AGCommons a CGIAR-delivered project using maps and other local information to help farmers in rural Africa In Africa, for Africa, with Africa.

Sometimes I face bouts of uncertainty and wonder if the work we do in the CGIAR really reaches the people for whom it was intended. I know others feel the same way, as I’ve had conversations with people on this very topic. Since I started working with the ICT-KM Program, I’ve had the opportunity...

Here is the flow of blog posts that document our recent social media workshop: Workshop Announcement Introductions Summary: A Mind Map Conference Call 1A Summary Conference Call 1B Summary The Challenge of introducing new tools: About attitudes and preferences The web site is not the community: it’s...

You Mean Unfinished is Good? Yes! In the very recently released final Institutional KS Project report, one of the lessons I am sharing is the one about Facilitation: Facilitate: We are not experts, but facilitators for research for development. Hence, the effort to cultivate networks and relationships...

Here’s a test: Take a look at the bookmarks of your favorite websites and blog sites, and tell me how often you browse them? If your answer is not often enough, allow me to let you in on a little secret – it’s called “RSS” in geekspeak, and “newsfeeds” in English. If you’d...

Social media workshop evaluation We, the workshop facilitators invited participants to review the activities through comments on the workshop platform, as well as through an online survey. We have set up surveys for all the workshops in the past. We did our own facilitator debrief as well. Here are some...

The web site is not the community: it’s the people The second and last call of the social media workshop was about strategies. How do we use social media tools effectively? How do we choose the tools according to our user groups, bandwidth constraints, and organisational culture? How do we plan...

Newsletters are like teasers – they highlight issues and activities, celebrate success stories, point to useful resources and give you a hint of upcoming events. A great way to build a relationship with your target audience, an email (e-) newsletter is cost-effective and a valuable tool for communicating...

The Challenge of introducing new tools: About attitudes and preferences Today we received some fundamental questions about social media practices. Getting social media into use is indeed a crucial issue and we got one question about possible ways to achieve staff adoption and involvement. I wrote this...

The second social media workshop of CGIAR’s ICT-KM Program kicks off next Monday with 35 participants from 10 different organizations, among those IFAD, CTA, IRG, and CARDI. The facilitators team Nancy White, Meena Arivananthan, and Simone Staiger-Rivas also welcome participants from 2 Challenge Programs,...