The Conclusion of the Rodrigo Baggio Story, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Inclusion.

Today I am posting the conclusion of Rodrigo Baggio’s interview. Before I get started I want to give you an update.

I shared with you in my March 30 post that I published DreamMakers: Agents of Transformation in Brazil in June of 2010. It featured The Center for Digital Inclusion. Since that time CDI has gone from 813 centers to 827 centers around the world. They are impacting over a million people throughout Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, United Kingdom, and Jordon. They have just recently expanded into Spain and they are now developing CDI- US.

CDI's model has overcome what is classically known as the “The Pilot Syndrome” - the difficulty of scaling up and replicating a project that is successful on a grassroots level to a global level. The structure of the CDI network creates a positive ripple effect that leverages CDI’s impact globally. Their model works around the world in diverse environments - from London to the Amazon Forest. They are successfully impacting people from vastly different places; from the slums in the rolling hills of Rio de Janeiro; the refugee camps in Bogotá; the Asháninka indigenous people who live on the Brazilian - Peru boarder; to prisons, juvenile centers and psychiatric institutions.

I hope their story gives you insight on why some of us believe the world can be changed – if only people believe, commit and act!



Rodrigo’s story continues – in his own words

A VISION OF INCLUSION:  
“Our world has a huge challenge; 
79% of the  people on our planet, 
are digitally excluded”

CDI's vision is to continuously grow and expand – to do our part to reach and teach as many people as we can to become change-makers. Our expansion goal is to upgrade and continue our proprietary CDI methodology and to apply the CDI methodology through new channels to reach more people. We are upgrading our CDI centers to offer more courses in technology; civic engagement and we are offering more services. We are creating Social Business Units in all our CDI centers to promote and create microenterprises. In these community service centers local community people provide services like: creating business cards, marketing materials, developing websites, coping DVD’s, e-learning, e-government, e-health and computer repair and maintenance. 

Our greatest growth opportunity is to create new channels to promote digital inclusion. Over the last 15 years we have learned from our 827 CDI community centers; we have a lot of experience and “know how”. In August of 2009, we did an analysis to determine the greatest growth potential for digital inclusion. We concluded that they are a number of different channels to reach people today: internet cafes, schools and tele-centers. So we made the decision to continue our proprietary work in our CDI centers and to open source our CDI methodology through new channels and the latest technological developments like smart phones.

In 2009 we launched a new CDI division focused on Internet Cafes - CDI LAN houses. This is a new approach to promote internet inclusion.  Internet cafes are growing at a phenomenal rate in developing countries. In Brazil we have more than 110 thousand internet cafes. Most internet cafes are microenterprises started by local community entrepreneurs. Since we launched this new division in 2009, CDI has formed affiliate partners in all the Brazilian states. Our affiliates serve over 800 thousand people per month. With this strategy, we are planning to have 5000 CDI LAN Houses (internet cafes), 3,000 CDI tele-centers and 3,000 CDI schools to amplify the impact of our work. Of course CDI cannot directly impact the 79% of the people on our planet that are digitally excluded, but we can do our part. 

“Our ultimate vision is to create and incubate 
change-makers to use technology to create an 
epiphany, that spreads like the web around the world.”

We hope to also inspire others to commit to solving this problem. Bill Drayton, the founder of Ashoka who invented the concept of social entrepreneurs believes; the most important power of a social entrepreneur is not just their work or just realizing their vision but it is the inspiration they spark in thousands of other people. So CDI can also be a like big stone thrown into lake causing a strong ripple affect. The soul of CDI is to give people the tools to become change-makers so they can transform their lives and their communities.  Our ultimate vision is to create and incubate change-makers to use technology to create an epiphany that spreads around the world

What we are doing can be done anywhere - in all cultures, countries and communities, in rich, middle and poor communities, in every social class and in every company and organization. We believe this is one of the most efficient, effective and the most fulfilling ways to make positive change happen.

VALUES: What Matters Most in Life
What I value most is my passion; my passion embodies enthusiasm, and commitment. Second is entrepreneurship; to me that translates into taking visions, insights and dreams and making them a reality – making things happen. The third is collaboration - working in a participative way with hundreds of thousands of people. Raul Seixas, a Brazilian rock star, has a song that says,  “If you dream alone it will just be a dream. But if you dream with other people it can become a reality." My goal is to create that kind of network with hundreds of thousands of people mobilized by our vision and core values.

