Knowledge Sharing
for Development

A Learning Activity


June 24-25, 2004, Washington, DC
Sponsored by USAID, UNDP, Bellanet, GTZ, GDN and World Bank


PARTICIPANTS, PRESENTERS, and ORGANIZERS

Helen Aitkin

Communication Specialist

TeleCommons Development Group

My connection to the upcoming workshop is through the work that I have been doing for FAO, assisting in the development of an Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK) on E-learning: Building Electronic Communities and Networks. IMARK is an e-learning initiative in agricultural information management developed by FAO and partner organizations. Unfortunately, this learning module is not complete, but I will be bringing some background material and portions that are almost complete.

My background is in development communication, primarily in the rural and agriculture sector. During the 1980s I was manager of the Developing Countries Farm Radio Network, which was a true Community of Practice in the pre-Internet years. During the mid-90s I was involved in building community networks for accessing Internet in rural Ontario, Canada. One interesting experience was the development of the Kuh-ke-nah Smart Community project (www.knet.ca), which has brought high-speed Internet, telehealth, an Internet high school, and other applications to five First Nations communities in northern Canada. The role of my company, the TeleCommons Development Group (www.telecommons.com - some of you may know my colleague, Don Richardson), has been to facilitate the community engagement to shape the vision, and to monitor and evaluate the project. This, too, is a Community of Practice, with many very interesting applications and unexpected results.

Much of what I do in other projects I'm involved in is manage large volumes of information related to stakeholders and stakeholder activities in environmental projects. This has involved the use of electronic tools - as simple as MS Outlook, Excel, Yahoo Groups, the Web, email - whatever works the most efficiently.


Kanagalingam Amirthalingam

Strategic Planning Unit

Central Bank of Malaysia

I am attached to the Strategic Planning Unit responsible for organisation development work (read building internal capacity and capability). The organisation development division includes human resource, learning training, ICT, corporate services and security management. The Central Bank initiated its knowledge-based organisation (KBO) programme in 2001, and I have been the secretary of the Knowledge Management Committee since then. My main responsibilities are change management with respect to KBO programmes, which includes a range of HR, ICT and content management initiatives.

Key issues that we are currently working on include corporate taxonomy and content management policies. Knowledge sharing and application is one of the areas we are trying to understand better, to see if performance can be enhanced if we changed people's approach towards knowledge sharing and application. I am trying to understand these issues more from a change management perspective.


Vicki Antonio

Coordinator

City Development Strategy

Philippines

My name is Vickie Antonio and I am the National Coordinator for City Development Strategies (CDS) Philippines. Prior to my position as National Coordinator, I was the Local Knowledge Manager for the project. CDS is a technical assistance program initiated by the

World Bank in the Philippines 5 years ago and it aims to assist cities in the preparation of comprehensive long-term development strategies. My responsibility as Knowledge Manager for the project was to develop a KM strategy to facilitate the implementation of the project's capacity building activities; promote knowledge sharing among the CDS practitioners; and develop and manage a knowledge sharing platform as a medium for exchanging and archiving the knowledge (http://www.cdsea.org).

Unlike many of you who share a KM background, I studied Architecture at the University of the Philippines and finished my graduate studies in Urban Planning at Columbia University in New York City. Prior to working on the CDS project, I worked as a Consultant with the Urban Sector of the World Bank Office in the Philippines and was involved in the development of the Philippine LGU Assistance Portal.


Johan Arvling

Practice Facilitator

United Nations Development Programme

Thailand


Omar Azfar

Research Associate

IRIS Center of the University of Maryland

USA


Geoff Barnard

Head of Information

Institute of Development Studies

United Kingdom

I've been involved in the KM4Dev community since June 2000 when IDS hosted the Brighton workshop. This was a really inspiring event, which created many new knowledge networks (and friendships) for me. I hope the Washington event will do the same!

IDS is involved in quite a number of information management and knowledge sharing initiatives. Some of these (such as Eldis and id21) are aimed at a broad global audience - others are more focused knowledge support services serving the knowledge needs of particular specialist groups within development organisations (covering gender, governance, sustainable livelihoods, and health issues).


