This 90-minute interactive session will bring together online facilitators, knowledge managers, and practitioners from across international development, humanitarian, and social justice networks to explore how online collaboration can become more effective and engaging.

Under the theme “Collaboration Futures: Strengthening online communities and practices,” this year’s Exchange will draw on experiences and lessons from Dgroups partners and collaborators. Through short conversations, breakout discussions, and shared reflections, we will explore:

• Using AI in knowledge management and sharing – Lessons from the KS Toolkit
  
• Measuring online collaboration and knowledge exchange
  
• Knowledge retention and continuity – why it matters and how to do it
  
• Sustaining, growing and enhancing online engagement

Join us and guest speakers Davide Piga, Rocio Sanz and Simon Hearn.

The session is open to anyone interested in strengthening online communities, facilitating knowledge exchange, or improving collaboration across projects and organisations. It offers a chance to connect with peers, hear practical examples, and take away ideas that can be applied in everyday work.

📅 Date: Thursday 20 November 2025
🕒 Time: 14:00–15:30 CET (13:00–14:30 UTC)
💻 Format: Online (Zoom)
🔗 Register here: Link 

Please feel free to share the invitation with colleagues who might be interested.

We look forward to connecting with you in November!

One of the key areas we’ve worked on recently is the integration of different online collaboration platforms with other tools and systems for knowledge sharing and management. This work has allowed us to explore innovative solutions and deliver more cohesive systems that enhance collaboration outcomes for our partners.

Alongside this, we experience growing demands to integrate Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) systems with internal Knowledge Management platforms. This is a relatively new area for the Foundation, and we’ve enjoyed collaborating with partners to design and implement different solutions.

Moving forward, we aim to continue improving how we document and share news from the Foundation and our Partners to strengthen our collective impact. You can stay updated on our website at dgroups.info or following us on LinkedIn.

Finally, we are pleased to announce the expansion of our team of Associates. We are enjoying being able to draw on the expertise of Jessica Ball, Tony Murray, Simon Hearn, Sajid Chowdhury and the team at Big Blue and Susanna Pecora – covering facilitation, online collaboration, web design, and platform building.

Survey on online collaboration

In October, we launched a survey to understand needs, trends, and demands for online collaboration and interaction in the development, humanitarian, and health sectors. And to identify popular and promising technical solutions that people are using to enable online collaboration and interaction.

So far, we received 50 responses from a wide range of people. While we are still analysing the responses, here are some emerging results:

• Email, document sharing and editing platforms, and video conferencing tools are the most common modes of online collaboration/interaction.
  
• In terms of tools and platforms, the most used are: Google Workspace and MS Teams; Zoom; Google Drive, OneDrive and SharePoint; and email in general.
  
• Emerging trends identified as shaping future online collaboration and interaction include:
  • Integration of AI in workflows, analytics, and collaboration tools.
  • Hybrid collaboration, blending face-to-face and online interactions.
  • Budget and environmental constraints, increasing reliance on virtual meetings and online tools.
  • Smartphone proliferation in low- and middle-income countries, enhancing accessibility but likely to significantly influence the choice of tools and apps.
  • Increasing use of high-quality automated translations for more inclusive global collaboration.
  • Growing integration across platforms and tools.

We plan to share the full survey results in early 2025 and continue this conversation in a public virtual exchange with Dgroups Partners and other interested individuals and organizations.

Project updates

Integrating content and ‘spaces’ in the CLARE KM platform

Earlier this year, we developed a  Knowledge Management (KM) Platform for the CLimate Adaptation & REsilience (CLARE) Programme of FCDO and IDRC. The platform integrates the groups.io software with WordPress, and imports records from a Dspace repository into WordPress as custom post types. This demonstrates how different open content can be brought together in an integrated system that reinforces different collaboration outcomes. We have documented this in a short case study. Read more

Supporting knowledge management for the AQUADAPT Initiative

We further continued our partnership with IDRC – working with the AQUADAPT initiative to scope, design and build its knowledge management platform. The platform will enable the collection and analysis of monitoring data across projects, and facilitate cross-programme peer learning, collaboration, and knowledge sharing. The beta version of the platform is expected later this year, with the full release in early 2025. Read more

