Crossposted from crisscrossed.net

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.

Bob Sankofa is a Swahili photo blogger and Khaya Dlanga is a South African video –blogger. The two gentlemen share with us their experiences on blogging to foster social communication among individuals and communities. They also tell us how important is web2.0 techniques in providing people whose voices are not normally heard on the mainstream media an opportunity to get their stories to also get heard.

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Interviewee (s) - Bob Sankofa, Swahili photo blogger and Khaya Dlanga -South African video –blogger

Interviewer: Chris Kgadima, Nkgowa Media

Interview with Jon Corbett, Steering Committee, Web2forDev Conference, Rome, 25th September 2007

On my second day at the conference venue here at FAO in Rome, I feel that I am delving a little deeper into how – and whether – Web 2.0 is actually participatory. But I still want to investigate this further: exactly how are the Web 2.0 community of practice integrating participatory approaches to development with ‘participatory’ web?

I wanted to get to grips with some comments I had heard about Web 2.0 since I had arrived in Rome. First, I wanted I wanted to question Steering Committee member Jon Corbett about what the differences are between ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) and Web 2.0, with its plethora of applications such as blogging, vblogging, audioblogging, wikis, and social bookmarking.

According to Corbett, Web 2.0 is still a form of ICT – ICT is just an umbrella term, which covers all forms of digital information technologies. ‘But,’ Corbett argues, ‘Web 2.0 is markedly different from other ICTs. It doesn’t just solicit; it thrives on the participation of people. It’s what fundamentally makes it different. Web 2.0 wouldn’t exist if it weren’t populated by people using it.’

But perhaps more importantly, I also wanted to probe deeper into a comment Corbett made on Sunday, before the conference.

‘Web 2.0 is parallel to participatory development,’ Corbett had stated. ‘It’s about empowering people to take a role, it’s about citizen media.’ So I asked him today, why do you describe it as parallel to participatory development?

‘Ah, it’s not exactly parallel,’ he says, and goes on to explain. ‘I’ve been working with digital information technology with indigenous communities since 1995. In the past, it was different. All the content was produced with communities, but there was a steep learning curve in terms of the technology. But with Web 2.0, it simplifies how people interact – and it thrives on people contributing knowledge, and hence the comparison to participatory development.’

Essentially, what Corbett argues is that Web 2.0 requires the active participation of people in creating the content online – unlike in the past, when technical experts traditionally drove the uses of ICTs, in both the set-up and populating with content.

‘The technical experts were essentially the gatekeepers of the technology,’ Corbett says. ‘But Web 2.0 now offers opportunities for communities to interact with the technology – anyone can create content, you don’t have to be an expert.’

So is this why he describes it as parallel to participatory development? ‘Yes, as it’s about direct engagement, not about being represented by experts,’ says Corbett.

But, I argue, what about those without the time, access or inclination to take part in Web 2.0 for development?

‘There will still be a lot of people who are passive recipients rather than active participants,’ agrees Corbett, ‘But you could argue that this is the same as any other form of development today. The main difference is that Web 2.0 invites everyone to participate – and there’s no requirement any longer for it to be expert driven.’

‘It’s about early adopters,’ Corbett continues. ‘Early adopters of the technologies and applications get on board – just look at the people who are attending this conference. People like Ethan Zuckerman with Global Voices , or Kado Muir [who is presenting a session at Web2forDev on the ‘Outback Movement for Cultural Survival Using Web 2.0: An Aboriginal Case Study’]. These people have already identified that their communities, or the communities they work with, can benefit from Web 2.0.’  

It’s good to know that there are real examples of participatory development integrated with Web 2.0 applications out there, within this community of practice. I feel that I am a little closer to understanding this ‘mash-up’ of participatory approaches and ‘participatory web’. But I still have more questions to ask….

Interview with Christian Kreutz, GTZ, Web2forDev Conference, Rome 24^th February 2007.  

Monday was a preliminary workshop day, prior to the start of the main Web2forDev conference in Rome. Participants were introduced to various web-based applications that are part of the Web 2.0. One of the presentations was about blogging. 

