Wikis and nonprofits
From [[http://cpsquare.org CPsquare]], the community of practice on communities of practice.
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Wikis and Non-profits
Case study: We Are Media wiki and community
- author: Dave Cormier
- date: 08-Nov-2008
- url: [http://davecormier.com/edblog/2008/11/08/we-are-media-and-some-thoughts-about-community/]
1. No matter how good a community, its ideas, its positioning, there are almost always a couple of people working their tails off to keep it what it is. 2. Community participation is almost entirely about the responsibility of the participant.
We are media project ( http://www.wearemedia.org )
Beth Kanter was kind enough (after I volunteered) to ask me to be a critical friend on the project… (and I should be receiving a t-shirt soon!) I really can't say enough about how much I like what she's done with this project and the quality of the content. It also serves as an nice case for just how much work is required to get this sort of thing running. Go to any page and click the history button and what you'll see is an excellent community organizer, helping things along, tweaking the wiki, encouraging contributors, finding new ways to keep participation interesting.
If you are looking for a great resource for social media, check this project out. If you are thinking of starting your own, look very closely at this project. Trying googling the project url, look through the wiki, and you'll see how a pro does the job.
Noticing some nice non-profit wiki work
author: Nancy White date: 02-May-2008 url: [http://www.fullcirc.com/wp/2008/05/02/noticing-some-nice-non-profit-wiki-work/]
A while ago Beth Kanter put out to her network a request to know about useful nonprofit wiki practices. I meant to reply, but, as usual, got distracted. Today I received an email update about a local coalition here in Washington State (USA) that reminded me about their great wiki work. Check out the Communities Connect Network Wiki . Early on, I had the pleasure of working with Peg Giffels who was their main wiki gardener (among many other roles.) Peg "got" that there was both an information architecture and a set of social processes associated with their use of a wiki as both a project communication tool and as a knowledge sharing tool.
Flu Wiki
The purpose of the Flu Wiki is to help local communities prepare for and perhaps cope with a possible influenza pandemic. This is a task previously ceded to local, state and national governmental public health agencies. Our goal is to be:
- a reliable source of information, as neutral as possible, about important facts useful for a public health approach to pandemic influenza
- a venue for anticipating the vast range of problems that may arise if a pandemic does occur
- a venue for thinking about implementable solutions to foreseeable problems
Before the present threat of an avian flu pandemic, these tasks were formerly ceded to local, state, national and international public health agencies. But no one, in any health department or government agency, knows all the things needed to cope with an influenza pandemic. The world is filled with competent others who are likely to have credible and useful information about some aspect of each of these tasks. By pooling and sharing our knowledge, we hope to advance both preparation for and the ability to cope with events as they unfold. Flu Wiki was founded in 2005.
video: How Nonprofits & Educators Can Use Wikis
- organization: NetSquared
- organization: TechSoup
- url: [http://blip.tv/file/910798]
- length: 87:54
The second Tuesday of each month, social changemakers and web innovators get together to network, socialize and share ideas at Net Tuesday, an event produced by NetSquared a project of TechSoup. This month we have three speakers: Adam Frey, Co-Founder of Wikispaces, will talk about his company's work, and how nonprofits and educators can use wikis. Rushton Hurley, Director of the nonprofit, Next Vista for Learning, and Greg Wolff, President of the nonprofit, the UnaMesa Association, will talk about how they use wikis for their work.
