Web-Based Knowledge-Sharing Portal on Space Applications for Development

摘要

Among other approaches, space technologies are currently being deployed for disaster management, environmental monitoring, urban planning, health applications, communications etc. Although space-based applications have tremendous potential for socioeconomic development, they are primarily technology driven and the requirements from the end-users (i.e. the development community) are rarely taken into consideration during the initial development stages.rnThis communication gap between the "space" and "development" communities can be bridged with the help of the web-based knowledge sharing portal focused on Space Applications for Development. This online community uses the Development Gateway Foundation's sophisticated content management system. It is modeled after the Development Gateway's knowledge sharing portals (http://topics.developmentgateway.org) and draws from their expertise in knowledge management, partnership building and marketing. These types of portal are known to facilitate broad-based partnerships across sectors, regions and the various stakeholders but also to facilitate North-South and South-South cooperation.rnThis paper describes the initiative "Space for Development" (http://topics.developmentgateway.org/space) started in 2004 which aims to demonstrate how such a web-based portal can be structured to facilitate knowledge sharing in order to bridge the gap between the "space" and "development" communities in an innovative and global manner.