Message from Senior Partner | David South Consulting

DS Consulting has launched this website, www.davidsouthconsulting.com, and a WordPress blog, www.davidsouthconsulting.org, to explain developments and publish content relevant to health, human development and innovation. It is structured around key practice areas and features past case studies and successes. Over the last six years, the back catalogue of previous work has also been migrated online (http://www.scribd.com/DSConsulting). This includes work rescuing Mongolia’s economy from the biggest peacetime, post-WWII economic collapse and transformative work in child health with the UK’s National Health Service.

You can catch up on my archive of case studies as well at www.davidsouthconsulting.org, and keep abreast of the many changes coming for 2016 and beyond. The case studies are a mix of inspiring stories, insight, analysis and trends: A good snapshot of a fast-changing world.

A great deal of work has gone into laying the foundations for future growth at DS Consulting at its London, UK base. The fruits of this work will become more apparent as 2016 unfolds.

Please send an email if you would like to get in touch or share a thought: mailto: davidsouthconsulting@gmail.com.

David South 

Senior Partner 

DS Consulting

Senior Partner David South at the Sydney Opera House in 2013.

© David South Consulting 2017

Getting Read Matters: International Development Publications | 11 June 2016

 

As the Internet has grown, those working in development have responded in kind by broadening access to what they write: publishing online is now routine. There are many platforms out there encouraging transparent publishing - www.archive.org, www.scribd.com, www.slideshare.net, www.academia.edu, www.books.google.com, etc. - making it easy to share.

For decades, international development organizations have run vast publishing and research programmes. But prior to the Internet, it was just not possible to access this material and the knowledge and data within without a trip to the library or a UN HQ. The Internet has made it much easier to find out what is out there but there is still the thorny issue of "is anyone reading this stuff?". One survey unearthed a problem: many publications were being read by a very small audience, or nobody at all.

A survey in 2014 of the World Bank's publications, for example, produced a shocking result: it found a third of their publications are never downloaded, 40 per cent were downloaded just 100 times, and only 13 per cent were downloaded more than 250 times in their lifetime (The Washington Post). As The Washington Post pointed out, these are publicly funded publications with the intention of contributing to policy debates and providing solutions to the world's problems. So, if nobody is reading them, or just a handful are, that actually does matter if you care about positive change in the world.

We pride ourselves on creating publications that actually get read. It is risky: when you inspire people, they may just act on what you write. The gatekeepers of development knowledge have developed many ways to uninspire people: they bury documents in jargon and obfuscation, they don't bother telling anyone about a publication, they charge people who can least afford to pay for the publication first-world, dollar prices. Or, as has happened more and more these days, they contact Google to try and get publications obliterated from search engines, so nobody can find them in the first place.

We draw on experience gleaned from working with complex organizations staffed by highly educated people doing complicated things. This has included working on the UN's communications during a severe crisis in late 1990s Mongolia, transforming online access to child health resources for the UK's NHS, and championing innovation across the global South.

The Scribd platform is used by many public bodies to archive documents. It is as good a place as any to make a comparison. So, how do our various resources compare when it comes to communicating on the topics of innovation/innovators, human development and the global South?

How has Southern Innovator's first five issues faired on Scribd?:

And if we search using the words 'global South innovator', we can compare Southern Innovator with other publications and see how many views each has had:

In 1997 I worked as the Managing Editor for the first Mongolian Human Development Report while serving as Head of Communications for the UN in Mongolia. Read more about this project here: http://www.davidsouthconsulting.com/case-studies/human-development-report-mongolia-1997.html. It still attracts readers all these years later.

 

Southern Innovator has become one of the most viewed resources on Scribd for UNDP and innovators, human development and innovators, and global South and innovators.

Southern Innovator Impact Summary 1: http://www.slideshare.net/DavidSouth1/handout-flyer-finalaug14cropmarks

Southern Innovator Impact Summary 2: http://www.slideshare.net/DavidSouth1/si-impact-summaryjan2014final

Southern Innovator and the Growing Global Innovation Culture | 7 April 2016

A paper prepared for the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) in 2013.

