So do not hesitate to get involved in the online collaborative platforms already available and keep the movement going. If you are specifically interested to proactively participate in any of the areas defined below, please contact web2fordev@web2fordev.net .

Primary follow-up areas defined by the organizers:

In short, the Web2ForDev movement can count on continued support from a multi stakeholder collaboration. We are looking forward to engaging with all interested parties and individuals who, like us, believe Web 2.0 approaches and tools can make a positive difference within the development context.

Signed:

the Web2forDev Partnership

(CTA, FAO, IICD, GTZ, CGIAR, ACP, UBC, APC, Euforic, UCAD and IFAD)

Some brief comments to the conference:
Here are the 3 most relevant case studies for me. Potential scaling up and mainstreaming are my major concern about these new technologies.

• Oxfam is using any new Web2.0 technology to mobilize mid-class professional and youth in wealthy countries (Myspace, Facebook, what ever) and it seams to works great for them.
• Dgroups, “Web2.0 before Web2.0”, is consistently used by development practitioners since 1996 (80’000 subscribers), but it is now an outdated technology: simple robust mailing list and discussion forum that are low band compatible, no blog nor wiki. Couldn’t we work together to improve it?
• Cell phones are all over the world in hands of billions of people: they are making a difference now. People are making money. Here is an example from Ghana.
• and the BROSDI-Uganda hype I don’t share.

I was less impressed than others by the presentation of the BROSDI project from Uganda.

“I felt like I had found a magic bean”(…) “My favourite was Cissy and her turkey farm. Ednah told us, ‘She learnt how to rear turkeys on SMS!’ “wrote Holly Ashley here in the Web2fordev blog. I am sure the enthusiasm is authentic. I just doubt that proteins deficiency and lack of incomes in developing countries will be solved by learning through SMS. It’s a pity, but development issues and learning opportunities are more complex than that. And we should stop getting exited by beautiful particular innovative projects that never scale up because they are based on very singular local circumstances and leadership that are rarely part of the project presentation.

Bottom line: Nice learning and networking, but I an not sure I will attend the 2009 conference on Web3.0 “Virtual Reality for Development”. I am convinced there is still in the coming years a great undisclosed and proved potential to reach the Millennium goals with pencils and paper, old Web1.0 low band artifacts and some Web2.0 tools for some people.

Olivier Berthoud
SDC, Berne

Recently aware of your iniciative and eager to contribute to a better understanding of the challenges and posibilities of the so called Knowledge Society, I would like to let you know of two projects who conceive the use of blogin to generate networks of participative conscience on different issues of social participation in which I have been part. One is LINC which stands for “Laboratorio de Inteligencia Colectiva” (you know, we use Spanish as lingua franca in this South…), and was a somehow successfull -and still unique by the time- experience, to establish free ways of expression and colaborative thinking between people working in different areas of the public administration in charge of the social protection program Chile Solidario. There you´ll find lots of entries on issues of social protection and TIC´s and some twenty links to other blogs who were being created on time and conform a network still active in at least a region of the country, altough the initiative was not “fully” comprised by the central administration… but that lead to another conversation on politics. Then, there´s our actual initiative using the same open media and still in social protection and technologies but from the private sector this time (8th Millenium Goal). Both links to this material could be accesed next. Needless to say that we´ll be very gratefull for your visit and coments. Please don´t hesitate to contact and make any question you want.

www.vc-on.blogspot.com

www.siischilesolidario.blogspot.com

Best Regards,

Rainer.

Thanks to Tom L. and Peter Ballantayne for their very interesting remarks on my post “an overview of blogging for development.” Peter argued that there are a lot different blogs in development aid or international cooperation out there and “must be loads more, just not very visible.” And Tom had a great point:

What’s probably as important as noting the existence of the blogs themselves is tracking the development of the aid-development blogosphere, examining the connections (strength, regularity, theme) between blogs and seeing if there are purposive and deliberate communities building out there. Not many groups are actually taking aggregation a step further and building connections and seeking to create value to the profession from the new-found willingness to share online.

