A community brand? Never forget this

It could seem we are living a revolution about the brands in the last years. It could seem.  If you start to read a little, you’ll see since the humankind organized the commerce in the Ancient Age, it already spoke about brands, many of them referred to places. And it was enough the salesperson mentioned the site, whether it was true or not, for the client authomatically evaluated the purchasing option in terms of quality. And it was a wworldwide trend.

What happens is as we go into the real-time information society, the brands became more competitive than ever before. They have increased in number, some have increased their quality, but the manner to choose a brand has not changed in almost ten thousand years of history.

Then, why has it reached so much importance in the last decades? Simply, because if you don’t get to place your brand, you are not. And if you’re not, you don’t sell, understanding it as the process to provide a good or a service deserving a value in exchange, what doesn’t necessarily reduce to money.

 

So, what is a brand?

It’s every element  posible to see, to hear,  to perform once and once again in the same way, and what is our own , not nobody else’s. This is the fundamental requirement. It’s possible the others imitate it or overcome it, but what we are and it’s nobody else’s, it’s, precisely, our brand. So, each one is a brand. Then, each one has an own brand.

Although the components of a brand are different according to the author you consult, I think we can pay attention on three that are fundamental, in my opinion.

1. Name: It’s the word or words how we differentiate from others, and what is own. It can be written, spoken or sounded, or it can be both ways, but it’s ours and it allows us to differentiate from others in our species or any other species. No matter it’s a known name, a name I took from other language, the name of a place or a person, or even a name I invented, my brand makes known by a name, first.
2. Symbol: It’s, indeed, that artistic performance what is my own and nobody else’s or nothing else’s. Like the name, the symbol can be a graphic feature or a sounded performance.
3. Identity: It’s the whole set of characteristics those are ours and nobody else’s or nothing else’s, and those differentiate us from someone else or something else in an inmediate way. Said in five words: it is what describes us. So, our identity is unique, not nobody else’s.

Just an additional note about the identity of a brand. If somebody wants to be how I am, is imitating me. And if I want to be like somebody else, I’m imitating.

The imitation is not a kind of identity. It’s the absence of identity, rather, what is called alienation.

But, it’s supposed we are building a community brand.  We already reviwed what a brand is, but what about the community?

The community

A community is all human group that feels linked by a common origin, history, space, and objectives. Let’s go unwinding that concept.

• First, it’s a human group. It’s not an only-1-person set.
• Second, it feels linked. I mean it feels united, connected, joined, included. It’s not about we link them and that’s it. They’re people who feel that link goes beyond time and distance, at the point that although they’re too far, they ever will feel they’re here.

Then, let’s think of a community as the set of people within I ever want to be because I feel good, and the rest makes I feel OK. So, we feel as we were only one, Like we were a common unity. Like a common unity. Community. Once we get that almost magic feeling, the rest comes alone, especially the common objectives issue. And one of those ones may be the building of its own community brand.

If there’s not that sense of a community, so there’s no community brand neither. Of course, it could be managed as a brand the same, but it wouldn’t represent anybody but the person who manages it. That’s why the important is everyone feels included.

Why is the inclusion important?

The inclusion is the action to integrate. And that integration breaks out mainly from knowing to identify common insights in every person, despite the insights differentiating us. In fact, to integrate is to generate unity despite the differences. And we have to start from basic consensus for that.

A consensus is a unanimous agreement, an agreement of everyone without exception under we’ll do or leave to do something very real. Another aspect – a consensus is not the agreement a majority imposes to a minority, or the opposite. For we to talk about a consensus, we need the 100% agrees. Sure, we also could build agreements upon the majority’s opinion, but they’re not consensus. They’re majority agreements. I say it for the term not to be used wrong.

As much as there’s a consensus about what makes your community unique, every member will feel to contribute something useful that builds in favor of it. If that happens, then the community progresses. If despite the reached consensus, the people decide to go by their own, then it doesn’t work in a communitarian way but individual or rather group.

From these concepts (Brand, community, inclusion), we already can begin to work. So, what do we commit to by consensus? That’s the next step to make. You can write me at factortierra@gmail.com, talk to me on my Twitter account, or leaving me a comment right velow.

Building a model

An approach to the environmental democracy

As simple as if you cut it off, it will cut you off

Sullana, Peru-based small businessman Mario Sarango is worried because the deforestation and the climate change are risking his business – apiculture. The news is not new but it is crucial from the sustainability point of view of its entrepreneurship as well as our whole life. And when I talk about our life, I’m talking about our life on the Earth.

But before we go to the very global, let’s try to understand the Sarango’s preoccupation in a most local sphere, and the best way is remembering our high-school first grade little classes, or less, when we learned about ecosystems and food chains.

One of the most remarkable species in Piura Coast is our kind of carob tree, the Prosopis pallida, that is something like our national tree. Native of South-American Central-Western edge, it’s not only is a source of food, fertility, and life, but its complex system of roots allows to fix the soil and capture the underwater that sustains the so-called Equatorial Dry Forest while no rain drop falls from the sky.

