The A Spot

Let me just get this out of the way first.  Even after all the warnings…I totally underestimated what it would take to sustain a blog.  But Matthew and I are back at it again with a very cool new resource to share.

Along with Anna Prymakova, in the ISC Ukraine office, we put together a pilot project to shed some light on online government information in Ukraine - www.tvoyaderzhava.org.ua/en/.  Mining the collective brain of the nonprofit tech community we set up a wiki website using a Customized Google Search engine and del.icio.us tag feed.  The result is a simple, user interface that allows Ukrainian citizens to search all .ua.gov websites and using tags browse the different interactive features of over 250 local, regional and national government websites.

We put these resources together after conducting a focus group with users of an IATP center (Internet Access Training Program) initially set up by IREX.  The group highlighted the overwhelming about of online information with little understanding on the part of citizens about what they could do with the information, how to best access it and determine if it was credible.

Anna recently demoed the wiki at an IATP center in Sevastopol.  In her words: she started with sharing with participants the top 5 gov websites of Sevastopol region and of other regions, introduced them to the structure and navigation techniques of uagov at del.icio.us and del.icio.us itself. Then shared with them tvoyaderzhava.org.ua, customized google search, tips for using the site, introduced them wiki-concept, and rss as well, then we analyzed more of online opportunities of forums, Q&A, chats, writing an electronic letter tips, problems government has to overcome while starting answering questions online, why some websites are actively updated and useful and some not useful.  The site was a hit with the users.

The site is in both Ukrainian and English and next steps are for Anna to create a wink presentation that can be shared with the network of IATP centers across Ukraine.

All told the pilot cost around 7500 USD including - domain registration, wiki set up and customization, content creation and posting, time to tag, translation, two site visits.  Thanks to Google for making their search engine available for free to nonprofits.  We used Dokuwiki which is an open source wiki tool perfectly designed to handle multiple languages.  We also contributed back to the code with further translation of parts of it into Ukrainian.  For more on what we did check out - http://www.tvoyaderzhava.org.ua/en/main/about/start 

So tomorrow I leave for an extended trip to Kiev, Ukraine and Prishtina, Kosovo. Both places I have been to before but I still get a little antsy just before a long trip. The kids are prepared, excited about Mommy taking an airplane ride, and have asked me to bring them back a train. Not sure what that is about but I will do my best.

I am excited about the trip as it gives me a great opportunity to see some of our work in action and contribute a bit. In Ukraine we are tackling an interesting issue - how to get government officials and citizens talking to each other more effectively, constructively and authentically. In a small pilot we are working with a new consultant, Bill Edwards, from Gov3 Consulting, a UK based firm to run a workshop with NGO leaders and government officials. It has been a steep learning curve as I learn the ins and outs of working with government ministries.

Now Kosovo on the other hand is an entirely fly by the seat of my pants kind of trip. As usual. We are making changes to IPKO Institute and rethinking what we have to contribute to the development of Kosovo now that it is an independent country. I get to spend some time with Akan Ismaili who is the CEO of IPKOnet and co founder of IPKO. We are cooking up all sorts of great ideas and hopefully I can blog about them soon!

The run up to this trip has me thinking alot about foreign assistance and US foreign assistance in particular. I know, I know, I am not much fun at a dinner party. But there is a great video circulating from the Center for Global Development which popularizes an idea that is long overdue - the US needs a new foreign assistance act. Take a gander at their video on You Tube.

More from the road.

As many of us know, one of the challenges advocates often face abroad (if not in the U.S. as well!) is a lack of receptiveness among government bureaucrats to the participation of citizens in public administration.    In Ukraine, as one example, government has not historically been of the people, by the people, and for the people.  Cabinet Ministries whose ostensible purpose is to provide social services have no experience with treating citizens as clients – on the contrary, citizens are often nothing more than problems, flies in the ointment.  Government bodies and processes are not designed to be transparent, but obscure and invisible to outsiders, discouraging or preventing interference. 

Getting government to take citizens seriously requires a significant change in mindset, as well as a whole host of skills and tools unfamiliar to career officials.  Despite the challenges, over the last couple of days in Kyiv I’ve seen some real and exciting opportunities for change.

(more…)

Hat tip to Michael Gilbert for alerting me to this 2007 report from the Health Communication Partnership called Taking Community Empowerment to Scale. I am currently working on a few pilot projects as part of our work in Ukraine under the Ukraine Citizen Action Network. Perfect timing to read this report as I am thinking about how to set these pilots up to easily scale if they prove useful and relevant to citizens in Ukraine. I was struck by the 14 recommendations…these are integral to how ISC does its programming and crucial when working to mainstream advocacy and citizen engagement into every day life.
(more…)

ISC - UCAN Playing the Social Media Game 2

Originally uploaded by ISC ALC
The participants in the Social Media Strategy Workshop loved the social media game and we had a lively discussion about how they would implement these tools as part of their strategy.