www.iicd.org

DGroupsDevelopment through Dialogue

@ PICNIC 2011 Saskia Harmsen, IICD

www.iicd.org

IICD

• specialises in information and communication technology (ICT) as a tool for development

• facilitates technical and social innovations that create and enhance development opportunities in education, governance, livelihoods, health and the environment

www.iicd.org

Purpose Reality Check

Not talking about watching YouTube videos for personal entertainment

Not talking about FB: 600 million users, mainly for private use. Value for professional exchange very limited. Negotiate contracts or agree to terms of collaboration via each other’s walls?

www.iicd.org

Dialogue

Social (or collective) learning, fundamental to how development practices are improved, takes place in informal and formal networks.

www.iicd.org

Professionals in places like these..

www.iicd.org

And offices like these…

To gettheir jobs done!

www.iicd.org

Some perspective:It has to work in the face of…

• …Power cuts, so synchronous communications like Skype or real time websites are out

• …Slow bandwidth and expensive mobile internet connections, so fancy websites are out

• …Not many smart phones around, so mobile apps are out

So, if all that modern stuff is out, what’s in?

Store-and-forward

www.iicd.org

But meaningful 2-way conversation?

‘Be there in 10!’

‘Was gud to meet, link up later’

‘1 kg Groundnuts, Tamale, 1.45 Gh cedis’

Omnipresence of mobilesWidespread use of SMS

www.iicd.org

We want to…

Facilitate meaningful discourse on a large-scale

Enable people to better their capabilities and lives through collaboratively learning and building on each other’s knowledge

Remember: ‘Scale’ for us is not numbers of accounts, numbers of

‘Likes’ or +1’s, but enabling thousands and thousands of relevant conversations between a few or a few hundred people

So…..

www.iicd.org

Where there’s internet…

www.iicd.org

…..

www.iicd.org

… there’s email!

www.iicd.org

communities of ideas

Majority of professionals communicate by email, still the lowest common denominator technology

Email still key instrument to reach majority of people, and the inbox is the main place for daily work

communities of practice

form

al k

now

led

ge n

etw

ork

s

virtu

al te

am

s

thematic groups

working groups

www.iicd.org

What then is ‘Dgroups’?

(1)web-based technical platform: creation and use of discrete e-mail based discussion lists and web workspaces that are used to support knowledge networking by people and institutions working in development;

(2)plural name for these online networks, individually known as a dgroup; and

(3)a partnership of development organizations who share a commitment to collaboration in development and who are developing a common vision of the need for such a platform and such online groups.

www.iicd.org

an environment which is

simple,

non-commercial,

respectful of privacy, and

targeted at low bandwidth users in the South.

www.iicd.org

www.iicd.org

2002 founders: IICD, OneWorld, UNAIDS and Bellanet

Why?Our private need for groups to support our own work and, at

the same time, A commitment to a global public good by supporting a

platform that is used by many actors across the development sector.

Coordinated efforts by development agencies to create spaces for dialogue, accessible by any user

A large 'family' of discussion groups related to international development - this is the strength and opportunity of Dgroups. thousands of us can focus our time and energy on the work we need to do: international development communications.

www.iicd.org

2011 partners

+ just joined: Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN)

www.iicd.org

tremendous potentialin having all online development groups on one platform, in terms of linking initiatives and sharing information and knowledge

resources.

Shared ownership:• organisations invest small chunks of money than it would

normally take to build and sustain a full system• larger number of owners further leverages everyone’s funds and

increases the reach – inclusion: smaller organisations can own and use appropriate system that would normally require investment in human resources and technology;

Appropriate technology:focus was never on building fancy technology, but on what works

and what is sustainable lower costs

www.iicd.org

Some data

2128 active communities - 93 new communities in previous 5 months, - average of 5.4 new communities/week)

151.287 members (March 2010: 139.336)

• National, international & intergovernmental organizations • Government agencies • National and international NGOs • ICT- and knowledge focused institutes

www.iicd.org

What does it do?

• Links a large network of people, who share interests, and are also looking for an answer to their questions

• Strengthen specific professional groups (e.g. teachers or nurses), others cross departments or hierarchies; some foster collaboration and interprofessional education across professional boundaries;

• Reduces barriers and fosters a more equitable and continuous asynchronous exchange

• Communicate through email yet still archive all activity on the web (messages don’t get ‘lost’ in personal email folders

www.iicd.org

For example, i-Network Uganda

23,088 contributions

1545 members in 24 countries, all rallied around ICT for Development in Uganda.

Also: KS by non-contributorsExposureLobby & Advocacy

www.iicd.org

I-Netw

ork

Ug

an

da

www.iicd.org

In international development cooperation

(and in knowledge management generally?)

Email is *still* the Killer App

& email-based virtual networking enables

development through dialogue