What’s ahead in 2010?

By BylineAmy Sample Ward on

I’ve just spent a very wonderful 2.5 weeks offline with friends and family for the holidays.  As much as my life is fueled by my work and connections online, it sure was wonderful to unplug and recharge.  I’ve also been thinking quite a bit about what’s to come this year and wanted to stat a conversation openly here with all of you.

My Focus for 2010

Collaboration: This year will, as they always seem to do, build on some of the major developments last year.  In my view, that specifically means I’ll be focusing even more on the opportunities for, technologies that support, and issues involved in collaboration (across organizations, across sectors, across geographies).  There are some great examples out there that need to be highlighted and examined.  There are also many technologies, whether they are tools or approaches or actual platforms, that are working to enable collaboration and I’d like to do more to highlight those with interviews and reviews.  Lastly, I want to create some open spaces for people to not just cheer for collaboration but also examine and explain some of the issues and barriers that organizations, individuals, campaigners or community members face when trying to approach collaboration.

Community:  As much as I see collaboration as the key to success, I also community as the core of every sector, every campaign, and every movement.  This year will, I think, provide some great opportunities to compare, contrast, explore and analyze the differences and nuances of communities defined as:

  • communities of practice
  • communities of focus
  • communities of cause
  • communities of geography

Through continued work on Social by Social (expanding it to be even more useful as an out-of-the-box resource and toolkit), speaking and participating at conferences, and the conversations on this blog I think we will have some very interesting ideas to explore about community!

Your Focus for 2010

Now it’s your turn!  Writing a blog can be a lonely adventure but I’m so very thankful that you as the community of readers and commenters and conversationalists have kept me from ever feeling like I was alone in the conversation.  And I want to keep it that way!  So, let me know what you’re focusing on in 2010 so that I can have your ideas and highlights on my radar, too.

  • What are you focusing on at work that’s new?
  • What are you focusing on at work that isn’t new but you wish was?
  • What are you focusing on that you wish you had more resources about?
  • What tools, strategies or issues do you want to discuss?

I’m really looking forward to all that unfolds in 2010 and to all that we can explore together.  Thanks for all your contributions!

30 thoughts on “What’s ahead in 2010?”

    1. Hi Paul-

      Thanks for sharing your focus areas! I think ROI will continue to be a popular topic for case study sharing and hope I can help highlight examples I come across. Much to look forward to in 2010.

      Thanks again!

      Reply

  3. Grateful to have your perspective on the value of collaboration and community. I too am seeking new ways to grow / expand both. 🙂 Glad you’re back. Happy New Year.

    Reply

  4. Hi Amy,

    Thank you for this insightful post. It inspired me to write my own. I’ve come up with my 3 words a la Chris Brogan for 2010.

    Author
    Connect
    Empower

    Author – one of my goals is to update my blog 3x per week to further establish my online presence; more philosophically I want to act like as the author of my life and take responsibility for making a difference.

    Connect – another goal I have is to go places with people I like to build relationships, so I am going to go to NYC with my cousin Laura, go to SXSW, and visit my friend who just had a baby.

    And third is Empower – I work at an association that does training workshops to help int’l dev’t orgs operate internationally and the most important part of those workshops is how they empower people to work with their partners like donors and subgrantees in a healthier manner. I want to continue doing that and in other areas, like helping bloggers and authors empower their communities through more participatory online classes, like using video in addition to audio and print content. Plus I want to empower myself by freelancing to add more income streams.

    Reply

    1. Hi Roxy-

      Thanks for sharing your three areas of focus! I really love the way you described Author as something not just a “to do item” but also as an empowering force for your whole life. Connections are incredibly important, online and offline – if you’re at SXSW, I hope we can meet in person as I’ll be there as well!

      As far as your Empower goal, please let me (and the other readers) know how we can follow, participate, contribute to, or promote the opportunities you are creating for organizations around the world!

      Thanks again

      Reply

  5. My focus for 2010 is message…to stay on track with the essence of my story and not drift off into directions that take away from the core of what I’m trying to say. That can be hard to do, as there are so many topics that I’d love to write about, but I need to ask if my writing reinforces or dilutes my message.

    Reply

    1. Thanks for sharing your focus for 2010, Global Patriot! I think the problem/goal you’ve identified is one that many others have and will continue to work on. Hopefully we can create a forum here where you can share your progress and others can as well. Please do let me know if you have ideas about how I can help facilitate that – I plan to have a quarterly update post about my focus areas and invite others, like in this post, to share their updates as well.

      Thanks again for sharing

      Reply

    1. Thanks for joining the conversation, Susan! As I included in my comment to Global Patriot, I plan to post a quarterly update on my focus areas (in addition to posts throughout the year focused on those questions/issues/ideas around community and collaboration) and will invite others to comment with updates of their own. Looking forward to hearing from you throughout the year!

