Web 2.0

Beth K hooks up live with Laura

Overview:

With the growth of social media, organisations now have power to share information, express and influence opinion, collaborate, facilitate action, create new communities, fundraise and drive membership.

This workshop will offer a presentation and a game that Circuit Riders can then use themselves to help organisations understand and plan their use of Web 2.0. A mini site has been set up to support what we aim to deliver on the day with materials, activities and links for Circuit Riders and other nonprofit technology advisors to be able to take away and use when supporting their local organisations with their needs. You can keep up to date, or contribute over on the new mini site at www.open2media.org

Session Facilitators:

Laura Whitehead (Laura's Notebook)
David Wilcox (Designing for Civil Society)
Nick Booth (Podnosh)

Biographies:

David Wilcox specialises in helping organisations and groups collaborate using a mix of creative events and social media. At the conference there will be an opportunity to try one of the workshop games he and colleague Drew Mackie have developed. These were first used in the early development of what became UK online centres, and more recently in the Digital Challenge programme and by Government departments planning how to use social media for public engagement. David has also worked as a Fleet Street journalist, and a consultant in regeneration partnerships and community engagement. He blogs at http://www.designingforcivilsociety.org

Laura Whitehead is a creative web and print designer specialising in the use of new and innovative technologies to further the development of effective communications for the non-profit sector. She is passionate about participation, inclusion and accessibility for all. Working in the sector for over 15 years, Laura has also supported a wide range of organisations and communities with their knowledge and information development, and their collaborative partnership working. Laura blogs her insights and discoveries with modern fangled media at http://laura.popokatea.co.uk

Nick Booth is a broadcast journalist by training who now specialises in online media, leadership and communities. He regards IT as a tool for telling stories, connecting people and encouraging conversation. In 2005 he set up the Grassroots Channel Podcast to tell the stories of active citizens in Birmingham. It's still going strong with more than 10,000 programmes downloaded each month.
Before becoming freelance Nick was Director of the strategic watchdog Birmingham City Pride and before that deputy editor of current affairs for the BBC in the West Midlands. Nick is a member of the ICT Foresight team, sits on the advisory board of the NCVO, is a trustee of the Birmingham Conservation Trust, a school governor and a Fellow of the RSA.

Session Notes:

What is web 2.0? Web 2.0 is about using the web to collaborate, share and network information freely between people. This differs from web 1.0 in which web sites were static and information was not shared and there was little or no collaboration between people. Because web 2.0 enables collaboration and networking between people – membership organisations are having to redefine themselves – who are now flocking to causes not organisations. Being a successful voluntary sector organisation now means having to communicate:
  • your vision
  • your values
  • and what do you believe in
What about getting naked with that goldfish? Being naked in a goldfish bowl refers to having the confidence to surrender control of your message and let your supporters tell the story for you. So doing this means exposing yourself and your values to scrutiny in the goldfish bowl of public opinion. Contrast this with organisations that go to great lengths to control their message and the public perception of themselves What tools are people using and why?
  • wikis to keep documentation updated and accessible
  • using Google Docs to share documents, bringing together like-minded parents child’s school to campaign against academy schools. Worried that social media carries risk of giving away their plans away to authorities.
Nick says: have confidence in your campaign. Your cause is stronger for collaboration and sharing. It’s also likely that a small group of community activists will be smarter and quicker to adapt than local authorities, etc.
  • creating an online network space for information workers. Interest is in finding out what people use rather than providing another space for them.
Nick says: The principle is to relax and be clear about your leadership and direction if you do decide to provide a space for them to network in.
  • Using Facebook to recruit IT volunteers. Has found it helpful to use Facebook as channel for pointing users towards their main website.
  • One rural organisation is looking at distributed networks as a solution for rural communities who are often geographically dispersed. Made a decision to be completely open, and the sharing of information has been far more valuable than if they’d tried to control the agenda.
  • Open Innovation Exchange bid to Cab Office – bid was written collaboratively in the spirit of an open source project. Free and open for anyone interested to join in – about 90 different collaborators. Used Basecamp to project manage the process.
  • Open Innovation could be a model for how grass-roots issues are debated in local communities before going to the Welsh Assembly.
  • Looking at blogs and then podcasts for visually impaired people to tell their stories.
Barriers to adoption of social media: Social media seems to fit well with the most articulate and campaigning voluntary sector organsations – these organisations often have the resource and time to experiment with social media – like Youtube and Podcasting.
  • smaller organisations are too busy or scared to use social media.
  • Web 2.0 tools could also be excluding those not familiar with social media or without access to the web.
  • We need to change VCO mindset from competitive to collaborative – and this is harder than getting people to use the technology.
  • See the Change the world blog, which looked at barriers to web 2.0 adoption, and concluded it was more attitude than technology.
Video link up with prolific blogger and social networker, Beth Kanter. How will new attitudes affect membership orgs? Do we need them if people can give direct? People are now flocking to causes – it’s about how people define themselves and their interests. Q. Interested in groups using social media for fund-raising, particularly raising money for her primary passion and cause – Cambodian children. (Beth has adopted 2 Cambodian children.) Beth: It was the culmination of community effort. Challenge was to get most donors signed up and dollars for a campaign to support disadvantaged children in Cambodia:–
  • raised $93,000 in 2 months 1,800 donations from all over the world won a competition bonus donation of $50,000.
The campaign gained new names for its mailing list, new donors, higher profile, magazine articles. Board of trustees was very resistant – now receptive to power of social media. It worked for Beth because:
  • Leveraged her professional network to raise funds for a personal cause.
  • Told the story of how giving to the campaign changed lives in Cambodia
  • Shared her experience of the fund-raising challenge
  • Thanked donors in unique and individualised ways
  • Keep the ‘ladder of engagement’ in mind – the last thing you do is hit people up for cash. Start by sucking them in with a good story and examples of how donating can help change lives.
Q. Do you have any other examples of using social media tools? Beth: Humane Society of the US – has done some great work with its Facebook group and won some $$ from Microsoft in a challenge to attract the most new users to Facebook.
"When Windows Live Messenger’s “i’m Making a Difference” challenge was first announced, Microsoft said it would award a dollar for every member to the winning non-profit organization (the maximum donation sum being $50,000). The group’s member numbers surged quickly - there are 62,795 members at the time of this newspost - allowing the software giant to make the full donation. After grabbing the most votes, the Humane Society of the United States is receiving the $50,000 donation from Windows Live on behalf of the Facebook group and its members." See here.
Q. Any negative experiences of social networking? Beth: Good question. Was worried because the Board did have issues with external people promoting their organisation and its cause. Start with small experiments and be prepared to let go. Did worry about asking professional contacts to contribute to a personal cause. Now feel comfortable about ‘opening the kimono’ and being naked when it comes to trying new social media and sharing the experience. Conclusions: Nick: Beth was here last year talking about another fund-raising competition she won – since then she’s expanded her network. Rewards of experimentation and open innovation are now coming to her. David: Challenge is that orgs need to overcome traditional committee rules. See the Parliament protest from Wednesday. It’s everyday technology we can all access. Paul H: If your stuff is good you won’t have to worry about loosing control because people will flock to your cause. It's about:
  • using right tools for the right job and experimenting.
  • attitudes between people
  • focus on what you need and why.
  • telling the stories and reaching out to new audiences. Hardest orgs to teach have been traditional VCOs who aren’t ready to let go and make new friends.

Also see thoughts on the session from Beth Kanter