Presentation by Carmen Eckter and Carsten Schultz (SDC) at the Dgroups Peer Exchange - 16 April 2013

1. Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC
Carmen Eckert (Learning and Networking Processes, Dgroups coordinator)
Carsten Schulz (Agridea International, Administrator/facilitator of Dgroup « e+i network, Private
Sector Development discussion group »)
16.04.2013
Dgroups at SDC

2. Dgroups in the organization
When and how is Dgroups used?
 (Institutionalized) thematic networks communication
 Preparation of F2F events (Logistics and Contents)
 Thematic discussions and exchange about common
practices
 Intra network communication and exchange among
network facilitators
 Institutional informations
 Creation of ad-hoc discussion groups of two networks
dGroups at SDC | Carmen Eckert/ Carsten Schulz 2

3. Dgroups in the organization
Trends and highlights
 Established tool
 A high satisfaction by dgroups users (before next.dgroups
rather negative feedbacks)
 Trend to shorter and more spontaneaus messages -> work
in progress; process orientation within networks
 Structured e-discussions as main use case -> Search for
complementary instruments/innovations
dGroups at SDC | Carmen Eckert/ Carsten Schulz 3

4. Example - SDC Employment and
Income Network I
 SDC e+i network with 2 sub-groups:
Private Sector Development discussion group + Vocational
Skills Development discussion group
dGroups at SDC| Carmen Eckert/ Carsten Schulz 4

5. SDC e+i network, PSD discussion group
Screenshot – dgroups SDC e+i network, PSD
discussion group, 15.04.2013

6. Structure of a thematic network at
SDC
dGroups at SDC | Carmen Eckert/ Carsten Schulz

7. Example - SDC Employment and
Income Network II
 Purpose
 info-channel (newsletter; messages)
 thematic exchange and discussion
 Membership
 SDC collaborators + practitioners; academia,
consultants & think tanks
 Development goal
 learning
 improvement of development interventions
 sharing of good practices
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8. Useful functionalities in Dgroups
 Mailing list function
 Overview of discussion group members
 Member profiles! Email directory!
 Archive of discussion posts
 Upload of relevant documents (send by users)
 Statistics
dGroups at SDC | Carmen Eckert/ Carsten Schulz

9. What’s unique about e+i network
Dgroups?
 Mixture of internal SDC collaborators and external
specialists from implementing partners, academia, think
tanks and other NGOs
 Quite a big number of members (compared with other SDC
Dgroups)
 Compliance by its members
 Trust by network focal point; focal point is not facilitating ->
outsourcing to backstopping mandate
 A good team of online facilitators (backstopping mandate)
dGroups at SDC | Carmen Eckert/ Carsten Schulz

10. How is the group managed?
Moderated/non moderated?
 not censored -> Dgroups slang: non moderated - but
facilitated ;-)
Are messages curated/translated/re-purposed?
 100% authentic; not censored
 mixed experiences with translated discussions
 discussion is synthesised not summarised
Does the discussion group work in combination with
other online/offline services?
 shared website of the e+i network
 other network website outside SDC (M4P hub, etc.)
dGroups at SDC | Carmen Eckert/ Carsten Schulz

11. Reflections
Challenges
 More efficient use of the profile function
 The IT environment at SDC and cooperation offices as
such
 The future change on the IT environment at SDC and
cooperation offices
 Suspicious thinking - Dgroups as tool: it's from outside the
federal admin system
 From multi-channel communication to a more focused
communciation with maybe only 1 platform
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12. Take Away Message
 Usability for organizers/facilitators is key (and next.dgroups
has improved)
 Outsorced resources for facilitation
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13. Questions for our Peers
 How do other groups practically use Dgroups? (e.g. online
profiles; archive)
 How do you use Dgroups as community website?
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