Web 2.0 ideas for the World Bank, anyone?
A colleague down the road is collecting ideas for Web 2.0 business models and services that could be adopted by the World Bank Group. Here are some initial thoughts and there's a number of projects well on their way.
So if you have any suggestions or recommendations help brainstorming and leave a comment below. (By the way, if you happen to be a developer, you might want to move from thought to action at the Social Innovation Camp in April).
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I think this is a great idea, and have been thinking along similar lines for the past year or so. Several ideas I have come up with:
Corruption is arguably one of the most important factors that affects economic development. To fight corruption, it needs to be brought out into the light of day. One possible way to do this would be to create a website that allows people to register an anonymous account (with a pseudonym) and post incidences of corruption they experience or know about. Posters could rate each other (like eBay) in order to have some type of self-regulation, or perhaps journalists or other individuals who are willing to reveal their identities could provide verification of a given claim. Obviously, there are still some fairly simple ways for "bad actors" to misuse and game such a website, so more thought needs to be put into mechanisms that would help prevent such misuse.
Along these same lines, using social network analysis to identify the power structures of a government and business links - whether it be local, regional, or nations - would be another good way to bring light to corruption. An example of how this is done on the web is "Follow the oil money" at http://oilmoney.priceofoil.org. A similar web application could be developed in order to start mapping out relationships between government officials, business people, etc., at different levels of government in different countries (starting at a national level would be the obvious first step). People could submit information, corrections, suggestions, etc., thus creating a collaborative effort. Again, a monitor would be needed for quality assurance.
An issue that concerns many people who donate to non-profits and NGOs is whether or not their contributions are put to good use. Several years ago when visiting Bulgaria with my wife (she is a native), we donated a large number of notebooks to an orphanage that was run by one of her family's friends. He recommended we donate materials (or money earmarked for a specific use) to any charities we were interested in so that the results could more easily be tracked. His policy is to take pictures of the donated materials being used at the orphanage and then email these pictures to the donors in order to assure them that their donations are not ending up in the wrong hands. One way to facilitate such monitoring would be a website that allows non-profits to create listings of specific projects and then provide evidence (pictures, videos, etc.) that the donations they have received are being put to good use. In addition, other users (including the beneficiaries of the non-profit) could rate the projects success and provide feedback.
In regards to the exploration of economic data, i.e., Gapminder, I have built a prototype of a web application that uses a dynamic map of the world (similar to Google Maps) to display annual economic data by country. Each country is shaded according to its relative position, i.e. in a world map displaying GDP per capita, the country with the highest value is the most darkly shaded, while the country with the lowest value is not shaded at all. Users can either choose a specific year to view or have the map start with the earliest available data and "scroll" automatically through each year until the present. Shading of the countries automatically changes so you can visually get a feel for how economic development in different countries and regions has changed over time.
Posted by: Justin Rietz | Feb 14, 2008 12:30:41 AM
Justin,
Many thanks for taking the time to share your ideas with us. Having worked for an NGO, I particularly like the idea of a collaborative site that shows where your money has gone to. And, of course, this could be applied beyond the NGO world. And, having just finished working on a social network analysis project, I had never thought of using this tool for the purpose you mentioned. Great food for thought. Thank you!
Would you have a link to share for the web application you developed?
(I am using the tag "development2.0" on delicious to collect examples of applications of web2.0 to the non-profit sector).
Posted by: giulio quaggiotto | Feb 14, 2008 2:06:49 PM
Giulio
Thanks for the feedback. I like to think that my ramblings have some sanity behind them! :-)
Currently the application is running on my local network, but as soon as I get a few more bugs worked out, I'll post a link. I'm on vacation right now, so it may be a few weeks.
Posted by: Justin Rietz | Feb 18, 2008 12:57:41 PM