Development Blogs.com

Simone Staiger recently compiled a short list of some knowledge sharing tools used and learned about in the (just ended) FAO-CGIAR KS Workshop:Peer assists; tags and tagging; social reporting; discussion groups; blogs and blogging; wikis; and intranets.Under each of the tools, some useful reflections from course members and links...

In Australia, Dean Power and Think eExtension are all about the "use of Web 2.0 and Social Media tools in engagement, knowledge sharing and creation, and community cultivation of Sustainable Agriculture, Natural Resource Management and Environmental Stakeholders." Check out blog postings with the label e-Extension (also on the eco2oh blog ...There's also a nice paper by John James at a 2007 APEN event - Using e-Extension to better engage with clients and enable change. Reviewing various extension approaches, he identifies likely web 2.0 tools that can be applied, arguing that these tools will particularly increase engagement and collaboration among extension workers and their...

The September 18 issue of 'The Economist' has a short article on user-generated science. It looks at emerging web 2.0 tools in science, particularly blogging, that may lead to news ways to publish and communicate science and research. It concludes that there's much action and progress in the science blogosphere, but: "in order that blogging can become a respected academic medium it needs to be recognised by the upper echelons of the scientific establishment."It links to Nature Network - a 'professional networking website for scientists around the world', where you can find a information about the recent Science Blogging 2008 conference in London. The conference ended with a call to get senior scientists blogging. This may be a good step towards recognition that publishing is about more...

In a post 'Science blogging is the new email', one participant in the Science Blogging 2008 conference in London gives a really interesting categorisation of blogging:conference blogging (also includes event blogging)edubloggingmetablogging (blogging about blogging, by far the largest discipline)research blogging (blogging about scientific experiments, the smallest discipline)investigational bloggingevolution blogging (a large subdiscipline)news blogging (blogging about science news)watercooler blogging (small pieces of interesting or funny thoughts/pictures)summary blogging (summarizing other blog posts and linking to them)diary blogging (blogging as a personal diary of self-expression)hoax bloggingIt would be interesting to see if we have other types of blogging in...

On 25 August, many participants at the World Conference on Agricultural Information and IT joined the IAALD-organised session on information and agricultural research.Web 2.0 was a thread in several of the presentations:Chris Addison introduced R4D (www.research4development.info) – the development research dissemination service of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and how it is evolving “from a portal to a service.” In the new service, various web 2.0 tools are used to optimized research content so it can travel and be subscribed to. His 5 take away messages:1. turn websites into services;2. use web2 as a ‘high street’ where the various shops help promote content;3. ensure that content is featured on other sites and services;4. check how the content is used,...

IFPRI's Pete Shelton shares three lessons from IFPRI efforts to get its researchers to use web 2.0 tools:1. Focus on the job, not the tool. 2. Researchers like hearing from other researchers.3. Don’t assume you know what researchers need - go out and ask them!The full posting explains the stories behind the lessons...

CTA recently announced a new service for development practitioners. NewsforDev employs RSS and e-mail news technology to bring together knowledge and information for development practitioners. It cleverly tracks 600 plus newsfeed to create a number of thematic dossiers on topics like:ACP-EU relations;Agriculture;Biodiversity;Biofuels;CTA;Climate change;Development;ICTs;Science and technology;TradeEach dossier presents recent content from a number of sources; A nice featire is that you can also subscribe to feeds and updates on each dossier or feed.A very nice example of the way that information specialists can 'mash' together existing information services in an accessible...

For several years, the people at ZimmComm New Media have used new media web 2.0 to produce AgWired - reporting on "what’s new in the world of agribusiness, targeting agricultural marketing & communications professionals."They use a wide range of tools - blogs, podcasts, video, photos in their reporting. The news has a North American and 'business' (naturally) focus, but also some international news. Two particularly interesting categories are:new medianew media in agricultural journalism (about the activities of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists)Browsing across the site shows both the diversity of the agribusiness world, also the multiple ways information and knowledge is communicated and how new media can add value. Ideas and lessons for all agricultural...

In the 'web tastings' blog, IFPRI's Pete Shelton explains the potential of social bookmarking tools like del.icio.us. Seems he forgot, then re-discovered it!He explains several ways it can help our day to day information management, pointing to its use by Euforic and IAALD.It's funny how related stories seem to appear at the same time - the ICT-KM blog also has an interesting posting to the use of del.icio.us in...

What’s interesting about the ReliefWeb Client Outreach statistics? Quite a lot. ReliefWeb is the single most information portal for the humanitarian community, so it’s worth paying attention to how that community uses online services, what sorts of information it values, and so on. It’s also interesting because ReliefWeb went through a huge overhaul a couple of [...]...

Sometimes you find an excellent new blog on aginfo and related issues and wonder how it didn't come across your radar before... Anyway, Web Tastings is by IFPRI's Pete Shelton and Stephan Dohrn - writing in their personal capacities. The idea is to "reflect on the usefulness and impact of the social web and its tools and approaches on development cooperation."A recent osting that caught the eye looks at measuring impact on the web - and some experiences from...

One of the opportunities provided by 'new' social media or web 2.0 tools is to help bring research messages to audiences usually not reached. Pathways South Asia, a research and policy NGO in Bangladesh, is using video to communicate research on the empowerment of women.Maheen Sultan of BRAC introduces the project:See more postings on...

Le CTA, la FAO, Euforic et d'autres organisations dans le domaine du développement se sont joints dans l'organisation d'une conférence internationale sur l'utilisation des soi-disantes applications « Web 2.0 » afin de faciliter la mise en réseau, la collaboration et le partage des connaissances dans les domaines de l'agriculture, du développement rural, et de la gestion des ressources...

CTA, FAO and other development organizations are joining forces to hold an international conference on the use of so-called 'web 2.0' applications to facilitate networking, collaborating and exchanging knowledge in agriculture, rural development and natural resource management. The conference will be held at FAO in Rome from 25 to 27 September 2007, with pre-conference seminars on 24......