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the site below is the segue from omidyar.net-- very interesting re microfinance, etc.-- an

http://wiserearth.org/article/ae936f10e632db9f4991a805e9c5a550//

[[Iranian Blogosphere|]]
Information:
The Wikimedia Project
Wikipedia campaign to increase the usage of development languages in wikipedia and "Help Change the World"



another development -- using movie stars on social networking websites to publicize causes:

do a case study of Natalie Portman at SIPA? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UY_qd7q2mw&mode=related&search
(You can also do youtube search, Natalie Portman Columbia University). Who is the organization that put it up? How was it arranged with the professor? How many hits? Any measurable impact or benefit?
[Web 2.0 and Social Networking https://inafu6212-001-2007-3.wikispaces.columbia.edu/tag/xml/web2.0?v=rss_2_0]article about digg -- http://www.seomoz.org/blog/top-100-digg-users-control-56-of-diggs-homepage-content

This is also a good website as a basic introduction to Web 2.0 - with examples of many Web 2.0 applications (some of which I was not even aware of). http://www.deitel.com/eBook/Contents/tabid/2480/Default.aspx (Best of all: This website was actually found via del-icio-us using 'Web 2.0' tag - proving the power of social bookmarking)

Government & Web 2.0

[[http://www.netsquared.org/projects/proposals/kabissa-2-0-strengthening-social-web-africa|]]
(From Leehe)
Example of Web 2.0 website: http://www.netsquared.org/projects/proposals/kabissa-2-0-strengthening-social-web-africa

More examples of using web 2.0 for development issues:
check out google earth applications and user based presentations of conflicts:
Last year's war in Lebanon http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2006/07/israellebanon_c.html
Darfur Region: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/04/10/google.genocide/index.html


(From Nichole)

Since we will be finding so many relevant sites, I think one of the most important functions of our Wiki will be to evaluate the actual impact these tools have on real progress. I don't know how we can evaluate something as elusive as a specific site's impact, but maybe we can come up with a working set of criteria.

RELEVANT SITES FOR OUR WIKI IN GENERAL - to be sorted and divvied up for further analysis later

World Peace Project

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_International_development - kind of along the lines of what we're trying to do with our wiki. definitely not complete, but lots of resources we can look at

**http://www.omidyar.net/home/** - social change/environmental justice

**http://www.ned.com/home/** - Ned.com is an all-volunteer, member-governed, online social network (in combination with real-world locations) that is made up of social entrepreneurs, activists, artists, social purpose enterprises, grassroots nonprofit, non-governmental, and community-based organizations, and is collaborating and taking action locally, nationally & globally, in order to make the world a better place.

****http://beta.razoo.com/**** - Razoo is a community united around making a positive difference in the world. Where passion leads to action, and a whole lot of collective good comes from individual contributions.

****http://us.oneworld.net/**** - global information & communication - blog section is particularly relevant

**http://betterworldisland.ning.com/** - Better World Island exists in the virtual world Second Life. We provide a unique environment for people to interact,gain awareness,share their projects,and connect to make the real world a better place.

****http://www.kabissa.org/our_charter.html**** - Kabissa’s mission is to help African civil society organization put information and communication technologies to work for the benefit of the people they serve. - not Web 2.0 but contains info on how internet is being used for development in Africa - could be useful for Deepna?

****http://www.impactalliance.org/ev_en.php**** - The Impact Alliance is a dynamic space for partners and members to share, learn and collaborate to define and develop standards of excellence in the art and practice of capacity building.

****http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/**** - Global Voices aggregates, curates, and amplifies the global conversation online – shining light on places and people other media often ignore.

http://www.netsquared.org/

scidev.net - The Science and Development Network (SciDev.Net) aims to provide reliable and authoritative information about science and technology for the developing world.Our goal is to help both individuals and organisations in developing countries make informed decisions about how science and technology can improve economic and social development.






From Yan Duan
China NGO2.0


CHINA WEB 2.0 CASE STUDY

http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6850080

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/oct2007/db20071019_510047.htm

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2006/tc20060112_434051.htm

**http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9803915**

http://www.cwrblog.net/ - China Web2.0 Review is a blog dedicated to track web2.0 development, review and profile web2.0 applications, business and services in China.

