Urban Onramps

Well, this is refreshing:

Behind the events is a Manhattan-based nonprofit group, MobileActive, a network of people and organizations trying to improve the lives of the poor through technology. Its members hope light-hearted examinations of failures will turn into learning experiences — and prevent others from making the same mistakes.

“I absolutely think we learn from failure, but getting people to talk about it honestly is not so easy,” said Katrin Verclas, a founder of MobileActive. “So I thought, why not try to start conversations about failure through an evening event with drinks and finger foods in a relaxed, informal atmosphere that would make it seem more like a party than a debriefing.”

There is also a prize for the worst failure, a garish green-and-white child’s computer nicknamed the O.L.P.C. — for One Laptop Per Child — a program that MobileActive members regard as the emblem of the failure of technology to achieve change for the better. When Ms. Verclas held it up during last month’s party, the room erupted in laughter. (Jackie Lustig, a spokeswoman for O.L.P.C., said the organization did not consider its program a failure.)

Read the whole article. Here’s the keeper quote:

…”the private sector talks about failure freely and candidly,” while the nonprofit world “has to worry about donors who don’t want to be associated with failure and beneficiaries who may not benefit from admissions of failure.”

I learn great things from failures. My greatest urban ministry insights come via people who share openly about what did and didn’t work. When Helping Hurts is such a vital book because Fikkert and Corbett are transparent about the many failures of evangelical ministries in poverty fighting (the book opens with just such an anecdote). The Philippines chapters in My Business, My Mission contain open admissions of the problems that were encountered with the affiliate on the ground there.