Engaging in WaterWiki Opportunities for UN-Water knowledge & coordination support

1. Engaging in WaterWikiOpportunities for UN-Waterknowledge & coordination support Proposal by Juerg Staudenmann, Water Governance Advisor, UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre Presented by Andrew Hudson / Joakim Harlin To the UN-Water Meeting, Rome – 15-17 January 2008

2. What isWaterWiki ?(www.WaterWiki.net) UNDP’s Knowledge Portal and On-line Collaboration Platform for practitioners working on water governance in Europe &CIS • THE NEED: requirement to systematically document & map projects, reports, key documents & organizations, “who-is-who and does what”, and UNDP’s on-going work on “Water Governance” (in Europe & CIS) • THE APPROACH: to create a web-based and interactive repository of info, knowledge and experiences (instead of “storing it all on a C: drive”) • THE SOLUTION:a Wiki-Platform, just like Wikipedia, which would allow any interested practitioner to draw upon, but also to contribute directly …

3. What isWaterWiki ? (cont.) • Wikis, as compared to “regular websites”: • Easy-to-use and -maintain – by anyone (no HTML or IT language needed) • While webpages usually are centrally owned (by an organization that also bears the responsibility of creating, updating and approving content), Wikis aim to be “publicly owned” web-spaces • Any (identified and logged-in!!) user can add or edit any content; all edits can easily be monitored and undone by others (full “page history” and roll-back function) Wiki vs regular website: • A “Potluck-cooking party” vs restaurant visit • Or: A knowledge base that “grows organically” with each user-contribution, instead of “being constructed” by one or more “responsible info-providers” • Quality control? • Is decentralized / democratic / peer controlled: the user-group itself mutually monitors, comments and directly edits its contributions • Few facilitators (“knowledge farmers”), mainly to assist users and guide the way contributions are made & managed (updated) • AND: Who says a restaurant meal necessarily has to be of higher quality than self-cooked food?

4. WaterWiki over time • Started “bottom-up” in Aug 2005: • zero budget, but 100% commitment plus 2 interns • Aug 05 – Mar 06: • From 0 to600 visitor/day • Some 200 pages(incl. 32 “country-pages”, 25 projects, 50 reports, 40 practitioners, …) • Now (Jan 08): • Over 1,800 pages + 800 uploaded files (incl. 98 projects, 287 reports, 192 practitioners & 58 contacts, 97 thematic articles, 39 experience write-ups / case-studies, 127 organizations & networks, 213 definitions/concepts, …) • Current average: 700-900 genuine visitors/day(approx. 15,000 page-views/day)

5. 3 years of Wiki-experienceatUNDP Bratislava Reg. Centre • Major benefits of using WaterWiki: • WaterWiki greatly improved access to information and knowledge on water in the region (Client survey 2007: Our own little Britannica“) • Used by practitioners as (a) info-base, (b) learning resource (!), and (c) “to stay connected to other practitioners” • An easy-to-use platform, not only serving as info-base, but used to exchange experiences & case studies • WaterWiki is broad enough covering all relevant information, yet focused/specific enough to be relevant, “to-the-point” and of real practical use for practitioners • People like the “look and feel” of WaterWiki • Current work to improve WaterWiki: • Upgrade and add useful (AND attractive!) functionalities: WYSIWYG | “Add new page” wizard | print/send/link this | random page | Google Maps | “Rate this page” | Video/YouTube | RSS-fed news & meta-pages… • Better structured navigation and “exploring mechanisms”, incl. monitoring & alert functions (What’s new? | What’s top? | what’s needing your input? …) • Emphasis on support for on-line collaboration & joint drafting (articles, reports, definitions, case studies, …) • ”mash-ups” with other e-tools like e-mail groups, blogs, social networks (facebook?), SKYPE, etc • increase support and incentives for contributors: How/Where to add wizards, recognition & visibility (author- and “top contributor”-lists, indications that shared experiences are actually accessed & used by others, …