Sanjeev Bhuchar

Social Forester and Assistant Program Coordinator, People and Resource Dynamics Project

International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development

Nepal

My name is Sanjeev Bhuchar and currently working in the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD; www.icimod.org) founded in 1983 and based in Kathmandu, Nepal as the first international, independent Mountain Learning and Knowledge Centre serving eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas (HKH) and the global mountain community. With 140 staff and associates drawn from the region and around the world, ICIMOD's mission is to develop and provide integrated and innovative solutions, in cooperation with regional and international partners, which foster action and change for overcoming mountain people's economic, social and physical vulnerability.

I am working as Assistant Program Coordinator of a regional interdisciplinary watershed management research project - People and Resource Dynamics in the Mountain Watersheds of the HKH (PARDYP) that is funded by IDRC, SDC and ICIMOD and implemented by ICIMOD in India, China, Pakistan and Nepal. The project is now in the second year of its third three year phase and contributes to the watershed action initiative in ICIMOD's NRM programme.

I have represented PARDYP-ICIMOD in the ongoing GTZ/Bellanet Project on networking and knowledge management by regional organizations in Asia (in the field of NRM) - NeRO-Asia. In this, and in our own programs, we will like to develop together strategies and methods for making information and knowledge generated accessible and usable to partners, policy-makers and advocates, and development practitioners.

I am sure that this workshop will give us the opportunity to share our experiences and learn about success and failure stories on "sharing knowledge for development" from across the world. I have a doctoral degree in Botany and my thesis was on Broom grass (Thysanolaena maxima). Before joining ICIMOD I worked in GBPant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development in India.


Juan Blazquez-Ancin

Knowledge Management Officer

World Bank

USA

I am also in the Knowledge Sharing team at the World Bank where I have been largely responsible for managing DevForum (the Bank’s platform for E-discussions and consultations) and helping the team with their Knowledge Secretariat duties. At the workshop I hope to learn more about how to others are measuring the impact of K-Sharing programs and how they integrate knowledge initiatives into operations.

I joined the World Bank in 1998 and have always worked, explicitly or not, in knowledge sharing. My first assignment entailed onsite managing of two project teams in two different countries (Albania and Macedonia) with one common project plan. Proper knowledge sharing strategies helped us build the capacity of team members and project stakeholders and get things done ahead of schedule.

Prior to the Bank, I worked for a French Fortune 500 company. I was charged with opening subsidiary offices in Latin America. This entailed knowledge transfer between headquarters and the newly established operation centers. My educational background is in business and international relations.


Daan Boom

Principal Knowledge Management Specialist

Asian Development Bank

Philippines

Although I'm pretty new in the ADB, I did implement KM in a global accounting firm for the last 7 years. The last year as Director KM. Scope of my activities was implementing KM throughout Europe and participating in the Global Accounting Steering Committee on KM. In November 2003 I joined ADB to develop and implement KM. ADB has been struggling with KM since 2002. Various working groups were active to provide KM objectives tangible activities and outputs. The KM framework is finished as a matter of fact today and submitted to the President of the ADB for approval. Before you start your traveling to Washington I'll distribute the paper to you for information. After next week it is implementing.

WB knowledge sharing workshop comes for me at a crucial time. There are still many issues for me to solve within ADB and to provide directions and guidelines how to accomplish these. One of them is for instance taxonomies. One of the thin! gs I would like to know what the sense is of having our own taxonomy instead of a shared one (with some regional flavor maybe); Content Management approaches and Applications for knowledge sharing such as CoPs; Incentives and rewards, Communication. On all issues we have an opinion but I'm very interested in your experiences and thoughts how KS contributes to improved results. I studied Library, Archive and Management followed by advanced courses on Informatics in the Netherlands.


