ONLINE EVENT: Online Social Networking - Connecting with Each Other

Wow! What a day yesterday was... lots of great information, sharing, ideas, and energy around this topic...

Since many of our original questions (and so much more) were answered in the previous day's discussion, I would like to kick today off with two topics that seem to be bubbling up.

Using online social networks
1. To connect with each other (NPO/NGO/CBO community)
2. To connect with the population (target audiences of our missions).

Therefore, today I would like to suggest that we use this topic to envision what we would like to see emerge as the "killer app" (is there one ?) which includes: the technology, and the mechanisms required to foster the cultural change to spur adoption.

I'll start a seperate topic in this forum for discussions of connecting with the population.

So, what would be the thing that you would want that could be your "home page" that connected folks in your orgs with the people, orgs, and ideas, that can help propel your mission in the most productive way? Feel free to dream up parts and pieces from the Tribes, LinkedIn, Frappr's, etc.

John Lorance
CompuMentor/TechSoup

I cannot speak to the technical side of this discussion as I have been out of that loop for over 5 years; however, I have a few comments on finding and growing NPO/NGP/etc communities.

In Care2, a number of on the ground as well as virtual activists "met" via the Petition Site and a whaling group. One of these people had experience with the original GreenPeace International and wanted to start a less political, more involved Marine Awareness NPO (or NGO as is known in UK and AU).

We formed WhaleCall, Inc. using both Care2 and online chat software for virtual meetings. As a result, we are now a registered Charity, have gotten over 230 people involved in one of our Care2 groups for activism and have just launched our website to get people to join the actual NPO. Without the community features that Neal described in yesterday's sessions ~ blogs, the community share network & the Petition Site I do not feel we would be this far along in the process.

One thing Care2 lacks is chat rooms ~ and they have chosen not to implement them for a lot of good reasons, so I would like feedback from others on chat platforms that allow private, invited meetings in the virtual world.

More in another post about a HUGE untapped resource ~ the dis ABLED.

Gayle

"More in another post about a HUGE untapped resource ~ the dis ABLED."

How could one best tap this resource? Besides building a site that takes readability and such into account?

"One thing Care2 lacks is chat rooms ~ and they have chosen not to implement them for a lot of good reasons, so I would like feedback from others on chat platforms that allow private, invited meetings in the virtual world."

The 'lot of good reasons' being spamming and rude language?

Wow, lots of great conversation around this topic! I have one feature that must be there for me to be excited about an OSN: the ability to connect offline.

Most OSNs allow users to map and manage social networks, which is certainly useful. However, I think it is also easy to get caught up in the social networking online and not pay enough attention to the offline results of all of that networking. I use Facebook as my primary networking tool (I just graduated college last year), and I know I spend a lot more time checking out what my friends are up to, pruning my friends list, and looking at their photos than I do finding new people or taking positive, physical action on issues important to me.

Therefore, I think if I was to create a "killer app" I would create one that has a social network aspect but really focuses on using connections to actually do something offline.

One site that's doing this is Meet the Neighbors (http://www.meettheneighbors.org). It helps people organize their neighborhood or building, both online and off. It goes a step beyond simply mapping existing social networks and creates networks for the purpose of changing their community (or, at the very least, meeting the neighbors :) ). I've seen buildings on Meet the Neighbors that have organized to lobby for building safety features and neighborhoods that have held block parties! Neat stuff!

Though not a traditional OSN, Idealist.org (where I work) has ways for individuals and organizations can connect and really do something. Individuals can create profiles and find other users that match their interests and geography. We're working on a system that allows individuals to post and find meetings; this creates a mechanism to bring people together offline. When you add in the 50,000+ organizations listed on the site that post jobs, volunteer opportunities, events, and more, you have a recipe for creating connections that can yield amazing results in the "real world".

So, to summarize, any killer app should have an easy way to connect with others offline.

Thanks!

