This project wants to give voice to entrepreneurial women in the technology sector. A 2014 study by the Inter American Development Bank showed that entrepreneur women with high impact endeavors face particular challenges. It also suggested the need to provide strong role models to build a positive attitude towards business entrepreneurship among women in particular and the society in general.
This project wants to offer a digital space to those women to tell their stories and to learn to use digital tools to communicate with other women who may want to become entrepreneurs.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Bogota
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
I will be working with entrepreneur women in Latin America. Through my work as a blogger and have spoken to several female entrepreneurs. I have also covered different events related to entrepreneurship and particularly female entrepreneurs. I have reported on events such WeXchange Miami. Currently, I am writing profiles on entrepreneur Hispanic women in Miami For MiamiDiario, a newspaper.
Entrepreneur women community is under represented online because women must comply with several roles. The IADB identifies the balancing of different roles as one of the key issues preventing entrepreneur women to develop their business further. Moreover, the balancing act prevents many women to participate in networking events or even to allot time to tell their stories to others.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
I will be helped by TECHcetera team.
Samir Estefan: @samirestefan
Andres Waldraff: @andreswaldraff
Felipe Lizcano: @pipeliz
Tomas Bleier: @tombleier
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The participants will create six blog posts of 500-600 words. They will write about their experiences as entrepreneurs.
The content will tell the stories of eight female entrepreneurs. They will focus on issues such as identity, successes, challenges and the future.
The training sessions will be recorded and available afterwards to a wider audience. The materials will be available in public platform such as “slideshare” to be accessed by any interested party.
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established or plan to establish that will contribute to the success of the project.
TECHcetera has a current alliance with a local Miami newspaper. MiamiDiario will provide a space in its newspaper to summaries the stories.
We are looking forward to establish alliances with other media outlets to provide a wider scenario for our participants.
We also have contacted ellas2 a Latin American and Spanish network of female entrepreneurs. Ellas2 has expressed interest in providing some support for this project.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
At least 8 participants will be trained. I am currently writing a series for TECHcetera and MiamiDiario on Latin American entrepreneur women. I have contacted them in local entrepreneurship events and through entrepreneurship development agencies.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
Participants will be trained to use blogging platform and social media tools (writing techniques and technical issues).
My partners and I have blogged for the last two years and a half.
I am a teacher by training and on my contributions to TECHcetera our blog platform, I have written about the use of blogging and social media for teaching and learning.
This is a community that needs to tell their stories, but do not have either the time or the expertise to produce and disseminate a blog a post.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
The workshop will be held via Google Hangouts. This is a platform that does not require high levels of expertise or specialized equipment. It will also allow to communicate with participants in different geographical areas.
Google Hangouts also has the possibility to save the sessions to be broadcasted lated on YouTube and be accessible to a wider audience.
What is your current relationship with the community with whom you plan to work? What makes you the most appropriate individual or organization to implement this project?
As a blogger, I have already contacted several female entrepreneurs. I have also contacted networks such as Ellas2 and Latin American public and private agencies promoting female entrepreneurship.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
The main challenge that this project will find is the lack of time. Female entrepreneurs have said in research studies that their different roles as mothers, partners, business person does not leave time for other issues.
Despite that challenge, many female entrepreneurs are eager to tell their stories, to learn effective and efficient ways to do it. I am counting on this expressed desire to help them write and disseminate their blog posts.
Another challenge could be the geographical distance that may complicate synchronous sessions. This obstacle can be overcome by organizing different sessions on the same topic or by providing a recorded version of the session.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
Success will be that at least six of the eight women complete five out of the six posts.
In the wider community, success will be measured by the amount of people reading and commenting the posts.
This project aims at providing a voice to women that may not find the space to write their walk. It will like to impact the global digital community by proving that digital tools are easy to use and accessible to all.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
June 2014: Contact the eight participants
July 2014: First workshop and first blog post
August 2014: Second workshop and second blog post
September 2014: Third workshop and third blog post
October 2014: Fourth workshop and fourth blog post
November 2014: Fifth workshop and fifth blog post
December 2014: Sixth workshop and fifth blog post
January 2015: Assessment Session
February 2015: Open session with wider audience
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Cost per hour: Amount of hours Total
Workshop development: $100 12 $1,200
Community Manager: $ 50 7 $ 350
Video production: $100 3 $ 300
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Rising Voices can support this project by helping us spread the word.
Contact name
catalina.valenzuela@techcetera.co
Organization
TECHcetera.co