Georg Buchholz

Technical Advisor for Information and Knowledge Management

ASEAN German Regional Forest Programme

Nepal


Kemly Camacho

Senior Program Officer

Fundacion Acceso/Bellanet

Costa Rica

I am Kemly Camacho from Costa Rica. Actually I am the coordinator of Bellanet Office for Latinoamerica and Caribe (LAC). We are working in KS research in LAC region. With this research we are trying to discover good practices in KS in civil society organizations in Central America. We also are having reflections and discussions about if the KS is important for our social organizations and in what sense.

My background is mixed: computer science, anthropology, monitoring and evaluation and actually I am doing my PHD in information and knowledge society. I hope we can share concrete experiences, challenges, difficulties and success about the different KS process where we are participating.


Micheline Chartrand

Senior KM Analyst

Canadian International Development Agency

Canada


Sylvanus Yani Chrystanto

Head of Forestry Statistics Division MOV

Ministry of Forestry

Indonesia


Stephanie Colton

Facilitator

Sparknow

United Kingdom

I help run a small London-based knowledge management and change consultancy called Sparknow (for more see www.sparknow.net). I was invited by the organisers to come and facilitate a quick demo of a technique we use to help people identify key learning episodes from their own experience and share them with others. Since we began 7 years ago Sparknow have been using storytelling techniques like this either explicitly and implicitly in the context of almost every piece of work we've done. The brevity of the slot means that you will only get a taste, but I'm sure it will provoke some lively discussion nevertheless.

I will be making case studies (and myself) available over the 2 days should anyone want to quiz me about the work, the methods, the risks and opportunities etc. Personally I am really looking forward to meeting you all, and learning more about the particular challenges faced by those doing KM or KS work in the context of development and co-operation. My background is in anthropology hence the cultural aspects of this fascinate me.


John Crager

Senior Advisor

American Productivity and Quality Center

USA


Rafael Diez de Medina

International Labour Organisation

Switzerland

I am Rafael Diez de Medina, working for Department of Policy Integration as a senior Technical Specialist in cross-cutting issues in the International Labour Organisation in Geneva. I am coordinating a set of field projects on the informal economy worldwide, trying to encourage Knowledge Sharing within the ILO (headquarters and field offices) as well as with other members of the development community on this topic, among others. We are encouraging the idea of assessing the impact of experiences as a means of highlighting good practices and good examples in policy advice and project design. More connections and exposure to external networks sharing our interests are also our goals.

I am economist, holding a Ms.S in labour economics. I had been working with the UN- Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean for 18 years, also being a University professor of Econometrics and Statistics, before joining the ILO a year ago.


Urs Egger

Managing Director

SKAT Foundation

Switzerland

I’m working for the Skat Foundation a non-profit organisation and resource centre in Switzerland. Our mission is to support knowledge and experience exchange in development cooperation, in particular between the many organisations, institutions and individuals that are working in development cooperation. We have a documentation service, support information and knowledge management in networks, programmes, projects and organisations, organise workshops and seminars and carry out research to further improve knowledge management in development cooperation and to develop new and innovative solutions. The Skat Foundation is also partner in several national and international networks. For more information please see also our website www.skat-foundation.org

In March 2004 we participated in the Dare to Share Fair organised by the Swiss Agency of Development and Cooperation (SDC). We presented the lessons learnt we made in three international knowledge networks and the story of AGUASAN, a 20year old community of practice on water and sanitation. If you are interested in the those case studies you can download them on our website: http://www.skat-foundation.org/news/1news.htm#d2sf

I am an economist by training with a special focus on regional development and environmental economics; I got my PhD for my thesis on public-private partnerships for regional development. Prior to joining the Skat Foundation in 2002, I was project manager at the Office for Urban Development of the City of Zurich, where I was particularly involved in the formulation of strategies for economic development, and the provision of economic indicators and up-to-date knowledge behind such economic policy.

I’m looking forward to sharing our experiences with you and to learning from you, particularly how you share your knowledge with other organisations. I will also represent the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) at the workshop and bring in how SDC shares its knowledge within the organisation and with its partner organisations. (see also http://www.deza.admin.ch/index.php?userhash=8124935&navID=385&lID=1.).


