Virtual Facilitation Tools

Achordus

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:12:34 CDT

Achordus is a methodology and online tool to facilitate online discussions from 100-10,000 people. Achordus engages people in purposeful discussion around organizational, community or business issues. The tool is flexible enough to be molded into the design needs of each organization but at its heart is a unique and engaging discussion engine for online communities. Using a timed, phased and moderated process, overseen by a trained facilitator, Achordus is a flexible, cost effective way to engaging distributed employees, stakeholders and,communities. By inviting and embedding active participation in creating a desired future, Achordus harnesses the power of many and helps organisations turn that power to good use.

http://www.achordus.com

Wikis

Fri, 29 May 2009 03:44:09 CDT

Brief Description

A wiki is a web site that allows users to add, remove, and otherwise edit and change content. At its core, a wiki is a simple online database in which each page is easily edited by any user with a Web browser; no special software or third party webmaster is needed to post content. It also allows for linking among any number of pages. Each article contains a discussion page where editors and readers can talk about the document. By looking at the history of a page, users can track changes and compare the versions of a document. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative writing. A wiki's versioning capability can show the evolution of thought processes as contributors interact with content, helping us to focus more on content and less on who is contributing what. This can be a big culture change. It takes a while to get used to the idea that someone else can change what you wrote. But that also means they can IMPROVE it! So it is a bit like thinking together.

History:

Ward Cunningham, created the first wiki and named after the Hawaiian word for ‘quick’. He was looking for the simplest possible tool to help a group of people share information they were using in a collaborative project.

When to Use

People often have only one model of wiki practices from the most globally visible wiki, Wikipedia an encyclopedia built and used by many people. You can edit the Wikipedia. Anyone can. But an encyclopedia is just one use for a wiki.

For collaborative writing- When you have to write a report with others, especially people who don’t work in the same location as you? Wikis allow a team to write together and see their shared work all along the way.
As a collaboration tool - Instantly collaborate without emailing documents, keeping the group in sync.
- Action plan or monthly updates
- Shared “to do” list
- Checklists
- Capture notes, snippets and resources for a project or report
As a meeting tool - collaboratively prepare agendas, take notes and share additional resources. Can also help those not at a F2F meeting have access to some meeting materials.
- Shared agenda creation
- Shared note taking
- Distribution of minutes/action items
Translate materials (see http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/afrophonewikis/)
Learning and training (see http://www.un-instraw.org/wiki/training/index.php/Main_Page)
For content creation and management
- Wiki as index for a file library
- Create a process manual
- Create FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Wiki weaknesses

Must be online to edit or read a page. You can copy the page to read offline. So it is not a good tool for people who have to write together but aren’t often online. Then it is better to send documents which can be worked on offline.
Not a replacement for libraries. If you use a wiki instead of a document library, you have to copy all the document text into a page and manually link it to the appropriate pages. It is harder for people to download information and read offline. So if you have a lot of documents and not a lot of people online, consider a document library. However, you can use a wiki to make a nice front page for your library.
Can get messy if you don’t have a practice of “wiki gardening.” If you make a lot of pages, for example, and don’t link them to other pages, they become hard to find or “orphaned.” If people don’t delete out of date text, a page becomes useless.
Does not emphasize who wrote what and when, so if that is important, a wiki may not be a good choice. In a wiki, the focus is on the content, rather than who wrote it or when they wrote it.
The information added to the wiki is not easily re-useable in other applications and often needs lot of copying and pasting!

How to use

Three key principles

The group or organization has to have a collaborative, open culture. Wikis are hard to control tightly.
People have to care about the topic of the wiki – compelling and relevant to their work. If no one cares, no one will write, edit or read the page. This is true of all tools!
Someone has to initiate and champion the work. This is true of all tools.
What’s New and a Wiki’s history
The power of “recent changes”
Restoring previous versions
Wiki “gardening” – the practice of keeping a wiki just tidy and organized enough. Wikis can also grow into messy spaces, so it is important to keep tending or "gardening" your wiki by cleaning up pages, creating indexes and using tools like the left navigation bar to make it easier for readers to find things.
Cleaning up old material
Organizing existing material
When to create a new page
How to create a new page
Linking between pages
Links to external web pages
Dealing with vandalism. Wiki pages are by default open; however, they can be set up to provide selective access, or to be entirely closed. For this reason, some organizations require a login in order to add or change a page.

Here is a quick video about wikis: http://dotsub.com/films/index.php?filmid=710 (You can choose many language subtitles)

Click To Play

And other languages here: http://dotsub.com/films/wikisinplainenglish/index.php?autostart=true&language_setting=es_712

Here are 21 short ideas on wiki adoption

Tips and Lessons Learnt

(add yours)

Examples&Stories

(add yours)

Interview with Thomas Metz (IRRI) about the use of wikis for Research data Management: http://www.ks-cgiar.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=106
http://icollaborate.blogspot.com/2007/09/milieukontakt-internationals-wikis.html
http://wikis.bellanet.org/harambee/index.php/Application_of_wikis
http://www.pebbleroad.com/article/using_wikis_on_the_intranet_the_british_council_case_study/
A stealth transformation: introducing wikis to the UN, by Anna Maron, Mikel Maron. Knowledge Management for Development Journal 3(1): 126-130 http://www.km4dev.org/journal/index.php/km4dj/article/viewFile/99/159
ICCO's "Learning @ ICCO Alliance" wiki: http://iacdrc.pbwiki.com/
CARE's Knowledge Cafe wiki: http://knowledgecafe.care2share.wikispaces.net/

Who can tell me more?

