A Digerati Wannabe

Reaching New Audiences

2009-07-21T20:29:00.005+07:00

I have been looking at examples of how different organizations use and guide the use of social media and web 2.0 tools the past day or so.

One issue that has come up repeatedly in discussions (from several organizations who are still "testing the waters" of social media) that I have been involved in is a concern about negative responses, comments, etc.

Just now while actually looking for something else I came across this clip on YouTube about World Food Day 2008.

I like the clip very much ... but there's something else that's more important to see.

The most interesting thing is the comments that come after the clip ... take a look, there's just sixteen, but they are all very positive and many of them indicate that the person(s) has a new awareness of World Food Day as a result of seeing the clip. Not bad :-)

Improving the Organization's image through knowledge sharing and social networking

2009-07-10T00:15:00.004+07:00

Understanding what someone does is an important part of gaining respect for their work.

There is an interesting OpEd piece (“Would you let this girl down?” by Nicholas D. Kristof; thanks to @ithorpe for sharing) in today’s New York Times about the marketing efforts of humanitarian organizations. It is about the ability to connect with people, in particular one-on-one connections, and how this impacts interest in development aid and charitable activities.

The article looks at where the marketing of development organizations faces shortcomings and some possible reasons behind this. It is not as prescriptive about what should be done. Still it is a good (and short) piece, relevant not only to people in the external relations and marketing type work of humanitarian organization, but also to the rest of us in development work.

The idea Kristof put forward fit very well with the currently trending organizational theory of "tribes" and offer an explanation for the success of initiatives like Kiva. What is particularly interesting to me is how the ideas in this article fit with the increasing use of social media (web2.0) tools and a focus on knowledge sharing (KS) in some of the organizations I work with.

Consider, for example, the need for "feel-good rewards" and the personal responsibility factor.

Could we as an organization reach out and stimulate individuals to a higher level of personal responsibility, reinforced by feel-good rewards through the use of social media tools? (Many of these tools were designed to reach people with a one-to-one feeling, even when they are one to many, after all.)

What if we designed a village level project to include one villager or an intermediary (say a village teacher) who was selected and trained to blog once a week about the problem s/he faced in life, what s/eh learned in the project, how s/he acted on that learning at home and the results? What if that blog was translated from the local language into the languages of developed countries, along with pictures or video (made with inexpensive hand held digital equipment)? What if staff Twittered about these new blog posts to their family and friends?

Development organizations will always need the professional, high level marketing and communication efforts that already exist. The time may have come for more, for there to be a concerted effort to ignite the masses into marketing at the grassroots level of the organization. Engage more people on a personal level. Show a direct link, no matter how small, to development interventions and the aid that supported it. Latch on to the personal responsibility factor and provide the feel-good rewards that motivate it to react in a positive manner. Stimulate a thousand individual voices to share these feeling with others, and then as the old American shampoo commercial from the 80s said, “They’ll tell two friends ... and they’ll tell two friends ... and so on, and so on....”

Will the Future bring Equality or a Greater Divide?

2009-06-02T21:52:00.008+07:00

Yesterday I was struck by a thought (that led to a Tweet):

@mongkolroek: brilliant ICT futurist paper http://bit.ly/ipxcF deepens my concern about rural digital divide - will progress be equal?

The report from the first Workshop of the Foresight 2030 series Harnessing the Digital Revolution is a fascinating read and provides a brilliant vision of a knowledge enabled society, with technology and culture in harmony.

So why did this vision leave me more concerned that one might expect? I'm not a Luddite, new technology fascinates me. The issue is that I see a real possibility that any upside from this vision becoming a reality will be more than negated by the disparity and inequity it may cause in the world. Could this report in fact allude an increase in the rural digital divide?

In 1999 Subbiah Arunachalam expressed concerns in "Information Poverty" that the information revolution was actually creating a new form of poverty in the developing world. We still grapple with many of these issues described ten years ago, not only in differences between developed and developing, but also between urban and rural.

There continues to be a serious risk of the rural digital divide increasing. The much vaunted improvements in speed and capacity of technology, and reductions in infrastructure cost do not guarantee access or usability due to many other complex factors. Consider issues such as telecom regulations, pricing structures, literacy and language, individual capacity to utilize a new technology, culture, organisations, physical location, content format, economic poverty, socio-political marginalization, etc.

Without a doubt not everyone would benefit from social and technological advances at the same rate. However, without great forethought it is very likely that there will be groups of individuals who will be excluded from these benefits much longer than others. In the worst case, this exclusion will occur amongst those already the most in need of better access to the world's information and knowledge ... the poor, the food insecure, the marginalized of society.

The future may be brilliant, but we cannot be proud of illuminating one corner if it leaves the rest of the world in even greater darkness.

Funds for creative ICT in development solutions in Asia-Pacific

2009-05-25T16:45:00.005+07:00

The Information Society Innovation Fund (ISIF) is taking applications now for their 2010 round of grants. ISIF is a joint initiative between the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Internet Society (ISOC), and the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC).

These grants are focused on supporting creative solutions that use digital ICT to benefit development in the Asia-Pacific region. Funding of up to AUD 40,000 per project is available.

Deadline for the grant submission is 31 July 2009, so don't delay.

Donate Your Used Mobile Phone to Help People

2009-05-24T05:16:00.003+07:00

Now here's something really great, a new program called HopePhones that was just launched.

Old phones save lives. Donate yours to a medical clinic in a developing country today.

Not only can you do good with this, it provides a service to you! You have an old phone, you go to their website, print the mailing label - postage paid, put the phone in a box and send it off! How easy is that?

HopePhones uses the value of your old phone to acquire appropriate mobile phones in developing countries. Those phones are placed with community health workers who are part of programs to improve the health and welfare of those who need it most. The HopePhones website has more details about where these phones are helping people live better lives, and how some are working with the FrontlineSMS:Medic platform. Mobile phones are causing a small revolution in rural development, and one of the key areas for impact is in health care due to their ability to transmit information quickly and easily, from anywhere there's a cellular signal. (Some of you will know I am a great believer in the potential of mobile telephony to improve rural livelihoods through my work with the e-Agriculture community.)

Also, you are saving the environment by not throwing your old phone into the trash.

So far the postage paid service is only good within the United States. To any of my friends in Italy or Thailand or elsewhere, if you give me your old phone I will send it in to HopePhones on my next trip to the States. That's the least I can do.

(Why didn't we have examples of initiatives like this at WSIS last week?)

The "m" term ... where are we going with it?

2009-05-14T00:26:00.008+07:00

I find myself struggling with something here, and would love some feedback.

Suddenly I am not so comfortable with all the "m" terms that are starting to pop up, m-banking, m-learning, and in particular m-agriculture. This last one is a relative unknown - the only use I've seen of it up until this week has been by MobileActive (who I have a lot of respect for, by the way). I don't challenge the intent of those using the terms, but wonder if we are doing the correct thing by creating another set of terminology, when even many of the "e" terms still have diffuse definitions.