Ghazali Mohamed Fadzil

Senior Manager

Central Bank of Malaysia

Malaysia

My name is Ghazali Mohamed Fadzil but you all can call me Ghaz (pronounce Guzz) and just like Lingam I am from the Central Bank of Malaysia. Currently I am responsible for the overall implementation of KM initiatives in the Bank. The Bank started out this as a Knowledge-based Organization (KBO) initiative that comprises of looking at structure, people, technology and process components. I am looking at to further realign our KM framework by learning form other experiences. Currently we are looking to improve our

knowledge process like capturing, packaging and analyzing to further leverage our knowledge.


Dina El Halaby

Regional Program Officer

Global Development Network

Egypt


Sherine Ghoneim

Information and Communications Officer

Global Development Network

Egypt


Steve Glovinsky

Project Manager

United Nations Development Programme

USA

I am currently the manager of the Knowledge Project, where I hope to be carrying forward UNDP's work related to knowledge management. We adopted a knowledge sharing approach to KM, which I was responsible for putting together. The results were successful enough to be featured at the UNDP's governing board last year, and you can

look through them in our Knowledge Services site at www.UNDP.org/knowledge

We are in the process of transitioning from a stealth approach to a formal strategy - the KM Roadmap. This process has been, to put it mildly, another learning experience altogether. That is why I will be organizing Friday afternoon's session on Knowledge Sharing Strategies, where I hope to have a good exchange about what works and what doesn't in introducing and implementing a KS strategy.

My background is straight UNDP - since 1975, about 12 years in country offices and since 1987 here in New York. I was in the management track when I left it to become what we now call a policy adviser - my emphasis was public management and I worked in over 25 countries. I took on the job of "Policy Support Coordinator" in 1998 and "discovered" knowledge sharing as a highly effective way to ensure that country office staff got the help they needed. And here we are...


Lynne Griffiths

Communication Manager

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization

Australia


Liza Haider

Senior Programme Assistant

UNESCWA

Lebanon

My name is Liza Haidar and I am a Senior Programme Assistant at the Programme Planning and Technical Cooperation Division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (http://www.escwa.org.lb). Knowledge management and sharing is paramount for our activities, both internally and externally, thus networks and

communities of practice are becoming of greater importance.

Before joining the United Nations, I worked for an international company on the rehabilitation of the electric power sector in greater Beirut - Lebanon, and before that in the banking sector. I have a BS in Business studies (management and accounting) and am pursuing my Masters Degree in Business.


Mark Hammersley

Coordinator

Aid Workers Network

Kenya

I am one of the facilitators of Aid Workers Network - a learning community of development and relief practitioners with around 5,500 participants in 150 countries spanning national and international NGOs, Red Cross movement, UN and governmental agencies. My role involves helping to coordinate the development of the network which is still very new and evolving rapidly.

Aid Workers Network currently has no paid staff so in between writing emails and attending meetings on behalf of AWN, I work as an independent consultant, typically on information management and knowledge management projects for NGOs and UN agencies.

Previously I have worked in the field as a program manager for a relief NGO in Central Africa and with UN Human Rights in Rwanda. I taught a postgraduate course in Knowledge Management at University of Nottingham (UK) and spent 8 years working as a private sector management consultant mainly with European multinationals using knowledge management techniques to improve customer service.

I am looking forward to the workshop as an opportunity to meet and learn from others who are all facing similar challenges. Communities of Practice seem to defy conventional planning, yet they consume very real resources.


Kevin Hans

Manager, Knowledge & Innovation

American Red Cross

USA

My name is Kevin Hans and I am the Manager, Knowledge & Innovation for the American Red Cross. Our formal knowledge management programs have been in operation for the past four years. These programs include a central repository for Best Practices that is available to all our staff and volunteers via our internal website. We have also managed numerous internal and external benchmarking projects as part of our efforts to enhance our capacity to deliver our services. In December 2003 we began piloting communities of practice and we are still in a growing and learning phase with our communities of practice. Currently, we are in the midst of managing a knowledge retention project as we are reorganizing our field structure from the existing four Regions to eight Service Areas.