Dave Amos
Action Without Borders/Idealist.org

my thoughts on the vision of the "killer app":

i'm participating in the beta version of the new yahoo mail interface. it's pretty cool in that it will enable RSS feed import/export & search ... localization ...

even now there is single sign-on w/ flickr.

i like this as a way of managing pulling in blogs i want to read, hearing from people i want to hear from, and having access to my email, calendar and contact lists.

it would be cool if you could rss out your "friends" lists from places like friendster, tribe, etc....so they ended up in your "universal" contact list. then, you could email back to them in what ever interface they prefer to be contacted through (friendster, tribe, etc.) ... who hasn't sent an email to someone through one of these sites only to hear "i never check this site ... you should email me at x place" how were you supposed to know? if there was a preferance set for where email is directed so someone who needs to hear from you, hears from you in their own terms, that would rock. and shouldn't be technically impossible with the right api.

in my killer app, i have access to the information i want to get and a way to talk back easily.

already, when someone posts a response to my lj blog, i can post a reply back via a form in my email. i don't have to sign back on to lj and find the thread manually. that's cool.

anyway. these are my quick thoughts on the subject.

/ erin

hey john,

i just posted some ideas on what would make up a social networking killer app over on my half-baked blog.

i've been working on these for at least a year,
shame on me for not sharing sooner. and i've had
lots of inspiration from many friends.

i packaged the ideas in, what else...a manifesto, of course!

it's called, drum roll....

Manifesto for the Next Generation of Civic Networking
20 Ideas for Practical Revolutionaries

enjoy, and i dare y'all out there to take up the ideas:

http://theabundanceleague.blogspot.com/


--

Neal Gorenflo
Online Campaigns
Care2.com

650.622.0871 (o)
415.867.0429 (m)
866.704.8089 (f)
neal@earth.care2.com

at gorenflo:
Nice list. The vision of where you/we need to go in the future is the most important thing. Technical difficulties are overcomable, if enough people share your vision and want it to be a reality, it's inevatable that it becomes a reality.

I love a lot of the ideas that have been tossed around.

The one that resonates most with me and my experience is the ability to bridge the gap between an online only community and the offline community.

One of the BEST experiencies at Tribe was when we threw a party where everyone who helped out with DJing, performances etc. was a member of the community.

Our members also told us that some of the most gratifying experiences for them was meeting people in real life and having a connection that was beyond just the online connection.

I think that Meetup is an example of a site that does a great job of facilitating this.

Wow, so many ideas here are similar to my thoughts on a "killer app"...

My thoughts defininately align with Erin's to the degree that I would envision a personal hompage/dashboard that not only aggregates (hello RSS) content (friends blogs, info relevant to my org, etc); but also lets me "push it back" so that I could easily send messages from there as well... I'm sure both Yahoo and Google understand this as well.. I like what I've seen so far with Yahoo360(360.yahoo.com); but it still seems a bit hard to use for the average person. Also, there is this little think called privacy which I'm not sure I totally trust any of these big search giants (see: Yahoo! implicated in third cyberdissident trial

Getting non-profit to "configure" something like this to make it easy for its staff to "connect" with relevant info and others is also part of the trick... and doing it at scale..

Therefore, an "Intranet" type of solution that organizations might use anyway for other purposes which also gives staff members a personal portal might be one way to seed this idea.

I'm sure this is happening somewhere in the business world; I've just not done the homework here..

John Lorance
CompuMentor/TechSoup

Chris,

In response to your comments, having a community that meets online and offline is of great value to people. On Gather.com, we see a lot of people actively trying to organize offline activities with the people they are meeting online. We've even had members stop by our offices in Boston to rally our employees into social "gatherings". We are exploring functionality to make this easier for people to do.

In conjunction with that issue, I've been talking to more and more organizations that want to set up localized online communities that can then complement the online activities with offline activities. Public Radio stations are frantically looking for ways to keep their audience as they compete with online radio stations, satellite and other media sources to retain their listeners. And more and more advocacy groups are using online social netwroking platforms to find people they can rally for offline rallys and fund-raising efforts.

David

David Woodrow
Vice President, Groups
Gather
www.gather.com

Chris, David,

Yes! I think using social network to get people together face-to-face is where you can get the biggest improvements to quality of life.

My hunch is that this is where the Internet will have the biggest impact, where it will really come into it's own as a medium.

In a way it's like the telephone. When the telephone came in, it increased the amount of face-to-face interaction. It's a great coordinating medium. The internet is even better.

I think it will be increasingly important to business and nonprofits in this way. In the work I do, I have ad people call me sometimes and ask "how do I reach these people (LOHAS / cultural creatives)." They are scrambling to find ways to be effective marketers in a world where the traditional demos and categories are breaking down.