And when the sky hugely loads, the carob trees, in alliance with other tree species, prevent erosion and keep the fertility levels, plus being the shelter of a hundred species living among their trunks and branches. Yes, like the waltz sings it.

One of those species are the bees, those within other things don’t only help to pollinate everything, then propitiating the growth of our food, but they also make the whole list of products in their ives, which the honey is just the top of the iceberg. And that list is the sustain of hundreds of people in our community who gain their life by caring the environment and giving jobs to other people and sustaining one of many value chains where even the people who never knew an ive in their lifetime end to benefit.

Let’s get back to the pollination issue, the action through the bee, working to extract the nectar of the flowers for giving to eat its wwwhole community, gets its little paws sticked with pollen, that tiny mostly yellow dust that once carried to other flower of the same kind, fals down inside it and allows the fertilization. So, the formation of a fruit, and that fruit turns in our food… unless the bee enjoys to eat corn.

If we take the bee out or eliminate it of the picture, the natural process of pollination will not be possible, then the formation of fruits either. The human being can artificially intervene pretending to be a bee (and I’m not talking about costuming such as a bee), but if there is already a species that manages this issue efficiently, then there’s no reason why the human being, as it uses to do, break down that balance.

The protection of bees doesn’t only mean not killing the bee, although more than a guy falls in panic because the bite, while others have a justified fear because an overreacting consequence of the body if that accident came to happen – the so-called anaphylactic shock.

The protection of the bees goes through also protecting the spaces it uses like a house and the spaces where it flows through looking for its food not damaging anybody, rather the whole opposite.

Here is where the carob tree plays its part because many bees, due to some good reason, like to form their ives or their ives to be installed next to the carob trees. Even, the existence of carob fruits, which starts other value chain that the algarrobina is another iceberg top, highly depend on pollination that our buddies know to do excellent.

How are we responsing them in practical terms? We are cutting off the carob trees for diverse purposes, but the recurrent ones are the expansion of agricultural surfaces, the horizontal growth of the cities, or the making of coal that it’s usually consumed by the restaurants offering broaster chicken or the BBQ’s through many people are looking for extra money.

Our replacement or reforestation policies of individuals we have cut off are inexistent in practical terms in spite of many people say to have it written, or sstill the worst, when it is reforestated, early or fast-growth species aare used, those are not native of our ecosystem, then what we have is short-term trees but not integrating to the chain set with the carob tree. If the chain cuts off, everything cuts off, especially the natural production of food for human consumption.

And if that is a bit, in times of climate change, the carob trees cut-off also seems to be weakening other carob trees. When they don’t find conducive fertility conditions to blossom their flowers, it’s impossible the individuals replace each another ones in a natural way, like the carob tree itself were letting to die. Bad news for the bees because without flowers, they won’t have pollen to carry. And without pollen, there won’t be fruits neither, so they are also bad news for the humans.

Here is the Mario Sarango’s preoccupation: to protect the carob trees and the bees not much because his business gets protected so, that is a valid purpose since his business is benefitting the whole community, but the protection of bees and carob trees suppose the protection of humankind.

As Sarango has told me, what he has got as an answer are from indifferent attitude to arrogant attitude at any local or regional government office he has presented to expose his arguments. And, look, Mario is not any rookie on the spot because he has experience in funding, authomation, aand where you see him, he has traveled twice to Australia for having internships those allowed him to perfectionate in apicultural management. He is also an enthusiastic advocate of the activity  next to other partners across Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, and Canada, he uses to participate in advocacy and training activities with all them, and he’s a lover of Sullana’s traditional tales and our folklore too. Yes, he doesn’t fit quite in the profile of the average businessman or entrepreneur, as we have in the local market. And that’s good!

The problem with Mario, as I said him many times, is this campaign to protect the carob tree and the beess has not to entirely lay over his shoulders, despite he has stated on his Facebook posts that he is addressing part of his gains to reforestate (and somebody should deduct it from taxes in case of success), but he should be, at least, a province-wide campaign. Forget if the municipality passes a resolution ruling about because it uses to be useless, although if it does it is useless either. It should be a commitment of our whole community.

Now the school is up to begin, for example, a pretty school project could be to reforestate and sponsor a carob tree. I don’t know, and I wonder, for example, and look at me releasing a name  because I meet him, former Bellavista’s Councellor and teacher Hary Piedra whose (yes, he’s going to kill me for uncovering private chatting) I certify the ecologic issue fascinates him and he has tried to hold campaigns about, during his administration in that metro district. I think Mario has an excellent ally there, as he link other district adding to his.

Yes, I know it’s bad education to point out, but, people, keep the shyness for other moment and lift up to the adventure of making alliances, damn it. Let’s continue.

As I said it in other op-ed, behind his house lives a follower of mine and also lover of local folklore called Luis Enrique Curay, who is entrepreneur and athlete too. We also have Sullana Museum’s Carmen Cruz, who Mario knows very well and supports a lot. We have there two more allies. Here, the whole El Regional de Piura and FACTORTIERRA.NET newsrooms, if my senior publisher doesn’t pull my ears, also can join that campaign by publishing and educating, I think.

