Researchers in the field of IT and Regional Development have the complicated task of researching field projects and academic literature. Field projects are usually located in developing regions, often focusing on the implementation of a technology solution in an underserved region. There is no comprehensive existing directory that serves as a starting point for research in this area of work, and users often turn browsing the Internet through search engines, and following that up with searches on a variety of more generic databases (such as digital libraries) and web resources (such as sites of international agencies).

In addition to the time lost in scattered searching, a major disadvantage in this model of interaction is the lack of access to experiential knowledge, for instance, that of third-party field observers who observe some of these projects. The experiences of such observers, is usually available only to the agencies they operate under, though researchers agree that such knowledge would be invaluable if easily available and reviewable. Similarly, there are academic research and case studies conducted on this topic throughout the world, which do not get widely disseminated due to the lack of a well-known and open-structured data repository for researchers and professionals to share information.

Researchers also add a second layer of complexity: they have their own opinions and comments on literature and on field project implementations, which they would like to share with others, just as they would like to know of others' opinions. Usually research in one country is limited to that country, and valuable input from other people in other countries is never shared. There is a need for a system that is open, highly interactive, and equipped with useful features to allow users to annotate and interlink online data.