Web2fordev wayforward Vox pops

By Brenda Zulu
I asked people what is the way forward and what they were going to take back home.

Wycliffe Ochieng Arua- Agriculture Commodity Exchange.Kenya
It has been a great conference and the way forward especially if there is a way we could work together to blend the existing web 2 tools that are used in Africa putting in mind our users farmers they would like to access these application.I am looking at mobile telephone and interative voice resposnses an dthe local FM stations in Kenya.
I have taken home a lot of knowledge and I am very much informed now about blogs and wikis and would like to certain up a blog in our organisations especially when we are contributing to a proposal.
I think we used existing network to reach the people CSOs are working with on the grassroot level.

Alec Singh- Chief Technologist, ACP Secretariat.Brussels
The way forward for me on a personal basis is to take time to delve further into some of the tools that we have come across over the past few days. At the end of the day, the main theme is using the web to encourage participation in development issues. Naturally, there are other means of involving participants in the development process, such as phone-ins over the local radios, etc. We need to make sure that we do not only see the technology as an end in itself, but the means to that end - which is the development of billions of humans throughout the world.

We have seen that the technology changes very rapidly, and no doubt, what is "hip" today, will be "passé" in a couple years time. Thus, we have to be willing to adapt, not just for the sake of adapting, but to communicate more effectively.
There is certainly an issue of information overload and maybe trying to get all the various tools and platforms out there to talk to each other, so that they do not duplicate what has already been said on another platform.

Among the lessons I will take home is that I need to spread the word to my other colleagues working in the field of development, that they should try and use more of these tools to communicate further and more effectively.

Louise Clark,NR International
The next step should be to looking out for practical applications in their own location. It is great to know and important for us to be aware of the new technologies. There is however a challenge because I have never heard of Web2.0 but I was using the tools. Our experince in Bolivia is the we do not know the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 otherwise we have been uploading files to the web using Web 2.0 applications.
It was good to about these tools and also to hear about other people’s experinces.

Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices
I think these international gatherings are good although I feel that we need regional gatherings. There is so much innovation on the African continent and it would be nice to have regional stories. It is expensive to come to Rome were people are torn between seeing the Collossoe and attending the conference. As we have come the end everyone says we are going to do it, I feel there is need to stay in touch with a small group.

Anup Kumar Das,Center for studies in Science policy

I would like to develop some particular blogs related to our idea of activities and will create tags, rss feeds. Already personally, I am using skype and students will introduce learning models on skype so that users may use skype on forth.
On blogging we would like to get feed back from our Policy Makers on policy related issues and other learning tools we can use in our center.

Tim Kulchyski,Hul’qumi’ num
I think to start with there were a number of things that focus on language but also there is need for more time to have interaction of face to face on particular subject areas on what people are doing.
I saw different skills and I was particulary impressed with Ethan Zukerman’s presentation as he said we can benefit from links which i think are effective in blogs as when other people link you the more one can find you using search engine.

Enrico Bertacchini, Creative Commons
I think that this conference is more or less about what people in reality should join. They have to start networking using the tools and that this conference suggests. It is a natural revolution. All the people are willing to use and adopt these tools.
I am taking home the idea that Web2.0 is an emerging concept that many organisations need to embracy in their synergies. A road that we need is trust since these are workable tools. 80% success of these tools is up to human beings to share ideas.