Presenter Christian Kreutz, of GTZ in Germany, described blogging as a very powerful communication tool: blogging is ‘a two-way conversation…’ – a great way of creating ‘virtual meeting spaces’ and sharing ‘first hand experience of what is going on in the field’. But perhaps not everyone agrees. Andrew Keen once referred to the emerging Web 2.0 – and phenomena such as blogging – as the latest and greatest ‘seduction’.[1] He argues that it will drown out traditional media and the ‘authoritative voice’, plunging us into a ‘nightmare of over-abundance’ of information and authors. However, Christian argues that ‘many blogs are covering niche topics that traditional media might not otherwise cover. The traditional media already rely a lot on blogs to get information from places such as Iraq or Lebanon.’ 

Yet according to Christian, there is still a general misunderstanding of what blogging is – and what it is useful for. So I asked him, how do we – the users – know what information is accurate or important to us? And, given that anyone can blog – to give opinion, fact or perspectives – how can we know or even define what is useful and relevant?  

‘It takes time to write, time to read and time to digest blogs. But, Web 2.0 applications can also bring you to blogs – there are blogging hubs that gather information so that you can follow up on your own chosen theme… and interesting new technologies like RSS feeds mean that you can see how popular different blogs are. And out of these numbers we can see what people jump on.’ To put it simply, these RSS applications are capable of generating qualitative information and statistics, and so monitoring how popular different blogs are. And Christian’s argument is that the more people read or respond to different posts in blogs, the more ‘authoritative’ the information contained in those posts can be said to be. But is the majority voice synonymous with quality? 

Blogs are now increasingly being used by intermediate development organisations, which are using them as a strategic organisational tool to share information and knowledge. So how are these organisations accountable to the people that they are apparently representing on these blogs?  

Interestingly, Christian commented that in his opinion, blogging ‘is still completely underestimated by the development scene’. Whilst he agrees that there is a lot of information generated, which is not necessarily accurate or useful, he also argues that the essence of blogging is that it creates a two-way conversation, which in turn creates its own feedback loops. The theory is that these feedback loops circulate between people at the grassroots, intermediate development organisations, donor organisations, IFIs and policy makers. He believes that this will be profoundly important in the development sector, creating a monitoring and evaluation system which will in turn push for better practice. ‘If a project isn’t working, people will write about it from the field.’

 Web 2.0 protagonists passionately believe that applications like blogging will open up a whole new era of openness and accountability in development. These all-important feedback loops will ensure greater accountability, transparency and representation, from the grassroots to the policy makers. 

Is blogging open to abuse? ‘Yes,’ says Christian candidly. ‘But it’s an open, cultural conversation. I’m amazed how well it works in many different contexts.’ He agrees that blogging can be very political, and also very partisan. However, he also argues that it’s not all about blogging. Face-to-face meetings are still fundamentally important – and what use is your blog if no-one knows it exists? ‘Just to have a blog alone, that isn’t the thing. You have to do something more to be a network. You have to interact, to make your blog known, and to convince other organisations to join in – it’s an overlap – many things have to come together.’ 

But perhaps his main message is that it is a low-cost, easy to implement technology that gets results. There are still clear disadvantages to the South, for example with connectivity. And more time is needed to develop capacities within organisations wanting to use blogging in their communications strategies. But while there may still be challenges to overcome, Christian’s premise is that blogging really can be a form of democratised, accountable knowledge sharing – where the majority voice can also become the authoritative voice.  

A final thought: Who is participating in the creation of ‘the majority voice’? How truly participatory is Web 2.0? What participatory processes are the Web 2.0 community of practice using? Is Participatory Web for Development a reality – on the ground as well as in cyberspace? The answers will emerge over the rest of the conference…

I asked people about what they learnt on Day Zero Web2.0fordev conference and what they where going to take home.

Prince Deh GINKS Assistant Network Coordinator, Ghana

I am planning to host local language videos and translate the text in English because I realise that many people get my stories and information from the blog. Video blogging has enhanced my knowledge and sharing skills.As you see people are attracted by video and they want to see and hear at the same time. I have learnt how to use delicious, wikis and tagging. One thing is that if you don’t tag your work not so many people will read about it.

William Eziniwa Nwangwu, Nigeria
Regional Center for Information Science, Lecture
I have been wondering why Web 2.0? Isn’t it a new word for an old thing?I have discovered how it is being used and sometimes it worries me as an academician. Some Universities in the
USA have banned students giving reference to wikis as one of their sources of researched information. In wikis who is the author? Is the information peer reviewed? In my institution I limit the reference of wiki copies. 

