Keeping the Web2ForDev Movement going
January 17th, 2008 by Nynke Kruiderink
The group of organizers of the Web2ForDev Conference which took place last September 2007, held a review meeting on November 20th. The event was evaluated, also based on the input from those who filled in the end-of-conference survey, and considered follow-up actions. In general all organizations present expressed a commitment, also fed by the survey respondents, to keep the movement going. However, as we learned at the conference, the nature of web 2.0 is participatory. The goals and intentions of the organizers can only be realized with participation from the movement owners: all those interested in learning and sharing together about Web2ForDev.
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:
- Training in various forms was requested by many in the end-of-conference survey. In response, the organizers are exploring options to merge their strengths and work together to provide a combined effort in this regard in 2008.
- The online community, represented primarily by the Web2ForDev DGroup members, but also those tagging in Delicious with the Web2ForDev tag, and posting to the Web2ForDev blog, is also a resource and movement which the organizers want to continue supporting. In combination with the Web2ForDev wiki, the community has at its fingertips a strong combination of web 2.0 tools which can facilitate learning and sharing in a collaborative manner.
- Continued awareness raising is also on the agenda and is considered one of the efforts to keep the movement going. The organizers will explore their networks together and undertake actions to feed awareness raising around
Web2ForDev. - Case studies, including some demonstrated at the
Web2forDev conference, are being examined and compiled by the various organizations. The nature of this pioneering field is that continued research is necessary to indicate which web 2.0 tools and approaches are best suited within a development context. The organizers are committed to compile this information and provide it to the development community.
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)
Tell a Friend
New articles
Email post notification
kia orana, greetings all,
Very encouraging to see web 2 being embraced by institutions across the world - makes a welcome update from blank incomprehension a few years earlier!
However I fear the same thing is happening for web 2 as happened for web 1.
IT specialists are jumping all over web 2 from its myriad technological angles - after earlier dismissing it as nothing new - rather than an information angle.
Links below show a couple of dozen blogs - but only three or four are actually hosted by blog services.
Unfortunately, this site itself is an example of that - no doubt the IT section had great fun setting up a “proper” website for this conference, pushing any actual web 2 interactivity to one side, as links on the sidebar, rather than as the main page itself.
What happens in a year or two when fees for this website run out - will it disappear like so many others before it?
Why didn’t organisers set up on something like Googlepages, with headlines from the blog and wiki running through the front page? So that the information here is at no risk of vanishing? And so that communities may see an actual web 2 site in action?
Speaking of action, it seems astonishing to me that what little was provided in the way of updates from the conference itself last year was a … webcast.
Living and working on remote Pacific Islands for 30 years, with roughly a dozen of those on the internet, I have learnt that most of the web bells and whistles are simply beyond the reality of most Pacific Islanders.
Forget video, audio, streaming or otherwise, flash graphics, database queries or anything other than text and a photo, preferably small - they just won’t download.
As for uploading, the only proven technology is email.
It is for this reason that my agency emphasises email-based methods for web 2, seeking the simplest of options rather than the most complicated.
Connectivity remains a problem not just in the islands but all over the world. This problem could also be an opportunity - for urban NGO’s to boost their relevancy by helping set up blogs and such for their rural counterparts.
Many rural teachers, doctors, nurses, agricultural and other officials now have their own digital cameras, video and laptops - but no way to get that multimedia information online reliably, even if they could afford it.
If rural NGOs were given the ability to update text and small photos via email, then multimedia could be burnt to DVD and posted in the mail. This means updates get a double hit of exposure - first with the email update, secondly with the addition of multimedia a week or so later.
Such information techniques - not technology - is where web 2 efforts should, in my opinion, be concentrated rather than worrying third world community leaders how to do a “mash-up.”
NGOs in metropolitan countries might also play a role in uploading multimedia content, or facilitating the same in their development partner countries.
Kia manuia, bon chance,
jason brown
editor
avaiki nius agency