Can web 2.0 be useful for organizations working with farming communities?
Definitely. Web 2.0 gives NGOs a tremendous opportunity, not only to spread their wisdom, but to use the information and intelligence of their participants to build interesting, reliable and intellectually rich communities for farmers. It needs to be done in a structured manner though, and there needs to be some kind of accountability. The thing that concerns me most is anonymity. If an NGO was able to establish a social network which forced people to reveal who they were and had professional gatekeepers to make sure that people weren’t using it to pursue their own agendas, then I think it would be great. Web 2.0 is also a good way for farmers to educate the world about their challenges. Most people in the West know nothing about the challenges of farmers in the developing world. The mainstream media does quite a good job reporting on wars and other big stories but they don’t tend to concentrate on the challenges of poor farmers so it’s also a great way to get their story out. But agai