Makelesi Gonelevu, Anju Mangal - Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Fiji
We learnt about the potential of RSS feeds, wikis, tagging, blogging and the most interesting of all was the farmer blogging where farmers shared agricultural knowledge amongst themselves and also between experts. In the Pacific, we at SPC are trying to get farmers to access online agricultural information and have expert’s answers queries from the farmers.Web 2.0 will enable us to implement the various ways of information sharing and collaboration between farmers and stakeholders. In the Pacific, we have to deal with accessibility issues and one of the main issues that we face is connectivity. Web 2.0 is an amazing tool; however, it may not work in the Pacific if we have accessibility issues. Low bandwidth is an issue and using vlogging can be a problem in terms of accessing online videos.  We have discovered a lot on day zero and we hope to fully utilise Web 2.0 www.spc.int/lrd - SPC Land Resources Division website.  

Mirjam Schaap, Wageningen International
I learnt about real relevant use of Web 2.0 tools for grassroots people (farmers, traders etc), the potential of bridging gaps between farmers / researchers. It was also interesting to have the impression that some people are concerned about a threat of use of Web 2.0 tools by ‘amateurs’ for the ‘professionals` (concerns about taxonomies, about traditional video professionals etc). I also learnt that some of the names I have come across online, actually are real people …, that they also exist outside cyberspace … Very nice to meet people in real life. I loved the ‘online presentation’ and desktop sharing from Wageningen, and I got to know some handy tools which are used by others (desktop sharing, good cheap hosts, wordpress plugins etc.)I really liked the energy during the day, and the willingness of everyone to share experiences. I am still looking for tips on how to infect my colleagues with the Web 2.0 virus, how to convince my friends to share info using Web 2.0 tools, how to convince my colleagues to not just use text to communicate but also use video and audio. So on how to mainstream Web 2.0 tools use in my organisation and among our partners.But we’ll have another 3 days of working together, and sharing and learning.

By Brenda Zulu
The emergence of digital citizens in Africa is still an elitist activity and was still an urban tool. Global Voices Online, Regional Editor for Sub Saharan Africa ,Macha Ndesajo asked and answered the question by saying that “No ones owns the African blogosphere” in his open address to delegates attending the Digital Citizen Indaba (DCI) in Grahamstown South Africa recently. He said that this was because Africa’s rural still has infrastructure challenges noting that as Africa we are were we started with the mobile phones ten years ago and that in the next ten years we expect the revolution to be blogged. He noted that the other challenge was that of ownership as to who owns the African blogosphere? “No one owns the African blogsphere,” said Ndesajo. He noted that blogs gave power to the community to share what they wanted in whatever form weather text, video, sound and data. He said it was not enough to just be a blog unless one was enhanced by being part of a community because united “we would have more power,” said Ndesajo. He gave an example of Kenya Unlimited, which is a Kenyan blogsphere that has the power of the community. “We were a smart mob and we can build new Africa,” observed Ndesajo. He said that digital natives in Africa could embrace both traditional and new media. He observed that many bloggers in Africa had started to practice Citizen Media and also that there was need to build a community around blogs. He noted that blogs were so powerful as countries such as Ethiopia had started to block blogs. Some bloggers cannot blog within Ethiopia. Macha pointed out that without some Zimbabwean bloggers it would be difficult to know what is happening in Zimbabwe. He observed that Podcasting in Africa was not growing as fast as blogging. He observed that there was an African podcast www.africafiles.org at which people use Audacity a free open source audio program to edit their sound. Ndesajo also observed that there was an African You Tube called Mooziko. Meanwhile a Vlogger Khaya Dianga on You Tube called for more Africans on You Tube so that they can help change the way people see Africa. Dianga said the one thing Politicians fear most was You Tube. Bob Sankofa a Photoblogger said he blogs because he wants to show the other part of the story. He added that the people in the Diaspora read and promotes his blog.

Remmy Nweke a Journalist based in Nigeria said he blogs because he wants to achieve his stories online and that it helps in getting background materials online.

