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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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)

Post by Olivier Berthoud:

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

A l’issue de la première conférence sur le Web2 pour le développement quelques participants livrent leurs impressions

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

“We need to come up with a description of what is understood by Web2forDev.” This comment was placed on the Democracy Board – an area outside the main Red Room where conference goers can write suggestions, make comments, share feelings and contribute ideas. The person who posted this particular suggestion was only putting on paper what many people outside the conference halls, in the coffee rooms and around the canteen have been asking themselves, and each other, over these past few days: just what is this Web2forDev thing?In true democratic style the people were given a voice and this is what a few conference citizens had to say:“To me Web 2.0 is a great tool for advocacy and promoting our struggle.”

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.

At the Web2forDev conference, everyone has been saying that it’s not about the technology – it’s about the people. It’s about what people can do with the technology – and what ‘mash-ups’ of tools and approaches are appropriate and really working.

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.    

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….

First feedback from the pre-Conference Web2.0TasterDay
Short comments posted to the the ‘Democracy Wall’ by participants of the Web2.0 Taster Day on Monday September 24th, 2007.

I learned….
… a lot, thank you
… that I should have come earlier
… use of Web2 tools
… sure to expand my curriculum on Web tec. Great lessons, great opportunities
… Web 2 tools have a potential for rural development
… about vlogging and audio blogging, how it can be useful for illeterate farmers to access useful agricultural information
… that you can bring the info in internet under control
… about Unyte, and that I would like to use it from today in perfecting my work

I felt….
… frustrated that I can’t access wifi access
… that I can use wikis and blogging in collaborating effectuively with PEG (Pacific Energy & Gender Network)
… skype should be introduced more to others in Pacific Islands
… Web2 tools are still unaccessible to illiterates

I noticed….
… a high level of interest and involvement
… how I could practically use some of the web2 tools

I discovered….
… live-blogging takes a high level of constant concentration
… web2 tools have a fund component
… how to use web2 tools visually and audio in remote collaboration
… more web2 tools & people

I would like to suggest….
… to keep up
… a session on content aggregation (RSS)

Kevin Painting, one of the organizers from CTA, talks about their work around web2.0 technologies and the idea for the conference.



The complete conference schedule is out and we are happy to offer a broad variety of topics in the realm of web2.0 and development. Here is a selected list of topics to give an overview: (Complete schedule)

• Leveraging Web 2.0 to Develop Better Applications for Rural Communities
• Portal 2.0: Using Social Software to Connect Geographically Dispersed Teams
• Linking Farmers to Markets through Modern Information and Communication Technologies in Kenya
• Drylands Resources Knowledge and Practice Network: The Use of Web-based Technologies to Facilitate Networking and Knowledge Sharing in Africa
• Use of Semantic Wiki Tool to Build a Repository of Re-usable Information objects in Agricultural Education and Extension: Results from a Preliminary Study
• Sharing Knowledge, Exchanging Solutions and Community Information Updates through Blogs and Social Networks: Case Study from India
• Promoting Information and Knowledge Sharing through Vlogging
• Oxfam’s Experience in Using Social Networking Platforms to Support its Work
• Wikis, Blogs and Online Profiles for African NGOs at Kabissa – Space for Change in Africa
• Cairo Concept: Village to Village Knowledge Sharing
• The Creative Commons Project: Sharing Knowledge in the Digital Age
• Climate Change Mashups
• Empowering Journalists with Online Tools: Making a Case for Online Training

For detail information about the conference schedule you can check out here: www.web2fordev.net/schedule_conf.html

Interview:

Daudi K. Were was attending Highway for Africa 2007 and briefed me on the International Conference for African bloggers which will be held in Kenya in March 2008. The conference aims at strengthening the vivid network of African bloggers and sharing experiences and good practices, especially when it relates to giving a voice to those who generally are excluded from mainstream media. Check the audio interview and contact him at dkwere@uzimafoundation.org

Researchers and research interests in developing countries are underrepresented in mainstream academic publishing systems. Reasons are many but publishing costs, research infrastructure financing and interest in topics are among the most apparent. Some of the consequences of this landscape are:

• Difficult access to international scientific production
• Invisibility of research
• Underrepresentation of development topics
• Invisibility of researcher
• Difficult access to mainstream publishing circuits
• Difficulty to build one’s scientific network
• Actuality of findings

Efforts have been made to mitigate this situation; an increasingly common and successful approach is open access to scholarly literature such as open access journals, self-archiving in corporate repositories and self-publishing — most of them, as can be seen, at the institutional level. But the concept and tools around the web 2.0 harness clear opportunities for researchers, acting as individuals, to contribute and build a broader personal presence on the Internet, at the same time benefiting from a better diffusion for their work, interests and publications.

