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Slides and more from NCVO’s Info Conference

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Amy Sample Ward
on November 25, 2008
in events and socialmedia
. 10 Comments

Yesterday was the NCVO Information Conference, focused on how organisations can make best use of recent developments in social media to meet the changing needs and expectations of their audiences.  I had the pleasure of presenting with Laura Whitehead (in person) and Beth Kanter (via skype).  Our session looked at using social media tools to share information inside your organization, and out:

Could better knowledge sharing and closer communications inside your organisation create stronger relationships, efficiency, insight and effectiveness? In this workshop you will discover how the latest tools for online collaboration and sharing can offer opportunities to improve the way you work. Social Media tools such as wikis, social networking sites like Twitter, FriendFeed, using Tagging and RSS feeds can enable organisations of all sizes to best use and build on its existing collective wisdom and innovation.

Here are the slides that Laura and I used:

Ways to collaborate and share knowledge using social media tools

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: km laurawhitehead)

Here are the slides that Beth created but we couldn’t actually use during the session as the wifi wasn’t quite holding up for us (and we were using all available connection to keep her on skype!):

NCVO

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Paul Henderson even streamed a bit of the Beth’s presentation with Qik!  You can watch the video here.

Some terrific sessions were taking place at the same time as ours, including Dave Briggs conducting the social media game, and Andy Gibson exploring how to make better use of your most valuable information asset: people.

To start the day, Euan Semple brought all participants up to speed on social media and information sharing online, and shared some great insights with the group.  Here are some of my favorite points from Euan’s talk:

  • “Tidying up the noise means you lose the quiet voices.” - When organizations think about ‘cleaning up’ their information, whether it is internal, external or a mix, they risk ‘cleaning out’ the quiet voices that could be really valuable but aren’t necessarily heard enough to stay after the cleaning.
  • “Breathe life into information by allowing people to point to it.” - Wherever your information is (if it is in a wiki, a server, a shared drive, Google Docs, or elsewhere on the web), let your staff or even the public point to it, link to it, quote it and more.  Making your information available at least to your staff to reference easily means it will actually be used!  Not end up in an “information coffin.”
  • “You have to get your hands dirty with this stuff if you want to deal with it, even if you don’t like it.” - There is no way to really understand social media tools and the ways they could be applied to your organization’s work without diving in and trying them out yourself.  This is true even for staff or executives who wouldn’t be directly responsible for ongoing social media management for the organization.  You can’t make an informed decision on use or strategy without having some dirt on your hands!
  • “All that you have had up to now is the pretense of control; these tools give you influence.” - The most common fear about using social media tools is that the organization will lose control over their message, their ‘identity’ and more.  The truth is, organizations don’t have control over it now!  People are already talking about your sector, your services, your work or your organization and not engaging with them online means you are a part of the conversation at all.  Those conversations, criticisms, ideas, and passions are what is forming your message and brand.  You might as well be a part of it!  Social media tools don’t mean you get to have control, but they do give you influence over the direction of the message and the conversation.
  • “Obama focuses on positives when faced with someone who disagrees with him and that’s the same thing to do in forums,” etc. - This is a great lesson to keep in mind for organizations with forums, comments on blogs, or other feedback mechanisms.  There is always something positive in common that you can focus on to keep things moving forward!

NCVO’s Information Conference may have only been one short day, but the conversations that were started there will certainly keep going.

Were you there?  What was the biggest question you didn’t have a chance to ask?

Net2 Think Tank: Lessons from the Campaign

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Amy Sample Ward
on November 24, 2008
in net2thinktank
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Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

Earlier this month, the world watched as America elected a new president who came from a campaign rich with social media.  The campaigns had much more money and resources than all the nonprofit organizations that I know, but were really succeeding with free, or nearly-free, tools.  The question this month focused on lessons for nonprofits:

What was the best example or lesson learned about leveraging social media from the political campaigns this year?  We saw candidates speaking to citizens through various mechanisms, but we also know that candidates have a lot more money than most of our nonprofit organizations (even if the tools are free, staffing and strategy development isn’t).  What social media tools, tricks, and strategies were employed that could be used successfully with nonprofits?