The issue I would like to discuss is how to change the work culture to get people to regularly participate in a community of practice instead of doing the usual random emails, discussing issues while on the smoke break etc.

I have been at the American Red Cross for the past nine years and have spent most of that time working in positions that were responsible for improving the service delivery capacity of our local chapters. Prior to joining the Red Cross I worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. I have a Masters Degree in Public Administration.


Rony Hartawan

Junior Analyst

Bank of Indonesia

Indonesia

I am in the same team with Iris -my boss- to initiate this knowledge-based organisation (KBO) programme in 2003, start from awareness and now trying hard to develop a prototyping. With the variety of background, sub cultures and a large number of employee around 7000 people, that's a good challenge.

I am excited that there a lot of opportunity to learn from the multiplicity of experiences from you guys. In particular, I am interested in building a company wide taxonomy and KM system that works.


Kim Henderson

Democratic Governance Network Facilitator

United Nations Development Programme

USA


Holger Illi

Desk Officer

Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

Germany

I am working for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ - www.bmz.de) and am based in Bonn, Germany. For about the last two years it has been my responsibility to develop a BMZ approach to KM/KS. That includes the conceptualization of some rather simple tools to solve BMZ's most urgent knowledge-related problems as well as the design of a middle and long term KM strategy. Currently, one of our main activities is to initiate two types of communities of practice / networks. One set of CoP will help BMZ country desk officers with common sectoral priority areas (such as democratization, water and sanitation etc.) to connect with each other and the sectoral policy branches. The second CoP is intended to foster learning and dialogue among the officers in charge of development policy at the German embassies in our partner countries.

I am looking forward to the Washington workshop a lot. I hope to meet people who are trying out similar approaches to exchange on our experiences. I also hope to meet people taking very different routes to KM/KS as I find it very valuable to see what tools work under what conditions. Especially I would like to learn more about how other organizations have developed an encompassing KM/KS strategy in a participatory process.


Hisham Jabi

Technical Specialist

Education Development Center

USA

Jabi is a member of the staff of the USAID funded project, EQUIP3 which

focuses on out-of-school/unemployed youth. He has also been the technical

resource/facilitator in the development of a Youth Community of Practice

- an extension of his professional and academic experiences.  


Erik Caldwell Johnson

Knowledge Management Officer

World Bank

USA

My name is Erik Johnson, and I work at the World Bank as co-leader (with Ron Kim), of the Knowledge Sharing Team. I don't need to repeat what Ron has said, so suffice to say, we're the central Knowledge Sharing unit in the Bank taking care of strategic issues, coordination, awareness building, capacity building (like this workshop), etc.

As for my interests, I am delivering the session on Communities of Practice, so I would like to know what you what like to learn on this topic and make sure that you learn it. So, what do you want to know?

I am also really looking forward to learning about how other KM units in different agencies are organizing themselves. Specifically, I would like to explore how KM units are taking responsibility for knowledge partnerships with other agencies. We are each trying to unlock the knowledge of our own various organizations, but what are we doing to make sure that the knowledge flows between organizations? This is an interest of mine which applies to communities of practice, but goes beyond as well.

Looking forward to hearing from you and seeing you soon. Oh, and by the way, I will be posting reading materials in this community space before the workshop so that you can begin preparing yourself for the CoP session. It's going to be a lively one!


Phineas Kadenge

Program Officer, Knowledge Management and Program Support Department

<H1 CLASS="western">African Capacity Building Foundation <H1 CLASS="western">Zimbabwe

I am a Program Officer in the Knowledge Management & Program Support Department of the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) (www.acbf-pact.org) that is headquartered in Harare, Zimbabwe. ACBF is an independent capacity-building institution that has capacity building programs and projects in over 34 sub-Saharan African countries.

The Foundation aims to emerge at the end of the Strategic Medium Term Plan (SMTP) 2002-2006 as a knowledge-based organization. This orientation will assist the Foundation to contribute effectively to continuous improvement in its operations, the sharing of best practices in the capacity building process and to the emergence of knowledge-based economies in Africa.