Complementary to formal academic research dissemination and validation trajectories, and complementary to these institutional initiatives, the Personal Research Portal — a mesh of Web 2.0 applications like blogs, wikis and the like — should be able to contribute to achieve the following goals:

At the Personal / Researcher level, let the scientific community know:

• “who am I”
• “what do I do / what does interest me”
• “what have I done / what do I know”
• “where am I”

At the Work / Research level:

• Constitute a public repository for personal production, with past and present information and documentation, with everything interlinked
• Gather digital resources, news, general information and materials, on the same platform, accessible from each and every computer
• Self-archive & self-publish research results, ongoing research, reflections, doubts, findings
• Let know what one knows and that one knows
• Disclose and foster formal and informal relationships with the academic community

_____________________

The concept of the Personal Research Portal will be discussed with professor Ismael Peña-López, Open University of Catalonia (Spain), during the Web2fordev Conference. His work in this topic has been recently published at the Knowledge Management for Development Journal, where a full article is free to download.

It is quite obvious that wiki software is changing communication, since the success of wikipedia and since many organizations use wikis to collaborate and share knowledge openly. It is interesting to see how organizations in the field of internal cooperation are starting to use these new tools as well. Some examples are the United Nations experimenting with the wisdom of wikis, and the World Bank with its blogs: Poverty and Growth and Private Sector Development. I wonder whether web2.0’s enable communication will lead to a change of the interaction of these organizations with external actors. Might it be that these organizations become, themselves, part of an open network for knowledge sharing in the future?
What fascinates me is that the web develops, pressures for own concepts of knowledge sharing, and affects more and more “real life”. Take a look at events or concepts like “JAM” or “unconference“. From what I know, both approaches are web rooted and rely on the web’s open and transparent culture. Both concepts are open for everyone interested. They are mainly organized online, but some unconferences such as barcamps take place worldwide to discuss web2.0, wine, local development or e-government. By the way, a book about how to do an unconference is currently collaboratively being written.
UN Habitat organized a JAM prior to a conference, which allowed people to participate and articulate their opinion.

During a three-day digital discussion, hundreds of thousands of people from 191 countries engaged in issues ranging from safety and security to improving the lives of slum dwellers. In India, women participated through moderators who went into communities to seek their views, while in Kenya, people waited hours for computer access so they could have a say. The results of the discussion were included in the forum’s agenda. (Newsweek)

It enthralls me that web2.0–its communication, community, participation behind it, etc.–gives rise to new models of collaboration, which questions the traditional ones. At unconferences, everybody is a listener and a presenter at the same time, and they are organized over a wiki. As mentioned in my last post, at our conference, we also want to experiment with this kind of approach in our open sessions.

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.

The United Nations are organizing a web4dev conference in Nairobi from 28 to 30 of November.

Since its inception at a conference organized by the World Bank in 2003, the Web for Development meetings are now well established as a forum for the web community of UN agencies, and international development civil society organizations interested in using their expertise to show how the Internet can promote development. The three conferences already held have evolved to include not only the public sector, but the private sector as well.

Homepage of the conference and a call to organize a workshop.

Overview of last years conference can be found here: www.un.org/events/web4dev

I had a look at the topics and webcasts of last years conference and all look very technical. However I liked Mikel Maro presentation how he worked with wikis in the UNDP.

In May, CTA launched a call for candidates to African journalists who were interested in participating in the conference Web2forDev 2007. The idea was to finance the participation of three journalists from ACP countries who would ensure the media coverage of the conference. The following three journalists have been selected: Ramata Soré (Burkina Faso), Brenda Zulu (Zambia) and Gnona Afangbedji (Benin). They will play a pivotal role in daily media coverage by writing background articles on Web2.0, interviews especially of participants who bring innovative projects, technical articles on applications and their impact on the rural communities. All this information, numerous photos and interviews by FAO’s Lilian Kambirigi, and probably video sessions of the main presentations from the plenary sessions will allow interested people who cannot attend in person to receive direct coverage of the discussions. All this material will be published on the conference blog and web site. This, we hope, will allow the “virtual” participants to contribute to the discussions through the Web2.0 facilities (wiki and blog).

Nous avons le plaisir de vous informer de l’ouverture de la procédure d’inscription à la Conférence Web2forDev. L’inscription est entièrement gratuite mais se fait uniquement sur invitation.

Vous pouvez remplir le formulaire de demande d’invitation ci-dessous si vous êtes en mesure de prendre financièrement en charge vos frais de participation et de séjour (voyage, transport, hébergement et moyens de subsistance). Les candidatures resteront ouvertes jusqu’au 31 Juillet 2007.

Si votre demande est acceptée, le Comité d’organisation de la Conférence vous enverra une confirmation par mail.

Inscrivez-vous directement en cliquant sur le lien suivant http://www.web2fordev.net/…

Bien cordialement

Le Comité d’organisation de la Conférence

We are pleased to inform you that the application for registration procedure for self-sponsored participants is now open.

Registration for the Web2forDev Conference is by invitation only. There are no registration fees to be paid. You may fill in an application form if you are in the position to financially support your participation in terms of travel, accommodation and subsistence. The deadline for submission is July 31 2007.

The Conference Organising Committee will review your application and let you know if your application has been accepted.

Please register on-line using the following link http://www.web2fordev.net/registration.html.

Best regards

The Conference Organising Committee

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.