WaterWiki An opportunity for UN-wide collaboration

WaterWikiAn opportunity for UN-wide collaboration Jürg Staudenmann UNDP Water Governance Advisor, Bratislava Regional Centre UNESCO, Paris (09 October 2008)

The “Wiki-experiment” • Wikipedia started “small and simple”; grew in short time to one of the most important on-line resources. (The humble vision: “capturing the worlds knowledge”…) • Practice proofs: Approach and tool conducive to • encourage hundred-thousands to share their individual knowledge • Despite skepticism from many deliver exponentially increasing knowledge resources of use to hundreds of millions of users

The “Wiki-idea” – Underlying principles • Decentralized contributions & content responsibility (democratic + self-responsibility + peer control) • Limited format or structure prescribed (let it grow !) • “Tags” and hyperlinks as backbone (instead of folders & hierarchy) • Allow/promote ANY knowledge in ANY format, files, pics, etc. • But restrain opinions / viewpoints (use other fora for that) • Coaching & support, rather than supervision and control

What’s WaterWiki ? • UNDP’s Knowledge exchange and on-line collaboration platformfor water practitioners • Alternative to official UNDP / project sites • A continuously growing knowledge base that • improves with each individual user-contribution • allows sharing and discussing of “true knowledge” (success, failures, lessons, • is owned by the community • What it is not ? • A “normal website” • Under responsibility or control of UNDP • A pure database or “Content Management System”

Background (How comes…) • WaterWiki emerged from the real NEED • to systematically map & document projects, reports & key documents, organizations, “who-is-who and does what”, • to codify UNDP-relevant “knowledge on water” • for an on-line collaboration workspace • APPROACH chosen • Web-based (instead of “storing it on C:-drive”) • Interactive (instead of “central delivery”) • Real-time (instead of “thanks, please wait for publication”) • Possibility for joint collaboration on knowledge products • “Something like Wikipedia, decentralized, that that works like a “Potluck-cooking party” rather than a restaurant visit”

How does it work ? • Like Wikipedia … • On-line collection of info, knowledge, files, links … • Entire content is free for use, editing, complementation, linking • Every change is tracked to revert previous versions if needed • … * BUT: While entire content is visible to anyone, only registered & logged-in users can create new or edit existing pages/articles, upload files, insert links, pics, videos (YouTube), rate or discuss contributions ... • What about quality control? • Self-responsibility: Each contributor is attributed to his/her contributions • Peer-control: users mutually monitor, comment and directly edit each others contributions • Facilitation: “Knowledge farmers” assist users, guide or selectively complement contributions, to maximize usability/benefit • Red-button: If necessary, users can be blocked and every change undone

Evolution of WaterWiki • Started “bottom-up” in Aug 2005: • zero budget (but 100% commitment + 2 interns) • Aug 05 – Mar 06 (1/2 year): • From 0 to600 visitor/day • Some 200 pages (incl. 32 “country-pages”, 25 projects, 50 reports, 40 practitioners, …) • Today: • Almost 2,000 pages + 850 uploaded files(incl. 101 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)

Demo (http://WaterWiki.net) • Welcome • navigation, Help, recent changes, search … • How to edit (tag-cloud, links) • Reports • HDR 2006 (Overview, Chapters, Link to MDGs) • Experience / Case Studies • Uzbekistan - “Celebrating Communities for WSS” • Category “Experience” (Comparative Experience Water Councils) • FAQs / Toolkits: • New HRBA programme • FAQs on IW management • Country, River Basin, and other “Portal-pages” • Countries (Uzbekistan/Central Asia) • Amu Darya Basin (with “transclusion” from CAREWIB) • Projects (“transcluded” list from UNDP homepage)

User feedback • Client survey 2007: • WaterWiki has greatly improved access to information and knowledge on water in the region (“Our own little Britannica“) • Used by practitioners & experts as (a) info-base, (b) learning resource (!), and (c) “to stay connected to other practitioners” • People like the “look and feel” of WaterWiki (recognition effect due to Wikipedia) • High flexibility in terms of content, structure, presentation, continued change & development • An easy-to-use platform, broad enough to cover all relevant information sources, yet focused & specific enough to remain relevant, selective, “to-the-point” and of real practical use