      Thanks again

      Reply

    1. Hi Eddie – thanks for joining in! I really love all three of your focus areas, especially slow 🙂 There is so much to work on, at least for me, in just that one word. Hope you’ll continue to keep me and the other readers here updated on how you’re doing throughout the year with your three focus areas!

      Thanks again

      Reply

  8. Amy – First of all kudos for disconnecting for your holiday period – it’s becoming harder and harder to do but the benefits are well worth it 🙂

    I’m especially interested in new, enhanced and accessible tools that can be developed for collaborating across geographic boundaries. The more we focus on reducing our carbon footprints, the more important it is going to be to have technologies that allow us to keep the human contact that is necessary for true global collaboration. Looking forward to the opportunity to meet you at NTEN.

    Reply

    1. Bonnie, thank you so much for the comment!

      Yes, it was difficult and a bit weird to be offline so long but felt great 🙂

      I really hope I can help identify, discuss and analyze tools that could help or even enable collaboration across geographic boundaries. I completely agree with you that finding and enhancing tools for global collaboration are necessary in our work if we really do want to change the world. Looking forward to seeing you in April, too!

      Thanks again

      Reply

  9. Hi Amy, great topic & enjoying the responses. My focus for 2010 is well, focus! I’m focusing on goals, big picture, my values, and our mission. For me, it’s so easy to get bogged down with info.from so many inputs, scattered, and trying to take on too much. I really want to focus my time on the key things that are important and tie to my focus–including those “unplugged” times to recharge, brainstorm, and get creative.

    Reply

    1. Hi Megan –

      Thanks for adding your focus for 2010 to the conversation here! I completely agree with you, and think many others probably do as well – it is so easy to get bogged down every day with the to do list or other items that quickly add up and it can be a real struggle to step out for a minute and remember what the big picture or goals are. I wish you lots of luck in succeeding and hope you’ll continue to update me and the readers here about how you manage to do it so we can all learn together!

      One of my tricks, for what it’s worth, is to organize my to do list under the main mission areas of my work, so that I can easily see when things are lopsided, if things don’t fit within the focus areas, or how they do align with the rest of my work.

      Good luck in 2010 and thanks again

      Reply

  10. Hi Amy – our SocialbySocial work means you won’t surprised that I wholly endorse your focus on collaboration and community, while looking a lot at the roles to help this happen. In particular, of course, social reporting, where I’ve suggested three resolutions: Make sense, Be positive, Help Out. That’s not limited to social reporting, of course:-)

    Reply

    1. Thanks for adding this to the conversation, David! I really like the way your focus areas for Social Reporting apply to community building in general. I see a blog post emerging 🙂

      Reply

  12. My focus for 2010 is to realize this great piece of advice from a PPT published in 2006: “For participation to go mass, the host/cause needs to find ways to plug into micro-communities to motivate them.” http://bit.ly/6wDEqE – Happy New Year! We’ve never met but your work is an inspiration! 🙂

    Reply

    1. Hi David-

      Thanks so much for sharing your focus area for 2010 – I really like the quote and think it’s a wonderful idea to explore for myself as well.

      I was just reading your blog today and was feeling inspired as well. Where are you located? Maybe we could get together in person!

      Thanks again for joining the conversation here and I hope you continue to do so 🙂

      Reply

  13. In 2010, my professional goals are to help nonprofits
    1. Become more efficient in using their resources
    2. Maintain and enhance opportunities for funding
    3. Develop novel collaborations that leverage and attract new services and sources of income.

    Recently, one of our clients (my company provides software solutions for health, human, and social service organizations) was awarded a substantial grant from a private foundation. The purpose of the grant is to further enhance how they use our technology to collaborate with more than 60 agencies to provide services (housing and other) for people living with HIV/AIDS. I thought it was very cool that using collaborative technologies can be used to attract private funds, that then result in better technology solutions for collaboration. Fun to be a part of it all!

    Reply

    1. Hi Scott-

      Thanks for sharing your goals for 2010! I’m very excited both by what you are focusing on as well as the specific example you provided.

      I previously have worked with and for private foundations and have found that there is a great deal of emphasis, at least in that community of funders, on collaborations – the process, the tools that support, and so on. I really hope you’ll keep us posted on the project!

      Thanks again for sharing.

      Reply

    1. Hi Noel-

      Thanks for adding in to the conversation! I really like your idea of separating and thus being explicit about which resources are tangible and intangible – it also makes me think about goals that categorized the same way. So often with social media and activity online, it’s hard to really measure or track progress against a goal because that goal may be something that’s inherently hard to measure or intangible.

      I hope you’ll keep me and the readers here posted about your progress throughout the year!

      Thanks again

      Reply

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