Also in talking with several people I collaborate with, I find the "m" may indicate a specific focus on the wireless, movable technology. On one hand, if we come to a common understanding that this is the case, then I will be more content. When I read an explaination of m-learning I think this may be the point of using the term. (Considering my own interests and focusing on the specific case of "m-agriculture" I do not find a definition. The closest I have found so far is "m-development", but I am not trying to substitute one for the other.) Yet there is still a part of me that wonders if this terminology isn't more about trending.

I realize that mobile technology is in the forefront of the ICT arsenal at the moment - indeed I've facilitated discussions on the use of mobile technology in rural development, and participate in panels about this next week. However, I really think what is important is the impact on development issues, how processes are modified and enhanced (or new ones created) for better outcomes, not the technology per se.

What do you think? Do we need both "e" and "m" terms to add value to our discussions and work in using ICT for development? When is it important to distinguinsh between technologise, versus the way people use and understand a technology? Am I making a mountian out of a molehill? :-) I would be greatful for any thoughts.

sawasdee Bangkok, ciao Roma

2009-05-11T01:04:00.003+07:00

I'm well behind in my writing (what you can't see is the number of unfinished posts saved as drafts) ... my excuse is that I have changed positions at my job, being offered a great opportunity and some engaging challenges, and with that I've also moved from Bangkok to Rome.

After eleven years in Thailand this is quite a change for me. Thailand had become as much my home as anywhere I have ever lived (in fact, eleven years in Bangkok was longer than I have lived any other single place in my life).

Now that I have started in on my new job I am counting on the skills and knowledge I developed all those years living in Asia, and counting on my network of colleagues and friends to continue being my inspiration, my support, and my teachers. As in turn I hope to extend my vision and bring something back to them.

As I reach out to the Eternal City, the Big Mango is always on my mind.

Social media's potential for improved impact

2009-03-19T14:40:00.010+07:00

Simone Staiger-Rivas, part of the CGIAR's ICT-KM program and ground breaker in knowledge sharing for development, made a presentation on social media at CIAT yesterday. She was kind enough to share the presentation at http://www.slideshare.net/ictkm/

Take a look at the ideas here about how the impact of her organization's activities and research projects, as well as the efforts of individuals can be enhanced through the use of social media. It has already stirred up a discussion on Simone's FaceBook page, which I think is fantastic. I hope the presentation went well at CIAT and that it has many minds now thinking about the possibilities of social media within large, structured organizations!

We need to reprise this presentation for use in my own organization...

@km4dev shared a link earlier today which compliments Simone's presentation: Notes for Non-Profits: Ten Things a Nonprofit Should Do Before Setting Up Social Media. Don't just read the ten points, read the discussion posts below - particularly the discussion on ROI is useful in my opinion. (Hmm ... maybe we in the sprawling international organizations need to have a chat about the concept of ROI. What do you think gang?!) A bit of strategy is always a good thing when embarking on a new venture, and it would help management to understand why some tools are chosen over others and the corresponding resource commitments.

A bright definition for Knowledge Management

2009-03-19T14:28:00.007+07:00

Yesterday KM4Dev (@km4dev) pointed out Steve Barth's blog Reflexions with an aptly titled piece on defining knowledge management, "All the right words", which says:

Knowledge Management is the cultivation [and facilitation] of an environment within which people want to share, learn and collaborate leading to individual, team and organisational improvement.

This is a great definition that Steve should be praised for putting out for us to read and ponder. Finally a definition that with a positive spin that doesn't allow us to forget organizational culture , reward systems, individual characteristics/preferences; a definition that preempts the need for discussion on the fact that we cannot manage knowledge (I agree, but we are somewhat stuck with the "KM" term now aren't we?); a definition that KM leads to improvement ... what senior bureaucrat could argue with that?!?

I wonder if others feel the same about this definition? Or would anyone adapt or even completely revise it?

This is an important issue. We in KM may know very well what we do, but are we good enough at the quick sell when it counts? @NancyWhite once referred to being able to explain something convincingly to an important individual who's just stepped into the lift with you before s/he gets out of the lift one minute later.

Tying up loose ends

2009-03-19T13:41:00.005+07:00

For some time now I have been bothered by my own inability to organize the increasing number of online networking and sharing tools. It's not that they are not all great in their own right (well at least some of them), but there are days when it's hard to know what's/who's where. Today I found out from @mobileactive (thank you!) about a simple tool called UnHub which allows one to create a single profile and put all the URLs of their various online presences in there. You can list websites, Twitter, blogs, Flickr, RSS, etc. It's simple, easy to use, and I think a very neat little tool. My UnHub is at http://unhub.com/mongkolroek

PS: President Obama is already on UnHub! It is so hard to keep up these days.

Sharing via Social Media Tools at ShareFair09

2009-01-19T21:13:00.003+07:00

For everyone who's interested in following the Knowledge Share Fair, but cannot attend in person, there will be a large contingent of participants using social networking tools to leverage the experience. You can find these two ways:

1) Look at the official Share Fair sites as follows:

Blip.tv http://sharefair.blip.tv/
Flickr http://www.flickr.com/groups/sharefair09/
Delicious http://delicious.com/sharefair09/
Twitter http://twitter.com/sharefair09/
Blogger http://sharefair2009.blogspot.com/

The Share Fair blog will also consolidate posts, blips, tweets, etc. from other contributors.

2) Search for the contributions of the many in attendance using the Share Fair tag "sharefair09" or "#sharefair09" on Twitter.

Final preparations are all coming together now! It promises to be a watershed event ;-)

Sharing Knowedge about Knowledge Sharing for Development

2009-01-15T22:03:00.007+07:00

The Knowledge Share Fair for Agricultural Development and Food Security (otherwise known as "Share Fair"), being jointly organized by Bioversity International, the CGIAR ICT-KM program, FAO, IFAD and WFP, will take place next week over three days at FAO Headquarters from 20 to 22 January 2009.

This promises to be a unique, exciting event for the organizers and those in attendance, including me! It is the first time (to my knowledge) that all these international organizations - organizations in which the greatest asset is information and knowledge - will come together to discuss specifically about sharing knowledge, about making knowledge more powerful, more effective, and through this making rural development more successful and sustainable. I'm also very much looking forward to reconnecting with friends and colleagues, meeting some of my virtual collaborators in person for the first time, and expanding my KM4D network!

The Shair Fair will focus on methods, tools, lessons learned, challenges, partnerships, etc. of knowledge sharing, so as to provide practices and learning opportunities that will be of practical benefit to the multi-disciplinary audience. The achievements of projects, programmes and divisions will be presented in light of demonstrating successful knowledge sharing. There will also be special sessions applying new Web2 tools.

There is a great, short video clip on Blip.TV in which Roxana Samii, IFAD, talks about looking forward to this event. Check it out!

Click To Play

I will be taking direct part in four sessions:

K for Institutions and Partnerships: "Public-Private Partnerships: Cross-fertilisation of Knowledge"
K for Networks and Communities of Practice: "Leveraging Connections among Networks"
K for Rural Communication: "Mobile Telephony in Rural Areas"
K for Institutions: "Making Networks Work Within Institutions"

and sitting in on many more!

