Background to the Think Tank
Beginning in late 1998, the World Bank's Information Solutions Group was facilitating a series of operational knowledge-sharing pilot projects with key development stakeholders. From the World Bank perspective, the purpose of these pilots was to develop informed perspectives into an overall strategy for external knowledge sharing that can be implemented across the World Bank Group. One of the first pilots was between the World Bank Group and OneWorld, an Internet supersite that also acts as an umbrella platform for more than 700 NGO's. This pilot focused on the water and sanitation thematic area. The aims of the pilot were:
- to facilitate knowledge sharing between World Bank Group staff and NGO's working on similar issues with various knowledge sharing methods, principally information technology;
- to understand associated institutional and process issues;
- to create and document bench-marks that can be used across the World Bank Group;
- to test the OneWorld Think Tank as a tool to showcase lessons and develop as a forum for discussion and information sharing with general audiences;
- to test the World Bank's knowledge-sharing approach from an external perspective.
This papers covers the period in which the project went 'live,' in which tfour e-conferences were organised. It contains a chronology of the various activities and, draws heavily on informal discussions between collaborating agencies, an assessment of progress and lessons.
