Manny Hernandez and the Tu Diabetes community needs your help! Their goal is 20,000 signatures in an appeal to Google to consider doing a World Diabetes Day doodle on Nov. 14th. Right now, they are about half way there. Tu Diabetes has partnered with other diabetes organization to help raise awareness and reach the 20,000 signatures goal.
Archive for the 'community' CategoryPage 2 of 5
As part of the Nonprofit Blog Exchange, I visited the Social Butterfly blog recently - the Nonprofit Blog Exchange connects bloggers in an effort to expand the sphere of readership and exposure (to learn more, check it out).
I was already familiar with the blog, and Social Butterfly’s twitter, too. But, I realized the blog wasn’t in my RSS reader and thus I was missing many wonderful posts! I suggest that if you are interested in social media, marketing, and the intersection of the two, you subscribe as well.
Social Butterfly’s post about Blog Action Day, really caught my eye. Here’s how it begins:
What is poverty?
In researching the answer to this question, I couldn’t escape the purpose behind a campaign by the Association of Public Health Schools and the Pfizer Foundation recently created called “What is public health?” This campaign works to better brand ‘public health’ to the public, while also raising awareness, education and encouraging participation in the public health conversation. Participants are asked to put red “This is public health stickers” on items that they feel represent public health. My challenge: What would this look like if the question: “What is poverty?” was asked?
I read on, and encourage you to as well, but that question stuck in my head. If we were going to try to put a sticker on everything that labeled it as, “This is Poverty,” how would we even begin? The definition of poverty, or at least as we think of it in public service work and public policy, is so vast and multifaceted. The number of stickers we would need is unbelievable!
Then, as if she was reading my thoughts, I saw this tweet from my friend Audrey:
spinnerin: Frustrated by people’s tendency to talk for everyone outside developed countries as though we know exactly what they need.
It’s such a fitting point. When I first started thinking about sticking those “This is Poverty” stickers on things, I started thinking with my home town first, then my home state, and home country. After that, I started thinking about London, and the UK as I’m now based here and learning a great deal about the world as it is here. But to start thinking about puting those stickers on things in developing countries was almost unfair. I can think of many things to put those stickers on, but I don’t live there every day nor do I face or even really understand the real issues, and definitions of poverty as they exist in developing countries. By putting a sticker on those things, the issues as we see them from elsewhere, are we even setting the stage for help and change?
How do we first get the people IN poverty, to label things with these metaphoric and real stickers of “This is Poverty” so that help can be defined and created most effectively?
Thanks, Social Butterfly for giving me a moment to relfect on my own post from Blog Action Day, and rediscover your wonderful blog! And, thanks to the Nonprofit Blog Exchange for connecting us!
It’s Blog Action Day 2008! This year, the focus of thousands of bloggers from around the world is on poverty.
What’s the point of bloggers (over 11,000 at the time of this posting!) all talking about poverty today? The more people talking about poverty and its related issues, the larger and larger the conversation. When lots of people start talking about something, they naturally get excited and start sharing ideas and making plans and then start taking action to make change!
So really, Blog Action Day = Action Day!
There are so many bloggers in the discussion today, and many great ideas, organizations and projects highlighted, and so much more - I really encourage you to check out the rolling list of participating blogs to read more and jump into the conversation!
Here’s what I’m thinking…
The social web is really about aggregation and redistribution. So, we should be pulling together opportunities for people to do something about poverty, both locally and on a global scale. Many groups, individuals and even platforms are working on doing this already, at least for social change in general, including poverty-related actions. Tools like SocialActions aggregate the social web of social actions for you, and then let you repurpose the results the way you want - like in a widget on your blog, on an automatic footer, etc. SocialActions still has a long way to go with how much functionality and opportunity it hopes to provide users, so check it out and see how you can participate!
We should also be pulling together and pushing out resources and information about services for people in poverty looking for help. I’ve seen this take shape in various forms, including One Economy’s Beehive websites that provide localized information and connections to services. But, I still think there is a lot more to be done that doesn’t require too much ‘new’ work, just new combinations.
