Back from Rome. Had a fabulous time! I must confess though that I was very apprehensive about how safe couch-surfing would be for a lone female traveler, I guess I was lucky to find two hosts who were exceptionally kind and generous! Imagine your host receiving you at the airport on a Sunday morning. Even if I had to do this for someone I already knew, it wouldn't be my favourite task at all! This person was kind enough to make me comfortable at his place and also take me on a guided tour to see some of the touristy places I had missed out on the last time I was there. I also indulged in authentic Roman food. The markets with tons and tons of sun-dried tomatoes and inviting tasters of Grappa and various kinds of exotic liqueurs, cheese and absolutely delicious gelato made it a very lovely weekend. The icing on the cake was the birthday/Salsa party I attended later in the evening. It was great to feel the pulse of the city and know it was alive and well. My second host was equally kind and had some fascinating stories to share.He hosted people almost everyday and it was lovely to meet the other guests too. So if you've never tried couch-surfing before, I'd definitely recommend it to get a feel for the place and its culture. Of course, it goes without saying that one must try to find out as much as one can about the host in order to avoid nasty shocks upon arrival. I also learned that Couch-surfing is now a for-profit entity. As you can imagine, this is not a popular thing at all. With good reason, because a few people make money from hundreds of others who actually host people for free. There are other non-profit alternatives such as BeWelcome and WarmShowers. I intend on trying them sometime in the future. Having said that, I must share that many hosts complain about rude and insensitive guests. That's a shame! It is remarkable how absolute strangers will let you into their world and it is important not to abuse that opportunity. The next time you think of travelling, do consider exploring the three options I've listed above. It is sure to be a rewarding experience and it is definitely worth taking a chance. There are far more benevolent people in the world than we usually believe and a lot of friendships waiting to be made.
Coming to the reason I went to Rome in the first place, the STREAM Summer School proved very interesting indeed! It was a highly diverse mix of participants from policy makers, researchers, assistant professors, SMEs and even a start-up investment consultant! There was representation from Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Netherlands, Moldova, Germany, Hungary and even places like Sheffield, Leeds, Milan, Paris, Brussels. Seeing the world from so many view-points added so much insight! Turns out that there is a specific term that encompasses all the competencies that I was talking about in my previous post about communicating across silos. Such a person/ organization is apparently called a 'knowledge-broker'. I had written a blog about the missing link sometime in 2010. Was happy to find answers relevant to Academia/Policy two years later. Though in my opinion it would be be best if each expert from a specific field learned to communicate to an audience beyond their own field. It would help them bridge the gap themselves instead of relying on specialized 'knowledge brokers' so to speak. Like in many other fields, in the case of water too, research uptake by industry/Policy makers is not as robust as it could be.For eg- Politicians are driven by a short term focus on what will bring the best results (and votes) now whereas researchers would often like to do research for research's sake. Water users on the other hand, often don't care to bother their heads with too many issues as long as they have access to clean,cheap water. However, there are some innovative experiments being done to encourage people on different sides to understand the view points of the other people of the table. An innovative project that we discussed in the course was the WISE-RTD site which offers a free e-learning tutorial and even simulated exercises at varying levels to practice cross-border communication if you will. As the site says:
"The WISE-RTD Water Knowledge Portal can be used to locate considerable policy, research and industry resources that can help with water management. Intelligent keyword linking algorithms allow you to quickly and easily find policy, science and technology related information and to see the inter-relationships between them.
The WISE-RTD Water Knowledge Portal forwards to websites with focus on information relevant for the implementation of the European Water Policy.
The linked websites contain a wide range of information such as guidance documents, synthesis reports, reviews, experiences of projects on implementation, selections of ICT tools, methodologies and results of national and EC funded research projects.
Information is presented from all over Europe (and even beyond), at European, national and regional level as well as for river(sub-)basins.
Different user groups (policy makers or water managers, researchers or consultants) are guided by intelligent searches to customized selections of available information related to any EU water policy tasks."
Will end this post with a link to a cute movie on the WISE-RTD site that helps you understand why such a site might be needed. It lasts about three and a half mins. Do watch. http://www.wise-rtd.info/en/bleu-page/wise-rtd-movie
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