Welcome to the UNDP CIRDA Forum

[Greg Benchwick]

Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the CIRDA Climate Innovations Network Forum. One of CIRDA’s primary goals as a support programme is to connect the Climate Information and Early Warning Systems projects with the training, information and technology they need to advance innovative approaches for the deployment of climate information and early warning systems. In order to improve sharing between the projects and the CIRDA programme, we’ve developed a google group and listserv that will allow you to send a message to the entire group with a simple click of the button.
 
Constant contact between CIRDA and the CI/EWS projects can support shared learning, regional cooperation, policy dialogue and scaling up of best practices. Most importantly it fosters a culture of cooperation and trust. This forum offers a new way for us to connect with each other, share questions and best practices, and build a knowledge base for collaboration.
 
Using the Forum

• Your email has been added to the forum. You should receive a confirmation message shortly. You do not need to take any action to start receiving messages.
• You can share material by simply sending an email to CI...@googlegroups.com.
• You can update your email subscription preferences within the forum.
• By sending an email to this group, you will be contacting a large group of participants, including the CIRDA team, project managers and country officers for the CI/EWS projects in all 11 countries supported by the CIRDA Programme. If you require individual support, or want to have a bilateral conversation via email, traditional email is suggested.
• Here’s a basic video on how to use google apps like forums, document sharing and more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2tOzPrd2Mk 
• For technical questions on the forum, please contact our communications specialist, Greg Benchwick (Gregory....@undp.org).
  
• The group has been in beta testing for several months. To visit the group online and see past conversations, visit http://groups.google.com/group/CIRDA.
  

 
What kind of information should be shared

• This forum is designed as an open venue to share innovations, project successes, questions, best practices, news, new technologies, promising advancements and more. Have you recently deployed a network of AWS? We want to hear about it. Did a recent training for staff provide new ideas on how to engage with the private sector? That information will be valuable too. Especially interesting will be lessons that are learned in one country and can be applied on the regional scale.
• On a regular basis, the CIRDA team will provide updates on climate information technology and science, project advances and team successes, lessons learned and more.
• All posts are captured and archived, ensuring an institutional record and ongoing KM and resource building.
• No moderation is currently set for conversations. However, we can implement a moderation procedure (i.e. messages are automatically held for moderation before posting). Given the professional nature of our community, this is likely not necessary.
• Offensive messages can be removed and users blocked.
• Know somebody who should be added? Send gregory....@undp.org a message and he will add them to the group.
  

 
We hope this forum will become an active lively place for open conversation, debate and the scaling up of best practices and innovative approaches. As the forum develops we will of course adapt and refine our approaches, and we welcome your feedback.

The CIRDA Team