Sarah's blog experiment

Bye-bye blog

2009-03-24T17:20:00.004+01:00

After working on this blog for a few years, I then moved to shared blog, The Giraffe, where I write with lots of colleagues on the subject of (surprise, surprise) knowledge management for development. I also run the blog of the great Dutch rock band, The Specific Gravity of Rock.

Littlest things...

2007-03-01T14:17:00.000+01:00

Yesterday Leah and I were due to go to Vredenburg in Utrecht to see Lily Allen perform. We had been so looking forward to it and we were soooo disappointed and sad when she was forced to cancell. This link will take you to a Youtube video of one of her nicest songs Littlest things...

Capacity building for networking

2006-10-01T21:08:00.000+02:00

The September 2006 issue of the Knowledge Management for Development Journal (Vol. 2, issue 2) is now online. It is on the subject of capacity building for networking. Although I say so myself (I'm co-Chief Editor of the e-jounal with Julie Freguson and Lucie Lamoureux so I'm not exactly unbiased...), I think it's really another great issue, including some really interesting papers, case studies and stories. We also included our first 'Letter to the Editors' which discussed one of last year's issues on the subject culture.

When I was surfing earlier today, I came accorss the a blog entry by Alex Steffen on yet another issue which I thought was quite fun:

Leapfrogging through local wisdom: Knowledge Management for Development
On a bit of a lark, I spent my morning off reading the latest issue of the Knowledge Management for Development Journal . Yes, this proves that I am a terrible, probably incurable geek, but the Journal itself taught me a ton about where development, technology and the future are colliding.

The boat of knowledge....

2006-09-13T13:32:00.000+02:00

Yesterday evening I went to the information and knowledge managment (IKM) 'borrel' in The Hague. This was the third one - they take place every three months or so - and it is always a great opportunity to find out what colleagues are up to and to make plans for future work. It is also usually very 'gezellig' - and this one was no exception...

One of the really nice things we were talking about yesterday was the common intention to try to hold the annual KM4Dev meeting in the Netherlands in 2007. We were ambitiously talking about a multi-centre, roaming meeting - visiting different institutions by boat. I'm not sure how practicable that is with hindsight but it did seem a really good idea at the time.

For those of you who don't know, a 'borrel' is a great Dutch institution involving after work drinks and, if you're very lucky, is also involves 'flametjes' which are very spicy small spring rolls. 'Gezellig' can be roughly translated as cosy and fun.

River of life

2006-07-13T13:48:00.000+02:00

Just got back from the KM4Dev annual meeting which was held at IDS in Brighton, UK. Don't have time just now to go into all the great things I learnt there but just wanted to link to this one thing, a podcast of the first day. Isn't podcasting wonderful? Congratulations to George for putting this together! More to follow soon here on the fabulous (podcast) knowledge sharing picnic...

Blogs: weapons of crass discussion?

2006-06-08T10:58:00.000+02:00

Can't resist quickly sharing this article Corporate blogs: weapons of crass discussion? by Paul Chin as I'm always looking for evidence of the institutional value of blogs - probably because I'm not totally convinced of this myself. Chin argues:

As blogs matured, however, organizations of all sizes saw the advantages in using them for marketing and branding purposes. But do they have any practical internal application on corporate intranets? The answer is yes -- but they have to be used properly and responsibly.

I'm indebted to Giulio Quaggiotto for alerting me to this article as part of a post to the KM4Dev online community - as usual, a source of interest and inspiration!

Knowledge for policy: policy for knowledge

2006-06-01T23:35:00.001+02:00

I've been wandering around for a few weeks with a copy of the report Kennis voor belied: beleid voor kennis, produced by the Dutch Advisory Council for Science and Technology Policy (AWT), in my rucksack. Frankly, I think it's dynamite!

This report was published in May 2005 under the title which translates as 'Knowledge for policy: policy for knowledge.' In this report, the Advisory Council argues that policy creation and implementation of the Dutch government would be improved if these processes of policy creation and implementation were supported by trustworthy, varied and independent knowledge. It is convinced that to obtain knowledge for policymaking, policy for knowledge is needed. Government departments need to have a knowledge policy which:

Integrates diverse perspectives or countervailing knowledge
Should be based on trustworthy, varied and public knowledge
Applies knowledge in a transparaent manner

If the government underestimates the importance of knowledge for supporting policy, the Advisory Council argues that it runs the following risks:

generating inadequate ploicy
policy failure as a result of unexpected, dramatic developments
insufficient preparation for the future
damage to its reputation

When knowledge policy does not function effectively, the Advisory Council argues that the following problems appear in the civil service practice: an overload of knowledge and information; fragmentation of knowledge domaines; and more attention to process than to actual content.

I found this report fascinating and applicable to much wider areas than policy alone. Also thought it was very interesting that commentators on Dutch policy are looking at policy in the UK for reference and comparison.

Big Sister is watching you....

