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Welcome to the IKM Emergent Website. It, like the programme it is part of, aims to explore, through multiple lenses and a variety of perspectives, what information and knowledges are used in the international development sector, how they are expressed, handled and received, and the possibilities for change if we are to make best use of emerging informational developments in the way we understand our work and communicate with others.

For further information about IKM Emergent and what it has produced, see 'About the programme' or 'Documents'.

For everything else this is a working website. What is here now is only the start of what will grow over the coming years, illustrating the many aspects of the programme and the issues it aims to cover. We intend to use it to display news and information about the programme; to collaboratively build workspaces, dedicated to exploring particular issues; and to map out the subject areas of the programme and collectively build an annotated bibliography. All spaces on this site are moderated by section editors but we welcome all contributions to the development of this work, or references to related work being done by others, and will indicate on the appropriate pages the contact details of the relevant editor.

What's new

Working Paper No 10

‘Things can be other than they are.’ Understanding the limitations of current management thinking and knowledge practice for work in the development sector by Julian Jenkins, July 2010 explores the types of problems which management face working in the development field and the nature of the information needed to address these problems. It also offers some practical examples of ways of developing the information needed.

Newsletter No. 4
The most recent issue of the newsletter, published in July 2010, is now online. The newsletter links to the recent synthesis of IKM, and to ongoing interactions and research. (Tue, 20 Jul 2010)

Summaries in French, Spanish and English
Summaries of IKM Working papers in three languages are now available. These are long summaries, designed to give detailed insight into the content of the Working Papers for those who do not want to read the whole text. (Fri, 02 Jul 2010)

IKM presentations available on-line

We have struggled with learning how to make various presentations made for IKM at different events available off our website. These will not get many marks for the professionalism of their production but at least they work and you can, if you have enough bandwidth, hear what is being said and see the slides. (Tue, 09 Feb 2010>

Predictability versus emergence in development

Last year IKM teamed up with some participants in the Bridging the Digital Divide Group of projects and members of the Information Systems Group at the Judge Business School to look at the tensions between desires for predictability and control as against unpredictability and emergence.

This started with a critical look at ICT4D research and then broadened out to consider these issues first in relation to development research and then to development management more generally. The work is planned to continue this yeat with proposals for a book, being led by Mark Thompson and Ineke Buskens, for involvement in the ICTD 2010 conference, which is being hosted by Royal Holloway in London in December and, possibly, meetings with similar interest groups in other countries.

The report by Adnan Rafiq and Nazish Gulzar on the workshop held to explore these issues in September 2009 is now available as Working Paper No. 9. (Thu, 04 Feb 2010)

Working papers and workshop on the use of information derived from participatory methodologies

Two new working papers derived from this process are now online.

They comprise:

• No. 6 Learning from, promoting and using participation: The case of international development organizations in Kenya by Stephen Kirimi and Eliud Wakwabubi, October 2009
  

• No. 7 How wide are the Ripples? by Hannah Beardon and Kate Newman, October 2009

(Tue, 02 Feb 2010)

New on other websites

Our reflections on the process

These reflections are derived from a blog being used by IKM Emergent to document the process of undertaking an iterative programme

The process diary...

Sharing knowledge with blogs

Looking at pingbacks from The Giraffe, I came across this blog post from Joitske Huslebosch about The giraffe blog used by IKM and colleagues. I didn’t know where to store this so I have decided to put a link here. It was posted for a group of Dutch civil servants – the link is to [...]

(Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:16:00 +0100)

I love Prezi (and the visualisation of knowledge)

On 10 June 2010, I went to a meeting of the Intellectual Capital Circle of the InHolland University of Applied Sceinces in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands, on the subject of visaulisation of knowledge. As visualisation of knowledge is one of the themes of IKM Emergent, I went along to see if I could gain any new insights to share with [...]

(Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:44:48 +0100)

 Our reflections on the content of the Programme 
 These reflections are derived from a blog being run by a core of members from Working Group 3, plus a number of colleagues from the broader field of knowledge management for development. 

The giraffe

Tracking African AgKnowledge and Local Content

Kapiti ranch is an ILRI research station near Machakos, Kenya. In July 2010 a planning group met to prepare for the IKM working group 2 activities this year, which centre on knowledge and local content on African Agriculture. Escapng from detailed conversations about agendas and processes to make sure we kept raising our eyes to [...]

(Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:20:57 +0100)

Evaluation revisited II: complexity and evaluation in a cleft stick?

  We are squeezed to death, between the two sides of that sort of alternative which is commonly called a cleft stick. (William Cowper, 1782) In the second of my personal reflections on the Evaluation revisited conference which took place in May 2010 in Utrecht, The Netherlands, I consider the relationship between complexity and evaluation, [...]

(Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:38:06 +0100)

Evaluation revisited I: rigorous vs. vigorous

At the end of May 2010, I attended – along with 150+ others, largely evaluation practitioners  – the two-day conference on Evaluation revisited: improving the quality of evaluative practice by embracing complexity in Utrecht, The Netherlands. It has its own website here with more detailed information of the programme, presentations etc. This is the first [...]

(Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:57:41 +0100)

IKM-relevant? Annual programme meeting, days 2 and 3

After exploring and discussing (on day 1) the various pieces of research work that have been undertaken in IKM-Emergent until now, the second day of the workshop started with a world café and continued with a ?birds of a feather session? (a marketplace / less-open space method) where we explored some ideas for the end [...]

(Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:03:58 +0100)

IKM-convergent? Annual programme meeting, Wageningen, day 1

A while back I blogged about the IKM-Emergent programme and its tendency to dispersion. The programme has evolved since then and a number of things are coalescing on this first day of the all-peeps IKM-Emergent  workshop (which brings together the three working groups, but also a number of new guests that are working on issues [...]

(Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:39:39 +0100)

 Other related resources 
 Other blogs are being run by members of IKM Emergent to support initiatives on digital story telling and local content. They include: 

ChilliMango

Content, not mere form, is crucial ? Tanya Notley

Tanya Notley

(Fri, 08 May 2009 00:36:23 +0100)

Water! Water!

 ?There was water all around but the plantation workers, but they dont have a little clean water to drink.? PrithiviRaj Pavithran, a community radio broadcaster from Kotmale, explains the story behind his digital story on how the plantation workers are affected by water scarcity and lack of sanitation facility.  Lets listen to Pavi       I was [...]

(Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:56:31 +0100)

our project

News

This week Kemly will be going to the last global meeting of the IKM Emergent Project, to share results with other members of the global team. We wish her the best. We are looking forward to have lots of useful information about other experiences around the world.

(Sun, 11 Apr 2010 23:54:49 +0100)

This project has meant to me?

By Adriana Sánchez* What do we mean when talking about local knowledge? Why is it important? Why is it different from expert knowledge? Can we use ICTs to rescue, revalue and position the local knowledge? How a process like this can empower a community? We had all this questions at the beginning and probably our [...]

(Mon, 05 Apr 2010 23:10:32 +0100)