A learning story: My way to web2.0

June 26, 2007 | comment9 Comments

Lost in the old web
Drawing6 Throughout the last years I have had mixed emotions about the Internet. On one hand, I was amazed about people, news, themes etc., but on the other hand, I was not satisfied with the overwhelming load of information and the difficulty of obtaining it when needed.

Running around to collect information
Drawing3 I used Google to research all my information and often repeated the same steps to find the same websites. I looked endlessly through websites to find eventually some information. I relied on all sorts of websites in hope that they would post something appealing for me. Basically, I ran though the web to find relevant information without mayor results. I always knew there was more than that and I could not catch up with the latest information.

Watch out! A new web has arrived!
Drawing2 One day a friend of mine pointed me to delicious – a social bookmarking tool where people from all over the world share links. I imported my favourite links onto the server and saw that many other people had already bookmarked the same links as well, and even had many other interesting ones. I was convinced that people knew much better than search engines. I also discovered that there are many people out there in the web who write riveting thoughts in their blogs. And that these blogs and social bookmark sites are basically networks made out of links, information and people.

Kick the overload of information!
Drawing4 I knew of RSS, a universal content format, designed to make the content of a website everywhere available. But after a while I understood that I could grasp all kind of information through feeds. So I threw away my fishing rod and got a fishing net instead to bring all relevant information out there on the web to my laptop. Now I can see when friends upload new photos, see changes in our jointly used Google calendar and have all the information compiled to my needs.

Becoming part of a community
Drawing So far I was pretty passive and contributed only with bookmarks. But because I appreciated all the valuable information, I decided to get active and start a blog to reflect on it what I read and learn from the web (networked learning). Suddenly I became a node in a far reaching network and started to interact with many people who had an interest on the same topics. I left all portals behind me and began valuing the contribution to the web of so many people out there like wisdom of crowd.

Sharing is the key!
Drawing7 All the richness of information comes from the participation of many people. Therefore sharing is the overall premise. I finally understood much better the power of hyperlinks and discovered how even complex themes can be greatly connected through the web and used for learning. You can virtually see how information finds its way through the web. Lastly, I discovered that tagging is a great way of making sense for all this information, and it is okay if everything becomes miscellaneous.

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Weekly links June (4)

June 23, 2007 | commentLeave a Comment

These are big changes, it’s not hype, it’s right at the heart of knowledge, authority, trust, and how it’s smudging the supply chain, the org chart. We are reshaping business, whether we like it or not. Business is changing from being ‘theirs’, to the remaking of knowledge and authority that is ours.

Originally from the social computing blog

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KM4DEV workshop 2007 - peer learning as its best

June 21, 2007 | comment2 Comments

I have just spent three days of intensive discussions with interesting people from around the world, who work in different areas of knowledge management for development (KM4DEV). Besides of some sessions, the three day event had an open sharing and learning approach by leaving it up to the participants to fill in the agenda. The concept seemed a bit confusing in the start, but turned out to be very creative and inspiring.

So here is some feedback of things I found especially interesting from the workshop:

  • Web2.0 and knowledge management
    The workshop itself was the best example of how important face to face contact is and how it opens many venues for learning. The collaborative web nevertheless, gains great importance all in the knowledge management field. Many people are involved in an online knowledge sharing or are planning on building a new generation of sharing and learning platforms. Interesting to me, however, is that wikis were seen quite skeptical and rather complicated. The linkages between tagging, RSS, Blog, wiki and social bookmarking were discussed, but only some organizations have started to integrate them.
  • Graphic facilitation
    Nancy White gave a great session about how graphical facilitation opens new avenues for expression, reduces complexity and helps to give a picture of a process or constellation. It really encourages me to do more in visualization even though I am not very talented in drawing. Micheline Chartrand also made a nice post on that session.
  • Styles of presentation
    There was not a single power point presentation during the workshop, nevertheless there were funny and inspiring presentations: A lot of of drawings, different kinds of performances such as singing and acting, and videos such as the one for social bookmarking. It is of course just a copy of the great RSS in plain English video.



