Dear GKD Members,
Welcome back, as GKD launches our 7th year!
We are very excited about the new, easily searchable GKD Database. This
is a great resource, with invaluable ideas, cases, opinions, strategies
and experiences that are difficult/impossible to obtain elsewhere -- and
all from you, the GKD members! Get info on ICT and gender. ICT and
health. ICT and business. And much, much more!
TAKE A LOOK! Go to:
http://www.GKDknowledge.org
This is a unique resource for everyone interested in ICT for
development. After using the database, please complete the survey that's
on the website.
You can search for messages in specific categories, geographic areas,
and along other criteria. You can also search for messages containing
specific words.
You will find below a press release announcing this new information
resource.
We hope to see *your* survey of:
www.GKDknowledge.org
Thanks!
Warm regards,
GKD Moderators
Online Global Community Offers Insights for Developing Countries
NEWTON, MA: The wisdom of thousands of people around the world and
their efforts to use information technologies (IT) in developing
countries is now available and accessible on the Web. For the past six
years, people have turned to an online forum, Global Knowledge for
Development (GKD), created by Education Development Center, Inc., as a
free, trusted, and moderated email discussion to learn from others'
experience on how best to use IT to improve education, health and
economic development. Now, these valuable discussions, including
thousands of messages, are readily available and easy to find at
www.GKDknowledge.org
It's hard to find out what people are doing with IT in developing
countries, says Janice Brodman of EDC. Many organizations spend
enormous amounts of money trying to get that kind of information. On
GKD, thousands of people from over 120 countries have been sharing
information for free, for years. Everyone knows how valuable the
information is, and with the new database, these messages are
accessible.
With support from infoDev, a program managed by the World Bank to help
developing countries overcome obstacles to effective use of IT, EDC
developed software that made it easy to code the GKD messages. It's
often a lot more valuable for someone in Uganda, say, to get information
from someone in the Philippines on what they're doing with computers,
than from someone in New York or Paris, says Stuart Klein, one of the
GKD moderators. Now that kind of experience and knowledge is
permanently available to everyone.
Here are some examples of the kind of help available from the new GKD
resource:
* Villages without electricity or phones learn how to get connected to
the Internet. Fantsuam Foundation of Nigeria explains how they use
mobile community telecentres to bring IT to poor, rural communities in
Nigeria that lack electricity and telephones.
* Entrepreurs can learn how to benefit from E-commerce and online
training: A Peruvian company E-Connexions describes how it helps
Peruvian businesses use e-commerce and get online training.
* Schools in developing countries can access good computer hardware:
World Computer Exchange (WCE), a US-based nonprofit organization, has
had over 40 responses to one GKD message where they presented their used
computers collected from US companies, outfitted with modern software,
and shipped to schools in developing countries.
* Volunteer Opportunities: GKD posts messages from the United Nations
Volunteers organization, guiding interested volunteers towards
opportunities in poor countries.
* Learn about people's struggles with governments and international
organizations: In the GKD controversies section, participants from
China talk of their experience with government censorship. People from
Mexico to Malaysia promote intellectual property rights that serve the
poor.
Many in developing countries turn to GKD as a primary tool to connect
with the rest of the world. Email is their most economical source of
information and they know they can trust the information on GKD. GKD
has helped us network, says Dorothy Okello, President of The Women of
Uganda Network (WOUGNET), who post their newsletter monthly on GKD.
Through GKD we've been able to collaborate with other women's networks
around the world, from Senegal to Romania.
EDC hopes to continue building the GKD resource well into the future.
We know from the thanks we receive how important this resource is to
those in developing countries, says Brodman. GKD is testimony that if
two heads are better than one, thousands of heads offer an unparalleled
source of knowledge.
***
Global Knowledge for Development (GKD) is an online forum where
thousands of people around the world share knowledge and experience
about the role of information technology in sustainable development. The
GKD database provides a user-friendly resource of cases, guidelines, and