From planning to action: Launching the CGIAR climate community

Earlier this year, CGIAR launched an online climate community—a dedicated space to share updates, insights, and foster connections among experts and peers committed to addressing climate adaptation and mitigation challenges. The Dgroups Foundation is collaborating with the Platform to nurture and grow this online community, adding value to its members, their work, and the Platform’s overarching goals. Read more

Integrating MEL systems with knowledge management platforms

For two recent projects, we developed monitoring systems Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) systems integrated into internal Knowledge Management (KM) platforms.As a relatively new area for the Foundation, it’s been exciting to collaborate with partners to design and implement tailored solutions in this space. Read more

Establishing an AMR knowledge sharing space for IDRC

Building from our work with CLARE and AQUADAPT, we just agreed a further project with IDRC to support ‘InnoVet-AMR’ – a four-year partnership between IDRC and the UK Department of Health and Social Care to address the emerging global threat of antimicrobial resistance by reducing the misuse of antimicrobials in animal production in the Global South. In early 2025, we will develop a knowledge management platform to support the program’s internal information storage and knowledge sharing between grantees.

Practical steps for engaging communities of practice

Earlier this year, we published a concise CoP Engagement Planning Guide that draws on some of the best-known practices to offer a practical and actionable framework for online communities. The guide outlines clear strategies for effective CoP planning and management within the development sector. By implementing these strategies, organizations, projects, and networks can significantly enhance the effectiveness of their CoPs, fostering more meaningful interactions and driving successful outcomes. Read more

Partner experiences

Aside from our own directly contracted projects and support, we observe our partners using their groups in different ways. Here we share a few updates.

The D4Ag community specialises in online community conversations as mechanisms to drive membership engagement and experience sharing on digital agriculture. We recently published a short case on its approach, covering the  community’s evolution, its strategies to engage members, and practical tips to cultivate dynamic and inclusive digital communities. Particularly interesting is the strategic use they make of eConversations, to build dialogue and partnerships, and turn dialogue into knowledge. Read more

At ILRI, the GLAD livestock community has been with us for several years. It brings together individuals and organizations with interests in sustainable livestock systems in developing areas, sharing plans and resources that can help make the case for increased investment. Operating somewhat in the background of the initiative, it supports the advocacy efforts of various groups that each have their specific strategic niches. In recent years, it has particularly supported information-sharing and engagement campaigns around major global events.  Alongside the community space, the initiative has a dedicated website – https://whylivestockmatter.org/

The CGIAR GENDER community was set up in early 2020 around a meeting in Rome of the gender research community of CGIAR. Then, the idea was to provide a mechanism for the wider CGIAR gender community to engage with that meeting – the organisers provided daily discussion updates, and the wider community was asked to contribute their ideas. Since then, the community has grown into a broader community of interest in gender and agriculture with regular sharing of information on events, publications and opportunities. 

In October 2024, the GENDER platform convened a face-to-face meeting in India to discuss strategies to make agricultural extension more gender responsive. For this meeting, recognizing the ambitious agenda and limited time, a dedicated online sub-group was created for participants to introduce themselves in advance of the meeting. Alongside their short introductions the contributors also shared the critical factors they saw holding back more gender responsive extension. In the meeting itself, this initial interaction proved useful as people also readily knew something of each other and, interestingly, the critical factors identified proved to be a good match for an evidence review that the organisers prepared. Since the meeting, a few updating messages have been shared and there may be interest to continue the discussions.

KM4Dev end-of-year event

On 18 December 2024, we joined members of the KM4Dev community in an end-of-year event. The session was an occasion to celebrate what the community has achieved during this year and to brainstorm ideas and plan activities around the 25th Anniversary of this long-standing, thriving online community.

Looking forward

To wrap up, here are a few activities and ideas we look forward to taking forward in 2025:

• Virtual exchange: Early next year, we will hold another online Partner-driven, exchange meeting. The program will include a  review of the survey results to test the results and implications as well as hearing updates on partners and others on their lessons and innovations around  online collaboration and communities of practice. Together, we will capitalize on the experiences from partners and beyond. More details in the new year.

