dgroups: communities of practice for development

Dgroups:Communit ies of Pract ice for developmentDr Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Chair, DgroupsFoundationwww.dgroups.info K4D 2017

Out l ine/ overview

1. What is Dgroups?

2. What is the role of Dgroups& CoPsin AK4D & SDGs?

3. What can we do to maximise the potent ial of CoPs?

What is a CoP?

“A community of practice is a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” Etienne Wenger

What is a CoP?

Virtual CoPs

1. What is Dgroups?

The Dgroups vision:

“A world where every person is able to contribute to dialogue and decision-making for internat ional development and social just ice”

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Each Dgroups Partner:

• Membership of DgroupsCouncil• www.dgroups.org/YOURNAME• Unlimited # CoPs• Unlimited # affiliates• IT support • Mutual support from other Partners

to create and sustain CoPs.

Dgroups

>800 CoPs(~40 CoPs per Partner)

>0.25m members>0.5m messages/day

Example of a Dgroup: KM4Dev

km4dev@dgroups.org

>2,400 members in 115 countries

Example of Dgroups: HIFA

hifa@dgroups.org

>16,000 members in 176 countries

Dgroups works because…

• Simple, reliable software (Community Cloud)

• Email-based – very easy to use• Non-commercial, Multilingual,

Effective…

2. What is the role of Dgroups and CoPs in K4D/ SDGs?

How to improve communicat ion?Old way: 1000s of F2F meetings

Environmentally damaging

Expensive

Exclusive

Sporadic

Opaque

How to improve communicat ion?Old way: 1000s of F2F meetings

New way:Fewer F2F meetings, connected by 24/7 CoPs

Environmentally damaging Environmentally friendly

Expensive Inexpensive

Exclusive Inclusive

Sporadic Continuous

Opaque Transparent

3. What can we doto maximise the potent ial of CoPs?

What can we do?

1. Include CoPs in Agenda K4D

2. Commit to support CoPs

3. Join Dgroups

Join Dgroups

www.dgroups.info

neil@hifa.orgThank you