Bridging Gaps Between Information Islands

Extracted 25AUG2011 from http://blog.interaction.org/node/201

If each NGO is an island in a world of data sharing, the need for bridges to connect these islands is growing stronger by the day. Though there are great benefits to data sharing among organizations, there remain significant cultural and practical challenges of why and how organizations do or do not share data. InterAction has been trying to help bridge these gaps through NGO Aid Map, an online interactive mapping initiative.

... Coordinating data collection(s). From donors to universities, everyone is interested in NGO data. With limited time and resources, gathering information for donor reports can be time consuming on its own, let alone providing data to other groups. A big question remains: What role(s) should umbrella coordinating organizations such as InterAction or UN-OCHA play in facilitating greater coordination of activities based on data sharing arrangements?

See also www.interaction.org/ and www.unocha.org/