2006-05-19T09:35:00.000+02:00

This week, Julie pointed me in the direction of software to see how many people are visiting my blog. Called Statcounter, it gives an overview of hits and offers real time web statistics. It is free and all you need to do is add a bit of html code to the blog. You can now see the Statcounter logo after the 'Powered by blogger' one in the left hand column. If I want to see how many visitors the blog is getting, I go to the Statcounter website and log on. It's cool! Thanks for the tip, Julie.

Social capital again

2006-05-19T09:30:00.000+02:00

Just came across the really nice Social capital gateway edited by Fabio SabatiniUniversity of Rome La Sapienza, Italy. It appears to be updated really regularly and is something to keep an eye on.

Joitske's impressions of the PSO Masterclass

2006-05-15T13:16:00.000+02:00

Joitske Hulsebosch has also blogged the Nancy Dixon Masterclass, giving an alternative perspective on the afternoon...

Organizational learning: a conversational dance?

2006-05-08T15:37:00.000+02:00

On the afternoon of Thursday 27 April, I went to Nancy Dixon's Masterclass on organizational learning, hosted by PSO in Utrecht. Nancy Dixon is a well known author and consultant in the field of organizational learning with wide experience of both the private and development sectors. Nancy herself is an advocate of the power of good conversation and how this can be harnassed to solve organizational problems.

In the materclass, we examined organizational learning and the provision of external advice from a number of perspectives. Most of the participants were very experienced advisors from a variety of Dutch based development organizations, both in the public and private sector. Three different techniques were used to facilitate the meeting:

Speed dating as a way of breaking the ice among the 18 participants
Story telling by Nancy Dixon herself
Dialogue in a world cafe

The masterclass gave much food for thought. One thing that particularly stays in my mind is the example which Nancy shared with us of improving organizational learning centred around a particular process in a US drug company. She argued that organizational learning can best be focused around coping with specific problems or challenges, and that more widely applied attempts to improve organizational learning broadly in whole organizations tend to be less effective. I guess this means that to effectively carry out organizational learning, you need to identify the problem or the challenge first....

A fellow participant likened the provision of external advice to 'a conversational dance' which was a powerful metaphor, capturing many of our different perspectives on organizational learning.

I had never done speed dating before but it was a really great way of getting to know the other participants very quickly, and it was fun too. During the speed dating, Russell Kerkhoven of PSO told me about a technique called Socratic dialogue which aids in the examination of assumptions, perceptions and thought processes. It looks like an interesting addition to the KM toolkit and I'll enjoy finding out a little more about it.

Wie denk je wel dat je bent?

2006-04-24T22:27:00.000+02:00

On Friday 21 April, Edward gave the 16th annual David de Wied lecture in the Theatron at Utrecht University on the subject of Bewustzijn in het brein. Wie denk je wel dat je bent? It is a great honour to be invited to give this particular lecture which is, I understand, designed to present scientific research to the interested general public. Inded, the general public was interested and present in force: the lecture hall with a capacity of 600 was full to the brim and some 200 people had had to be told before hand that they could not attend.

The David de Wied lecture series is a real public-private partnership between the University of Utrecht, a company of bankers and a local newspaper. It seems to be a terrific construction to me: I'm just sorry that I can't think of anything similar in development cooperation. Or has it slipped by mind...?

"Mijn pad, mijn weg, mijn traject..."

2006-04-13T22:30:00.000+02:00

Leah has introduced me to the really great track Mijn pad by Yes-R. One of the reasons I like it is that many of the streets and sights featured on the video are very familiar from when I walk from Muiderpoort Station to work every morning and evening - or when I look out of the window at work.

Although we like this video very much we weren't sure if we liked the appearance of the red jacket every now and again. It reminded us, I'm sure on purpose, of the film Schindler's list. We disagreed on whether this allusion was permissable or not.

We also really like Ghetto by Akon:

These streets remind me of quicksand (quicksand)
When you're on it, you keep on goin down (goin down)...

We particularly like the Ghetto remix featuring Ali B and Yes-R but couldn't find this version online.

Praise for the Smart Toolkit

2006-04-11T21:31:00.000+02:00

I had a really great mail from Jackie Davies today with praise for the Smart Toolkit. She writes:

I have been looking again at the toolkit doc (in the pdf version from dgroups) and I have to say that it is really fab - and I have sent it around abit to some other folks, as I think its so nice....But its so good to revisit something (from olden days, Oneworld days, Maartje and I looking back in the mists of time, hey!) and really be reminded how great it is. It should be distributed to the world.

Trusting in a vulnerable sector?

2006-04-10T22:14:00.000+02:00

I spent my train journey coming home from work today reading the new report Vertrouwen in een kwetsbare sector? which was published on 6 April - so it is hot off the press. It has been written by the 'Commissie Draagvlak en Effectiviteit Ontwikkelingssamenwerking' and was commissioned by KIT, ICCO and SNV.

The Commission had four main research questions divided into the two themes 'Verantwoording' and 'Draagvlak en communicatie' focusing on the development cooperation sector in the Netherlands:

Aan wie een waarover dienen gesubsidieerde particuliere OS organisaties verantwoording af te leggen? (To whom and about what should subsidized, private development cooperation organisations give account?
Wat is hierein de rol van resultaatmeting? (What is the role of measurement of results in this?)
Is er maatschapelijke draagvlak voor OS? (Is there support for development cooperation within [Dutch] society?
Hoe en met welke informatie dienen OS organisaties met de samen leving te communiceren? (How and what information should these organizations communicate to [Dutch] society?)