Answers poured in from all over the web.  Here’s what Net2ThinkTank responders thought were some of the best ideas for nonprofits:

Holly Ross, at NTEN, explained Obama’s success with leveraging the under 30 voters thanks to talking to them in the communication styles they prefer - social media:

In this election, Obama rode a tidal wave of youth vote to the presidency, with 66% of voters under 30 casting their ballot for the Democrat. What the campaign realized, early and often, is that the under-thirty crowd communicates differently from the rest of us.  As Allison Fine writes in Momentum, this group is “… likely to engage in two-way conversation with staff, volunteers, and clients, rather than in one-way broadcasts, the style of communication most often used by organizations now.”

Joitske Hulsebosch, of Lasagna and Chips, reminds us that “you have to go out and be where your people are online,” but has a good reminder for us that it is more than just good tools that make campaigns and projects great:

Social media can help and support you when you have a strong service or product, but can also amplify weak services or product. At times I have the impression that is forgotten and that people think a web2.0 tool will automatically give you a good reputation. Take the example of a weblog: a weblog can also worsen your reputation because your work and ideas will be exposed.

Tim Brauhn explains that it wasn’t until the Obama campaign that his organization, and others, was able to really see the benefit of social media.  He also points out a simple lesson that, “It was always a very simply ask, “Please help us do good things. Donate $5 before midnight.” It worked, and it worked like a charm, too.”

Brian Reich, of Thinking About Media, says that the best lesson is yet to come:

I was personally disappointed that the Obama campaign didn’t do more with its big database, its command of social media and new technologies, and its giant war-chest to dig deeper into serious issues and give voters - struggling to find some little bit of serious discussion amid all the mud-slinging - the real facts they needed to make a choice in this election.  They basically ran a substance-light, play-it-safe, don’t-make-any-mistakes kind of campaign.

The MixedMedia blog picked up on the DIY message of the Obama campaign.

I have a hunch that more people made more use of Barack Obama’s imagery - and made it their own - that at any time in history. At the same time, more people independently produced more images, videos, songs, raps, apps and sites to promote Barack Obama’s candidacy *in their own voice* than at any other time.I think this is powerful - politically, socially, and culturally.

Shari Ilsen, of Great Nonprofits, points to Obama’s innovative uses of social media as the biggest lesson for nonprofits.

He took technology that had been around for a while and used it in a new way. He applied web 2.0 to a realm that had never met it before, and in so doing he changed the face of modern politics. What’s scary about what Obama did is the risk he took- putting large amounts of resources into an untried strategy. But his success reminds us all that anything new, exciting, and ultimately worth it requires risk.

I want to close this with a challenge from Brian Reich and hope that you will weigh in with your answers and ideas!

So, NetSquared, rather than looking back at the Election for lessons that nonprofits can use, I would challenge you to look ahead and help the Obama Administration brainstorm what is possible for using technology and the internet to improve our Democracy and bring nonprofits more directly in contact with the Administration as they start to tackle tough issues.

Share your ideas and responses on the NetSquared blog here.

Social Innovation Camp announces projects

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Amy Sample Ward
on November 21, 2008
in challenge and community
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Social Innovation Camp just announced the projects who will attend the SICamp weekend 5 - 7 December to build on and out to turn their ideas into working projects.  115 ideas were submitted and the top choices include:

Going Postal

A tool to help people take control of junk mail: Going Postal aims both to stop junk reaching your letter box, as well as offering companies alternative ways to get their advertising out - which is good news for the trees that are used to produce the 550,000 tonnes of paper wasted on unsolicited mail in the UK each year.

Useful Visitors

What if travelers brought more than cash to the countries they visited? You could harness the skills, talent and knowledge of those visiting other countries - whether they’re on business, visiting relatives or simply tourists. Via the web, universities could find visiting professors, hospitals could find visiting nurses, feeding centres could meet five star chefs and Joe the plumber can fix the drains in an orphanage. It’s a new approach both to international volunteering, as well as tackling the brain drain many countries are suffering as they loose talent and skills to migration.