OBSTACLES
“My attitude is not; Oh my God, an obstacle 
          My attitude is; Oh my God an opportunity”

I always see obstacles as opportunities. My attitude is not “Oh my God an obstacle”. My attitude is  ” Oh my God an opportunity”. In the beginning of CDI our biggest obstacle was to create awareness; convince people that technology can transform lives; we can work with technology in the social field. Compounding this challenge, the early nineties, was a time Brazil had amazing leaders who were promoting social responsibility; collecting and donating cloths and food for poor people and I was talking about self-sustainable, self-managed, empowered social entrepreneurs. This was a new paradigm that required a shift in mindset. So to prove this new concept, we decided to work the first two years with no money; just volunteers and donated computers. Today the biggest challenge is fundraising, not just for us, but also for all not for profit social entrepreneurs around the world. So we are consistently writing proposals, seeking partnerships to continue our work.


MENTORS:  Helping Hands along the way
Three people who inspired me the most: First is Gandhi - he is a role model; he was a social and spiritual entrepreneur. Gandhi created a link between spiritual and social action. The second is Martin Luther King - he taught us to dream and believe in our dreams. He changed our awareness and inspired us to create a movement to improve human rights, not only in the US - all over the world. That inspiration is really powerful. The third is Bill Drayton, the founder of Ashoka, a global community of people working to change the world’s most urgent social problems. He founded Ashoka in 1981. It is a nonprofit social venture organization that supports social entrepreneurship. Bill is a catalyst of the “Everyone a Change-Maker” revolution that advocates for leadership to move from the elite and spread to everyone. Bill is an amazing visionary.  As a former McKenzie consultant he created and planted the concept of social entrepreneurs. Today Ashoka has over 2500 social entrepreneurs in more than 60 countries.

Throughout my life I have had many other mentors who inspired me. My grandfather was an inspiration to me; he was a Methodist pastor. His entire life was dedicated to educate and serve people in his church and his community. My father was an inspiration. He came from a very poor family in São Paulo and grew up to become a director of technology in big companies including IBM. Betinho, inspired me, he was an amazing social leader in Brazil. He created a powerful social movement to feed the poor that resulted in large-scale change in Brazil. He did that while living with a debilitating, terminal illness. He was hemophiliac and contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion. The last 5 years he was very sick and frail but he had a strong, powerful vision that energized and fueled his work.

The Community social entrepreneurs at CDI inspire me. To see how they transformed their reality against tremendous obstacles is amazing. And of course, the CDI employees and partners inspire me. We recently had our week long annual meeting with 200 people from the CDI network. We held planning meetings, workshops and we celebrated. The last day of the conference we formed a big circle and everyone gave testimonials. Imagine 200 adults crying, hugging for over an hour. That was amazing energy, we felt as one.


       “Imagine the power and potential of that medium,  
        for transforming lives. 
       If we are wise enough to tap into the God power within us,
       the force that created the universe, 
       we can change the world”

My most powerful mentor is God - the amazing force that created the universe. I believe human beings were created in the image of God. When we connect to the God power inside us, we can see the amazing possibilities and do amazing things.

In December of 2009, I had dinner with, Tim Berners-Lee, the British computer scientist and MIT professor credited with inventing the World Wide Web. Tim is also the director of the Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which oversees the Web's continued development. Over dinner Tim began to talk about the number of websites in the world today and the millions of minds, with millions of neurons that developed those sites. When I think about what he said, I think about phenomenal potential. Over the last century scientist have been studying the complexities and potential of the mind. Imagine the complexity and potential of the web, with all these minds and neurons feeding it.  Imagine the power and potential of that medium, for transforming lives. If we are wise enough to tap into the God power within us: the force that created the universe, we can change the world.

GREATEST LEARNINGS: The Power of Love
I strongly believe that I am nothing without love. Everything in my life is about love - the energy that transforms. I am only an instrument, a tool. In 2002 I was asked to give one of the closing remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.  I speak Portuguese, I have never studied English or Spanish – so my English is not strong; I began to panic. I asked myself how was I going to give the closing remarks. I meditated and asked God to speak through me. I gave the speech in English using very simple words. The words had a powerful affect on the audience. That energy that came through me was love.

