Why DevInfo
In our virtual forum at http://www.devinfo-kenya.org , users will be able to access information concerning:
- A directory of NGOs, academic institutions, donor organizations and individuals associated with social development in Kenya
- A directory of consultants offering services to development organizations
- Local and Regional job opportunities
- Event bulletins (conferences, meetings, training opportunities)
- Development News Headlines
- Projects (ongoing and future) undertaken by development organizations
- Funding opportunities for project funding
- Academic research findings
- Discussion Forum (reactions, comments and question posted by members of the development community
- Submission forms for adding content to all information categories on DevInfo Kenya
In addition to the above, our virtual forum also presents an opportunity for bridging the gap between academia and operational organizations. Through the submission of research findings on issues relevant to public health and social development, DevInfo Kenya will allow academic research to inform policy and by extension, practice, within development work.
DevInfo and ICT
There are three main characteristics of the DevInfo Kenya web service that make ICT critical to our operations. First, DevInfo Kenya was designed as a web based information service, we do not publish or distribute hard copy information. Second, the founders and technical team behind DevInfo Kenya were and still are geographically dispersed (U.K., U.S. and Kenya) making web based communication and coordination imperative for back and front-ends of our services. Finally, while the DevInfo Kenya service was conceived with the goal of filling a gap in the local and global virtual market for development information dedicated to Kenya and East Africa, our market is restricted to internet users.
Our ICT tools and solutions
DevInfo Kenya has several interactive features that allow users to access and share information including submission forms and a discussion forum (Blog). Submission forms allow a user-driven - ?¢‚Ǩ?ìwiki?¢‚Ǩ¬ù approach to the aggregation of development information on the DevInfo Kenya web portal. Not only can users search for information, they can also submit, update, and adjust existing information as needed. The Blog feature allows for interactive discussions, comments, questions and responses from the community of members.
Overcoming age and bandwidth restrictions
DevInfo Kenya is a new service (5 months old) and as with any other web based initiative, has and will continue to experience growing pains in the near future. Despite robust growth in our member numbers, this growth could be potentially greater if we operated in an environment where wide access to internet connectivity was a reality. In our primary market (Kenya), there are only 1.5 to 2 million regular internet users compared to our secondary market (rest of the world) where internet users number in the billions. This reality has led to an interesting skew in our member profiles where almost as many members originate from outside Kenya (US, Asia, Australia, Europe) as do from within Kenya and East Africa. To overcome the challenge of expanding our local user base in an environment where web-surfing is relatively low (due to low bandwidth availability) but e-mail use is high (because of lower bandwidth requirements than web surfing), we have relied on bi-weekly information updates via email. This has expanded our reach significantly and led to an increase in traffic through the ?¢‚ǨÀúviral effect?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢. We estimate that we reach 30,000 individuals for each newsletter that we send to our 4,000 members.
Some final words of advice
We suggest that organizations like ours take advantage of what they can. They should study their operating environment carefully and react to the realities on the ground, using ICT as heavily as possible to reduce operating costs.