I was amazed to discover that while African people are still locked in series of discussions about Web 2.0 there is little awareness about positive development about the web2.0 tools. Just when I was busy with my assignment on web.20, a young bright man from Soweto South Africa —who probably escaped the of Bantu Education (poor education system during South Africa ’s apartheid) told me that when engaging on web.20 tools we turn to isolate the role of youth in promoting some tools. For instance some of these youth are well ahead in using some of the web.2.0 techniques such as podcast despite lack of internet access at their homes. With their schools not only a place to access the internet, their participation in web 2.0 tools is something that one should appreciate and start investing at this level to avoid another group people who seem to always cry about things not getting off the ground. Without undermining efforts by fellow Africans, I think some of us should be careful when shouting at government particularly when lobbying certain policies including ICTs.

We should also look at our schools as a foundation to mainstream some of the needs including access to the internet. I do not know in other countries but in most of African schools there seem to be progress because some of us went to the same schools that has prepared until we can today create blogs. So if we need to get things right, for us to have sustainable long term solutions on issues of ICTs we need to identify key structures in our communities that some how forces governments to invest in such policies. As I have said, I think schools are classical examples to achieve this. If I remember very well it was the power of students that brought apartheid government in South Africa to its knees not Nelson Mandela only as it has been wrongly painted by the commercial world. Remember the 1976 Soweto Uprising ! That has brought changes in todays life style in South Africa and the same spirit embraced by todays students is still making waves in Web 2.0 with some them selling livestock from semi -urban areas of South Africa using mobile phone SMS linked with web data. This are the positive moves that demonstrate that while we engage in issues of Web.20fordev we should not undermine the positive energy of our youth. I think another classical examples is www.studentvillage.co.za –this is one of the first African web.20 initiatives that came in before the term it self. Again another project by African youth.

VIVA Web.20fordev! VIVA!

African Journalists need to embrace the new revolution of Web 2.0 tools if they are to catch up in this globalised World. Below find an interview on Web 2.0 with Matongo Maumbi a journalist from Zambia whose blog matongo.blogspot.com

Maumbi recently attended an online training focusing on Web2.0 tools organized by PenPlusBytes, the International Institute for Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) Journalism. In 2006, PenPlusBytes launched an online course on ICT Journalism in Africa and it attracted about forty three participants from nine countries spread across Africa, Europe and Asia. You were one of these fortunate students.

Why did you want to engage in such a course? What were your needs?

Matongo: I engaged in the course because I have an interest in exploiting ICTs at personal level and also professionally. I have been working as a broadcast journalist since 2002 and I was lucky to have been exposed to the computer and internet right from the early days of my career. My ICT knowledge is driven by personal interest and enthusiasm. I needed some professional guidance on using ICTs in my career as well as how I would fully utilize them. I needed to know the pros and cons of using ICTs . The limits, the potential benefits the fun of using the internet and how to explore it better.

What did you learn? What did you prefer (e.g.,. learning about new tools, engaging with other journalists, sharing your ideas and knowledge with others, working together on a common article, networking and interacting…)?

Matongo: I leant quite a number of things. I initially only took blogging as an adventure. Writing whatever came to my mind without any real set objective or target. I guess this was because I did it just out of interest and curiosity. I learnt how to conduct better online research for background information. How to source documents, how to set good parameters for searching. My knowledge on Web 2.0 was improved. Blogging is a good place to express oneself freely without the censorship of your editor or superiors on your work.

How does, what your learnt, influence your current journalism practice? How did it modify your way of working? How did it nurture your work (if so)? How do you apply what you learnt?

Matongo: I preferred learning new tools and also interacting with other journalists from across the continent and globe. As curiosity satisfaction was among my needs, I was really looking forward to learning new tools on ICTs. My mind was more set on learning new tools from what I already taught myself. I guess from the many things I learnt, I now spend less time on the internet. I spend less time because I know better how to conduct my online research with in the shortest possible time but with maximum information. As I am now working better with internet, it has encouraged me to continue getting a local touch to what I read on the internet. During the course I found my self working on fewer but better researched programmes that are of great relevance to our catchments community.

You created your own blog. How do you use this blog? What is the main purpose (PR, information sharing, interacting….?). Did you reach your goal? What are the strength and the weakness of such an exercise?

