[Reader-list] The Development Gateway: A Declaration from Concerned Knowledge Workers

[geert lovink]

Knowledge is power.

The World Bank's Development Gateway is a way of centralising and 
entrenching their power.

Don't let them.

PLEASE CIRCULATE AND SIGN THE DECLARATION BELOW.

The declaration below has been written and endorsed by a spectrum of 
'knowledge workers' - an unlovely term for people who research or 
discuss development issues in the media, in education and in other 
areas - who are deeply concerned with the implications of the Bank's 
new internet project.

This declaration is unlike previous petitions against the Bank's 
initiative. There is no attempt to lobby the World Bank or alter the 
Gateway's structure or content. Previous such attempts have resulted 
in only marginal or cosmetic changes. Rather, this letter encourages 
people not to contribute to or use this Bank-backed scheme. The 
signatories of this letter have pledged to avoid any contact with the 
Bank's development gateway, and to push forward with their own 
diverse research and publication agendas, including independent 
internet schemes.

This is a declaration that can be signed by anyone. Please mention 
any institutional affiliation when you sign -- which will be for 
informational and identification purposes and won't imply the 
endorsement of your organisation. Send a message to 
gateway at voiceoftheturtle.org with your name and organization in the 
subject line.

Please distribute this call widely to your comrades, colleagues and 
contacts. If every recipient sends it to at least five people or 
lists, then we can soon achieve a broader coverage than the World 
Bank's hired PR company. This letter is mirrored at 
http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/topic/knowledgebank/gateway/, 
where a recent Bretton Woods Project briefing on the Gateway is also 
available.

Raj Patel
for The Voice of the Turtle
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Development Gateway: A Declaration from Concerned Knowledge Workers

Dear friends,

In July the World Bank will launch a multi-million dollar 
internet-based development knowledge initiative at 
www.developmentgateway.org. Trumpeted as a place to find diverse 
perspectives on development, the Bank argues that its Development 
Gateway will be a convenient tool for civil society groups, 
officials, journalists and independent researchers. We disagree. On 
closer scrutiny, the Development Gateway initiative looks less like 
an attempt to encourage debate than a means to stifle, moderate and 
control dissenting opinion. We wish to warn colleagues of the perils 
of associating with or supporting this project.

There are three fundamental objections to the Gateway project. First 
the gateway privileges certain voices over others. The Gateway does 
not prioritise poorer people as site contributors, editors or 
viewers. The Bank's heavy English-language bias exacerbates the 
dominance of official "development knowledge". You will not find 
topics on "political economy" or "inequality" or "discrimination", 
just concepts like "governance" and "human development". Moreover the 
Gateway's 130-issue taxonomy ghettoises cross-cutting issues such as 
gender and climate change.

Second, the claim that the site is independent is untenable. This is 
a clear attempt by the Bank to consolidate itself and its allies as 
the main authorities on "development knowledge". This is reflected in 
both the content and process of the Gateway. For instance, in order 
to provide local content, the Gateway has its own country portals. 
These will be run by government officials, private business and civil 
society groups appointed without any clear criteria of 
representativeness. The content of these gateways will be policed. 
Within these country gateways, site contributors are told to avoid 
"country/locale specific events", and not to use metaphors, puns or 
irony in order "to aid machine translation".

The Bank is appointing individual or institutional "topic guides" to 
filter and organise material in each of the site's subject areas. The 
Gateway is supposed to represent all perspectives and all types of 
analysis. The only reason to exclude items is if they fail to meet 
the site's "quality" criteria, yet it remains extremely unclear as to 
how this quality threshold is determined. And given the volume and 
diversity of information posted on the internet daily, it is unlikely 
that the guides' coverage will be comprehensive. With the best will 
in the world, then, the topic guides' selections will be biased in 
favour of the intellectual tastes of themselves and their contacts.

The third, and most pernicious, effect of the development gateway is 
to undermine alternatives. Instead of encouraging existing 
initiatives, the Bank has chosen to centralise internet coverage of 
development issues in a bid to sift and control the flow of ideas. 
This is likely to distract from and damage the development of 
diverse, independent internet sites on these issues.

This is why, in our individual capacities, we pledge to avoid all 
contact, whether official or otherwise, with the World Bank's 
Development Gateway. We encourage our colleagues to undertake a 
similar pledge, and to support alternative sources of knowledge.

Signed (as individuals, organisation names provided for reference only)

Initial signatories:

Yash Tandon, International South Group Network, Zimbabwe
Patrick Bond, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Phil McMichael, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Chris Brooke, Magdalen College, Oxford, UK
Rutendo Kambarami, Communications Officer, Mwelekeo waNGO, Zimbabwe

=46urther signatories

1.Raj Patel, SEATINI, Zimbabwe
2.Jamal Bouamama assahafa.com Morocco
3.Tony Burdon Oxfam International
4.Glyn Everett, University of Bristol
5.Neil Watkins, Center for Economic Justice, Washington, DC, USA
6.Tristi Tanaka, CorpWatch.org
7.Christina Neall,Surrey BC,CA
8.Debra Oliver, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
9.Jon Nissenbaum, Harvard University Dept. of Linguistics
10.Alastair Thompson - Scoop Media - New Zealand
11.Kathleen Williamson, Jubilee NW USA?
12.Sarba Raj Khadka Executive Director Rural Reconstruction Nepal-RRN
13.Deb Lagutaris
14.Camille Chalmers - Haitian Advocacy Platform for an Alternaitve 
Development (PAPDA) - Ha=EFti
15.Dianne McQuillen ACLU, Amnesty International, Nation Associate and 
Peace Center
16.Uddhav Raj Bhattarai ActionAid Nepal, Kathmandu
17.Allison Dinsmore, ACT UP Philadelphia
18.Katriona Street ActionAid Nepal.
19.Cosmas Obote, Clare College, Cambridge University
20.Rasigan Maharajh, University of Manchester, UK
21.Richard Worthington Earthlife Africa Jhb, South Africa
22.Nicolas Dieltiens, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
23.Carina van Rooyen, RAU, South Africa
24.Alex Lopez, International Society for Ecology and Culture, UK
25.Susan George, TNI Network, Netherlands
26.Deborah Stern, School Administrator, United States
27.Alejandrina Pliego
28.Elisa Van Waeyenberge, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK...