[afro-nets] Innovative ideas needed (2)

[Peter Burgess <Profitinafrica@aol.com>]

Innovative ideas needed (2)
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Dear Colleagues

I agree that communications is important. I am not so sure about
innovative ideas. It seems to me that most really good ideas
were had a long time ago, and what we think of as new ideas are
usually rehashed old ideas that have merely been repainted at
inordinate expense by experts and consultants. Of course apply-
ing technology can change some things, but human nature is slow
to change, and that is the bit that we sometimes seem to forget.

I used the link below[*] and landed on a site that needed registra-
tion information. I do not want to have to register every time I
am pointed to an allegedly interesting site. It frustrates me,
wastes my time (and my money if I am paying for Internet connec-
tion by the minute).

Two old simple ideas seem to be in order.
(1) KISS should be much more widely applied. Keep It Short and
Simple.
(2) Know who you are communicating with, and make sure what you
are communicating is understandable for the other party.

For the English speaking university educated, and especially
those with advanced degrees and PhDs, it should be remembered
that a lot of the people who should be getting messages have not
had the benefit of much education, may not read or write, and
almost certainly do not have English as their first language.
Any report over 2 pages long should be seriously reviewed for
relevance in the official relief and development assistance
(ORDA) arena.

A good check of how clearly one is communicating is to do the
simple test of having the message translated into another lan-
guage, and then have another translator translate it back to the
first language. This can be a wake-up call for the message
originator. I learned this the hard way early in my career on a
project in Yemen!

My French is not very good, but when my work is translated into
French by even quite competent translators, I find that almost
all the "technical" words have not translated very well. In ac-
counting, for example, a balance sheet is a "bilan" and nothing
to do with equilibre!

Of course, in the ORDA community, anything to do with accounting
might as well be considered to be a strange foreign language.
Sad really. But it makes losing so much scarce money that much
easier. I hear some signs of a change, but it has taken a very
long time for the ORDA world to embrace transparency and ac-
countability... and if they are now doing so... I am delighted,
but also in some shock!

Sincerely

Peter Burgess - Tr-Ac-Net in New York USA
Transparency and Accountability - a global not for profit Network
mailto:tracnet@gmail.com
mailto:peterbnyc@gmail.com
Tel: +1-212-772-6918
Kris Dev - Tr-Ac-Net in Chennai India
mailto:krisdev@gmail.com
http://Tr-Ac-Net.blogspot.com
mailto:tracnet@gmail.com

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* http://jech.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/59/4/259