Tag Archives: ict4d

How to use tagging to make connections in the nonprofit web

Posted on October 1, 2008 | 4 Comments
A tag cloud with terms related to Web 2.

Image via Wikipedia

Probably one of the best innovations of the whole Web 2.0 phenomenon is tagging. A tag is “a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information” (source). Tags can be used to identify blog posts, bookmarks, photos, videos, presentations, events, etc., and are supported by pretty much every Web 2.0 tool. Tags are generally assigned informally and without regard to a structure of categories; they are more like annotations and are often assigned in addition to categories, such as on blog posts.

The genius of tagging is that it organically builds connections over time between seemingly unconnected content. If my blog post and your video and his bookmark and her photograph all have the same tag, then we can start to see how they are related in some way. This leads to a bottoms-up classification system for web content that is often called a folksonomy.

The problem is that tags are arbitrarily decided on by the content creator, and with language being what it is, one tag can mean many different things to many different people. Take the word development, for instance. In my own little industry, it can refer to the process of creating software or giving aid to low-resource countries. In other contexts, it might refer to child development or personal development or a large and ugly subdivision.

The nonprofit field has bypassed this limitation by coming up with some unique tags to identify our content. If we use these tags consistently, we can easily locate a wealth of content in our particular niches. Here are some of the most useful tags I’ve come across:

nptech: Short for “nonprofit technology,” this tag refers to nonprofits’ use of technology, mostly internally rather than as part of the program offerings.

Examples:

ict4d: Stands for “Information and Communication Technologies for Development.” Refers to groups that are using technology in their development programs, usually international development.

Examples:

web4dev: Using Web technologies, mostly Web 2.0, for supporting international aid and development.

Examples:

km4dev: Stands for “Knowledge Management for Development.” Using knowledge management tools and techniques to support international development.

Examples:

m4dev or m4d: Using mobile technology to support internatonal development.

Examples:

I’m sure I haven’t discovered all of the tags being used by nonprofits using technology, especially in international development. If you know of any other good ones, please leave a comment.

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The future of ICT4D is the cell phone…

Posted on February 28, 2008 | Leave a comment

It is very clear to me that cell phones are the technology we should focus on for effective IT development projects in the future. This article from the Washington Post makes the case enormously well, but this is only the latest in a long string of articles I’ve seen on the subject. There’s even a whole blog dedicated to the use of cell phones for mobile activism.

The question I have — the one that keeps stymieing me — is how do we capitalize on this trend for our work? We know that cell phones have a larger penetration in Africa and other low-resource countries than computers do. We know that in those countries, cell phones are used for a wider range of activities and text messaging is much more prevalant than here. We know we will have more success if we can build on what folks are already doing and where the demand is rather than trying to get them to accept something new.

But here’s the problem. Living in the U.S., we don’t use our cell phones in the same way they do. I barely use mine at all, and then it’s primarily for voice calls. I rarely text. I never access applications or automated services from my cell phone. To tell you the truth, I really can hardly stand my cell phone. It’s a necessary evil, not a vital tool, for me. My vital tools are my laptop and the Web. I get lots of great ideas for how to apply social media tools to our work because I use them all the time, but that’s not very helpful in places where Internet connectivity is so unreliable. To really start thinking about how we can use cell phones in creative ways, we have to actually use cell phones in creative ways. So far, I haven’t been willing or able to do this.

The other problem, of course, is that in this country, your cell phone is linked inextricably to your provider. This is much more limiting than in other areas where the tool is separate from the service. You have a lot more freedom to change your options just by switching chips. I am looking forward to what may happen when Open Source meets the cell phone, but that’s still a ways off.

I really want to have some fresh new ideas about all this. But I guess you can’t force ideas to come.

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