Update on the conference
August 13th, 2007 by Christian Kreutz
Not more than six weeks away from the conference, we are excited to hear interesting presentations from all around the world and discuss web2.0 in the context of development. Here is some background information about the process so far.
By the end, 130 proposals were submitted, of which 40 were accepted to be presented. This number shows the level of interest by development actors involved with the usage of Web2.0 technologies. From the proposals, around 50% were submitted by Southern representatives – though almost all the proposals have a strong Southern focus. There are a number of very exciting presentations proposed. They range from talking about the innovative use of blogs and social video sites, mashups for climate change, to empowering journalists with online tools. All together, it is a diverse spectrum of interesting talks being presented. These presentations will be also described in this blog prior to the conference.
The Day 0 sessions (pre-conference seminars) will be a great opportunity for the conference participants to gain some hands-on experiences with the technologies and interact with expert users. The open spaces and incubator sessions, which allow speakers and participants to build their own agenda and meet to discuss the topics and issues, are also highly innovative. They encapsulate the overall aim of the conference - to provide a forum to allow experts, users, interested people and development practitioners from both Southern and Northern countries to interact in an informal, though structural, and lively way on issues and technologies which suit their own needs, interests and experiences.
The schedule for the conference will be published shortly. We also encourage presenters to tell in this blog a bit about their presentation prior to the conference.
Web2.0 is a welcome development particularly for African countries where website developers are charging a fortune if one wants a simple website. This new technology has opened up new channels for sharing information. I have discovered that in most cases, a blog is more useful and user-friendly than most websites which are not even interactive.
However, before we are lost in the hype of Web2.0, let us not forget that in some parts of Africa, there are millions of people who are still to know what an e-mail is or visit a website. Let’s not promote new technology as if the earlier one is nolonger useful. There are people still learning their ropes on conventional websites who need to be given time to absorb this knowledge. The pace at which ICTs are being developed and promoted does not take into account the rate at which people are able to absorb and use acquired knowledge and skills. If it takes years for educated people to learn and absorb internet use, how long do you think it will take illiterate communities, who are supposed to benefit? The workshop should make an effort to address this issue. Information and knowledge overload is a grim reality in most developing countries especially in Africa.
When are we receiving our invitation to the conference. I have registered as an indepent participant but have still not receive invitation, i will have to secure my visa since i will be coming from Africa.
I would be talking about the experience we had developing a web site for several parks in Guadalajara Area, Mexico. Now we are working on a project to have more regions in the state of Jalisco. I agree with what they just said about the expenses to participate and have web presence in Africa, in Mexico is related, and I would add all the technical dificulties, but our approach is that we are helping individuals who would work as contcts or extention agents to feed information to our project about recreational areas.
All invitations were sent out by now and please accept our apology for the delay some of you might have face to prepare their trip to Rome. We were floaded by the number of requests and realized a bit late the enormous interest the conference generated. We did our best to make it for almost everybody possible to come and extended the participant list to 300 participants. Once again sorry for the inconvience and we are looking foward to see you in Rome.
In this conference I am presenting a paper titled ‘Sharing Knowledge, Exchanging Solutions and Community Information Updates through Blogs and Social Networks: Case Study from India’. My paper deals with some recent innovations associated with web-based information exchange and solution exchange platform on the developmental issues, particularly in focused areas of UNMDGs.
You are invited to attend my presentation titled ‘Application of Folksonomy and Domain Ontology in Annotation of Information Resources in Rural Development Information Systems in India: A Case Study’. I wish to participate in the forums to share my experiences and views on various developmental issues, relevant to our local needs.
I very much appreciate the idea of having an informal pre-conference day - this could be used for a hands-on marketplace of (both nascent and more thought-out) ideas. I am personally thinking about things like a facebook version of development, or using blogs for circulating and debating development research. I am sure that there are many more (and better) practical ideas out there that could benefit from the collective critical thinking of more than 300 participants both from the North and South.
Dear Arne,
The pre-conference day is meant for participants that might have not used web 2 tools too extensively. This day will provide some basic information and practical exercises for them. What you are suggesting to discuss would perfectly fit to the open spaces during the conference. On every day in the afternoon there will be time and space to discuss new ideas, new projects in an informal atmosphere. Lucie Lamoureux from the conference organising team is responsible for these sessions. A wiki http://wiki.web2fordev.net has been created to build the agenda for the open spaces.
Dear Anja
Thanks for arranging such a capacity building pre-conference workshop. Hope this workshop will impart necessary hands-on training on implementation of web 2.0 applications. Brainstorming on innovative applications for low-bandwidth regions can also be held in this session for participants from developing countries.