AccessCity

The rush hour’s bad enough for those who have only a bag and umbrella to carry around. But how do you negotiate a city’s transport system when you’re not able to keep up with the commuter scrum? AccessCity aims to develop a site to enable a user-generated view of London (in the first instance, but with the ability to be rolled out nationally and beyond) from an accessibility perspective: helping those who are less able to get around - due to physical disabilities or impairments, or if they need to take children with them - and highlighting what needs to be improved to make simple journeys less of a hassle.

Visualising Community Need

There’s been increasing emphasis on how you give users themselves greater control over the social care they receive in recent years - it’s a huge social and political issue. Visualising Community Need is a project to help people map their own care requirements and use this information to get care providers to better understand the needs of those they are supposed to be serving - turning the system of social care on its head.

Good Gym

People all over Britain run, jog and lift weights. The Good Gym aims to make it easy for people to channel this energy toward social good. The idea is to get fitness fanatics to incorporate visits to isolated older people or the delivery of useful items to dependent individuals into their exercise routines.

Vegsy

Etsy, but for vegetables. This idea uses an online market place to bring together people who grow food in their home, allotment, small holding or farm with people who want to buy locally produced, natural, wholesome foods - just like Etsy has done with handmade craft goods. So there’s less air miles in our food and we know exactly what we’re eating and where it’s coming from.

But there is even more! The judges couldn’t decide between four more ideas so you can help decide!  The voting ends at midnight Sunday night, so check them out and vote now!

Learn more about Social Innovation Camp and the weekend ‘conference’ on 5 - 7 December here.

What do you think about the ideas selected?  Do you have ways to help?

Interview: Chris Spavin on Global Entrepreneurship Week

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Amy Sample Ward
on November 21, 2008
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Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

It’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, so I have the inside scoop from Chris Spavin, a member of the Make Your Mark team working with partners to deliver GEW, catalyze events overseas, and assist the campaign’s development abroad.  Chris believes, “there is so much untapped potential in people and sometimes all we need is a simple catalyst.”  Learn more about the work below in Chris’ own words and find out how you can get involved!

What’s Global Entrepreneurship Week all about?

Global Entrepreneurship Week is a campaign to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs, and to unleash ideas that will address some of society’s biggest issues.  The point is we need entrepreneurs and we need more of them, now more than ever.  Organizations in over 75 countries are supporting this cause by ‘hosting’ their own national version of the campaign.

How is Make Your Mark contributing?

Make Your Mark is a co-founder of Global Entrepreneurship Week, along with a US-based organization called the Kauffman Foundation.  We are both responsible for coordinating the global campaign, and offering support and guidance to our partners around the world.  The campaign model is based on Make Your Mark’s Enterprise Week in the UK, which will be running for the fifth time this year as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week.  We’ve got great experience running this type of campaign—there are over 6,000 events during the week in the UK alone this year—and we’re sharing it.

How can people get involved in GEW?

One of our main aims of this campaign is to mainstream entrepreneurship so there’s something that everyone can do to get involved.  Individuals can register on our website and our forum.  Organizations can run their own events, either for the public or for their staff, to inspire more entrepreneurial, or innovative, behaviour.  Educators can get their students involved in competitions, including the Make Your Mark Challenge if you’re a school in the UK, or something like Stanford’s Global Innovation Tournament if you’re in a university.  You can attend a Speednetwork the Globe event if you want to meet like-minded people in person, or you can meet them via our online community.  If you’re involved in the media, you can write about Global Entrepreneurship Week to help us raise our profile.  All of our competitions and events are available on our website, and there really is stuff happening everywhere.

Is this going to keep going beyond the end of the week?

Absolutely.  This has been the very first Global Entrepreneurship Week and it’s going to run year-on-year.  We’ve been doing it for five years in the UK but the vast majority of other countries are running this campaign for the first time.  They are tremendously excited to build on their initial success this year, and to make an even bigger bang in 2009.  We can’t wait to see how things grow.

What are some of the ideas you’ve heard about this week that inspire you?

