It is true that the initial impetus for the i-Guide, which is the name of the initiative, came from the UN meets Silicon Valley meeting in February, or, to be more precise, from the Strategy Council meeting of the UN’s Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN-GAID), which is headed by Craig Barrett, at Intel. The reason why it has taken so long for the i-Guide to get of the ground is not the slowness at the UN, but the lack of willingness of Silicon valley corporations, despite promises to GAID leadership, to support this endavour.

As an anthropologist, I fully agree with your concerns about community, it’s an overused, loaded term that more often than not hides exclusions and divisions behind a veneer of feel-good harmony.

We are using it as a quickly-recognizable shorthand for efforts to connect ICTD practitioners in the larger San Francisco bay area, of which there are many, and many different ones, who at this point do not have direct ways to learn about each others work, exchange ideas and experiences and explore possible collaborations. This is the aim of the i-guide, and the researcher who contacted you is part of a UC Berkeley team undertaking research to make this guide as relevant and useful as possible. So far, the reactions have been positive.

We don’t want to create another social networking site or duplicate other already existing efforts, that’s why we are talking to people like you. Thank you very much for your input, we will keep you posted about any ongoings.