Registration for the Share Fair is already open online. For those who can't be there, keep a look out for posts, blogs, tweets, blips, etc. on the event all next week using the "sharefair09" tag.

Happy New Year 2009 to Everyone! May Knowledge, Learning and Sharing Light the Way All Year!

2008-12-31T13:27:00.005+07:00

(Image copyright: Brian Riggs 2008)

Facebook goes after Twitter ... and fails, for now.

2008-11-25T23:45:00.004+07:00

I just read a very interesting article on Facebook negotiating to acquire Twitter.

The analysis of why this deal failed from a business perspective is important and informative - issues such as ad revenue, SMS fees, etc. - as these are important issues related to sustainability (which I still fret are not given enough attention in the ICT4D field). The article is also interesting in the way it discusses differences between social networking (Facebook) from microblogging (Twitter). It's always good to have one more explanation.

From my personal perspective, as a user of both services, I'm glad the two companies are not getting together just yet. I use them for different purposes, and more importantly I think Twitter has gotten better at one particular thing by being focused ... a focus that might get lost in the "bigger picture" of social networking. My hope is that Twitter becomes even better yet staying focused and independent.

"Mobile Telephony in Rural Areas" 17-28 November 2008 online forum at www.e-agriculture.org

2008-10-29T18:07:00.006+07:00

Mobile phones are the success story of bridging the rural digital divide, bringing tangible economic benefits and acting as agents of social mobilization through improved communication. But what are the real challenges that face reaching rural areas, and what are some of today’s most beneficial applications that can help these rural communities, specifically regarding agriculture development?

This Forum will examine the challenges that rural communities face in enhancing the benefits of mobile telephony, and look at some examples of interesting initiatives and good outcomes from around the globe.

Subject Matter experts include:

Pete Cranston, ICT and New Media in Development Consultant
Jawahar Kanjilal, Global Head of Emerging Market Services, Services & Software, Nokia
Christian Kreutz, Consultant, Knowledge Activist
AHM Sultanur Reza, Additional General Manager and Head, Community Information Center, Grameenphone Ltd.
Luca Servo, Communication for Development Consultant, Research and Extension Division, Food and Agriculture Organization
Nigel Scott, Gamos

with

Charlotte Masiello-Riome, Communications Expert and e-Agriculture.org Coordinator

Michael Riggs, Information Management Specialist for the Asia-Pacific region, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Register on the e-agriculture platform, if you haven’t already done so. Go to http://www.e-agriculture.org/regform.html

Thoughts on how to Make Meeting Events Interesting, Engaging and Productive

2008-09-13T12:41:00.003+07:00

Most of us enjoy the opportunity to go to meetings and conferences where we can meet up with peers, develop our professional network, and exchange ideas. But how often does all the "good stuff" occur in the hallways outside the meeting rooms, at coffee break or a conference dinner - instead of in the actual meeting event itself?!

Reading this week's comments of my colleagues in the KS2 workshop I know this is a shared frustration. So I would like to share one concept for addressing this problem and would be very interested in learning more about the experience of others. The idea itself is not our own, but it seems to be novel in the settings we are working in (given the feedback I've gotten). While it's focused on face-to-face events, the particular example I will give also has virtual elements.

Charlotte Masiello, the dynamo behind the e-Agriculture initiative, and I started working with a new strategy in preparation for last year's e-Agricutlure panel "Continuing Dialogue to Action" at GK3 that we call the "talk show format". The key elements are as follows:

There is a panel of distinguished experts (4 or 5 seems ideal, more is unwieldy, less is not as dynamic).
No presentations are allowed! this is made very clear to the panel in advance (and it does take some convincing with some individuals).
There is a host/facilitator who has the personality to keep the event lively and can be pleasant but firm in keeping the conversation on track, which may involve dealing with an expert panelist who wants to monologue through the whole event (think Oprah here).
Before the event the panelists and host informally prepare two points:

very short introductions, just sufficient to link expertise to topic at hand (it helps to reassure the panelists that their expertise is such that they are already well known and it is not necessary to present their entire CV);
the host discusses with each panelist an initial question they will receive to pique the audience's interest, demonstrate some of the panelist's expertise, and get the ball rolling...

Concise, brief background information of some sort (e.g. a flyer) is distributed to audience as they come in to the event with information about the subject.
Then the host (or better yet an assistant) takes a mic out to the audience and asks not only for questions but their own thoughts/ideas ... again the key is to let the audience know that long monologs are not allowed.
It's the host's job then to "repackage" a set of audience interventions and direct them back to the panel, either as answers to questions or to expound upon an insightful audience comment.

We had a very good experience at GK3, with a lot of positive feedback after the event from people in the audience, some even telling us it was the best single event they attended (in what was otherwise a really excellent 4 day event).

So we have continued this tactic, most recently through my involvement in two events at eIndia 2008 and last month at IAALD-WCCA-AFITA World Congress. Each event has been an experience, and the dynamics have changed depending on the audience size and cultural make up, but each has been a success by following the steps above.

Not only do we continue to get good feedback from both the audience and panelists, but we are getting useful and actionable outputs to work on after the event.

As an example of this, there is an important issue in Asia about the role of public-private partnerships in e-Agriculture, which was identified at GK3. We decided to attack this topic though an online forum hosted on the e-Agriculture.org platform. The outcomes of that were summarized in a 2 page brief, which provided the background document for a face-to-face event, a panel discussion on the same topic at eIndia. The outputs of the eIndia panel were summarized and disseminated by e-Agrigulture and GKP. This was then briefly reviewed by one expert as one part of a larger e-Agriculture panel event at IAALD-AFITA-WCCA, and through the audience discussion that followed we have extended the key issues further. At the moment I've just revising the policy brief to improve it based on all the interventions (it's not posted yet, but I'll link it here as soon as it is).

FUNDING for Research on ICT and Society in Asia!

2008-09-13T11:40:00.005+07:00

From my colleague Clare comes good news for anyone interested in expanding our knowledge of ICT4D issues in Asia, particularly ICT's impact on society, through rigorous academic research.

IDRC and Singapore's Nanyang Technological University SiRC (Strengthening ICT4D Research Capacity in Asia) have joined together and announced their first call for grant proposals under the new initiative SIRCA. Grants of up to SGD33,000 are available.

For information about SIRCA see www.ntu.edu.sg/sci/sirc/sirca

Clare also says that anyone interested in ICT4D in Asia can contact Clint Rogers at clint.rogers2008@gmail.com as he is trying to get together a group of people interested in submitting a joint proposal for SiRCA.

Thanks to Clare for the information. Funds for ICT4D research! What a great thing! Please let me know if you apply so I can follow your research, learn from it and share with others.

The learning never stops!

Ambient Awareness - brining a small town feel back to the global village

2008-09-09T20:40:00.005+07:00

"Ambient awareness" I just learned this term yesterday in a fascinating IHT article by Clive Thompson. Googling the term there seems to be very little out there, not even a rough new Wikipedia entry...

Ambient awareness is the product of micro-blogging with such applications as Twitter or the status bar on Facebook.

It's tiny shards of information about an individual that are often simplistic, even silly on their own. But taken over time, all those tiny bits of information about an individual add up to something much greater! They can reproduce something like the insights into an individual one gets when in close physical proximity to another.

The article points out that this is a very difficult phenomenon to understand until you have experienced it. I concur with this given my recent experimenting with Twitter. There are also potential downsides and misunderstandings, as with any new application.

My friend Edgar Tan has already blogged about this and considers how ambient awareness might be considered at the organizational level.

What's exciting to me about this is that ambient awareness can bring context and human scale back to the digital world. It gives a bit of that "small town feeling" back to the global village. It has the potential to enhance the human social linkages necessary to improve knowledge sharing and information management. And it can bring together a network that improves problem solving. That makes me smile! Something wonderful is about to happen...

Twitter Experiment at IAALD World Congress 2008 a Great Success!

2008-09-09T19:44:00.008+07:00

Well, simply put I am now officially a Twitter fan ... is there a term for this? Am I a “Twitterite” or a “Twitteree” or something like that?

You will know if you've read a few of my blog postings from last month that I started experimenting with Twitter, which was an idea that came into my head while taking the CGIAR-FAO Knowledge Sharing workshop earlier this year. Although initially I was quite skeptical that “microblogging” could provide enough information to be truly useful.

As timing would have it (serendipity anyone?) just after I subscribed to Twitter, Nancy White went to New Zealand to attend the Distance Education Association of New Zealand (DEANZ) 2008 Conference and was twittering the event with the tag “DEANZ08”. Suddenly I realized I had insight into a conference that I wasn’t attending and frankly hadn’t even been on my radar. Better yet, even though I didn’t attend the conference through Nancy’s tweets I got some nuggets of interest that I followed up (Googled in fact) to learn more about on my own. Then came the IAALD-AFITA-WCCA World Congress 2008, for which the tag “aginfo8” was coined by Peter Balantyne, and one of the panels I participated in was to discuss the use of cellular telephones in the development setting, and well, I was inspired. This was my chance to run a little experiment of my own to see if Twitter really was worth my time.

I started by twittering the conference. Just putting up one or two “tweets” per session that I attended, highlighting something I thought was key or interesting. I have feedback from people following me on Twitter that this was appreciated: (an example from my Twitter)

gervis @mongkolroek thank you Michael for keeping us posted by a #aginfo98 report and thank youu @nancywhite for pointing to the JAALD tweets 11:12 AM August 27, 2008 from web

The third day of the conference was the plenary e-Agriculture panel. So that morning (early Japan time) I asked a question on Twitter about the use of cell phones in the ICT4D area. Guess what? I got replies and I referenced one reply (below) as an example while I was on the panel.

Argentina provides a good case of mobilization of farmers supported by mobiles to organize the strike against govn't in food prices crisis 07:29 AM August 27, 2008

This brought together COP, mobile telephony, and the food price crisis all in one inspired moment! I was very pleased, and I am also sold on the value of Twitter and microblogging.

Me Twittering during the panel discussion.
(Photo Credit: Shehzaad Shams)

My colleague Gauri was also using Twitter at the conference. When the IAALD web 2.0 team found out about this, they interviewed us and posted the short video clip. (I think the video is a pretty awful image of me – strangely that little camera made me more uncomfortable than a room full of people! But content wise it is pretty good.)

There are some limitations with Twitter, mainly arising from two issues, both of which the Twitter developers are very forthright in addressing on their website/blog. First, the service has gotten popular enough that the servers exceed capacity at times and one has to be a bit patient to get data. Second, there is a limitation on who can receive outgoing SMS based on the country your SIM card is registered in. In Thailand, where I live, we cannot get SMS updates. Those limitations aside, this is a great service, and in time I think (hope!) these limitations will be addressed.

Twitter on!

Sharing the events of last week's IAALD-AFITA-WCCA World Congress with the tag "aginfo8"

2008-09-05T13:10:00.005+07:00

So many interesting things transpired at the World Congress in Japan last week that I have been struggling with what to write about next! With time slipping away as it does, I've suddenly realized the efficient issue is to make sure everyone interested is aware of the tag "aginfo8".

Just search the tag in your favorite search engine, or use it in any of the web2 applications that were used by the organizers and several participants at the event (Flickr, Feedburner, Slideshare, Delicious, etc.) and you'll find loads of great information from presenters' slides to commentary from the audiences.

For those who prefer a more direct approach, here is a list of resources kindly provided by Peter Ballantyne and the Euforic web 2 team:

general news feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/aginfo8
some stories: http://iaald.blogspot.com/search/label/aginfo8
some photos: http://www.flickr.com/groups/749287@N20/
some presentations: http://www.slideshare.net/tag/aginfo8
some video interviews: http://iaald.blip.tv/
everything bookmarked together at http://delicious.com/tag/aginfo8

My congratulations to the three organizations as well as the hosts in Japan for an excellent job in organizing this event and providing an opportunity for sharing and learning. As a final note, the next IAALD meeting will be in Montepellier, France in 2010.

The Challenges of Reaching Individuals with Information

2008-08-26T10:36:00.003+07:00

Setting the stage on day one of the IAALD-AFITA-WCCA World Congress

On the first day of the IAALD-AFITA-WCCA World Conference, Peter Ballantyne proposed a question to unify and focus our thoughts over the duration of this conference, “How can we make agricultural information and IT truly accessible?”

An excellent keynote presentation by Fedro Zazueta (University of Florida) reviewed the development of online education, in which he characterized new means of disseminating information and knowledge sharing as “connected, fast, smart, alien and deeply disruptive”! I found the last two adjectives the most critical and deserving of consideration, as I think it is something we IM/KM professionals tend to lose sight of. Even in developed countries, new technologies for information delivery can create stresses at both the individual and organizational level which were not present before the paradigm shifts we are experiencing in this information age. In developing countries, how much more alien and disruptive can this be?

These issues were picked up in a slightly different light in the presentation by Luz Marina Alvare on how IFPRI has recognized that different generations and disciplines both respond to and access information in very different ways. The situation poses several challenges, both from the need to reach all these generations and disciplines, as well as to managing the concerns that arise from the different dissemination and knowledge sharing methods used. In particular it is necessary to address concerns about the risk versus the value of web2.0 tools, which are still not widely appreciated or supported by positive data. As we might expect, the younger generations are more responsive to information delivered in web2.0 applications, as are certain disciplines such as journalists who like to glean information from blogs.

Prof. Mei Fangquan (Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences) focused his keynote on ICT4D strategy in China and emphasized the challenges of the “first mile” of connectivity and providing locally relevant content, an issue that was echoed and developed in many of the papers presented later that day.

Meeting of Minds, Sharing of Knowledge: e-Agriculture next week in Japan

2008-08-20T14:23:00.007+07:00

e-Agriculture at the IAALD-AFITA-WCCA World Conference

I'm looking forward to joining the World Conference next week. It is a great opportunity that all three organizations have joined together for this conference, as I am sure it will not only bring together a large group of people from around the world dedicated to the application of ICT in development, but will also bring together a wide cross-section of experiences, knowledge and perspectives, from organizational capacity building to IT infrastructure, from metadata standards to community KS forums. It is this opportunity to interact and form new relationships, share knowledge and extend our personal networks that will be the great value at the end of the four days.

The conference takes place 24-27 August 2008 in Atsugi, Japan at the Tokyo University of Agriculture. The e-Agriculture plenary session will be on Wednesday, 27 August, from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM. I really believe in the e-Agriculture initiative and am pleased that I was asked to participate in this event.

Information from the e-Agriculture news flash sent out yesterday notes:

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will facilitate an e-Agriculture panel to deliberate issues of ICT as enablers in various critical areas of development, as well as the role of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in support of e-Agriculture.

The session will be an interactive discussion with the audience, with the panel anchored by:
- Alexander Flor, Dean, Faculty of Information and Communication Studies, UPOU;
- Manish Pandey, Deputy General Manager, Katalyst-Swisscontact;
- Michael Riggs, Information Management Specialist, FAO RAP;
- Roxanna Samii, International Fund for Agricultural Development;
and Stephen Rudgard, FAO, as the moderator.

The panelists will share knowledge and experiences, and the audience encouraged to contribute on topics such as the use of mobile telephony use in rural areas, with particular reference to ameliorate global soaring food prices, and knowledge brokering services in support of agricultural development, including Communities of Practice and approaches to building capacity.

There will also be a reprise of the issues arising in this year’s PPP online forum and eIndia conference discussion session entitled "Making e-Agriculture Work through Public Private Partnership in Asia". Experience and lessons in Bangladesh (Katalyst) and West Africa (Tradenet) will be contributed.

Full details of the PPP online forum, and reviews of the two sessions organized by FAO, the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP), OneWorld South Asia and Katalyst in the e-Agriculture track of India's largest ICT Event, eIndia 2008 in July 2008, can be found on www.e-agriculture.org.

For more information on IAALD-AFITA-WCCA World Conference please see http://iaald-afita-wcca2008.org/

Launch of CIARD

There will also be a plenary session on the 27th to launch CIARD, the Coherence in Information for Agricultural Research for Development. Earlier this year, a group of organizations from around the world got together to establish this initiative, which aims to make agricultural research information publicly available and accessible to all. Several of the founding partners will be present to help launch CIARD with all the World Congress' participants this day.

Twitter Trials entry Two

2008-08-20T13:48:00.006+07:00

Well I've been using Twitter for several days now ... my initial impression is it is a potentially powerful knowledge sharing tool for those who can make full use of the application, i.e. those who can easily (and inexpensively) send and receive "tweets," particularly real time.

However as I've discovered in many countries, my home base Thailand being one of them, there is no way to receive SMS-based tweets on one's cellphone. It is possible using cellphone apps that take advantage of EDGE or similar data transfer protocols, but this introduces a different cost factor. After reading a bit I decided to install Twitteriffic on my iPhone, which has been easy to use and seems to be a decent application for tweeting. However, I have yet to decide I want to pay for a higher level of data transfers using my provider's EDGE service. This would be necessary if I use Twitteriffic very much.

My iPhone won't work at all from Japan next week, where I will be attending the IAALD-AFITA-WCCA World Congress. However, I will attempt to tweet from my laptop - I was inspired by Nancy White's tweets from a meeting in New Zealand this week. Just one more element of my own personal "Twitter trials".

The Twitter Trials

2008-08-14T18:13:00.004+07:00

OK who out there is using Twitter?

Although I have been aware of it and done some reading about it, I'll admit to being a lagging adopter in this case. I even brought it up in the KS course I took earlier this year to learn more about it, but still didn't join. Then today I read some blogs on Twittering by Gerrit Visser ... and that convinced me it was time to dive in!

So today I signed up for Twitter. My ID is "mongkolroek" if you are interested in following me there...

Really what I want to know is how Twitter will be useful for me and also for the communities I am working with. There is a growing interest in the use of mobile phones in the ICT4D field. The interest in, indeed the use of mobiles in the development field is not new. It seems the frequency of mobile phones coming up in discussions I've had with colleagues and partners, and posts I've seen online here and there have increasingly referenced the use of mobiles. Maybe there's now a wider acceptance of their importance, and/or the service is more widely available/affordable, and/or an expansion of functions beyond managing price data, and/or maybe something else.

If anyone can point me to some good information about the value of mobile phones in ICT4D (in practice or theoretical) that would be great.

Focus on multi-stakeholder partnerships and develop tangible new ICT projects says forum

2008-07-31T16:40:00.007+07:00

“Making e-Agriculture Work through Public Private Partnership in Asia” a panel discussion.

At eIndia yesterday, partners in the global e-Agriculture initiative came together to continue the discussion about the role of public private partnerships (PPP) in supporting e-agriculture. (Building on the March 2008 online forum on www.e-agriculture.org.)

I’m very pleased that we were successful in creating a lively audience-focused discussion, anchored by four experienced panelists. During the 90 minute period we identified the need to move from a focus on PPP to a more inclusive “multi-stakeholder partnerships” (MSP). The importance of MSP was further supported with examples of the important roles that could be played by stakeholders from government, the private sector, NGOs, farmers, intermediaries, and others.

The complexity of this form of relationship has great potential for advancing the use of ICT to support sustainable rural development. Success depends on merging the different agendas of each stakeholder in complementary ways, finding complementary competencies, and recognizing the professional integrity and incentives of all participants.

In addition to the critical issues identified in the online forum (which are summarized in a two page policy brief), the discussion added the critical role of addressing organizational issues from the beginning of the programme, in order to assure sustainability and maximizing benefits.

These are the organizational management issues that I continue to find are key to most ICT4D projects. This very issue had been emphasized earlier in the day by the presentation of Dr. Sapna Narula, Assistant Professor at the University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar.

The importance of delivering user-focused, demand driven content was re-emphasized, as well as the need to not only continue documenting successful cases of MSP supporting e-agriculture, but to develop from these cases a comprehensive set of business models for implementation.

Finally, it was recommended that the next forum should focus on in country interventions, with clear objectives of defining pilot and proof of concept projects, clearly defining the focus of part of my own work in the coming months.

Looking Towards e-Agriculture at eIndia 2008!

2008-07-16T23:09:00.021+07:00

The next main ICT4D event in this region will be eIndia 2008, 29-31 July, in New Delhi.

In the eAgriculture track at eIndia, FAO, GKP and OneWorld South Asia have teamed up to bring some of the brightest minds in KM4D and ICT4D together at this event, people dedicated to improving rural development. The group will discuss some new topics, shine the light on some challenges, and see what innovative ideas the collective group can identify for acting on in the near future.

There will be a headline presenation on the global e-Agriculture initiative and the growing importance of the e-agriculture.org platform in Asia-Pacific.

