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Involver: How Nonprofits Can Create Video Campaigns for Social Networks.
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Best of online collaboration and communities
Voting Summary (Elevator Pitch):
Improve how people use online community and collaboration tools by publishing best practices and case studies as a "Top 10 List," five screencasts, a community blog, an email and Web forum discussion group, and a free downloadable Guide.
Supporting organization:
GoLightly
URL:
http://www.golightly.com
City:
Mill Valley
State/Region:
CA
Country:
USA
Project Vision Statement & Potential Social Impact:
We seek to improve how people use online community and collaboration tools by publishing best practices and case studies. We'll identify outstanding current examples of online collaboration and community among social change organizations worldwide, and publish the findings through an innovative "learningware" series that can spread knowledge widely throughout the nonprofit and social sectors.
The "learningware" series will include:
- A "Top 10 List of Online Communities" which will seek nominations from across the nonprofit sector and empower a panel of six online expert judges to select the winners (i.e. SocialEdge.org, TechSoup.org);
- Five free screencasts of best practices which will allow a self-service audio-visual format for learning.
- A community blog which will invite participants to share case studies and best practices.
- An email and Web forum discussion group for networking and interaction.
- A free downloadable "Online Community and Collaboration Best Practices Guide" which will collect the material into one packaged format.
Best practices in online community and collaboration are an evolving area of expertise, and we seek to collect and disseminate this knowledge. The best practices we hope to review include:
- Best techniques to recruit participants to join online communities;
- How to moderate online community discussions to empower participants;
- How to create content and knowledge management practices;
- How to build deep online relationships with constituents and volunteers that can extend into the real world;
- What are the best online community and collaboration tools;
- How to measure the metrics and impact of online communities.
Sustainability (financial) model:
The "Best Online Collaboration and Community" project will be facilitated by GoLightly, a leader in building and providing online collaboration and community services to nonprofits. GoLightly has developed significant expertise in the development of best practices in the use of these tools, regularly publishes case studies of its clients, and teaches online webinars for participants nationwide. GoLightly would apply its work in case studies, best practices and webinars to this project, and broaden its reach far outside of its client circle. GoLightly would engage the services of a national expert in the development of case studies and best practices to direct this project, who in turn will recruit a panel of judges, recruit nominations, write case studies and the Guide, and produce the screencasts.
Potential obstacles:
We need wide dissemination of the call for nominations for "Best Online Collaboration and Community" and hope that facilitators of these networks will take the time to submit nominations and share their best practices in building directing these efforts.
We'll require the dedication of a group of judges who will help select projects. We hope to compensate this group to assure their focus and attention to the project.
Resource Needs:
We need help producing screencasts.
Key Milestones:
Day 1-30:
Recruit panel of judges
Disseminate call for nominations
Select screencast vendor
Research best practices and case studies
Day 30-60
Setup community blog
Setup email and Web forum discussion tools
Conduct case study interviews
Day 60-90
Evaluate nominations and select 10 winners
Produce five screencases
Write "Online Community and Collaboration Best Practices Guide"
Project Summary:
We seek to improve how people use online community and collaboration tools by publishing best practices and case studies. We'll identify outstanding examples of online collaboration and community among social change organizations, and publish the findings through an innovative "learningware" series that includes a "Top 10 List of Online Communities," five free screencasts of best practices, a community blog, an email and Web forum discussion group, and a free downloadable "Online Community and Collaboration Best Practices Guide."
Comments
I support this project 100%!