Web 2.0: An Evolving Vision

This article from ICT Update discusses the evolution of the web platform Development Gateway and its response to external challenges and the emergence of new web-based technologies, particularly lessons learned for web 2.0 initiatives. (Web 2.0 is an information and communication technology (ICT) term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users.)


Since Gateway's establishment in 2001, its objective has been to "promote knowledge sharing and put growing emphasis on the use of ICTs as tools for disseminating information both within the organization and across the development community." It has used topic pages called DG Communities to provide categories for knowledge sharing "through a ‘guided community’ model based on deferred publishing [content submitted by users that is published after it is reviewed and approved by a topic guide]....Country gateways, another core initiative, were locally owned projects designed to provide online and offline technical services for e-government, small enterprise support, e-learning, e-health, and online community building....Gradually, the Gateway strategy moved away from ‘knowledge sharing’ towards ‘web-based tools to make aid and development efforts more effective’." This includes an online database of projects and organisations. Gateway also launched "the Aid Management Platform (AMP) to assist governments and donors in planning, monitoring and reporting on international aid flows and activities...." and "...dgMarket, an online service that posts tenders for government contracts funded by the Bank and other agencies, as well as national tenders."


In critiquing its progress through its pilot phase, the organisation found itself to be a repository of development information, but did not see the site's collaborative and interactive capabilities (question posing, joint problem solving) as being utilised by its network; and they found little integration between local and global knowledge sources. Also, though they continue to offer the Country Gateways "value-added services" - such as open source technology solutions and standards for automating content exchange and syndication, and, more recently aggregation features - their self-criticism is that they may have been late in establishing themselves a niche in the area of information collaboration technologies.


According to their analysis of their pilot: "Looking back, perhaps more effort in organizing content, automating content upkeep (e.g. checking for broken links, web crawlers, etc.) and developing question-answering algorithms would have helped further energize its impact." The original financial model is described as open to criticism due, initially to its link to the World Bank (potentially resulting in a Bank-centred vision of development at the expense of southern knowledge) and its competition with other knowledge aggregators. However, as it became independent of the World Bank, it developed its own financial model, hoping that its Country Gateway sites would be able to do the same, though, as stated here, "few have done so. The Gateway no longer provides overall financial support to local Country Gateways; rather, selective support for local deployment of Gateway’s core products, such as local project databases, is occurring." According to the article, the financial model, a combination of the revenue-generating dgMarket and the non-profit dissemination of knowledge and ICT tools as public goods, present the Development Gateway with its current challenges.