Harnessing the wisdom of crowds: Open discussion forum helps to answer many sanitation related questions

Author : Rahul Ingle

The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) secretariat has developed a new discussion forum which was launched in July 2011. The forum focusses on the topic of sustainable sanitation and is open as opposed to some existing closed fora which require a login even just for reading. Today, the SuSanA forum already has 1080 registered users, 44 topics, nearly 5000 views for the most popular topic, and some topics have attracted more than 20 replies.
 
All postings are readable by everyone and search-able by search engines like Google and Yahoo. A broad range of topics are covered such as sanitation systems and technologies, health and hygiene, CLTS, school sanitation, sanitation systems for special conditions, menstrual hygiene management, SuSanA working groups, announcements and many more. For people who like to receive postings via e-mail, it is also possible to subscribe to a daily e-mail alert service of new posts simply by leaving your e-mail address at http://forum.susana.org/forum/subscribe.

All registered users can contribute to the forum by creating new discussion topics or by responding to the posts of others. The option to create a user profile, including a passport-style photo, is available. The user can also attach additional documents and photos to his or her posts. In addition, one can subscribe to specific categories or topics after logging in and thereby follow specific discussions.

Here are four examples of very active discussion threads so far:

• moSAN - mobile toilet for the urban poor in Bangladesh: http://forum.susana.org/forum/categories/52-mobile-solutions-portable-solutions/227-mosan-mobile-toilet-for-the-urban-poor-in-bangladesh
• Faecal sludge management: http://forum.susana.org/forum/categories/53-faecal-sludge-management
• Mobile sanitation systems like peepoo bags in Kenya or a new urine diversion toilet pot in Bangladesh: http://forum.susana.org/forum/categories/52-mobile-solutions
• Menstrual Hygiene Management, including the Ruby Cup business idea in Kenya: http://forum.susana.org/forum/categories/24-menstrual-hygiene-management-mhm
• Progress of SuSanA working groups: http://forum.susana.org/forum/categories/6-susana-working-groups

Click here for more details