dgroups: communities of practice for development
TRANSCRIPT
Dgroups:Communities of Practice for developmentDr Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Chair, Dgroups Foundationwww.dgroups.info K4D 2017
Outline/overview1. What is Dgroups?2. What is the role of Dgroups & CoPs in AK4D & SDGs?3. What can we do to maximise the potential of CoPs?
What is a CoP?“A community of practice is a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” Etienne Wenger
What is a CoP?
Virtual CoPs
1. What is Dgroups?
The Dgroups vision:
“A world where every person is able to contribute to dialogue and decision-making for international development and social justice”
[add members logos]
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Each Dgroups Partner:• Membership of Dgroups Council• www.dgroups.org/YOURNAME• Unlimited # CoPs• Unlimited # affiliates• IT support • Mutual support from other
Partners to create and sustain CoPs.
Dgroups>800 CoPs(~40 CoPs per Partner)
>0.25m members>0.5m messages/day
Example of a Dgroup: KM4Dev
[email protected]>2,400 members in 115 countries
Example of Dgroups: HIFA
[email protected]>16,000 members in 176 countries
Dgroups works because…
• Simple, reliable software (Community Cloud)
• Email-based – very easy to use• Non-commercial, Multilingual,
Effective…
2. What is the role of Dgroups and CoPs in K4D/SDGs?
How to improve communication?Old way:
1000s of F2F meetings
Environmentally damaging
Expensive
Exclusive
Sporadic
Opaque
How to improve communication?Old way:
1000s of F2F meetings
New way:Fewer F2F meetings, connected by 24/7 CoPs
Environmentally damaging Environmentally friendly
Expensive Inexpensive
Exclusive Inclusive
Sporadic Continuous
Opaque Transparent
3. What can we do to maximise the potential of CoPs?
What can we do?1. Include CoPs in Agenda
K4D2. Commit to support CoPs3. Join Dgroups
Join Dgroups
Further info: www.dgroups.info