(add your name)

Google Docs
Quicktopic

Resources

Examples of Wikis in NGOs/Development
What is a wiki - http://onewisdom.pbwiki.com/WhatsaWiki a great site giving introduction and examples of wikis in use
Sobre Wikis http://www.slideshare.net/ovando/sobre-wikis/
WikiMatrix - a site to help select a wiki platform http://www.wikimatrix.org/
Wiki Pedagogy in French - for learning applications http://www.profetic.org/dossiers/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=110
http://www.wikieducator.org/Using_wikis_to_build_communities
What is a wiki - http://onewisdom.pbwiki.com/WhatsaWiki a great site giving introduction and examples of wikis in use
An extensive collection of Wiki Resources
Wikis for collaboration (in elearning - but the lessons apply in other areas!)
Stuart Mader's21 Days to Wiki Adoption
Special Libraries Association 23 things wiki - a great example of a wiki in use

Podcasting

Fri, 29 May 2009 03:38:57 CDT

Podcasts are audio programs that are broadcasted over the Internet. They are MP3 files which can be downloaded onto a compatible digital player or played on your computer. You can download one or many, for free (generally), or you can subscribe to an RSS service for downloads so you can be alerted when new postings are made available. The name podcast comes from compounding the words iPod and broadcast (from "blogs, wikis, and new media").

More definitions:

From ICT Update: "Podcasting has been around since 2004 but it is still very much at the experimental stage when it comes to applying it to development efforts. In this issue we highlight some early initiatives from organizations currently testing the technology, and so far their results are all very positive.By using audio – speech and music – there is no need for expensive printing or distribution costs since the podcast can be downloaded from a single, central site on the web. In fact, the term podcasting is now commonly used to include the general distribution of audio files over the Internet, but it is this fact that podcasting uses audio that makes it so interesting. Like radio, it can overcome problems of literacy, but a radio programme is transient – if you miss the programme you miss the information. Podcasting makes it possible to listen to a programme at the time of your choosing.

How to use:

Skype for Interviews

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: podcast interviews)

Tips and Lessons Learnt

(add yours)

Examples & Stories

(add yours)

1) Steven Buckley from Christian Aid:
"We've started weekly internal podcasts at Christian Aid as a way of sharing talks that would have previously required staff to attend a presentation. We've managed around 8 podcasts in the last 10 weeks. The trial has gone extremely well and we're now looking at rolling this out more widely - including an external feed so that staff can connect regardless of whether they have an intranet connection. As ever, the quality of the podcast rather depends on the equipment you use and we've tried hard to keep the file sizes as low as possible."
"Christian Aid podcasts are made available to staff through the intranet and to the public through iTunes and feedburner. Staff are alerted to new podcasts through a dynamic HTML listing of podcast feeds, though the file is hosted internally. We also take a lot of effort to promote the podcasts internally. As with the blogs, we ve found staff and supporters have engaged with the format very quickly. We now get emails asking if an event will have an associated podcast. For the first couple of months, we focussed on using podcasts to get internal information to staff based outside the UK. This week we re trying a daily podcast from Haiti in the Carribean to look at the issues our partners and beneficiaries face. It s taking a fair amount of time to produce but the feedback has been tremendous from supporters who are hearing stories from trips as they take place and for our field office staff who are able to get their perspectives out to the rest of the organisation."

2) Practical Action Latin America are conducting a pilot project in the rural region of Cajamarca, northern Peru, to analyse the viability of podcasting for the generation and diffusion of knowledge in poor areas of Peru." on podcasting:
http://www.practicalaction.org/?id=podcasting_peru

3) Berenice Akuamoah is one of the youth from the curious minds program who made her digital diaries online with UNICEF:
http://www.unicef.org/people/people_30705.html

4) Via: Jorg Meyer-Stamer jms at mesopartner dot com It's actually quite simple. For recording, I'm using a software called Pamela, http://www.pamela-systems.com. I records a Skype conversation as a WAV file, stereo, two channels: one channel is your voice, the other channel the interviewee(s). This is quite useful for several reasons, one of them being that you can easily fix the problem of a slight delay that sometimes creeps in (e.g. in our conversation I cut out a fraction of a second at the beginning of my sound stream so that the two streams became nicely synchronised).

To edit the soundfile, I use Audacity, http://audacity.sourceforge.net. On editing, see the attachment (which I did for my colleagues so that they can edit LEDcasts -- steps like adding an intro don't necessarily apply to you). It also mentions The Levelator, a very useful piece of software that is available at www.conversationsnetwork.org. At that site, you can also find a link to the "Podcast Academy", where two years ago they had an excellent presentation on the basics of Audacity -- my understanding of this software is pretty much based on that presentation. There's also a presentation on the "the secret life of mp3 files" which I found very useful.

Who can tell me more?

(add your name)

Related Methods / Tools / Practices

Resources

(add yours)
(URLs, photos, podcasts, we should perhaps think of a sub-classification of resources)
Places to host audio

http://www.mediafire.com/about.php Mediafire. It's a free FTP site really. Post a file (up to 100MB/file, no max # of files), get a URL, then shares the link for downloading it with those who need it.
Producing a Podcast v2.doc
Skype for Interviews: A How To by Doug Kaye
Basic Recording with Audacity (open source sound program)

Case studies

ICT Update issue on Podcasting: http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/(issue)/37

Tips

ICT Update issue on Podcasting. Techtips http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/regulars/techtip/(issue)/37
ICT Update issue on Podcasting. Q&A http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/regulars/q_a/(issue)/37>
Sue Waters' Tips for Podcasting http://www.slideshare.net/dswaters/tips-for-podcasting

Microblogging

Fri, 29 May 2009 03:30:47 CDT

(see also the article on "Twitter")

Brief Description:

"Microblogging is a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually less than 140 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, e-mail, MP3 or the Web." (from Wikipedia) Microblogging has been increasingly used in international development to share resources, ask questions of colleagues and peers and to raise visibility of web resources by disseminating key URLs. With the use of "hashtags" users can look at all messages with a shared tag, thus getting a broader sense of an issue. With the mobile phone interface, there is some thought that these tools might bridge between those with and without reliable internet access.

Here is a brief video explaining one of the leading microblogging platforms, Twitter.

explain it in plain English: http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter

What are the Main Microblogging Platforms?