I agree with Peter that there is probably much more of it out there, but I criticize that in most cases it is not linked and therefore has no networks. And as Tom rightly points out, there is little knowledge sharing and discourse between different bloggers, different organizations. I give you three examples how different the approaches are and what is behind them. I analyzed all three blogs with technorati.com and aiderss.com to find out about their network and discussions.

Blog World Hunger
This blog is from the International Food Policy Research Institute. They also presented their web2.0 approach on the web2fordev conference. They have been experimenting with blogs internally for knowledge sharing for already some years. This internal blogging seemed to me quite vibrant since it involves a lot of staff. However, when you look at the external blog, you have a complete contrast. Six posts and seven comments in 2007. I wonder why they even use a blog and not a normal website. In Technorati, it has 9 blog reactions in 2007 (other blogs linking to it), and in del.icio.us it has been bookmarked only one time (from me!).
Certainly not a blog to network nor discuss the issue of world hunger with a broader community. For example it does not link to any other blog. It seems to be a place to just drop various documents and articles.

The following two blogs are very different in which one is grassroot driven and the other from the World Bank.

William Kamkwamba’s Malawi Windmill Blog
This is a blog about William Kamkwamba, the 19-year-old self-taught engineer who built a windmill power system for his family’s home in Malawi. His story was broadcasted at the TEDGlobal 2007 in Tanzania. (Check out all the other great presentations). His blog, which started back in June, got over 222 blog reactions according to Technorati. It has been commented 52 times and it has been bookmarked 48 times in del.icio.us. No doubt that that blog is a great storyteller and invites to read and interact. It also clearly is meant to support William in his eduction. Furthermore, it has been nicely embedded into the wider blogosphere and the result is remarkable. It has big attention.

End poverty in South Asia
This is a blog run by the Shanta Devarajan, the Chief Economist of the South Asia Region at the World Bank. His statement “End poverty in one generation. It can be done in one generation” makes the goal clear. It is quite an offensive approach for an organization such as the world bank in my opinion. This has triggered already 49 comments two 12 posts since it started in September, and it has aroused over 20 blog reactions so far. Similar to William’s blog and in contrast to the world hunger blog, it gives a personal perspective, and evokes feedback. However, I am curious to see how an organization such as the world bank will keep such an open discourse and how it can contribute:

This is why I am starting this blog. To contribute to the debate (sometimes, to start one) with ideas, analysis and evidence so that South Asians—and people who care about South Asia—can have a dialogue on these critically important issues, so that together we can end poverty in South Asia. (Shanta Devarajan)

In conclusion, I think blogs are used in more and more different ways. However, blogs are often not part of networks nor refer to each other. The communication is a one way street or the discourse is not happening in a social network of blogs. And interestingly there is still a wide gap between the many piles of documents for development themes and the few pioneers tempting to have a two way conversation about development.

3 October. OneWorld, the international network for global justice, is launching a social networking space for climate change that will act as a ‘Climate Facebook’ to inspire people to take action to protect the planet.

“OneClimate.net is a mass collaboration space dedicated to global citizens gathering and distributing solutions to climate change,” says Anuradha Vittachi, co-founder of OneWorld and instigator of its climate initiative. “It shows what people and organisations all over the world are doing, and offers a response to the question, ‘Why should I go green if no one else is?’”

OneWorld is known for innovating media platforms for eradicating poverty – like OneWorld.net, the world’s first portal on global justice. Vittachi points out that climate change is set to be the greatest creator of poverty and suffering the world has ever known, undermining the good work done by development workers for decades. “There can be no global justice,” she says, “without climate justice. Do we really want to be the generation that ended life as we know it for hundreds of millions of people?”

OneClimate.net is supported by Cisco Systems. Adrian Godfrey, Director of Corporate Affairs at Cisco, says: “We are delighted to be supporting OneClimate.net as a global initiative that brings together Cisco’s commitment to tackle climate change and to utilising the power of the human network to make a difference.”