• A database and directory of online groups: A few years back we prototyped the Community Connector – a public, searchable database and directory of online groups and communities in the development and humanitarian sector. As we gain experience integrating information from different online communities and other platforms, we are keen to find partners to explore how we can  move the ‘connector’ to a next level that leverages the possibilities offered by API and other integration methods. Drop us a line if you are interested in this initiative.

• Supporting KM4Dev 25th Anniversary: For its 25th birthday celebrations in 2025, KM4Dev is planning a series of events and activities during the whole year. As Dgroups Foundation, we’ll be supporting these efforts by providing the platform that enables planning and implementation of the celebrations. And supporting the process of revamping the KM4Dev website, for a closer integration between the website and the various km4dev-related email groups.

Let us know of any ideas you might like to explore further or discuss – we are always keen to collaborate on joint projects and outreach using online tools and approaches where the Foundation’s networks can add value.

Working closely with the AQUADAPT team and programme partners, the Foundation is designing an internal knowledge management platform to meet the initiative’s needs. The platform will enable:

• The collection and analysis of monitoring data across projects.
• Cross-programme peer learning, collaboration, and knowledge sharing.

After completing a comprehensive and inclusive consultation and scoping phase, we are now developing the platform’s alpha version. Building on insights from our work on the CLARE KM Platform, we are refining the integration between WordPress (as a content management system) and groups.io to enhance collaboration and interaction.

The beta version of the platform is expected later this year, with the full release in early 2025.

Stay tuned for updates as we continue to support AQUADAPT in addressing these critical challenges through innovation and collaboration.

The KM platform was conceptualized with three core objectives:

• Monitoring and Evaluation: To collect and consolidate M&E data across projects.
• Internal Collaboration: To foster peer learning and collaboration among CLARE projects.
• Outreach and Communications: To showcase information and evidence from CLARE projects to external audiences.

To bring this vision to life, the Dgroups Foundation assembled an international team of experts in project management, consultation, facilitation, design and branding, web development, M&E, knowledge sharing (KS), and online collaboration.

Guided by the Principles for Digital Development

Adhering to the Principles for Digital Development — a framework for sustainable and inclusive digital innovation — was fundamental to the platform’s creation. Central to these principles is “Design with people.”

To ensure the platform aligned with user needs, the Dgroups Foundation undertook an extensive consultation and research process:

• A digital persona workshop to identify and understand the platform’s primary user groups. 
• Three focus group discussions involving 76 participants to define user needs and platform requirements. 
• Eight interviews to gather in-depth insights into specific platform features.
• A technical review to evaluate existing platforms and identify suitable solutions.
• Two surveys to shape the design of the public website and understand the existing project ecosystems. 

Insights from these activities informed the platform’s final design, which leveraged existing tools and technologies rather than building a singlec system from scratch.

Showcasing CLARE’s work

The public-facing website of the KM platform serves as a hub for CLARE’s outreach and impact. It allows stakeholders to explore programme outputs, follow project developments, and engage with cross-cutting initiatives like Capacity Strengthening (CS) and Research for Impact (R4I).

WordPress was chosen as the content management system due to its open-source nature, robust ecosystem of developers and plugins, and its ability to support multi-site configurations.

Integrating research outputs

A critical feature of the public website is its integration with IDRC’s institutional repository on DSpace, which houses programme materials and project outputs for long-term discovery and reuse. Using the DSpace API, outputs are programmatically imported into WordPress, enriched with metadata, and organized using a robust taxonomy.

This approach enhances discoverability and ensures outputs are searchable, shareable, and integrable into other repositories like FCDO/R4D. The outputs also feed into the M&E system, providing evidence of project progress.

Facilitating collaboration and interaction

For internal users, the CLARE Base website provides a secure, members-only space that shares the same WordPress instance as the public site. 