Click To Play

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Challenges of web2.0 in Africa

June 18, 2007 | commentLeave a Comment

Recently I met Toni Eliasz from Ungana-Afrika in Pretoria. We discussed over web2.0 in the context of development. His thoughts were interesting on that of the potential and challenges of the collaborative web, given his experiences in South Africa and the region. Ungana is a NGO which devotes its work to find solutions for the capacity crisis.

A ‘capacity crisis’ is a mild expression to describe the skill levels and understanding of information and communications technologies (ICTs) within non-profits and small-to-medium enterprises in Africa. It will take a decade before the young, technologically literate generation can address these challenges.”

No surprise Toni highlighted first, challenges regarding web2.0 for rural development:

  • The general problems of connectivity, such as the lack or high price for access. For example, a 3 GB ADSL connection costs up to a hundred dollars in South Africa, which is 15 times the price compared to Germany.
  • Web2.0 requires often bandwidth or instant access for videos, podcasts or tools such as google docs.
  • Before investing time and resources into web2.0, there is a question to be answered, ‘How do these tools benefit local communities and how can they contribute to development?’
  • The computer and its appliances are complex and often need to be demystified for beginners, and like everywhere else, training is needed and that can also take quite some time.
  • To use web2.0 tools such as wiki, blogs etc., requires well written documentation and training.
  • The lack of technical expertise, which is often required, is currently very expensive and very limited outside of urban areas.
  • Like many other ICT4D projects, the question for sustainability is important and yet not proven for concepts based on these new tools.

For Toni many challenges have to be overcome first before web2.0 can be adapted in rural communities or small organizations. I stated that there are examples such as the the Nata Village Blog, which shows how communities communicate their messages and interact with a worldwide audience. However, we both agreed, that it is the know-how, which at this stage it is mostly limited to intermediate organizations, who nevertheless have already a real benefit from the opportunities to interact and collaborate over the web. Ungana is on the APC network and will be sharing documented work experiences and toolkits, especially from their eRider project, to local technology service providers and networks to make quality support and capacity-building programs a reality.

We both agreed, in terms of connectivity, that the mobile phone is very promising. Whereas widely distributed and affordable Internet access will still take many years to arrive in Africa, first, interesting applications to link the mobile phone and web have to be offered. In South Africa for example Mixit is a big web driven mobile chatting portal. It got so far over 4 million subscribers. Toni concluded that ideas and its implementation have to be localized. As an example, two weeks ago a workshop in Kenya launched the development of a mobile advocacy toolkit, which is focusing on the needs of the organizations from the developing world. Homegrown approaches, which emphasizes the
sustainable need, are decisive.

Crossposted: blog.web2fordev.net

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An overview on Egyptian bloggers and activism

June 17, 2007 | comment1 Comment

In the arab region activists use sophisticated and creative blogs and tools to network nationally and internationally and to tackle issues such as human rights, freedom of speech and democracy. Especially in Egypt, where the blogosphere is very vibrant, in contrary to European political bloggers.
On Egybloggers more than 320 blogs alone are listed in the ‘politics section’. The blogs are written in English, Arabic or in both. This blogging network broadcasts campaigns and demonstrations, documenting human rights violations, for example, videos over you tube. Bloggers discus together with the diaspora the political future of Egypt. The global voice project links the Egyptian online activists to human rights bloggers worldwide. The Egyptian blog aggregator shows post on the latest news in Egypt.

The result is that blogs become important news sources in the Arab region. Even journalists turn to blogs such as arabist.net. http://www.arabist.net/ With the detention of many bloggers in Egypt and especially the ‘Free Kareem‘ campaign, where people rally for the release of a prominent blogger, blogging activism got worldwide attention. In Twitter you can also read comments send by a blogger facing trial: “There was a court hearing today. Very short. We asked for time to read the technical report. Next hearing 8 July”.
Recently, activists from the Muslim Brotherhood started to use blogs to promulgate their cause also and push for the release of members who have been jailed.