OneClimate.net links directly through to OneClimate Island, built by OneWorld within the 3D virtual world of Second Life. Since opening to the public in June 2003, Second Life has grown explosively and today includes 100 universities, including Harvard and Edinburgh.

OneClimate Island was soft-launched by OneWorld on 16 September 2006. “OneWorld was the first NGO to use Second Life for dealing with serious global justice issues, as well as creating its first space devoted solely to tackling climate change,” says Peter Armstrong, OneWorld co-founder and Innovations Director.

“It will come into its own when the United Nations meets on December 3-14 to hold its Climate Summit. We will be opening a virtual window on events in Bali for anyone in the world who can access Second Life. But unlike its Real Life equivalent - and appropriately for a climate change conference - it will produce no travel-related carbon emissions.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKSlN5iHV5w

Cette structure est une organisation à but non lucratif de blogueurs du monde entier fondée par le Berkman Center for Internet and society de la faculté de droit de Harvard aux USA. Le Berkman Center étudie l’impact de l’Internet sur les sociétés.

Lors de la conférence de Rome sur le Web.2, Ethan Zuckerman, l’un des cofondateurs de Global Voices Online, a affirmé que son organisation a pour but d’amplifier, d’exposer le dialogue mondial sur Internet, en présentant le coté caché de l’actualité des pays et des personnes ignorés par les médias tels la radio, la télévision, la presse écrite. «Nous nous consacrons au développement d’outils, d’institutions et d’alliances, pour aider toutes les voix, où qu’elles soient, à se faire entendre », assure Zuckerman.

Pour les élections au Nigeria, au Zimbabwe, la société civile a utilisé le téléphone portable pour dénoncer le fait qu’on l’empêchait de voter. Cette situation a était relayée par les radios grâce aux appels émis. Sur les questions des droits de l’homme, en Egypte, les blogs sont des tribunes nourries par les sms et les images envoyés par les citoyens.

A une époque où les médias internationaux font l’impasse sur de nombreuses informations, Global Voices souhaite corriger l’impair de l’omission ou de l’exclusion de certaines informations en utilisant les technologies de l’information et de la communication, en faisant appel aux blogs, podcasts, photos, vidéos, wikis, tags, et messageries instantanées.

Avec ces technologies, ce sont des dizaines de millions de sources qui existent. Comment éviter d’être submergé par l’information? Comment savoir qu’une information est crédible ou pas?
Avec Global voices, une  équipe internationale de bénévoles, de blogueurs - éditeurs donnent l’information. «Nos collaborateurs sont des blogueurs qui vivent dans différents pays du monde. Ils comprennent le contexte et l’importance des informations locales, des opinions et analyses qui sont publiées chaque jour dans leur pays ou région du monde, sur les blogs, les podcasts, les sites de partage de photo et vidéos. Ils nous aident donc  à découvrir et à mettre en contexte les événements relatés par les blogueurs locaux, et qui ne sont pas couverts par les médias traditionnels », confie Zuckerman.

Global Voices s’est aussi adjoint un coordinateur des actions pour la liberté d’expression, pour aider ceux qui vivent dans des pays où les pouvoirs locaux souhaitent les empêcher de s’exprimer. Global Voices se trouve dans grande partie des pays du monde parce que les voix d’Amérique du Nord et d’Europe de l’Ouest sont déjà surreprésentées sur Internet.
Global voices privilégie les pays en voie de développement. Selon Zuckermann cette structure travaille pour construire des ponts qui relient les hommes au delà des fossés culturels et linguistiques, afin que chacun puisse mieux connaître l’autre. «Nous croyons que la discussion au delà des frontières est essentiel pour garantir à tous les citoyens de la planète un futur qui soit libre, juste, prospère et durable».
Global Voices est né au cours d’une réunion de blogueurs tenue à Harvard en décembre 2004.

Ecouter aussi le podcast, une interview de Zuckerman.
Par Ramata Soré

Derrière le rideau, une grosse machine composée de 12 organisations internationales de développement a travaillé dans l’ombre pendant des mois pour asseoir ces assises qui marquent un tournant décisif  dans l’usage social de l’Internet.