What if…
What if there was a way that someone looking for a social service could use a touch screen monitor in a grocery store to locate the physical building where they could get help? Grocery stores are much more abundant and easily accessed than pretty much anything else in most cities, and using the touch screen monitor means you have much less technological experience required to use the tool. Finding the address, the specific services available, hours of operation, etc. in an easy-to-access way means that person could then get on the bus, taxi, or walk to the location without having to find one social service facility just to start the process. I love maps though, so we should add in some mapping to the process 
maybe a map can show all of the locations providing the service needed and the user can pick and choose if they want.
What if there was a shared technology van for your city that would travel between homeless shelters, social service centers, and adult education facilities providing exposure and on-the-spot training to individuals on using a computer, a digital camera, navigating the web, creating an email account, etc.? This would give people facing an uphill battle to find a job and improve their financial/economic situation some basic tools to be on their way to working in an office or even just participating in the technology-heavy demands of the 21st century. One van wouldn’t need to cost that much, especially if a national organization was behind it and regulating it. I’m sure that software and hardware developers (whether it is laptops, cameras, video cameras, phones, or computer applications, etc.) out there would gladly donate machines or discount them (just think of how many people they are helping to become customers!); the vehicles could be donated or discounted or come from vehicle donation services; staffing of the vehicle could be a full-time standard hour job paid for by a grant or membership fees that are very small contributed/combined from all of the facilities who have a share of the exposure.
What do you guys think of either of those ideas? Are they doable? Do you have better ideas? I’d LOVE to hear them!
I have been busy since we moved to London last month, meeting with leaders of the local nonprofit technology community to hear what the biggest obstacles are facing consultants and staff working to help nonprofits adopt strategic technologies, biggest needs are for a group that brings the community together (Net Tuesday London!), and what I can do help. The conversations have been affirming, enlightening and enthusiastic. I’m ready to go!
Net Tuesday London is officially in the works! Put the evening of November 4th on your calendars folks - it should be a wonderful first event bringing together social changemakers of all kinds to discuss social media. More details will be announced soon.
Two great movers-and-shakers that I’ve had the opportunity to talk with include David Wilcox and Dave Briggs. David wrote up a fantastic intorduction for me on the SocialReporter blog. Here’s a bit:
A year ago a group of enthusiasts for web-enabled social innovation and change met in London committed to setting up Netsquared in the UK, loosely based on the Netsquared conference and community started in the US.
It didn’t happen like that, and although the social innovation landscape is now more highly populated, a bit more joining-up would be helpful.
Fortunately Netsquared has come to us, because community builder Amy Sample Ward has moved to London to start up Net Tuesdays like those common in the US and elsewhere. As you’ll see from the video, Amy is already networking furiously, and would like to partner up with others in the field for events and other activities. Read more…
Dave gave a wonderful shout out as well!
I also got the chance to catch up with Amy Sample Ward, who works with NetSquared helping non-profits get the most out of technology. She’s now based in London and will be doing her best to help UK NFPs catch up. Read more…
Thanks so much to all the people I’ve talked with so far about supporting the nonprofit technology community here in London and in the UK! I’m just thrilled to be working with you.
Here’s the interview David recorded with me yesterday:
Amy Sample Ward from David Wilcox on Vimeo.
It’s time again for the Net2 ThinkTank! Here’s a question for everyone to think about, blog about, and discuss. Thanks to Marie Deatherage for helping with it, too!
Topic:
What are the key questions nonprofit orgs should ask to help them determine how to prioritize social media training and experimentation as they do their technology and organization-strengthening planning?
Deadline:
Saturday, October 18th
How to contribute:
- Blog your answer to the question either on your blog or the NetSquared blog. (For directions on contributing to the NetSquared blog, click here)
- Tag your blog with net2thinktank
- Send me the link to your post! (You can leave a comment here, on the NetSquared site, email me, etc.)