Based on these research questions, the Commission has reached a number of interesting conclusions on, for example, the need for transparency and for development organizations to become learning organizations. Most interestingly I thought, the report emphasizes that oversimplification does not facilitate understanding of the complex issues of development cooperation by the general public or by key opinion leaders. There is not enough space to do the report justice here but I'm going to make a few quotes which I particularly enjoyed:

Bij een sterke focus op controleren en verantwoording, wordt niet de informatie verkregen die nodig is om te leren en verbeteringen aan te brengen in werkwijze. (A strong focus on control and giving account means that information necessary for learning and improvement of practices is not available.)
Als er te veel belang wordt gehecht aan resultmeting, bestaat het risico dat organisaties alleen dat werk gaan doen dat ook meetbaar is en tot zichtbare resultaten leidt. (If much emphasis is placed on results measurement, the risk exists that organisations will only do work that is measurable and will lead to demonstrable results.)

Although the report doesn't focus specifically on the role of knowledge, it does refer on a number of occassions to the potential role of modern ICTs, particularly the Internet, in facilitating more open, more honest and more frequent communication.

(Please note that the report is currently only available in Dutch. The translations here are based on my own interpretation of the text. Draagvlak is particularly difficult to translate but it means something like public support.)

Congratulations Julie and Mark!

2006-04-10T21:20:00.000+02:00

Although Enrique Mendizabal (see previous post on 24 March) argues that blogs will change development, I think they are already changing the way people exchange news with each other. The first intimation of the arrival of Julie's new baby was a message on her blog: 'We may have some news for you sometime soon', followed by an entry a few days later informing the world - and friends and family - that baby Emile was born on 6 April.

I think the message 'We may have news for you sometime soon' must have caused an enormous amount of anxiety among those waiting for news. I did try to check Julie and Mark's blog frequently in the day following the 'sometime soon' message but then got caught up in preparations for Sacha's feestje (children's party) which was extremely stressful this year - and this is an understatement!

Well, many congratulations Julie and Mark on the birth of your gorgeous baby, and let me echo Camilo by saying that I wouldn't be at all surprised if his first words aren't 'knowledge sharing'!

Who are you....?

2006-04-03T23:37:00.000+02:00

My colleagues and I have had such fun this week doing the Myers Briggs personality test. Myers Briggs is a model of personality that identifies your personality preferences. Based on a natural inclination or preference for certain ways of thinking and behaving, the model considers the following:

Where, primarily, do you prefer to direct your energy?
How do you prefer to process information?
How do you prefer to make decisions?
How do you prefer to organise your life?

Based on this typology, Myers Briggs model divides personalities into 16 different types. According to the test, I am a fairly extreme form of INFP. Although there are positive aspects to this personality type (believe me, there are!), I really recognized two of this personality type's negative aspects:

being stubborn over issues the group did not anticipate being a problem
avoiding conflict and not giving forthright criticism when it is needed

Funnily enough, I had written most of my characteristics down to the fact that I am English. I certainly didn't realise that my intense dislike of conflict came from my personality. When I was explaining this to Lisette - we had lunch last week - she laughed like a drain so I think it touched a chord somewhere...

Kenneth King (and bloglines) in The Hague

2006-04-03T22:49:00.000+02:00

Today I went to the Institute of Social Studies for a lecture by Professor Kenneth King, former director of the Centre for African Studies at the University of Edinburgh. It had been pretty stressful getting there - the trains were having problems - but I made it two minutes before the lecture was due to start.

In a stimulating and sometimes amusing lecture, covering a wide range of recent material published by the World Bank, NEPAD and others on the relationship between education and development, Kenneth King made four main points:

'the informal sector is dead.' Micro and small enterprises is a much better term because it also includes farms
there is a need to re-conceptualize the links between poverty, education and growth. Universal primary education for all is no longer viewed as the panacea for development
the role of higher education is changing and there is a growing recognition that it is of importance to development as part of 'education for dynamic economies'
Is Africa going to continue living off welfare?

In his lecture, he also emphasized the role of the knowledge economy, knowledge institutes and knowledge infrastructures, arguing that the difference between the development of Ghana and Korea in the last 50 years could be due to the fact Korea has placed much more emphasis on knowledge in its development. He also made some very interesting comments of the role of China in development aid with a new policy in January 2006. There was no time to expand on this but I was intrigued...

This is, after all, only my interpretation of the lecture but you can go to the source instead which is, I think, '2005: The year of development that was to change the world? A review from the angle of education' which you can find in the latest issue of Norrag News. This issue contains some very interesting (long and short) articles related to development and higher education.

In the information-for-development sector, Kenneth King is best know for his influential book with Simon McGrath Knowledge for development? Comparing British, Swedish, Japanese and World Bank aid, published by Zed Books in 2004. I also got the impression that Professor King is, rightly, an afficionado of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency...