There are a few of them that stick out in my mind.  Amy Carter-James is a young British woman who set up her own lodge in Northern Mozambique that is both a high-end hotel and social enterprise that ploughs its profits back into the local community.  I think it’s going to have a massive impact on Mozambique and the idea itself is quite simple.  I also met an entrepreneur called Shed Simove who comes up with new novelty gift ideas - the kind of crude and hilarious things you find at Urban Outfitters.  Although both of these entrepreneurs are on opposite sides of the social benefit spectrum (Shed may disagree with me about that!), they are people who have taken simple, fun ideas from out of their minds and turned them into profitable businesses.  I find that the simplest business ideas are often the most inspirational because they really demonstrate that: “hey, I could do this, too”.

If you could be anywhere in the world for GEW, where would you want to be?

Aaaah, this is a difficult question!  And it’s actually one of the first questions I asked myself and a few colleagues at the beginning of the week.  I have to pick three.  The Brazilian campaign is really impressive: they’ve got lots of amazing things going on and even managed to get a commercial featuring Michael Dell on national TV.  Plus it’s nice and warm there—or at least I imagine it to be!  The campaign in Kenya is also exciting: they had a big football/music event in Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi.  Finally, Malta joined the campaign only very recently but have managed to pull lots of stuff together; the team there is so enthusiastic and pro-active.  I would spend my time between the three places  :-)

What, in your opinion, is the most important reason to get involved in GEW?

I believe that everyone on this planet realizes why entrepreneurship is important, even if it’s not right for them.  Not everyone can be an entrepreneur, or wants to be (it’s not easy!), but I think every young person, no matter where they’re from, should be encouraged to at least consider it for themselves, and have access to the necessary support should they decide to take the plunge.  There is so much untapped potential in people and sometimes all we need is a simple catalyst - could be meeting a person, or an inspirational story on the net - to take the next step and start turning our ideas into reality.  Entrepreneurs - whether self-employed or currently employed by somebody else - are the people who will come up with the new ideas and create the new businesses that will lead us into a more prosperous time.

How you can get involved:

Great reads from November 20th

Published
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Amy Sample Ward
on November 20, 2008
in roundup
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These are some links I wanted to share from November 20th. Find me on Delicious for more!

BullyingUK wins Innovation Award

Published
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Amy Sample Ward
on November 20, 2008
in interview and webtools
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Earlier this month, I posted an interview with John Carnell of BullyingUK.  John mentioned in that interview the current Click, Create and Print area of the BullyingUK website, letting teachers and students, parents and children create their own anti-bullying posters.

What was the order or progression of social media adoption at BullyingUK?
As I said before, social media has been a part of our work since before “social media” was a buzzword.  As the founder and CEO it’s my job to identify technologies and services years in advance of becoming mainstream. I then look at how that technology can be used to further our Anti-bullying work: Click, Create and Print is a perfect example using technology that so far no other charity or business has thought of combing the way we have.

Click, Create and Print is an online poster creater that allows schools to build and print their own posters (saving schools £34,000 so far).  Each poster then has a special barcode that allows a child to snap the code with their mobile phone to download a copy of the poster which they can then share with friends via bluetooth or mms or upload back to the web—creating a perfect circle!

I think this is the first time anyone has created a project that fills in the digital divide in such a unique way—it really is a whole new spin on a very old issue.

John wasn’t the only one to think that BullyingUK was onto something innovative and unique.  The Click, Create and Print project won BullyingUK a TalkTalk Innovation Award!

The website  www.bullying.co.uk/poster   allows any young person to make their own anti-bullying poster. On each poster are two special codes. When snapped with a mobile phone camera they allow the user to access a digital copy of the poster that can then be shared with other young people via MMS or Bluetooth. A second code allows access to the charity’s mobile advice site www.bullying.co.uk .

The project was funded with donations from the family and friends of Ben Vodden, the 11-year-old Sussex schoolboy who killed himself after bullying on the school bus in 2006. So far, more than 10,000 unique posters with a tribute to Ben have been created by schools all over the UK.

John Carnell, founder and CEO  of Harrogate-based Bullying UK said: “We are proud to be recognised by TalkTalk as one of the UK’s most innovative charities. Eighteen months ago we identified QR codes as being key to the uptake of the mobile web and the filling in of another bit of the digital divide. Even if people are in a rush they can snap the code from the poster with their phone and get immediate help from our mobile website.”

