*** Please help with the Big Catch Up! ***

From Never Again

This is an archived evaluation workspace, mainly from May and June 2006

Recommendations

• Improve the use of the wiki to allow for greater access and involvement by those with limited online access as well as those who drop in to the site
• Develop the idea of the Sharing Event (below) to increase personal contact between youth worldwide, which is one of our core objectives
• Produce regular output such as email (and printable) newsletters to keep members informed of activities accross the network and give them ideas for getting involved

Outward communication of NA messages and objectives

This is what will become the PR arm of the Communications Committee but its direction will be led by the international committee or when they are helping bring coherence to output by groups within Never Again.

Needs/Timeline

• Appointment of media representatives in each country who meet as part of the Comms Cttee
• June: Brochure to be produced based on the International Committee's core documents as well as documents produced by country chapters
• Process formed for putting together press releases, publications etc under the Never Again brand

Evaluation of Tools

Using tools to effect social change

As young people living in various parts of the world, an underlying assumption to our work is that each of us are both amateurs and experts in conflict transformation... meaning, we all have something to learn from each other as well as to "teach" each other. To this end: a) we maintain a wiki site where members can collaborate on documents and offline projects; b) we also share ideas with each other via email; c) we chat over skype; d) we have a weblog with reflections/announcements.

Never Again has been able to experiment with tools very freely and see what works and what does not. The main aim of our strategy in terms of using web tools should be to build bridges between our members in different parts of the world. This means a constant process of coaching, adjustment and adaptation.

Wiki

Our wiki is still in its early stages and has proved a useful tool, although there is still a lot of room for development.

Myself (Clare) and Nick both came from Wikinews, a large news site where people are taking journalism into their own hands. We were both innovators at the site and I felt that a wiki for Never Again would empower us and other people to have the same level of freedom to ‘be bold’ in the arena of peacekeeping. We both naturally take to collaboration, developing each other’s ideas and pages. We have also become accustomed to an environment where personal achievement comes second to the greater project and the acceptance that your ideas will be developed in a way that you didn’t necessarily envision.

It has seemed difficult for other people without this background to engage in the same way in peacebuilding through the wiki medium.

The most successful applications of the wiki so far have been in essay collaboration and collecting resources. These uses are in harmony with the aims and objectives of Never Again and, for some essays, have created very stimulating discussion points and follow-up ideas (see Reconciliation in Rwanda: Education, History and the State).

One vision for developing this would be to have a virtual university department for essays, collaborative research and discussion in the field of genocide study and world history in a wider sense. Journalist Linda Melvern already has a band of research students who help with her work and the potential to have a much wider pool of interested students would be huge on the wiki. We may also be able to develop a partnership with the new Wikiversity School of History.

There is evidence that people are coming to us after finding the site on Google and are using it for research purposes and learning about genocide. This is exactly what we want.

Another positive use of the wiki is more efficient distribution of website maintenance work, although this again will develop.

• Wiki/website improvement strategy

Email

On the whole this is effective. Its main drawback is that email groups are limited to the people included in the list. There are often good reasons for limiting participation, but it means that people who may be able to help can be excluded. However, we have found this the simplest and most effecte way to have discussions and work together between countries. Ongoing use of the large Communication list, which is strictly network-based (people already in the network can invite other people they trust) should lead to adequate information-sharing, although there is also the problem of email overload to bear in mind.

chat over Skype

We have now been able to bring together the most global conversation on Skype so far, with participants from China, Rwanda, the UK, USA and Canada. Skype's limit for conference calls is five people. However, with adequate organisation of meetings, this should allow for focussed meetings to thrash out issues that are otherwise difficult to go through on email.

weblog with reflections/announcements

The blog was initially set up up purely as an easy way to make announcements. However, the ‘blogosphere’ has grown into a genuinely global conversation and there is a place for a Never Again blog to broadcast youth voices on the issues we are concerned with.

Future development therefore will be to find a band of regular bloggers who will write abotu Never Again, the issues they are concerned with and aspects of life in their own countries. Regular updates will mean our audience and referrals grow and we can send significant posts to Global Audience, where it will reach an even bigger, engaged audience.

Social tags

Social tagging is effectively a way that humans are making sense of the worldwide web. At the moment it is being used as an easy tool to keep a webroll at the Never Again blog. However, its use can be widened to ensure we are always in touch with the latest pace initiatives, news on areas of concern and to link with potential partners.

Development ideas

Podcasts

Cells

Global Youth Conversations

Needs a new name, but this would provide a face-to-face link between students around the world to discuss issues of genocide prevention, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding. This would especially be effective with students living in opposing nations or regions. Technical requirements include computers, video cameras with microphones, a high speed (or satellite in remote areas) internet hookup, however the cost of transporting the students to one location would far outweigh the cost of this equipment.