After this interesting lecture, I went round to IICD where Joitske - the only reader of this blog! - kindly spent her lunch break showing me how I can use bloglines and delicious. Social bookmarking here I come! So, after this very stimulating and useful morning in The Hague, I caught the train to Amsterdam to go back to the office...

Will blogs change development?

2006-03-24T15:24:00.000+01:00

Yesterday at work my colleague Anne and I were getting very excited about blogs - not for the first time, I should admit. Anne was showing me her blog on 'Culture and Development'. I then revisted the ODI blog which is just great and where I first got really enthusiastic about the potential of blogs for development organizations - rather than just as a really fun way to exchange knowledge as an individual. There I found a post by Enrique Mendizabal on blog development from 19 January 2006. This post talks about how ODI has discovered the value of blogs:

Only a few months ago ODI began asking itself what a blog is. Today, we
recogise it is, at least, a useful communication tool and it enjoys significant
support. At its best, blogs can filter information from previously inaccessible
sources; can convene different groups around a single issue, providing a
menu of options and links to further resources that conventional media finds it
difficult to deal with...

Enrique considers that the value of these social technologies lies in their capacity to bridge the IT gap between resource rich civil society organizations and those in developing countries, limited in their action by a systematic lack of resources. He also argues that blogs can be used with Dgroups, for example, as well as other social technologies... Finally, he writes of the way that blogs will change development thinking and intellectual property. He argues:

If blogs will change the way we think about development, then what is there to stop them changing the way development is carried out?

Reflections on the enduring appeal of knowledge management for the development sector

2006-03-21T22:30:00.000+01:00

This evening I was re-reading this paper, written by Giulio Quaggiotto and published in the third issue of the Knowledge Management for Development Journal in December 2005. In this short paper, Giulio argues that whilst the knowledge management fad seems to have passed its peak in the private sector, within international development organisations, the appeal of the discipline seems to endure. He asks:

What are the reasons behind this? Are there cultural factors that can explain the difference between the reception of the knowledge management paradigm in the private sector and development organisations?

Giulio argues that the private sector and international development organisations face many similar dilemmas when it comes to implementing knowledge management strategies, such as:

how to encourage information flow between headquarters and regional offices;
how to develop metrics to evaluate the impact of knowledge management activities; and
how to engage with time-stripped experts on the ground to persuade them to share their tacit knowledge with their colleagues.

Despite these similarities, there are challenges in the area of knowledge management that are probably quite specific to the domain of non-for-profit organisations. In conclusion, Giulio asks us:

How can we persuasively answer the challenge that the knowledge management bubble has not exploded yet in the development world just because we are not sufficiently focused on tangible financial results?

I think that Giulio raises some interesting issues here. However, I would even go a step further and say that the development sector has such an affinity with knowledge management-like approaches that it even developed its own forms of knowledge management avant la lettre. Here I'm thinking of RAAKS and similar approaches...

The 'Chicken' has landed!

2006-03-12T22:27:00.000+01:00

After a long wait, the publication 'Why did the chicken cross the road? And other stories on development evaluation...' landed on my desk three days ago. The content looks great - nothing has gone wrong in the printing process - and the cover, featuring a chicken (yes, really) and evaluation-related words in shades of blue, looks very nice too. I've started sending it out to the 14 authors involved in the publication - I'm curious to hear what they think of it.

The Chicken publication comprises the short articles published on the IOB/Euforic/KIT ILS Briefing on aid evaluation, featured on the Euforic website since 2001.

'Asielzoekers' in the Netherlands

2006-03-06T22:23:00.000+01:00

My daughter, Leah, has just completed writing an essay on refugees looking for asylum in the Netherlands. It's funny how your own children can surprise you...

I read the essay last night and was really impressed by the essay and even more so by her opinions which she expresses very forcefully. I quote from the concluding chapter:

Van dit werkstuk heb ik ook geleerd dat het echt geen pretje is om te moeten vluchten en dan hier in Nederland weer een nieuw leven te moeten op bouwen in een asielzoekerscentrum. Als ik in een van de asielzoekers schoenen zou moeten staan zou ik het nooit uit houden. Ook zie ik dat ik het wel heel goed heb vergeleken met al die mensen die nog aan het vluchten zijn. Wat moeten die mensen toch bang zijn...

Leah, and other children at her primary school in a small Dutch village, are confronted on a daily basis with the fate of those seeking asylum because a number of their fellow pupils come from an 'asielzoekerscentrum' in the neighbourhood. Both Leah and her younger brother have seen children crying in class because the family has been refused 'status' and they have heard how difficult it is to do homework (and even to get to sleep on time) if your whole family is living in one room. Leah's six year old brother has been very concerned about one of his fellow classmates who was repatriated from the Netherlands last year: 'In her mother's country, there is often war, and in her father's country, there is war all the time...'

