ShareIdeas.org is a new website whose aim is to bring together a community of people with experience in using mobile communications to support conservation and development projects as well as individuals who are looking for guidance on how to do it themselves. The idea was put forward by an African NGO and taken up by mobile communications companies. The wiki-based site represents an online discussion that is open to all: individuals, groups and organizations.
The wiki design allows all users to contribute to the site, adding personal opinions and suggestions to the information available. All articles already posted can be commented on or edited by any registered user, which is beneficial in two ways. Firstly, the community synergistically ensures that all information is up to date. Secondly, it makes every article a seed for discussion, encouraging the sharing of experiences and expertise. Any user is able, for example, to post a question to which the whole ShareIdeas.org community can respond, and each article is accompanied by a discussion.
The idea for the site was spawned by Ndidi Nwuneli of LEAP Africa, a Nigerian NGO. At a Nokia stakeholders’ event in 2005, she suggested that "groups like ours would really benefit from a resource that shows us how to use mobile technology to carry out our work more effectively." This was taken up by Nokia and Vodafone, making the site well-supported by the commercial mobile communications sector. However, although these companies initially established the site and provide the back-end maintenance, it belongs to the online community, who are responsible for its being kept up-to-date and active, moderated by a small ShareIdeas.org editorial team.
Almost every aspect of NGO activism is addressed on ShareIdeas.org. As well as environment, education and economic empowerment, there are areas of the site devoted to health and safety, humanitarian relief and civic engagement. Its design is very accessible, empowering even those with little experience of the internet to make contributions. It also contains practical guidelines and case studies on how mobile communications technology might be deployed in all these contexts.
ShareIdeas.org complements the t4cd program very well, acting as an active forum where t4cd provides a reliable information database with a specific focus on wildlife conservation and aspects of sustainable develpoment. Also, given our participation in numerous technology projects in the field, a detailed case study of one of t4cd’s projects features on the ShareIdeas site (see below for links).
See the ShareIdeas.org home page
Read an article featuring t4cd