History:

Micro blogging started out as a simple social communications tool to answer the question" what are you doing right now." According to the Social Media Training site: "Micro-blogging is sometimes criticized for encouraging dull or meaningless posts, conveying the minutia of daily life, such as what the writer is eating, who the writer is waiting for, how far behind schedule the writer's flight is, and so on. This criticism, though, could be leveled at any communication tool, from longer-form blogging platforms to telephones to Post-It Notes. Not every bit of communication is riveting, but the potential for profundity and powerful prose is promising.

Additionally, the term micro-blogging, is perhaps more narrow than the true potential of the platform allows. For example, Twitter has often been compared to "time-shifted" instant messaging in which people can converse directly with quick messages without the need to be online together. Perhaps more common, Twitter can be compared with a chat room filled with only the people you choose to hear from, again without the need to be online at the same time -- although that's part of the fun."
(from Social Media Training)

When to use:

To keep in contact with other colleagues in your field
To publicize your organizations' web content by tweeting out URLs
To track an issue (via hashtags) as a form of "social media listening"
Aggregating content (tweets) into a website (see below)
For private microblogging networks, you can use a tool like http://www.yammer.com .Note that Yammer is specifically for use by a community within an organization. It requires a common email address for participation in a community, unlike other microblogging services.
To fundraise (see this blog article from CGIAR ICT-KM)

When not to use:

When the people you want to connect to/reach aren't using similar services. This is still an early adopter tool.

How to use:

1. How to microblog -

Get an account on http://www.twitter.com or one of the other microblogging services
Decide if you want to post your "tweets" or message on the Twitter page, or via one of the desktop microblogging clients such as http://www.twhirl.com or http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/ie6/
Post!

2. How to decide which other microbloggers to follow

Experience is probably the best guide for this. Don't be afraid to follow someone and then later decide that the information they share does not meet your needs and "unfollow" that person.

Start with someone you know, follow them and then pick some people they are following.
Look for links to microblogging on the websites, blogs and other social media tools of web2 tools of people who produce information that is of interetes to you.
On Twitter there is a growing activity on Fridays where one Tweep (i.e. someone who Twitters) recommends another Tweep by sending a message with their name and the hashtag: #followfriday

3. Twitter Syntax

Hashtags http://hashtags.org/

Hash tags are when you put a # sign in front of a tag within your tweet. People have built tools to aggregate the hashtags, so this is one way to bring together different messages from different people around one topic. There are also other ways to aggregate tweets (see the next section.
@username *

When you see an @ sign in front of a name of Tweep, such as @ictkm, it means that the reply is directed to a specific Tweep, in this case ictkm. Replies directed to you are visible by clicking on the @replies button on the right sidebar.
D @username *

You can also send direct or private messages so that others do not see them. Example: d @ictkm What social networking tool should be blog about?

4. Aggregating tweets

If you want to see all the twitter messages that have a particular key word or hashtag, you can use one of the twitter search engines. Each of these also has an RSS feed, so you can get all the tweets on a certain topic delivered to your RSS reader.

5. Security Concerns and Issues

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howlett/?p=831&tag=nl.e539

Tips and Lessons Learnt

(add yours)

(from Social Media Training):
Micro-blogging is what you make of it. The simplest way to think of the power of micro-blogging is to imagine tapping into the thoughts and lives of any number of people who have common interests, concerns, geography, hobbies or professions. You can:

Learn about new tools and ideas
Ask questions and receive immediate feedback, and
Develop a deeper understanding of the people with whom you connect online.

Examples & Stories

(add yours)

Developing organizations: faonews, ictkm, wfplogistics, FriendsofWFP, food4thehungry, agcommons, unhcr
Twitter during the 2007 California wildfires: LA Times, KPBS News, Red Cross
Micro-blogging for business: Direct2Dell, Dell Outlet, JetBlue Airways
Antonella Pastore of the CGIAR ICT-KM team shared this case story on the use of Yammer: "We (meaning 2 team members and myself) used it for a while when one of our team members was based in Colombia, and we needed to keep in touch to coordinate on day-to-day tasks. After signing up, I created a closed group, so our posts wouldn't get onto the general CGIAR stream. It is better than email for quick msgs, allows you to create closed groups, so privacy is ensured. Two aspects of which one should be aware of right from the start, so nobody gets put off:

1. it is based on the email domain, in our case cgiar.org. so whoever signs up with a @cgiar.org email gets into the cgiar.org network. from there, you can create other groups, or just keep posting to your profile and have followers.

2. when you sign up, you are asked to enter the names of the people you report to and your colleagues. this is not just for info but these people get emailed and invited to join yammer. so you want to make sure everybody agrees on this before you de facto invite them. otherwise skip this step, it's optional.

In the meanwhile, our colleague has joined us back in the office in Rome, and chatting over gtalk or just walking three doors down the hall is just more efficient ;) So use of Yammer has sort of died off in our small team. Now, considering the unstructured nature of the CGIAR, the fact that we're all on the same mail domain doesn't mean we all have things in common to share. However, re-thinking about it after reading the summary of communication goals, maybe joining Yammer can be a first, safe step towards experimenting with microblogging for a wider audience internal to the cgiar. We would have a closed environment, yet open to people from different centers/programs, that could help some of us in testing and observing what happens without going straight into big-time exposure. If you want to try, go to https://www.yammer.com/ and sign up. You can then post from the web, through a desktop client (no need to keep the window open in the browser) and via chat (I have it in gtalk, but only posts to the main cgiar stream)."
Michael Riggs and Gauri Salokhe, both from FAO, share their experience with Twitter.

Who can tell me more?