Knowledge management: issues and practical options for the DAC Network on Development Evaluation

2006-02-28T10:52:00.000+01:00

Access is important, but successful knowledge management also requires care, attention and hard work to identify, collect and categorize relevant new knowledge assets.
Knowledge management policies can not be divorced from organizations (or a network of organizations) and their goals. While sharing knowledge (in the form of reports, methodologies or best practices) may be a commendable idea, there must be an underlying, widely accepted and well supported reason for doing so. Without such an overarching purpose, agreed to by all parties involved, knowledge management is likely to become a pointless, expensive exercise.

Today I came across this study by Rutger Engelhard - commissioned by IOB/BUZA for the DAC Network on Development Evaluation - which was produced for a meeting in January 2004. Although it must have been produced in 2003, I still think it is a really good study, looking at the relevance of KM for the Network. If I'm honest, I'm rather horrified that I haven't come across this before as someone with an (ostensible?) interest in KM and evaluation. Whoops! Perhaps I should look on the more positive side, however, that it is still possible to stumble across real gems, even if it's a couple of years late...

The 10 lessons from knowledge management are still very relevant a couple of years down the road:

Technology should not dictate knowledge management
Knowing what knowledge is relevant to users
Sharing knowledge is an unnatural activity
Mapping knowledge yields better access than centralized databases
Access is only the beginning
Knowledge management requires knowledge managers
Knowledge management initiatives need a knowledge contract
Knowledge management needs a purpose
Knowledge management requires attention to people and cultural issues
Knowledge management is political

I really recommend this and hope you enjoy it too.

Bellanet's blogs

2006-02-09T13:55:00.000+01:00

Following a post from Lucie to KM4Dev, just came across Bellanet's blogs for the first time. Really fun - I'm going to keep and eye on this.

Why did the chicken cross the road? And other stories on development evaluation...

2006-02-03T23:09:00.000+01:00

This week, we finalized the proofs for this book which contains 11 short articles on development evaluation. I think it's a really nice book and the title's really fun too. I'm looking forward, with a mixture of excitement and trepidation, to its appearance in two weeks time. The cover is very nice too - I've tried to post a copy of the front cover here but without any luck! The book is being published by KIT Publishers and it is a co-publication with IOB, Euforic and KIT.

The title comes from one of the chapters, written by Rob van den Berg, which compares collaboration in evaluation with the joke 'Why did the chicken cross the road?' He argues:
The debate on collaboration within evaluation is reminiscent of the question: ‘why did the chicken cross the road?’ The simple answer is that it wanted to get to the other side. But the evaluator wants to know:
whether the chicken took the shortest path across the road, and whether it crossed the road in the quickest possible way;
whether it can be established whether the chicken in actual fact reached the other side, and remains there, and is expected to remain there in the future; and
whether the needs of the chicken have been met by crossing the road.
To answer these questions, the evaluator will enter into a participatory process with the chicken, establish an intervention logic, logframe or theory of ‘how chickens cross roads’ and ‘intended short-term and long-term results of the chicken crossing the road’ which will lead to the gathering and analysis of relevant data. A full discussion of chickens and roads, and all the ramifications and possible benefits of future cooperation, is needed.

Joitske's 4x6 challenge

2006-02-03T17:13:00.000+01:00

Yesterday Joitske sent me an e-mail, setting a 4x6 challenge to me and three other bloggers on her blog. This challenge is answering 4 questions: jobs you've had; places you've lived, places you have visited and liked; websites that you visit every day; and films... Well, to tell the truth, I think I'm not a real blogger in the sense that I'm not really planning to say anything personal-personal here on this blog, instead I'm concentrating of personal opinions of professional things. So, although I'm avoiding the personal-personal questions, I'm very happy to list my three favourite websites:

KM4Dev is by far my favourite website. Well, perhaps I'm cheating here because it is an online community with a web platform. The discussion list is really terrific. Although I'm a bit of a lurker, deliberations on the discussion list inspire me every day.... I adore it!
My next favourite is iManagement, a Dgroup facilitated Tilly Minnee and myself which we use to keep in touch - and provide information to - KIT partner individuals and individuals in the South. I can't show this to you because it's a closed group but it's great and getting better.
I also really enjoy LEAP IMPACT, a community or practice also on Dgroups, which has been going since 2002 and is the platform of the community of practice behind the Smart Toolkit.

Well, I now see that I don't have favourite websites, only favourite communities. All three include members who are known colleagues and even friends. Strange discovery in a way... Next time, I'll try to review favourite websites and favourite blogs!

And favourite films (I can't resist adding this)...All about Eve, The last picture show, Rear window and Notting Hill.

Evaluation of Dgroups

2006-01-30T22:56:00.000+01:00

I've just been reading the evaluation of Dgroups in Latin America, undertaken by Rosa Cheng Lo and Margarita Salas of Fundacion Acceso in 2004. The evaluation (they call it 'characterization') yielded very interesting results in terms of geographical coverage, thematic coverage, languages and purposes of Dgroups. I'm really impressed by the evaluation - and the data collection methodology they used. The evaluation report is available on the Bellanet website.

The number of Dgroups and the number of members has risen dramatically in the period from February 2004 to the present: 528 groups compared to 1588 today (increased by almost 3 times) and from 9897 members then to 49926 now (increase of approx. 5 times).