The CLARE Base website serves as an interface and aggregator for the collaboration and interaction activities across the programme. These are enabled by groups.io, which combines website and email features – a powerful pairing. Although other options were considered, many participants preferred email because it works well for asynchronous communication and doesn’t require continuous internet access. Users from different programme and project groups can add internally-directed content, interact, find resources, seek assistance, and collaborate on content and activities.

M&E Center

From CLARE Base, users can also access the M&E Center, a dedicated hub for monitoring and reporting. It provides:

• Tools for data input and review.
• Key MEL documents.
• Dashboards and visualizations.
• Support resources for users at various levels.

Empowering Users for Success

Following the platform’s development, comprehensive user testing and training sessions ensured the KM platform met CLARE’s objectives. By enhancing collaboration and streamlining M&E processes, the platform keeps CLARE’s diverse community aligned, informed, and focused on building resilience to climate change.

This platform reflects a thoughtful approach to design, aiming to facilitate collaboration, knowledge sharing, and the generation of insights to support climate adaptation and resilience.

CLARE is a flagship research programme on climate adaptation and resilience, funded mostly (about 90%) by UK Aid through the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and co-funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. CLARE is bridging critical gaps between science and action by championing Southern leadership to enable socially inclusive and sustainable action to build resilience to climate change and natural hazards.

IFAD Innovation Network

Gladys Morales presented the IFAD innovation network as an example of using online groups to discuss an issue in a community of interest. The IFAD Innovation Network is an informal group of innovation practitioners, authors, and global influencers that aims to reach 2,000 members by the end of the year. The network serves as a hub for innovation-related activities and initiatives within IFAD, as well as a mechanism for engaging with external partners. It provides a space for collaboration, dialogue, and learning, with the aim of driving innovation in IFAD’s operations and beyond. It is open to the public, and members include innovation practitioners, authors, and renowned global influencers in innovation, as well as individuals from academia, research institutions, private sector companies, and civil society organizations.

In terms of platform functionalities and features that are used to enhance collaboration, engagement, and knowledge sharing among members of the network, Gladys focused on the use of hashtags. Hashtags are used consistently to categorize posts related to specific innovation themes or projects. This makes it easier for members who are interested in that topic to find and engage with the post, to track the overall conversation and engagement around a particular theme or project.

CGIAR GENDER

Vivan Atakos introduced the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform as an example of using online groups across initiatives or projects. She shared how they use the group platform to support networking and sharing across different initiatives related to gender in agriculture. The group brings together gender researchers from 14 research centers across the world, and the platform is used to actively enable internal knowledge sharing, learning, and collaboration. The group has 225 members, including gender researchers, donors, and practitioners interested in gender issues. The platform provides a safe space for informal exchanges, sharing of events, publications, job opportunities, and consultancies related to gender in agriculture. Vivian encourages membership by providing targeted emails to new staff members, inviting them to join the platform, and providing a link to sign up.

A group feature that is particularly relevant and used is the calendar – a convenient and effective way to track key events and ensure everyone is informed. It is a simple solution that makes a big difference in keeping members updated with the latest happenings related to gender in agriculture.

KM4Dev (internal) groups

The KM4Dev group is well-known as an example of a successful online Community of Practice. But behind the main, public, group, the KM4Dev volunteers and core group also use several other online groups. These are normally small groups, set up and used to facilitate specific processes related to the management of the community and community activities – for example: to organize the rotation of monthly volunteer moderators; to discuss research and research issues; to coordinate between KM4Dev Journal editors; to plan and follow up on Core Group meetings and discussions.

Sarah Cummings illustrated how these different subgroups work and how they are managed, and some of the platform functionalities that they use. In the volunteers’ group, using polls makes the process of identifying monthly list moderators very efficient – the poll functionality is part of the platform, and polls can quickly be set up and launched.

C4C Advocacy group

John Ede from Charter for Change (C4C) illustrated how C4C is using online groups to support their advocacy initiatives. Charter for Change is an initiative led by national and international NGOs aiming to implement changes in the humanitarian system to enable more locally-led humanitarian responses. The C4C Advocacy Group is a smaller group within the network that advocates approaches to address imbalances and inequalities in the global humanitarian system and make equitable partnerships with local and national actors core to funding streams. The group has approximately 150 members from local, national, and international NGOs, as well as allied networks and organizations working on the localization of aid agenda. Members exchange information and collaborate to advance advocacy as individual agencies and collectively as the Charter for Change network, driving progress on the localization of aid agenda.

