BASE

In December 2009, Michael Roberts of Groupsia International was asked to collaborate on a project called The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI): a new initiative of the international development community aimed at making information about aid spending easier to access, use and understand, particularly for those in developing countries. Working alongside an international multi-stakeholder technical advisory group lead by members of the OECD-DAC, the project’s objective is to build an online database based on existing international standards and definitions.

On Sunday, December 6th, the city of Ottawa hosted its first TEDx Talk: a local, self-organized event that brings together people from different communities and disciplines to be inspired by local speakers who take the stage to share their life experiences, passions and knowledge for the sake of collaboration and community.

Bellanet Alliance has been putting its effort since quite some time in South Asia to make Information and Communication Technologies foster collaboration and sharing among development practioners in South Asia through SAP International. We have been trying hard to convince development practitioners in the region who still follow orthodox way of communication and collaboration to make effecient use of available tools and technologies.

It is true and probable that African organizations and groups that work together are ready and willing to explore their full potential to share knowledge, collaborate, communicate and network through the use of collaborative tools in spite of some problems that stand in their way.

Since July 2009, Groupsia has been working in a collaborative working space in downtown Ottawa called The Code Factory.

In collaboration with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Groupsia has been working since December 2008 to strengthen the Cambodia Development Research Forum’s (CDRF) online communication strategy. Following the recommendations put forward during IDRC’s first ever all-partners meeting in Cambodia in September 2007, Groupsia was called upon to develop an accelerated ICT platform to help the Cambodia research community manage information and communicate with one another, as well as the broader development community.

In December 2008, Groupsia was appointed by the Global Knowledge Partnership’s (GKP) Executive Committee to lead a small task force in conducting a consultative evaluation and visioning process for the future and role of this international organization.

Given each year by Global Libraries, the foundation's Access to Learning Award recognizes the innovative efforts of public libraries or similar organizations outside the United States to connect people to information through free access to computers and the Internet.  More details are available at following URL.
www.gatesfoundation.org/atla/Pages/access-to-learning-award-overview.aspx