Location: Portland, Maine

Topic: Knowledge Networks

Description:  This closing keynote focused on the power of knowledge sharing networks and the tools that support them.

Related Links:

• Natural Rural Health Resource Center
• Conference information
• Slides

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• Connected Citizens: The Power, Peril, and Potential of Networks – This new report from the Knight Foundation and Monitor Institute explores engaged communities: "Ten years ago, a tiny web site asked people to volunteer to write their own encyclopedia. Today, Wikipedia is the most widely used reference work in the world. Rapid advances in digital media and technology are changing how we connect to information and each other. The way we engage in public dialogue, coordinate, solve problems—all of it is shifting. New networks are emerging everywhere. It’s exciting—and frightening. What is this new network-centric world? What does it mean for community change?"
• The US will use Twitter and Facebook to issue terror alerts – "The U.S. government is working on a new warning system to replace their oft criticized five-color coded terror index, and according to a new document obtained by The Associated Press, they're turning to Facebook and Twitter." How do your social media channels fit in your organization's emergency communications plan?
• Repair Interview: Joe Solomon of 350.org on Climate Change and Building a Movement – "Social Media Coordinator, Joe Solomon took some time to explain what 350 really means, talk about transforming community inspiration into political power, and share a story about how his work with 350.org inspired him in ways he never imagined." Check out this terrific interview with Joe – I'd love to hear your ideas, reflections and stories about how you are inspired to make change!
• Mobilizing online communities in the Face of Disaster: Tips … – "On the 12th of March, one day after the tragic earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan Ichi – Hiroyasu Ichikawa – the NetSquared Local organizer from Tokyo sent an e-mail to our NetSquared Local Organizer listserve asking for the best practices for mobilizing online communities in the time of a disaster. In the weeks that have followed, Ichi’s e-mail provoked a series of responses from all over the world. In this post, we hope to voice many of the tools, resources, and tactics that have been shared, in hopes of encouraging others around the world to get involved with the digital relief efforts."
• 6 questions to prepare you for a social media crisis – "In social media, the disasters people talk about most are fundamentally crises of public relations. These fall into two types: crises that originate in social media, and crises that originate offline. In the era of Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, both types of crisis require a rapid, social media response. Looking at the most recent social media crises is one way to think about the kinds of challenges for which you need to prepare. But social media has a way of ensuring that each crisis is different from the last, so if you’re prepared to handle a YouTube meltdown, you’ll probably get served with a FourSquare nightmare. That’s why it pays to look for principles of online crisis management that will be relevant in the long run."

