Re: AFRO-NETS
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Dear Colleagues,
last week - when announcing the closure of AFRO-NETS for a few days -
we asked for comments from our subscribers to consider "whether we
have reached the objectives of our conference and whether we are mov-
ing in the right direction".
We got only two reactions so far and are therefore presenting them in
full length - perhaps stimulating more responses and suggestions.
Best regards,
Dieter Neuvians
Brian Pazvakavambwa
AFRO-NETS Moderators
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Hi Dieter,
you wrote:
In future we should rely on other moderators to take over (any
volunteers?) when we are travelling.
Yeap...here....when can I come for my first lesson...???
[Booked, you will get your first instructions soon. DN Mod.]
A few questions:
- do we reach our objectives?
The main purpose.... is exchange of information between the differ-
ent networks.....
Done!
By this better collaboration between the networks is expected in
the fields of capacity building, planning and conducting research,
transformation of research recommendations into action...
Maybe the initial ideas were very broad and thus curtailed by the in-
terests of subscribers, limitations of actual postings, etc.... a
natural and healthy process, I'd say.......the aspect 'research re-
sults' is a bit on the short side...
[We try to improve on this. See Candy Day's message about the recent
'Health Systems Research Report-back Conference' in South Africa.]
is the spectrum of topics too broad or too small?
It seems like an open list to me....responding nicely to various de-
velopments in different areas...I would keep it that way...
are there too many messages?
No
are there too many cross-postings (e.g. from the Malaria list)?
No...I thought that's the idea of network of networks....
are the contributions relevant?
Yes
is there enough moderation - perhaps more summaries instead of sin-
< gle messages?
I'd say moderation is enough...it always looks pitiful if half of the
postings are from a moderator trying to sustain and stimulate a dead
discussion.
should we offer other services?
Concerning the afro-nets list: all in all it's fine as it is.....
FWIW, I hardly read about research results on the list...it would be
nice to distribute once in a while a summary of what research was
carried out in different public health areas...short digest form
would be ok, including some tips how this could be translated into
action......
[An appeal to our subscribers and ourselves who are concerned about
too many studies disappearing in shelves and never translated into
action.]
I also read a lot of announcements of nice conferences, for which I
never qualify (either financially or academically, yeah poor me),
however, I hardly hear anything about the output of these confer-
ences......a brief summary of what was discussed and which new in-
sights have been presented would be greatly appreciated; or quote an
e-mail contact where a short summary could be obtained....
[We try to give reports and summaries from the conferences we attend,
e.g. recent World Federation of Public Health Associations Conference
in Arusha or 18th African Health Science Conference in Cape Town, but
we have also to rely on contributions from our subscribers.]
On a broader aspect: make it accessible to health staff in the dis-
tricts.....would require a lot of hardware though.......the computers
out there are the 'property' of the health info clerk....an addi-
tional computer for academic purposes in the DMO's office would be
nice.....could start with a view districts and see....
[I fully agree. A recent survey in Zimbabwe showed that one stumbling
block in the use of e-mail is that connected computers are hardly ac-
cessible for possible users. Other needs are promotion of e-mail,
demonstration of its advantages, overcoming the hierarchy when using
e-mail and training, training, training... We are trying to tackle
some of the problems. DN. Mod.]
Regards,
Mike Adelhardt
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Dr. Mike Adelhardt
DED Office Harare
124 Union Ave.
Harare, Zimbabwe
Tel. +263-4-736799
Fax +263-4-702557
mailto:ded@harare.iafrica.com
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Dieter, I wanted to address this to you and the rest of the list. I
think the list you developed is excellent. I have gained a lot from
this. I receive so many messages each day that I have dropped all
lists other than 3, and I find this one most enjoyable. What I like
the most about it is that I have found new collaborators in Africa
for our Internet work, and some new friends interested in working to
develop a global public health infrastructure with us all sharing in-
formation.
It is an excellent list with people who do not go "nuts" with very
important topics. You and everyone else involved should be very proud
of yourself. You are a seed for remarkable internet growth and shar-
ing and I compliment you...
Ronald LaPorte, Ph.D.
For the Global Health Network
Director, Disease Monitoring and Telecommunications
WHO Collaborating Center
Professor of Epidemiology
Graduate School of Public Health
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA
Fax: +1-412-692-8329
mailto:rlaporte@vms.cis.pitt.edu
http://www.pitt.edu/HOME/GHNet/GHNet.html
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