And so and so, you, you, you, you, and you can also join, and when we have the less awareness, all Sullana is part of the change, and a change able to measure, see, and reply. It’s no other additional promise that never becomes real.

Do you realize? The thing is as simple as understanding the problem and joining. Will the little bees and the carob trees thank it to us? Yes, of course. They will do it. How? By preservating us as a species. A more practical action like that is imposible and is crucial for us to continue living. Of course, we have to link that to a policy of water, energy, and resources saving. Anyway, changing our mind and and that mind that comes us back to the simple life, provides us prosperity.

Rather, and only for satisfying the bureaucracy in Piura and Sullana, Mario and who join that campaign actually should quantify how much we have lost, how much we need, what the loses will be in every sense and every term. You know, the typical bureaucrat, if you don’t overflow with statistic, will feel you are teaching the cathecism – pure good will, zero commitment.

Thus, we already know what our upcoming work is for now: to prevent that the deforestation of more carob and native tree species surface follows up, and we have effective alert systems that allow to preserve out there when we can’t put the eye because they are too far away, like the rural zone. Obviously, the authorities have top lay their part, but we, who are the majority, also have to play the ours. Let’s start.

Send me your comments on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The another Venezuelan transition in Peruvian territory

 On Sunday, January 5th, as I logged in my Twitter account, I found a nice surprise – a bunch of Peruvian and Venezuelan folks decided to create a kind of community for exchanging safe information, and they have included me  in the contacts list. Thanks about and because the decision, at the moment, increased my number of organic followers.

As I’m understanding that idea, Peruvians and Venezuelans have to fuse in an only information flow, what seems great to me because this is what we pretended since the very first time who started to interest researching academically (not gossip), or publishing about the migration issue, something that in other countries means specialized departments in the big media, but that in Peru, as other Latin American countries (emphasizing in South American ones), we have seen more in the edge of panic instead the wide level of the opportunity.

Although there are media those have decided explicitically to explore the issue and educate the Peruvian audience as well as the migrant Venezuelan one, the true is that our trend to sensationalism (and I’m not only talking about the media but the consumers, especially) makes we to focus more on the stories those the Venezuelan is a briber, but not on the ones those the Venezuelan is a changing agent, like that pretty initiative to decorate a bridge with beautiful Christmas features in Lima Downtown (thanks about!), or the story that Telemundo Network just released about a symphonic orchestra, Lima too, formed by pure Venezuelan migrants. And I match to the Mexican anchorwoman Felicidad Aveleira (migrant in the U.S.) that it sounds great, because it actually sounds great.

Have we seen that story on Peruvian media? I give it to you there as homework, like Judith Grace, another Mixican migrant who highlighted as a hostess on the Hispanic-American TV, used to say.

In fact, who has watched Hispanic TV in that nation, rarely will meet a Hispanic born in the U.S. as part of the talent. The most are migrants every combination. A random example? Vanessa Hawk, a Peruvian-Colombian journalist, working in Telemundo, as well as Luis Carlos Vélez, who came to highlight in CNN en Español and Telemundo, and who is now back in Colombia leading La FM, after a brilliant job in Noticias Caracol. And the examples continue.

 But, let’s get back to the initiative I was included. The motivated-to-legally-progress Venezuelan migrants start to understand that the ghettos only serve to feed the prejudge based upon a rare mix of fascination by the physical beauty and rejection at the same time because that standard seemms to be unreachable for the African-Andean somatotype. Prejudge, lowreacted/overreacted self-esteem, low adaptability to change, if we want to see it in psychological and sociological terms, in the side of the Peruvians, I mean.

So, that is the context we have analyzed untireless in the last two or three years. OK, we already know that. What comes here up to forward? Let’s start saying  that despite the best intention that the President sentimentally accepted  by the international community that tags Nicolás Maduro as a dictator, and I referring to Juan Guaidó, can have, the expulsion of the Castro-Chavism as a government model is difficult. It is not finished in Cuba yet (although it has been kept), quite more complicated in the own Venezuela, so, as a Cuban psychologist living in the U.S. (another migrant) said, we will take to adapt or to die trying.

Then, the agenda we take to manage together is leaving the discrimination mode and crossing inmediatly to the planning mode. Now that we know in proffessional terms, Peruvians and Venezuelans can turn Peru in a scientific-educational-sport-managing potence, the question is what part of the economy we do activate to grow a little more, and those benefits impact across the national territory (not leaving out the need of each migrant to help the family at the homeland).

We already have gotten it with other nationalities’ migrants. Why should it be different this time? Add to this, the projections of the international funding bank regarding to the migration in receiving countries, as Peru, is experiencing 1%-to-2% additional to the growth-domestic product in the next decade. Look, I don’t say we accept the migration because it will give us much money in the long term – what I say is the actual attitude of Peruvians and Venezuelans could put us in pause that development chance for everybody, because that scenario finally doesn’t depend on the good humor of an economist but the good attitude of everyone.

The next one to be hands working on and not to fear the interchange that is already producing in terms of professional and cultural learning. But to reach that magic scenario, the important right now is to make visible the existent talents in the fields they develop better, and the job of the media there, to mention one actor, will be to continue publishing the stories which have interesting ideas or successful cases, and make it respectfully, even provided the respect is gained. And the disclaimer goes beyond the nationality.

