Webbased Question & Answer Service: 'RUNetwork'

www.runetwork.de

Demand driven knowledge exchange between scientist and farmers via web

Features

• Farmers publish questions via internet.
• Detailed answers and information are provided by question answer services in Benin, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya, again via internet
• The service is demand driven, i.e. only information requested by the target group is produced
• 'Switch demand from donors to the target group'. The service is based on a VOUCHER system. VOUCHERs, which have the value of the publication of a question in an internet café plus the delivery of an answer, are handed out to farmers. The VOUCHER pays all the actors involved in the service, after the farmer (user) has declared that he is satisfied with the service.
  
• A web based administration system conducts financial procedures and project reporting.
• Php and Mysql
• An open source product!

Example:

Go to Article 2111 to view a discussion on striga, a parasitic weed. Monsieur Alidou SOULE, a farmer in Benin raised the discussion. Contributions where provided by Carlos Eduardo Corrêa, Hamadou Kandé, Frederic Guerin and Mathias Kpanou. Please view the example:
http://www.runetwork.de/html/de/index.html?article_id=2791

Run is also an easy way to publish on the web :

• Allows users to create own e-journals on the RUN-website with an unlimited number of individual articles
• Each journal has an own homepage and can be directly linked to other websites
• Articles can include pictures, text and multimedia files
• Articles can be published or edited via e-mail or online
• A comment-function allows direct feedback on each article from readers
• Provides a multilingual user surface
• Is adapted to regions with poor connectivity
• The entire web site can be ordered on CD-Rom for 3 €