To operationalise its Knowledge Management Strategy the Foundation has so far launched two types of knowledge networks, namely Technical Advisory Panels and Networks (TAP-NETs)and Country Level Knowledge Networks (CLK-NETs). Both types of networks aim at encouraging the emergence of communities of practice among development stakeholders in the Foundation's core competence areas with a view to facilitating knowledge generation, sharing and dissemination for good goverance, sustainable growth and poverty reduction.

My main responsibilities include management of the content of ACBF's Main Web Site, coordination of TAP-NETs, capacity-building studies, publications, and a Senior Policymakers and Development Managers Knowledge Sharing Program.

I hold a Ph.D. in Economics. Prior to joining ACBF I taught at a number of universities for fifteen years. I have been doing KM & KS work for over a year now. I find the work to be very challenging. I look forward to learning from you all.


Seneiya Kamotho

Communications Manager

African Economic Research Consortium

Kenya

The African Economic Research Consortium has, for the past fifteen years, run two major programmes: Research and Training, and these two programmes are supported in terms of dissemination and raising visibility by the Communications Unit, of which I am the Manager.

The Communications unit is seen as a support component that conveys the products of AERC research and training to key target audiences. We endeavour to raise the profile of AERC and the visibility of Consortium activities; link members of the economics profession on the continent with each other, with the Secretariat and with the array of information available around the world; ensure enhanced internal communications systems as a platform for outreach. All this we do through different channels: print, electronic (library and website), and events (such as the knowledge sharing workshop in Washington DC).

Knowledge sharing activities include events such as regional level Senior Policy Seminars, National Policy Workshops, a web-linked information service, and a variety of publications. The AERC website provides information about the Consortium, makes research and other publications available electronically, and also provides an online discussion forum.

In an even greater effort at knowledge sharing in the Economic realm, as well as in the social sciences, AERC is now linked to the Global Development Network and indeed serves as a hub for the Network, in fact, AERC is working on hosting the Africa Window of the GDNet in the coming months. This, of course, will augment all efforts of sharing knowledge locally and abroad and with a wider array of policy institutions.

I hope I have given you a better picture of what it is that I do here, and I look forward to meeting all of you in Washington DC and learning from your experiences in knowledge sharing.

I would especially want to hear of your experiences in effective KS with policymakers and African counterparts especially taking into consideration that fact that connectivity and other infrastructure is a challenge, and taking into consideration the busy schedules of the recipients. I would also want to learn of methods used by all of you to engage women in KS efforts taking into consideration the cultural and other inhibitions that exist. Thirdly, minimising the technological divide in KS: the challenges.


Nazir Khan bin Nizam Khan

Deputy International Secretariat

Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment

Indonesia


Ronald Kim

Knowledge Management Officer

World Bank

USA

I am currently the co-leader of the Knowledge Sharing Team in the World Bank Institute. I provide advice to WB staff, clients, and partners on KS tools, approaches, and strategies. As a member of the Knowledge Secretariat, I also support the work of the Vice-Presidents Knowledge Steering Committee and the Knowledge Focal Points (nominated by the VPs) and work on measuring the impact of KS activities.

Prior to joining the WB six years ago, I was with a small NGO that supports higher education reform at universities in Central/Eastern Europe and Central Asia. I have an undergraduate degree in Government and Russian Studies and a graduate degree in Political Science.

I am very much looking forward to the workshop for several reasons. I am excited that the WB is finally offering a workshop on knowledge sharing, and that our team is organizing it. I am also excited about the collaborative nature of the event -- Bellanet, UNDP, USAID, and the WB are working closely together to design the workshop sessions. Finally, I am eager to learn from the wealth of experiences that you will bring to Washington. In particular, I am interested in finding out if/how your organization is engaging its clients more effectively through KS and how KS can genuinely contribute to better development outcomes.


