Throughout this research article, we have explored how open knowledge and the use of wikis function as fundamental tools for documenting the learnings of social development projects by organizations in El Salvador. Through the presented case study, it has been confirmed that Appropedia, as a collaborative platform with documentation on Sustainable Development, serves as a crucial resource for promoting findings, best practices, and lessons learned in the learning phase of the project life cycle. Thanks to the wiki's versatility, utility, and accessibility, organizations can not only meet innovation requirements requested by cooperating entities when sharing project results, but also foster the empowerment of communities that are mostly interested in owning the content available on the website that has been returned to them. Furthermore, the practicality, dynamism, exclusivity, and validity in documenting relevant content on Sustainable Development within the wiki have also led it to be considered by promoting organizations, both nationally and internationally, as a repository for documenting adaptive management practices of an institutional nature.
It is also necessary to mention that the systematization and analysis of the data obtained from the results reveal that the open documentation of development initiatives led by organizations in El Salvador has generated interest among organizations and communities that have actively participated in these learning processes. The fact that the information available on the wiki can be edited and supplemented by these actors has allowed for good knowledge management, which is essential for achieving greater empowerment within the communities in El Salvador, as it implies a less exclusionary conception of development. However, in this section, some challenges and limitations identified through the experience shared by the interviewed organizations must be highlighted.
The first challenge lies in the lack of rigorous quality standards regarding the information available on Appropedia, as being in an open knowledge space, the user is responsible for providing the content they consider relevant. This can lead to the existence of pages with incomplete information, limiting the replication of many prototypes available on the platform. To address this, the Appropedia Foundation has made various templates available to users to provide detailed information on the status of a project, giving the content more weight.
On the other hand, it should also be noted that documenting on the wiki from mobile phones is not an easy process, especially if done from an area with poor connectivity, as was the case with profiling in coastal communities in the department of La Libertad. This limits the communities' interest in contributing to open documentation, as there is still a significant portion of the population in the country without access to a computer. Additionally, regarding adaptive management practices of an institutional nature, it has also been mentioned that for development-promoting organizations in El Salvador to share their learning processes in an open repository like a wiki, there must first be the willingness to do so. The open documentation process requires members of an organization to create, maintain, and control the content made public, which is important to avoid spam or other types of vandalism in the posted content. Another notable challenge is providing documentation skills to both the members of organizations and communities interested in documenting, whether through training, workshops, or other means. While these skills can be self-taught, they can also be acquired through a collaborative learning process.
Lastly, to familiarize development-promoting organizations in El Salvador with Appropedia, it is important to build a strategy that seeks to foster interest in documenting their learnings on the wiki. Currently, there is a record that only two organizations nationally have directly edited the platform. The measures to be adopted within this strategy include identifying the benefits of documenting content on an open knowledge platform, highlighting the significant contribution of allowing communities to access the findings from the learning processes in which they have been involved, and providing training on what to document. Finally, the collaboration of donor entities in promoting open knowledge should be emphasized.
In conclusion, open documentation of the learnings obtained from implementing a social development project not only facilitates access to information but also promotes institutional transparency. With open knowledge and the use of wikis as collaborative tools, both organizations and communities can be empowered, achieving an exchange of practices that are invaluable for a development ecosystem aiming to break away from exclusionary traditional practices. Despite the identified challenges, Appropedia is an attractive space, being an evolving repository that encourages the exchange of good ideas, feedback, and the joint construction of solutions for achieving more sustainable lives. Ultimately, it is the commitment to building bridges between organizations and communities that drives the effort to make knowledge easily accessible, free, and unrestricted, inspiring significant change for development in El Salvador.
