About

=== work in progress ===

Why a knowledge sharing toolkit?

This toolkit has been developed by the ICT-KM Program, a former Program of the CGIAR, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). It is a living knowledge repository about knowledge sharing. We created it to be a resource both for KS workshops and as an ongoing place to learn about, improve upon and generally share our knowledge sharing practices. There are other KS toolkits out in the world - many of them listed in our acknowledgments. Most of them, however, are static - not updated. We wanted to provide a place where we can share our practices in an on-going manner. So we invite you to improve upon any of the entries, leave your name and contact information if you can be a resource on a tool or method, and share stories (both success and "uh-oh - failure" types) of these methods and tools in use. Let's help each other.

How the toolkit is organized

The toolkit has three main pieces. Two "libraries" one for methods and one for tools that can be used for knowledge sharing, and a set of perspectives and guidance that can help you choose tools and methods for your needs and contexts. This "choosing bit" is an experiment. We are hoping that many people will help identify what is useful to them and from that, develop some patterns that help in the choosing process.

What we mean by "tools" and "methods"

By tools, we mean web based software and offline physical tools that can be used with a variety of methods. By methods, we mean group processes that people can use to interact with each other, online or offline. This toolkit has an emphasis on online tools and offline methods, but we hope over time we can include a wide range that work in both or either environment.

Tools and Web 2.0

You may hear a lot about "Web 2.0" - the new generation of tools that make it easier for people to do things with each other online. You may wish to read more about this on the KM4Dev wiki.


How to consider tools and methods to meet your needs

We are creating a number of different ways to view the tools and methods according to your needs and contexts. These views are informed partly from some established frameworks in development, and the rest will come from you, the users of the toolkit. Our intent is to create this flexible framework that can grow as we use the toolkit. To begin, please go to our first iteration - What is Your Context?


How can you participate

Want to help support the Toolkit? The ICT-KM program of the CGIAR, FAO and KM4Dev invite individuals and organizations to join us in the growth and maintenance of the Toolkit. Here are some opportunities to contribute. If you are interested, please click on the discussion tab above and leave us a message! To begin, see what are the different options available - Support the Toolkit

How this project started

The ICT-KM group of the CGIAR had built a static web page KS Toolkit which was very valuable. But ov er time, it became clear that there needed to be a more flexible framework to which many could contribute. The KS wiki toolkit project was born from the idea that user generated contributions using a wiki could be a valuable next step. This project is a continuation of other NGO efforts and interest around knowledge sharing and recognizes it grows on the shoulders of those who have been doing this work for years. The ICT-KM group partnered with Nancy White of Full Circle Associates to create the wiki. After participation in the first KS Workshop, FAO decided to join the project.

Deciding on a Wiki platform

We are using Wikispaces as our wiki host because we are a) familiar with it, b) they have had a good track record on up time and customer service, and c) the interface is easier than some other wikis.

Identifying initial tools and methods for inclusion

We started with a list of tools that we often use and for which there were abundant resources from other toolkits. This is not intended as replication of other toolkits, but to expand their reach and customize the entries for those working in the CGIAR, FAO and in international development. Then we narrowed down the list for our first iteration. We'll be adding (and encourage you to add) additional entries over time, as well as update and edit existing entries. This is NOT a static resource.

Collaborating with other organizations

  • FAO - FAO's IMARK materials are a great sources of more in-depth self paced learning on many of these topics. We hope eventually to link to specific elements on each relevant page.
  • ODI - ODI's KS Toolkit has been a rich source of resources for this Toolkit. The development of the online meeting entries were done with Simon Hearn of ODI
  • KM4Dev - the KM4Dev community and the knowledge shared on the KM4Dev wiki has been a rich source of resources for this toolkit
  • CARE- many of the base entries come from CARE's Knowledge Cafe
  • Cross linking. In early 2010, a more deliberate effort was made to cross link tool and method pages on the KM4Dev wiki

Tool and Method Template


How to Make a New Toolkit Page

We created an initial starting point template for a new page. It was developed by looking at templates from other toolkits. There may be more fields than are needed on every page, but it is a useful starting point. You can open this link in a second window and copy the template into any new page you want to make. Feel free to alter it if it does not work for the particular method or tool you are adding to the toolkit.


Deciding on Key Tags - Working with User Generated Tags

To select the initial tags, we scanned a variety of KS method publications and used that to contruct our context or 'way in' pages. From there we developed the first set of tags. We'll need to monitor and see if the tags are useful, if people add other tags and finally, if we can use tags to find content across languages (i.e. create a tag pair with the word in both Spanish and English). There has been very little work done in this area, so we should consider the cross language work entirely experimental.


Tips for Editing and Improving Exiting Pages


Promoting the Use and Further Expansion of the Toolkit

A wiki needs two things: people who view/use it and people who make it better. With these two types of people, you can grow and sustain a wiki. This wiki has been intentionally designed to be an open resource (Global Public Good) and thus both its value and its ability to be sustained comes from inside and outside the CGIAR. The cross fertilization of ideas is both good for knowledge sharing and for the sustainable future of the wiki.


What would training look like?

  • Whenever there are F2F meetings add 15 minutes to walk through the wiki. (Example here)
  • Do a web meeting with screen sharing (where bandwidth allows ) once a month to share wiki tips. (See example here)

Promoting toolkit use

  • Market the toolkit across the CGIAR and wider development network. This includes posting news to list servs (i.e. KM4Dev, Web2forDev, the Drumbeat, BytesforAll, etc.)
  • Create a demo screen cast about how to edit the wiki and make available
  • Identify wiki gardeners and champions - find a couple of people in each CGIAR center and give them some training on how to edit the wiki and encourage them to spread the practice in their centers. Consider what incentives and rewards can be given to these people.
  • Collect use stories and plug them back into the wiki and share at reviews and meetings

Promoting changes and additions

  • Monitor who is changing pages and follow up with key contributors, thanking and encouraging them to do more.
  • Monitor page views and note where there is interest and consider those areas for strengthening and expansion.
  • Identify a set of people to scan and tag resources for consideration/inclusion by creating a share http://del.icio.us tag and then recruit another team to cull and add those resources to the wiki. This can be very distributed work.
  • Do a quarterly review to check for gaps and opportunities and assign basic upkeep work to one or more staff or volunteers.


Ongoing Maintenance and Wiki Gardening Tasks

  • Right now the tagging tools in Wikispaces are affiliated with individual's accounts, so someone has to go through and check what tags are posted on the pages and make sure they are in the actual tag fields at the bottom of the pages.
  • Monitor the site for dead links
  • Monitor the site for spam
  • Make sure new pages are all included in the appropriate tool or method index pages.
  • Ensure proper attribution for all external materials


Lessons Learned

  • The origins of the toolkit speak to the power of the network that creates it: The KM4Dev wiki as source of inspiration to CARE, who agreed to let the CGIAR use their content as the base of the CGIAR KS Toolkit, to FAO decided to add their support. This cross organizational cooperation reduces the individual organizational costs, while adding the diversity that each organization brings.
  • We were concerned about duplication, but it turns out some duplication is valuable because not all resources are maintained.
  • The KS Workshop revealed excited toolkit users, promoters, and contributors.
  • The Toolkit has not yet had a formal evaluation and we should plan one.
  • Customization of the content for a development context adds a new and unique value.

Sources and Additional Resources


Initial Core Team


Photo by mollycakes

  • Many of the images in the toolkit came from Creative Common's tagged images on Flickr