Engaging the public

The eBario project: Champion of innovative knowledge mobilization

By 16/04/2014

2 Responses to The eBario project: Champion of innovative knowledge mobilization

  1. Andrew Clappison says:

    Roger,I was delighted to read this post because it’s always great to hear people doing new and interesting things. I attended a Knowledge Fair in Addis a few years back hosted by ILRI and I have to say that that was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had as a ‘knowledge intermediary’ and it was astounding to see how so many different ideas and approaches can come together if a platform for discussion is made available. I would love to see more ‘traditional’ research organisations embrace different approaches to sharing their research, other than the traditional and resource dependent academic conference. However, sadly the incentives for presenting a paper at a conference are often more clear to the research community than exploring other approaches (particularly because it might lead to a publication). I think the development research community could play an important role in shifting researchers away from this paradigm. In particular, donor organisations could play a key role by ensuring their funding of academic conferences actively supports new and innovative formats to knowledge exchange.

    • Roger says:

      Thanks Andrew. I agree your points wholeheartedly; and there is growing recognition of the paucity of research influence in development policy and practice. Arising from our experiences, we are formulating further initiatives to increase the impact of ICT research on indigenous issues, which will involve a range of non-traditional activities that go beyond academic publishing and orthodox conferencing.