Compared to other development organizations
in the South Asia region, Open Forum has certain
cutting edge advantages on account of the following:
| • |
Open
Forum is more than an online development
communication organisation as reflected
in its new strategy |
| • |
For the Open
Forum portal, enhanced emphasis on putting
original articles/news/views |
| • |
Being partners
to UN MDG campaign, Open Forum has a distinct
advantage in supporting the MDG campaign
in the region |
| • |
Interdisciplinary
team of professionals working towards a
common goal |
| • |
Among the few
largest networks of CSOs in South Asia |
| • |
Partners bring
in their strong grassroots experience of
development issues and menu of strategies
to address these |
| • |
Well recognised
partnership values and ethics of Open Forum
among the civil society organisations |
| • |
Ability to liaise
with established players in development
sector and reaching out to the government
|
| • |
Wide ranging
skill sets such as:
| o |
managing
and implementing large ICT based
projects (as part of e-governance,
donor initiative etc.) |
| o |
grassroots
experience of implementing ICT projects
for CSOs |
| o |
development
journalism/activism |
| o |
grassroots
experience of advocating for expanding
the use of community radio |
| o |
software
and networking catering to initiatives
like Digital Library Project , Knowledge
for Development Project, promoting
open sources and enabling creation
of language conversion platforms |
| o |
capacity
building in development communication
and technology tools for communication |
| o |
interdisciplinary
research in the development sector
|
| o |
linking
research to action and advocacy
through online and offline publications |
|
Open Forum support to the Network
Open Forum proposes to provide the following
key support to the Open Forum network:
• Support in managing the Content Management
System (CMS)
In the area of technology, the technology team
of Open Forum has so far provided support to
the Network Partners. The services offered can
broadly be categorized into there domains:
• System administration and technical
management of Network Partners websites;
• Administration and maintenance of Open
Forum and partners mail server; &
• Technical upgrade (need based) &
bug fixing
The technology services have however been constrained
by mismatch between service level expectations
and delivery; and increasing demand by Open
Forum for more autonomy and empowerment in terms
of technical services decision making –
to align it with the emerging strategies and
activities of the centre.
The proposed decentralisation initiative Open
Forum also, therefore, calls for an appraisal
of the network management & tech-services
role – especially since potential capacity
does exist in some Network Partners. Open Forum
with its present technical and managerial capabilities
and CMS maintenance expertise – both on
web and mail – will be keen to take up
the responsibility of supporting the entire
Development Organisation with regard to CMS
management, maintenance and bug-fixing. The
existing technical infrastructure and technical
manpower base enable Open Forum to deliver these
services to partner network at the satisfactory
level of Open Forum’s expectations.
