Summary:

Stephanie is a 29-year-old graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, pursuing a PhD in Information Management and Systems. Her focus is on Microfinance networks, and she plans to work in South East Asia once her degree is completed in 2005. Before coming to Berkeley, Stephanie lived in Oahu, Hawaii, where she was the director of a non-profit which implemented technology projects in developing countries throughout South East Asia. For the past six years, some part of Stephanie's work has involved research in development-related projects, work which has increased significantly since joining Berkeley in 2003. Stephanie starts her day early, and has a more or less fixed weekly schedule of classes and research hours. She uses the Internet as her primary research tool - Google is her most favored starting point.

Stephanie likes to go a free text search on Google, and has been a faithful user of its searches for over four years now. She cannot remember the last time she used any other tool as a primary online research tool. Stephanie often uses websites of international organizations and funding bodies to back up information available to her through the net, since a lot of her work involves international agencies. She finds her search process fairly tedious as she runs through a number of sites for each topic she researches, often coming up with the same information over and over. She finds the UC Library systems useful as a second layer of search, and frequently uses it to search for articles. Whenever Stephanie comes across the name of an individual in her area of studies, while surfing through Google, she makes it a point to do a quick search of that name on Pathfinder to check for publications.

Stephanie is skeptical of most of the papers she finds on the Web. Her rigorous academic mind finds much of their contents to be exaggerated, vague, or short on empirical evidence. She would like to find a more convienient and accessible way to get feedback and commentary from sources she trusts on the documents and reports on projects that she finds online. She is especially interested in getting more direct commentary from development professionals working in the field in developing countries. She would be willing to contribute her knowledge and expertiese to a site that included this type of commentary if she saw sufficient input from other participants.

Stephanie is skeptical of most of the papers she finds on the Web. Her rigorous academic mind finds much of their contents to be exaggerated, vague, or short on empirical evidence. She would like to find a more convenient and accessible way to get feedback and commentary from sources she trusts on the documents and reports on projects that she finds online. She is especially interested in getting more direct commentary from development professionals working in the field in developing countries. She would be willing to contribute her knowledge and expertise to a site that included this type of commentary if she saw sufficient input from other participants.

Goals:

• Locate quality research, sift out speculative, unsubstantiated claims and find rigorously documented research.
• Advance understanding of the role of technology in sustainable development by contributing her knowledge and expertise and collaborating with other professionals in her field.

Summary:

Jeff works for Schools Online, a non-profit organization based in San Jose, California whose mission is to help students gain access and use the communication and information resources of the Internet for learning and cross-cultural dialogue. They accomplish this by providing appropriate technology and Internet access, developing locally-driven and sustainable Internet Learning Centers, facilitating teacher professional development, cultivating online cross-cultural projects, and sharing our knowledge and experience.

Before coming joining Schools Online, Jeff was a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda where he worked on projects to develop new schools in rural villages. During his time in Africa he developed a passion for working on improving living conditions for the poor of the world, and developed a strong network of contacts in government agencies in Africa and non-profit organizations such as UNICEF and the United Nations. Upon returning to the United States, Jeff took a position in Washington, DC in the Department of Commerce where he was a research analyst specializing in US-Africa trade policy, and after two years there, joined Schools Online to refocus his career on his twin passions: education and Africa.

Jeff's current project as regional program director for sub-Saharan Africa, to develop a new education initiative for high school students. To develop these programs, Jeff does extensive research to learn about related projects and organizations, often drawing upon his extensive network of contacts in Africa and Washington. In addition he searches through as many newspapers and journals he can, and uses his phone quite often, setting up meetings and discussing ideas. Many of his notes are scribbled on pieces of paper while he travels, and prints out many articles he may come across online in fear of not having future access to that same article. He is also inundated with several conferences and seminars that all seem to overlap and have similar goals.

All of this information is scattered and difficult to keep track of. Jeff wishes that there was a single source to go to learn about projects that would have interlinked data about related projects, contact information, and the ability to contribute information to help others in his shoes.

Goals:

• Find quality information on programs using technology in education.
• Find background information on people and organizations working in his target region of sub-Saharan Africa to determine if they will be reliable and fruitful partners.