Who am I and what is it that I want to do?
I am an architect (the building kind, not the IT kind) trying to make connections between people, between opportunities, between resources, between ideas.
Let’s face it, I am an unemployed architect in a city that churns out at least 600 new architects every year who can work longer hours, travel at a moment’s notice, love to spend hours in front of the computer using drafting software to draw what someone else tells them to, and don’t yet have kids (I have 3!) that have to be picked up early from school when it’s flu season.
I can’t compete. I’m not even interested in competing.
According a press release by UN Center for Human Settlements, up to 100 million people in the world are homeless, the majority: women and dependent children. Even worse, there are at least 600 million people living in shelters that are life threatening or health threatening.
Sorry, got sidetracked trying to google how many unemployed architects there are in the world at the moment. Let’s just say a lot. (The UK lists about 7% of registered architects as unemployed).
The UN say that 5 million deaths and 2 million permanent disabilities could be avoided yearly if all housing could be brought up to a minimum standard.
Do you see where I’m going with this?

The technology is out there, qualified people are everywhere, materials, resources, ideas. We have everything we need, it’s just not getting to the right place at the right time in the way that makes it most useful. And that’s where my connections come in.