**http://www.xiaonei.com/** - China's Facebook

**http://www.tudou.com/index.html** - China's YouTube

**http://www.wealink.com/index.html;jsessionid=841EB620284D20860D122813C9C548F1.worker1** - China's LinkedIn

**http://www.anothr.com/** - Chinese RSS tool

**http://www.douban.net/** - book and music reviews - just as an example of Web 2.0 - we can get rid of this later//




Web 2.0 and Social Networking in India
<PHOTO>
Background
Among developing countries, India is well-poised to harness the capabilities of Web 2.0 and social networking for development purposes.
India’s blogosphere is well-established and very active. In fact, Asia’s most active bloggers are from India, according to a study conducted by Synovate AsiaBUS that measures the frequency bloggers write on their blogs or contribute to other blogs.
baba4.jpg
http://www.indianweb2.com/2007/08/india-contribution-in-web-20/
Amit Dasgupta, General Manager of Global Business Services for IBM India, is optimistic about the potential of Web 2.0 to facilitate development in India. At the 2007 Web2forDev Conference he said:

“Web 2.0 offers so many compelling advantages compared to older technologies, that I foresee an extensive use of this new technology. In order to develop effective knowledge sharing applications for the agriculture sector for example, academic and research institutions, government agencies, NGOs, commercial organizations and users must collaborate since integration of data from multiple sources is necessary to provide meaningful information and content. Moreover, dissemination of this knowledge is crucial for successful deployment of these applications. The challenges for geographically dispersed organizations working in different fields, to jointly work together to address the requirements for such solutions are real, but could be resolved by leveraging the Web 2.0 framework which facilitates collaborative development of functionally richer applications.”
http://blog.web2fordev.net/2007/09/23/leveraging-web-20-to-develop-better-applications-for-rural-communities-in-india/
For an example of applications of information sharing through the internet in India’s agriculture sector, please go HERE.

Case Study: babajob.com
INSERT WEBPAGE GRAPHIC
Development Issues Addressed
Babajob.com, dubbed “Village LinkedIn” by founder and CEO Sean Blagsvedt, is an innovative social networking tool that connects middle to upper-class Indians seeking to hire maids, cooks, drivers, security guards, construction workers, and other wage labor positions to job seekers from India’s large informal job sector. It is social networking with a social conscience and a very practical function.
Blagsvedt first moved to India to help establish an in-house research institute for Microsoft. Eventually, he saw and felt a need to do something with a social purpose. "In India, you can't escape the feeling that you're really lucky,” he said in an interview with the New York Times. “So you ask, 'What are you going to do about all the stuff around you? How are you going to use all these skills?'"
He is one of many technology sector workers increasingly compelled to use their skills to address the glaring poverty and social inequities prevalent in India.
Duke economist Anirudh Krishna, discovered that the poor in India remain poor not because of a lack of better employment opportunities, but because they don’t have the connections to find better jobs. Blagsvedt came across this research, and confirmed this finding with what he saw in Bangalore himself. He also observed the widespread complaint among Bangalore’s yuppies about the difficulty of finding hired help.
Blagsvedt eventually quit his Microsoft job and with his stepfather and fellow Microsoft alum, Ira Weise, created Babajob as an innovative private enterprise to facilitate economic development and poverty reduction by addressing the inefficiency of the informal economy. This service is confined to Bangalore as of now, but will be rolled out in other Indian cities once the model is better established.
The Innovation
Babajob addresses the poor’s lack of access to computers by setting up booths where job-seekers can come get help setting up their online profiles. Employees take photos of the applicant and help them fill out the resume they will then post on the website.
<PHOTO>
Babajob also pays people, whether Internet café owners, individuals or NGOs, to find job-seekers and register them. Additionally, Babajob pays people who act as connectors between an eventual employer and employee match – usually a friend of the employer and a friend of the employee already listed on Babajob.
Babajob is connected to a sister social networking site, Babalife, frequented by more educated and well-off sectors. Everyone on Babalife is automatically listed on Babajob, so the employer side of the network is already built in to Babajob. When the site first launched, Babajob built up its employee database by sending workers directly to job-seekers in the streets with fliers advertising its services. So far, about 1,100 job-seekers have signed up on Babajob.
Funding Structure and Monitoring and Evaluation
Babajob is a private sector enterprise and is connected to a sister social networking site, Babalife. By definition, the financial goal of Babajob, once better established, is to generate profit. As such, it is largely funded, like most other online ventures, through advertising. Specifically, their source of income is from employers’ advertisements. Because it is a private company however, access to information on whether Babajob or Babalife has broken even and started to turn a profit is not obtainable.
Similarly, their internal monitoring and evaluation process is not disclosed, but as a private company aiming to become profitable, it is safe to assume there is an in-built incentive to continually monitor and evaluate its progress and results.




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