2008 winner of the Ashden Award for Sustainable Development.  And before that, the Grameen Foundation selected the organization to receive its 2007 Green Award.

Something tells me that this is not the first or the last  organization we will see that is combining green and microfinance. Green Microfinance is already proof of that....

28...The Cultural Negotiation & The Grey Area

Casey

We had our Investment Committee meeting on Wednesday and one of the major themes of the talk was how to move forward successfully with our Field Partner contract negotiation. One of our committee members brought up an interesting comment: "In the US, contract signing is the end of negotiation. In China, contract signing is only the beginning of negotiation."

Right after I sent the meeting minutes to Zhang Sheng, our Director of Field Partnerships who's leading our negotiations, I heard a chuckle from the other side of the room as he repeated the quote out loud. Here was his response was:

"In China, when you enter into a partnership you know that there are a million different issues that could arise that are not outlined in the contract itself. That's when you get into the Grey Area. How you and your partner work through those issues depends on your relationship."

Those of you who have lived or done business in China are probably pretty familiar with the Grey Area. I attended a Tsinghua in this NGO and civil society course two years ago and we were discussing the current situation in China in which there are around three million NGOs in China, but only five percent of them are actually registered. I didn't undertand how this could be possible, so he explained to me "In China there is the law and then there's what people actually do."

Interested in learning more about this phenomenon, I checked out the definition of grey area on Wikipedia:

A grey area is a term for a border in-between two or more things that is unclearly defined, a border that is hard to define or even impossible to define, or a definition where the distinction border tends to move. There are several flavors of grey areas:

• A grey area of definitions signifies a problem of sorting reality into clearly cut categories. Example: where is the border between erotica and pornography?
• A grey area of law is an area where no clear legislation or precedent exists, or where the law has not been applied in a long time thus making it unclear if it is applicable at all.
• A grey area of ethics signifies an ethical dilemma, where the border between right and wrong is blurred. Example: is killing always abominable?