© David South Consulting 2017

Finding Southern Innovator Magazine | 16 March 2016

An ad promoting the magazine's fourth issue is below:

 

Southern Innovator can be read online here:

Scribd

Issue 1: http://www.scribd.com/doc/57980406/Southern-Innovator-Issue-1

Issue 2: http://www.scribd.com/doc/86451057/Southern-Innovator-Magazine-Issue-2

Issue 3: http://www.scribd.com/doc/106055665/Southern-Innovator-Magazine-Issue-3-Agribusiness-and-Food-Security

Issue 4: http://www.scribd.com/doc/128283953/Southern-Innovator-Magazine-Issue-4

Issue 5:  http://www.scribd.com/doc/207579744/Southern-Innovator-Magazine-Issue-5-Waste-and-Recycling

Google Books

Issue 1: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Q1O54YSE2BgC&dq=southern+innovator&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Issue 2: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Ty0N969dcssC&dq=southern+innovator&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Issue 3: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=AQNt4YmhZagC&dq=southern+innovator&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Issue 4: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9T_n2tA7l4EC&dq=southern+innovator&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Issue 5: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6ILdAgAAQBAJ&dq=southern+innovator&source=gbs_navlinks_s

And on Canada's PressReader news platform:

Issue 5: http://www.pressreader.com/usa/southern-innovator

Issue 4: http://www.pressreader.com/usa/southern-innovator/20130919

Issue 3: http://www.pressreader.com/usa/southern-innovator/20120912

Issue 2: http://www.pressreader.com/usa/southern-innovator/20120505

Southern Innovator is held in the following library collections:

Biblioteca Nationala a Republicii Moldova: http://cc.sibimol.bnrm.md/opac/bibliographic_view/399949;jsessionid=C516885A73E277718AE64598E869BC70

British Library: http://tinyurl.com/kgxo6hj

Centre multimédia sur l'environnement et le développement Dakar, Senegal: http://www.enda-sigie.org/bases/sigie/format_liste.php?lang=fr&onglet=1&link=O&format=court&sort=Date%20DESC&Chp4=CONCEPTION+DE+BATIMENT

Library of Congress: http://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/holdingsInfo?searchId=15784&recCount=25&recPointer=0&bibId=17462965

Malaysian Academic Library Union: http://malcat.uum.edu.my/kip/Record/ukm.vtls003513851

Toronto Public Library: http://vc4kb8yf3q.search.serialssolutions.com/?V=1.0&N=100&L=VC4KB8YF3Q&S=AC_T_B&C=southern+innovator

Uganda Martyrs University: http://library.umu.ac.ug:81/cgi-bin/koha/opac-MARCdetail.pl?biblionumber=33335

United Nations Library Geneva: Issues 2, 4, 5: Click 'Get It': http://pmt-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?SFGlobal=southern+innovator&submitGlobal=Go&fn=search&ct=search&initialSearch=true&mode=Basic&tab=default_tab&indx=1&dum=true&srt=rank&vid=41UNOG_V1&frbg=&vl%28freeText0%29=southern+innovator

Issue 1: http://pmt-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do?tabs=detailsTab&ct=display&fn=search&doc=41UNOG_Alma21105606680002391&indx=1&recIds=41UNOG_Alma21105606680002391&recIdxs=0&elementId=0&renderMode=poppedOut&displayMode=full&frbrVersion=&dscnt=0&frbg=&tab=default_tab&dstmp=1424959330694&srt=rank&mode=Basic&&dum=true&SFGlobal=southern+innovator&vl%28freeText0%29=southern%20innovator&vid=41UNOG_V1&submitGlobal=Go

Universitat de Valencia: http://xv9lx6cm3j.search.serialssolutions.com/?V=1.0&L=XV9LX6CM3J&S=JCs&C=JC_018470248&T=marc

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Libraries: http://ent.library.utm.my/client/en_AU/main/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f820$002fSD_ILS:820407/ada?qu=Youth&rw=1200&ic=true&ps=300

