This month’s Net2 Think Tank topic focused on user generated content. Have you used a campaign or a project to invite contributions? Do you have tips for successful invitations to create and share content with your organization or the community?  Have you seen community members championing your work online with their own spin?  We have a couple great responses to share this month to keep the conversation going!

Can User Generated Content Create Unique Community Opportunities?

Brigham at SocialChangeNews answers this question in one word: indubitably!

www.socialchangenews.com is the internets’ hub for news on social change that combines original user-created content (UCC) with the latest aggregated news on organizations, and individuals working to transform society.  Since this directly relates to our project, we look forward to sharing and learning as much as we can for the next few weeks.

SocialChangeNews is now live in beta, and open to being a case study in this topic themselves! You can check it out for yourself at www.socialchangenews.com

Ana at JelloBrain has a terrific post discussing the relationship between user generated content and the organizations and infastructure on which that content is posted.

When a user surfs to a website and registers for an event, donates money, becomes a member or writes a blog, this information has become digitized. Capturing this information from hundreds of ‘viral’ users without human intervention or administration (the function of a good content management system), creates an enormous added capacity in the organization.

The current status quo for non-profit organizations is typically one where the information needed to do the work of an organization is kept in a separate database from the database recording user generated online interactions. Typically when a user interacts with a website and fills out a registration form, that information is sent to the organization via email, at which point it is manually input into the organization’s main constituent database. The only tool in the entire world that can perform that transition effectively is the human being.

There are two problems with that. The first is that human beings are (and should be) more expensive than mechanization, and the second is that human beings do their best work when they are creative.

As Ana says, “The solution is of course to integrate the two databases.” You can read the full post and connect with Ana to keep the discussion going on JelloBrain here.

What do you think?

You can still answer the Net2 Think Tank question in the comments here or connect with either of the contributors above.

Be sure to watch for the Net2 Think Tank question for next month! It will be posted in early September.  (Hint: You’ll always be the first to hear about Net2 Think Tank topics by subscribing to Net2 News, the enewsletter with updates, jobs, and more!)

About Net2 Think Tank:

Net2 Think Tank is a monthly blogging event open to anyone and is a great way to participate in an exchange of ideas.  We post a question or topic to the NetSquared community and participants submit responses either on their own blogs or on the NetSquared Community Blog.  Tag your post with “net2thinktank” and email a link to us to be included. At the end of the month, the entries get pulled together in the Net2 Think Tank Round-Up. ]]> https://amysampleward.org/2008/11/11/whos-driving-the-web/ Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:48:51 +0000 http://www.amysampleward.org/?p=342 Continue readingWho’s driving the web?]]> I just posted over on the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog on People-Powered Content: It’s Driving the Web and Could Drive Your Community! Head over to the SSIR blog to read the full post and comment!

From every corner of the Web, we can see how Web sites, campaigns, news and even fundraising is shifting from organizations and corporations at the wheel to individuals taking the driver’s seat.  Is it good?  It most certainly is!

We are seeing it more and more often.  Organizations like The Nature Conservancy have created ways for supporters to contribute photos of nature via the Flickr group and the 2008 Photography contest.  Engaging long-time supporters who enjoy taking pictures and letting nature photo enthusiasts become supporters through appealing to what they are already interested in.

News organizations have wrapped their arms around the citizen-created content wave as well.  Uses of comments on news stories online are abundant.  Citizen journalism like community-based news sites and iReport are inspiring more and more citizen journalist participation every day.  Even citizen-inspried content like Spot.Us invites individuals to jump in.

The citizen-created content isn’t just for news and photos, though.  Ushahidi, a platform that enables citizens to use SMS text messages to report incidents of violence in crisis zones to be mapped online, has just released another deployment of it’s engine—this time for the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Twitter Vote Report, allowed voters to send messages via Twitter (either through SMS text messages or a web browser) with information about wait times or even fraud at polling places, to be mapped online.  Both platforms let citizens share important information with others in their specific geographic location, as well as with the world, creating a more connected and transparent process.

Even President-Elect Obama is channeling the citizen-driven voice.  On his website, Change.gov, citizens of both the US and the world are invited to share ideas, recommendations and priorities about policies and issues.  Inviting anyone to participate.

It’s clear that the citizen-powered web is here.  But, what about nonprofit organizations working hard to make a difference in the community and world at large—how do they ignite citizens and supporters?

For ways your organization can identify what your community wants to do for you, read on at SSIR!