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Digital Public Goods Platforms for Development: The Challenge of Scaling

Brian Nicholson, Petter Nielsen, Sundeep Sahay, Johan Ivar Sæbø

Information Society, volume 38, issue 5 (2022), pp. 364-376

"In this article we consider the notion of digital global public good and articulate our understanding of it. Against this conceptual foil, we examine the development of DHIS2 (District Health Information Software Version 2), a global health platform inspired by public goods, focusing on the paradox ... more

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Checklist for the Development of Portals for International Development

Sarah Cummings, Nancy White, Michiel Schoenmakers, Victor van Reijswoud, Martine Koopman, Chris Zielinski, Cavin Mugarura, Ramin Assaand, Srividya Harish

Knowledge Management for Development Journal, volume 14, issue 1 (2019), pp. 83-94

"This guideline has been developed by the authors in a collaborative manner over the period May 2018-May 2019 in consultation with the Knowledge Management for Development (KM4Dev) community. It is designed to provide guidance for development organizations who are setting up portals –also known as ... more

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Reflexive Engagements: The International Development Blogging Evolution and its Challenges

Tobias Denskus, Andrea S. Papan

Development in Practice, volume 23, issue 4 (2013), pp. 455-467

"Writing weblogs (blogs) has become a substantial part of how development is discussed on the Internet. Based on research with development bloggers and the authors' own social media practice, this article is an exploratory case study to approach the impact of blogging on reflective writing, work pra ... more

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Farm Radio Online Community (Barza): An Interactive Website for African Radio Broadcasters

Blythe McKay, Nelly Bassily

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) (2011), 21 pp.

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Development Through Dialogue: Report of a Research Initiative

Sarah Cummings

Amsterdam: Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) (2008), 65 pp.

"This report covers a research study of Dgroups which took place during September 2006-July 2007. Dgroups is a number of things at the same time: (1) it is a web-based technical platform which supports and provides for the creation and use of discrete e-mail based discussion lists and web workspaces ... that are used to support knowledge networking by people and institutions working in development; (2) it is also the plural name for these online networks, individually known as a dgroup; and (3) it is also a partnership of development organizations who share a commitment to collaboration in development and who are developing a common vision of the need for such a platform and such online groups. The Dgroups platform currently supports 2,308 dgroups and 88,700 individual users (15 July, 2007), but there has not yet been an analysis of the development role of dgroups on a global scale. Many partners and members of the Dgroups Partnership continue to support the platform, not only because of the access to online knowledge networks with which it provides them, but also because of an intuitive understanding of the processes supported by dgroups. The study examines whether and how dgroups: • facilitate the spread of information and knowledge among the actors (individual and institutional) working in the thematic areas of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); • facilitate learning processes (individual, social, and organizational learning) in the diverse institutions working in areas related to the MDGs; and • facilitate the bridging of the multitude of ‘knowledge divides’ in development between the North and South, and South-South; between different sorts of institutions (multilateral, bilateral, NGOs, universities, ministries) and professional groups (practitioners, researchers and policymakers); and in terms of language [...] It has been concluded that dgroups facilitate information and knowledge sharing within the subject areas of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and that they also facilitate individual, social and organizational learning within these subject areas. Dgroups also play an important role in bridging the ‘knowledge divides’ between North and South, between different types of institutions, and between different professional groups, as well as crossing the digital divide. An ability to bridge South-South divides and to forge links between different language groups has not been demonstrated. In terms of development impact, Dgroups was found to represent a very cost-effective manner of hosting groups (an average of Euro 60.70 per dgroup per year) and most moderators felt that participation in dgroups was an ‘effective’ use of their time. Dgroups were also found to have had an organizational impact on the way many of the partner and member organizations work. It is argued that Dgroups provides a unique resource: there is nothing comparable within development that facilitates information and knowledge sharing on such a large scale. Finally, some recommendations are made for the future development of Dgroups." (Executive summary) more

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A Good Place to Start: The IDS Knowledge Services Guide to Finding Development Information Online

Gabrielle Hurst, Cheryl Brown (eds.)

Brighton: Institute of Development Studies (IDS), revised ed. (2008), 85 pp.

"Drawing on the collective expertise of staff at the IDS Knowledge Services, this guide will point you to some good places to start your search on over 30 development themes. You'll find a list of websites on each topic, selected by people who have spent countless hours searching the Internet for th ... more

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Evaluation of the Development Gateway: Final Report

Aditya Jha, Vicky Seymour, Sean Sims

London: Development Studies Institute, School of Economics (2004), 46 pp.

"The Development Gateway is an Internet portal that seeks to promote sustainable development and poverty reduction through knowledge and resource sharing. Initially conceived and designed by the World Bank, it commenced operations as an independent not-for-profit organisation in July 2001. However, ... its launch and operations have been dogged by controversy as civil society organisations have objected to the Gateway’s links with the World Bank and its potential for disseminating the World Bank’s vision of development at the expense of more diverse and pluralistic views. In particular, criticism has centred on the Topics and Country Gateway sections of the web site, as being ill-conceived and biased, leading to the further marginalisation of southern knowledge, and the crowding out of other knowledge aggregators. This study evaluates the Topics and Country Gateway sections of the Development Gateway in light of the stated objectives, the initial criticisms and generally recognised principles for knowledge sharing. It combines an extensive review of documents and detailed analyses of the website to evaluate the governance of the Development Gateway, and the relevance and quality of the Topic and Country Gateway content. The key findings of the study corroborate the civil society criticisms in finding that the Development Gateway remains closely linked to the World Bank at both operational and strategic levels, that the information is predominantly from northern sources, that its operations are not transparent or accountable to civil society, and that it does not have any criteria or systems for measuring the impact of its services. More surprisingly, given the stature of the World Bank and the level of investment, there is no clear identification of who the beneficiaries are and how they may be benefiting. The content is not comprehensive and it has a strong bias towards technological topics at the expense of social and political topics. Also, it is poorly organised and is not cost-effective in comparison with other existing Internet portals. In fact the other development portals, rather than being crowded out, are thriving precisely because the performance of the Gateway is so poor. As an example, the global civil society portal OneWorld has substantially more content, twice as much usage, and eight times as many partnerships as the Development Gateway, all achieved for about a quarter of the spending. The Gateway has consumed more than $30 million of funding since its inception and is seeking another $40 million of public funding. This without having achieved many of the goals it set itself and with major question marks over its ability to deliver, as acknowledged, despite their limited scope, by the two evaluations of the Development Gateway undertaken or commissioned by the World Bank’s Operations Evaluation Department." (Executive summary, page 3) more