I just want to tell 'em, "you're wasting your time, they don't want to hear from you."

If I'm any indicator, traditional ad people are in for tough times. I haven't watch TV in ten years. I recently unplugged the my car stereo speakers. I don't subscribe to magazines. I see big gains in quality of life in cutting out noise. And I want to hear my agenda and my friends' agendas come through. My favorite source of info are my friends. That's my media of choice. And I select my media very carefully. I'm interested in accomplishing certain things, so I seek out those with similar goals. I learn best from people, so I want the best teachers. But that is not enough, they must be of good character...and fun! I see my social network as my destiny. I see it determining much more than I'd probably like to admit. So personally, social networking apps can play a huge role in improving life just by helping us find our fellow travelers.

But back to that question, "how do I reach these people." It's just the wrong question these days. Care2 works because we help people do something they want to do, people want to help, they want a way to make a difference in a way that is meaningful to them. I think if you want to really reach people, find out what areas in life they really want help in. The book "The Support Economy" makes the case that corporations are failing their customers and employees in supporting them in the ways they most want support. Sure, its sad, but it's also stupid. Corporations are missing the real jackpot.

This is all going on while the Federal government is getting out of the business of taking care of people. The devolution of responsibility for social programs from the federal to state level has been going on for about a decade. The responsibility for taking care of people is being pushed downward to guess who? To us of course. You and I. I don't mean just financially, I mean in a hands on way.

So there is this HUGE opportunity and HUGE need to create value by offering platforms where people can help each other in their everyday lives. The Internet can become a "Lifestyle Utility" that coordinates self-provisioned services designed to support people in the ways they want to be supported, according to their values and priorities. Their agenda, not some marketing manager's agenda.

So its the wrong question. The right question is "how do I help people." Nothing new here.

What does this mean for nonprofits? I think nonprofits are well positioned to offer the support people are really looking for. They have the right value system and the tools needed to organize people into mutual aid communities are getting cheaper and cheaper all the time.

-Neal


--

Neal Gorenflo
Online Campaigns
Care2.com

650.622.0871 (o)
415.867.0429 (m)
866.704.8089 (f)
neal@earth.care2.com

Nice, concrete examples of how nonprofits are using OSN. *However*, the reality is that most nonprofit organizations don't have the resources to keep their web sites up-to-date or answer all the email they receive. I'd like to know who at each of these organizations is in charge of OSN activities, how the nonprofits get funders to pay for staff time to engage in these activities (or, perhaps, are they all volunteers?), etc.

I also find it amusing that OSN has all of the qualities that AOL was criticized for years ago -- information is available to members only, unlike the Web. My question -- will the exclusive club-like buzz about OSN eventually wear off and become a liability the way it did for AOL?

RE: OSN Time
I agree that most orgs don't have time to even update their websites... which is why I am a big fan of any technologies that make updating your website quick and easy. Most orgs don't deal with their websites because the bar is too high and barriers to making changes are arduous... and yes, answering all the email is challenging too... however,

that said, I think integrating these communications activities as part of your program costs could help overcome not getting funding to do those tasks.. conceptualizing those tasks as costs to run programs, internalizes the funding and shows how essential these tasks are. Now getting funding for OSN may be a programmatic line item around building your "base" and you're using a program as a means to drive it. Now, OSN with other orgs may not apply so much; however, again, I think making this quick, easy, and integrated in daily workflow, may make this happen.

RE: AOL, walled garden OSN
Care2 has been hugely succesfull just as Tribe and other "walled garden" types of OSN platforms. However, I foresee a new kind of OSN platform that is not a destination in and of itself; but rather I see a platform which helps folks connect and discover each other while still using the same places and publishing mechanisms they have in place... more on this later...

John Lorance
CompuMentor/TechSoup

I have to admit that, before I started writing this, I was pretty skeptical about whether OSNs were actually valuable tools for nonprofits, so it was surprising to see the creative ways in which people were using them.

I also agree with the statements that not a lot of organizations have time to explore these tools, and I would guess that those who see relatively quick results building communities using OSNs are more likely to stick around, whereas those who don't have any lucky will probably go experiment with something else.

Hi. I created a social networking + blogging tool that's currently based in the Philippines, called Funchain.com (www.funchain.com). If there's interest or opportunity for TechSoup to have a specialized OSN/blogging application for non-profits here in the US, I can offer to build that too.