|GATE - 4/92 - Networking: Lessons and Hopes (GTZ GATE, 1992, 56 p.)|
Networking is often recommended as a means of giving greater regional, national or international impact to the activities of grass-roots groups. In fact, it has almost become a magic formula. The 1980s witnessed a positive boom in networking, and it did not pass the Appropriate Technology movement by.
To use a fashionable term, networks have a "synergy effect". That is, cooperation between various AT organizations gives the users more. It helps to avoid duplication of work, facilitates exchanges of experience and work-sharing, and can also be useful in mobilizing financial resources: good reasons for creating special networks within the AT movement. The articles in the Focus section of this issue describe the experience of several networks.
They make it clear that networking is now seen in a very pragmatic, sober light. Before founding a network, its aims and working methods should be very precisely defined. Small wonder, then, that at the international GATE workshop in May this year the idea of founding a global AT network was a subject of much lively debate.
Finally, ten organizations took the initiative to explore the
potential for a global AT network. They see this as a promising way of helping
"AT in Post-Modern Times" thus the title of the workshop - to achieve a
breakthrough. The papers presented at the conference, attended by participants
from over 30 countries, will be published in a GATE book.