Prospects for the Future 3 years piloting experience, success, recognition: • We’re on the right track. That’s how knowledge management & experience exchange can work • There’s a confirmed need for “a WaterWiki” (user reviews; peer-discussions; consultations) • It’s time to “spread the wings and fly”: • (i) scale-up: globalize within UNDP – and beyond • (ii) open up: broaden institutionally • (ii) professionalize: define (& occupy) niche, review structure, upgrade functionalities, enrich basic content • (iii) possibly “re-/de-brand”: (no visible (UN-) brand also legally a “slim solution”) BUT KEEP THE THEMATIC FOCUS: Water (& Sanitation)

Upgrading (on-going) • Upgrade with useful (and attractive!) functionalities: • WYSIWYG | Google Maps | YouTube | “Rate this page” | “e-mail / link / print this page” | … • RSS-feeds and ”mesh-ups” (link with other e-tools like e-mail groups, blogs, social networks (facebook / LinkedIn/…?), SKYPE, news or meta-pages, etc.) • Improve structure, navigation, search • Additional “exploring mechanisms” (portals, “transclusions”, cross-linking virtual toolboxes) • Tag-clouds and keyword-automated listings, • Cross-references (What’s new? | What’s popular? | Who’s been active | What’s related | …) • Monitoring & alert functions (e-mail alert, syndication, bookmarking / referencing)

Further planned improvements • Increase support, guidance, “feel & look” (= incentives for active participation): • Wizards for user-contributions (“Add new page”, “upload video”, “Related wanted pages”…) • Contributor recognition & visibility (“last 3 authors” | “this month’s top contributors” | • Indicators that contributors’ shared knowledge is actually viewed & accessed (like “video watched” on YouTube) • Promote & supporting community-tools • for on-line collaboration (e.g. for joint drafting of case studies, essays, etc.) • for networking …

WaterWiki’s potential value and use for the UN-Water family • To map what UN-Water partners do, know, are working on • As joint knowledge base complementing(!) official UN-Water & agency websites • As “One-Stop-Shop” linking to existing data- and knowledge bases (of UN-Water and/or beyond) • For development of “joint UN knowledge on water” like glossary & definitions, indicators, case studies, joint reports and/or spin-offs, common facts & info on water basins, etc. • As workspace for UN-Water working groups (e.g. for development & discussion of position papers or guidelines) “Glue”between existing sites and an opportunity for active and continuous inter-agency collaboration on developing and refining a wide range of knowledge products

Opportunity for UN-Water members • Can build on • Existing Wiki-platform (and momentum) for water practitioners • Established structure, info & knowledge base • 3 years of practical experience in developing, testing, maintaining of a Wiki platform • UNDP’s offer to support (& co-fund) development of a joint scale-up • … and of coursethe enormous breadth of knowledge & experience within the collective UN-Water agency W&S staff • Interest expressed already by colleagues form UNESCO, WHO, IAEA, UNEP, UNECE, UN-Habitat, UNICEF

Why WaterWiki ? • Use momentum and recognition-effect: • Already existing platform, content & community • Wikipedia-similarity : People know instantly what to expect and how it works • Initial success and already significant recognition • “WikiMedia” as platform: • Widely tested and used, technically stable, • Open source = • continuous development & improvements guaranteed • Lots of functionalities and potentials • Easy for IT-support staff to link & work with • High-ranking in Google-search! • “Twin-projects”: BioenergyWiki (US NGOs); WikiGender (OECD); CoastalWiki (EU project); akvo.org (private, “market place” for water projects);

Why WaterWiki ? (cont.) • Why not any existing UN-platform (such as Aquastat, GEMS, IW:LEARN, etc.)? • They usually are specific (GEF or water quality or indicator data) • They generally are owned by and/or attributed to certain institutions or projects (only) • They in most cases are centrally generated, updated, maintained • Why of interest for WaterWiki? • As the “UN-Water Wikipedia”, WaterWiki could become exponentially more relevant and useful for a much wider range of potential users

The way ahead • UN-Water Task Force on WaterWiki • comprehensive mapping of existing sites, tools, trends • adequate consultations with all UN-Water agencies • development and implementation of UN-wide WaterWiki concept • Roll-out of new WaterWiki • Selected multi-agency (bi-lateral) web-projects with UN-Water members • Concrete solutions and “mashups” • Showcasing while creating real value for users / water & development community

Thank you ! http://WaterWiki.net

WaterWiki An opportunity for UN-wide collaboration