La convergence des énergies au niveau de ces structures, qui se trouvent dans différents pays, a surtout montré son efficacité grâce à l’usage des outils du Web 2 dans l’organisation de la conférence. Dgroups, skype, wiki, tags, blogs ont été les principaux ingrédients qui ont facilité la mise en réseau du comité d’organisation ainsi qu’une préparation à moindre coût de la conférence.

A dessein, l’organisation s’est un peu démarquée des méthodes classiques de diffusion de l’information pour fonder sa stratégie de communication sur les outils du Web2, notamment le blog de la conférence renforcé avec d’autres outils participatifs en ligne comme le wiki, le postcast, le flickr et le Youtube.

Pour Giacomo Rambaldi, les fruits ont presque tenu la promesse des fleurs. Selon lui, le blog de la conférence recevait plus de 400 visiteurs par jour, répartis dans 168 pays dont les plus importants sont l’Italie, les Etats-Unis, l’Inde et le Kenya. Un record dans les statistiques de visite de blog.

Au fur et à mesure du déroulement des séances plénières et des sessions parallèles, les présentations sont postées sur le wiki de la conférence. Les participants avaient la possibilité de télécharger leur photos sur le flickr et ceux qui ont eu la chance d’être vidéo interviewé peuvent consulter youtube.

Selon les organisateurs, l’enthousiasme qui a régné doit se poursuivre à travers la communauté de pratiques qui a été constituée et renforcée au travers de cette conférence. Car, ce qui fait le ciment entre les participants, c’est avant tout la foi qu’ils ont en ce qu’ils font.

Gnona Afangbédji

« Le Web2 et les communautés de pêche » fait partie de nombreux sujets débattus lors des « Open space » de la conférence Web2fordev. Pete Cranston, l’initiateur de cette discussion se prononce dans cet entretien sur l’impact que les outils du Web participatif pourraient avoir sur les communautés de pêche en Afrique.

Vous avez réalisé pour le compte de la FAO, une étude sur l’adaptation des TIC aux besoins des communautés de pêche dans certains pays en développement. Comment s’expriment ces besoins dans les pays africains que vous avez visités ?
Globalement, je crois que les besoins des communautés de pêche ne sont pas différents de ceux des autres communautés rurales qui, en matière d’information, ont besoin de tout ce qui peut les aider à mieux rentabiliser leurs activités.

Mais au niveau de la production halieutique, les communautés de pêche ont surtout besoin de savoir là où elles peuvent trouver le poisson, comment y accéder et d’avoir les informations sur la météo. Et lorsqu’on va plus loin en parcourant toute la chaîne de la production, les pêcheurs ont aussi besoin des informations sur les marchés, les prix et quels sont les programmes mis en place par les autorités et les opportunités qui s’offrent à eux pour améliorer leurs activités. Dans la plupart des communautés que j’ai parcourues, les pêcheurs utilisent la radio, le GPS et surtout le téléphone mobile.

Un autre besoin des pêcheurs, c’est de disposer d’un lobbying local et national et avoir des moyens de communication efficaces pour poser leurs problèmes. L’étude que j’ai faite à la Fao a confirmé que la technologie la plus importante pour ces communautés, c’est la radio.

Quel peut être alors l’impact du Web2 sur les activités de ces communautés ?
De mon point de vue, il n’y a pas encore pour l’instant un besoin réel pour ces pêcheurs d’accéder directement aux outils du Web2. Le Web2 est une technologie qui s’appuie sur une large bande passante. Il faut disposer d’un bon débit pour utiliser Youtube, skype ou encore flickr. Et puis ce sont des groupes qui sont pour la plupart des analphabètes. Comme je l’ai dit tantôt, la technologie la mieux adaptée à leur condition, c’est la radio.

Par contre, c’est très important pour ces groupes d’avoir des intermédiaires comme les Ong pour les aider. Ces intermédiaires ont eux besoin des outils du Web2. C’est donc une grande responsabilité pour la Fao et les grands réseaux d’appuyer ces acteurs du développement à la base et de renforcer leur capacité en matière d’usage des outils du Web2.

