The web portal - La Maison du Développement - of the French development community was launched for comments by partners today at the European Development Days in Strasbourg by the Agence Française de Développement.Introduced by Guillaume de Saint-Phalle, the new site which will appear at www.monde.org aims to facilitate access to French information on development issues.
Laureline Trilby, project manager, presented the new site by explaining that there are a number of well organised portals to development information in English but not in French. Designed for a broad audience, this portal has a dual purpose, not only does it serve an information function but also assists in the construction of a French professional community in development.
This is a first step but is not yet a multi-partner system. The idea is to encourage partners to join the development. The overall objective is to build a portal to mobilise Francophone information, and integrating a range of web 2.0 tools.
The schedule has been as follows:
2008
January - Feasibility study
July - Pilot site
September - Identify founding partners and propose an institutional partnership
November - Invite further partners
2009
January - Official launch of the site
The ambition is to attract over 300,000 visitors per month at a time when most development sites attract audiences of around 50,000.
For further information, please email contact@monde.org
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