During the last years, I have taken part in many projects which, in one way or another, have an impact on the way people relate with their institutions and governments. My field has been new information technologies. My drive: to understand how these tools are changing the world as we know it. My goal: to contribute to building a better society through digital tools.
I developed a strong understanding of digital communications and their relation to the broader media as the editor of Chile’s first online medical newspaper. Also, at the Innovation Center of the Chilean Library of National Congress, I headed projects connecting citizens to local and national politicians using social media tools. I further refined my skills when I led the implementation of a social network plan for schools in underprivileged neighborhoods at the EducarChile Program. For the past year, I have been Head of Digital Media at Corfo, the Chilean Economic Development Agency, and I currently participate in e-government committees, where we look for new ways to modernize public institutions through the use of digital tools, in view of improving public services.
What was the path that brought me here? For as long as I can remember, I have been outgoing and curious about people and the world, and have always asked myself “the reason why” for everything. Undoubtedly, this interest was fueled by the education I received at home, my studies and the travels I have had the opportunity to make. I grew up in a mixed cultural environment. My parents fostered my creativity and social criticism with every possible artistic and cultural activity they could think of, encouraging admiration and respect for diversity, high morale standards, as well as a passion for excellence. Ever since those days, my life experience and diverse background have provided me with a unique professional and cultural point of view to share with my classmates and colleagues.
After finishing high school I realized my vocation was to understand and communicate a diverse range of realities from a different perspective. In 1996 I decided to study journalism and mass communications at Diego Portales University; it was then that I discovered the Internet and became fascinated with this new tool. It opened a door onto thousands of topics, and moreover I found that it was in fact possible to contact many of the experts I admired.
Quite soon for me the Internet started to resemble the infinite library that Jorge Luis Borges wrote about. The turning point came in 2004, the year in which a new concept was created: the Web 2.0. Without the need for intermediaries, directly through blogs and other content management systems, many people around the world begin to publish their own stories, breaking away from the traditional mass media agendas and drawing attention to online niche topics. Hands on, I learned how in this new communication model, the currencies were collaboration and participation. That same year (2004) I became one of the first Chilean bloggers with my website paloma.cl, in which I focused on sharing each of the new things I was learning about new social media tools, and how they could be used by businesses and public institutions. Since then, I have continued to explore new social media platforms, aiming to discover, understand and share my knowledge about how these new tools can improve our society.
In 2008, I started to take part in many seminars about different topics related with the Web 2.0, what have allowed me to meet the most prominent thinkers, creators and activists in the social media arena, such as Jimmy Wales (the founder of Wikipedia) Professor Howard Rheingold of U.C. Berkeley's School of Information (who coined the concept of "virtual communities" and "smart mobs"), Don Tapscott (author of “Wikinomics), Jack Dorsey (the founder of Twitter) and Tim O’Reilly (who coined the concept of Web 2.0). To all of them I interviewed for my video-blog PalomaTV.
My innovative work in digital communications earned me a place as the Chilean representative on the first Social Media Tour in February 2010. The tour was hosted by the U.S. Department of State and, along with other 30 prominent online journalists from around the world, I traveled to Washington DC. We met with the directors of New Media at the White House and the State Department and several Congressmen to discuss social media and digital communications issues. In California we got together with executives from Google, Facebook and Twitter. When I returned to Chile in March that year I joined the PR and communications team of ChileAyuda.com, a website which was the converging point of the aid efforts for earthquake victims. I then traveled with Minister Felipe Kast (head of the Chilean Ministry of Planning and Cooperation) to assess and document the earthquake damage afflicting the Chilean people for policy makers.
During my career I have had the opportunity to get involved at an early stage in revolutionary issues that are changing the world such as digital communications, online networking tools, experience design and innovation in public policy. All these things are reshaping the relationship between citizens and their authorities. My experience has given me a unique perspective. I have been able to see how digital communications are increasingly blended into the social fabric of developing countries. Leading website projects and building digital communities I have empirically experienced that digital media offer great opportunities to engage people, connect institutions with audiences, strengthen organizations, collect data about local situations, and create networks between agents involved in public policy from the highest levels to the social bases.
In recent years I have visited the United States on several occasions. On each visit, I extend my network by meeting with top universities’ research leaders in topics such as digital culture, e- government and new media. Most of my skills are self- taught and have emerged through these kind of visits, but also through attending seminars, reading, researching and learning from those teams I have had the opportunity to form part of.
Today, as the next step in my career, my goal is to acquire new knowledge and skills that will allow me to contribute towards building fairer, more equal opportunities for everyone. I would like to follow a graduate program that combines digital media and public policy, in order to obtain more and better tools with which to participate in public policy development, in areas such as e- government and citizen participation.