30th October 2008 - 
Anil Srivastava
I am often asked what is a virtual assistant (VAs)? what do they do?
It would be good to build a set of profiles of real VAs. It will serve as example of what VAs do in real life but then start serving as a directory where people could contact them for services they need.
Maybe I will begin by adding a few sample profile of people we find from searching the web. We will then invite them to flesh it out according to some guidelines we will establish by consensus.
I do realize that most people in the directory will be, in the beginning, from the north—developed countries—but hopefully soon we will find others from south—developing countries—or virtual assistants living and working outside of G-7 Group of Seven countries.
Maybe we can begin with two who are engaged with GVAN project, namely, Andrea Okrentowich and Barbara Lang.
It is important to think provocatively to help us generate ideas. In that spirit let me offer up a definition of a Virtual Assistant:
A VA GOES where no person has gone before regardless of distance and time zone.
How? with good intentions by cramming the intentions into bits and manifesting
them in distant physical location(s)
In this process, may stumble, trip, do just right, exceed or fall short much like Physical Assistants do in real life.
The stumbles, trips and such are often offset by the far reaching reach :-)