The World Economic Forum of Latin America was held in Rio de Janeiro in 2009. They asked me to take CEO’s to visit a Favela. We took two buses filled with 60 CEO’s escorted by a motorcade of policeman. When we entered the favela the police stopped outside and we proceeded into the community. We stopped in front of one of our CDI centers and the police stayed with the bus and I escorted the 60 CEO’s into the center. The drug dealers, with their big guns visibly strapped on their bodies, walked with us for protection. We had gained their trust because they saw the good work we were doing in their community. We visited the CDI center and heard amazing testimonials about how people were transforming their lives through technology and citizens rights.

Then on the way back to the bus one of the CEO’s took out a camera and I told him they don’t allow pictures. However, when we got on the bus, another CEO took his camera out and took a picture. In that moment you could feel the negative energy fill the bus. The drug dealers saw the CEO taking the picture and they had decided to board the bus and take all of the cameras. Imagine the international incident this would have caused. In that moment, I began to meditate and fill the bus with positive energy, with love. I held a vision of that love filling the bus and the community. My energy began to interact with other people on the bus and in the community.  The drug dealers softened and backed away from the bus. I believe we can all be instruments; we can all receive this powerful love energy. Imagine what we could do, if we all went inside ourselves and let love come through – we could transform our world.


A MESSAGE: To the Cynics
Imagine the world your children and grandchildren will inherit, if you do nothing to help change our world. What kind of world will you leave them? If we don’t change the direction we are headed, your children and grandchildren will live on a very bad planet; climate change, impure water, polluted air conflict and chaos. Imagine the disastrous life they will be forced to live.  We can do things now to change that scenario. But if we only think about business, money, power, and protecting self, we are headed for disaster.

When a company does an IPO, why not require them to prove that they are socially responsible and support sustainability. One of the best ways to inspire and motivate employees is to enable them to engage in volunteer work in their communities. People are changing they don’t just want to live and work for money; they want to be fulfilled. So companies need to change; organizations need to change and governments need to change. The world is giving us powerful feedback: tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, and temperature change. So we need to take care of our bodies, our streets, our communities, and our world. We need to develop deep empathy for our environment and for each other.

A MESSAGE: To Young People 
I want young people to dream; to believe in their dreams and to have the faith to turn their dreams into reality. That is the most important way to transform their lives and to be happy.


VISION FOR THE WORLD: “My E-tpoia”
My personal vision is to mobilize and teach hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, to become Change-Makers. If we use technology, as a citizen’s rights and social action tool, we cannot only change the lives of people in low-income communities; I believe we can change the world. I believe we can achieve more freedom and equity for everyone - that is my E-topia.

My vision for the world is an amazing, beautiful, sustainable world where every human being lives as brothers and sisters; a world where we feel a shared responsibility to work together to build the world of today – and the world of the future.  I see a world where we consciously consider every action and decision we make today in light of the impact it will have on the future.

I believe that our world today is like a speeding car headed towards an abyss. We need to change the speed and direction we are headed. We need to inspire people to burst the narcissistic bubble we are all engrossed in. When we are living, making decision and acting in our narcissistic bubble, it harms everyone: our families, our communities, our environment, ourselves. and our future.

               “On some level we are all hungry to connect.”
We need to see ourselves as one connected to the whole.  On some level we are all hungry to connect. That’s why we created the internet and why it has grown exponentially. We were made to connect; our minds were created to connect to one another. We need this kind of attitude, mindset, and consciousness – to enable the next generation of human beings to come through. I am optimistic. I know we can do this; I believe we will do this. We are living in an amazing time in the history of humankind; we have the means and if we find the will, we can create a beautiful world.

In my next post I will share more stories from CDI – stories from the voices of people who transformed their lives through their partnership with CDI and from of some of Rodrigo’s team members. These are beautiful people with fascinating stories that are inspirational as well as instructional


May all your beautiful hopes and dreams come true!

Michele
Transformation Catalyst
www.dreammakers.org