Il est possible d’établir un partenariat entre les pêcheurs et les radios communautaires par exemple. Ces pêcheurs peuvent parler, utiliser les Sms pour chercher des informations sur les prix, la météo, poser des problèmes et les radios communautaires à travers le « postcasting », par exemple pourront les appuyer. A ce moment, la complémentarité entre le Web2, la radio et le mobile permet de toucher les communautés dans les coins les plus reculés.

Est-ce possible dans un avenir proche ?
Tout à fait. Des exemples existent. La vidéo, par exemple, est un outil qui peut beaucoup aider les communautés de pêcheurs. Nous avons vu au cours de la conférence, l’expérience du videoblog au Ghana, c’est très édifiant.

L’un des problèmes sérieux que les communautés de pêche de l’Afrique de l’ouest ont actuellement, c’est celui des bateaux européens qui viennent pêcher sur les eaux sans licence. Une Ong qui s’appelle « Environnement Justice Foundation » a fait une expérience intéressante avec les pêcheurs guinéens. Cette Ong a suivi ces pêcheurs et a pu filmer ces bateaux qui volent le poisson sur les eaux africaines. Elle a envoyé ensuite l’image sur youtube (youtube.com/user.environmentalJustice). Cette image a fait le tour du monde. Cette organisation a donc utilisé cette vidéo pour faire du lobbying au niveau international puisque les gouvernements africains n’ont pas les moyens de contrôler les eaux.
Il y a un musicien sénégalais qui s’appelle Didier Awadi qui a tourné un album sur les immigrés clandestins qui vont en Europe en pirogue et qui meurent sur les eaux. Parce qu’elle a été postée sur Youtube, la vidéo a été vue par des centaines de milliers de personnes. Et le monde entier a été mis au courant de cette tragédie. Moi-même, c’est un ami qui m’a envoyé le clip. C’est cela la force du Web2.

Dans l’avenir, il sera très important que les pêcheurs eux-mêmes puissent filmer ces sujets avec leur téléphone portable et les mettre les images à la disposition des Ong ou des média qui peuvent facilement utiliser le Web2.

Je crois que les outils d’avenir, ce sont ceux que même les analphabètes peuvent facilement utiliser comme la radio et la vidéo.

Propos recueillis par Gnona Afangbédji

Par Ramata Soré

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-dkP_vSUDk

Wycliffe Ochieng Arua- Agriculture Commodity Exchange Kenya

It has been a great conference and the way forward especially if there is a way we could work together to blend the existing web 2 tools that are used in
Africa putting in mind our users farmers they would like to access these application. I am looking at mobile telephone and interactive voice responses and the local FM stations in
Kenya.

I have taken home a lot of knowledge and I am very much informed now about blogs and wikis and would like to certain up a blog in our organisations especially when we are contributing to a proposal.

I think we used existing network to reach the people CSOs are working with on the grassroots level.

Alec Singh- Chief Technologist, ACP Secretariat Brussels

The way forward for me on a personal basis is to take time to delve further into some of the tools that we have come across over the past few days. At the end of the day, the main theme is using the web to encourage participation in development issues.  Naturally, there are other means of involving participants in the development process, such as phone-ins over the local radios, etc.  We need to make sure that we do not only see the technology as an end in itself, but the means to that end - which is the development of billions of humans throughout the world.We have seen that the technology changes very rapidly, and no doubt, what is “hip” today, will be “passé” in a couple years time.  Thus, we have to be willing to adapt, not just for the sake of adapting, but to communicate more effectively.
There is certainly an issue of information overload and maybe trying to get all the various tools and platforms out there to talk to each other, so that they do not duplicate what has already been said on another platform.

Among the lessons I will take home is that I need to spread the word to my other colleagues working in the field of development, that they should try and use more of these tools to communicate further and more effectively.

