Annual Report of Activities 2005: EADI Information Management Working Group October 2005
The Information Management Working Group serves as a platform for reflection, discussion and action on development information across Europe. It is the only European meeting place for information professionals with a strong interest in international co-operation and development research. For the past 30 years, the working group has organised annual meetings in close collaboration with its members. New members are always welcome!
1. Members
Approximately 40 Working Group members participated in the Annual Conference in Bonn held in September 2005. The initial mailing list was to over 250 individuals in various European and Southern organisations, who has expressed interested in the work of the Info Man or who have attended the Info Man conference previously. We were not able to involve ICCDA organizations at the conference and still hope to follow up links with Coterie, Osseo and Casco as strategic partners for the IMWG in the coming months.
Two organisations were considering joining EADI as a result of the meeting: CTA and ICCO.
2. Activities
During the year we have been engaged in the following activities:
2.1 Conference
The 30th Annual meeting was held in Bonn in September 2005, comprising presentation of 10 papers and two workshop sessions. One thematic group of papers included information management in a broader developmental context as well as how to aggregate and better communicate about information. The other thematic set of papers focused on practice matters relating to information management. One workshop session looked at the strategic orientation of information while the other investigated the possibility of working together on an integrated knowledge management project. Finally the conference was concluded with the business meeting of the working group. The outcomes of the IMWG sessions at the EADI General Assembly were twofold:
* Accurate timeous information is an essential part of the development process, yet resources to support these activities are dwindling as many information centres are being merged or downsized.
* The information managers themselves are beginning a process of redefining their value to the development process through the use of technology (such as the RSS feed project), through better networking with relevant organisations to their information needs, and through taking advantage of the focus on communication as demonstrated by the DFID new guidelines for communication in research processes.
2.2 Discussion group
At the request of the members after the Maastricht annual conference, working group members as well as interested information management practitioners were invited to belong to a discussion group. Initially the group was 32 people. The number is now 55. The main areas of discussion are:
* Creating a interactive space for professional support
* Discussion about the upcoming conferences (Brighton 2006)
* Projects (ELAND, RSS and Information and Knowledge Management).
More resources are becoming available on the site as well. It is an informal space.
2.3 Convenor meetings:
* February - September 2005 to reduce costs the conveners of this Working Group - Myriam Gallwey, Danielle Bouhajeb, Chris Addison and Bridget McBean met by teleconference on five occasions to plan the meeting. These were hosted by the ECDPM.
* November 2005 was the first planning meeting for the 31st meeting of the IMWG (during our 30th Year) in Brighton in September 2006.
*The next meeting will be in March 2006 to plan the programme for the conference in more detail.
2.4 Project Work
2.4.1 ELAND
One of the ongoing projects of this working group is the El@nd project, the European Library Network for Development. Despite limited new members joining the project, the performance of the search tool has improved as members of ELAND have upgraded the performance of their internet lines and servers. A new member applied to join the consortium, the Institute for Social Studies in the Hague, Netherlands. In addition two partners will upgrade their services and the interface will be changed. The Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) has also expressed an interested in being involved in ELAND.
To visit the database, go to: http://www.eadi.org/eland
In addition two new projects have been initiated:
2.4.2 Information and Knowledge Management Framework Study
The framework study for a research and development programme aims at understanding the role of information and knowledge management (IKM) in the development sector and designing practical tools and processes to address identified issues.
The proposals are based on the premise that IKM is of strategic value to the development sector as it responds to greater and more complex challenges in a constantly changing environment in which 'informational developments' themselves play an increasingly significant part. They recognise the problems of handling and using a variety of information resources of multiple origins in a multiplicity of often unpredictable ways and the need for better understanding of how differing perspectives of development, knowledge and culture underpin the engagement of different communities in development work. They aim to explore and address perceived problems in the articulation, expression, reception and use of Southern thought and experience in the formulation of development policies and programmes in the North.
The EADI IMWG agreed in Bonn to establish a task force consisting of Mr. Maarten Boers (ICCO), Ms. Sarah Cummings (KIT), Mr. Dick de Jong (IRS), Ms. Bridget McBean (ECDPM and EADI IMWG), Mr. Mike Powell (acting co-ordinator) and Ms. Isobel Vogel (IDS). This is not a closed group. Others may ask or be asked to join. Danielle Bouhajeb will be consulted about potential Francophone members. Mr. Cees Hamelink (University of Amsterdam) and Ms Robin Mansell (London School of Economics) have agreed to continue to offer guidance. A d-group has been established to ease information sharing and discussion.
2.4.3 RSS support
A number of the EADI IMWG members are interested in following up on ideas to improve the use of RSS newsfeeds within the group. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) provides a way to produce content from one database or website which can be incorporated as part of another website, aggregated with other content or read in a newsreader (an easy way to monitor news from a number of sites at once). A small working group was established to provide a paper on possible ways forward to develop an aggregator and support EADI members in their use of the newsfeed technology. A RSS guide from IDS has been received and circulated via the IMWG d-group.
2.5 Publications
As a result of the Information Management Working Group conference held in Maastricht a beefing paper was produced by ECDPM:
* McBean, B. 2004. Do unlikely partners contribute to an informed society?. (ECDPM In Brief 11A). Maastricht : ECDPM
* A shortened article (as mentioned above) will be reproduced in Information Development in November 2005.
A conference report is being finalised and will be circulated to the members and to interested groups by mid November.
The presentations given at the conference are available on the web and further information is available in the IMWG Dgroup http://www.dgroups/groups/imwg.
3. Convenors
The Working Group has four co-conveners. Bridget Mc Bean of ECDPM, the Netherlands, Chris Addison of Communiq.org, Belgium, Else Ishaug of NORAD, Norway and Geoff Barnard of the Institute for Development Studies, United Kingdom.
Danielle Bouhajeb- Responsable du Centre international francophone de Documentation et d'Information (CIFDI) of the Agence Intergouvernementale de la Francophonie (AIF) based in Bordeaux, France, and Marie-Louise.Fendin of the Nordic Africa Institute where unable to continue in their roles.
[Report prepared by Chris Addison, Bridget Mc Bean, Geoff Barnard and Else Ishaug for the Information Management Working Group, October 2005.]