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• Social Citizens Blog | Immerse. Converse. Disperse. – "This interview is part of our "Social Citizen Sightings" series, in which we highlight how people are using their creativity, idealism, and digital fluency to support their causes every day. Milena Arciszewski is 26. She enjoys camping, reading, adventure travel, and clean socks… and I should mention is starting a nonprofit called Pando Projects. Pando Projects is a nonprofit that empowers people—in particular Millennials—to step up as leaders and develop new, local solutions to the problems in their communities. The initiative seeks to support ordinary people in accomplishing extraordinary things by helping them to tackle national and global challenges. By providing tools and support for people with ideas, the group hopes to empower Americans to change the world, one project at a time. The pilot phase launches this month and will support 15 New Yorkers with ideas for grassroots projects."
• What’s in a word: Abundance, capacity, resource, network and community » ext337 – I really like this post from Marnie Webb, sharing her internal conflict working on the difference between words, like network and community. It's something that I try to tackle by having a clear personal definition, for my own word choice. But that doesn't mean everyone else sees the world, and words, the way I do. What do you think? How do you define the words Marnie highlights (networks, community, abundance, resources)?
• Internet Fame and the True Impact of Influence — SocialFish – "You may be aware that there is a big debate going on in the social media blogosphere about “influence”. We’re all familiar with the mantra that we should be out there leveraging influencers in our communities in order to get the word out about our causes, brands or services… and that makes total sense from a generating-word-of-mouth point of view. But hold on. If you’re trying to do this, and you don’t actually know who your industry influencers are (perhaps because you’re not really immersed in your own open community, or because your community is too large or public-facing to be able to list your champions in an organic way), and you’re looking at some tools out there that purport to measure influence…. maybe you’re starting to think “this is not as easy as it sounds.” Maybe you’re starting to think that influence is not about how many followers someone has on Twitter. Maybe you’re starting to think that “influencer scores” are totally meaningless for your goals and objectives."
• How to connect with your community in 8 words or less | Case Foundation – "What’s the relationship between an organization’s tagline and its strategy? When we announced the winners of this year’s GettingAttention.org’s Nonprofit Tagline Awards (The Taggies), a bit of a debate unfolded about the connection between tagline and strategy. Fundraiser and blogger Chuck English asserted that a tagline is nothing but a tool, and that approaching it otherwise diverts organizations from the critical work of strategy. In response, Katya Andresen, COO at Network for Good, commented, “Taglines are a great test of your strategy. You can't have a clear tagline if you don't have a clear sense of 1) your mission; 2) what is special about your organization; and 3) what your audience cares about.” I couldn’t agree more with Katya. And I was glad to see Chuck raise the issue."
• PayPal and Oxfam offer 100% giving for February | UK Fundraising – "Throughout February PayPal will cover Oxfam's running costs for all donations to Oxfam via PayPal. The organisations describe the "100% giving" campaign as "a completely new form of charity giving in the UK". They claim that "it is the first time a charity has offered a donation scheme in which it is guaranteed that 100% of your donation will go directly to the cause because a corporate partner is paying the running costs"."
• Philanthro-teens delving into nonprofit world – Crain’s New York Business – "In the past year, 79% of girls in the United States have contributed food or clothing, 53% have given their own money, and 66% have asked family or friends to give or volunteer, according to research commissioned by the United Nations Foundation. Today's teens also plan to be generous when they get older. More than 75% say they will regularly give to charity, versus 63% in 1989, according to a nationwide survey by the Girl Scout Research Institute of 3,263 students in grades three through 12."

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Lately, I’m thinking about the topic of cross-platform community building. I’ve written about it, submitted a session proposal with colleague Debra Askanase to the 2011 NTC, and recently had the opportunity to start a conversation on the topic of engaging your community across platforms in a GroupVine message (more information about my use of the tool at the bottom of this post).  One idea that has emerged for me through this way of exploring the topic is that of temporary versus permanent networks.

Temporary versus Permanent Networks

Whether you are working on a campaign, a program or a service; whether it is online or offline (though I would argue it should probably touch both!); whether you are a small team or a huge office, your work requires engagement. And engagement requires people.

People are networked.

It goes without saying then that no matter what our work or our sector or our cause, we need to get better at recognizing the power in networks and become the nodes that connect networks, conversations, and people. Connecting conversations and people means cross-pollinating or jumping across platforms to share messages or actions from one to the next. In this back and forth, we encounter both temporary and permanent networks – and identifying each from the other can make a huge difference!

Individuals define networks.

The tricky part about identifying a network as either temporary or permanent is that each individual defines his or her participation/contribution as temporary or permanent, and that definition mainly impacts only him or her.  So, because one user wants to visit your forum and leave a comment only one time, creating only a temporary connection, that doesn’t mean that other users do not visit it and get/give value to that forum in a long-term way.

Individuals influence networks.

Network definitions and participation are also influenced by the user’s desire to create professional or personal connections. These kinds of preferences by users can dramatically influence a network and community. My level of activity will certainly impact the network, but so does how I act when I connect. Engagement acts as a ripple effect so if a few people present responses or communications using their organizational profile, for example, it can set the precedent for others to follow profesionally.  And likewise with a personal side.  The personal and professional sides can influence temporary and permanent network status as well – as often it is easier to maintain connections to a network that you are personally invested in, opposed to professionally (especially if the connection is via an organizational presence).

Feet drive permanence.

As I mentioned in an aside above, I have yet to come across an example of programs, services, campaigns, or other efforts that don’t benefit from being accessible online and off.  I also have a ton of experiential proof that joining people together offline, at the same time – whether it’s for an fun event, a conference, or anything else – can dramatically increase the uptake in online community engagement and the permanence of that network.

We need them both.