The group uses the email list functionality of the online platform to organize calls and discuss joint statements or pledges, which are then fed back into the group for comments or additions. The group also jointly develops advocacy statements as INGOs and national NGOs to influence key humanitarian decision-makers or strategies and organizes localization-focused side events.

D4Ag online dialogue

Giacomo Rambaldi shared experiences with an online, facilitated dialogue that the Digital Agri Hub convened with support from the Dgroups Foundation.

The online dialogue aimed to identify priorities and gaps in capacity-building opportunities for digitalization in agriculture. The dialogue, designed and facilitated by the Dgroups Foundation, was conducted for a three-week period across various platforms such as Zoom and the email list. Other group features were used to support the process, such as: the calendar, to publish the dialogue timeline and milestones; the wiki, to explain the dialogue process, provide technical guidance to participants, and publish weekly discussion summaries; the hashtags, to organize messages and topics.

He also focused on some of the challenges of engaging people to contribute to such exercises. From a survey he conducted some time ago, the results indicated that members in online groups may be hesitant to contribute due to their language constraints, which make them afraid to write and contribute publicly to a dialogue. He suggested that a similar survey could be replicated, with a standard questionnaire administered across different Dgroups Partners groups to identify other potential challenges to engaging contributors.

The chat and discussion throughout the talk show highlighted how the groups.io platform is rich in functionality, facilitating member engagement and providing a voice to many. Participants also noted the importance of ‘democratizing’ online dialogue and exchange through user collaboration and engagement. Some participants also suggested organizing training for the community at least once a year to remind members of the platform’s functionalities and to foster adoption. Finally, participants suggested and encouraged to continue this type of experience-sharing events to all benefit from individual experiences across the Dgroups partnership.

This is the third of a series of short posts from the discussion. The other two posts cover:

• Online interaction around events and meetings – the peer assist
• Online collaboration experience exchange – the 24 February session

Talk to us if you look for advice, coaching, and support in your work with online groups and communities

Jessica Ball brought the questions. She works as part of the KM Team in the UN-REDD programme. Last year, Jessica started an online community, coinciding with a two-day event in Rome, where representatives from all regions came together – but not all members of the virtual community could join. Jessica admitted that they were a bit late in starting the group and didn’t have much time to engage people before the event. They tried to connect with online group members through summaries after day one and through a final summary of day two. Despite these efforts, she asked how they could more effectively engage the community around different online and in-person events.

What could be done differently, to support upcoming and future events?

Pier Andrea Pirani was the peer assistant. He offered an example from a project he was involved with as part of a larger team supporting a three-day, face-to-face, experience capitalization workshop. The workshop was preceded by a two-week online engagement beforehand, covering a lot of ground and mapping people, expertise, potential connections, and what was needed. By doing so, both participants and the facilitation team went into the workshop with a head start, and by the end of the workshop, it was possible to produce a significant list of products, some in draft, and some still in a conceptual phase.

5 key elements to support events

Engaging a group around events requires careful planning, clear aims, and engagement before, during, and after the event.

1. Set a clear purpose: Define what you want to achieve through the online interaction, and make sure it adds to the event and brings value.
   

2. Plan carefully: Keep in mind the needs and expectations of the group. Consider the format, duration, and resources needed – and be realistic with the time and resources available.
   

3. Engage before the event: Engage with the participants ahead of the event to build connections, gather insights, and prepare for the event. Use this time to map people, expertise, and what is needed. This can help finalize an event agenda and preparations. It can be useful for both logistics as well as on the substance of a meeting.
   

4. Engage during the event: Use the group as a space to reach out to people that cannot attend the event, and to share knowledge, documents, and additional information generated or discussed at the event. It’s important to have the right expectations and motivators so useful engagement can take place. Often, some form of curation and facilitation is necessary.
   