Louise Clark NR International

The next step should be to looking out for practical applications in their own location. It is great to know and important for us to be aware of the new technologies. There is however a challenge because I have never heard of Web2.0 but I was using the tools. Our experience in
Bolivia is the we do not know the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 otherwise we have been uploading files to the web using Web 2.0 applications.

It was good to about these tools and also to hear about other people’s experiences.

Ethan Zuckerman Global Voices

I think these international gatherings are good although I feel that we need regional gatherings. There is so much innovation on the African continent and it would be nice to have regional stories. It is expensive to come to
Rome were people are torn between seeing the Collossoe and attending the conference. As we have come the end everyone says we are going to do it, I feel there is need to stay in touch with a small group.

Anup Kumar Das - Center for studies in Science policy

I would like to develop some particular blogs related to our idea of activities and will create tags, rss feeds. Already personally, I am using skype and students will introduce learning models on skype so that users may use skype on forth.

On blogging we would like to get feed back from our Policy Makers on policy related issues and other learning tools we can use in our center.

Tim Kulchyski - Hul’qumi’ num

I think to start with there were a number of things that focus on language but also there is need for more time to have interaction of face to face on particular subject areas on what people are doing.

I saw different skills and I was particularly impressed with Ethan Zuckerman’s presentation as he said we can benefit from links which I think are effective in bogs as when other people link you the more one can find you using search engine.
Enrico Bertacchini - Creative Commons
I think that this conference is more or less about what people in reality should join. They have to start networking using the tools and that this conference suggests. It is a natural revolution. All the people are willing to use and adopt these tools.

I am taking home the idea that Web2.0 is an emerging concept that many organisations need to embrace in their synergies. A road that we need is trust since these are workable tools. 80% success of these tools is up to human beings to share ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlQfGOe-PY4

Here are some quotes from that speech today:

Zuckerman on our new interest in old technology:

‘Email preceded the Internet… blogs are ten years old, and Wikis have been around since 1995… If most of this stuff is twenty years old, why are we talking about it now? Because it’s not about the tools, it’s about the people.’

‘The reason that it matters now is that we are experiencing a seismic shift – it’s about who can be brought together with these tools.’

Zuckerman on mobile phones:

‘When we think about participatory web, it’s not about laptops and high bandwidth… it’s about mobile phones. There are 3 billion handsets worldwide, and its estimated 80-90% of people in the developing world can access a mobile phone if they need to. This is a level of penetration of technology that changes the rules of the game. We need to broaden our thinking beyond the Web.’

‘For example, Interactive Radio for Justice gives people, particularly women, the opportunity to send questions via SMS to very powerful people. No, it’s not Flickr; no, it doesn’t have tags, but it’s back-and-forth participatory, it’s appropriate to the people it’s trying to reach.’

Zuckerman on Wikipedia:

‘Get smart about Wikipedia. It’s the ninth most popular site in the entire world. This it literally the biggest bang for the buck you can do.’

Zuckerman on why you should blog:
‘Think about who you’re trying to reach and how… if someone just signs a petition and says, “this is important to me”, it’s not enough. We’re looking for participation here… This is the reason to blog: links. Blogs are full of links and Google loves links – the more links you have, the higher up the search engine results you’ll appear. It makes sense to look at this as an eco-system approach. You have to link to figure out how to participate.’

Sharing his experience as a Vlogger, Prince Deh said he had been creating videos and posting them on a blog and hence received feed back from all over the world. “How do we solve the problem of rural connectivity in order to extend the benefits of Web2.0 tools much wider beyond the scope of the cities?” he asked.

It was interesting to note that vlogs provided an alternative media. Deh observed that his videos have an added helped promote deeper understanding of stories, especially for people with less educational background. He added that they also had the power to reach an unlimited audience with minimal cost as the vlogging process does not require specialised expertise and can be easily controlled by any non-technical person. “It is technologically simpler and cheaper to maintain than a website. Videos are interactive medium often encouraging readers to comment” said Deh.