CairofreezeThe Egyptian blogosphere is not a new phenomenon. For years Egyptian bloggers used the web as a channel to organize their protests and create a transational public sphere for their topics. In 2005, the ‘Kifaye‘ (Enough!) movement’s demonstrations and protests were widely documented on blogs. An especially creative way of campaign is done by Ahmad Sherif, who asks for messages about the Egyptian President over you tube, which are then placed as google adsense (further explained). Latest, Sherif works now on another assignment which he calls ‘Freedom Campaign‘ where he exposes topics such as premarital love and sex, freedom of faith and freedom of speech. There has also been some participation from the artists scene, such is the case of the creation of ‘Cairofreeze‘ a blog for political caricatures. For the latest developments of the Egyptian blogosphere check out this entry on global voices. I am personally impressed about the activism of these bloggers and what they have achieved. Unfortunately, my Arabic is to weak to get even more informed on what is going on the Egyptian blogosphere.

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Weekly links June (3)

June 16, 2007 | commentLeave a Comment

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NPK4DEV – a collaborative tagging experience

June 14, 2007 | comment3 Comments

I remember when I came across those weird looking different size word aggregations on websites and wondered what were they? When I read about tagging and tag clouds I was first skeptical about it and asked myself what is the benefit of them?

Nowadays I am fascinated, how tags can solve or at least improve how we sort information and make relevance between different tags. Through the wisdom of crowd one can extract very precisely the connections of themes and show the pattern of a community. To me classical hierarchical folder structure is only two dimensional, whereas tags are three dimensional, as long as the semantic web has not been implemented.

With social bookmarking through de.icio.us a single tag can be used to share links collaboratively. Peter Ballantyne had the idea of using collaborative tagging for the knowledge management for development network back in 2005. Next week another KM4DEV workshop will take place in Holland where I will prepare some visualization of the efforts throughout the last two years for the nonprofit knowledge management for development (NPK4DEV) tag.

NPK4DEV Tag Cloud (popular tags)
Tag Cloud

Joitske, a contributor of NPK4DEV wonders whether this tag experiment can form a community?

Tagging seems so superficial in terms of knowledge creation, it is more a flow of information. Can we say there is learning going on or is it just sharing information more rapidly? If people start tagging can we all that a community of practice?

In my opinion this tag cloud shows quite impressively what people associate with knowledge management for development in methods, countries, organizations and themes. It is a great way to share certain kind of information. In this regard it might be a passive community of practice keeping each other updated about new and interesting documents or new approaches such as vlogging. Furthermore it connects you to the people behind it.

However to deepen the effect of sharing and to have a broader learning effect, further steps would be necessary. For example Beth Kanter summarizes in her posts all links for the nptech tag, which is very useful. The communication between each other over delicious is close to zero, and one does not know whether the information behind the link is useful or valuable to his or her background. Commenting is rarely used and rating is not possible, and only bloggers involved reflect transparently the shared information.

Lastly, it is interesting to see how you can analyze tags, in this timeline. In the picture you can see the recent tags. Thanks to the blogger from www.unthinkingly.com, who did this timeline very nice with the nptech tag.

tagliner

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What is enterprise2.0? Five pillars for efficient knowledge sharing

June 10, 2007 | comment1 Comment

Imagine you can share your bookmarks with your colleagues, find your documents and emails quickly through tagging, write about your work experiences on your personal homepage (blog), and document all project team work in a wiki. The result is a revolutionary different way to share knowledge online within an organization.

How does it work and what is the trick? It simply needs to combine the already existing and freely available tools or open source applications in web.2.0.