5. Engage after the event: Follow up with the community after the event to share outcomes, gather feedback, and plan for future events. Keep the connections warm and use the face-to-face meeting as a springboard to foster online participation post-event.

Particularly where several events are planned, such online support helps to link people, support continuing discussion threads and conversations, and guide attention to agreed follow-ups, plans, or previous documentation.

Events can be a powerful tool to engage and support online groups – and online platforms can really help in supporting and complementing events. By setting clear goals, planning carefully, and engaging before, during, and after the event, communities can be brought together to share knowledge, collaborate, and work towards a common goal.

This is the second of a series of short posts from the discussion. The other two posts cover:

• Online collaboration use cases in depth – the talk show
• Online collaboration experience exchange – the 24 February session

Talk to us if you look for advice on online support and interaction around events

The experience-sharing session on 24 February 2023 drew from our diverse partner network and their sector involvement to discuss and share practical strategies of different online communities. To do this, we used a typology of uses – or use cases – that we observe our partners to work with. We thought these would provide a useful framework to interact and learn while recognizing that most such communities have several objectives.

After an icebreaker session, Peter Ballantyne very briefly introduced the Dgroups Foundation and its journey since 2002. He summarized the typology comprising seven typical uses cases that we observe among partners:

1. around events – helping to prepare, plan, report, and follow up face-to-face, virtual or hybrid meet-ups;
   
2. across initiatives or projects – supporting collaboration and information exchange among participants in a defined project;
   
3. on an issue – sharing ideas and connecting people with shared interests in a topic;
   
4. for a knowledge product – reinforcing co-development of proposals, articles, or other joint outputs among a group of individuals;
   
5. for learning and capacity development – sharing information and lessons to complement training, mentoring, or other educational efforts;
   
6. for purposeful engagement and dialogue – holding guided conversation and interaction to improve practice on an issue or challenge;
   
7. for advocacy towards a goal – helping people share and align ideas and actions around a shared vision.

While recognizing that online groups typically support multiple purposes, we thought it would be useful to explore the similarities and differences around different uses and how these shape the support and facilitation an online group needs.

The rest of the event dived deeper into different cases to identify insights for success.

The first element was a ‘peer assist’ where Jessica Ball sought lessons and feedback on how an online group could support event preparation, delivery, and follow-up.

Pier Andrea Pirani was her ‘peer assistant’ and he illustrated some ideas from an earlier engagement where a three-day face-to-face workshop used online groups before, during, and after the event. In that case, participants in the face-to-face meeting were invited to join a facilitated pre-event group where they introduced themselves, mapped interests and expertise, and pointed to additional resources. Material from this was used in the physical meeting. The group was also used during and after the workshop to start synthesizing insights and to support the follow up actions.

Next, Saskia Harmsen hosted a talk show where other use cases were the primary focus:

1. Gladys Morales from the IFAD innovation network talked about her online group as an example of an issue-driven community of interest.
   
2. Vivan Atakos from the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform talked about her group as an example of a project or initiative-supporting mechanism.
   
3. Sarah Cummings from the KM4Dev community explained how several online groups are used internally to manage this community of individuals.
   
4. John Ede from the C4C coalition explained how this group of organizations use their online groups to support advocacy initiatives towards specific goals.
   
5. Giacomo Rambaldi shared how the Digital Agri Hub ran an online, facilitated dialogue to mobilise ideas across its online community.

Discussions revolved around technical issues and platform-related features, as well as facilitation and user-side concerns. Ideas and suggestions were floated to better support users and moderators in utilizing such platforms to their full potential.

Overall, the dialogue underscored the relevance of the Dgroups Foundation’s mission to support and enhance Partners’ online groups and communities through learning, peer-sharing, and experimentation to optimize platform functionality and facilitation processes.

This is the first of a series of short posts from the discussion. The other two posts cover:

• Online interaction around events and meetings – the peer assist
• Online collaboration use cases in depth – the talk show

Talk to us if you look for advice, coaching, and support in your work with online groups and communities

This included a knowledge café in May that identified four critical success factors for online collaboration, a KM4Dev@20 workshop in July, an e-conference to identify what really works, and a further knowledge café in September that reviewed and extended the key points emerging.

