People Worth Hearing

WHAT IS GREATGUIDES ALL ABOUT?

We give people who are passionate about a subject a platform to publish their ebooks, audio, video, photos, blog posts and other documents online.

If you become a Member you can access all of the publications on the site. Simply make a donation to become a Member.

WHat is the difference between greatguides, Stories and contributors?

'GreatGuides' are remarkable people: excellent communicators, inspiring, expert and passionate. We invite them to be featured on the 'site.

We also publish GreatStories about some of the inspiring people and organisations we have found around the world.

Contributors are members of the public who subscribe to publish on GreatGuides.

If you are passionate about a subject you can become a Contributor. There is an annual subscription payable for this service.

GreatGuides is a brilliant resource to inspire and inform you about our fascinating world and some of its most remarkable people.

More information is available in FAQs

How It All Began

People Worth Hearing - Roddy Bray's Great Guides - On Our Way - South Africa [© 2010 GreatGuides.org]

It all began in 2010 when we spent a year on a long roundtrip from Cape Town to Kenya. Our expedition consisted of Rachel and Roddy Bray (anthropologists), our two small children, an off-road caravan and an enthusiastic film-maker called Jay Simpson!

Our aim was to discover and blog about exceptional people, places and organisations in East and southern Africa. We made short videos about them and recorded them speaking on their subject.

We called the outstanding people we met ‘Great Guides’ because they gave us insight into so many new and fascinating subjects and the places we saw on our journey. The blog grew to over 90 posts and 40 videos on YouTube.

Setting off, January 2010

Many of these people had little or no online presence or means to pass on their knowledge to a global audience. Returning to Cape Town in 2011 we built a website that would give these amazing people the means to publish online. Dr Paul Godard and Daren Cook helped us build and design the site. And so this website began.

Our vision remains, to find and bring together inspirational people online and give them a platform to share their knowledge and experience with others. We continue to use audio, video, photographic and written media to create content-rich profiles that seek to express not only the person’s achievements, but why their work matters to them, and the story behind their career.

We also wanted to open up our publishing platform to others. So we encourage anyone with a passion for a subject to publish on the site as a Contributor. They can build their own profile page and publish their own content.

From the beginning we wanted to share our content with educators and the disabled, especially audio for the blind. We created the iFund to make this a reality and enrich many lives. This is not just our ‘social responsibility’ but one of the core ideals of the site.

We are working on a a communal, donation based model, to make GreatGuides accessible to everyone. We hope that those who are able will support us generously so we can expand our work.

Please become a Member and tell us what you think of the site and any comments you may have. You can also give a Gift Membership to others - the perfect gift for those with an enquiring mind!

If you know someone whom you think should be featured on GreatGuides, please encourage them to become a Contributor and subscribe to publish on the site. That is the best way for us to get to know them.

Thank you for your best wishes and support.

Roddy Bray