@ CGIAR

(add your name)

@ FAO

Gauri Salokhe, FAO (Gauri.Salokhe [at] fao.org)
Michael Riggs, FAO (michael.riggs[at]fao[dot]org)
Luca Servo, FAO (luca.servo[at]fao.org)

Related Methods / Tools / Practices

Resources

Nancy White has an excellent Wiki with collaboration stories through Twitter: http://onlinefacilitation.wikispaces.com/Twitter+Collaboration+Stories
Chris Brogan's Newbies guide to Twitter: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/newbies-guide-to-twitter/
10 reasons why Twitter makes a difference, by Christian Kreutz:
Beth Kanter's Twitter Guide http://bethkanter.wikispaces.com/twitter_primer
ICT-KM's Social Media Tools Blog Series #1 on microblogging
8 things I learnt about using twitter as an audience participation tool
Examples on how to use Twitter and third-party Twitter applications
Why MicroBlogging Might be Good for Aid Agencies
DigiActive Guide to Twitter for Activism
Twittering for Development
8 Steps For Building Community On Twitter: Tips For Membership Organizations

(Courtesy: http://www.kstoolkit.org)

Instant Messengers and Chat

Fri, 29 May 2009 03:26:54 CDT

Instant Messengers and Chat

Brief Description:

Instant messaging (IM) and chat are technologies that facilitate near real-time text based communication between two or more participants over a network. It is different from e-mail in that it is synchronicity of the communication by the user - messaging happens in real-time before your eyes. However, some systems allow the sending of messages to people not currently logged on (offline messages), thus removing much of the difference between IM and e-mail. Some IM systems allow users to use webcams and Microphone which made them more popular than others. In addition IM has additional features such as: the immediate receipt of acknowledgment or reply, group chatting, conference services (including voice and video), conversation logging and file transfer.
It is possible to save a conversation for later reference.

History:

When to use:

Due to their instant nature in sharing snippets of information, they are popular in many organizations.
In a report of IM use at the workplace Nardi et al. (2000) identifies the four primary functions of IM which are often cited in other reports, namely:

Quick Questions and Clarifications
Coordinating and scheduling tasks
Coordinating impromptu social meetings
Keeping in touch with friends and family

Although IMs deliver many benefits, they also carry with them certain risks and liabilities, particularly when used in workplaces. Among these are:

Security risks (e.g. IM used to infect computers with spyware, viruses, trojans, worms)
Compliance risks
Inappropriate use
Intellectual property leakage

How to use:

Most IMs need to be downloaded and installed locally. You must have administrator privilege on your computer to be able to install and IM. Once you install it, create an account and share it with your colleagues. Here is a short list of available IMs:

Tips and Lessons Learnt

IMs are often used to send spywares or viruses. Never accept to download a file unless you are extremely sure of its origin and authenticity. If not careful, you can inadvertently infect the whole network of your organizations.
IM can be a great communication tool, but it's also easy to allow it to become a distraction. Unlike e-mail, the dialogue window doesn't close automatically when you send a message. This means that if you're really busy and the other person wants to chit-chat, you will have to take it upon yourself to end the conversation. A polite "Gotta go. Talk to you later." usually does the trick.

Examples & Stories

(add yours)

I am using Yahoo messenger since 1996, my other first instant messaging tools is mirabilis ICQ, microsoft netmeeting and MSN Messenger. I love YM very much. It become my primary contact address. If you cannot contact me by phne. You can drop me offline message through YM. Very efficient and fast. Now, Using GPRS, I can access my yahoo messenger almost anywhere in Indonesia via cellphone. In terms of virus and trojan, the key is stick to your friendlist. Do not accept anything outside your list. It works very well for me. YM is a big help. (bagus utomo, b.utomo@cgiar.org)

During the 2nd KS Workshop, we were four facilitators working regularly "together" on all things relating to the workshop. For example, what should the agenda for the next teleconference be to what we will do during the face-to-face phase. We started off creating new Skype chats for each day but at some point we started using the same chat session! Because we were spread across different time zones the discussions went on even if one or more of us left the chat. The side effect of this was that in the end we used Skype to continuously talk to each other and keep each other in the loop. The fact that we could write to each other even when one of us was not online also made a difference. If we were to work over weeks on a common topic that needed regular discussing, I would recommend using Skype's Chat function! (Gauri Salokhe, gauri.salokhe [at] fao.org).

Who can tell me more?

@ CGIAR

(add your name)

@ FAO

Gauri Salokhe, FAO (Gauri.Salokhe [at] fao.org)

Photo Credit: Photo by Paul Watson

(Courtesy: http://www.kstoolkit.org)

Google Documents

Fri, 29 May 2009 03:23:18 CDT

Brief Description

Google Documents is a platform powered by Google which allows users to create, store and share documents online. Text documents, number spreadsheets, forms and "Powerpoint" presentations can all be created, edited, stored and shared on Google Documents. The tools are useful for when a team with good internet access want to collaborate on the creation and maintenance of such documents and easily share them with others online. You can download the documents for editing offline and then upload and synch using Google Gears and the FireFox browser.

History

It used to be when we wanted to collaborate on a document or spread sheet, we'd have to mail around a file. Now we can collaborate on the same file. Google docs is similar to a wiki, but the interface is more like a familiar word processing program.

When to use

When a group, such as a community of practice has to work together on creating a common document with several people adding content to the document.
When you want to publish a document, spreadsheet, form or slide show online and don't have your own web page.
It is not as useful if all you want are comments or clearance on a document that you have created.

How to use

Go to Google Documents
Create your account (or use your Gmail account if you already have one)
Create new documents or upload documents already stored on your computer
Share the document to either let other people see and/or contribute to it
Invite your friends and colleagues to contribute to the document. There is a utility built into the application that sends these emails

Tips and Lessons Learnt

Pluses:

Allows a community of practice to share various documents online. There's only one version of the document which stays online. Collaborators are invited to make changes to the document online.
Word processor interface is very much like MS Word.
You can create a new document in Google Documents or work from your regular computer and upload it to Google Documents when the document's ready to be edited.
You can collaborate on several documents with different communities of practice from just one google doc account.
You can create a print version, a web version, a .doc, .pdf and other extension files at any time straight from Google Documents.
You can follow the history of changes like in a wiki: go to Tools/Revision history or File/Revision history. Then tick the versions of the document you wish to compare and click on "Compare checked".
You can change the language setting of your google doc interface (all buttons and commands).
You get to invite people to view or collaborate so that document A stays confidential within community A while document B you're also involved with stays within the circle of community B.
The "Hide" function enables you to remove documents from your Google Documents main page once you have assigned them to classifying folders. You can thus use the main page as the page that shows the documents you are currently working on when those documents that are finished have been classified in folders or been hidden.

