What people may not want to share is work product. I’ve found that this generally stems from (1) the feeling that content is not good enough or wouldn’t be useful to someone else; (2) being uncertain if contributors would be okay with the content being shared (for example – private attorney uses internal reference materials to make money; it’s okay to share those materials with legal aid, but if shared with volunteer attorneys, will other attorney use it for non-pro bono cases?); or (3) just don’t have a culture of sharing. In each of these cases, I feel like the circuit riding program at Pro Bono Net has been critical to moving the sharing conversation forward. In the first case, the circuit rider can provide regular reminders and self-esteem boosts. And in the second and third, the circuit riders can engage and help shift the culture and conversations. Having an “expert” state the obvious often helps easy navigation through difficult situations.

In terms of other communities sharing, I don’t think that the platform is necessarily important. I think that the staffing is. The projects that I think are the most successful are those where someone is responsible for encouraging people to share and doing the grunt work. (I think of this person as a variation on a wiki gnome.) If this isn’t anyone’s responsibility, it won’t get done. Another key piece is strong funder support. The funder needs to model the behavior and encourage grantees to participate.

Thank you for all this information – I’m very impressed with Pro Bono Net’s dedication to efficiency and sharing. Have you found any reluctance to sharing or was the case for not reinventing the wheel enough to fuel adoption without much work?

I’m really interested in your public sharing – with other nonprofits working in the law and public sectors. There are a quite a few, whether they are sector specific (like environment) or focused on both legal representation but also congressional measures. Do you see a way of creating sharing opportunities across your organizational lines using something like a public version of your platform? What other ways do you think that could work?

Thanks again for your full and thoughtful reply!

Pro Bono Net staff also focus on sharing information, using the typical technology tools – e-mail lists, community websites (like http://www.probono.net/dasupport/), and so on. We also try to have regular calls as a community. We also build relationships with the people and organizations that we are working with. In these calls, we pick up on the stories and problems that the projects are having. We also hear about resources that have been created and encourage the person to share them with the wider community.

We aren’t as good with sharing with the rest of the nonprofit community, but we do try. Liz Keith presented about LawHelp.org as part of the Ignite sessions at NTEN’s NTC. And last year, she and Lisa Stansky presented at the NTC about legal aid’s experiences (See http://www.techno.la/2008/04/articles/selfhelp/technology-and-rebuilding-new-orleans/) Staff also occasionally present at other conferences, but it is often hard to find the right fit. Are there places that you know of that you think that we should be sharing this information?

Thanks for your comment! I’m happy to hear that PBN is working to share knowledge and learning across the network. How do you manage this sharing? How do you encourage participation?

Do you also share or plan to share the lessons you and your local groups have learned with the rest of the world? How?

Thanks again for joining the conversations here!