Web 2.0 and Social Media Success Stories: New skills and lifelong changes

Husna Yagoub is from Sudan. She works at CTA as data assistant in the framework of the Knowledge Management & Communication Programme (KMC).

Likewise other CTA staff she has been following the Spring 2014 session of the online course "Innovative Collaboration for Development" run by UNITAR and co-funded by CTA. This is the first distance learning course she has ever attended.

Confronted with great challenges she has been perseverant and kept telling me that - while doing the course - she gained a lot in terms of self-confidence and that she is going to be much more effective on her work.

We decided to capture her thoughts on camera and it's worth listening to her story ...

Visit the Web2forDev Gateway for more information on face to face courses on Web 2.0 and Social Media.

Accelerating Development Using the Web: Empowering Poor and Marginalized Populations

The World Wide Web Foundation has published Accelerating Development Using the Web: Empowering Poor and Marginalized Populations. Supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the book is a compendium of articles by recognized experts describing the real and potential effects of the World Wide Web in all major aspects of economic and social development.

The book fills a gap in the current store of knowledge by taking a broad view, offering detailed commentary from fourteen experts who are deeply engaged in the field of ICTs for development, many with extensive experience in developing countries, and each able to emphasize the key questions, challenges, and successes unique to their field.

The research unites themes of technological innovation, international development, economic growth, gender equality, linguistic and cultural diversity and community action, with special attention paid to the circumstances surrounding the poor and vulnerable members of the Global Information Society.

Readers will be able to draw parallels across each field and see where similarities in the deployment of ICTs for development exist and where there are divergences.