PRADSA held its 4th Workshop on 11/12th March 2008 under the theme: Designing for the 21st Century: Using Web 2.0 Technologies (and Social Networking Tools) for Social Action. The Workshop drew over 40 delegates from both Europe and the United States. A diverse group of presenters gave presentations on a variety of topics in relation to web 2.0. These are summarised below. For full presentations, please follow the links right after the respective summaries.
Shaun's presentation touched on how development Aid can be more effective through the innovative use of new technologies. He made the case for a web 2.0 based platform which may enable donors, agents and local stakeholders to connect with one another in order to engage in constructive collaboration for development. Shaun posited that this would be a different open marketplace for aid which will allow for the creation of a global network and subsequently encourage direct involvement between philanthropists/donors and projects. Click here for the full presentation
Bernard shared his experience of using web 2.0 technologies in his MISPA project. He reflected on his and his project participants less affluent IT skills and how helpful the technologies they had adopted had been in terms of achieving their objectives. He also discussed some of the challenges they faced as a team as they embarked on the use of the technologies. His full presentation is here
Marc Ostens talk from the workshops
Niki's presentation addressed the problem of creating an online collaborative learning community using social networking tools and Facebook in particular. Niki talked about a small study that was conducted to record users’ behaviour on Facebook. Other aspects touched upon were the usability and utility of social networking tools and Facebook including the development of a group of practice with the sense of community. Click here for a full view of the presentation
Using a prototype implementation for a website of a local action group, Sameer discussed how the local group was using new technologies to get locals in an American town engaged in local and political issues. He also looked at some design problems that are often inherent in group websites and proposed some possible solutions for them. Click here for full presentation
Till's talk was on making use of web 2.0 for collaboration, best-practice mining and management focussed on NGOs. He explored ways of collaborative creation, understanding social interaction through use of web 2.0 concepts. Click here for full presentation
Andy Gibson and Dougald Hine, co-founders of School of Everything spoke of how everyone has something to teach and something to learn whether on or offline. Andy gave more insight on this through the video above, courtesy of David Wilcox