This document provides a history and overview of online collaboration efforts through the Dgroups partnership. It discusses the origins of online discussions and knowledge sharing among development organizations in the late 1980s and 1990s. It describes the creation of Dgroups in 2001 as a joint initiative to scale these efforts. The document outlines Dgroups' current mission, vision, and activities focused on facilitating peer learning, hosting online discussions, and providing access to collaboration platforms. It proposes a facilitated Dgroups dialogue following a July 2020 event to discuss lessons learned about effective online collaboration in international development, beyond the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic. Help is requested to identify critical factors and topics to focus the discussion.

1. Online collaboration:
Back to the future
Peter Ballantyne
km4dev knowledge café, 21 May 2020

2. Outline
1. Some history
… eConferencing, eCollaboration, workspaces, dgroups
2. Dgroups today
… a,b,c,d
3. Your help needed

3. Some [personal] history . . .
1989 – remote electronic meetings (among cgiar people)
1998 – ‘watsan’ think tank and knowledge sharing pilot of World Bank;
with: WEDC, IRC, OneWorld, WaterAid; partners of partners …
2000 – dfid strategy consultation [don’t remember what about]
2001 – iicd/dgis and iicd/bdo workspaces on bellanet
2002 – dgroups set up as a joint initiative to scale the bellanet work
2006 – dgroups ‘roadmap’: strategy, governance, directions
2008 – dgroups platform moves from lyris to igloo to wa research

4. WatSan eConferencing: First
Conclusions (2000)
Cooperation and capacity-sharing can work
Cooperation needs time and trust
A neutral forum helps
New skills are needed
Multi-media approaches extend reach
Participation is possible
Participants are willing
Absorption capacity is a constraint

5. Creating Dgroups [2001]
Need for simple, reliable, and accessible communication
and information-sharing tool
Communities of practice the basis for knowledge sharing
Increasing ‘team’ focus – also with country partners
Partners themselves keen to e-discuss, to e-disseminate and
perhaps to e-collaborate
Technically, avoid in-house development and hosting; focus
instead on content and communication and work through
partnerships
[from an internal IICD ppt]

6. eCollaboration: Dgroups (2002)
• discussion and collaboration spaces – email and web
• easy to set up and administer, and participate
• for ‘communities’ of interest/practice
• tool for other collaborations
• joint venture – bellanet, iicd, oneworld, unaids, dfid + others
• a tool for ‘us’ . . . . . for our partners - and anyone else!
[The most important aspect of Dgroups is that the knowledge so
generated belongs to the community, and is not owned by any one
organization – Jaya Chittoor, km4dev list, October 2003]

7. 1999
I think

8. June 2002

9. Dgroups Today

10. More than the platforms …
From 2008-2018, dgroups was mostly associated with a ‘platform’
– dgroups.org
A springboard for many partners and groups, like km4dev, to
vibrantly live our tagline ‘development through dialogue’
In 2019 and 2020, we re-imagined the core of the Dgroups
partnership as (once again) being about online collaboration,
communication, learning and dialogue …
By working together, better, more inclusive collaboration and dialogue
leads to better development results.

11. • Dgroups provides simple, effective and affordable
solutions, knowledge and expertise that support
online collaboration among organizations, projects,
networks and campaigns, and individuals in
international development.
Mission
• Dgroups enables people, communities, projects and
organizations to engage in dialogue and
collaborate for more effective development and
social justice.
Purpose
• Dgroups is an international development
partnership that brings together the best choice of
tools, support and experience to engage and
collaborate effectively online.
Vision

12. ABCD - what we do
•we help facilitate peer-
to-peer learning,
mentoring, coaching,
training and support for
effective online
collaboration and
advocacy
• we host online
discussions and
events on
international
development
• we provide advice,
guidance and
negotiated
preferential access
to third-party online
solutions and
platforms
• we help make
development
communities,
their knowledge
and expertise
accessible
Access Brokerage
CapacitiesDialogue

13. A foundation and a partnership
• We (the foundation) negotiate and broker preferential access for our partners to
different community platforms;
• We (the foundation) promote links across our partner groups and communities, we
connect you to like-minded communities and people doing the same collaborative
things as you;
• We (the partnership) help you find, facilitate and manage online community spaces
or platforms;
• We (the partnership) support online communications, collaboration and dialogue
that increase the effectiveness of our collective online experience;
• And, through Dgroups, our online interactions can achieve more visibility, reach
and impact.

14. Help needed

15. Devising a Dgroups dialogue
Following the km4dev 2 July event, we want to hold a first
Dgroups eConference and dialogue …
About online collaboration, dialogue and interaction – what works
and what doesn’t in international development … [beyond the
pandemic of zoom meetings!]
Guided, facilitated, documented, …
An ‘experience capitalization’ approach to draw out our individual
and collective insights to produce actionable knowledge.

16. Help us identify critical topics
In your groups [someone please capture the key points]
1. Which factors are the most critical to successful online collaboration,
conferencing, dialogue and CoPs? [eg: technology, participation, facilitation,
connectivity, capacities?]
2. Which issues or topics do we need to know more about? To improve how we
operate