Minuses:

You need to register to Google Documents with yet another login and password. If you create a gmail account, you'll be able to use all Google applications using that one login and password but all emails you exchange related to the shared documents will use gmail. You can create your new account with an email address you prefer to use and correspondence will then go to that email address.
Google Documents follows the language setting of the Google home page that is set as default on your computer. I'm located in Thailand so my google docs interface was suddenly all in Thai, which made it difficult to get out. One way to solve the problem: when asking for www.google.com on your web browser, google will reorient you to the "most appropriate" google depending on your computer setting. Below the search bar, there will be "Google.your-country-code in English" and below-right "Google.com in English". Choose either one if you want to make sure your interface ends up in English language.
When tracking changes, there is no function to accept or reject changes. You have to copy original text from an old version of the document in the Revision history file and paste it back into the document.

Examples & Stories

Story of Sam, the Oak Tree Newsletter editor

Who can tell me more?

(add your name/contact email)

Related Methods / Tools / Practices

Wikis

(Courtesy: http://www.kstoolkit.org/)

Discussion Groups and Email Lists

Fri, 29 May 2009 03:19:21 CDT

Brief Description

A discussion forum is a virtual place on the internet where conversations can take place and information can be shared more easily among a geographically dispersed group of people. Discussion forums are typically created around a specific topic of common interest or for a specific user group around a particular piece of work. Discussion Forums have many things in common with Email Lists.

Asynchronous conversations.

Discussion forums are typically asynchronous, meaning the participants don’t have to be online at the same time. Sometimes people think of synchronous tools such as chat in the same way. With chat, you each have to be online at the same time. But in both you are taking turns between each of the conversation participants.
Focus on who said what.

Who Can Participate in a Discussion Forum?
Whoever controls the area where a discussion forum is used determines who can read and contribute to the forum. You can make them open to all of an organization or to just a small group of people. Giving people access to a forum, however, does not ensure they will read or participate. Their must be a compelling reason for the forum and most often you need to facilitate and encourage the discussion

History

Online discussion forums have been around since computers were first networked. One of the original intentions of the Internet was to make it easy for scientists to collaborate. The most important early discussion forums were on USENET, which started in 1979. Discussion forums later became the base for many online communities.

When to Use

There are many ways to use discussion forums, from formal structured conversations to informal “cafés”. The difference between them is the focus and duration of the conversation.

When people are in different places and time zones, making synchronous interactions more difficult, discussion forums can be useful.
When people are working in a second language and the slower pace of a web based discussion allows more time to make meaning across languages.
When it is important to know who said what and when they said it, because the discussion forum lists who made a post and when they posted it. This is especially useful when trying to track project work.
When you want a space for informal conversation that doesn’t need much structure, you can create a “café” or informal thread.

What are my alternatives and when should I use them?
Discussion forum weaknesses
If people don’t regularly go to the workspace on the hive, they are less likely to participate in a discussion forum.
If there are multiple forums, people may not know which forum to participate in.
Discussion forum conversations can drag on without an action or decision if they are not facilitated. Don’t expect every discussion to work without a little encouragement and structure.

Blogs – blogs are good when you want to send out a message. People can always comment, but the focus is on sharing out, rather than conversation per se.
Wikis – wikis are good when it doesn’t matter who said what and you want your conversation to evolve into a final product, like a summary of a conversation. You could pair a wiki and a discussion forum. Have the discussion on the forum, and do the summary on the wiki.
Chat– chat is good when the people in the conversation are all online at the same time. It is more immediate and can be good for things like decision making or dealing with issues where you need a lot of “back and forth” in the conversation.

How to use

Key principles for Facilitation and moderation

Keeping a forum tidy (messages in the right place, delete inappropriate messages, etc.)
when to open a new forum (when discussion splits or changes topic, or gets too long/complicated to follow)
when to close a forum (when old, unused discussions appear as a disincentive to participate, clutter, etc.)
archiving (capturing an exact copy of the conversation)
summarizing (extracting the key content only)

Examples of discussion forum practices

Conversations supporting a global community of practice
Holding a week long asynchronous online meeting in a web forum
Carrying out a peer assist with colleagues around the world
Informal places to create and nurture relationships
Structured or informal training and learning groups, especially where conversation is useful
Project coordination and teamwork
Informal information and knowledge sharing
Asynchronous meetings as an alternative to face-to-face meetings and conference calls

Tips and Lessons Learnt

(add yours)

Tips for harvesting knowledge from text discussions http://www.fullcirc.com/wp/wp-admin/index.php?page=stats

Examples&Stories

Dgroups
Dgroups is an online home for groups and communities interested in international development. In Dgroups, one can find the online tools and services needed to support the activities of a team, a group, a network, a partnership or a community. Dgroups is also a place to find groups who are interested in the same topics in international development as you.
Contact your organisation's partner .

For the CGIAR contact:Silvia Ticconi at s.ticconi@cgiar.org. Silvia sends you a form to fill out and creates your Dgroup.
For the FAO contact:

Yahoogroups
Yahoogroups is a free online service provided by Yahoo!. It is a free service allowing communities with common intersts to set up a common "group" and share message (which are archived), photos, events calendars, polls and links.

Googlegroups
Googlegroupsis a free online service provided by Google.

Tips and Lessons Learnt

FAO have successfully used DGroups for online E-Conference. It provides for asynchronous communication across contients for users with low-bandwidth connectivity. The two known issues with DGrouops were:
- Lack of possibility to see messages in context (Threads). Therefore, context on which message is a reply to which is missing.
- Lack of possiblity to send messages in Rich Text or HTML format (formats often used by Yahoo and other E-mail Clients). All messages must be sent in Plain Text.

Examples & Stories

CSO-CGIAR Forum Dgroup: http://www.dgroups.org/groups/cgiar/cso-cgiar-forum/index.cfm

Models and Examples of discussion forums in international NGOs.