University of Cape Town Libraries: http://aleph20.calico.ac.za/F/?local_base=uct01pub&func=find-b&find_code=OCLC&request=%28ocolc%29870179464

University of Saskatchewan: http://sundog.usask.ca/search/t?SEARCH=southern+innovator&sortdropdown=-&searchscope=8

If you would like hard copies of the magazine for distribution, then please contact the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation: Website: http://ssc.undp.org/content/ssc.html. If you would like to either sponsor an issue of Southern Innovator or place an advertisement in the magazine, then please contact southerninnovator@yahoo.co.uk. This is a great opportunity to reach millions around the world and to connect with the pioneers and innovators shaping this new world. With Issue 5 tackling the timely theme of Waste and Recycling, this is the moment to get on board and help support SI. With global urbanization levels continuing to rise, fresh thinking of the kind found in Southern Innovator's fifth issue is urgently required.

Follow @DSChallenges

www.davidsouthconsulting.com

© David South Consulting 2017

Interviews for the GOSH Child Health Portal 2001-2003 | 15 March 2016

Roundabout, November 2001 Issue No. 18

Joint Website Launched

A two-year project to turn our joint institutions' website (www.gosh.nhs.uk) into a respected child health portal got underway with the launch of the first phase of development in September. The second phase of content development will get the site ship shape for a UK-wide publicity campaign as the hospital’s 150th birthday celebrations begin in January.

The site’s web editor, David South, has been working on the project since arriving here in June, having worked on award-winning websites for the United Nations.

“The first phase saw collaboration from staff across both institutions,” he says. “An impressive amount was done, and we have now laid the foundations for future improvements to the content on the site. I really want to offer more for children. Over three million children in the UK now surf the internet.”

The opportunity for both institutions is enormous. As the internet has evolved, it has become increasingly clear that the future of its development lies in the public sphere. US government sites now outstrip commercial operations, selling far more books than the largest online bookseller, amazon.com. Here in the UK, the www.ukonline.gov.uk site is working to offer one-stop access to all government services, including health care.

Unlike commercial operations, the hospital and the Institute are an unbiased resource for the public to turn to. Currently, the joint site has more than 180 factsheets for families covering tests and procedures, illnesses and diseases and operations. It also has the complete archive of Dr. Jane Collins’ Times column, with its jargon-free look at child health issues.

“This being London, we have the unique advantage of being at the centre of so many developments, and having the opportunity to communicate this through our website,” says David South.

Across the NHS the Modernisation Plan involves the largest data collection exercise in its history. More and more resources will be offered online, and the content produced by individual trusts like ours will be linked with national sites like NHS Direct.

New GOSH/ICH website

With over three million children in the UK now using the internet, and a total of 33 million UK citizens accessing it through work, school or the home, no organisation can afford not to make the most of this valuable communications tool. Estimates vary, but some put the number of health-related websites at more than 100,000. Trust is an even more important issue, as users search for accurate information. It is in this context that the new hospital and ICH website, www.gosh.nhs.uk, launched in September. Web editor David South puts us in the picture.

The new site reflects the hard work and collaboration of staff across both institutions, and it is hoped it will quickly make its mark as a trusted resource on complex child health issues. The site also becomes one of the most visible signs of our on-going modernisation programme, and can uniquely tie together the breadth of our work in a way that no other medium can. The site development project spans two years and will fit in with the wider move across the NHS to offer a wide range of services online.

The next phase of the site’s development is aimed at getting the site ready for a larger publicity campaign slated to coincide with the hospital’s 150th birthday celebrations with start in January. In preparation for this public launch, a number of improvements will be made to the site’s content, interactivity, platform and design. To put it simply, the site should become a critical first stop for anybody seeking our services, or wanting to learn more about the latest research and care developments in the field of complex child issues.

The joint site will also be available via Gosweb for staff in the hospital who don’t already have internet access.

As the project evolved, regular updates were communicated to colleagues and the public through the media.

© David South Consulting 2017