Katarzyna Krolak-Wyszynska

Advisor

National Bank of Poland

Poland

I work for the National Bank ofPoland (the Polish central bank) in the Office of the Governor. I advise to the Deputy Governor in the field of organisational and managerial issues. My task is to analyse and improve managerial tools for analytical departments, with special focus on implementation and exploitation of knowledge management system. Just recently I've started to implement first initiatives related to knowledge sharing. But still we are far from designing a knowledge strategy for the whole organisation, which I consider a big challenge for the Bank and for myself.

Prior to the NBP, I run some public communication projects for big Polish companies and non-profit organisations, worked for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and was a TV producer and journalist. I have graduated MBA studies at the Oxford Brookes University, currently finishing studies in Human Resurces Management.

I am very much interested in building organisational culture fostering trust, openness and willingness to share knowledge. I am looking forward to discuss best practices in designing knowledge strategy, especially in an organisation where knowledge is both raw material and product.


Shobha Kumar

Learning Specialist

World Bank

USA

My name is Shobha Kumar, and I work as a Learning Specialist in WBI. My current work involves helping WBI thematic teams and our external partners in the planning, design, and delivery of their learning activities. Specific focus is on designing blended learning activities which integrate strong learner and instructor support systems, and quality assurance methods.

I am relatively new to the area of "knowledge management", but have looked closely at the potential and use of knowledge sharing and knowledge management tools to enhance the learning environments. In addition, I am keenly interested in the use of knowledge sharing and knowledge management tools to sustain the learning process, conduct follow-up impact studies, establish communities of practice, and for providing "just in time" performance support. My educational background is in the area of education and evaluation.


Prasanna Lal Das

Knowledge Management Officer

World Bank

India

My interest in the workshop stems from a few inter-connected factors -- We've just begun to form a KM team in my unit at the Bank, and as the person charged with creating the road-map for the team, I'm very curious to hear about how other people in similar positions started and if they have any lessons to share. A key part of my responsibility is to empirically lay out the value proposition of a KM initiative in a unit like mine which deals largely with internal clients and where dollars are the only way to measure anything. I have a few ideas of my own but I hope to touch base with folks and learn about tools/processes they may have used to measure KM in tangible terms. And of course, the conference should be a great meeting ground to exchange ideas, and catch up with the wide KM world out there

I have been Content Strategy professional (flirting around the boundaries of KM) for about 9 years (on top of just over two years spent in active journalism), and am currently Knowledge Management Officer at the Chennai (India) office of the World Bank. In my current role, I am actively engaged in standardizing my unit's documentation process, creating knowledge gathering/dissemination tools, and managing the migration of the unit's widely visited intranet site to a content management system based platform. I am also charged with spreading awareness about knowledge management tools and the overall KM value-proposition within the unit.

Prior to this, I was one of the leaders of the User Experience team at Sapient, New Delhi. Before Sapient, I was the Managing Editor of www.ITcrunch.com (and its sister business www.TeachMeIT.com); both ambitious e-learning cum professional IT services ?portals?. I have also worked as the Business Head of an Internet company, and have experience in journalism and research. I hold a Masters degree in Modern Indian History from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.


Veda J. Lamar

Senior Communications Advisor, Communications Knowledge Management Team

Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade Bureau

USAID

USA


Lucie Lamoureux

Senior Program Officer

Bellanet

Canada

For the past 5 years, I have been working on KS activities at Bellanet, the last 1.5 years as the Lead of the KS Program. As such, I've been involved in supporting the KM4dev community (http://open.bellanet.org/km) through online facilitation and capacity development in face-to-face workshops. I am really looking forward to this workshop, as it will be a great opportunity to exchange with KM/KS practitioners and to learn from people's experiences in implementing KS practices. I am always very curious to find out which approaches work best within different organizational (and network) cultures and to learn effective new KM/KS practices.

I have a Masters' degree in Library and Information Sciences and undergraduate degrees in Literature and Communications. Prior to joining Bellanet, I worked for two human rights organizations and - briefly - at the UN.


Last updated by kmfordev admin May 29, 2009.

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