I’m enthusiastic wondering that little step on Twitter could turn into a chance to reset the manner how interact the people from different origins, believes, likes, and colors inside a same geographic space. Precissely, the first big riches of any place is its diversity. Then, we have to follow exploring that way.

I don’t discard if some holyday, Maduro brings down, there will be Venezuelans who  want to come back their homeland. They’re alright. But, until that breaks –I don’t know if in this generation—,we will take to put an extra dish, and in reciprocity, putting an extra talent to serve our whole community.

Oh, by the way, I won’t vote for the ones or the candidatures with a xenophobic speech, and I would push you to discard them too. The lifetime experience verifies and proves that the discriminating people, in the long term, die alone.

Introducing #aGoodStoryToShare

Let me introduce you what this is about. As we know, bad news are easy to find and to share. Even we do that. What we propose is not ignoring bad news, but also not ignoring good news. And we are looking for good news, and good news for turning us up, for inspiring us, for moving us to make a change.

Currently we are exploring that kind of news inside our community around. Then, we compose them into a webcast spoken in Spanish that we post via Facebook Live. Once finished, the uncut copy is uploaded to my YouTube channel. So, we prove the people that the good stories deserve to be told and to be shared. The project includes a living, motivational live experience, whether individual or collective. Our purpose is teaching the people to go inside their insights, identify the good stories, let them emerging, build them a display, and use all traditional and virtual media to make the world to learn about.

But, we wwant to step up. We want to use our skill of speaking English to get our people close to you, who don’t speak Spanish. Additionally, we want you to use that chance to connect with our people. So we are goint to build bridges by using the information technologies. Obviously, we also can perform the same kind of live experience with you, your organization, or your community. And everything starts from choosing the good news. Thus, that’s our challenge for you.

Follow us on Google and the social media with #aGoodStoryToShare

This is the time to begin.

We have a good story to share. What about you?

We gotta visit Malingas right now!

During 2019 summer, Malingas Town’s Mayor Jesús María García Varillas saw how the season rains increased dangerously the load of San Francisco Creek. Malingas is located in the southeastern portion of Tambogrande District, Piura Region.

The solution that García thought was to record a video for sending to the Whatsapp account of Lima-based RPP Noticias network. Then, she requested help to the men who were there seeing how the flow  grew each minute up. Who were around her belief she was losing the sense of the reality, until one took her seriously. He recorded the video, sent it to the network… and the impossible became fact: one day later, the then anchorwoman Josefina Townsend contacted her for interviewing her live. If the video became a national trend on social media, the coverage she got to hold her as a top story for two weeks, provocating the reaction of the Peru’s President Martín Vizcarra himself, who arrived to Malingas and promised to build a bridge over San Francisco Creek for 2020.

But, the mayor thinks it is necessary to step beyond ahead. Learned about the work FACTORTIERRA.NET did in 2009-2011for putting the community on the map, she contacted Fernando Carrasco (her contender in the last municipal election) and requested him for information. Eventually, Fernando contacted me and arranged a meeting between the mayor and me, what happened on May 23^rd and basically consists in activating a García’s idea called “Creating the Malingas Brand”, one of her campaign promises.

The mayor’s idea matches so much with the Malingas Initiative, what granted FACTORTIERRA.NET the 2011 Environmental Citizenship National Award to the Best Media Campaign, given by the Peru's Ministry of Environment and Peru’s Catholic University. So, what comes up next is integrating efforts and seeing how to update what our initiative was and launching it in a most ambitious direction with the Malingas Town Municipality, that joins 20 villages.

In the beginning, the mayor and I have talked about anchoring on rural tourism plus a strong media campaign. But, we have stil to validate it with the rest of the community, so her office is going to call it for a meeting-workshop when we will learn the new communitarian map and see what we can do priority or what doesn’t.

García and I are very enthusiastic about the idea and we are going to pull itfor becoming it real. Obviously, we will keep you informed. Please, leave me any question on the comments box or my Twitter account.

The photo of this post was taken by Francesco Navarrete.

#LiveConnection September 4th, 2022

        

 

 Journalism is the job consisting in searching the reality for explaining it to you. Our goal is you have good information to take better decisions. That’s the theory.

 

It’s true that many times, commercial interests made the journalism to turn a merchandise instead of a service. Inclusive, journalists use to forget the show-business is an issue to cover, not a state to be into. That depends on two crucial aspects. First, we as journalists have to stand strong and defend our real purpose in the society. Second, the public has to understand the facts are more important than the gossip or the rumors. Both depends on education.

 

That’s why, this week, my colleague and best friend Jorge Luis Otero started in Talara City,here in Piura Department, a project with high-school students. It’s a Journalism worshop. What he wants to reach is the students to improve their communication skills. That means speaking good, writing good, explaining good.

 

I learned about that project because Jorge Luis asked me for sending the students a greeting on video. The idea looked me like very good, but I realize the teenagers love surprises. So, I told Jorge Luis to do a little drill in exchange.