The marker: Tagging
Tagging simply means to add key words to every link you save or blog entry you write. Basically you don’t sort anymore all your different files in hierarchical folders, you know anyhow that this is never perfectly possible. Because knowledge has always many domains e.g. a single article contains all sorts of information, each reader has a different perspectives on it. Through tags you can see where topics are overlapping and find information from different angles.

network explorerThe network: Social Bookmarking
Imagine your bookmarks are visible to your colleagues. You would be able to share links on similar working areas and browse via tags all imaginable topics of your organization. These links have a great value, because they are verified or even commented by your colleagues. So you find easily like minded people and identify quickly who works on a certain theme.

The storyteller: Blogging
How often have you answered to the same question over again? Why don’t you make a blog post about it, so all your colleagues with the same problem could find answers in your blog. How can you exchange information without having to send a mass email? Post it on a project blog which documents the learning process of how a project has developed over time. Blogs can also become information boards, picturing the life of organizations.

The white board: Wiki
Remember how you used to send word files around while working collaboratively on a text? Now you can have a wiki to include your project documentation in, and everyone on your team can access it form anywhere. On the Wiki, you can see how a text develops over time and browse through the organizational knowledge via tags. With a Wiki, while your team works on a memo during a meeting, you can also link topics to other relevant sources. Thus you keep track of the team work.

The connector: Feed/RSS
RSS is a universal format for files which gives you, on the contrary to email, the power to filter information. A colleague always writes interesting blog posts which are relevant to your work. You want to share links in a comunity of practice, or you need to follow up certain projects. Via feeds you can subscribe to the information relevant to you. Feeds keep you posted with all sort of information, such as links, documents, audio, video, wiki changes, etc.

Why all of this? What is the advantage?

  • Simply because it connects in manifold ways all available resources and people behind it.
  • It makes everybody’s work transparent and offers new potential for sharing and cooperation.
  • It is very easy to use. Just look how many blogs are out there and see how successful flickr, youtube and delicious are.
  • It turns communication and knowledge sharing upside down and emphasizes on expertises.

Is this realistic? Does it make an intranet obsolete? What do you think? There are of course many challenges, but I will write about it in another post.

Check out also out this nice presentation on enterprise2.0.

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Weekly links June (2)

June 9, 2007 | commentLeave a Comment

For more of my bookmarks have a look at del.icio.us/ckreutz.

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How can Web2.0 contribute to development?

June 8, 2007 | comment2 Comments

I ampart of the organization team for the web2fordev conference in Rome, this coming September, and therefore I am excited to anounce our new blog here too.

Dear friends, colleagues, bloggers and readers,

Here are a few questions for you. How can Web2.0 contribute to development? What are your experiences in using Web2.0 tools for knowledge sharing and collaboration in the domain of rural and agricultural development? Do social networks, mashups, blogs, and wikis have an influence on your work? What challenges towards Web2.0 did you experience or do you expect?

web2fordevShare your thoughts on the Web2fordev blog! Come and join our discussions or contribute with posts to prepare the agenda of the Web2ForDev conference in Rome, this coming September.

We are collecting interesting experiences on the use of Web2.0, and exploring its different dimensions within the context of development. The focus of the conference is on rural and agricultural development and natural resource management. The blog goes beyond this. We invite you, working in any sector of development (health, youth, education, ICTs, humanitarian, media, etc.) to share your take on technology & development in this blog.

Web2fordev is the first conference devoted to exploring ways in which international development actors can take advantage of the technical and organisational opportunities provided by Web 2.0.

Blog here!
http://blog.web2fordev.net

Visit the conference here!
http://www.web2fordev.net

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Do new web applications benefit the poor?

June 4, 2007 | commentLeave a Comment

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.

CollageA 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: blog.web2fordev.net

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Weekly links June (1)

June 2, 2007 | commentLeave a Comment

For more of my bookmarks have a look at del.icio.us/ckreutz.

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