Tag Archive for 'wearemedia'

We Are Media Project: Reflections at 6 weeks

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Amy Sample Ward
on August 6, 2008
in case studies and wiki
. 0 Comments

The We Are Media Project just hit the 6-week mark! There has been a lot of activity, contributions, collaboration and learning taking place on the project wiki. I just posted to the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog with some reflections at the 6 week mark.

I think this has been a great experiment in eating our own dog food: the people who advocate for the use of social media, having to come together and work via social media.  Part of my post includes the three areas that I think are most crucial in achieving success of a project like this.

Some of the the hardest parts of the project so far for the organizer (Beth), from my perspective, include:

  • Managing participation of topic-related experts as the list of participants grows over time (and perhaps after the most applicable topic for him or her passes):  As more attention is given to the project across the blogosphere and elsewhere, more people who want to contribute sign on to the wiki.  It’s great to get more people involved, but it can be difficult for an organizer to be managing so many different areas of interest and expertise once the project modules are underway.
  • Maintaining a natural flow or progression of topics within the wiki:  Working wikily can sometimes mean that too many side conversations and tangents turn into stranded pages or that pages get started for a topic that seems important but folks lose track of it.  Maintaining an orderly flow of information has really kept this project wiki to a manageable and navigable resource.
  • Making it easy for very busy people to contribute beneficial information and knowledge efficiently: If you create it, they won’t necessarily come. Or, if they do, they may not hang out long and contribute. People, even if they are the ‘experts’ in the topic, are busy. A very effective approach is to send an email or Twitter message (or any other tool you are using to ping the participants) that asks a specific question and links to the exact area where you want the information entered. Basically, think of ways to make it hard for your participants to NOT contribute!

What do you think?  Check out the full post on the SSIR blog and share your thoughts on projects you have participated in that required remote collaboration in a wiki, or other examples of eating your own dog food!

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?

WeAreMedia Project - It’s week 3!

Published
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Amy Sample Ward
on July 15, 2008
in issues, socialmedia and wiki
. 0 Comments

Have you checked out the WeAreMedia Project from Beth Kanter and NTEN yet? I am really enjoying this great collaborative project and experiment in working wikily.

Week 1:  Why Should Your Nonprofit Embrace Social Media?  (or not?)

Learn about basic social media concepts and principles, as well as the situations in which social media would or would not help your organization.  Here is a great presentation that introduces social media.

Week 2:  Thinking Strategically About Social Media

Learn about the key ingredients you should use for putting together a great social media strategy, how social media strategy relates to your organization’s other internet and communications strategies, and more!  You can even check out the example group exercise I contributed for creating a social media strategy!

Week 3:  The Social Media Ready Nonprofit: Dealing with Resistance

Learn about the signs of resistence in an organization, how to get organizational buy-in for social media strategies, and which policies are useful for dealing with social media in an organization.  Week 3 collaboration and contribution is happening now - join in or learn more!

What have been some of the hardest obstacles to over come in getting buy-in for social media at your organization?  Were the main evangelist, or did you have partners?

Be The Media: Working in a networked way

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on July 1, 2008
in community
. 1 Comment

NTEN and Beth Kanter are igniting a great collaboration between nonprofit technology social media folks, called Be the Media. This experiment in working in a networked way is a terrific example of social media in and of itself!

Some terrific folks are signing on to collaborate and share their knowledge of social media tools, strategies, and success stories. (You can see the list of participants here.)

Be The Media is based on the beliefs that:

  • With the advent of Web 2.0, more and more nonprofits understand the opportunity of using social media strategies and tools to realize outcomes.
  • Nonprofits that want to integrate social media strategies and tool need practical skills, advice, examples, and methods that will improve their effectiveness.
  • There are many excellent existing social media guides, articles, resources, checklists, and training materials in the nonprofit sector and beyond. Building the curriculum in a networked way on a wiki and offering it through a creative commons license will allow nonprofit practitioners to share ideas and avoid duplication.

Be The Media will:

  • Pull together a wide variety of individuals who will collectively help contribute ideas and pointers to content that is meaningful to the nonprofit leaders and staffers who are charged with integrating social media into their communications strategy
  • Provide a hub for the vetted resources, connections, and conversation on this topic.
  • Provide access to resources such as articles, tips, checklists, presentations, case studies, and individuals offered by people in the network.

I’m really excited to be part of this process! What I am most excited about is to see the way the organizing/participating/leading network grows and changes the content and the way the following/learning network grows and changes the project’s goals and deliverables.  By this I mean to say that I predict those following the project as ’students’ or listeners, etc., have quite the potential to shift where the project goes based on voicing opinions, questions, and needs.  Those participating as leaders/experts will have a responsibility to listen to those voices and steer this experiment in the appropriate direction.

I think it will be a great opportunity for all of those involved to learn a lot about the power of networks as well as the topic areas/individual tools/etc.  You can check out the Be The Media project here.

What questions do you have about social media that you hope to learn more about and want the Be The Media project to address?