I really do not believe that permanent networks are “better” or more valuable than temporary networks. Look at the power of temporary collaboration, for example, in times of crisis response or large scale crowdsourcing. But, that doesn’t mean recognizing how people are treating and engaging with various networks is not important. You can more strategically engage, communication and inspire actions from one network to the next, as you operate as the node connecting one group with another, when you know why people are there and how they see that space. The more aligned our actions and messages are with the other members of the network means we are truly another member – and not an admin, or manager, or eavesdropper.

Once again, I guess the lesson is to keep being human!

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Notes on GroupVine:

GroupVine is a new application for interactive email. They have gathered a good-sized list of people working in nonprofit technology, communications, and engagement, and, well, gotten us engaged! It is a test group, essentially, but with the kinds of people who may help make the tool better and/or use it in their work. It was just the group I wanted to share questions and ideas with as far as cross-platform community building.

GroupVine is a clearly a work-in-progress, and it’s fun getting to be on the “inside” of development at this stage. But, it would still have been much preferred to have a few bits of functionality in place to position a conversation like the one I was after for success, including;

• Multiple responses per field – so that users could really comment back and forth
• Randomizing responses – so that I see the responses of many different users instead of only the person who responded directly before me
• Including media – when talking about examples, tools and case studies it would be helpful to be able to include a picture/screen shot, embed a video, or more easily share links

Thanks again to the GroupVine team for giving me the opportunity to explore the tool!

The “Swine Flu” scare was fun, wasn’t it?  No, it really wasn’t; but it did give most of the world a chance to react in real-time to what could have been much worse. In a recent Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, David Brooks compared the global response vs localized response to the outbreak. I think this comparison, and context, is a great example of why local (read: non-global) organizations are still key in social change work, and why we need to be building stronger networks for data and information sharing.

Power to the People
Brooks shows that if the world had a global approach to outbreaks like Swine Flu, then the decision-making and directive power would be in a really bumped up World Health Organization-like group. This umbrella organization would require time for consideration and input from its members and wouldn’t necessarily be in-tune with the communities or cultures actually touched by the issues.

Let’s consider this example in comparison to a generic sector, focusing on a global issue, like the environmental & climate sector working on climate change. Creating a huge umbrella organization is just not going to happen realistically for any sector, at least one with the governing and implementing power suggested above. Instead, we want to keep the power to address issues in the hands of organizations spread around the world. It is impossible for one organization to know the stories, issues, culture and decision-making information of all locations. It’s hard enough to master one geography!

Speak the Local Language
As Brooks points out, people like to look to someone like them, especially in times of crisis. Local organizations provide this local face. We can speak the local language, understand the local culture.

In the climate change example, this means that we can brand, communicate, and distribute information, calls to action, and important opportunities for engagement in a way that encourages response locally. The missing link, though, is that the underlying opportunity (whether it is a petition to sign, an online or offline event, or anything else) needs to be networked across all the organization. The effect of having all organizations gather signatures on the same petition versus hundreds creating and distributing their own petitions for the same issue is huge.

Innovate and Reiterate
Lastly, one enormous organization could only respond to the Swine Flu outbreak or something similar with safe, tested protocols. But those are often not efficient or necessary. With distributed power through local organizations, medical teams, and governments, the response to the Swine Flu outbreak was something involving much more innovation and experimentation.

This, again, holds true for organizations working on social change issues. New messages, campaigns, and strategies can be tested, deployed, and analyzed in separate groups. What makes this more powerful? Leveraging a networked system so that when a new campaign works, or better yet – doesn’t work, that information can be shared in real time with all of the other organizations. This means the “what works” can get implemented faster in other places and the “what doesn’t” can be cut out of the loop without more wasted capacity.

Great, Now What?
So, what do we need to make this happen? There are tools like Zanby that allow organizations to link together to share calls to action across networks. This is a great start. But, we also need to be building out collaboration platforms that allow for organizations to link in with each other, share data and calls to action, but also feedback lessons learned—a way to combine experiential and hard data across the whole network.

What do you think?  What kind of tools would we need to accomplish this? What push backs or culture shocks to working in this way would need to be overcome?  Where would you start?

Visit the SSIR opinion blog here.

