Workspaces:Intermediaries' changing environment
From IKMEmergent
| Intermediaries | |
|
Introduction
|
Changing Environment
This section of the workspace is led by Evangelia Berdou and will bring together articles specially commissioned for IKMemergent. The articles will highlight initiatives, actors and issues that illustrate new developments in the production and dissemination of information relevant for social, economic and political development. These developments form part of a changing information and communication environment that is characterised by an increased potential for learning and collaboration, even as it is burdened by persistent inequalities and new barriers. The contributions will frame the role of development research communication intermediaries, such as those participating in the IKMediary network by placing them in the context of forces that regulate access to online information at a fundamental level, either by limiting or framing existing information flows or by creating new possibiities for information exchange and collaboration. The articles, written practitioners and academics are organized into four themes:
In this theme we explore three important emerging issues around layers and agents of control in the new information and communication environment. In the first article, Jeremy Shtern examines why Net Neutrality, the institutional and technological arrangements that ensure that all online information flows are treated equally, is important in maintaining equitable access to information, especially for developing countries. In the second article featured in this section Claire Milne explains how mobile service providers have a pivotal role to play in determining how information is shared across mobile platforms. The third forthcoming contribution will consider the role of search engines in regulating access to online information.
How do online communities of volunteers that coalesce around common ideals and new tools involved in information production and dissemination change the landscape of resources, perspectives and discussions that we can tap into as global citizens? The articles in this theme explore this question from the perspective of leading members of initiatives involved in providing the tools and framework for collaboration that enable these virtual information sharing communities to form and thrive. In the first contribution, Chris Salzberg, a long time translator of Global Voices Online, a community of bloggers that highlight stories and perspectives not often featured in mainstream media, shares his views on ‘social translation’, the translation of the blogosphere by dedicated teams of volunteer translators. In the second article, Curt Beckman draws from his experience in setting up Appropedia, a wiki built to support the sharing of sustainable technological solutions in areas such as water sanitation and energy, to discuss how virtual communities complement or challenge the work of traditional organisations.
del.icio.us
