Online communications for development Nick Scott 26 November 2008

Agenda 1.Introduction 2.The opportunities of online communications –Free content and information –New ways to engage 3.The challenges of online communications –Too many voices –Not accessible to all 4.Examples of online tools 5.The future –Mobile telephones –Location, location, location

Introduction What is online communications? –All communications taking place through the internet. Corporate websites s Elsewhere on the web –Video sharing –Photo sharing –Meetings in ‘virtual worlds’ –Networking sites

The opportunities of online communications – free content and information FREE content –Creative commons license CC is a “some rights reserved” copyright It helps you choose what rights you’d like to reserve Video from:

The opportunities of online communications – free content and information Creative commons Attribution. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit the way you request. Noncommercial. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work — and derivative works based upon it — but for noncommercial purposes only. No Derivative Works. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it. Share Alike. You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.

–Map from iki/Image:LocationMexico.png iki/Image:LocationMexico.png The opportunities of online communications – free content and information Maps – dia.org/wiki/Category: Mapshttp://commons.wikime dia.org/wiki/Category: Maps Images – Rember to check the license T&Cs for any resources you use. Protesters marching against high corn prices, Mexico, 2007 Source: flickr/PHOTOLARTE –Slide on potential effects of biofuels discusses the corn protests in Mexico.

The opportunities of online communications – free content and information Gapminder – visualisation of statistics Powered by UN Division of Statistics numbers Powerful online visualisation tool for statistics in a time series Currently can only be used with available UN stats

The opportunities of online communications – new ways to engage Sharing documents –Example tool is SlideShare: others are Google Docs. Blogs –Create a channel for discussion and rapid dissemination of information, especially for issues of topical interest. –There has been policy impact from a few blogs. Wikis –Collaborate together to make content –Most famous Wiki site – Wikipedia – is the first point of reference on many subjects Social media –Using information from the crowds – ‘crowdsourcing’ to get information on what matters in your “community” Meeting online –Second Life, Skype

The challenges of online communications – too many voices? Crowded marketplace –Lots of messages –Lots of locations –Lots of people What audience are you targeting? How do you stand out from the crowd?

The challenges of online communications - accessibility Can your audiences access information. Can they understand it? Map of internet traffic around the world internet-traffic-map.gif

The challenges of online communications - capabilities There are many different levels at which you can communicate – you need to take care of the basics first. online-communication-methods.html

The future More people on the internet More user generated content More people using mobiles More emphasis on communities More important to add value through high-quality content