[Air-l] Call for papers: Stewarding Technologies for Collaboration, Community Building & Knowledge Sharing in Development

[Beverly Trayner]

This could be of interest to some members of Air-l:

Call for Papers

KM4Dev Journal  Vol. 3, Issue 1, June 2007

“Stewarding Technologies for Collaboration, Community Building &  
Knowledge Sharing in Development”

The ‘Knowledge Management for Development Journal’ (KM4D Journal) is  
an open access, peer-reviewed, community-based journal on knowledge  
management in development – for and by development practitioners and  
researchers. The journal is closely related to the KM4dev community  
of practice, and can be read and downloaded at: www.km4dev.org/journal

Vol. 3, Issue 1, to be published in June 2007, will focus on  
innovative practices and uses of ‘technologies for knowledge  
sharing’. This focus comes on the wave of new web based tools and  
processes supporting knowledge sharing, knowledge management and  
organizational learning that have emerged. Sometimes called "Web 2.0"  
technologies, these tools allow people to collaborate over time and  
distance in both new ways and in new networked forms. It builds on  
previous issues on the importance of networks, working across  
boundaries and even sustainability.

Guest editors are comprised of Nancy White, Beth Kanter, Beverly  
Trayner, Partha Sarker and Brenda Zulu, in combination with Chief  
Editor, Lucie Lamoureux.

Rationale International development has always had to work across  
time and distance. With the increased access to internet connected  
computers and the development of a wider range of web based  
collaboration technologies, sometimes called "social software," a new  
practice is emerging of stewarding technology for knowledge sharing,  
knowledge management, collaboration and learning. By stewarding, we  
mean paying attention not just to the technology, but how it usefully  
applied by groups. Groups from within, across and between  
organizations can now work together every day without being in the  
same location. Collaborative networks which were never possible due  
to geographic limitations are now sharing knowledge, collecting data  
and doing team work.

The emergence and application of tools such as blogs, wikis, tagging,  
social search, web based content and learning management systems, pod  
and vodcasting intersect with various forms of collaboration such as  
distributed communities of practice, networks, and online communities.

Attention to the useful stewarding of technology is particularly  
important. The market changes rapidly. The accessibilty of the tools  
means many people are experimenting in diverse way. We are learning  
new processes and practices of technology in use and understanding  
the implications of technology on group dynamics. Sharing stories and  
knowledge in terms of how this technology is being stewarded is a  
critical piece of increasing both access to successful practices and  
increased success in collaboration. In this issue we hope to "shine a  
light" on technology stewardship for knowledge sharing and  
collaboration in development.

This issue

It is easy to focus on the technologies. They hype around "Web 2.0"  
and the crowded market of technology providers can make it easy to be  
both distracted and overwhelmed by the tools. But technologies alone  
don't create change or achieve goals. It is the people and practices  
using the tools that matter. This issue of the KM4Dev Journal will  
address the question of how how the international development  
community is identifying distributed collaboration opportunities,  
picking and configuring technology and developing practices to  
support the collaboration. The emphasis will be not just on the  
technology itself, but the processes of using technology to  
collaborate. What have we learned about what works, what doesn't work  
and what is just another distraction?

The issue will include papers from technology stewards and online  
knowledge sharing practitioners in the South and North. Of particular  
interest are recent experiences with both the the processes of  
supporting distributed collaboration and knowledge sharing, and the  
use of web based tools in that collaboration.

We invite technology stewards and online knowledge sharing  
practitioners, NGOs, resource centres, research institutes, think  
tanks, bilateral and multilateral development agencies and other  
organizations working in the context of development cooperation to  
propose papers covering topics such as:

     * Main challenges for distributed knowledge sharing and  
collaboration

     * Preconditions, entry points and strategies for using web based  
technologies for collaboration and KS

     * Experience gained in supporting adoption of distributed tools  
and processes for collaboration and KS (case studies featuring  
Dgroups experiences are especially welcome)

     * Specific approaches adopting web based collaboration technologies

     * Effective capacity building practices ensuring the long-term  
viability of distributed collaboration and KS

     * Considerations on how to balance web based collaboration and  
KS with more traditional F2F approaches, including issues of  
inclusion or exclusion with both approaches

     * Specific issues of development cooperation to be considered in  
capacity building for distributed collaboration and KS such as  
internet access, cost of technology infrastructure, intercultural  
communication, impact of technology on power, gender, or learning  
modalities

     * Reflections on capacity building for South-South distributed  
collaboration and KS

     * Future agenda for the stewarding of technology for  
collaboration and KS

About the team of guest editors

Nancy White is an independent consultant from the United States and a  
KM4D Journal Editorial Board Member.

Beth Kanter is an independent consultant from the United States.

Bev Trayner is an independent consultant from Portugal.

Partha Sarker is a Researcher with Telecentre.org (Canada) and Co- 
founder of Bytes for All (India).

Brenda Zulu is a Zambian freelance journalist and OneWorld Africa  
(OWA) volunteer editor.

Proposed deadlines

Submission deadline for the title and  
abstract                           28 February 2007

Acceptance of paper  
proposal                                                  15 March 2007

Submission of  
paper                                                              15  
April 2007

Peer-review  
completed                                                            
15 May 2007

Author revision completed and final version of paper submitted  31  
May 2007

(e)-publication  
date                                                               15  
June 2007

If you would like to submit a paper, or be actively involved in this  
initiative in any other ways, please send your abstract (minimum one  
paragraph – maximum one page) or your message by email to km4dj- 
editors at dgroups.org