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Hooked on HTML
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| Mari Parker interviews Gilda Dadush, Mosaic April 2005 |
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| It is not certain whether Gilda Dadush and fellow WBFN Web volunteer Neha Shirgaonkar knew the magnitude of the task they were about to tackle together. When the Bank decided to shift its web supporting system, WBFN staggered under the realization of what it would have to undergo to re-do its Website so carefully designed by WBFN’s original web team: Aida Hafez, Lois Khairallah, Rupa Bhattasali only three years ago. With Lois Khairallah, former-WBFN president as the project lead, Gilda set forth to create the WBFN portion of the website, while Neha created the Outreach portions (Book Project; Margaret McNamara Memorial Fund; and the UNICEF.) The massive project was on. WBFN President Rosa Lia Troch; Communications Chair, Mari Parker; and WBFN Coordinator, Louise Shimizu played supportive roles in keeping this volunteer production on track and finishing well within the year. | Tell us a bit about yourself, Gilda
I was born in Casablanca, Morocco and lived there until I was 19. I received my undergraduate degree in Economics in Israel and worked there for a while. My  husband was one of the first people I met in Israel. We have been together for 35 years. Our travels took us to Canada, the US, Italy and back to the US, where I received a Masters in Economics. Our daughter, Sarah, who is a practicing lawyer in New York, was born in Italy. Our younger, Dan, born in London, is in his last year of college. He recently enjoyed a year in Italy working on web design. When we lived in Belgium with our small daughter, I studied drawing and Modern Tapestry Weaving in an art school. After my son was born, I enrolled at the Christi’s School of Art in England, where I received grounding in Modern Art, where I studied Modern Art History. I received a degree in Computer Science in the States in 1997. It seems like I have invested the time between when the children were born and when they left home into taking classes. | How did you decide to focus on computers?
I didn’t know what to do with these machines! I wanted to know… and I stayed with it. I tried to read the manual, fell asleep, and knew I needed to take a class. The class helped me see possibilities! I fell in love with computers. Since I am a very thorough type, I did programming classes, animation, graphics, and engineering classes. I could put together a computer and weld an electric board. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know. Material on web design... programming, and HTML...I taught myself these when I finished classes in ‘97. In a way computers have come to represent for me the combination of things I love: art and sciences. And this is how I came into computer design - merging art and computer science. | You mentioned your son. Did he have anything to do with your love of computers?
I wanted my kids to be computer literate. The whole thing had an aspect about teaching and being with my kids. The fact that I could web-program in 1996 made me a “cool” mom with my kids. One of the outcomes was that when the kids and I had disagreements, I would go away, but after 10 minutes or so my son would often have a problem with his computer and would come around saying, “Mom…OK, mom… I’m sorry.” The little computer became the thread and established a relationship between the kids and me, especially my son and I…once there was a relationship, we could talk about a lot of things. | What was it like to start volunteering at WBFN?
Well, first you should know that my mum—who had to struggle for a good living in Morocco—couldn’t believe that I would work so much without pay! I have two good friends involved in WBFN who kept saying to me over 5 years, “Why don’t you volunteer?” I finally said, “OK, I’ll do it.” I took the initiative and got in touch with the people at the WBFN office. | Tell us about your volunteering experience with the WBFN Website
Originally I was supposed to help update the old site. But then the Bank decided to migrate to a new platform. The need arose for someone to learn a new software, e-Publish, and define WBFN’s needs. In the summer of 2004 Neha, Lois, and I started training. One of the first things I tried was to migrate one page…the WBFN home page. I reconfigured the page and played around with the graphics…a little here, and a little there… and all of a sudden the page became something completely different from a straightforward a migration….it took on a life of its own. I took a hard look at the old site and started to reach the conclusion that three years is a long time in Internet life and WBFN might be better served to shift from an information-based site to one that includes more interactive and dynamic features. This is when we got the idea of involving each WBFN Activity Chair to take ownwershp of a page. | How did you organize the work?
I met with the individual chairs. This process helped develop a two-way relationship. The chairs understsood what the site could do and I understood what their responsibilities were. It helped me define their pages better. From there I did further research. I found pictures, created graphics, and built a preliminary page. This was enough to generate a dynamic interaction between designer and chair and to achieve the new WBFN look. We hope that WBFN members will find the new site attractive and will visit it again and again and find useful information. | What did you learn from your volunteering experience?
When I started volunteering not only did I not know much about WBFN, but I also had no idea about the meaning of volunteering. I came in with lots of misconceptions such as: everyone is working with only the idea of helping WBFN members, no other “agenda”; no personal needs, no personal ideas. My first lesson has been to realize that a volunteer organization also carries every aspect and challenge of any other organization. I was lucky that my volunteer work changed from website maintenance to the development of a full site. It allowed me to work closely with many people, both volunteers and non-volunteers, at every level. It allowed me to learn how to work within an organization and interact with people. I made many mistakes...you just cannot assume that what is in your head is shared by others. I learned the need to communicate clearly with others—a very important skill in any organization—I learned that human relations and the ability to interact within an organization goes beyond graphics skills. Working with a website has the advantage of instant feedback and this feature made it relatively easy to improve my work quickly. | How do you feel about WBFN?
Having to present every facet of WBFN to its members through the website allowed me to become very familiar with the organization within a short period of time. It gave me a unique opportunity to understand how each part of WBFN interconnects and feeds into each other. It also gave me tremendous respect and admiration for what WBFN and its volunteers have achieved over the years, and I feel very proud to have been able to help in my own way...and I hope to be able to contribute even more in the future. |
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