On local language, Deh said there will be need to create local language videos with a translation text as it was important for increasing participation and sharing. Vlogging major challenges were outlined as connectivity or access and getting people to share Information and Knowledge and cost of equipment. He pointed out that it was important to have knowledge of video editing and innovativeness in order to create story telling videos.

Making a case for online training of Journalists in Africa, Kwami Ahiabenu II from the International Institute for ICT Journalism (PenPlusBytes) observed that online training was going to become dominant means of training and that there was need to invest time and energy to ensure that it becomes  part of a capacity building projects and programmes application.

He noted that though there are costs associated with online training in the long run online training was relatively cheaper and cost effective. An achievement was that online learning provided an opportunity for Journalists to learn about new tools and use them in the process of learning 

In overcoming the challenges, Ahiabenu II explained that the course used a group e-mail list as their primary course delivery tool in order to ensure low bandwidth participants are not left out of the course.

Meanwhile, to over come issues of time and commitment, they encouraged the participants to devote more time to the online learning experience in order to derive maximum benefits. They had also developed strategies about coping with change and developing “online” mindset by adapting the course to the learner’s environment via flexibility.

“For example when participants could not participate in a session because his or her internet was down, we modify our time table to take this problem into consideration,” said Ahiabenu.

He explained that the tools of the online course were skype, blogging, yahoo groups, google groups, wiki’s, flicker, like del.icio.us, digg.com, flicker, youtube and myspace to allow for participants to comment on content of the web. 

In order to facilitate group communication in real time he explained that they asked participants to create a skype account the unfortunate part was that this was not successful because skype was banned in some of the participants’ countries.

He said the three months online training organised with the help of partners’ course involved research, Web2.0 tools and Knowledge Management for newsrooms.

Some of the online topics included chat forums, reporting ICTs and Content Management System for Journalists.

“Our lecture notes designed for a quick read, straight to the point and written in a narrative format. At the end of each lecture notes reference are provided as well as mandatory further online reading. Links to additional relevant online resources are also provided,” he said.

In additional to online content, the trainers encourage participants to buy relevant books as well by providing them with a list of books. They also pointed out to participants relevant articles in magazines and newspapers as they are publish during the course.

Michael works at the Met Office Hadley Centre in the UK. Massively powerful computers there are used to work out how the Earth’s climate might change over the next decades and into the 22nd century. His example of the weather over West Africa on 20 May 2070 illustrates the kind of data being produced. When examined over longer periods this kind of information could indicate particularly high rainfall for the region - invaluable knowledge for people living in coastal regions or along rivers that could flood. Similarly, knowing in advance that sustained periods of drought were likely is crucial to farmers when planning which crops to plant, when to harvest or when developing future irrigation schemes.

But how could a farmer in rural Senegal access information produced by a super computer in the UK? Mashup, is Michael’s answer. Combining Met Office weather data with Google maps, for example, could indicate the likely impact of the changing climate for a specific area and help farmers plan how they can best use the land in the years to come.

This means those most affected could work together with their wider community and even government when decisions are made, taking action early rather than waiting until disaster hits. And disaster will hit. Most experts agree that some aspects of climate change are inevitable – seal levels will rise, the planet will get warmer – and so, while measures can still be taken to prevent or limit damage it is important that the most vulnerable people have the information to contribute to future decision making. Not only that, but web 2.0 now also makes it possible for people to add local information to the data provided by the Met Office and help Michael and his colleagues to make ever more accurate models for future changes to our climate.

Michael’s obvious enthusiasm for the subject made for a lively presentation that not only looked impressive but was incredibly informative too. Just remember, make sure you pack an umbrella if you’re visiting Dakar in May 2070.

Interview vidéo

Kado Muir of the Ngalia people in Western Australia “Web 2.0 is basically some of the newer tools that we’ve had to adapt to using to try and bring back the language. It’s using the internet and using computers as best we can to extend the voice out to the community and people who really need it.”

Tim Kulchyski, Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group,
Canada“It means you can communicate with each other and exchange information. It’s not spreading information it’s sharing it. That’s why I’m here.”

