Under construction: Connecting-Africa

Community portal for experts on

Development and African Studies

June 2006

Ursula Oberst

African Studies Centre

Leiden, NL

ConnectingAfrica

Harvester

IR IR IR IR IRIR IR

IMPLEMENTATION MODEL CONNECTING-AFRICA

Analyzer (Filter)

Account facility

Moderator

Experts

Publications

Experts/Org.

Publications

OAI-PMH Protocol

Core community

•180 community members (total number of Africanists in the Netherlands: 350)

•110 Dutch university units and research schools

Content

•metadata records (approx. 3100)

•with links to full-text publications (approx. 1900)

•digitised publications of the ASC (approx.200)

44 Repositories harvested and filtered

Connecting-Africa is updated twice a month.

Funding: SURF Foundation

1st Tender 2003: € 46.800

2nd Tender 2004: € 140.000

Partners:

African Studies Centre

Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences

University of Amsterdam

University of Groningen

University of Leiden

University of Wageningen

Approach:

By developing jointly a service to the benefit of all participants

•Based on existing building blocsDatabase of Africanists in the Netherlands

•Embedded in national infrastructuresDARE (Digital Academic Repositories)NOD (Dutch Research Database)

FUTURE of CONNECTING-AFRICA

Content

•harvest more OAI repositories containing African Studies material (OAI = Open Archives Initiative)

•encourage colleagues in Europe to deposit material in OAI compliant repositories

•encourage African colleague research institutions to set up OAI compliant repositories (harvest content from Africa)

FUTURE of CONNECTING-AFRICA

Community

•enlarge the community with specialists on Africa from NGO’s, the media, governments, etc.

•enlarge the community with academia in Africa and Europe

PROJECT GLOBAL CONNECTIONS

Funding:

DPRN (Development Policy Review Network)

Project period: july 2006 – december 2007

Partners:African Studies CentreDevelopment Policy Review Network Royal Academy of Arts and SciencesRoyal Tropical Institute

PROJECT GLOBAL CONNECTIONS

Activities:

•set up Global-Connections: web portal for development expertise in the Netherlands and Belgium.

•duplicate the Connecting-Africa model for other area studies

GLOBAL-CONNECTIONShttp://www.global-connections.nl/Development experts in NL and B

IMPLEMENTATION MODELGLOBAL CONNECTIONS

Account facility

Moderator ??? Moderator ???Moderator ASC

Account facility Account facility

Connecting Africa

ConnectingAsia

ConnectingLatinAmerica

PROJECT PROPOSAL: INTERNATIONALISING CONNECTING-AFRICA

Funding: NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research )

Subsidy period: september 2006 – sept. 2009

Subsidy requested: € 55.000

Partners:African Studies CentreCODESRIA (Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa )AEGIS (Africa-Europe Group for

Interdisciplinary Studies)

PROJECT PROPOSAL: INTERNATIONALISING CONNECTING-AFRICA

Activities:

•to extend Connecting-Africa with research information from Africa and Europe

•to enlarge Connecting-Africa with the Africanist communities in Africa and Europe

ConnectingAfrica

Harvester

IR IR IR IR IRIR IR

EXTENDED IMPLEMENTATION MODELCONNECTING-AFRICA

Analyzer (Filter)

Account facility

Moderator ASC

Experts/Org.

Publications

Moderator NAIMod. CODESRIA

Account facility Contact database

Connecting

African Studies

Globally !

www.connecting-africa.net