The U.S. Agency for International Development is beefing up its Web presence with a new initiative aimed at connecting development professionals with solutions that will help them better use technology in the field.

This new effort, known as Global Development Commons, utilizes technologies like social networking and virtual community building in an attempt to provide development workers with information that will help them do their job.

“We’re looking for innovation that makes knowledge more accessible and affordable to people in the donor community and people in the developing world,” said Wesley Wilson, senior policy adviser to the USAID administrator. “There are a lot of good Web sites that are development-focused… We didn’t want to replicate any of those. The thing we didn’t see what a site that focused on the intersection between [information and communication technology] innovation and development.”

The Global Development Commons effort was started by USAID Administrator Henrietta Fore in 2007 as an acknowledgment that the agency needed to embrace the next generation of Web tools to keep pace with the way development work was being done.

“It’s more than an acknowledgment, it’s an enthusiastic embrace,” of new technology, Wilson said. “The business of USAID is creating change. One of the most powerful forces in change are networks. What Web 2.0 represents to us is a new way of doing business. The way that these new technologies allow us to do things in a better way opens up all kinds of opportunities for us as a development institution.”

These technologies include online kits on how to use Web tools such as podcasting and blogs, links to information about successful development organizations, and information on various development sectors. It also links to Web sites of organizations that are using technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of development work, including Devex.

The site is a “doorway to really dynamic projects and sites,” said Elizabeth Kountze, a spokeswoman for the effort. “We’re trying to highlight and applaud projects that have been [embracing new Web technology] for years and years.”

The use of social networking technology on the site is limited, however, by federal regulations. Still, Kountze and Rebecca Askin, a program coordinator for the site, said that their hope is that GlobalDevelopmentCommons.net will become a place where people can connect and build their own independent networks.

“We can’t participate in social networking, but the site is a way to build a community of people who are interested in these same issues,” Askin said.

The Web site is young and users should comment on how it can be improved, those involved in its creation said. But its creation alone is USAID’s way of recognizing that technology and the Internet are changing the way development work is getting done.

“Development used to be a very governmental process,” Wilson said. “What we’re seeing in the development sector is a fundamental shift. The private sector, foundation, charities, everyone is engaging [in development] in a very substantial way right now.

“We as a development practitioners need to be able to engage those folks in an effective and serious way,” he continued. “If other development partners don’t do that, they’ll find the effectiveness of their work will suffer.”

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