NetSquared recently followed up with the N2Y3 Featured Projects to develop these short case studies, with the goal to expand the knowledgebase of best practices for applying social media in the nonprofit context. We interviewed participants from the N2Y3 Featured Project teams to gain a better understanding of the way they used social media to increase their reach and carry out their missions. We are very happy to bring you their stories!

Today's spotlight: Knowmore.org!

Project Details:

• Name of Organization: Knowmore.org
• URL: http://knowmore.org
• Location: Providence, RI, USA

Project Description:

Using volunteer members from its grassroots community as its development team, Knowmore.org released a Firefox extension to transform its growing database of "corporate responsibility profiles" from a passive resource into an active resource--hundreds of once static profiles are now autonomously available to users when they need them.

Downloading the extension is the only act required for the Knowmore.org Firefox extension to do its thing. Afterwards, the profiles approved to be pushed to the extension will be assimilated into daily surfing habits. From searching to simple web browsing, anytime users come across a website associated with a profiled corporation they will instantly be alerted of any areas of concern involving the company in an meaningful yet unobtrusive manner.

Social media tool or tactic used:

Firefox extension.

How was it used?

The Firefox extension is centered on the idea that the information on Knowmore.org becomes exponentially more valuable if it's available to users when it's most relevant to them. On the Internet, this means making it available whenever they search or surf.

The first step in bringing this project together was finding a group of able developers to turn concept in reality. A call was made throughout the Mozilla communities, and a majority of the team ended up being folks associated with Mozilla in one way or another (past extension developers, current employees, die-hard users). The rest came from the New England-based grassroots community of Knowmore. From the start, the entire team was behind Knowmore's mission.

The team based its work in a Google Group. It kept communication easy and allowed for to-do lists, technical drafts, screenshots. The Google Group also allowed us to keep our work as transparent as possible. It was always possible to know what everyone was doing at a given minute.

On the development side, the Firefox extension had two core components. The first is obvious enough, the extension. The second became clear shortly after starting the project, Knowmore needed an API. Prior to the project, Knowmore lacked any real way for outside applications to mashup its data. The API was an adventure in retooling and developing new features for Mediawiki, which is the same software that runs Wikipedia.  

They claim that they "got lucky and things worked out."

Outcome:

Knowmore's project ended up being voted 2nd at Netsquared. Outside of Netsquared, Knowmore's Firefox extension ended up being talked about in many, many places--from things like the Treehugger and the SF Gate Chronicles to more low-key communities and forums.

The Firefox extension has been relatively successful on Mozilla's AMO (addons.mozilla.com). It was a featured/recommended add on for a short time, putting in the same league as AdBlock and TwitterFox, and still has a five-star rating. Current downloads are nearing 20K.

Every so often, the weekly analytics will show users arriving from searches for "volvo" or "heroes", which means the extension doing its job and people want to "know more".  

The goal of the extension was to spread awareness of corporate abuse. Anytime folks surf the web, they have to learn about corporate abuse. Anytime folks talk about the extension, they have to talk about Knowmore.org. That one is a bit of a bonus.

Lessons learned:

• Think about infrastructure when you think about the project...We killed our server many a time due to increased and unforeseen popularity.
• A Firefox extension can alert users without being annoying
• A Firefox extension can drive traffic to your organization
• UI is hugely important no matter how good your idea is
• Volunteers are amazing
• People will think of better ways to use your data than you will, so open it up
• Transparency is synonymous with a volunteer-driven and open-source project
• Always keep things simple

For more information:

• See the full list of N2Y3 Featured Projects here.    
• Read all of the N2Y3 Case Studies as they are published.

The work to create this case study series was funded by a grant from the Packard Foundation.