 

I performed a little newscast in the same way I webcast my newscasts in Spanish to my broad audience. But this one should be only addressed to that classroom. And we did it so.

 

By using a Zoom connection, I performed a newscast as usual that ended ina little motivational speech. After that experience, Jorge Luis called me to thank, and to tell me that the drill wondered the students because it gave them a first approach about how we manage the news in oder to spread them to the people.

 

Not only with journalism, but I think it would be great if the professions and jobs look for ways to get close the school or high-school students. Why? Because we eestimulate vocations.

Many ttimes, teenagers don’t know what to do about their lives, or maybe they are following a flow or the pressure of their parents. But what do they want to do and to be?

We, who are working in what we love, may be the conduits to teach those teenagers. Obviously, we need teachers who understand how to make that match.

 

The school in actual times must not be encloistered into its walls – it has to expand to the community, and the community has to be open to serve as mentors. This topic has many things to talk, but let’s start up on that idea. Is your school or high-school asking for that kind of connection? Are you able to take that chance and entering the classrooms? Let’s talk about.

  

How you must report in case of natural disasters

The natural disasters are the type of coberages whwhen the whole technical and technological abilities of press crews are tested, especially the fact-checking protocols and the precission which the journalists and hosts treat the issue. But maybe one of the biggest challenges during those events is acting with enough serenity to have perspective at the time to report and provide useful data to our audience.

And here it comes the first lesson: the journalistic coverage in time of natural disasters must take as a main purpose to clarify the view of everybody and to be a a processes conduit between authorities and community, not a booster of fear and panic that ends to create chaos.

It is also true that press and media crews  are joined by persons which reactions are influenced by their individual experiences dealing with this kind of events. Then, is it possible to form an accurate response when they break? Theoretically yes, and that implies to work preventively before the disaster, proactively during it, and sustainabily after it happens.

Before the disaster

1. The basics is to see what the conditions of our work space are and how much it is prepared for having any type of disaster. Our work space must not be safe, it must be highly safe for a simple reason: if something happens, the audience will trust we are on the air or online for knowing what to do. Then, request the authorities or reliable specialists to inspect your facilities and guide you how to set them up or improve them for they to response adequately before any event.
2. Learn what type of disasters are frequent in your community or your region. Look for all the information you can, study its nature, and the existent data about how it happened in previous times. In general, the land uses to react the same way like how it reacted years, decades, or centuries ago. So, it is possible to prevent which the potential damages could be and how you are going to react about them in informative terms.
3. Organize and participate actively in simulations summoned by the authorities. Use not only your meddium to release or promote them. Make your medium to turn the disaster-mode and and have an evaluation form for how much prepared your crew is for reaction. Organize internally scheduled and surprise simulations for training your crew and teach it constantly about how to act if it could happen.
4. Order before everything. Your whole crew must know where each thing is when the disaster happens and who are vital during the coverage. So, you guarantee the safety of everybody and the information flow.
5. In the same way, assign responsibilities  those active authomatically when the disaster occurs. So, you will not improvise at the last moment, or you will improvise only if the case urges it.
6. Have all your protocols and evaluations written, and in quick-access documents. Then, your crew can review them constantly, beginning with you. It’s not a bad idea you share them to your audience for educating and enriching the knowledge and the positive attitude, especially.
7. Work out physically and mentally focusing in the moment of a disaster. In one hand you have enough agility and strength for passing through the exigence of covering it, but you also have to neuroprogram for keeping calm and handling a huge breaking information amount, or what to do if there is not enough information. Remember that the ghost doesn’t scares when you are aware of how it is and how it uses to scare.

During the disaster

1. Calm over everything!! It is the time to apply all your plans and protocols, as well as accomplishing the assigned responsibilities during the simulations.
2. Strictly only if it’s safe, go into the studio or the newsroom and have in touch to your audience. The first message you have to launch is a call for tranquility, open your lines for receiving the information and questions those will begin to break.
3. Unless your source be highly reliable, doubt of the first fact you receive and cross-check it right before releasing it. In case of disaster, the certainty is above the scoop or the exclusive.
4. Your breaking coverage has not to be limited in providing facts. This is the time you must give orientation, advising your audience what it must do. Now you are their leader, so your reliability and knowledge are useful for everybody.
5. Go to the official source. Every government assigns an office to release the exactfact, or the official one at least. Distrust the data from others, don’t share them neither, especially if they seem incredible. In fact, many use to be hallucinations or panic expressions.
6. Hold free phone lines at you medium, those don’t be known by the public, for you to guarantee inmediate information with your crew or sources. Ever have your cellphone with full battery because it is going to be pretty useful during the emergency. If you are a ham, know the emergency frequencies where verified information is shareduseful for you and for your audience (some countries have emergency frequencies in AM, FM and even SW).