Dutch expertise on development

2006-01-27T16:59:00.000+01:00

The Development Policy Review Network (DPRN) has made an Inventory of expertise related to international cooperation in the Netherlands. It includes both institutions and individuals (academics, policymakers and researchers), and their expertise is related to the targets of the Millennium Development Goals. The Inventory is still being updated, and makes very interesting reading. I'm in there, together with some colleagues, but in a very strange place ---I'll need to do something about this.

Smart Toolkit now fulltext available

2006-01-27T16:49:00.000+01:00

The Smart Toolkit is now available fulltext as a PDF for downloading on the LEAP IMPACT Dgroup, an online community. LEAP IMPACT has about 150 members from a wide range of different organizations, all of whom are interested in the evaluation of information (for development). Many of the members were involved in developing the Toolkit.

This is the pre-publication version of the Toolkit and a final version will be published by CTA in 2006.

Third issue of 'KM4D Journal' now online

2006-01-10T13:27:00.000+01:00

Volume 1, issue 3 (December 2005) of the 'Knowledge Management for Development Journal' on the subject of 'Understanding the role of culture in knowledge sharing: making the invisible visible' is now online on the journal platform at www.km4dev.org/journal

The Guest Editors for this issue comprise: Peter van Rooij (ILO), Catherine Vaillancourt-Laflamme (Centre international de solidarité ouvrière) and Rohit Ramaswamy (Service Design Solutions), with Lucie Lamoureux (Bellanet).

This issue has its origins in the annual meeting of the KM4Dev community on the same subject, held at the ILO HQ, Geneva, in June 2005. It contains six articles:

‘Knowledge management and social learning: exploring the cognitive dimension of development’ by Sebastião Darlan Mendonça Ferreira and Marcos Neto

‘The culture of a knowledge fair: lessons from an international organization’ by Barbara Collins, Rafael Diez de Medina and Anne Trebilcock

‘Building knowledge from the practice of local communities’ by Ceasar McDowell, Andrea Nagel, Susana Williams and Claudia Canepa

‘Elective affinities? Reflections on the enduring appeal of knowledge management for the development sector’ by Giulio Quaggiotto

‘Bridging the gap between research and practice’ by Julie E. Ferguson

‘The culture of management or the management of culture: a case study of the Rural Women’s Association, South Africa’ by Chris Burman

One case study‘The Eastern Indonesia Knowledge Exchange – a journey of change’ by Petrarca Karetji
One story
‘Culture, learning and surviving a PhD: a journey in search of my own path’ by Camilo Villa

In addition to Katty Marmenout’s interview with Professor Clive Holtham on ‘Knowledge and culture: learning from the past’, the Community Notes by Urs Karl Egger gives a glimpse into the workings of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Renewal Project of the Km4Dev community. Finally, Sibrenne Wagenaar has provided a Review of Steve Denning’s latest book on story telling.

Just showing Anne how easy it is to post and link!

2005-12-13T12:30:00.000+01:00

Showing how easy it is to link to the KIT website, for example.

'Smart Toolkit' published

2005-12-13T12:11:00.000+01:00

The end of November 2005 was a landmark occassion for me as it saw the publication of the 'Smart toolkit for evaluating information products and services', a co-publication and joint initiative of CTA, KIT and IICD. As one of the three co-ordinators (the others are Lola Visser and Lisette Gast) , the Toolkit has been a labour of love, involving a vast number of information practitioners and evaluation experts and covering three years. I am extremely proud to have been part of this huge undertaking which will, in my opinion, change the field of the evaluation of information forever.

The Toolkit was launched in Tanzania and was extremely well recieved by the persons for whom it is intended: managers of information products and services in the South. Quoting from one participant at the launch in Tanzania:

The toolkit is useful for all kinds of evaluation. East to read, easy to understand...It can help us and others to deal with evaluation.

Another quote...

2005-11-14T12:51:00.000+01:00

This time from Howard White:

The logframe is not a universal panacea but, used properly, can force agencies into critical examination of their programmes and projects, and the results they achieve.

This comes from 'The road to nowhere? Results-based management in international cooperation.' In Why did the chicken cross the road?

Quote on evaluation and networking

2005-11-14T11:41:00.000+01:00

Just posting this here so that I don't forget it:

For aid evaluation as for aid delivery, the solution to current governance dilemmas lies in harmonization, coordination and the forging of partnerships. More resources need to be devoted to nurturing of convergence in evaluation methods through networks of evaluators, development of evaluation capacties, professional associations (such as the International Development Evaluation Association), joint or parallel evaluations, and country-based evaluation connected to enhanced processes of public expenditure management.

Robert Picciotto (2005) The Monterrey challenge: re-shaping the development architecture. In: Why did the chicken cross the road?

'Fill the Gap' and RAAKS...

2005-11-04T11:21:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I was at 'Fill the Gap', a conference organized by Hivos, IICD and others. It was a good meeting but at the borrel afterwards (where, for my sins, I spent rather a lot of time) I came across quite a lot of people who hadn't heard about RAAKS. So I thought it was about time a made a link to it from this blog. RAAKS is to be found online on the KIT website.

