Crossposted: Euforic Blog

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.”

I really like the dropping knowledge initiative and think that through questions a lot can be expressed. The basic idea behind Dropping knowledge is that only by posing the right questions can a global conversation be started which can change the world to the better.

That’s why I want to start here with some questions, which can be discussed during the conference:

1. What are the key challenges to be tackled for web2.0 for rural development?
2. Is free and open source software the main driver for web2.0 technology?
3. Does web2.0 is all about connecting people or does it really involve knowledge sharing?
4. Is connectivity one of the main issues around web2fordev or only a shortterm challenge?
5. How can developing countries realize their own web2.0 applications?
6. Does the increase of social networks enhance potential for learning?
7. …

What are your answers? Do you have more questions?

Thanks in advance!

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