Electronic Conferencing and On-line Dialogue for Development Purposes
Updated - Thursday 09 February 2006
The Think Tank 'model' had two main components:
- Interactive electronic conferencing;
- A web 'magazine', with links to several information finding tools.
Since these are Internet-based tools, efforts have been made through the project to organise and foster 'off-web' or offline activities. These have included circulation of content on paper and fax, promotional stories on the content, oral presentations on the content and the process, and the organisation of face-to-face meetings. An important feature of the project is the way it was implemented as a 'co-production' by five organisations - each of whom taking on different roles and responsibilities - and the way it sought to involve the Southern partners of the organisers. In this the project illustrated the growing trend towards 'joint action' and 'decentralised co-operation' in international development co-operation.
Simple listserver software underpins this OneWorld Water Think Tank initiative, allowing an e-mail message sent by one person to be relayed to all members of an agreed discussion group. Listserver discussions have become an increasingly popular mode of information exchange and dissemination, offering the key advantage of immediacy to networking. Electronic conferences are types of structured discussion focused around a particular theme, and differ from unmoderated listserver discussion in two principal ways: they are time limited and content-specific.
Increasing reliance on non-paper means of communication, wider access to e-mail and the Internet and flexibility of work patterns are the main reasons why electronic methods of communication are proving to be increasingly popular in developing countries.
Authors Peter Ballantyne, then European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM), Darren Saywell, then Water Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC), and Dick de Jong, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, formed the core team from the NGOs contributing to this joint learning experience.
