Tag Archive for 'community'

Net Tuesdays arrive in London!

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on October 16, 2008
in events
. 0 Comments

I’m thrilled to announce that the London Net Tuesday is officially here! The community in London and around the UK is ready for a solid, monthly event that brings together social changemakers (whether a nonprofit organization in the traditional sense, a group of interested citizens, social venture capitalists or an individual with an idea) and technological forerunners together to mix, swap stories and ideas, build new relationships, and collaborate on new projects.

Join the fun!

Details for the first event:

  • Date: 4 November, 2008
  • Time: 5:30-7:30 pm
  • Topic: Head-to-head Blogging (see below)
  • Location: CTT, 1 London Bridge
  • Provided: Snacks and coffee/tea
  • Bring: Your brain, your energy, your business cards
  • RSVP: London NetSquared Group

The 4 Nov. event topic is blogging. But not just some folks talking about blogging who already use it, or only want to talk about their own blog. This is going to be a bit more fun: we will have a select group ‘representing’ their preferred blogging platform go head-to-head over the capabilities, functionality, and general goodness of their chosen platform. This way we can hear the ins and outs of platforms in a way we may not usually experience. This discussion will be followed by a conversation with questions and answers about the various ways nonprofit organizations can introduce and utilize blogs to connect with communities.

We hope to kick these monthly events off right with a great group of people, some lively presentations/conversation, and lots of networking - come join us on the 4th!

What is Net Tuesday?

Every month, social changemakers and Web innovators come together at Net Tuesday events to mix, swap stories and ideas, build new relationships, and reinforce the online NetSquared community. Net Tuesdays take place in 22 cities around the world with more cities joining in every month. Find out more and check out other Net Tuesdays here.

Join in!

Here are some simple steps to participating in London Net Tuesday:

  1. Join the Meetup.com group for free, to stay up to date, network with other participants, and more!
  2. Mark 4 Nov on your calendar for our first event!
  3. Spread the word and invite your friends and colleagues along!

I’m so excited to be part of the London Net Tuesday and think it is really going to be something special. Nonprofits and social changemakers, see you on the 4th!

Tu Diabetes Fundraises with YouTube, do you?

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on September 11, 2008
in case studies and fundraising
. 3 Comments

Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

I recently wrote about Tu Diabetes’ use of Twitter and the strategies the online community has employed to find and engage with new people. Today, I want to take a look at another social media tool Tu Diabetes is using successfully: YouTube.

YouTube is an online video tool “allowing millions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small.”

Tu Diabetes has a YouTube channel with over 60 videos and over 70 subscriptions. Manny Hernandez, community founder, explained the group’s YouTube strategies to me recently.

I asked Manny what the original idea or example was that got Tu Diabetes using YouTube for fundraising. Manny said that Tu Diabetes adopted video as a tool to communicate with members since the very beginning. Early on, before they were even a non-profit (2007) they produced weekly podcasts to summarize the highlights in the community and do a member update. (You can see an example here.) All the videos included on YouTube have previously been posted in the video section on TuDiabetes.com (or EsTuDiabetes.com, if they are in Spanish).

I think the power and success of fundraising with video is one of the most interesting aspects of Tu Diabetes’ use of YouTube. Manny said that, so far, ALL the funds raised through the members (close to $3,500) since they started the fundraising campaign have been tied to video-based-asks. We have had three videos during the campaign so far, which started in June, with each one getting more and more on target:

One of the most frequently asked questions I come across when organizations are considering using videos on organizational websites or places like YouTube is the burden of resources, costs, etc. For Tu Diabetes, the only technical resources used are Mac-based. Manny shot the first two using the built-in iSight camera on his MacBook. The most recent one was done on his wife’s Mac Pro, combining images posted by our members in the community. All videos were edited using iMovie. The most recent one had music donated by the duo Hammock (one of his favorite bands - http://hammockmusic.com).

It is important to keep in mind the goals an organization has when considering the use/adoption of social media tools, because there are just so many to choose from. One of the goals of the Diabetes Hands Foundation is to raise diabetes awareness. Based on that, you have to look at video views. The most viewed videos to date are here: the Drawing Diabetes video with close to 27,000 views, and the Word In Your Hand video with close to 2,500 views + several thousand more views through TuDiabetes and other outlets.

The other goal is to help connect people touched by diabetes (they’ve found diabetes to be a “closet” condition where people that have it barely talk about it with others). Based on this, the Spanish videos have been the most successful, resulting in proportionally many more people touched by diabetes joining the community (EsTuDiabetes.com). Manny thinks this is because there is a bigger need for Spanish content about diabetes and, specifically, content that people can understand easily.

Social media tools are ultimately about building community and making connections between the organization and new members. With YouTube, Tu Diabetes reaches out to new members. They do periodic searches for “diabetes” on YouTube and leave relevant comments to people who also share their diabetes stories on YT. It is very important that the comments be contextual and valuable. We take the opportunity to tell people about the community. Normally invitations to join result in people joining.

Besides YouTube, Tu Diabetes has used:

So, what are the future plans for Tu Diabetes’ use of YouTube? They are currently waiting on the approval of 501c3 status. Once approved, they will be able to take full advantage of the YouTube for Nonprofits program. Tu Diabetes will continue to publish video content, which they do on the YouTube channel, because they feel it is a great means to accomplish the goal of raising diabetes awareness.

What do you think about Tu Diabetes’ use of YouTube? Has your organization considered using videos on your website or on a public channel like YouTube? What goals would you want to address with the help of video?  Comment with the Net Squared community, too!