Thank so much ahead of time! I’m really looking forward to your answers and insights. Be sure to send me the link to your post by next Saturday so that I can be sure it is included in the roundup on Monday, October 20th.
The Net2 ThinkTank roundup will be posted on the NetSquared site on Monday, October 20th
As most of you know, I’m now located in London, UK and the community builder at NetSquared. I’m really excited to be here and to connect with the nonprofit technology community on the ground in the UK.
As part of my offline community building for NetSquared here, I’m laying the ground work for the first Net Tuesday London! I’m hoping we can hold our first monthly event this November, and want it to really be something that fills a niche, connects nptechers, technologists, consultants, nonprofits and social changemakers.
If you are here in London or the UK, below is a link to a survey to help gauge what your goals and preferences are for Net Tuesday London. I’d really love to hear your thoughts, and to see you there in November!
Thanks so much for taking the time to fill out the short survey; it should only take 5 minutes or so.
Here’s the survey!
Let me know if you have any questions about NetSquared, Net Tuesdays, the survey or anything else!
I’ve made it! We are safely in London, UK, now and staying with friends of friends who we had never met before and are much too hospitable. The pieces of life for finding housing, food, friends, and fun are all falling into place so far, and we’ve been here less than a week! Now, to find reliable and consistent internet!
Here are some great news bites I wanted to let everyone know about, straight from my blog on the NetSquared site:
- 2008 Tech Awards Laureates Announced
Applied Materials and The Tech Museum and Innovation have announced the 2008 Tech Awards Laureates! The 25 winners come from around the world, representing 12 countries, with projects applying technology for social change. READ MORE! - SF Halloween Festival needs a website, now!
The San Francisco Halloween Festival committee has enjoyed an organic community growth around the planning process for the city’s October 31st celebration, but now needs help making a website. Following the closure of Castro Street last year for the annual celebration, the SF Halloween Festival committee plans to bring together all ages, all cultures, and people from SF and around the world in both free and ticketed activities and celebrations all afternoon and evening in Lot A, next to SF Giants AT&T Ballpark, and Terry Francois Boulevard. READ MORE! - Intel Asks for Technology Solutions for Global Issues
Intel’s INSPIRE•EMPOWER Challenge is looking for ideas from individuals, developers, organizations, and the public at large for using technology to address a global issue in the areas of education, health care, economic development, and the environment. Winners will get $100,000 USD to get their idea off the ground! READ MORE! - More opportunities added to Social Actions
NABUUR is an online community that connects individuals with communities in developing countries, and together they formulate plans and projects to address local issues and sharing the solution-making. The connection and process is less about giving money, and more about sharing ideas, knowledge, skills, and connections. And now you can hear about opportunities to get involved through Social Actions! READ MORE! - NetSquared - Collaborate for Change: Sao Paolo, Brazil and Beyond!
NetSquared is teaming up with Sun Microsystems to create community hack days in conjunction with a series of recruiting events that Sun hosts called “Tech Days.” Collaborate for Change Registration. READ MORE!
Originally posted on the Net Squared blog.
Twitter is a service for people to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of short (140 character) messages. This micro-blogging tool has seen growing use over the last two years from individuals, activists, organizations and even news companies. (Click here for the Common Craft video on Twitter.)
Tu Diabetes is a great example of a group using Twitter to engage with communities online. Tu Diabetes is an online community where members help each other out, educate themslves and share the steps taken every day to stay healthy while living with this very serious condition. Tu Diabetes employs a gamut of web tools in its process of reaching out to new community members, keeping the community informed, and educating the public.
I recently spoke with Manny Hernandez, Tu Diabetes community founder, to take a closer look at Tu Diabetes’ Twitter story.
