A Vision for Embracing the Global ICT4D* Conversation By Nicolas Friederici

* Information and Communication Technology for Development

Private sector SMEs in developing

countries Policy makers

Donations Research reports

Activity reports

infoDev audience & output

Problem: (Almost) No one

interacts with infoDev's output

…?

Current Social Media

Engage in the conversation! “A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That’s why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.” Truman Capote

… and many

more…

A blog by

An interactive blog as the core communication hub

… featuring…

Themes: Professional & Personal Ratings & reviews for reports Videos and podcasts to illustrate

local conditions in developing world Social blogs include personal stories

about work in developing countries Guest blogs In addition to social media: Inter-

active database of infoDev projects

Stakeholders ICT4D Experts

Insights vs. Success stories

infoDev staff infoDev reports

Contributions & Content

Feedback Reviews

Insights vs. Evaluations

A blog by

Example Incubator Dakar, Senegal Client Firms: 62 Graduated Firms Jobs Created: 15 Success Story: A Women's Sewing and Dyeing Enterprise at NCNW in Senegal Local Voice: Mbarou Gassama What others say: No replies yet (give us feedback!) Research report: pdf, reviews (write a review!) Other links: My Senegal Experience by Maja Andjelkovic Related topics: Business incubators, success stories

Example: Incubator Info

What can a blog do for infoDev?

Benefits Metrics

Visibility of infoDev Clicks

Feedback on prior work # of comments on blog, regular mini-surveys with bloggers, ratings of blog entries / reports

Best practices for future work Mini-surveys with bloggers

Give SMEs and other clients in developing world a voice

# of comments & clicks by these stakeholders

Marketing of infoDev projects & toolkits

Click throughs

Facilitate global collaboration (e.g., webinars, online conferences)

E.g., savings through telecommuting

Budget

infoDev is donor-funded, no revenues / ROI Benchmark: Share of social media marketing in marketing budgets: infoDev spending for dissemination and outreach in 2006:

infoDev annual social media marketing budget:

1 http://www.brafton.com/news/cmos-planning-increases-in-social-media-marketing-budgets 2 2006 is most recent year available, http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.482.html

~ 10 %1

~ $700k2

~ $70k

Budget item Number of units

Cost per unit

Cost per item

Man-days turning reports into blog entries (assistants) 40 200 8,000

Man-days creating other content (2 blog entries per year from every one of 20 staff members expected & paid)

20 600 12,000

Man-days taking quarterly surveys (~20 min, staff of 20) 4 600 2,400

25 % position for blog content admin 0.25 80,000 20,000

25 % position for blog technical admin (assistant) 0.25 40,000 10,000

Commissioning mini video production to local stakeholders in developing world

10 2,000 20,000

Domain, hosting, software 1 500 500 Total spending per year 72,900

Jan: Content & tech admin set up blog

Feb & Mar: Staff and stakeholders are briefed (e.g., through mailings)

Mar & Apr: Recent & new reports are turned into blog content

Apr & May: First videos, staffers post, outreach to ICT4D blogs & SEO by admins

Jun & ongoing: Conversation: Rich content & interaction (comments, ratings, feedback, surveys…)

Timeline & Conclusion

Turn technical reports into something that will be heard, increase impact Encourage interaction between multitude of stakeholders & experts Receive localized feedback & different perspectives for improvement of own work