Forum One Communications has launched a wiki (at www.developmentcommons.org) as a space for collaboration to define and start work on the Global Development Commons (GDC).

The concept of the GDC is for a space / infrastructure / system to enable the virtual and physical sharing of information among people around the world working in international development. The GDC concept was first discussed, as far as we can tell, in 2007 by US Agency for International Development's Administrator Henrietta Fore, and is outlined on a USAID web page.

USAID deserves a lot of credit for promoting the concept of the GDC. At the same time, for the GDC to take root and succeed, it cannot be an initiative launched (primarily) by USAID. The GDC is going to need to have the participation of a wide array of groups apart from USAID - NGOs, multi-lateral organizations, international organizations, non-US government donors, technology businesses, academic institutions, and others.

So, we've set up and are hosting this wiki as a neutral space for any players in the development sector to share ideas about what the GDC could become and how it can grow. We outline on the wiki some initial thoughts on the structure and approach for the GDC, and other "commons" efforts. Excerpt from wiki:

The Global Development Commons is an "ecosystem" of online content and services that helps the international development community make progress on important issues of human, social and economic development.

Destination: The GDC is not a web site or web property – or even a suite of web sites. It is an interconnected set of services and information/content floating among those services, made possible by the use of common standards and tools.

Ownership: The GDC is a collaborative effort of many content sources and online service providers. There is coordination to define and evangelize about common standards which make possible the GDC. But there is no “ownership” of the GDC, any more than anyone “owns” the Internet.

Etc.

Our ideas on the wiki are still developing, and we are eager to have others contribute! Please register and add your own ideas.

And if you want to blog about this - use the tags
gdc
and
devcommons

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