Dear Veronica, We've developed an open source application that you would be most welcome to use at no cost that would enable you to catalog and disseminate such digital resources. The one challenge would be to develop a taxonomy of categories and subcategories by which you want to catalog information on "community needs". For some examples of portals based on this free application, please go to <www.edreform.net>
It also is possible, at no cost, to put your own organizational name(s) and logo(s) on the given portal so that all users would understand which organization(s) have been involved in compiling the content. We developed this application based on our conviction that it needed to be easier for expert communities to rapidly, freely and easily disseminate trustworthy content on effective practices. The portal application enables any user to nominate a resource, thus allowing one or more editors to determine which nominated resources are accepted into the framework and ensuring that the resource is properly catalogued. Please let me know if this is of interest. It's fairly easy to train someone to use the application as an editor -- to create the cataloguing categories and to determine when to admit a resource and how to quickly catalog it. Regards, Bob McLaughlin Robert T. McLaughlin, Ph.D. Executive Director National Institute for Community Innovations 235 Main Street Montpelier, Vermont 05602-2410 USA Tel. (802) 229-1742 Cell (802) 249-1159 Fax (802) 229-2056 www.nici-mc2.org www.edreform.net www.vlibrary.org On Friday, June 17, 2005, Veronica Peris wrote: > OneWorld South Asia's (OWSA) <http://www.oneworld.net/> under the aegis > of Mission 2007 <http://www.mission2007.org/> would like to invite you > to a "Content for Community Needs" Programme meeting (30 June and 1 July > 2005; India International Centre, New Delhi.) > > OneWorld will introduce the concept of 100,000 Telecentres and the > opportunities that exist for content developers/providers in the > immediate future. > > One of the practical ways of using ICTs, we feel, is to set up > Telecentres (Rural Advocacy Centres/Information Kiosks) that contain > information relevant to the needs of the rural/urban communities. Such > Telecentres would facilitate Communities' access to > information/facilities/services without their having to waste any time > in procuring/accessing the same. To the worker at the community level, > having to procure such information would mean in real terms, having to > drop out of work for at least a day -- often forgo a days wages -- and > the resultant food for him/her self and the family. For this purpose > there is an urgent need to digitise a content repository for community > needs to reach out to rural/urban India at large, as well as tailor the > data to the respective needs of the communities. > > Given this backdrop, OWSA with more than 500 organisations including > NGOs, donors, multilateral organization, private sector, media, > academicians and governments as its partners, attempts to provide a > database that answers the needs of the grassroots and enhances their > quality of life. However, it can soon be realised the task is enormous > while the need is immediate -- so we do what we know best -- call on our > partners and colleagues who have amongst them a pool of resources, which > we could then collate in a content repository for community needs. This > definitely would be an ongoing process, as data/information is always > being made available. ..snip... ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** 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.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