Many organizations have been saying the same thing about using the Internet for many years now, “we need someone to make us a Web site!” No, you really don’t. At least, you don’t need to think of your online “presence” as being a stand-alone website. Let’s dissect a networked approach to an online presence and see what the core dynamics are.

we20

“Our leaders, face a huge task this year. The G20 is a group of 20 leaders including Obama, Brown, Lula and Sarkozy. The G20 are tasked with reforming our failed economies and mapping out our future.

These G20 leaders meet in London on 2 April. 20 world leaders. 20 people together making plans that will affect our future.

we20 is your opportunity to have your own G20 meeting. 20 people together creating plans for your future.”

we20 wants to inspire people, online, to get together, offline, to talk about ideas to improve our lives and our world. They don’t have a website, yet. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be spreading their message and mobilizing people into action both on and offline.

The Key Elements:

• Spreading the word online: this doesn’t require a website when there are countless social technologies to leverage.
• Mobilizing people to get together offline: we are social creatures, but we don’t always know the people we want to get together with; but thanks to social technologies it is much easier to find and make these new connections.
• Don’t wait for a website: often organizations wait between 3 – 18 months to get a website live; a project like we20 doesn’t have that kind of time and you shouldn’t assume you do either.

we20 has a time-sensitive campaign (though, who’s isn’t?), with people who are excited and energized to do something right after hearing about the idea. It would be a big mistake to let all those supporters trail off, their energy wain, and have the only action provided be to wait for that website to go up with more information…later. Instead, take advantage of tools you and others who could be interested in the campaign are already using. Put your message out there right away and let the momentum build.

The Networked Approach:
The networked approach to online campaigns is really a cycle, like most other strategies you’ll come across. You move from step one, through all four, and the fourth leads right back to the first. Here are the four steps to creating a networked approach to a campaign, using we20 as our example.

• Make your group of friends public: When starting something like we20, it’s really just a group of friends and colleagues that start talking about an idea and get enthusiastic about it. You want it to take off and believe it really will. Those early conversations about how, where, what, and all the other gooey details should be made public if possible. In this case, we20 started a Facebook group to keep everyone together and communicate with each other. But, by making it a public group like this, they also enabled others to find and join them, as well as to help shape the answers to those gooey but important questions.
• Make your message moveable: Be sure to put solid content out there for people new to the campaign. Even though there are still many aspects of we20 still to be configured, when you visit the Facebook group, for example, you are still able to find clear, direct messaging about what the group is focused on. This doesn’t just let people understand and join, but it also allows them to copy and paste – the greatest messaging option individuals have! By putting clear, concise messages out there, you enable supporters to move the message around the web for you.
• Make your movement actionable: Sharing your message isn’t action enough for many people who really want to jump in.  Even if it was, the message should have an actionable opportunity for those who receive the message further down the line but want to do more than pass it on.  we20 has done an excellent job of presenting an actionable movement. It isn’t simply about raising awareness, or causing a stir; we20 is asking people to have their own we20 meetings and share their ideas. The action (the individual meetings/gatherings) is simple and clear to understand, but also flexible enough that anyone could bend it to their specific situations: some friends in a bar, a lunch club using it as a theme, and so on.
• Make your actions public: If you’ve inspired people to join you and invite others to join, and to take action, providing a way for those same people to share their actions publicly will take you back to the first step, in making the group public. As more actions become visible, more people will join the movement and subsequently share their actions as well. It’s always a cycle. In the case of we20, they have put their introduction video up on YouTube, defining a very obvious place for others to put up videos either as a response or a report from their own we20 meeting and the ideas that came out of it. Though, people could participate in other ways as well since we20 has a networked presence, meaning Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn. This means that new participants can close the loop for learning about the movement to actually sharing ideas via the platform or process they prefer.

Though, there will be a we20 website, eventually. For now, that networked approach is letting them start and build and move forward anyway. The we20 group sums this up quite nicely, “We are expecting to launch http://www.we20.org soon but please don’t let us slow you down. Please start organising your meetings now.” Exactly: don’t let the lack of a traditional website hinder the movement; use the tools we are all already using to learn about and spread the movement, organize with your friends and colleagues, and share your ideas back to the movement.

What do you think? Has your organization or your group of friends used a networked approach to start a campaign? Have you relied on a main website instead? What have been the best examples of networked approaches to campaigns that you’ve seen?

Visit the SSIR blog to add to this conversation!