Terry MAGUIRE
Mon, 24 Sep 2001 18:12:07 -0700
Dr. Gurstein (18 Sep) raises excellent points concerning the Development Gateway. I and others on the Gateway team continue our efforts to address these questions as we move forward. As the new (since 1 August) editor of the Gateway, this is my first posting to the GKD forum, and I look forward to learning from those who participate here. I come to this role from a career working with news organizations all over the world, including considerable work in dozens of developing countries with media there. I would like to respond on two levels. 1. First, allow me a few general comments: We do not see the Gateway as playing a role that fits into any model that we have ever seen. Why is this? It is because the challenge of making the Internet work as hard as it can to reduce poverty and advance development is too important to allow it to slip within definitional boundaries. Yes, we believe in the Internet, and we believe that it can make a difference beyond what it has already done to aid development work. What can we add? What will we add? As we review what one finds today at <www.developmentgateway.org>, and the people involved in development work whose needs we seek to serve, we are answering some of the most important questions in our minds and in the minds of others. One of those is leading to a new standard of how we will judge ourselves. Very simply, we will measure our success by our ability to help people access resources that we and our partners can make more easily accessible from within the Internet and/or to help others add resources that other people want to use - that today are not Internet accessible. And this must always be measured in terms of the impact that the Gateway has in the fight against poverty. Judge us by the progress we make in these efforts. Our mission is not to have the biggest "portal" (whatever that means), but rather to connect people involved in the development field to access more and better information that they need and can use. We seek to compete with no one. We look for development needs that the Gateway can fill and we work to fill them. Help us and our partners in this effort - not to make the Gateway successful, but to make the fight against poverty successful. Hold us to a tough standard, and work with us. This is a glass we can fill together. 2. Second, I would like to add a few specific notes: * I second Dr. Gurstein's recommendation to come look at the Gateway. Your specific comments about what you find there are the most helpful! * The "portal" model that he describes is correct, of course. He is correct, as well, that these approaches have run into big problems, partly due to economics and partly due to the evolving habits of Internet users. My point above about not putting us within the definitional boundaries of past undertakings is to emphasize where we are trying to move. Quite simply, we are headed in the direction of recognizing more of what has proven successful in so many Internet places - e-mail, service, and value. It is why we have added a "Take Action" option on the Home Page, for example, and you will see other changes in the weeks ahead in many parts of the Gateway as we look for those specific ways in which we can provide greater value to those using the Internet to reduce poverty and advance development. * Many of the resources in the Gateway do come from "official" sources, as Dr. Gurstein notes. His comments came at a time when one of my colleagues was meeting with indigenous peoples in Ecuador to work with them to contribute value, and withdraw it, from both the Gateway and the Internet at large. At the same time, our Food Security guide was meeting with participants at a Food Security conference to explore more of what people in that field, especially in Africa, most need and how we can help them get to it. * I also agree with Dr. Gurstein regarding the labor-intensive nature of good resources. As you can expect, this is something that a career in news organizations taught me long ago. It is a real challenge, and yet I believe we have not explored all the ways in which we can help facilitate access to better information, either by making it available more easily, or available in the Internet for the first time. The fact is that the Internet has become hugely successful at facilitating worldwide access to information, to knowledge, to people. What it has not become, yet, is hugely successful at doing all of that to benefit development. I believe, for example, that there are vast untapped opportunities to draw more content and knowledge from the developing world into more readily accessible Internet form, both for use elsewhere among developing countries, and for everyone. It goes back to the point that is central for me and that is this: identify a need, and then figure out what the Internet can do in serving that need and try to help make it happen. That's our role, and the role of everyone with whom we now cooperate and with whom we want to cooperate in the future. * I and my colleagues will be working to pursue all possible relationships in order to identify and respond to needs as efficiently as we can. This will be true of our partner organizations, including the locally owned and operated Country Gateways which are under development, as well as for the Development Gateway. We all welcome your suggestions on both organizations and people with whom we can work to avoid duplication and increase the service actually delivered to people. * Finally, one specific recommendation: When you come to the Gateway, please consider signing up for as many of the Topics as interest you (both the ones on the Home Page and those listed when you click here - <http://www.developmentgateway.org/all-topics> - for the full list ), and asking to receive the Alerts that we send out each time a new resource is added. It is the best way to judge whether we are bringing useful resources to people, or not. I would personally welcome your comments about any of the resources we (and you!) add -- your views about their value to people involved in development work all over. --- If anyone wishes to discuss any of this with me outside GKD, feel free to send me a note! I would welcome the opportunity to learn from you. Terry Maguire Development Gateway [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------ ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.globalknowledge.org>