RWSN & Dgroups

Rural Water Supply Network

Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN)

&Dgroups

Sean FureyRural Water Supply Network (RWSN) Secretariat

Skat Foundation

Dgroups Online Peer Exchange15 November 2012

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Phone: +41 (0)71 228 54 54Fax: +41 (0) 71 228 54 55E-mail: [email protected]

Secretariat hosted by Skat Foundation

Vadianstrasse 429000 St. Gallen, Switzerland

Rural Water Supply Network

What is ?• Established in 1992 as the

Handpump Technology Network

• Over 2,400 members in 94 countries

• Four themes:– Sustainable Groundwater Development– Equity and Inclusion– Management and Support– Accelerating Self Supply

Rural Water Supply Network

Who we are

RWSN Partners

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Rural Water Supply Network

1.Why did we choose Dgroups?

• We needed a self-managing membership database

• We needed a mechanism to distribute our quarterly newsletter

• We wanted to develop greater interaction and discussion between RWSN members

• Accessible to those with limited/low-bandwith internet

Rural Water Supply Network

2. What the Dgroups does

• Structured e-discussions:– Human Right to Water & Sanitation (April 2012)– Cost Effective Boreholes (Sep/Oct 2012)– Accelerating Self Supply (Nov 2012)– Management & Support (Dec 2012)

• Ad hoc discussions– Water point mapping and mobile phone technology

• Technical queries– Knowledge sharing between members on technical

topics like solar water pumping or manual drilling

Rural Water Supply Network

Rural Water Supply Network Online Map

RWSN websitewww.rural-water-supply.net www.rwsn.ch (to link to above by end of 2012)o Hubo Official announcementso Online Library/Resource

Area

RWSN dgroups sub communitieshttp://dgroups.org/rwsno E-discussionso Member discussions and

sharingo Member-led technical

query response

RWSN dgroupsdgroups.org/rwsno Membership databaseo Newsletter

Distributiono Secretariat

announcements

2,429 members (9 Nov 2012)

RWSN blogrwsnblog.wordpress.com o Member opinion pieceso Raising awareness of

topics, e-discussions or new RWSN publications

RWSN LinkedIno Raising profile among

professionalso Directing traffic to RWSN

siteso Rural water supply

discussions and sharing

RWSN twitter@thewatercyclist (unofficial)o Directing traffic to RWSN

siteso Real-time event reportingo Building links to new

partners and strengthening links to existing partners

394 members

(9 Nov 2012)

346 followers(9 Nov 2012)

RWSN facebook (low priority) www.facebook.com/pages/Rural-Water-Supply-Network-RWSN/240912672618419

16 likes(9 Nov 2012)

Rural Water Supply Network

3. How is the Group managed

• Managed by Secretariat at Skat

• Moderated by Theme Co-ordinators

• English is dominant, but aiming to become more bilingual (En/Fr) - challenging

Rural Water Supply Network

4. Reflections

• Because members have opted-in to dgroups we know they are there and active.

• E-discussions have created tangible outputs and strengthened relationships

• Our challenge is to manage and disseminate knowledge with active practitioners

Rural Water Supply Network

5. Take away message/the 1 lesson learnt

Thanks to Dgroups, the Networking has been put into Rural Water Supply

Network

Rural Water Supply Network

6.One question you have for others

• How do we make interactions more multi-lingual?