After the disaster

1. Against your bosses could claim you, don’t monopolize the statements of the authorities. Despite, they should have press conferences where the whole media have access, so the most quantity of possible public knows what happened, how to act. What you can demand from your authorities, indeed, is their briefings have a known periodicity (the ideal should be each six hours at least) in order to serve all your time targets.
2. Help from the medium with the damages report. Don’t struck it with wrong data or fake news. That means you cross-check even the facts from some authorities who are not official spokespersons, and give them to you for having exposure to the public.
3. Collaborate with other local or abroad media. During a disaster, the information is not the property of anybody, but a right the people have to take better decisions.
4. Educate about the post-thraumatic stress syndrome (PTSS) and use the medium for the people to detect it and look for urgent professional help. An audience with this condition trends to believe easily in fake news, not on your verified fact although it is buzzing on their face. Identify this condition in yourself and treat it with Clinic Psychology. If a person ouside the media prones to response with panic, a PRSS-diagnosed journalist or host is dangerous three times: misinforms, breaks fear, causes more damage.
5. Plan future coverages for analyzing the response of everybody in case the disaster happens again. Keepn intelligently the issue in the best interest of your audience.

Let’s share more tips? Let’s use the comments box for a dialogue, or we also can do it on my Twitter account.

How to crush a non-informatic virus by using your fingertips

The World Bank states 1.6 billion students around the planet are not attending the school due to Covid-19, the new kind of corona-virus. In Peru, the (theoretically) mandatory quarantine imposed to hold the virus was extended until April 12th. Considering the classes began last March 16th, it means a 2020 Annual Course’s month is lost, and it’s possible that coming back to the classroom takes more time.

Around the globe, the initiatives to avoid the students to lose the scholarship’s rhythm are beginning to outbreak and that’s good. Many teachers have recalled a not-so-new ally to achieve it – information technology. And they are taking any resource, any platform to continue, because it’s not about we are on vacation, we have kept not to infect. It’s not the same thing.

Along Peru, the government is setting up a whole platform including the public radio & television, the Ministry of Education, and some associations which are implementing collaborative and friendly environments. Along Piura? I learned this week it does, and it happens in Sullana Province, Marcavelica District indeed, more specifically in Vista Florida Village.

Virtual classroom

14854 José Santos Chocano School, as thousands of schools across Peru, is closed doors but not its communication channels. So Principal Leonila Saavedra had the idea to do in virtual environment wwhat was interrupted in physical or presential ones.

Let’s push pause here because this school and this principal don’t appeared in the air after a blink. It was one of the seven schools across Piura Region recognized by the Ministry of Education (Minedu, as its acronyme in Spanish) with Valora grade, a kind of certification granted for innovating all processes of management and teaching, three years ago.

In José Santos Chocano’s case, its competitive advantage was precisely the use of tools based on information technology. Let’s get back to March 2020. Mrs Saavedra summoned the engineer Iván Martín Rotta, who worked with the platform that allowed her the Minedu’s recognizement in 2017, and who has developed interesting related ideas about this issue at Piura’s César Vallejo University, where he studied.

The engineer designed a virtual classroom as a technologic solution, first for the teachers to coordinate strategies and contents, then for the parents to join the companion of their kids, ultimately to incorporate the children in the whole process. Look what an interesting strategy to add all the members of the basic educational community. If they can add later to the ones who are not part of this community but who are going to contribute in the process, perfect! They’re going a good way!

The teachers who participate in this experience see it much expectant, judging what they have shared on the virtual classroom’s forum. How did I have Access to the system not having an user and a password? Surprise, surprise! When my radar detected this story, I asked Iván to launch two simple questions: what they think of the environment, what challenge it produces them. Then, the quotes you’ll see on this op-ed are spontaneous reactions of those proffessionists. Get your own conclusions.

“They’re the right place to ask questions, to propose activities, or to solve doubts, because there’s no only interaction by asking the teacher, but seeing also what other students ask,” teacher Luis Estrada wrote.

“The virtual education is other vogue in those times and its use gets into different current spaces, although it also has some inconsistences, for example, not all the parents know those virtual environments, who will accomplish a very important role in this process,” teacher Paola Farfán adds.

“Anyway, despite social disagreements, the current scenario makes the virtual education to be already the solution for the problems in Peruvian education. It’s true that a big advantage of virtual education there is a lower Covid-19 contagion risk, because to access the classes for the students, eliminates the displacement to a specific location, situation not able to be done in this emergency,” teacher Yuliana Astudillo complements.

Growing hurts

For the teachers to adapt to the environment, even borning in the Informatics Age, has not been easy because the traditional education usually trains everybody for a predictable space: the board in the background, the door beside the board, the desks in front of the board, teacher’s desk beside the board, wide windows, four walls and a ceiling.

But in the virtual environment, that fades, and especially another factor – time. Perhaps it’s not necessary the 45-minute pedagogical hour. Perhaps you require more time, perhaps you need less. Everything is going to depend on your attention and understanding rate.

And that has been the same challenge of the teachers in Vista Florida, Marcavelica. Let’s reflectionate through their own reactions on their school’s virtual classroom.

“Too much confused in the beginning because we have changed our traditional way to work in classrooms due to the use of a mobile device, lap-top, or computer,” teacher Farfán underlines.

“However, when investigating a bit more and having an virtual education technology  back-up, I feel more secure. That’s why we have focused that in this emergency it’s important to strengthen the interaction media among the students, teachers, and contents, as well as promoting the use of infovirtual tools because the educational stakers will move in a digital environment,” shee adds.