A brief summarising these interactions sets out four critical areas for effective online interaction: (a) enhance participation and engagement; (b) nurture effective communities; (c) use appropriate platforms; and (d) sustain engagement over time.

As well as these critical areas, the brief highlights lessons from the Foundation’s own online interactions and identified key messages for more effective online interaction:

• Mix formats and channels and tones – formal, informal, conversations, zoom and email, online, offline, and knowing when to converse and when to document;
• Learn and innovate and experiment together, adapting styles to participants and purposes, reinforcing sharing of tacit and explicit knowhow and curating links and resources;
• Clarify and agree goals, plans, expectations and purpose, to be really aware of any assumptions – and not be afraid to regularly revisit and adjust priorities and plans;
• Devise processes that translate audiences who watch into participants who engage – knowing who is online, making sure they can be heard or seen, and actively facilitating interactions;
• Make conversations and interactions as inclusive as possible, overcoming connectivity barriers, tackling power dynamics, choosing accessible applications, bringing in all the experiences of participants and giving space for new or different voices.

Download the brief: More effective online collaboration, dialogue and interaction – What works in international development?

• Enhancing #participation and #engagement
• Nurturing effective #COPs
• Using appropriate #platforms
• #Learning through e-collaboration
• #Sustaining engagement through time

On 24 September, the Dgroups Foundation facilitated an online meeting to discuss whether these are indeed ‘the’ critical issues and ways to capitalize on this emerging agenda. The meeting was part of the knowledge café series put together by the KM4Dev community, and was attended by more than 40 persons, from Kenya to the United States.

Introducing the session, Peter Ballantyne explained the origins of this workshop, starting with a knowledge café in May where participants identifed four critical success factors for online collaboration. This was followed by a session in the KM4Dev@20 workshops in July, where participants extended the agenda (with considerations of the COVID-19 pandemic, a focus on event design and dynamics, calls for cross-community learning and, especially, for greater attention to inclusion), and then with a four-week e-conference where more than 110 practitioners from all over the world looked at ‘what works’ when talking about online collaboration, dialogue and interactions in international development. This session directly resulted from the e-conference where people asked to have a live conversation around the many ideas shared.

An icebreaker exercise asked participants to share ways they collaborate online have changed this year. For some, working from home and working virtually has translated into more frequent and sometimes better managed, more focused meetings. Online collaboration is not a choice and people have become more confident with online tools. On the other hand, working virtually has also meant busier agendas and longer working days. And while it’s easier to collaborate online, participation is not always equal, especially for users that don’t have a good internet connection.

Introducing the initial conclusions and recommendations, e-conference moderator Jorge Chavez-Tafur asked workshop participants to reflect in small groups on these issues, discussing their relevance to their own experiences.

Discussions were deliberately not formally documented; participants instead used the chat to share their recommended ways to enhance online collaboration. Their ideas showed the importance of:

• Mixing formats and channels and tones – formal, informal, conversations, zoom and email for example, online, offline, and knowing when conversation or documentation are best suited
• Learning and innovating and experimenting together, adapting styles to participants and purposes, reinforcing sharing of tacit and explicit knowhow and curating links and resources
• Clarifying and agreeing goals, plans, expectations and purpose, to really be aware of any assumptions – and not be afraid to regularly revisit and adjust priorities and plans
• Devising processes that translate audiences who watch into participants who engage – knowing who is online, making sure they have a chance with the microphone, and actively facilitating interactions
• Making conversations and interactions as inclusive as possible, overcoming connectivity barriers, tackling power dynamics, choosing accessible applications, bringing in all the experiences of participants and giving space for new or different voices.

