Everybodyonline for equality

'A Northern Ireland community initiative has been praised for highlighting what the UK is doing to create a fairer and more equal society in the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All (EYEOA). The EverybodyOnline project is designed to close the digital divide - helping excluded communities engage with digital technology and the internet. Launched earlier this year by the then Northern Ireland Finance Minister David Hanson MP, the project is a joint initiative from BT and the Delivery and Innovation Division within the Department of Finance & Personnel and is delivered by the charity Citizens Online. It aims to help excluded groups including those with a physical disability, a learning disability and older people, both in their own and residential homes, to overcome any barriers they may have to technology so that everyone can take advantage of the wealth of opportunities digital technology and the internet has to offer.'

The Rural Media Company

The Rural Media Company is an innovative media education and production organisation with a national reputation for its socially aware media and communications work. It aims to enable rural communities to learn about and use media by participating in practical media activities and the creation and dissemination of high quality media communications and educational resources.

Travellers Remembered is is a collection of 25 beautiful digital stories which record the personal memories of Traveller families in the West Midlands. Media workers helped children and young people to record their parents and grandparents, adding family photographs to bring the memories to life.

A similar project entitled Fieldwork - the Bygone Days of Farming is underway.

Certainly an interesting and useful approach for community involvement in documenting social history. Check out the other projects and activities on the site.

Mapping for change

I don't believe I have posted on participatory GIS before but I thought I might take the opportunity to plug my old workhorse, the Development of Sustainable Agriculture in the Pacific (DSAP) Project. DSAP was one of a number of partners that participated in a collaboration to assist the communities on the island of Ovalau to document and map their natural resources and intangible and tangible cultural heritage. The exercise was part of an effort to help the island of Ovalau seek UNESCO World Heritage listing. You can read more about the exercise here.

I am very happy to be able to say that the collaborative exercise was recently recognised internationally with a World Summit Award for 2007.

I have previously posted on participatorty planning. I wonder if there have been any interesting applications of participatory GIS (PGIS) in a rural context here in Ireland.

Web2ForDev, enhancing knowledge sharing

Well the first Web2ForDev international conference in Rome has come and gone and it has left in it's wake a wealth of information and ideas about improving access to, and sharing, information and how communities and individuals can become involved in contributing information and construction of knowledge. Its all here!

There are many examples provided as to how knowledge sharing can be improved in a rural community setting. I was not able to look at too many but this brief presentation caught my attention, Enhancing knowledge sharing in the rural community.

For another persepective on the meeting here's the views of the Director of CTA.

These tools and ideas could add much value to information sharing among community groups in Ireland. Sadly I am not aware of any such initiatives here. That's not to say there is nothing exciting going on. I'm sure there is, please let me know.

On that point, the next BlogTalk 2008 5th International Conference on Social Software) meeting will be taking place in Cork.

Click here for an interesting knowledge management perspective on Web2.0

Interactive web-based platform in support of agriculture and rural development

'The UN Food and Agriculture Organization today announced the launch of a unique interactive web-based platform focusing on the role that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can have in supporting agriculture and rural development.The online platform, www.e-agriculture.org, will enable users to exchange opinions, experiences, good practices and resources related to e-agriculture, and to ensure that the knowledge created is effectively shared and used worldwide.'

Guide to managing ICT in the voluntary and community sector

'This guide is aimed at staff and volunteers from voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) who want to manage their information communication technology (ICT) better. It is intended particularly for staff and volunteers from small and medium-sized organisations and especially for those people who don’t haveaccess to ‘paid for’ technical advice and support.'

Download here