Participatory Learning and Action 59 - Change at hand: Web 2.0 for development

June 2009

Guest editors: Holly Ashley, Jon Corbett, Ben Garside and Giacomo Rambaldi

Co-published by IIED and CTA.

Order No: 14563IIED

Web 2.0 tools and approaches are radically changing the ways we create, share, collaborate and publish digital information through the Internet. Participatory Web 2.0 for development – or Web2forDev for short – is a way of employing web services to intentionally improve information-sharing and online collaboration for development. Web 2.0 presents us with new opportunities for change – as well as challenges – that we need to better understand and grasp. This special issue shares learning and reflections from practice and considers the ways forward for using Web 2.0 for development:

Part I introduces both Web 2.0 tools and the concept of Web2forDev.
Part II examines some uses of specific Web 2.0 tools for development purposes.
Part III focuses on the integration of multiple Web 2.0 tools to address specific issues.
Part IV discusses theory and reflections on practice, including lessons learnt from experience, challenges identified, and ways forward.
Part V Tips for trainers provides a collection of short introductions to Web 2.0 tools.

Most of the themed articles are based on presentations made at the Web2forDev conference, 25th–27th September 2007 at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy. The conference was the first international event focusing specifically on how Web 2.0 tools could be used to the advantage of Southern development actors, operating in the sectors of agriculture, rural development and natural resource management.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editorial

PART I: OVERVIEW
1. Change at hand: Web 2.0 for development
Holly Ashley, Jon Corbett, Ben Garside , Dave Jones and Giacomo Rambaldi

2. The two hands of Web2forDev: a conference summary
Chris Addison

PART II: STUDIES OF WEB 2.0 TOOLS
3. Exploring the potentials of blogging for development
Christian Kreutz

4. Web 2.0 tools to promote social networking for the Forest Connect alliance
Duncan Macqueen

5. Promoting information-sharing in Ghana using video blogging
Prince Deh

6. Mobile phones: the silver bullet to bridge the digital divide?
Roxanna Samii

PART III: ISSUE-BASED STUDIES
7. Anti social-computing: indigenous language, digital video and intellectual property
Jon Corbett and Tim Kulchyski

8. Tools for enhancing knowledge-sharing in agriculture: improving rural livelihoods in Uganda
Ednah Akiiki Karamagi and Mary Nakirya

9. Ushahidi or 'testimony': Web 2.0 tools for crowdsourcing crisis information
Ory Okolloh

10. Web 2.0 for Aboriginal cultural survival: a new Australian outback movement
Jon Corbett, Guy Singleton and Kado Muir

PART IV: THEORY AND REFLECTION ON PRACTICE
11. Circling the point: from ICT4D to Web 2.0 and back again
Anriette Esterhuysen

12. Web 2.0 tools for development: simple tools for smart people
Ethan Zuckerman

13. The Web2forDev story: towards a community of practice
Anja Barth and Giacomo Rambaldi

PART V: TIPS FOR TRAINERS

14. Web 2.0 tools: a series of short introductions
Holly Ashley, Dave Jones and Luigi Assom with Jon Corbett, Ben Garside , Christian Kreutz, Kevin Painting, Duncan Macqueen and Giacomo Rambaldi

There are vast numbers of Web 2.0 tools, applications, platforms, and services available. Many of them are free or low-cost and easy-to-use. In this issue, we present a series of short introductory guides to a selection of commonly-used Web 2.0 tools. Each introductory guide provides a brief description of the tool and how it can be used for development purposes, along with links to further information and where applications can be downloaded online. We hope that you find these short introductions useful and welcome feedback from our readers.

i. Blogging: Tips on how to create and maintain a dynamic and popular development blog

ii. Micro-blogging and Twitter: Tips on using micro-blogging tool Twitter to communicate about development

iii. Wikis: Tips on online collaboration for development using wikis

iv. Online social networking: Tips on using online social networks for development

v. RSS feeds: Tips on using RSS feeds to access and share development-related content online content - and how to filter it for relevance

vi. Tagging: Tips on using tags and tagging for development-related online content

vii. Social bookmarking: Tips on using social bookmarks for development-related online content

viii. Glossary of Web 2.0 terms

For more information about the examples of development websites listed in the guides, see e-participation In Touch, p.130 (this issue).

REGULARS

In Touch

Includes reviews of books and other resources, e-participation, events and training and RCPLA Network pages.