S.W.A.P.
The Samoa Web Ambassadors Programme
The SWAP Foundation – sounds really official eh? It is too actually.
Cool logo too!
We’re the brainchild of a New Zealand IT Entrepreneur (or that’s what he calls himself anyway), Dennis A. Smith. Don’t forget the “A.” because there are many Dennis Smiths around apparently.
The story goes that he was here in Samoa around the time of the Tsunami (September 2009) and he got all caught up in the trauma and magic of the country and also the recovery efforts. He’s got his own take on what happened to him which we all find very interesting the first time we hear it. It tends to get a little ho-hum after the 439th time but that’s his job to tell his story anyway! He blabs on about it on his personal website (www.dennis.co.nz) if you’re curious.
To cut a V – E – R – Y long story short he relocated himself to this tropical South Pacific
paradise and brought his web development and Internet marketing skills across with him. In typical Dennis A. Smith style (remember the “A.” now) he’s putting in a mammoth effort to crank things along and help get Samoa on the map Internet. He’s constantly saying that nobody really understands how much goodwill there is out there toward Samoa post-Tsunami and that what’s needed is a mechanism or a vehicle to unlock that goodwill and get it going.
We think he’s right because we’re those very people he’s been prattling on about. So we’re right on his page with this one. We’re not that different from anybody else really – we’re just the same as many other people who would like to help but didn’t know how until we stumbled upon S.W.A.P. We’re curious. We want to engage with the Samoan people. We want to understand them. We want to help, but not just sending over money and stuff to them hoping that the real people in need will get it. We actually just want to help with the skills that we’ve got – like blogging and marketing and geeky stuff.
The boss has got it right in this regard. By helping people like us get up here and give a litle of what we are good at, we can all help Samoa get back on its feet. Oh, and we might get a few memorable experiences and have some fun in the sun on the side too! We also like being called Ambassadors – it makes us feel so important and “official”.
The skipper has put up the seed capital, got himself a home and business up and running and we’re all piggybacking onto his energy to chip in and make the world a better place. Well, certainly to do our bit to try and help Samoa tourism get going again, anyway.
Our first task is to get a good in-bound tourism portal website going, with modern technology, and good fresh UGC (that’s User Generated Content for you oldies out there). We’re onto it as we speak!
We seriously want to share this amazing country with the web community. You can help us by spreading the word, and come early June (this is Samoa) July (Oh Boy! SAMOA!!) August (Don’t you just love this place?) September (ok . . . ) When-ever-ber The Samoa Story might be worth a look. If things go according to plan, we’ll eventually get you so much information, so many stories, blogs, pictures, documentaries and other goodies and offers that you’ll just HAVE to get on over here and check it out.
That’s the plan anyway.
And here’s one official document: SWAP Foundation – Certificate of Incorporation
The official Aims and Objectives of the SWAP Foundation are:
- To educate, inform, teach and mentor Samoan entrepreneurs and business people on:
- Internet Marketing
- Brand and Product Development
- Good ICT practice
- To train, educate and mentor Samoan entrepreneurs and business people to encourage foreign investment into Samoan tourism & Samoan tourism infrastructure
- To encourage, support, promote and facilitate cross-cultural exchange and cross-cultural education between indigenous Samoan and foreign cultures.