[Sigkm-l] [Fwd: Call for papers: “Stewarding Technologies for Collaboration, Community Building & Knowledge Sharing in Development”]

[M.J. Menou]

Apologies for cross posting

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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