Reflecting on the actual process of interaction and engagement used for this exercise (3 facilitated Zoom workshops to identify and discuss an agenda, a moderated e-conference to explore insights and lessons more deeply, a wiki to capture and organize insights, blog posts and video reports of the discussions, synthesis and summary products … ) participants formed groups again to share how they felt about the various engagement elements. Some of the ‘success’ insights seen or heard by participants included:

• Actively inviting and encouraging people to take part; engaging people behind the scenes as the facilitator and reaching out individually to encourage and appreciate their participation
• Having a dialogue that was well-organized, structured and focused, time-bound and a sense that it is brought together for a purpose/outcome
• Considering the importance of trust – which can be reinforced through interactions and getting to know and appreciate others
• Building horizontal interactions and networking; getting to meet people, find people and share in their knowledge – all needing good leadership
• Encouraging people to take part by mapping their knowledge, providing conversational spaces, fishbowl type meetings and video interviews; Zoom calls can build trust between people and email/wiki provides the space for analysis and thinking.

Looking forward, we closed the discussions by brainstorming what some concrete ways to capitalize on these insights and learning could be:

• Document how the online discussions were organized so the approach can be adapted by others
• Document and share the notes and recordings of the discussions
• Map the impact of CoPs, particularly KM4Dev
• Organize specific ‘peer assists’ on some challenging online situations (e.g., my annual conference is virtual; my learning event is online; my writeshop is digital; how do I document an online event …) where collective experiences can be shared and documented – as an extension of the KS Toolkit for example
• Keep having these conversations – not everything needs to be documented – there is value in just sharing
• Use the wiki to summarize conversation; encourage participants to contribute to this.
• Devise a capitalization process: make a pool for ideas, call for participation, link them at the back end, match them with a good facilitator…

These ideas will be fed back into the e-conference where they will feed development of a short synthesis product and help continue and sustain the engagement through the various networks and emerging collaborations.

Report compiled by Peter Ballantyne, Jorge Chavez-Tafur and Pier Andrea Pirani

Today, while the worlds of development and social change have massively adopted digital, virtual and online tools, applications and platforms, we still look for the best ways to engage, collaborate and act together, virtually. While we are often surrounded by digital ways to share, collaborate and talk still we struggle to facilitate and engage in genuinely enriching interactions that produce better insights, deeper collaborations and common causes.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has moved us all online, making the answers to these challenges even more relevant.

From 13 – 31 July join us online to explore, assess and learn what works – and what doesn’t – when collaborating and acting together online. Drawing on the experiences and lessons across sectors, platforms and regions, we will use an ‘experience capitalization’ approach that draws out our individual and collective insights to produce actionable knowledge that will help us improve our own practices.

We will build on recent discussions on some critical online collaboration success factors. We aim to facilitate and document an open dialogue on, at least, the following topics:

• online platforms and technologies – which ones, and how to make them work for us
• online group and community facilitation – what’s needed, what works, and how we can do it better
• online engagement and participation – how can we motivate people to contribute and interact
• building trust in online groups – how we can provide safe spaces and build confidence and trust
• inclusive online spaces – what we can do to foster equity, reflect diversity and overcome exclusion in our groups
• effective online events – what works, and how we can deliver better virtual meetings
• and more …

Please join us to co-create lessons and practices that will help us improve the ways we interact online. Conversations will be focused, facilitated and documented; you can choose to engage via low-bandwidth email or through the dgroups.io web interface.

Sign up for the group at: https://dgroups.io/g/dg-dialogue-online

The group wiki has more information on the agenda and process as well as tips to help you get the best from this platform and the discussion.

We welcome your contributions – to share a topic, case, or challenge for participants to discuss, to help facilitate, synthesize, translate or otherwise help deliver the event, or to suggest any brilliant ways to extend or improve this conversation. Send your ideas to dg-dialogue-online@dgroups.io

About the Dgroups Foundation

We provide simple, effective and affordable solutions, knowledge and expertise that supports online collaboration among organizations, projects, networks and campaigns in international development. Our four product lines are:

• Access: we help make development communities, their knowledge and expertise accessible.
• Brokerage: we provide advice, guidance and negotiated preferential access to third-party online solutions/platforms.
• Capacities: we help deliver experience-based peer-to-peer learning, mentoring, coaching, training and support for effective online collaboration and advocacy.
• Dialogue: we host online discussions and events on international development topics and issues.

By working together, better, we believe more inclusive collaboration and dialogue leads to better development results!