Some discussion forums serve international communities of practice that operate across organizations around a shared interest http://ngoboards.org/ and http://www.telecentre.org/en/events.detail/18831
As online event spaces. For an example of a summary that came out of an online discussion see http://www.globalpolicy.org/ngos/millenni/theme6.htm
As a discussion space for a community of practice http://inni.pacinst.org/inni/ForumRegistration.htm

Who can tell me more?

Related Methods / Tools / Practices

Blogs
Wikis

Resources

ICT-KM Program of the CGIAR, G&D Program: No Travel Required: Useful Guidelines for Online Events (pdf - 381 kb)
Guidelines for managing virtual discussion groups (pdf - 117 KB)
About Discussion Forums (pdf - 67 KB)
Dgroups FAQ
Other Tools - via the KM4Dev wiki
http://wiki.dgroups.org/index.php/Help#If_you_are_a_Dgroup_Administrator:__Ask_Your_Primary_Dgroup_Creator

(Courtesy: http://www.kstoolkit.org/)

Blogs

Fri, 29 May 2009 03:16:33 CDT

Brief Description:

Adapted from the ODI Toolkit: A blog (shortened from weblog) is an easy-to-publish web page consisting primarily of periodic articles posted by date, usually with the newest entry at the top. Blogs can give the world a window on your work. In places where there is access to the Internet, blogs provide an easy way to communicate knowledge. Blogs are rapidly being adopted in international development. SANGONET has created a blog toolkit with good advice on how to start a blog.

You don’t have to know any special computer programming to write or read a blog.
Blogs often have tools that allow readers to comment on a blog post.
Blogs often have RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication) that allow people to subscribe to new blog posts.
Blogs can have one or many authors.

History

"Early blogs were manually updated components of standard websites. However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of web articles posted in a chronological fashion made the publishing process accessible to a much larger, less technical, population. Ultimately, this resulted in the distinct class of online publishing that produces blogs we recognise today." (ODI)
People have been publishing their journals online for many years, but the advent of blogging meant it was easier. Blog software allows anyone to create a blog without having to know how to program or write in computer code. Blogging celebrated it’s 10th anniversary in December, 2007.

When to Use:

Project blogs: project participants share frequent updates, reflect, ask questions of the larger community and create a "learn as we go" record.
Leadership blogs: leaders share their ideas, reflect, pose questions and concerns to their staff, and model knowledge sharing.
Social Reporting from Events so those who can't be at the face to face event can still learn what is happening. See http://rightsandclimate.org/
Public Community blogs: community members invite partners and stakeholders to add their voices to an organization's work.
Who can blog? You can create a blog on your personal site or as part of an organizational site (such as http://www.shareyoutstory.org). The person who creates the blog is the primary author. You can add other people as authors, or you can let others participate by commenting on your posts.
Blogs are less formal than reports so people can offer quicker, less polished communications if that is desired.
Blogs allow readers to respond, giving feedback. So you might ask a question on your blog and get answers that others can read and benefit from as well.
If you get into a regular blogging habit, you can increase others’ knowledge of your work and make useful connections with others. If you find other blogs useful, you can subscribe to them to easily know about new blog posts.
Organizational benefits of blogs (from http://intranetblog.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2005/10/24/1318816.html):
- Improved internal communications (77%) – If it is easy and quick to share and read information, people will be more informed.
- Replacement of other exiting work processes (41%) – Reduce the amount of time spent in meetings “reporting,” support ongoing reflective practices that can help in M&E
- Replacement of email (39%) – instead of sending emails to everyone, publish news to a blog. Be clear what blogs are “must read” and which are “if they interest you.”

What are my alternatives and when should I use them?
Blog weaknesses.

Like any tool, just because you can have a blog doesn’t make it always useful.
Blogs waste time and attention if they are not updated regularly. If you have a blog on a workspace and no one is posting to it, remove it.
Blogs put the most recent information in view but are less useful when you have to dig back and find something. If you want to organize often-used data, use a wiki, a library or a database.
Blogs can be a good base for a discussion, but the blog author tends to have more influence and power which can disturb the dynamics of a conversation. You might want to use a discussion instead.

Alternatives to Blogs?

Is a blog a discussion forum? People often ask about the difference between blogs and discussion forums.
Blogs focus on the blog owner as primary author so they are useful for sharing ideas. Since they are chronological, they are useful for time sensitive news, or to track the progress of something over time.
Discussion forums focus on the group and their conversations. The focus is more on the conversation while in blogs there may be more focus on the primary author.
Libraries allow you to organize information any way you want. You are not limited to chronological order and the emphasis is on the data, rather than the author.
Wikis focus on the content, rather than the date or the author. While blogs are good for publishing, they would not be useful for co-editing or simply update a webpage when a wiki would be quite useful.

How to promote my blog?

You can promote your blogs by:

Sharing links to your posts via social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. These sites allow you to post short messages which you can use to promote your content. You can also share the link to your blog by bookmarking it in social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us and CiteULike.
Start interacting with your possible user base by commenting on others blogs on similar content/topics, answering comments that are posted on your blogs, or simply by emailing links to your blog to your potential users.
In case of availability of funds, blogs could also be promoted through advertising in sites such as Google AdWords and Facebook.

No matter which method you use, try to monitor the usages statistics of your blog to ensure that each of these methods, especially if you are paying for it, is bringing the right audience to your blog.

How to measure the impact of my blog?

How to use:

Key steps to starting a blog include:

Decide the purpose, topic or focus of your blog.
Don’t duplicate unnecessarily. Check and see if there is an existing blog you can contribute to.
Get inspired. We recommend the blog search site, Technorati. See what others are doing. Get ideas.
Choose one of the free blogging services, like Blogger (and a nice guide here) or Wordpress. The free blogging services usually include advertisements. Ad-free blog are available for a fee through services like Typepad.
Start posting and continue to post regularly.
Tag your posts meaningfully with categories so that you are able to find older posts.
When people comment on your blog, respond with your own comment. People like to know they have been heard.
Link to related blogs - cross-links help readers learn about useful related resources and create another way of sharing knowledge.

