Since 2006, Euforic has played an overall coordination role with Dgroups - the primary email exchange platform for communities in development.Early in 2007, Dgroups members and partners met in The Hague to review progress and formulate plans for 2007 and beyond. An important milestone was the decision to elect an 'executive committee' to guide the partnership forward. The group also discussed governance and management mechanisms. membership issues, and the planned transition of the platform and its hosting outside IDRC.
Behind the scenes, most of the rest of the year was spent preparing the transition away from IDRC, and looking into future technical directions. Up front, new member organizations joined, plans were made for two dgroups workshops to be held in 2008 in Latin America, some 20,000 people signed up for the platform and some 350 new groups were created.
For 2008, the priorities are: to ensure the smooth transition of the Dgroups server hosting from IDRC to IGLOO; to establish an independent legal entity for Dgroups; to transfer administration of the partnership from IDRC to ICCO; and finally, most important perhaps, to build a new 'open' platform based around core email and file sharing applications that can exchange with other existing applications.
By the end of 2007, the Dgroups membership comprised the following organisations: Alfa Redi, CTA, CGIAR, CIDA, CIDSE, COHRED, Child Helpline International, Context, DFID, EADI, ECDPM, FAO, Helvetas, Hivos, ICCO, IDRC, IICD, INASP, KIT, OneWorld, SDC, SNV, Sula Batsu, UNAIDS SEAPICT, UNDP, UNECA, and the World Bank.
by Peter Ballantyne