Knowledge Sharing at I-Network

Ali Balunywa in Kampala, Uganda 

I-Network Uganda www.i-network.or.ug is a national network of individuals and organizations that acts as a platform for sharing knowledge and information on applying ICTs for equitable national development as well as influencing and supporting ICT policy development and implementation in Uganda. The Netherlands-based International Institute for Communication and development (IICD) supports the organization.

I talked with Rachel Kadama who holds a Masters in Business Management degree is the knowledge sharing activities manager. She joined the organization in 2006. 

The knowledge-sharing plan has 6 core activities viz:

•     Publishing a newsletter
  
•     Maintaining a website
  
•     Holding seminars
  
•     Maintaining a mailing list
  
•     Preparing and distributing short publications
  
•     Video making and uploading 
  

The above mentioned core activities were relevant to my research.

The Newsletter 

The secretariat generates story ideas that are given to the editor to pursue. The editor of the newsletter is outsourced and is not part of the staff of I-Network. Freelance journalists can also be commissioned to write stories. The organization also encourages projects that are supported by I-Network to send in stories about their projects.

Project stories examples include; 

•        How mothers use internet cafes
  
•        Or how the health change project’s resource centre is used in combination with the internet     facility 
  

A team of journalists and I-Network workers write the stories in the newsletter. Before a newsletter is published, the staff at I-Network decides on the theme of the particular issue. Readers interact with writers through email. The feedback is always published in the following issue. 

Readers of the newsletter include; the ICT sector, development workers and most projects incorporating ICT. The newsletter stories are shared mainly the development areas. A modest 4,000 copies are published and distributed free of charge. It is funded through IICD.

Stories come in via email and follow the editorial process. The I-Network staff edits the stories to maintain the integrity of the organization. The layout of the magazine is outsourced and indesign software is used. 

The ready pages are PDF-ed and sent to the printers by email or on a flash disk. The printers are also outsourced.

New Media was welcomed with a sigh of relief. From typing, emailing, flash disks and PDFs to Googling for background and facts and sourcing stories. An online subscriber base is also a new media tool used for communication circulation 

A blog will be established on their website to enable people to comment and discuss issues. The Wikipedia is also frequently used for reference. The mobile phone and digital camera are very useful tools during the gathering, sorting, publishing and distributing of the newsletter.

The newsletter website is a Joomla - open source content management system.  The organization updates the website themselves every week especially with ICT news in Uganda. It is also used as a platform for other ICT based organizations to advertise themselves and upcoming events. The website carries a resource centre for documents, activities, presentations, discussions and National Information Technology Authority (NITA). All these are made available foe people and can be downloaded or commented upon. So the main purpose of the website is to be a resource.

I-Network also publishes short publications. These are focused on promoting certain projects for example; Internet connectivity, guide for rural ICT in Uganda and Cordaid/IICD health project. The come by way of hard copy and also via email to subscribers. Short publications guide the people to understand things like the Internet. 

Lastly, I-Network has started shooting videos to complement the short publications. They intend to shoot a video every quarter.