Matongo: Initially had a website aimed at doing radical campaigns online on things that affect Zambia. Time and resources could not allow me to continue and my site died out. Then I though of creating blog with a similar aim. I basically transferred what my site to the blog. I use the blog to make and achieve my thoughts online. As my blog is more of expressing my self, I have not yet set a good objective. In a small way I have reached my goal of transferring my thoughts online. The greatest strength is that you are your own editor and can write anything you fell is morally right at your own pace and space. You get unlimited freedom besides that fact that you have sensitive stories. Weakness comes in as most of the time I only write about my thoughts without backup professional thoughts. This creates a sense of non credibility from readers. Updates are seldom coming on the blog as I use company equipment and internet to do the updates.

What are the main challenges for African journalists to use Web2.0 tools? Do you think that most journalists have already a “mindset” for Web2 tools? What would the African Media community gain by using Web2.0?

Matongo: The main challenges of African journalists using web 2.0 tools is that we do not have our own working space. We have to rely on computers and internet from our offices. How on earth could one fully use web 2.0 tools when one does not have their own resources? The mindset for most journalists is there but a mindset with out resources is meaningless. Internet connection and access is very expensive for most journalists and even when it is affordable it is very slow. There is plenty to gain such as information sharing, unlimited power to express oneself (group) without the trouble of going through the censoring editors and managers.

Do you think that web2.0 applications - if well used by African journalists - can make the Internet more “relevant”? How so?

Matongo: I think Web 2.0 tools if properly used can make it more relevant. There is a lot of information that African Journalists have but because they have to go through editors, such info is suppressed. Mostly it is as a result of editors, managers not appreciating the role of ICTS tools.

Have you advertised your blog. If yes to whom and how?

Matongo: I think my blog is an isolated one. I have not advertised it. The only people that know about are my friends. I never thought of advertising it mainly because I think I do not update it regularly.

Are you making money from your blog?

Matongo: I am not in any way making money from my blog . I still do not fully know how I can tap into that potential. I do not really see how I can make money. I guess this is something I have to learn next. I know I have what it takes; I just do not have the right guidance.

Have you taught other about blogging?

Matongo: I have not taught any of my close friends’ blogging and taking full advantage of the internet besides e-mail messaging. Training for African Journalists in necessary on new web tools because these are new things which are not taught in Journalism. It is also important to note that a blog helps to store content online for African Journalists which has been for a long time been stored in paper form. The content put on a blog is shared and people learn from that kind of content.

Blogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarks, and the like are all great ways of collaborating, allowing all Internet users to create new Internet content. Mashups go further, they liberate web users from the role of consumers of Internet services and allow them to create new services and share them.

So what is a mashup? The Wikipedia entry describes a mashup as a web application that combines data from more than one source into an integrated experience.

So what can be created in this way? The directory of mashups at ProgrammableWeb has over 2000 entries. Take a look, you’re bound to find something that interests you.

Or how about creating your own? I’ve put together a simple example at http://wemapr.blogspot.com The starting point is a standard Blogger blog, but to this I’ve added, Yahoo Pipes and Google Maps to give the option of a map based view of the blog entries, click on ‘See this blog as a map’ on the right hand column. On the blog I describe how to add this mapping feature to your own blog. (It’s not perfect, you’ll have to zoom out to see the markers).

Perhaps you’ve created your own mashup, or know of an interesting development related mashup. Please post a comment and share.

While reading a general dossier about Web 2.0 in Spore the CTA’s information bulletin I came over the short, but very interesting article “Field report from Cameroon”.

Very briefly the platform www.riddac.org is presented (which won the RFI Net Afrique price in 2006 for the best African Website). François Ossama launched RIDDAC, a network for information on sustainable development in Central Africa in 1999. He set up the website to circulate and exchange information on environmental issues.

But as he points out:

“…as time went on, we realised that a static website would not last long, since visitors who came to download a text would have no reason to come back to the site.”

The next logical step for him was to establish a blog on the website http://www.riddac.org/blogs/ . If you are going now there you will find some interesting posts about what is going on in Central Africa in the field of ICTs, development and environmental issues, legal framework discussions and much more. See for instance “Crimes contre l’environnement : La loi est dure mais il faut l’appliquer”

François also supports interested people to create their own blog and open in this way the discussion and information exchange. Unfortunately comments on the blog are very rare until now. People reading articles can vote if they found them interesting or not. Taking this as one possible indicator you can see that the site it quite frequented and also considered as informative. Just have a look and see for yourself!