Congrats to John and the rest of the team at BullingUK!  Keep up the meaningful and successful work!

Net Tuesday London: December is a Social Media Exchange!

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Amy Sample Ward
on November 20, 2008
in events
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Join us for Net Tuesday London, this month: Social Media Exchange!

Details:

  • Tuesday, 2 December
  • 5:30 pm doors open, 6 pm event starts
  • Charity Technology Trust, 1 London Bridge
  • Topic: Social Media Exchange
  • RSVP: Net Tuesday London group

* How it works:

  • The room has designated topic areas throughout, marked by labels on the wall (including: blogs/micro-blogging; photos/videos; voting/contests/edemocracy; tagging/information sharing; social networks/lists/communities)
  • Everyone is given a game board of sorts to fill in while filtering throughout the room
  • When in a designated topic area, talk with others about 1. a project you/your organization has done in that area 2. success stories or unsuccess stories & lessons learned 4. questions you have for working in that area 5. how to evaluate success

* What you’ll get from participating:

  • examples of social media in use
  • ideas and contacts
  • opportunity to share your story, lessons, and ideas
  • have fun!

We’ll also have a time at the end, as a big happy family, to discuss some of the best stories or lessons learned that came up in the exchange to make sure we all have a chance to hear it and can create a list of brilliant tid bits for the group to refer to.

Join the Net Tuesday London group to connect with others, see photos and notes from the last meeting, and more.

You can learn more about Net Tuesdays and see if there is one in your city on the NetSquared website. (Don’t see one in your area?  Let me know if you’d like to start one!)

USAID Development 2.0 Challenge: Extended Deadline Dec. 5th!

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Amy Sample Ward
on November 19, 2008
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If you have an idea for mobile technologies for good and you haven’t submitted to the USAID Development 2.0 Challenge project gallery yet, it’s your lucky day!

The Challenge submission deadline is extended to December 5th!

To participate in the USAID Development Challenge please Register and Login and submit your idea. To view, comment on or star a project, visit the USAID Project Gallery.

About the Challenge

Mobile technology, including everything from inventive applications for smart phones to simple text messaging, is increasingly ubiquitous in the developing world. USAID challenges you to explore its potential through an innovation for maximum development impact in areas such as health, banking, education, agricultural trade, or other pressing development issues.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Government agency that delivers economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide on behalf of the American people, is sponsoring a challenge to find the best in mobile innovations for good. Through a NetSquared community vote, fifteen finalists will be chosen. A panel of judges, selected by USAID, will then select the winners. The first place winner will receive a grant of $10,000, the two runner-ups will receive grants of $5,000 each. All three winners will have the opportunity to present their ideas to senior USAID officials, experts, and the public in Washington D.C.

How It Works

Individuals and organizations working with mobile technologies to create change are invited to share their projects with the community through the USAID Development 2.0 Challenge submission form. Once you’ve hit submit for your challenge, it’s public. This provides you with an opportunity to get feedback from your community, the USAID community, the NetSquared community and other friendly collaborators.

Once the project submission process has closed, we will hold a community vote to select the top fifteen projects. Those projects will then go in front of a panel of USAID-selected judges who will determine the three winners.

Four Easy Steps to Participate:

  • Register and/or Login
  • Click on Username
  • Click on “Submit a Project to the Project Gallery” under My Project Idea
  • Select “USAID” from the Prize Tag menu located below Additional Cause Area Tags on the Submission Form

Learn more about the Challenge and enter your idea here.

Global Entrepreneurship Week: Women’s Enterprise Day

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on November 19, 2008
in community and events
. 1 Comment

As part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, I participated in Chain Reaction all day Monday and Tuesday.  Today, is Women’s Enterprise Day!

“All over the UK, organisations will be using the focus of this day to run their own events and activities. Check out the Ideas Bank for some tips and stories to help you plan a successful Women’s Enterprise Day. Search using ‘women’s enterprise’ to bring up lots of activity suggestions.”