On Wednesday, 30 July there will be a panel discussion on "Making e-Agriculture work through public-private partnership in Asia."Public private partnerships (PPPs) in e-Agriculture are generally found at the community level where the strengths of the public and private sectors complement each other in providing information and advisory services that address the needs of farmers and rural communities. Examples of PPP in e-Agriculture abound in Asia-Pacific, and range from establishing access points (e.g. cybercafés, telecenters) to generation and delivery of content through mobile phones (SMS) and the internet. Understanding why a PPP is required, the respective mandates and incentives of the partners, and their roles in the partnership, are fundamental to its success. This face-to-face event builds on the March 2008 online forum hosted by www.e-agriculture.org with an audience led discussion on how to further this understanding, and to identify opportunities for collaboration.
Panelists:

- Mr. Amit Dasgupta, IBM Global Services India
- Mr. Manish Pandey, Deputy General Manager , Katalyst-Swisscontact
- Mr. Naimur Rahman, Director, OneWorld South Asia

- Dr. (Mr) N.T. Yaduraju, NAIP/ICAR
- Dr. (Ms) Amrita Patel, Chairman, National Dairy Development Board (TBC)

Moderated by Michael Riggs, FAO

On Thursday, 31 July there will be a panel discussion on "The role of communities of practice (COP) and networks in e-Agriculture." COP strengthen links between networks of practitioners, allow individuals to gather and gain access to policy and technical information, facilitate sharing and exchange of complementary knowledge and resources, and can organize and create knowledge in ways that are flexible. Following up the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) plan of action, the e-Agriculture Working Group conducted a global survey on "e-agriculture". The need for networks of experts and a community of practice was high on the resulting list of actions. This panel representing some of the leading COP in Asia that are active through virtual collaboration spaces, face-to-face events, and in-country interventions. The panel will interact with the audience to analyze what role COP play and what value they bring to the application of e-Agriculture and through that successful, sustainable rural development in the region.
Panelists:

- Dr. Gopi Ghosh, Assistant FAO Representative, and Solution Exchange India network coordinator
- Dr. Alexander Flor, Dean & Professor, Faculty of Information and Communication Studies, University of the Philippines Open Univ.
- Mr. Michael Riggs, e-Agriculture.org
- Mr. Rikin Gandhi, Assistant Researcher, Microsoft Research India; Founding Member, Digital Green
- Dr. (Ms) Prema Ramchandran, Director, Nutrition Foundation of India
Moderated by Ms. Shalini Kala, IDRC, ENRAP coordinator

And so much more!! It's a chance to listen, learn, speak, meet and network ... all key to personal knowledge sharing! I hope to see you there. Do come up and say "hi" when you see me! ;-)

Network Globally, Focus Locally - success in the age of Internet networking

2008-07-09T10:31:00.004+07:00

The uniquely successful use of social networking by a candidate* in the upcoming American Presidential race is discussed in an online International Herald Tribune article. The article notes that by borrowing from principles that drive Facebook the highly successful social networking site (indeed they even “borrowed” one of Facebook’s founders to manage the site), this candidate’s website growth strategy is driven by the principle: keep it real and keep it local.

This is a true challenge in the facilitation of any large online community. While novelty and the excitement of newness can quickly galvanize a new community online, it remains a challenge to keep a large, geographically and culturally disperse community dynamic and working together productively in the medium-term. The e-Agriculture community, while still young and growing, recognized this challenge from the beginning and has been striving to keep it real and local, buy targeting solutions to key issues identified by the community itself, and by fostering locally-relevant events on subjects such as public private partnerships.

This political candidate’s site discussed on IHT.com also shows the power of reaching beyond the typical younger, Internet savvy crowd that flocks to social networking sites by advocating “off line” actions and more traditional modes of communication such as house parties and telephone banks. Here I think there is another parallel with the e-Agriculture community, as it focuses on three levels of action: the online Community of Experts global platform www.e-agriculture.org; face-to-face events, including GK3, and the upcoming eIndia2008 and IAALD World Congress; and in-country interventions.

The e-Agriculture community developed for everyone trying to improve sustainable rural development through the use of ICT. Join the community, voice your concerns and opinions, and use the online platform to sound out issues important to your local community as we did with the public private partnerships forum. Success is there waiting for us!

* While many of you have probably guessed who this candidate is, I have intentionally left out a name so as not to distract from the ICT issues at hand, and leave the debate on national politics to other blogs ;-)

ICT and the Generations

2008-05-21T15:34:00.003+07:00

I found a very interesting article "Ten Reasons Gen Xers are Unhappy at Work" (It comes from the author's larger group of online discussions on Gen X and Y management issues. The site is a new find for me, and as I find it quite interesting I am sharing.)

By the way, I guess I should divulge that I am part of Gen X.

We will get to ICT, but first let me say it is very interesting to read analysis about managing different generations. If one generalizes about my workplace, my superiors are mostly Boomers, my peers are Gen X, and the newer staff are Gen Y. Quite a conundrum!

Recently I was told that Gen Y has proclaimed itself renamed the "Millennium Generation." Hmm ... I mean they were hardly even old enough to worry about their Windows files exploding on the "doom" date of 01/01/00!

Getting back to the issue at hand, there are some very useful tidbits - points 5, 6 & 8 - in this article about how the different generations relate to new technologies and also how they communicate. Both of these issues are critical to successful application of ICT for development (or in any context really). It may be possible to argue this is written from a the perspective of a western manger, and while I agree adamantly that awareness and understanding of cultural context is critical, I still find the considerations and sensitivities made apparent by this author's writings applicable here in Asia.

We must be aware of how different groups of people relate to each other and to technology. Generalizations are useful tools in developing models to handle such situations (and as such I disagree with some of the detractors of this article). We have to start somewhere, and an informed generalization combined with experience and skill (wisdom?!) can lead to the successful adaption of good ICT4D models in our day-to-day, real world projects and programs.

Human Capacity Building Efforts of FAO and Others Brought to a New Focus Online

2008-05-07T14:39:00.005+07:00

The role of capacity building is essential to knowledge management and sharing, and of crucial importance in the development field. Without an understanding of both the information that is available to us as well as the tools and methodologies to organize and make use of this information, it cannot have a positive impact and we get nowhere.

FAO says capacity building is at the heart of its mandate, a fact reinforced by the recent IEE report (PDF file). To further this role, FAO has just published the Capacity Building Portal, contributing to the organization’s “vision to strengthen the national capacities of its member states to achieve their goals in food security and agricultural development.”

The portal highlights:

Learning Resources, both corporate and specialized collections
Learning Services, searchable by keyword and topic and providing access to FAO's Fellowships/Funding Sources database
Featured Sites highlighting specific initiatives in capacity building

There are links to FAO's own featured capacity building sites, to other initiatives in the UN, and to the broader international development community’s efforts. I encourage the ICT4D community to try this site in order to identify new capacity building resources and tools.

Learning never stops!

2008-04-18T13:01:00.008+07:00

Some spontaneous thoughts on PLN ... Nancy White's bookmarks on del.icio.us just showed up with something about "PLN"and somehow it occurred to me that I needed to know what this meant. Timely really, as I read this article on David Warlick's blog, because I am just wrapping up a four week online course on knowledge sharing, which I now realize is a clear example of my PLN, my "Personal Learning Network."