I stumpled over an interesting interview on Global Voices with Jeff Msangi about his blogging experiences, the growth of Swahili bloggers and its social impact.

I find this growth very stimulating. You know, information is power and therefore the more Swahili blogs out there, the more influential we become as Swahili bloggers. I anticipate, as a result of blogging, we will see true social change through debates and dialogue, which will ultimately re-shape social, economic and political policies. However, we need to clearly define our vision and mission and believe that blogging is a tool for social change. It is my hope that with the formation of the Tanzanian Bloggers Association, we will be able to achieve that goal sooner than later.

As I said, yes, beyond any doubt I believe that Swahili blogging community can bring enormous changes in our society. We are actually already witnessing changes following what started as a simple online blog discussions. Moreover, I anticipate seeing citizens, through tools like blogs, participating in writing, planning and executing national social, economic and political policies. That will be a dream come true for me.

I had a look at the Global Voices’ wiki, which shows bloggers from many African countries. Tanzania seems quite vibrant with all kinds of blogs (e.g. political, fashion, photo, cartoon). Its blogger community even has a virtual election for their Tanzanian Bloggers Association.

It appears to me that the size and activity of the blogger community varies a lot between African countries. For example, I did not find a single entry for french blogs in the global voices wiki although I know there a lot as well (I guess Global Voices is, so far, very much focused on English).

Do you have examples of other blogospheres and their activities? Do you share Jeff Msangi’s thought that blogging can promote social change? He, for example, promotes the great idea to introduce blogs in schools.

On June 5 and 6, Euforic and CONCORD, two European networks for NGOs, organised a conference about ‘Communicating European Development Efforts’, in Brussels. The conference experimented with a weblog, as the central online space where information can be found. Several blogposts are written about the sessions, including short video clips, and photos and the presentations are uploaded using blip.tv for videos, a flickr group for photos and slideshare for presentations. You can have a look at the blog here. Though a small team was specifically responsible for the blog, participants could blog about the conference too, and could upload their pictures too (and were stimulated to do so).

If we would not use web2.0 tools, the information would probably not be available till much later. Now, the conversations and atmosphere of the conference is accessible for anybody with access to the net. Some conferences remain a black hole for people who have not been there, but for this case, the information is out there for all to access. This, in my opinion, gives a huge opportunity to, for instance, sister NGOs and NGO networks in the south and in other continents to learn from the conversations in this conference. They will definitely encounter similar challenges. On the other hand, people are not yet used to reading blogs and writing on blogs, so we can still make a big step in introducing these web2.0 tools and changing the habits of people, so that they can activity look for the information that’s interesting for their daily work.

I was curious when an article titled Web 2.0 can benefit the world’s poor appeared on Scidev.net. The authors Waleed al-Shobakky and Jack Imsdahl see in new web applications, such as Google docs, a great potential for developing countries. They write, “Web 2.0 can help these students create documents, track their families’ or villages’ business affairs in spreadsheets and save and store data online. Users only need access to the Internet to benefit from these applications.”

No doubt these applications will change the old concept of purchasing software for each computer. But what is the real benefit of having documents online? I think these applications have great potential to collaborate. But the article doesn’t stress enough the “capacity crisis” that developing countries are facing in the context of information and communication technologies. In Africa problems of simple training to use computers, affordable access, and having enough bandwidth, need to be solved. Furthermore, these online applications need instant access to the Internet which is only available to a minority.

A more helpful approach is open office, so people can work without an Internet connection. Another one is Jahazi, which has developed a USB flash stick full of applications. Also, Google wants to bridge this connectivity challenge with its latest tool called Gear, which will allow to work with online content while being offline.

But what strikes me the most about the article is that it leaves out the biggest opportunities about web2.0 and development. The potential lies in its users and what they do with these tools to communicate, share knowledge and create social media. New social networks are established online, which facilitate interaction and collaboration in an unprecedented way. Blogs, wikis or free sources are the drivers of web2.0.

The authors see language as an obstacle, but on the contrary, I believe that web2.0 with its open source dimension offers software in all kinds of languages (e.g. wordpress and drupal). This is a key factor to create own communities in local or regional contexts (e.g. the union of the Urban Poor from Indonesia, Afrigator, Egypt blog review). However, to which extent this can benefit the poor, will be further discussed on the web2fordev conference.

Crossposted: www.crisscrossed.net