IKM presentations finally available on-line

We have struggled with learning how to make various presentations made for IKM at different events available off our website.  These will not get many marks for the professionalism of their production but at least they work and you can, if you have enough bandwidth, hear what is being said and see the slides.

Knowledges, Dialogue and Translations : shifting the gaze and practice through traducture, Martha Chinouya and Wangui wa Goro talking at the IKM session at the EADI conference, Geneva, June 2008

Reconciling Multiple knowledges: learning from the field, Valerie Brown talking at the IKM session at the EADI conference, Geneva, June 2008

Multiple Knowledges: views from the IKM programme, Mike Powell speaking at the CTA/IKM/ University of Namibia workshop on Knowledge for Development , Windhoek, November 2009

Predictability versus emergence in development

Last year IKM teamed up with some participants in the Bridging the Digital Divide Group of projects and members of the Information Systems Group at the Judge Business School to look at the tensions between desires for predictability and control as against unpredictability and emergence.  This started with a critical look at ICT4D research and then broadened out to consider these issues first in relation to development research and then to development management more generally.  The work is planned to continue this yeat with proposals for a book, being led by Mark Thompson and Ineke Buskens, for involvement in the ICTD 2010 conference, which is being hosted by Royal Holloway in London in December, and possibly, meetings with similar interest groups in other countries.

A summary of where we are with the ideas behind this work is now available here

The report by Adnan Rafiq and Nazish Gulzar on the workshop held to explore these issues in September 2009 is now available as IKM Working Paper no 9

Working papers and workshop on the use of information derived from participatory methodologies.

I am pleased to say that we have finally got IKM Working Papers 6 and 7 onto our web pages.  Apologies for the delay but very good final drafts had been available on the site for some time, which slightly reduced the urgency of publishing the final versions.  Anyway Working Paper 6  Learning from, promoting and using participation: The case of international development organizations in Kenya by Stephen Kirimi and Eliud Wakwabubi and Working Paper 7 How wide are the Ripples? by Hannah Beardon and Kate Newman are now on site.

This work is being followed up by a workshop at which all the authors will be present, which is being organised in London for the middle of March.  Further information can be found here.

Synthesis Report

The half way stage of the programme prompted reflection on a number of levels on what we have done and where the programme is going.  The end result is a Synthesis report, produced in October 2009, which can be downloaded from http://wiki.ikmemergent.net/files/0910-synthesis-v3.2.doc

IKM Working Paper: Literature review of policy-making as discourse

The fifth IKM Emergent Working Paper Policy-making as discourse: a review of recent knowledge-to-policy literature, written by Harry Jones of Research in Policy and Development (RAPID) and published with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), is online from today. It has been published to coincide with the event Knowledge, policy and power held at ODI at the same time.

IKM Working Paper: Bridging knowledge divides

The fourth IKM Working Paper Learning networks for bridging development divides by Laxmi Prasad Pant in now online. The study identifies and characterizes approaches and initiatives to bridging a complex array of knowledge divides in international development, specifically the differences in learning and innovation arising from multiple realities and multiple knowledge of a myriad of stakeholders, from multi-lateral and bi-lateral organizations to diaspora communities, civil society organizations (CSOs), and destitute local communities.

IKM Working Paper: Monitoring and evaluation of knowledge

The third IKM Working Paper Monitoring and evaluation in knowledge management for development by Serafin Talisayon in now online. The paper argues that monitoring and evaluation of knowledge management for development is a subject that is affected by four basic problems:

• A lack of consensus and clarity in understanding the terms ‘knowledge’ and ‘knowledge management’ (epistemological problem);

• The complexity arising from multiple actors in development, each with their own different world-views, interests, values, power and development agendas (sociological-politicalproblem);

• The large variety, as well as gaps, among the approaches and tools for measuring or assessing the magnitude, utilization and impact of use of intangible assets including knowledge (methodological problem); and

• How to use knowledge to demonstrably create value or other desirable development outcomes (operational problem).

Newsletter No. 3 now online

The March 2009 newsletter of IKM Emergent is now online here. It covers work-in-progress, external conversations, traducture and many more things…

Share Fair at the FAO

Mike Powell and Sarah Cummings of IKM Emergent both participated in the Share Fair at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) which took place on 20-22 January 2009.

The Share Fair was an event with a difference. It was buzzing, informal, sometimes chaotic and always dynamic, with more than 900 visitors from a huge variety of different development organisations. IKM Emergent took place in the Share Fair in a number of different ways:

• A booth on indigenous knowledge with members of an FAO network on indigenous knowledge
• Mike Powell took part in a Panel on knowledge management strategies with Geoff Parcell, Manuel Flury and others, chaired by Peter Ballantyne
• IKM organised a Rountable ‘What does this all mean?’ on the implications of the Share Fair for the development knowledge system
• Facilitation of a session on indigenous knowledge.

The photographs feature the Indgenous knowledge booth, some participants in the IKM Rountable, and group discussions in the session on Indigenous knowledge.

Chain Reaction

Michael David and Dan Baron of IKM Working Group 1 were among a group of IKM Emergent programme members who attended the Chain Reaction event in London, UK, on 17-18 November 2008.

Chain Reaction brought together social leaders, community activists, policy makers, business leaders, and young people from around the globe to share learning and to generate new ideas for social change, locally, nationally and globally. This was a high profile event attended by over 1000 people, from 16 countries, at least 200 aged under 21, community organisations and artists from Brazil, the Philippines, Croatia, Canada, Iceland and Kenya, Social Entreprenuers, bloggers and techies with new tools to try out, business leaders (among others, CEOs from Royal Mail, BBC, IBM, CBI, BITC, Accenture) and a roll call of Ministers, including the British Prime Minister.

Michael David led a session on Story telling in social action which used stories  from young people in building social awareness and youth networks with examples from Sri Lanka, Iceland, Croatia, Brazil, Kenya and the UK.

Ralph Borland, the artist responsible for developing, together with a team at the disruptive design team at Trinity College Dublin, the IKM Emergent installation was interviewed by the social reporter, David Wilcox. See the video here.

Below you can see the part of the address by Dan Baron Cohen as President of the International Drama and Theatre Education Association (IDEA). as part of the arts and social change session.

The photostream of the whole event can be accessed here.