Six months ago, when Meena Arivananthan posted the first installment of her Social Media Series on our blog, no one could have envisaged the impact and popularity of her articles. This versatile woman has a passion for both writing and knowledge sharing, attributes that are evident in her posts. Indeed,...

During the recent World Congress of Agroforestry (WCA2009) in Nairobi, Kenya, the Congress reporting team plunged headlong into social media in a bid to maximize the event’s communications, which was achieved via the Congress blog, the @icraf Twitter account, pictures on Flickr and bookmarks on...

In the beginning … Shwu Jiau Teoh Way back in the early 1980s, there was no email in the CGIAR. When scientists wanted to collaborate with each other, they did so using the technology available at that time: phone, fax, telex and cable. Some of these communication methods were often slow and unreliable,...

Thanks to Nancy White, workshop facilitator for sharing this update. The “Social Media in International Development” Workshop kicked off on September 7th with four CGIAR members, two World Bank staffers, a representative from a Dutch NGO and from an Australian university. With this diversity,...

Chantal and Vanessa tweeting from the plenary on Day 1, WCA2009 We’re past midway through the Congress, it’s end of Day 3. The WCA2009 blog is up and running with a variety of posts, lots of photos are available on the ICRAF Flickr photostream, and the @icraf on Twitter has 300 tweets from the plenary...

The 2nd World Congress on Agroforestry starts Monday and preparations are hectic here at the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi. The reporting team is getting ready to make some buzz about the Congress. We’ll do our best to leverage social media to increase reach, participation and sharing during...

… at final last. This morning I was at ILRI Headquarters in Nairobi to meet with a few people that I had only met virtually, via email or skype or phone. With some we carry out common work so it’s a steady relationship.  It was so good to finally have the opportunity to meet them in person. First,...

Source: IMDb - © 2003 - Disney Enterprises, Inc. / Pixar Animation Studios When I started drafting this post about our traffic trends for the first two quarters of 2009, I thought I’d call it: Six months of social media and how are we doing? But, as I was writing it, I realized that the story...

Why do some of us shy away from trying out new technology such as social media? I can think of several reasons: too complicated to figure out; too expensive to implement; my supervisor/colleagues would never approve; more suitable for geeks and teenagers; it’ll take too much time … Or my personal...

“Social media is using the Internet to collaborate, share information, and have a conversation about ideas, and causes we care about, powered by web based tools.” – [We Media] Background From the learnings from the successful pilot (See blog posts about the event), and second  Social Media Online...