I received word of this from a CIC alum (thanks, Garin). I unfortunately have class during the first webcast tomorrow, but I plan to watch the one on Thursday.

The DFE Proposal I submitted in the fall went forward, and I thought I would blog some of my experiences thus far.

Sara Naab has been an exceptional mentor. I would strongly recommend that anyone interested in learning more about thinking through information strategies in an international setting get in touch with her, even just to talk. Our weekly phone calls have been a real help this semester, even just to share information and struggles.

Freedom From Hunger

From the Freedom From Hunger website: "Founded in 1946, Freedom from Hunger is a nonprofit, international development organization that brings innovative and sustainable self-help solutions to the fight against chronic hunger and poverty." FFH is a training organization focusing on microcredit, health and food security. For more information, I would recommend their content management system at http://www.ffhtechnical.org.

I'm going to be emailing Peter Keller-Transburg to initiate the interview process with him. I'll track progress here at this blog posting. I guess you could say this is my way of holding myself accountable to the group.

Background

Please note the final version of this proposal: Tracking Social Performance Indicators.

With much help from alumnus Sara Naab, here is my DFE proposal. I'd like to do this as an independent study this winter, if possible. The organization is "Freedom From Hunger," a training organization focusing on microfinance, health and food security. They have also have a CMS up. Edit: I wonder how the public goods/public information work concepts map to FFH. Their mission is to build capacity in microfinance institutions. Micro loans aren't public goods. I guess you could argue that the knowledge FFH provides to institutions is a public good. ie. My using the knowledge to make my institution better doesn't stop you from using the same knowledge to make your institution better. And it's difficult to exclude people from benefiting from the knowledge ...Is that right? Knowledge is hard to fence in, and all of the recipients of loans are benefiting from the dispersal of best practices. (However, FFH is trying to make money by training people in those best practices, so there must be some barrier to using the knowledge.) If this works, then my proposed DFE fits into our Public Information Work scheme as "enhancing the internal operations of organizations that perform public work." It's an information input to public work.

I posted prior but it somehow didn't save -- now formating is lost :( I am struggling through performing an assessment of organizational knowledge for my organization. This document will be the basis for both our knowledge management and IT strategies. I’ve just finished a basic outline. Since you all have the luxury of being surrounded with theory and professors and each other to think about information issues, maybe you will have insight that I am missing. Below is a high level outline that I’ve put together – are there things missing? Does it follow a logical sequence?

Hi all -

Please find below information re: 4-12 month paid internships with Telecentre.org at the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa, Canada. Under the terms of IDRC's charter and funding priorities, these are open to NATIONALS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES (OR CANADIANS) ONLY (dual citizens would also be eligible). Note also that the posted start date of January 2007 is negotiable, and interested SI candidates could almost certainly negotiate a May start date to coincide with the Michigan summer break.

Zhengfei Liu was an intern last summer with a Chinese Government agency, introducing training programs, amongst other duties.

Here's a list of some NGOs beyond those mentioned in class yesterday:

-Women for Women International
-CARE
-International Rescue Committee
-Direct Relief International
-Samaritan's Purse

Our speaker for the Saturday event, Michigan CIC's annual reunion, has now been confirmed for 1 pm. You and any of your students who might be arriving in town early are welcome to attend. Richard Fuchs of the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa will talk on "The End of the World As we Know it?: ICTs and Development into the Future." Also joining us will be Mark Surman, Managing Director of Telecentre.org, the new IDRC / Microsoft / Swiss Dev Agency collaboration.