Papers WIS 6
Accessible now: 43 papers submitted at the Sixth Water Information Summit at IRC in September 2003.
Flood of gateways and portals on water drowning in ambition (Dick de Jong, Cor Dietvorst, Jaap Pels and Viktor Markowski)
A flood of gateways and portals is emerging in recent years. This is contributing to confusion rather than helping Internet users who search the web on water issues. Part of this confusion is the result of definition problems of what makes a "portal" and what not. In this paper we give some recent examples, try to create more clarity by providing definitions and types, discuss key lessons learned and raise key issues for further discussion and research.
Read more or download Jong_09.pdf (109.8 kB)
Grassroots participation and management for rural waterrelated environmental problems in Nigeria
The concept behind this study was to relay information about healthy living and environmental sustainability to the rural poor in Ebo ItuMbonuso who have no idea of the detrimental consequences of their daily routines of bathing, washing, soaking food stuffs and dumping waste into and close to their drinking water sources (streams).
Read more or download Otu__24.pdf (160.6 kB)
Implementing a decentralized water portal in the Euro-Mediterranean area - First lessons from EMWIS (Eric Mino)
Building a decentralised water information portal is a promising solution in terms of commitment of developing countries, system sustainability and better knowledge of end-users needs. In this context, the experience of the Euro-Mediterranean Information System on Know-How in the Water Sector -EMWIS- is significant in terms of organisation and technical architecture. Today, Internet technologies and associated standards offer unique opportunities to build in flexible integrated systems able to collect dynamically information from peer systems. International efforts should concentrate on protocols and water information structures to efficiently use and share information and knowledge.
Read more or download Mino_13.pdf (387.4 kB)
Information in Internet about the water sector in Chile (Maria-Angelica Alegria and Tatiana Cuevas)
The way in which the countries have handled their natural resources, among them the water, is simply no sustainable, reason why a deep change of attitude is necessary and a holistic approach of which we want the handling of waters be. The Dirección General de Aguas of Chile (DGA) has realized that Internet is a powerful technology that can be of use for networking and dissemination of information about water resources, and an important source of public information, providing with relevant and up-to-date information.
Read more or download Cuevas_28.pdf (285.5 kB)
Information needs: learning in the resource centre development (RCD) programme in Nepal (Ratan Budhatoki, Eveline Bolt and Umesh Pandey)
This paper is an output of a process undertaken in the context of the resource centre development (RCD) programme in Nepal. NEWAH has initiated the process with the support of IRC and in collaboration with the Integrated Development Society (IDS) - Nepal in January 2003.The paper focuses in particular on the so-called Information Needs Assessment (INA). It first puts the INA in a context and indicates the purpose of the assessments. It analyses the outcomes of the exercises and from there conclusions are drawn about what is to be done next that can help identify potential activities to improve information flows.
Read more or download Pandey_04.pdf (191.8 kB)
Knowledge management in strategic development of water services (Osmo T. Seppälä)
Water utility operations require very long-term considerations in their decisionmaking and management. Visionary management - utilising futures research methodologies - enables water services organisations to utilise new opportunities in their future operations and to manage uncertainties. Water utilities often do not manage well their knowledge and information processes that are essential for their performance and success. Water utilities have a lot of tacit knowledge with their experienced staff, but this knowledge cannot be easily shared and transferred. Utilities often do not effectively use modern knowledge management tools to handle even the explicit knowledge available within their systems and organisations. Knowledge management, visionary- and strategic management should be interlinked in the utility's decisionmaking and implementation processes. Water utilities need to increase their knowledge base on these management approaches and tools and start utilising them more effectively.
Read more or download Seppala_42.pdf (111.4 kB)
Managing for Serendipity - or why we should lay off “best practice” in KM (David J Snowden)
Over the last two to three years I have asked well over 100 audiences at conferences, in company workshops and academic seminars a simple question: "What spreads fastest in your organisation, stories of failure or stories of success?" The inevitable answer is failure and there are good reasons for this. Over the millennia the human race has come to realise that being equipped with several stories of failure is far more valuable than a story of success. This implies that the common knowledge management focus on best practice is in effect contrary to natural practice; an attempt to impose an idealistic structured process onto the natural activity of learning and knowledge transfer through a focus on efficiency at the cost of effectiveness.
Read more or download Snowden_03_1.pdf (185.2 kB)
myNetWorks - a collaborative web environment for sustainable environmental technology (Urs Karl Egger, Andreas Schönborn and Marcia Pereira)
myNetWorks is a collaborative web-based learning environment, where users can access and exchange basic principles, course materials and approaches to problem solving in the areas of sustainable environmental technology. The goal of myNetWorks is to facilitate exchange, to nurture and to sustain a community of practitioners and academics, without following a one-sided technological viewpoint.
Read more or download Egger__25.pdf (250.5 kB)
Narrative patterns: the perils and possibilities of using story in organisations (David J Snowden)
Organizations are finally waking up to the power of stories. As managers and executives experience the opportunities revealed through the use of stories within their organizations they have become more open to moving from the use of story telling in the context of communication, to the wider opportunities provided by narrative techniques in the fields of organisational change, knowledge management and strategy. Stories in organisations reveal patterns of culture, behaviour and understanding in a different and, frequently more effective way than interviews and questionnaire based approaches.
Read more or download Snowden_03_2.pdf (186.9 kB)
Networking to put knowledge into practice through effective communications: the Swedish water house case study
The Swedish Water House, through its networks, supports international policy development and co-operation through knowledge generation, dissemination and partnership building, primarily within the areas of sustainable river basin management and integrated water resources management. Communications will be an important part of the task of the Swedish Water House.
Read more or download Bleckner__40.pdf (117.2 kB)