Twitter at use for Tu Diabetes community

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on September 4, 2008
in case studies and community
. 3 Comments

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:

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?

Finding the peers you didn’t know you had

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on August 11, 2008
in community
. 3 Comments

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)?

We Are Media Project: It’s week 5 already!

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on July 31, 2008
in community
. 2 Comments

If you haven’t seen any of the posts about the We Are Media Project yet, it is a great experiment in working wikily from NTEN and Beth Kanter to “build a toolkit and instructional guides about how social media strategies and tools can enable nonprofit organizations to create, compile, and distribute their stories and change the world.”

This is week 5, which focuses on: Online Community Engagement Strategy and Skills.  I weighed in today on the first two questions, including Do you really need a community? Or something else? and What questions do you need to ask to guide your online community building strategy?, and hope you’ll check it out!

Here is one of the examples I contributed today:

Sometimes the best online community for your organization’s members/network, is one that has more direct benefits for the community members, than you. I know that sounds backward at first, but let me explain…

Here’s an example: You are an organization that focuses on after school programs and alternative programs for elementary school students. You have a large base of volunteers who run the after school programs, including mentoring and homework help. Creating a place on your website that allows volunteers to talk to each other, post questions, provide answers (peer to peer learning), share ideas and success stories, and more, means the volunteers have access to a huge pool of support (which for volunteers usually means better retention) and networking.

At first, it may seem the organization doesn’t really get much from the network. But, with a network of volunteers who are engaged and supporting each other online, interested people to your programs can be more inclined to get involved, you have resources in that network like best practices and success stories to share with other organizations and can even find leaders in the group to help advise the organization on new programs or changes to existing practices.

So, what do you think?  Does your organization need an online community?  What questions do you ask yourself to help figure it out?  If you decide you do need a community, what questions do you ask to help shape its development?

Networking for Success: Beth’s turn!

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on June 23, 2008
in community and events
. 1 Comment

A couple weeks ago, I had a chance to mentor for the Networking for Success project which helps teach African women about web 2.0 tools and how they can utilize the Internet in their work.  It is a great opportunity to facilitate learning using the very tools they are learning about!

This week is Beth Kanter’s turn as mentor with the topic of Effective Networking Online.  You can check out her post and follow along during her week.

Beth is a terrific mentor for the topic and the project.  Her first post on the Networking for Success blog for this week is a great online networking primer for anyone to refer to.  I recommend you check it out and stay tuned this week as the participating women learn more and engage via the blog with their own thoughts, questions, and ideas.

Have you ever participated in a learning process which required you to utilize the very skills you were learning?

connec+ipedia public launch!

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on June 12, 2008
in wiki
. 0 Comments

connec+ipedia is public! I’m happy to announce that a project I have worked on for the last 18 months and that others have worked for even longer is now ready for your eyes and minds:

“What if there was a place where we could all exchange what we learn as we go about our daily business? What if nonprofits could see the data and information that foundations use in their due diligence process? What if organizations and people could easily determine which foundations’ interests match their project goals? What if foundations could quickly see what groups are working on an issue they are investigating? And so on…

Well, we are building such a place. A place where people and organizations can connect about subjects and places. A place called connectipedia…”

connec+ipedia is, in my opinion, an awesome new tool that will change the way many people think of wikis.

Reason #1 - The Wiki Way
It is a wiki, yes. But it is a wiki that has database capabilities and functions in a more complete definition of the wiki way. What’s the wiki way? Well, as Ward Cunningham (the man who invented wikis and who spoke at our public launch event on Tuesday) explains, what makes wikis really different is that they incorporate what isn’t yet created. You can make links to topics that don’t exist. A link to something that doesn’t exist? Yes. Exactly. A way to create a placeholder and a reminder that there is more needed here or this item is important but not fleshed out yet. By clicking on that link, you are redirected to create that page. When you incorporate database functionality into a wiki, the opportunity to further this idea is even greater.

Reason #2 - Nonlinear
I have seen many examples of wikis that try to be very linear. What do I mean by this? Well, they want to create a wiki that is very structured (traditional) and appears like a standard website, as far as navigation tabs, site map, layout, etc. connec+ipedia is nonlinear. It has content divided by People, Places and Things. But, content also exists in the intersection of these categories. So you can go to a card for after school programs, but you could also go find after school programs + Portland, OR, and so on.

Reason #3 - Community
Wikis are inherently a community of users (regardless of size). connec+ipedia takes this to a new level. It exists to connect you to information, not store the information. So, with so many links to organizations and projects, the community creates a pull for those who are linked to but not using the tool to engage, at least so far to make sure their information is correct! Many nonprofits and foundations (public and private) from around the region are already listed in connec+ipedia. It has the unique capacity for connecting topic areas with funders who support them and organizations doing the work. It is encouraging to the community grow to use the site in this way and ensure that information is correct - keeping people connected!

I invite you to check it out! connec+ipedia is free, open source tool. It runs on WagN which you can learn about here.

Creating Community: Thanks, Beth!

Published
by
amysampleward
on January 2, 2008
in community and otherblogs
. 3 Comments

Beth Kanter has honored me with her Bloggers Who Create Community Award! Thanks, Beth!

Beth said: “Amy Sample Ward is writes about nonprofits, technology, and social media. She’s based on Portland. She’s well-known in her local community of nonprofits and the one on her blog! I appreciate her thoughtful writing and community spirit!”

This award is perfect to showcase one of my 2008 resolutions: To create even more community online! It will be a fun adventure and learning experience and I hope to have all of you (and more!) along for the ride.

What are your resolutions about technology with/for/about nonprofits or nonprofit work?