“It’s complicated in the beginning, but to have the motivation of knowing that your students will not lose the Academic Year, makes we work hard on learning with the expert Iván Martín Rotta these virtual educational environments, those are also totally free, so facing this emergency,” teacher Astudillo opines.

“It has not been easy to enter the field of virtual education, but with the back-up of technology we are receiving by the expert Iván Martín Rotta, the learning becomes easier,” teacher Estrada says in his side. “Meanwhile, I can opine that the virtual education requires teachers with technological profiles, but also human, practical, pedagogical, and ethical, different to presential education’s.”

Well, it’s overunderstood that one of the contributions of the Internet to the life of everybody is now we can custom the contents we receive, precisely, to give utility and pleasure to our experience. And why shouldn’t the education be also a pleasant experience, as well as useful?

“The education in virtual environment also will help to improve the student’s mood for not feeling missed. We also ccan approach the care measures before the Covid-19, helping the work the Peruvian State comes doing,” teacher Astudillo stresses.

And this is every crisis’ about, putting creative, not letting to overwhelm by the problem and the impact it can have over our lives. It’s about how we turn every problem into a solution, but also, and this is the lesson of the story I share you today, how the unity of many talents and wills can make something more than solving the problem – innovating, reinventing, becoming a better version of who I used to be.

And Peru is rich in that but it fears to leave the comfort zone (I’m not meaning you go out your home during the quarantine). Vista Florida is understanding it, and according to engineer Rotta told me, other schools are thinking to join. Congratulations about that! Goa head!

My radar also has detected that a similar initiative is making in Fe y Alegría 48 Network in Tambogrande. I don’t have hard facts, but I promise when I know something else, you’ll know it on here.

Eberything begins with a click

Original prompter  of my presentation to the Piura’s Regional Council of Youth, October 13th, 2014. Edited and translated by the author.

Thanks for having me, and I hope to give you  useful information, if not you bull me at the time of the questions. How to do marketing on the social media? The key of everything is making a click. Of course, making a click is the easy part. The complicated is to build all the strategy that becomes that magic moment meaning a click. But making a click has few magic and much science, indeed.

First, let’s define  what marketing is. In simple terms it’s the ability that I have to satisfy a need of the people in any field, so they ever continue to choose me. Said simple – it’s the art of selling. We offer a good or a service through every sale in exchange of another good or service. The trick is in the verb to offer. Because it’s not the same to say “buy those potatoes” instead to say, for example: “Make your family to enjoy tonight – put some Piura’s fried potatoes to your crispy chicken.” Essentially, we’ve said the same. The difference is in how we present it, and how this presentation satisfies a need of the people.

The Malingas Initiative

Well, what do the social media have to do in all this?I learned how to edit webpages for myself 14 years ago. When I thought to have some experience on the issue, I decided to launch my personal website in September 2000, and one month later I launched FactorTierra, what we call FACTORTIERRA.NET now. The most of our coverages has been social-environmental conflicts, until an interesting door opened to us in December 2008.

After a problem related to  natural resources predation in Malingas, Tambogrande, story we became to release, a community’s leader sat down with my crew in March 2009 and made us a challenge: to put Malingas on the map. For making that, the first we realized was to research in-depth how this community is, so we spent a full week living with it. Initially, we were  to focus on the agriculture and cattle topic, what was that you could see straight, until ending the first day of research, Luis Correa, one of the producers, came back with news: a new petroglyph. Who knows Malingas, its best known archaeological vestige is The Devils of Guaraguaos Alto. But, what Luis Correa was saying to me was we had more sites.

Because of his insistence, we got an archeologist who we started to research with by our own, and we found, at least, a dozen of archaeological sites in a 200-sq-km area. The evidences we got to gather set that the petroglyphs could be until 4000 years old. Only as a reference, Chavín is 3200 years old. With all this information, we began to build a microsite you can visit, now if you want, on http://www.factortierra.net/malingas

When we closed the research in 2011, we decided to pack all those sightings on an article that made viral. In May that year, we released El secreto de Malingas (The Secret of Malingas), that was first ranked by RPP Noticias and Radio Cutivalú, and what came later was a load tthat included Andina News Agency, that is the official news agency of Peru, and other media across the nation and abroad. In the next two days, the story of the 4000-year-old petroglyphs in Malingas went around the globe, literally. The challenge that they imposed to our crew, to put Malingas on the map, was gotten, at least in a first step.

(An award to the) identity

And wwhat was the secret of Malingas? The truth is that the secret was seen for everybody: its own identity. We all have our own identity, or we should have it. The same happens to the products. And if we understand Malingas as a product, then the first one we have to look for is the own identity, I mean what makes it unique in the world and different to the rest. And when you bet to the identity, you make a trend.

Obviously, we put the link to the original article and the rankings on Facebook, and they had too likes and shares that it almost made pretty viral. For Malingas, it was an opportunity that costed more than the gold because they could add the touristic activity to the agricultural and cattle activity, so they could improve their life conditions.