Blogging Tools You Might Use

Tips and Lessons Learnt

FARA's Blog Lessons
"Blogging Good Practices" from Web tastings blog.
Use http://www.feedreader.com to redirect a feed to a new site
Aggregate personal Blogs into a Group Blog in your organization to achieve greater transparency
Start small, don’t try big and massive rollouts: Experiment a bit ands talk about it, think of it as iterative investments of time.
Roll out when you have a concrete application/need for a tool or method (vs. 'hey, here is an interesting tool.")
Harness examples
Sow the tool and how to use it
Sare lessons learned
Sometimes we are asked to use a tool because it is "in vogue" (Hey, we have to have a blog! What for? I don't know!) so we may have to find a reason.
Sometimes an individual innovator/early adopter helps us discover a need

Examples&Stories

Examples of blogs in international NGOs

http://icollaborate.blogspot.com/2007/07/roadblogs-gtz-egypts-experiences-of.html Shares GTZ Egypt's experiences of introducing blogs for internal exchange.
ECB’s Project Blog http://ecbteamblog.blogspot.com/ (now dormant as the project is over)
Interplast’s “So No Child Must Wait” blog to share news with donors and contributors http://interplast.blogs.com/
Event blogs http://euforicagm2007.blogspot.com/
Charity Training, http://charitytraining.blogspot.com/ a training blog
Blogs the World Bank reads http://psdblog.worldbank.org/psdblog/blogroll.html
Biodiversity Heritage blog http://biodiversitylibrary.blogspot.com/a project of http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/

Some CGIAR Blogs

Ecosystems and Poverty: http://www.ecosystemsandpoverty.org/index.php/blog
Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog: http://agro.biodiver.se
ICT-KM Program Blog: http://ictkm.wordpress.com
IFPRI Blogs: http://www.ifpri.org/blogroll.asp

Some FAO Blogs

The Lubin Files http://www.lubinlib.typepad.com/

Who can tell me more?

@ CGIAR

Simone Staiger-Rivas (s.staiger@cgiar.org)

@ FAO

Gauri Salokhe (gauri.salokhe [at] fao.org)
Romolo Tassone (Romolo.Tassone@fao.org)

Related Methods / Tools / Practices

Resources

Screencast: http://www.commoncraft.com/blogs
SANGONET blogging guide
Tips for New Bloggers: http://tips-for-new-bloggers.blogspot.com/
Guide by Opera to its staff on how and what to Blog: http://my.opera.com/community/blogs/corp-policy/
Guidelines on community blogs: http://my.opera.com/community/blogs/corp-policy/
Diez formas de usar blogs desde las ONG http://hugodonairemiles.blogspot.com/2006/04/diez-formas-de-usar-blogs-desde-las.html
Guide pratique du blogeur et du cyberdissident: http://thot.cursus.edu/rubrique.asp?no=27192
An extensive collection of Blogging Resources
WIkipedia's list of blogging terms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_blogging_terms
Tips for conference bloggers by Bruno Giussani and Ethan Zuckerman: http://giussani.typepad.com/loip/conferenceblogging/conferenceblogging_zuckerman-giussani_A4_color.pdf
52 of the Best Ways to Promote your Blog and your Business

(Courtesy: http://www.kstoolkit.org/)

Twitter

Mon, 18 May 2009 05:49:33 CDT

Twitter is a way to send short (140 char) messages to the world (and in particular to your followers) in real time. It is a free micro-messaging web-based utility. The main constraint is the 140 character length but otherwise you can post anything you like. You can send messages (called tweets) from the web (at twitter.com and other third-party sites), mobile apps, and from downloadable 'clients' like tweetdeck.com.

Difference between Facebook and Twitter?

A crude comparion: Facebook is like a dashboard of your community data with information in various structures updating every few hours. Twitter is more like the nervous system in simple pulses: short messages updating every few minutes (or seconds, depending on the number of your followings)

Implications of using twitter for a conference

Twitter can be used to broadcast key insights, logistics, reflections, suggestions, questions and more during a conference. Participation is open to anyone - regardless if they are "friends" ['followers' on twittter] It also means that people who are not at the conference can effectively 'follow a micro-blog on the conference which is authored by a whole community of participants'. There are various third party applications that enable people perform other functions such as "tweetcasting", set up "twibes" follow "twemes" and so on.

Twitter: events as "ongoing conversations"

The use of keywords or hashtags mean that conversations around a conference can start beforehand, continue during the event and remain in existence afterwards (More on this before) See diagram on "the future of conferences"

How to access twitter

You can access twitter directly via the web at Twitter.com. Or sign in via a twitter client [application that you would download to your machine]

Two of the Most Popular Twitter Clients

Tweetdeck [uses a lot of RAM], see screenshot below

Nambu [quite young - beta version only]

Who sees your twitter messages (Tweets)?

Unless you 'protect your updates' then they are viewable to everyone who would look at the public timeline. Or to any of the people following you.

What is your Twittername?

Each user is identified by the convention @USERNAME.

Who can you follow/who follows you?

You can follow (pay attention/watch) whoever you wish, (unless they actively block you) and you can be followed only by those who choose to follow you (unless you actively block them). This is different to facebook where friends are always reciprocal. You can privately message only those people who follow you. This stops spammers accessing your privately. Your twitter stream is a simple web page with a list of your status updates, time-stamped. Your "friends stream"/home page contains the list of recent updates from the people who you follow.

Unless people explicitely make a message private, all messages are addressed publicly and will appear in the senders stream of updates, in the home stream of those who follow them and in the @reply list of the recipient. E.g. if your name is peter and sean wants to send you a public message then you will see this in sean's update list:

@sean: @peter what are you doing this afternoon?

It will also be seen in the home-page of people who follow @sean and also in your own "@replies" list.

Oh, And also in the results of a search on your @USERNAME. All @USERNAMEs are clickable links and will link to the twitter homepage of the @USERNAME.

