I am currently on an ESC assignment in Johannesberg, South Africa. ESC stands for executive Service Corps and is aligned with the more well known Corporate Service Corp (CSC) that is run by IBM's Corporate Citizenship Affairs. You can read a short essay about the CSC here
Briefly, small teams (about 6 for ESC and 10-12 for CSC) are sent to locations where they work with local government, NGOs and such to address problems of mutual interest aligned to IBM's Smarter Planet agenda.
Our team of six is in Johannesberg (also called Joberg, CoJ....) working the Municipality on their vision of a smart Joberg. Specifically we are addressing the issue of Public Safety. But more on that later.
We have spent a few months preparing for this assignment back home, but the reality of the task ahead hits us when we are here physically. We arrived on the 9th of October and have been busy scoping out the problem and defining a subset that we can contribute in a lasting way that will help the city make the transformation to their vision of a smarter Johannesburg. We obviously also work closely with local South Africa IBM folks, and also plan to meet with their employees in mentoring sessions and the like.
Its been about a week since we've been here and we have been quite busy. I will try to keep this blog on our SA activities current - my first task is to catch up to this week which I plan to do this weekend.
Briefly, small teams (about 6 for ESC and 10-12 for CSC) are sent to locations where they work with local government, NGOs and such to address problems of mutual interest aligned to IBM's Smarter Planet agenda.
Our team of six is in Johannesberg (also called Joberg, CoJ....) working the Municipality on their vision of a smart Joberg. Specifically we are addressing the issue of Public Safety. But more on that later.
We have spent a few months preparing for this assignment back home, but the reality of the task ahead hits us when we are here physically. We arrived on the 9th of October and have been busy scoping out the problem and defining a subset that we can contribute in a lasting way that will help the city make the transformation to their vision of a smarter Johannesburg. We obviously also work closely with local South Africa IBM folks, and also plan to meet with their employees in mentoring sessions and the like.
Its been about a week since we've been here and we have been quite busy. I will try to keep this blog on our SA activities current - my first task is to catch up to this week which I plan to do this weekend.
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