Wilma Roem, ILEA, the
Netherlands “I see it as a chance to bring agricultural researchers together to work on a problem and to share their experiences and possibly even to disseminate ideas and practices that could better serve the farmers of the world.”

Zaid Abdul-Hadi, head of Computer and Biometric Services Unit of ICARDA, Syria “Web 2.0 gives our experts a space to collaborate and share resources and blogs provide a good feedback mechanism for us, although the question remains for those who cannot yet access them. The other dimension is content development. This is something I’m very passionate about. I’m really interested to see how we can use these tools to develop relevant local content.”

Rachael Kadama,
I-Network, Uganda “I believe it’s been part of a larger cultural shift from people being consumers to being active participants. It’s about changing the experience of how we interact with the information we consume.”

Bryan Cheung, chief executive officer of Liferay, USA “For me it means being able to communicate with the extension officers in all the countries and how they would be able to send and upload information, in that way we both learn from each other.”

Ajnu Mango, Information officer, at the Land Resources division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Fiji “It’s more interactive. Web 1.0 was static information, administered by someone else but web 2.0 allows users to interact with others to share information.”

Makelesi Gonelevi, information officer, at the Land Resources Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Fiji There are certainly several common themes – sharing, interacting, communicating – but it seems to be difficult to come up with a single definition. And maybe that’s the point. Maybe that’s even the great strength of Web 2.0. It means different things to different people, and that’s how I would like to describe it. It’s about adapting the internet and making it work for you. It’s about giving information you think others can use and taking only the information you need. And for me, personally, it’s this ability that makes web 2.0 perfect for development.

I came to this conference to find people who are really doing participatory web – not just using the technology, but facilitating real empowerment and positive change. Our plan at IIED is to co-publish with CTA a special issue of the Participatory Learning and Action series on participatory web for development – so I needed to find real examples.

Well, yesterday I was lucky enough to see Ednah Karamagi give her presentation, Enhancing Knowledge Sharing in the Rural Community through Adoption of Web 2.0 tools.  

I felt like I had found a magic bean.  Ednah works for a Ugandan NGO, Busoga Rural Open Source & Development (BROSDI). It’s a not-for-profit organisation that works with government and civil society in improving rural livelihoods. Within BROSDI is a project called Collecting and Exchanging of Local Agriculture Content (CELAC).                       

Both BROSDI and CELAC project make extensive use of Web 2.0 approaches. But it’s a real combination of Web 2.0 and grassroots participation. For example, CELAC is almost entirely populated with locally generated content. As Ednah says, ‘We are sharing information from our great grandfathers that we are losing in our generation.’  

Essentially, it’s a great combination of the online – Blogs, Google Maps, Wikis, online documentation, chatrooms – and the offline – a weekly mobile phone SMS farmers’ information service, village knowledge brokers, monthly farmer forum meetings, village meetings, radio, and hard copy documentation. They are even developing an e-learning tool for primary school children. 

Ednah is candid about the challenges they face. ‘The Internet is expensive, and needs power,’ she says. ‘It’s a problem in a country where access to electricity is intermittent.’ There is also the issue that people need to change their attitudes towards sharing information, rather than ‘hoarding’ it. And sometimes the technology doesn’t work – and is abandoned. ‘We did have a Wiki,’ Ednah says. ‘But the staff rejected it, as it was too complicated. But we plan to have a new Wiki for developing training material so that we can all comment and add to it.’ 

Ednah was a real inspiration. There was a long list of real life examples – not just the different technologies – but how the technology has made a real, positive change to people’s lives. My favourite was Cissy and her turkey farm. Ednah told us, ‘She learnt how to rear turkeys on SMS!’

This morning, I overheard Dr Hansjorg Neun of CTA talking to Ednah Karamagi. He asked Ednah, ‘Why do you think you have been so successful?’

Ednah’s reply was, ‘You have to use as many methods as you can to reach your community.’

Well, BROSDI are doing that in style. Let’s hope they continue to get the support they need to keep this pioneering organisation going from strength to strength.