Learning is next to godliness ... somehow my PLN of my early years managed to sink that value deep into me. Although caught up in the day-to-day demands of large organizations and professional "carrots and sticks," I think it becomes possible to lose track of this. PLN play a vital role not only for one self, but also for others as:

part of our own "continuing education" for professional and personal development
something to be instilled in others; key role in mentoring and managing

Each of these points is an essay in itself. Does anyone know of good information supporting these ideas?

My mind has already got me thinking of how the Web2.0 technologies will impact our PLN. The article talks about Twitter.

Personally I'm fascinated thinking of the cultural and organizational impact of technology such as Twitter ... an enclosed classroom or meeting room, or a delimited group of individuals, is suddenly opened up to the Global Village. Of course opening up can be good or bad, depending on one's perspective. Not all would be comfortable with, welcome, or find value in this level of exposure. I doubt there will be Twittering in my office's meetings anytime soon!

It would seem there is the potential for too much of a good thing here, although Twitter's website does say it is the "modern antidote to information overload." There certainly is a need for limiting or filtering, and this is why the role of an established, defined networks is so very important.

But the potential for valuable input is phenomenal.

Knowledge Societies and Governance in Asia

2008-04-16T17:07:00.001+07:00

I was recently invited to speak at a conference that considered the development of knowledge societies in Asia, and how this development has an impact on economies and in particular governance. It was a very interesting (and for me very unusual) gathering of individuals from academia, government, the private sector and development organizations.

There were some fascinating presentations on the impact of cultural diversity on knowledge sharing, efforts to quantify the impact of ICT on development and economic growth, projects to alleviate poverty and food insecurity with ICT, successes and failures in large scale knowledge management practices, national case studies, and many other topics. It was both a good opportunity to network with colleagues, and also a chance to learn both theory and practice from some leading thinkers in the knowledge management field.

This all took place under the banner of the Fourth International Research Conference on Asian Business - Knowledge Architectures for Development: Challenges Ahead for Business and Governance and was held at Singapore Management University, 24-25 March 2008.

Further information is available on the conference website.

The Medium and the Message

2008-04-04T15:31:00.003+07:00

Aaarg! I fear another one of these "chicken and egg" issues...

Vanessa, a member of my KS workshop asked this critical question:

What is the relationship between knowing your audience and communicating to them? If we want to communicate results to policymakers, the private sector and donors... do we take a different approach for each stakeholder? do we change the medium or just the message?

The message has to be tailored to the audience, this I believe just from my own professional experience. FAO’s technical publications on climate change are not suited to children studying climate change in grade school. Research journals on climate change may not necessarily give policy makers information in a form they can use for decision making. The impact of climate change is different from the perspective of a local NGO versus an international organization.

Personally I have been frustrated for years now by the question "WHO?" is responsible for tailoring all the information that is already readily available to those who need it. I’ve come to the conclusion it is something of a rhetorical questions resulting from varying levels of understanding of KM/KS principles amongst users, unequal allocation of KS resources, and a history of an “if we build it they will come” attitude about information management, amongst other things. Does anyone have a different take on this?

As for methods, this also needs to be "appropriate" as was noted in our workshop’s conference call this morning when someone raised the issue of how a choice of tools could actually bias the outcome of an exercise. (The example was mapping software in which it is intrinsically easier to create hub-and-spoke type relationships over other forms of networks.)

Personally I find that working on a computer is not conducive to group work. I'm not being a Luddite here! I just observe that for some reason when a group is around a computer most people tend to sit back and observe while the one or two people with their hands on the mouse do most of the actual thinking. Whereas working on a big sheet of paper with post-its is something that everyone can interact with simultaneously and thus there is more collaborative thinking. The computer-based tools are more useful for iterative work.

First hand experiencing with these is what we really need to start making informed choices. Thank goodness for workshops like this one that I’m in. Networks of practitioners were also pointed out as good ways to get experience with some of the methods. For example:
http://www.theworldcafe.net
http://www.openspaceworld.org

This is a very complicate subject, and something I need to look into and learn more about with the help of my colleagues and friends.

The Individual or the Organization: Which Matters for Effective Knowledge Sharing?

2008-04-03T15:05:00.006+07:00

In the KS workshop we had an exercise to map a network (see the image of my work below). I chose to map a network in the e-Agriculture community that I am working with, based on an online forum/discussion group. It may go down in the history books as "easier said than done"!

One of the major challenges was deciding whether to map individuals, organizations, or some combination of both. In the end I have a combination, a combination that changed as I progressed through the assignment. Ultimately I chose to go with more organizational groups and fewer individuals mainly to make mapping different lines of communication a simpler process. But then this led to questions, and more questions by a colleague and facilitator.

1) What about the individuals & related communication flows we know exist, but cannot "see" and thus cannot map?
2) What are the pros, cons of mapping individuals versus mapping organizations/groups?
3) What happens to the lines in a map when an individual moves in/out of a particular position within an organization?

I think the answer to question 1 is that these can be elucidated by different means, so part of the exercise is determining if it is necessary/worthwhile to make the effort.

Points 2 and 3 are interlinked. But I'm having a hard time rationalizing the individual/organization relationship. I think (but need some help on this) that it's the individual that is responsible for the communication/KS so that the individual is key. And that individuals moving from position to position (inter- or intra-organizationally) move their communication lines with them, but by necessity evolve those lines based on their new environment. Thus the organization is the environment ... enabling or otherwise. Hmm....

Sharing Knowledge with me and others (a course!)

2008-03-31T18:19:00.005+07:00

I am currently a participant in a workshop on knowledge sharing (KS) techniques supported by CGIAR and facilitated by four great individuals. A professional development opportunity!! Wonderful.

For this workshop I personally have two goals: to develop my understanding of good KS and my ability to apply KS tools; and, to expand my network of professionals working in the KS/KM field. I want to improve myself and be able to do a better job at my work, but I also know that I can never do it all nor do I work in a vacuum. (But it does get lonely out here some times!) The network of professional friends is what really brings it all together in the end.

The success of this could be judged through my application of the things we learn in my work and hopefully through the identification of some common interests (maybe even specific projects?) with others who are taking the course with me.

The course is run in a space on the net created with Moodle. This in itself is a learning experience for me, as I know about this application from our IMARK team, but have not actually experienced it first hand! The learning space is choc (hey, that’s a Nancy White term isn’t it?!) FULL of stuff and we’re just though our first week. It’s fascinating and a bit overwhelming at the same time. All the things I don’t know laid out in front of me … and then there’s trying to balance this opportunity to learn new things with the day-to-day demands of my regular work. I will mange :-D

LEARNING! Never stop learning.

(This is the first of several posts that I will be making during the online KS workshop.)

Collaboration and Advocacy Techniques Course Online

2008-03-12T16:33:00.000+07:00

Never stop learning! Opportunties to learn at our own pace and for free, to upgrade our own skills and knowledge are increasing. This is one excellent opportunity for people working in development, especially related to food security.

"Collaboration and Advocacy Techniques," a new e-learning course including resources for trainers and practical guides, has been released by the EC-FAOFood Security Programme in collaboration with the Overseas DevelopmentInstitute's (ODI) Research and Policy in Development (RAPID) Programme andWomen Thrive Worldwide.