But, my world, and I think yours, is wider than just the UK.  In honor of today, I’d like to shine a bit of spotlight on The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre and the Blogs for African Women.

The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre works to encourage Nigerian girls and women to learn about and use technology as a means of empowering themselves socially and economically. W.TEC, is a Nigerian non-governmental organization working to encourage Nigerian girls and women to learn how to use technology as a means of empowering themselves socially and economically.

This is done through projects which build technology skills among women, as well as other technology literacy workshops. W.TEC will also research and publish works examining pivotal issues related to how African women use technology, barriers preventing or limiting technology use, and strategies for more efficient technology use.

“Blogs for African Women (BAWo)” Mentoring Project was created by Ore Somolu and Sokari Ekine as a way of encouraging and supporting Africans who want to start blogging. Initially there will be a pilot project limited to Nigerian women.

I encourage you to check out the W.TEC and BAWo - get involved if you can.  It feels great to share your experiences across the cubicle; just think what sharing around the world feels like!

Learn more about Women’s Enterprise Day here.

Successful Campaigns: Ideas from Chain Reaction

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on November 18, 2008
in events and liveblogging
. 6 Comments

I wanted to share with you some of the awesome advice that came out of the Campaigning for Social Change session today at Chain Reaction 2008.  Jonathan Ellis, Director of Policy at the Refugee Council, shared what he has experienced as the key attributes of a successful campaign for social change.

1. Make a positive connection: we often make a connection with people but the message depresses them.  Successful campaigns get people activated and energized.  The way to do that is to create a message that clearly defines the problem AND solution.

2. The elevator test: 15 seconds [in an elevator] to pitch your issue/campaign to the leader, politician, funder or whomever.  Using that message from number 1 above, the problem and solution needs to be able to be articulated in just 15 seconds.  (Yes, your campaign and issues needs more than 15 seconds, we know.  The elevator test is the core of the message.)

3. Work out who has the power: Who are you directing the campaign at?  How really has the power to realise the change you seek?  Campaigns are often launched at the wrong audience.  They have a great message, a great plan, a worthy cause - but are talking to the wrong people.  Is the president really the one to convince?

4. Use the right campaign tools:  It’s like being a general on the eve of battle and looking at all the troops before you: Research, lobbying, media, supporters, allies, etc.  Not every one needs to be used all the time.  But the right groups at the right times in the right ways.  Keep in mind that alliances and partnerships aren’t bad, especially when they are unconventional.  For example, Oxfam working with workers’ unions for the campaign around asylum seekers.

5. Plan for success:  What happens if/when you succeed?  Plan to be successful and plan where you are going once you get there (because you aren’t finished!).

6. Never stop campaigning: Things can be fickle!  Say you get a law passed that provides allotment of funds for the community services you campaigned for.  Then, two years later, those funds are reallocated.  Where are you?  Where is your campaign?  Are you still working, still activating your members, still participating in the arena in an influential way?

7. Your choice of message:  Campaign messages that are successful are those that motivate the audience with power, not the organizers.  Often, when we are building a campaign, it’s easy to identify what motivates us and what calls us to action, but that’s not necessarily the best motivating message for the audience you are reaching out to.  For example, a campaign about empty property that is directed at home owners with a message that compares the numbers of homeless people and the empty properties isn’t as effective as one that talks about the fact that empty housing devalues surrounding homes.

8. Enthusiasm:  it’s self-explanatory but often more difficult than you’d think.  I’m sure you can think of a time when you’ve talked to a campaigner who just doesn’t have his or her heart in it.  It makes a big difference if you’re enthusiastic, both about the campaign and the issue, or not.

9. Enjoy your campaign:  again, it’s self-explanatory but often overlooked.  Be passionate and enjoy it.

Lastly, be sure to include at the center of your campaign those who are/will be effected.  No one else can tell the story of a homeless person living on the street and dealing with health issues than someone who is.  No one can talk about the issues in public schools as well as those who are in them every day.  Give those you want to help the microphone, the spotlight, and let them tell their own story.

What are the key attributes to successful campaigns you’ve been a part of?  Has your organization used any of the above points?