Because of the impact we got –remember that our goal was to put Malingas on the map-, we received the Environmental Citizenship National Award for the Best Media Campaign, ending 2011 . This trophy, granted by the Peru’s Ministry of environment and the Peru’s Pontifical Catholic University, is the first one that Piura got. The other one was gotten by my colleague Alberto Navarro for a beautiful series about the carob tree. The formula applied by Alberto is exactly the same like the ours: betting for the identity, for the own. The own sells. But, is enough to bet for the identity to sell?

Originality (Via Satellite)

I think the other reason for what Alberto by his own, and my crew by its own, received the award is the manner we presented the product. I don’t know if Alberto, but the exigence inside my crew was to be very creative in the manner how we presented each one of the features we published. In other words, we bet for originality. The opposite to the original is called copy-and-paste.

Originality means you are capable to create something from nothing, or you can set what was already created so it is seen as a unique, different  thing – to innovate, in other words. Then, to do marketing  on the social media, we need identity and originality, and we get innovation with both. But, and what about the social media themselves? They’re simply platforms. They’re only tools to magnify all those contents. And did we have additional results plus the award? Yes, we did!

In 2013. History Channel Latin America network came to shot the Alien Contact series, and it contacted us because it was interested on an original story we produced at Huancabamba highlands, where the identity was what sold. The episode wwhich we featured was premiered in July 2013, and it’s reprised by the network up to today, and we’re penetrating in about 40 million homes from Bravo River to Patagonia.

The anecdote of that show is the reenactment of the story could not be video-taped in Huancabamba because, when the crew came to shot, the road got interrupted. So we needed a petroglyph, water, trail, and people. All this segment ended to shot in Malingas, Tambogrande.

Marco Paulini

And can the identity-plus-originality formula work for other products? Yes, it can. On May 30th  this year, I met a Young proffesionist from Sullana. We were becoming friends. You know the friendship is based on the gradual aknowledge of the people. I learned this way this guy had made a research by himself, in a Pacaipampa’s village.

He is an obstetrician and his speciality is the sexual and reproductive health of the people. What did his research discover? Between 7% aand 8% of teenagers from that village know what a condom is, but between 5% and 6% would use it. When those data were processed, we advised him to write an article to be understood for the most people as possible. We got to release it on El Regional de Piura website, on last July 30^th, just two months later we met each other. The feature now overcame 2000 hits. Why?

I forgot to mention a detail. The research was made in Bellavista de Cachiaco, Pacaipampa, the same place where the Guerrero-Neyra family comes from, the creator of Corazón Serrano band. Los riesgos del amor adolescente en tierras de Edita (Risky Teenage Love – Somewhere Piura’s Andes) is now one of the most successful original articles in Piura. And how this guy decided to bet for his own professional and personal identity, he gave it added value. Then, we recommended him to activate his Twitter account 

After that first article, he wrote one about how to use a condom correctly. The feature wwent over 2500 hits. Then, it came another about having bareback sex. It overcame 2000 hits. And he just released one about teenage pregnancy, a little time ago, October 2^nd, that already overcame 1200 hits. All these features have been released by El Regional de Piura.

El Regional receives, at least, 10 dollar cents for every hit because it’s subscribed to the Google’s AdSense programme. For this montth’s ending, we estimate that the four Marco Paulini’s articles can overcome 10 thousand hits. That means Marco Paulini could give 1000 dollars to El Regional de Piura for the end of October. And for the end of the year, we think he could generate about 2000 dollars. What would you do with 2000 dollars?

Plus, it’s enough you post something that says “Marco Paulini” on El Regional de Piura and the visit counter triggers inmediatly. What? Does Marco have magic powder? No, he doesn’t. It’s the same recipe than Malingas’ – identity and originality, what becomes him an innovator. And what does Marco gain from all this? Well, ADDING they start to consider him in Sullana for some activities, he had a tweet that said something like, and I’m paraphrasing: “Marco, what do you propose from your region for Peru to enter the first world?” Signed: Annual Conference of CEO’s, CADE 2014.

Rather, his article about teenage pregnancy has been marked as Favorite by Peru’s Vice-President Marisol Espinoza. Also, the Health Integral Insurance recommends everyweek on Twitter to visit the @MarcoPaulini account, at the same level than Pan-American Health Organization, Aldeas SOS, or journalists as Pilar Higashi or Ana Trelles. Now, Marco and my crew are looking for funds to prove what he found in Bellavista de Cachiaco repeats across the region, and if urgent rules are not taken about, we’ll have a population crisis in the next 10 years. To make it simple: there will be few food, few place for many people.

Conclusion: The Malingas and Marco Paulini formulas are no lab ccreations. They’re products that have identity and originality. Through the social media, we also prove they’re an innovation. If they could do it, you too. If you doubt of how to do it, look for me. I already said you I’m on  http://www.facebook.com/nelsonsullana and http://www.twitter.com/nelsonsullana  And what I do? I turn local ideas to global impacts. And I’m waiting for my next challenge.

© 2014, 2019 by  Nelson Peñaherrera Casyillo and Asociación Civil Factor Tierra. All Rights Reserved. Authorized reproduction quoting the source.