This course illustrates a wide range of tools and techniques that can be usedto improve collaboration and knowledge sharing, and provides guidance onconducting collaborative food security assessments. The course alsointroduces the concept of advocacy and the various advocacy techniquesrequired to influence different audiences.

The course is available free of charge on-line and on CD-Rom.

How to Access the Course and Related Materials

To access the e-learning course on-line, go to:
http://www.foodsec.org/DL/dlregistration_en.asp
To download the resources for trainers, go to:
http://www.foodsec.org/tr_res_07.htm
To access the practical guides, go to:
http://www.foodsec.org/pubs_km.htm

If you have problems with on-line access, order a CD-Rom at:
http://www.foodsec.org/DL/dlorder_en.asp?modulecode=FK&modulelang=en

e-Agriculture and Public-Private Partnerships Forum

2008-03-05T14:35:00.002+07:00

I’ve been lucky enough to meet quite a few dynamic, intelligent, dedicated people in my life. There were a whole lot of people with these qualities at the GKP Event on the Future, Third Global Knowledge Conference (GK3) last December in KL. Through events like the special panel on “e-Agriculture: Continuing Dialogue to Action” there were many ideas that began to form and one is now ready to be launched!

e-Agriculture.org is hosting an online forum "Making e-Agriculture Work through Public Private Partnership (PPP) in Asia" 10-28 March 2008. It is open to everyone and I encourage you to join, participate, voice your thoughts, share your experiences, and take in the ideas and experiences of others dedicated to ICT4D in the region.

The forum has a super team of experts and moderators including Dr. M. Asaduzzaman from BIDS, Bangladesh; Amit Dasgupta, General Manager of IBM Global Services India; Philip DesAutels, Academic Evangelist at Microsoft; Naimur Rahman, Director of OneWorld South Asia; Sunit Shrestha, Director of TNR Institute; Manish Pandey of Katalyst; and Charlotte Masiello-Riome, WSIS focal point for e-agriculture. Oh, and me too! A little bit of self-promotion is ok isn't it? ;-)

For more information and sign-up go to http://www.e-agriculture.org/

ICT and the Climate Crisis

2008-02-26T18:03:00.004+07:00

I just saw a presentation by Stuart Scott (who was trained by Al Gore) on "the Climate Crisis". This is the second time in two days I have been involved in a discussion on this important topic and it has me thinking about ways that ICT4D can have positive impact on this. Mr Scott has a website at http://www.climatecorps.org/, that alone is indication that ICT plays some role in moderating, if not abating, the climate crisis!

Agriculture has a key role in climate change, no question there. ICT on the other hand is not yet in the forefront on this subject. From what little I have read on the subject, ITC industries have a relatively low greenhouse gas emission levels. That's good (if it's correct). Still more interesting (at least to me and maybe to the broader community?) is ICT's potential as a potent mitigator of climate change. At first glance it would seem there are several levels on which this can occur: reducing the need for travel, fascilitating dissemination of appropriate knowledge in a timely manner, monitoring change/impact, providing ability to analyze at multiple levels (from local to global).

There's also the question of how do we improve livelihoods without further negatively impacting the climate? The culture of change and changing cultures. Let's think on this one.

Design and Development - Sharing Ideas

2008-01-29T10:16:00.000+07:00

At the World Economic Forum discussions encompass many topics, including the design field. A panel of four prominent thought leaders in the design field spoke on their expectations for the future, and I find some of these ideas not only interesting but applicable to the development field.

Rarely do I hear design and development spoken of at the same time, but I think there is something each field can learn from the other. After all, what are we all looking for but solutions to a problem?

In particular I found the comments by John Maeda, President of RISD, relevant. He indicated there needs to be an increased transparency in design (in fact noting the processes of developing open-source software as a model that had applications in the design field), simplicity and the goal of simplification, and finally the importance of finding beauty (or something good) in every day things. To me all three of these concepts are directly relevant to improving information management projects for development.

An article about this event can be found online in the International Herald Tribute article by Alice Rawsthorn at http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/25/arts/design28.php

The GK3 Phenomenon

2007-12-18T00:15:00.000+07:00

Last week I was in KL with my colleague Charlotte, Dr Mangstl Director of FAO’s Knowledge Exchange and Capacity Building Division, and about 1700 other great people dedicated to KM/IM/IT for development.

The meeting brought together all levels and focuses in development, or as the program said, GK3 sought to explore issues of emerging people, emerging markets, emerging technologies, and emerging solutions.

My congratulations to GKP and all those involved in organizing what came together as one of my “top 10” events for this year. The conference was well organized, dynamic and diverse, full of people with enthusiasm and a will to get things done.

Some conference highlights for me were:

the e-Agriculture forum (of course!)

catching up with the "new generation" who make up Thai RuralNet and similar organizations - they give me hope for the future (yes, I am getting older myself…)

meeting so many great people from industry, governments, NGOs, CSOs and other organizations that share a vision

playing with a OLPC laptop and learning more about the potential this offers
the infectious enthusiasm of the GKP staff that really made this event so great

the GKP 10 year anniversary party!

many more things, but this list has to pause somewhere…

There were many new friendships made and networks established and expanded. So many good ideas came up I think 2008 is going to be a very busy year! Stay tuned for more about what develops here :-)

What is Web 2.0?

2007-12-17T17:36:00.000+07:00

To me that question is actually pretty simple, albeit the term “Web 2.0” probably causes more confusion than it should. This isn't really about a new version of the World Wide Web. It's not a version upgrade of some traffic management switches or software.

Web 2.0 is about new technologies that bring the web closer to people. It is about new way to create content and communicate with others. It is about new means for networking, collaboration and idea generation.

Web 2.0 is: this blog; my del.icio.us bookmark collection; Wikipedia and Google docs for collaborative creation; Flickr managing images online; etc. If you have better examples, please share them with me.

Web 2.0 is the evolution of participation on the web.

A week-long dialogue took place 21-28 September 2007 focused on the use of information, communication, and associated technologies in sustainable agricultural development and food security. Known as "e-Agriculture week", this unique event included the Web 2.0 for Dev conference that opened with “The Machine is Us/ing Us”. If you have not seen this video clip, take 5 minutes and watch it on YouTube. It’s a great opener to these exciting and ongoing developments.

BTW, I've got a lot more to say about e-agriculture soon...

KM to Me (aka "Looking Back...")

2007-12-17T15:16:00.001+07:00

I've been working in the field of information/knowledge mangment for development since I first joined the UN (FAO) about seven years ago now.

In this time the terms have evolved, "information", "knowledge", "ICT", "ICT4D", "KM", "KM4Dev", Web 2.0, etc., but in most cases I believe the intent remains the same - to help others by improving rural developoment (both the processes and the results).

My work involves capacity building (e.g. IMARK), networking people (e.g. PhilAgriNet), information management standards (AIMS), studying successful examples of rural ICT, and some other things. I'm devoted to the Asia-Pacific region in my current capacity. It's a great job, one that has opened my eyes to the world we live in and one that has hopefully allowed me to give something back.