Development Gateway has changed significantly in response to external challenges and the emergence of new web-based technologies. Their experience highlights some of the lessons learned in the process that may be relevant for web 2.0 initiatives.

With more than 260,000 registered users and 800,000 unique visitors per month in mid-2007, the Development Gateway is the largest searchable repository of development information and tools on the internet.

The concept of the Development Gateway was first discussed at the World Bank in 1999. Under James Wolfensohn’s leadership, the Bank positioned itself as the ‘Knowledge Bank’. It would promote knowledge sharing and put growing emphasis on the use of ICTs as tools for disseminating information both within the organization and across the development community.

The Development Gateway Foundation was established in 2001, funded by the Bank, bilateral aid agencies, developing country governments and private companies. The Foundation then set about creating a collaborative web portal offering development content and tools for information exchange. The approach to knowledge sharing focused on capturing and making available relevant information through the ‘topic pages’ (now dgCommunities), which also provided discussion and commenting tools to enable sharing and collaboration among its members. The idea was that experts and users would contribute resources that were then to become the basis for the sharing of explicit knowledge.

Read the full article here and listen to a podcast with Mike Pereira, director of Global Online Communities at the Development Gateway Foundation, here.