What do I do?
pietradelmundo is Pieter Jacobus Daniël Ploeg as social innovator, host, social media consultant, social gathering organiser and backstage event co-creator.
I facilitate participatory change processes and collaborative design sessions. I host and harvest conversations that matter in communities for social innovation and positive social change. In need for change?
I offer to be your guide in the social media landscape on the web. I develop personal and professional websites, blogs, online marketing strategies, social network presence and online collaboration. Want to be on-line to be more off-line?
I organise a wide variety of social gatherings. Conferences, meetings, camps, performances, festivals, theatre productions. I tend to co-create and co-imagine.
October 19, 2009.
I am sitting in a large room in a white building on the Rudolf Steiner Seminar in Ytterjärna, Sweden. Outside the leaves of the apple trees have turned pale yellow and pumpkin orange, and the light grey clouds carefully water the earth. I am surrounded by 40 young people and we are listening to Helene Bank from Norway, who is speaking about the natural water-cycle and political economics. I just came back from a fourteen-day trip through Europe, via Göteborg, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Gent & Basel as part of my initiative week. I visited the different hubs in my network to check-in in with the young change makers that I have met in the last years of work for Idem – Identity through Initiative. Every time I meet these young people with ideals and dreams I encounter the creativity of human imagination, through the various meaningful conversation I have. However, in this interconnected world they still sometimes feel lonely and separated from society.
Individualism.
How wonderful is the first step of a child and how challenging that first walk. Have you ever wondered how often a child falls during the weeks of it’s first steps? And how it holds on to the structures and objects around him or her? It seems to me that people of my age are going through a similar process when entering society. When high school is over and the future calls, the first steps are taken. Are these steps taken because of the ability to walk, and passively guided by the status-quo? And how much of the curiosity of the child is left? And how much passion?
Adventure.
In July 2008 I decided to engage in the International Youth Initiative Program in Järna, Sweden, to witness and experience one of the most incredible learning environments one can be part of. After a few years of part time youth work in different organizations the time is ready to fully engage in this community experience. Some people asked me whether I am not too “old” or to “experienced” for this program. I say one can never be too old.
I have taken the initiative to start a Dutch youth platform in late 2007 and later initiated the organization of Connectivity 2011 in South Africa. In the last few years I developed myself into the world of social entrepreneurs, volunteers, development cooperation, international conference, civil society organizations as a curious and learning individual. In that process I discovered how absolutely exciting it is to work with socially creative thinkers and doers, and especially youth.
Social creativity.
Here at YIP I witness how young people join in a community to develop tribe leadership in their own networks, and are encouraged to gain a conscious awareness of the world. Different leadership qualities empower these young people to face global challenges and to take action for social betterment and human development, with a strong sense for comprehensive sustainability and modern spirituality.
It is a place where I can work on life, live for learning and learn for work, and all other combinations. Theory can and is being put into practice right away, and there is an inspiring balance between informal, non-formal and formal education. The place is surrounded by beautiful farms, forests and fields, breathing peace and nature into my life.
You should come and visit.
Dear friends,
This is the first blog post of my life, I hope the first of many! I started this blog to inform everyone in my network about the work that I am doing and to share my inspiration with the rest of the world. In this blog I will be posting ideas and stories worth sharing, and my reflections on my life as what they call a social entrepeneur; an entrepeneur without money.
Thanks for your interest!
PieterBeste vrienden,
Dit is de eerste blog post van mijn leven, ik hoop de eerste van velen! Ik ben met deze blog begonnen om iedereen in mijn netwerken te informeren over het werk wat ik doe, en mijn inspiratie te delen met de rest van de wereld. In deze blog zal ik ideeën en verhalen delen die mij inspiren, en zal ik ook reflecteren op het werk wat ik doe als sociaal ondernemer; ondernemer zonder geld.
Bedankt voor je interesse!
Pieter