6. WaterWiki 2.0 – The recommended* way ahead*incl. web4dev conference, Nairobi Nov 2007 • EXPAND ! • Geographically: all regions - while keeping (sub-)regional “chapters” (?) • Institutionally: More (all?) UN-agencies – and possibly even beyond UN • Possibly “de-brand”: no specific (UN-) agency (visible) behind it; or not even “UN”?  Legally a “slim solution” solving the author/property-rights issue • BUT KEEP THE THEMATIC FOCUS: Water (& Sanitation) • Use WaterWiki as (interactive) publishing-platform: Invite partners to “copy-paste” their original publication onto WaterWiki for direct editing & discussion • Mark as “edits welcome”, while providing a link to the original / official • Interlink with other content on WaterWiki • Make use of edits / discussions for future updates Examples: • Confirmed: UNECE’s First River Basin Assessment: Create new page for each River Basin (with dynamic links to relevant projects, reports, contacts, articles, …) • Under discussion: EC ‘Water Management Guideline’: New topics, articles, “How-to..?”-pages (linking also to related reports, projects, articles, …) • Potentially: Publish (or create) joint UN-Water Publications as live documents, accessible and editable by the registered users (WWDR, JMP, IWRM report, etc.)?

7. WaterWiki for adoption ! • UNDP’s “offer”: • Existing WaterWiki structure and info / knowledge base (1800 pages, 800 uploaded files, …) • 3 years experience developing and maintaining Wiki platforms (and other advanced IT-tools) for web-based knowledge management, coordination and collaboration • Active support to establish a joint, UN-coordinated, living knowledge base and collaboration platform (part-time “knowledge farmer” position planned for 2008) • Started upgrading and expanding: Perfect time for partners* to come on board and join forces! * To date, interest to collaborate actively on WaterWiki has been expressed by UNEP, UNECE, UN-Habitat, UNICEF (and EU/EC) • A suggested approach: a Wiki-based knowledge base – consciously open for adding / editing / file uploading / commenting – complementing the official UN-Water & agency websites (with “officially endorsed content”) • Link with (build on) existing webpages & portals (e.g. UNESCO water portal) for basic info, facts, official documents • Aim at (joint) generation and exposition of value-added content/knowledge that is of (UN-) joint value and importance • High flexibility in terms of content, structure, presentation, but providing pro-active facilitator-support to the publishers (à la Wikipedia) • UN-Water could make use of WaterWiki to: • Write-up (and present to external partners & clients) issues, case studies, and “the UN’s work on water & sanitation” • Map out Who’s-who and Who’s-doing-what (people & agencies) for better inter-agency coordination • Develop joint (= UN-coordinated) oeuvres such as definitions, position papers, practical tools & notes, possibly in the future even reports (WWDR?), … • Expose water- (and UN-) related issues for discussion within the UN family, partners and publicly • …?

8. Thank you ! • Discussion: • Interest of UN-Water partners? • Roles and responsibilities for the way ahead? • Concrete next steps?

11. WaterWiki 2.0 – The new look (link) Revised navigation Google-Map Making knowledge sharing easier

12. WaterWiki 2.0 – New extensions Using templates for easier navigation & orientation RATE IT!

13. WaterWiki 2.0 – The way ahead (concept & technical approach) • Continue expanding documentation (News? Events?) and put heavier focus on • “genuine knowledge” (= articles, experience write-ups & case-studies, how-to’s, etc.) • on-line collaboration & joint drafting (knowledge base with articles, concepts, reports (?), …) • Upgrade to newest MediaWiki version (1.11) and • expand functionalities (e.g. tag-clouds, Google Map, rating stars, tutorials, interfaces (WYSIWYG) and context-support, …) • ”mash-up” with other e-tools like e-mail groups, blogs, social networks (facebook?), SKYPE, etc • (A bit) morestructure & orientationto make finding (and contributing!) of knowledge even easier: • advanced tagging / categorization; • automated listings & navigational tools/aid; • powerful “exploring mechanisms”: entry- and meta-pages (e.g. by river basin), thematic sub-portals, dynamic cross-linking, etc.) • For contributors, increase incentives : • support (Where to add my knowledge? How to start a new article?); wizards … • recognition & visibility: author- or “top content”-lists, indications that knowledge & experience is actually accessed & used by others, etc. • Overcome the language barrier  The time has come to professionalize ( = review the underlying “knowledge management concept” and raise funding!! )