Phillip Smith

phillipadsmith / Phillip Smith

Phillip is the "Simplifier of Technology" at Community Bandwidth, a Canadian consulting practice that works with non-profits and social-mission organizations to explore the thoughtful use of technology toward creating a more just and sustainable society. You're currently reading entries from Phillip's blog on non-profit technology, social innovation, and independent media.

Working from South America

As a follow-up to my last post about where Community Bandwidth is going for 2009, I've posted a longer update on my personal blog. The full text follows...


Now that I've managed to triage the 600+ e-mails that had piled up in my inbox over the past two weeks, I thought it would be helpful to post a quick announcement about some recent happenings:

  • In case you missed it, Melanie and I have moved to Buenos Aires.
  • I'm getting lots of questions about the move, so I've answered them below.
  • We've set-up a travel blog and I've set up a personal blog. Details are also below.

So, quick answers to the most common questions:

  • Why we moved:
    Basically, we want to adventure and explore. We want to travel--really
    travel--while we are still young and don't have much holding us in one
    place. And we want to learn at least one other language, and Spanish
    (or Castellano as the locals refer to it) fit the bill quite nicely.
  • How long will we be away: We've made a commitment to to be in South America for all of 2009. We'll see where life takes us from there. :-)
  • Why Buenos Aires: Hopefully this isn't such a strange decision to understand--Buenos Aires is a big city and that's appealing to urbanites like us; it's nicely located in South America, making it easy to travel to other countries; and, most importantly, we have a few friends here.
  • What we'll be doing:
    Well, I wish I could say that it was the beginning of the longest
    vacation in our lives. However, recognizing that we'd probably suffer
    from productivity withdrawal within the first few days, we'll continue
    to work for our current clients
    from here (though, we'll be working a little less than we have in the
    past). Have Internet, will travel. And, thankfully, the Internet down
    here is reasonably fast and reliable, and voice-over-IP technology has
    come a long way in the past few years.
  • How to stay in
    touch:
    You can call us anytime on our new Toronto, New York, St.
    Louis, or Oxford numbers. If you need the details, just pop me a note.
    Skype also works nicely, and read on for information on our travel
    blog.

In summary, we're hoping to enjoy a year that
is balanced between focused work for our core clients, and time set
aside for more personal projects, with ample amounts of urban
exploration and continental adventures. Maybe we'll come away with
better Spanish, maybe some new friends, and certainly with more time
for old friends (though it may be via e-mail).

Here are the details on the two new blogs:

  • Travel blog: So, late last night, Melanie and I set-up a little travel blog
    called "Two bulls in a china shop." We'll be posting there as regularly
    as possible about our adventures in South America and beyond.
  • I've also launched a personal blog at phillipadsmith.com.
    I've never been great at blogging, nor do I want to make more of a
    commitment to it than I do right now (which is minimal), but I did want
    to pull together all of the various "bits" that are scattered all over
    the InterWeb. So it is what it is: we'll see how it goes.

That's it for today. More soon...



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