I asked Manny if Tu Diabetes has a policy or strategy for building the followers/following lists. He explained that, “every week or two, we do a search for the term “diabetes” on Twitter and selectively add certain people. We avoid adding people who are clearly using Twitter for SPAM or strictly commercial purposes. The Twitter search only looks in the people’s profiles, so we go a step further and use TweetScan to do a search in tweets containing the term “diabetes”. Then again, many of them are SPAM but a good number of them are legit and are made by people who could potentially be interested in what our community has to offer. We add those folks to our list of followed people. When you take a look at the product of our “adds” you see a very diabetes-centric timeline, which makes for a very interesting and inspiring reference. Also, we typically see people we add on Twitter joining the community. When people get a chance to see that you are for real, that the community is offering valuable information and support, people take the extra step and join. I don’t think this is something that works this way outside of nonprofit, but it is a model that I highly recommend for non-profits to try.”
I also asked what the specific strategy is for posting content via Twitter. Manny explained that, they “use Twitterfeed to automate the posting of a few of the RSS feeds that TuDiabetes has: forum topics, blog posts, etc. Depending on their volume we have Twitterrific posts to our Twitter account periodically (typically a few times per day) with relevant content (all our content is centered around diabetes). We also post manually periodically, every time there is a relevant topic or announcement that we want to make sure appears in our Twitter timeline.”
Twitter is a great avenue for cultivating and igniting conversations as well as getting your information out. I asked Manny if they had been part of some conversations within Twitter, and not just their online community space, and he confirmed that “occasionally other Twitter users contact us with questions. We’ve had a few media people contact us through Twitter too.”
I think Manny really nailed a great idea for organizations or online communities looking to explore Twitter’s use: “When people get a chance to see that you are for real, that the community is offering valuable information and support, people take the extra step and join. I don’t think this is something that works this way outside of nonprofit, but it is a model that I highly recommend for non-profits to try.”
Twitter, and other micro-blogging tools like Identi.ca and others, is another way organizations can be more open, transparent, and available in real-time to answer questions, provide information, and keep the community informed about both the work being done and ways to get involved. Here are some other organizational Twitter accounts you may want to check out:
- Nonprofits Assistance Fund - http://twitter.com/NAFund
- The Women’s Museum - http://twitter.com/TheWomensMuseum
- St. Jude Children’s Reasearch Hosptial - http://twitter.com/StJude
- Mara Triangle - http://twitter.com/maratriangle
- OneNW - http://twitter.com/onenw
Is your organization using Twitter, or are any of your staff members using it? What questions do you have for organizations adopting micro-blogging tools like Twitter?
I plan to participate on October 15th in the Blog Action Day 2008 and hope that you will, too!
"Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion."
Blogging, as I have talked about many times in the past, is really about conversations and I think the idea behind Blog Action Day is the perfect example of that. By encouraging as many people to focus on the same issue for one day we can ignite ideas, conversations, and even actions to help fight poverty and the issues related to it.
I’m excited to participate and hope to blog about some great examples of social media use by poverty-focused organizations as well as the missions and work of those groups. So, join me for Blog Action Day this year and help further the reach of the conversation!
I am a huge fan of all things shared-knowledge. I get excited, dive right in, and always feel like I learn so much regardless of how much I’m able to contribute (though I try to always put in all that I can). I hope, and believe, that many of you are the same way and thought I would make sure you all know about two awesome ways for sharing peer-to-peer knowledge, especially with peers you didn’t know you had!
Net Squared Community Blog: Net Squared “enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.” This is a great place to hear about what other organizations are doing, regardless of where they may be on the adoption timeline for different new media tools. I love the varied topics and people that post here, keeping me exposed to all sorts of fields. It is a community blog, so feel free to set up your free account with Net Squared and post to the blog as well!
NTEN Affinity Groups: NTEN is a membership organization of nonprofit technology professionals that “aspires to a world where all nonprofit organizations skillfully and confidently use technology to meet community needs and fulfill their missions.” You don’t have to be a member to join the affinity groups, though! There are many different topic areas covered and it’s a terrific way to find resources and contacts that can help answer questions or provide advice, especially for areas where you previously didn’t know quite who to ask. Check out the lists and join groups that match your interests!
Where do you find peer-to-peer help when you have a question or need advice? Do you prefer on or offline help; people you know already or people you may know via a network (like Net Squared or NTEN)?
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