Animators chat conference 4 September (13:00 GMT)

From IFIwatchnet Wiki

Summary Notes - Animators Chat Conference 4th of September, 2007 (13:00 GMT)

Attending: David Hoffman, Karen Showalter, Arturo Gonzalez, Pieter Jansen, Zoe Young, Inés Campanella, Srabani Roy and Vitalice Meja

Unable to attend: Romilio Hernández

Appointments

1. Welcome to Meja and Srabani! Presentations and general updates, questions, doubts, etc., on the work of IFIWatchhnet

- General round of introductions, big welcome to Meja and Srabani.

- Meja and Srabani are having some basic training in the use of IFIWatchnet, supported by Mandla and Karen respectively. All other animators are willing to chat and exchange e-mails for technical doubts and advice. So, it was agreed to reach newer animators over email and set times to discuss more substantive issues on IFIWatchnet.

2. Updates from last animator's Chat

- (Note: Only Karen, David and Inés could attend) It was discussed the paragraph on recruitment posted at the wiki, and made some changes to it. Is now pretty finished, though you can keep adding and correcting it. Also, it was raised the coordination of IFIWatchnet involvement on Annual Meetings, and listed the technical features to be ready before the event (blogs, calendar, feeds, campaigns, shared area).

3. Coordinate involvement of IFIWatchnet in WB/IMF Annual Meetings

- Karen has posted some really good ideas at this respect on the wiki, in order to increase the use of the site around the meetings, and become it a central coordination point for these. She will send these thoughts to the Steering Group, and we will all try to move it ahead. The intensive use of the site during the meetings depends on us: posting and regularly updating information, and promoting IFIWatchnet as an exciting information resource for NGO folks, journalists and general public.

- Technical update: The special event section is already prepared (check it at: http://www.ifiwatchnet.org/?q=es/meeting/363) and links to Who's in Town and the Annual Meetings 2007 blog. Also, a link from the Calendar that shows the events list related to the Annual Meetings 07 was added to this section. Contacts can be related to events in the calendar, which also can be displayed in the Who's in Town list. Besides this, there's a printer friendly link to generate a printing sheet from the Who's in Town list. IMPORTANT: Members should start to list themselves for the meeting.

- David proposed to draft a message to be sent to IFI mailing list, launching the IFIWatchnet section on the meetings, and encouraging people to start posting. Next week start the Euro IFI meetings, so it would be nice to have it prepared asap, as some current discussions might be relevant for the Annual Meetings

- Summing up, marketing and promotion for the meetings should be focused on normal recruitment (animators approaching to members), a recruitment email to key listservs and journalists and lining up a dedicated list of qualified bloggers.

4. Recruitment process - News, updates, etc.

- David posted a draft translation framework at the wiki. Everyone is invited to check it and comment!.

- Inés informed she has recently exchanged e-mails with Zakir Kibria from Banglapraxis (Bangladesh) and Joanna Levitt (Director of Programs of the International Accountability Project, USA), and created accounts for both of them. As asked by Zakir, a rotative banner was set on the homepage to promote the Phulbari Resistance blog (http://phulbariresistance.blogspot.com), which is focused on community resistance to a Global Coal Management PLC (GCM) Open Pit Coal Mining Project in Bangladesh, financed by the ADB. The IAP works mainly on resettlement and forced displacement, so Joanna is specially interested in becoming a thematic animator on that working area.

5. Growing use and potential of RSS in IFIWatchnet

- The newswire is running, fed by BIC and BWP, but more sources can be added. Suggestions are welcome! It was raised the point that duplication of news and documents may happen from time to time, and what to do to prevent it. Some technical suggestions were discussed, and ITeM committed to investigate it.

- In order to promote these new tools, David suggested to devote a larger section to the topic of RSS in the next newsletter, as well as include information about RSS in the new recruitment items for animators.

- Zoe committed to post a thread at the wiki, listing the relevant points resulting of the feeds discussion, as a starting point for the RSS use and development in IFIWatchnet.

Another news:

- Inés informed that the graphic designers are working on the marketing materials, and sending a couple of drafts designs soon. Hopefully, the materials will be ready in early October.