FOSS

Using video in change work

storytelling — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:29:35 -0700

Video can be used to great effect in change and KM projects in order to 'tell the story' in powerful ways. This short video was used in a change project to encourage users to move to FOSS (Free and Open Source Software). The video was also part of a competition where users could enter to describe the moment when that"saw the light" about FOSS. In this way the story is told and emphasized using a variety of media.

KM & Communications

Change at hand: Web 2.0 for development

KMAadmin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:18:37 -0600

Web 2.0 tools and approaches are radically changing the ways we create, share, collaborate and publish digital information through the Internet. Participatory Web 2.0 for development – or Web2forDev for short – is a way of employing web services to intentionally improve information-sharing and online collaboration for development. Web 2.0 presents us with new opportunities for change – as well as challenges – that we need to better understand and grasp. This special issue shares learning and reflections from practice and considers the ways forward for using Web 2.0 for development.

PART I: OVERVIEW

Change at hand: Web 2.0 for development
The two hands of Web2forDev: a conference summary

PART II: STUDIES OF WEB 2.0 TOOLS

Exploring the potentials of blogging for development
Web 2.0 tools to promote social networking for the Forest Connect alliance
Promoting information-sharing in Ghana using video blogging
Mobile phones: the silver bullet to bridge the digital divide?

PART III: ISSUE-BASED STUDIES

Anti social-computing: indigenous language, digital video and intellectual property
Tools for enhancing knowledge-sharing in agriculture: improving rural livelihoods in Uganda
Ushahidi or ‘testimony’: Web 2.0 tools for crowdsourcing crisis information
Web 2.0 for Aboriginal cultural survival: a new Australian outback movement

PART IV: THEORY AND REFLECTION ON PRACTICE

Circling the point: from ICT4D to Web 2.0 and back again
Web 2.0 tools for development: simple tools for smart people
The Web2forDev story: towards a community of practice

PART V: TIPS FOR TRAINERS

Web 2.0 tools: a series of short introductions

Each introductory guide provides a brief description of the Web 2.0 tool and how it can be used for development purposes, along with links to further information and where applications can be downloaded online (more information also in e-participation):

Blogging
Micro-blogging and Twitter
Wikis
Online social networking
RSS feeds
Tagging
Social bookmarking
Glossary of Web 2.0 terms

This special issue is co-published with the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

KM & Communications

Why load Ubuntu Linux on your PC?

KMAadmin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:03:38 -0600

The Linux operating system is becoming increasingly popular and offers a stable desktop platform including the respectable Openoffice office suite for free. You can load Ubuntu Linux onto your windows computer and, on boot up, decide which operating system you want to use - Windows or Linux. In addition to cost, there are many advantages to taking a serious look at Linux including an awesome array of free software to support almost any field of human endeavour. And if you are still attached to your old windows programs, the Ubuntu Linux supports a Windows emulator called Wine that can run many (but not all) your windows programs. In addition, remind yourself that it is exploring and learning new things that keeps you young and interesting.

You can request a free copy of Ubuntu Linux by going to Official Ubuntu Website Shipment is free to any country.

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Of cultures and operating systems

storytelling — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:42:57 -0600

Without an operating system, computer hardware is inanimate and about as capable as a brick. In the early days, the operating system was considered to be an integral part of the computer until a brilliant move by Bill Gates when the hardware was separated from the operating system with MS.DOS Version 1.0. From this point, the operating system became glamorous, glitzy and branded as a consumer product - and had to be paid for separately to the hardware.

I use 3 operating systems - MS.Windows XPPro , Ubuntu 9,04 (Jaunty Jackalope) and Windows Mobile 6.0 on my HTC palmtop. I first started using Linux about 4 years ago. Up 'till then I used Microsoft exclusively apart from my experiences with some of the more exotic operating systems of the early 1980s which included the Commodore PET (with 16Kb RAM!), the Sinclair ZX-81, an o/s for designing integrated circuits called Gaelic and even an O/S called Gerbil.

In using different operating systems, I've noticed that each operating system causes me to interact quite differently with the hardware - an altogether different user experience. On Windows, there are particular rituals that are missing on Linux; I have to do defrags and chkdsks, run virus checker updates (I pay for virus checkers and anti-spyware) and and fiddle with swap files from time to time. I spend much more time on ubuntu now day-to-day and it has always been exceptionally reliable and stable. There are also thousands of software titles available for instant installation and download from Astronomy all the way to Managing a Zoo (I live in a house with teenagers!)

The point is that an operating system has many interesting parallels to culture - a culture inhibits certain behavours whilst stimulating others and in the same way certain programs can run within a particular operating system whilst others cannot. Your apple or Linux software won't run on Windows. A culture can also put you into certain patterns of being and behaving of which you can become completely unconscious - where things can become so commonplace and everyday that they become 'the way we do things around here' - they have become a paradigm.

Fireside Chat

Office Software

KMAadmin — Mon, 04 May 2009 08:34:30 -0600

An office suite is a basic essential piece of software for the Knowledge Worker. For those of us who have spent many years on computers, there is now a free and OpenSource (FOSS) program called OpenOffice version 3.0 which does everything that Microsoft Office does including Spreadhseets, Word Processing, Drawing and Presentations. OpenOffice is compatible with a great many file formats including Excel, Word (including the latest .docx formats), Powerpoint which means that you will be able to carry on working on your existing files without interruption. If you have worked on Microsoft software before, you will find the interface in OpenOffice easy and intuitive although it is not as glitzy as the Microsoft product.

Have a look at the OpenOffice Website for further details and to download the suite.