This communications structure involves collaborators on both sides of the ocean to talk openly and enthusiastically about the needs, admissions, and plans of the campus coordinators. That way, we ensure the university’s funders priorities, policies and procedures are met. We've found that we reach our full effectiveness on campuses by involving those responsible for delivering services in the immediate planning process.  One contact person at each university is responsible to conceive, organize, and carry out training. 

We are fortunate that several foundations have indicated that they’re interested in working with us in funding, capacity building, linkages in the WiderNet Project in universities they are already funding. We and they strongly concur that these programs being collaboratively designed and directed by the partner institutions ultimately benefit the sound development of ICT in the developing world.

Our intent is to develop a collegial and cooperative model for small group training. For example, each campus will require two people to become trained in enterprise e-mail services. 

In our past trainings we’ve used a model where universities that are offering hosting training will allow trainees from other universities to attend the trainings for a nominal fee.  This made it possible for the universities to put on significant training for a large number of their staff, while at the same time cover their costs through fees charged to other campuses. For large scale trainings, this is a reasonable model and we hope to continue using this model for our large scale, more popular trainings.

Every group of trainees will be provided their own discussion board and list service and every participant will be required to use these tools if they are to be certified in this program.  Each of these groups will have a communication coordinator and coach who is trained in group facilitation and moderation, who will monitor the discussion, guide participants in etiquette and problem solving, and spice up the conversation should things get slow.

Using this technique in the classroom at the University of Iowa, we found how this dramatically increases communication, conversation, and the sharing of experience, giving participants the chance to cross-train and train each other. We especially see this type of technology being helpful in distance education and project management.  Scaled up to a course situation, a university could mount a conversation on their server; dozen of students and staff could interact throughout the day, posting messages to each other and their overseas colleagues, and know that at least once a day an Internet connection will be made so that the messages could be synchronized with a central message sever.