Showcase Focuss.Info Initiative at EADI Conference - 24 June 2008

Focuss.Info Initiative Richard Lalleman Case for the Workshop: “ Showcasing Knowledge and Information Services” Euforic and the EADI Working Group on Information Management Geneva, 24 June 2008

Focuss.Info Initiative ...

... is a collaborative platform of peers in the international field of global development matters who are storing and sharing regional, national and international knowledge of valuable electronic resources

... consists of peers from regional, national and international institutions , and students, researcher and individual practitioners from the northern as well as the southern hemisphere

... becomes ‘the’ knowledge management (KM) tool for global development research through which the knowledge of valuable electronic resources is made easily accessible with a subject specific search engine

... aims to store knowledge of valuable electronic websites by promoting social bookmarking tools

... aims to share the knowledge of valuable electronic websites stored in social bookmark accounts by making the social bookmark accounts full text retrievable through a subject specific search engine

... implements technology from independent developers , such as Del.icio.us for social bookmarking and Google for the search engine through which technical maintenance is minimal and promotion maximal

... promotes its peers to start abandoning saving favourite websites locally on their computer ( Web 1.0 approach ) and beginning saving favourite websites on the Internet ( Web 2.0 approach )

... harvests the individual and institutional social bookmark accounts and brings it together through the subject specific search engine

... creates individuals as well as institutional partners into knowledge brokers by sharing the collective knowledge captured within the Focuss.Info: the subject specific search engine can be implemented in every website

... has proven to deliver better research results than generic search engines such as Google, Microsoft Live or Yahoo (independent research by Overseas Development Institute )

... connects individuals and institutions from the northern as well as the southern hemisphere together with their knowledge of valuable websites in the global development field

... is recognized by many peers from all over the world and receives an increasing amount of attention as the platform for community contributed content for global development issues (see posters)

Focuss.Info Initiative ... ... suggests that social bookmarking is not the total-solution for KM. We only know what we know, when we need to know it. Hence, we will only know what have been social bookmarked by our peers. Therefore, the more people are social bookmarking in the field of global development matters, the better the electronic resources are being mapped which results in knowledge creation on a regional, national and international level.

Focuss.Info Initiative ... ... suggests that social bookmarking is not the total-solution for KM. We only know what we know, when we need to know it. Hence, we will only know what have been social bookmarked by our peers. Therefore, the more people are social bookmarking in the field of global development matters, the better the electronic resources are being mapped which results in knowledge creation on a regional, national and international level. ... is about people and not technology

www.focuss.info

[email_address] or [email_address]

Skype: richard.focuss

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6516373841

Further readings:

Lalleman, R. and Wesseling, M. (2008) Knowledge sharing through collaboration in development studies: The Focuss.Info Initiative, Information Development , 24(2), pp. 151-155

Lalleman, R. and Wesseling, M. (2008) Community contributed content and global studies research, Global-e: A global studies journal , 2(1), available at: http://global- ejournal.org

Focuss.Info Initiative contacts