As a starting point, I recommend the Daring to share chapter. I hope you enjoy it too - I think it is brilliant and when I read it for the first time it seemed to describe lots of things that I felt intuitively about networking for development.

Organizational learning in public organizations

2005-11-02T23:19:00.000+01:00

A recent post to the KM4Dev community drew attention to the new World Public Sector Report, published by the UN Public Administration Programme, which includes a chapter on organizational learning. The chapter talks of the important of knowledge sharing, networking and innovation:

Effective networking and teamwork may not only facilitate the timely completion of tasks but also improve the quality of work. For instance, in cases when a long time may be spent in trying to solve a particular problem, effective networking, collaboration and knowledge-sharing with peers may reduce this time considerably and thereby contribute to organizational learning.

It also talks about organizations characterized by compliance rather than commitment:

...the downside of strict adherence to hierarchical authority is that it tends to evoke compliance in government bureaucracies rather than commitment to the work at hand. The more strongly hierarchical power is exerted, the more results are generally focused on compliance. Yet the genuine commitment of staff is usually an essential factor in fostering meaningful change in any organization.

E-collaboration workshop

2005-11-02T21:38:00.000+01:00

I was at an 'e-collaboation' workshop in The Hague today (2nd November). There were demonstrations of the use of Skype, MSN and Dgroups for keeping in touch with partners. Although I'm familiar with Dgroups and use them a lot, the potential of Skype and MSN for work was pretty new to me.

One of the nice things you can do with MSN is having a telephone conversation, while keeping notes in the chat facility - notes that all parties (up to 5 can take part) can see. This is probably really useful if you want to make 'afspraken' with the colleagues with whom you are in contact. In addition, you can make drawings on the whiteboard and send documents at the same time.

One participant was also using MSN to help partners install new software. With the 'print page' facility - copied into Word and then forwarded - she was able to monitor what screen they we seeing and thus help them with problems.

New journal has led to neglect of my blog

2005-05-29T23:49:00.000+02:00

It's a few weeks now since I posted anything on this blog. The reason for this silence is not blog fatigue - certainly not - but rather that I have been working with a group of colleagues to start a new journal, the Knowledge Management for Development Jounal (KM4D Journal). I'm tremendously proud of it - the first issue is now online at: www.km4dev.org/journal

More on reification...

2005-04-04T15:08:00.000+02:00

Although I've almost stopped reading Wenger's book on Communities of Practice - my colleagues in the KIT Library are rightly getting insisitent that it needs to be returned - I just wanted to post one more quote before I lose it:

If reification prevails ... then there may be not enough overlap in participation to recover a co-ordinated, relevant or generative meaning.
Wenger, 1998, p.65

This means, I think, that you can't understand a field by just looking at the abstractions, tools, symbols, stories, terms, and concepts that reify something in congealed form. To undertstand, you have to be part of it by being engaged.

Information management in NGOs

2005-03-30T23:09:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow I'm attending the 'Information lounge' at ISS, The Hague, so this seemed like a good time to look at this again. Written by Michael Schueber of the IDPM, University of Manchester, this research paper considers the strategic role of information management (IM) in Northern Development NGOs. It considers IM strategy formation from a theoretical perspective through the study of three relevant bodies of theory (IM, NGO management, strategy formation), and from an empirical perspective by exploring the reality of IM strategy formation in the Swiss NGO Helvetas. Particularly liked the nice diagrams on the relationship between IM, ICTs and knowledge management.
http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/publications/wp/di/di_wp14.pdf

Social capital is fun

2005-03-15T13:51:00.000+01:00

Most of the fun quotes I come across refer to social capital. This one is terrific:

On a good day in my old job at the World Bank, I would be asked to define "civil society” by any number of sceptical colleagues – a notoriously slippery task at the best of times, though at least it showed they were interested. On a bad day, they would ask me an even trickier question (“what is social capital?”), but worst of all was the inevitable sequel: what is the difference between social capital and civil society?

Edwards, M. (1999) ‘Enthusiasts, tacticians and sceptics: the World Bank, civil society and social capital’. www.worldbank.org/poverty/scapital/library/edwards.htm

Robert Merton's middle range theory

2005-03-14T14:17:00.001+01:00

The sociological conception of middle-range theory, proposed by Robert Merton (1957), comprises theory that is intermediate to daily practice and general theories. Middle range theory may appear similar to general theory in the sense that it involves abstractions but the abstractions in middle range theories can be supported by observed data. In development, when we are trying to bridge practice and theory, middle range theory is what we are looking at.
http://ssr1.uchicago.edu/PRELIMS/Theory/thmisc2.html

International networks for knowledge sharing: lessons learnt

2005-03-10T23:56:00.000+01:00

Today a colleague from ODI referred me to an interesting publication on networks for knowledge sharing, produced by the Skat Foundation in Switzerland. The publication argues that:

The network paradigm is a seductive vision to solve all ... ills in one go: why not connect the North with the South and cross-connect all the involved actors with networks? With such linkages, activities could be coordinated, knowledge could be shared between North and South as well as within and among the countries of the South, best practices could be exchanged, and common standards and procedures developed. Many have succumbed to this alluring vision and countless networks exist in the development sector.

Have these networks really achieved their objectives? The results are inconclusive. While some networks attain considerable impact in their sectors, others have been more bureaucratic institutions, pushed by considerable donor funding. Some are quite dynamic, others static. All networks require a big effort from all parties involved and are often suspected of being excessively expensive. What can we learn from existing international networks for knowledge sharing?
http://www.skat-foundation.org/publications/pdf/ks-network-summary.pdf

Inside out and Upside down: a Case Study on the Harsh Realities of Going Virtual

2005-03-05T08:05:00.000+01:00

Have just received a copy of this paper by Louk Box. Although it's a few year's old now, it remains truly inspiration for information professionals. It describes how ECDPM was turned 'inside out and upside down':

Many small organisations face the challenges of rapid adaptation to the demands of the “information society”. This paper presents a reflection on the changes made in one such organisation, ECDPM.... It is argued that the organisation needs to turn itself “inside out”, by bringing its internal communication system into an external network. This requires that it also turns itself upside down, by giving great responsibilities to people who have traditionally worked at the very base of the organisation: documentalists and information specialists.

E-discussion toolkit

2005-03-03T21:26:00.000+01:00

Have just come acroess the World Bank's e-discussion toolkit. Although it is written very much from the WB perspective, it includes some very useful resources. http://www.worldbank.org/devforum/toolkit.html

Quote from Wenger on institutions, practices and prescription

2005-03-03T21:10:00.000+01:00

‘But if we believe that people in organizations contribute to organizational goals by participating inventively in practices that can never be fully captured by institutionalized processes, then we will minimize prescription, suspecting that too much of it discourages the very inventiveness that makes practices effective. …If this seems like common sense, then we must ask ourselves why our institutions so often seem, not merely to fail to bring about these outcomes, but to work against them with relentless zeal. Of course, some of the blame can justifiably be attributed to conflicts of interest, power struggles, and even human wickedness…’ (p. 10, 1997)

Communities of practice and the 'smart tools'

2005-02-28T21:55:00.000+01:00

I've been reading Etienne Wenger's 1997 book on communities of practice on the train in the past few weeks. The book that I've borrowed from the library - the book is out of print - is totally dog-eared and has obviously seen lots of use.

Wenger talks about reification 'the process of giving form to our experience by producung objects that congeal this experience into "thingness"'. These include abstractions, tools, symbols, stories, terms, and concepts that reify something of that practice in congealed form. The term reification covers a wide range of practices that include 'making, designing, representing, encoding, and describing, as well as preceiving, interpreting, interpreting, using, reusing, decoding and recasting'. Reification and participation (or mutual engagement) form a duality that is fundamental to the negotiation of meaning and thus the nature of practice. The duality of participation and reification suggests that, in terms of meaning, people and things can not be definied independently of each other.

I found this all relevant to the 'smart tools' - evaluation tools for information practitioners being made by the LEAP IMPACT community of practice with its dgroup at www.dgroups.org/groups/leap/impact/ - beacuse the tools themselves represent reified experience but, this emphasis on duality, demonstrates the continued importance of mutal engagement if the tools are to be understood.

A nice quote on networking

2005-02-22T12:18:00.000+01:00

It also occurred to me that I could use a blog to save my favourite quotes. One that has inspired me comes from Paul Engel's and Monique Salomon's 1997 book 'The social organization of innovation':

'Social actors are continuously, either spontaneously or in a more organized way or both, building relationships with each other to create opportunities for joint learning, increasing their understanding, and imporving on current practices.'

If you want to find out more about this book, you can find it on the KIT website at: http://www.kit.nl/specials/html/rk_raaks.asp

Funny poem on social capital

2005-02-22T11:58:00.000+01:00

Well, I mentioned in my profile, I'm interested in social capital. I like a paper by Ben Fine on social capital in development. In this paper, Fine has amended a poem by Philip Larkin (which is very funny) to focus on social capital not mums and dads as the original one does. The Fine version goes like this:

They f*** you up with social cap.
They may not mean to but they do.
They fill you up with faults on tap
And add some extra just for you.

But they were f***ed up in their turn
By fools in rational hats and coats
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on social cap to man.
It deepens like a costal shelf.
Get out as early as you can
And don’t have any for yourself.
Fine, after Philip Larkin

As you will see, I have put *** instead of the real word. You can view the original Philip Larkin poem in full at: http://www.artofeurope.com/larkin/lar2.htm
Well, I'm afraid I don't really know blog-etiquette - and this is an experiment, after all. Hope this is not going to offend anyone's feelings....If it does, please let me know and I'll remove even this censored version...

Welcome to my blog

2005-02-22T11:45:00.000+01:00

Inspired by a meeting last week, I'm now creating my own blog. I'm planning to add draft papers, work-in-progress and links to things I really like. My fields of interest are development (as in developing country development), information and knowledge management, online communities of practice, and social capital.

Sarah