Warren Feek

as presented at the VIII International Communication for Development Roundtable, Managua, Nicaragua

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...global forces...local choices...critical voices...telling stories...

Partners: The Rockefeller Foundation, BBC World Service Trust, The CHANGE Project, CIDA, The European Union, Exchange, FAO, Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs, The Panos Institute, Soul City, The Synergy Project, UNAIDS, UNICEF, USAID, WHO.

Goals

Expand dialogue, debate and review of key communication issues and programmes

Effectively advocate the importance of communication for effective development

Advance the extent and quality of communication for change information

Improve strategic communication thinking on development issues

Focus

People and organisations using communication strategies to achieve progress on priority development issues.

Organisations providing technical and financial support to communication strategies that seek to achieve progress on priority development issues.

[Emerging] Developing Country journalists, news and entertainment media organisations

Communication Covers…

MEDIUM:

Radio - Television - Printed Material - Computing and Internet - Telephone and Fax - Advertising - Personal Contact - Community Action - Film and Video - Live Drama   

STYLE:

Entertainment - News and Information -Traditional Folk Media - Marketing - Interpersonal - Advocacy Community Participation - Awards and Recognition

Strategy

Guiding Operational Principles

What do you need that will help you do your job better today?

You choose according to your context and interests

Recognition, profile, community, connections, respect, voices from the on-the-ground action

Progress: Demand, Use, Feedback

Some indications:

• Latin America up and running in Spanish
• 60,824 individual user sessions in October
• 26,013 unique hosts in October
• 18,000 plus DB subscribers – Global 14,000 and 6,000 Latin America [overlap]
• 65% in The South
• 250 to 400 new subscribers a month [varies]
• 18 to 20 minutes per user on site
• Overloaded with info for DB and site
• Recent sections – eg. Training - good initial use and increasing
• Very good feedback - LA and Global
• Interactive processes beginning to take off
• Partnership extremely supportive
• “Tapped” contemporary interest and demand – eg. Making Waves
• Strong brand presence
• Trends are all consistently up - users, uniques, subscribers, interaction, etc
• Increased demand to help

Are the people we want to engage, the ones who are engaged?

Indicators:

• Quality and quantity of information provided
• Consistent level of feedback
• Web use up on Mondays and Thursdays [ DB's are out weekends and Wednesdays]
• Web use much higher during week than weekends
• Depth of use of the site
• Nature of people requesting to receive Drum Beat – we ask for details
• Time on web site
• Etc.

Accessing/Use Of Website

Notes:

• We are not after mass demand/use – we are supporting, servicing, connecting a defined “community”
• Can only get an insight through the stats – do not prove impact
• Trend and comparative data is only within a site [not between sites] because of different counting systems and Site construction – eg number of images on page
• ...but do give an interesting insight...

Page Views

Page Views - per day

Visitor Sessions

Visitor Sessions - average per day

Unique Visitors

Countries Accessing

Hits - entire site

Hits - average per day

C. “Tables”

The facilities through which we do our work

Provide us with the ability to maximise impact and reach and gain synergy

Different than, for example, a series of unrelated, one-off, discreet projects

The common tables we try to get everyone to congregate around - our tables can take any ‘meal' at any time….

The SUMMARY ‘Table'

easily digested information with links to the details

Programme Descriptions

http://www.comminit.com/en/experiences.html

Evaluation data

http://www.comminit.com/en/evaluations.html

Materials

http://www.comminit.com/en/materials.html

Events

http://www.comminit.com/en/events.html

Training

http://www.comminit.com/en/training.html

Strategic Thinking

http://www.comminit.com/strategicthinking.html

and in The Drum Beat, Son de Tambora, DB Classifieds, Home Page and Banners

The NEWS ‘Table'

Development and Communication News

Communication for Development News

and in The Drum Beat and Son de Tambora

The DIALOGUE ‘Table'

Discussion on major issues

Our Forums - examples

Drum Beat Chat

Specific Forums for particular purposes - examples

The Round Table Forum

Making Waves Forum

The RESEARCH ‘Table'

Investigating key areas of interest on-line

Present Examples

The Competency Questionnaire

The New Technology Survey

The SEARCH ‘Table'

Ability to find what you want when you want it

Key word search

Custom Search

Segment search – eg within Materials

Related sites “ring-fence” and search

The NETWORK ‘Table'

The people interested and engaged

Maximizer:

• Now 18,000 plus
• Most are coded – geography, interests, nature of organisation, etc
• Can create mini-networks – eg. all interested in gender; everyone in Francophone West Africa
• Will ‘soon' be available to everyone in C.I. team

The PERSONALISATION ‘Table'

People configuring the web site for their interests

In Development:

Supports people to configure part of the home page of the website to prioritise their specific interests [eg. rural development, Africa].

Each time they enter the site, that section presents the most recent material, relevant to their interests on our site and the linked related sites

The MAGASINE ‘Table'

weekly information updates

The Drum Beat

The Son De Tambora

DB Classifieds

The WINDOWS ‘Table'

Theme entries into the web site with Boundaries around that theme.

PRESENT EXAMPLES

Health Communication

HIV/AIDS Communication

http://www.comminit.com/en/hiv-aids.html

The COMMENTARY ‘Table'

Space for people to present their considered opinions

The OPINION POLL ‘Table'

Taking snap shots of opinions in the International development field

PULSE – about to be launched!

Strategy

Each ‘table' has it's own identity; and, there is synergy between them.

The C.I.'s own key technologies support and enable these tables - provide their legs and shape

• Coding system
• Jpres and Jtext direct upload facilities
• Personalisation [on stream soon]
• “Segregated” databases

Increasingly close working relationship with development focussed web based networks in South

• SANGONet
• ProPOOR
• Bytes-for-All
• ANDI
• FemNet
• JAA
• Kabissa
• InfoDev
• National Network Alliance
• Etc.