More on Twitter
Beyond simply "what you are doing"

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/the-ultimate-guide-for-everything-twitter/

http://michaelhyatt.com/2008/05/the-beginners-guide-to-twitter.html

Videos on using Twitter

Twitter in plain English [this video gives a superficial kind of use of twitter-- does not give a more sophisticated use of twitter. See articles below for that]

From the founders of twitter, user testimonials on their use of twitter.

Beyond simply "What are you doing?"

Twitter is used by different people in different ways. It is best not to think of it as a means purely to broadcast information, but also as a means by which to engage with others, reply to their messages and stimulate conversation/connections/the flow of meaning and learning.

Examples of how people use Twitter

to post links:

@Jason_Pollock A MUST SEE! Check out this incredible pic of Hong Kong's Skyline - http://tr.im/jRNO

Here, a person called Jason_Pollock has posted a message containing a link to a picture.

to retweet [re-post] other people's links/posts

@tav RT @mashable *Really interesting* interview with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone http://bit.ly/16go44

A person called tav has re-tweeted(re-posted) an interview that someone called mashable had posted

Inform people of breaking news

@danicaR earthquake again #rome #italy #earthquake anyone felt it

Inform of new products/emerging themes

@evangineer: "Entropia Universe... a platform from which partners can launch virtual worlds... with focus on microtxns & virtual currency monetisation."

@evangineer: Whoa, Entropia Universe has a banking license! http://bit.ly/17GuSD (expand) Remember chatting 2 Project Entropia owner years ago about #altcurrency

Express reflections/insights

@zefrank the older i get, the more convinced i am that you should respect your elders

Connect people

@hannah_lewis @happyseaurchin compare to your idea: http://www.justfortheloveof... & http://themovement.info/ (@thinksmith on twitter)

@happyseaurchin thanks @hannah_lewis for connecting me with @thinksmith i'd give you all my money of the twitter tip trust! ALL OF IT!

Ask questions

@thirdsectorlab: My blackberry browser won't let me click on links for some reason. Anyone know if there's a setting I can adjust to get it back to normal?

@whotook @ThirdSectorLab tried pulling the battery?

Post live highlights/insights from events

@farhan #briant - the future belongs to the learners, the ones who engage with continuous learning

Post a book! [two tweets of a set of about 12 contiguous messages]

@Nancywhite Tweetwarning: next tweets part of @tobydiva biz book on social media written in Twitter. This is Ch 6 - Communities/Networks 1 #smgps

@Nancywhite Good things are on the edges so look for what happens on the edges of your Comms and SNs. Find links, patterns and people 9 #smgps

Inform people of what they are doing

@Olasofia Off to "Sandpit #11: James Bond at the British Film Institute": Immersive Games Experience. http://tinyurl.com/c3qrvg

Searching twitter

Search twitter using http://search.twitter.com

Within the twitter search results, if there is a link below the tweet saying "show conversation" then click on that link and you will see the sequence of replies which constitute that conversation.

e.g. if you go to

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=ecf09++romioliverio

You will see three tweets. The second one has a link below it "show conversation". Click to view the exchange.

Follow the tweets on the rtvc conference.

Skype

Mon, 18 May 2009 05:49:33 CDT

Skype is a software application that allows users to make telephone calls over the Internet. Calls to other users of the service and to free-of-charge numbers are free, while calls to other landlines and mobile phones can be made for a fee. Additional features include instant messaging, file transfer and voice, video or chat conferencing.

You must download and install the Skype client from www.skype.com for your PC or Mac before you can skype. The current version is Skype 4.0 is recommended. It has enhanced features which help to manage your conversations whether they are voice or instant messaging based. Skype voice conferences currently support up to 25 people at a time, including the host. Skype instant messaging conferences support up to 150 people at the time.

In order to be able to "skype" somebody, you first need to ask the person for their permission to share a connection with you. Once this is done, your contacts will display in the list of contacts which will also show you who is online, not available, or offline (this is called the "status").

To establish a Skype chat conference, a convener selects all of his contacts (in Skype 4.0, this can also be done by drag and drop). Those people who are offline at the moment when the conference starts will see their chat messages when they go online, and when the host is online at the same time.

In our Real Time Virtual Collaboration workshop, we will host the opening and the closing session in a Skype chat conference. We will connect all people who have provided their Skype ID. You will need to change your status to "online" in order to receive messages and to participate in the conference.

Here is a list of all participants who use Skype.

Virtual Facilitation Tools

Achordus

Wikis

Brief Description

History:

When to Use

Wiki weaknesses

How to use

Tips and Lessons Learnt

Examples&Stories

Who can tell me more?

Resources

Podcasting

More definitions:

How to use:

Tips and Lessons Learnt

Examples & Stories

Who can tell me more?

Related Methods / Tools / Practices

Resources

Case studies

Tips

Tags

Microblogging

Brief Description:

What are the Main Microblogging Platforms?

History:

When to use:

When not to use:

How to use:

1. How to microblog -

2. How to decide which other microbloggers to follow

3. Twitter Syntax

Hashtags http://hashtags.org/

@username *

D @username *

4. Aggregating tweets

5. Security Concerns and Issues

Tips and Lessons Learnt

Examples & Stories

Who can tell me more?

Related Methods / Tools / Practices

Resources

Instant Messengers and Chat

Instant Messengers and Chat

Brief Description:

History:

When to use:

How to use:

Tips and Lessons Learnt

Examples & Stories

Who can tell me more?

Google Documents

Brief Description

History

When to use

How to use

Tips and Lessons Learnt

Examples & Stories

Who can tell me more?

Related Methods / Tools / Practices

Discussion Groups and Email Lists

Brief Description

History

When to Use

How to use

Tips and Lessons Learnt

Examples&Stories

Tips and Lessons Learnt

Examples & Stories

Who can tell me more?

Related Methods / Tools / Practices

Resources

Blogs

Brief Description:

History

When to Use:

How to promote my blog?

How to measure the impact of my blog?

How to use: