Over the past 6 months, I’ve had the pleasure of facilitating a community of practice for funders supporting networks. The question that keeps coming up is: how to make the case that working through and investing in networks will produce the intended social impact? At the same time, the belief in network impact is becoming more widespread–-the potential for organizing without organizations, the power of developing a strategic understanding of webs of relationships, and the promise of openly sharing both data and new knowledge. There is more and more experimentation with network models for social impact. › Continue reading... ]]>

Over the past 6 months, I’ve had the pleasure of facilitating a community of practice for funders supporting networks. The question that keeps coming up is: how to make the case that working through and investing in networks will produce the intended social impact? At the same time, the belief in network impact is becoming more widespread–-the potential for organizing without organizations, the power of developing a strategic understanding of webs of relationships, and the promise of openly sharing both data and new knowledge.

This piece was originally published on WorkingWikily by Diana Scearce.

There is more and more experimentation with network models for social impact. There are a handful of funders investing in these experiments. Yet there is only limited evidence to make the case that networks work. I’ve been trying to figure out how to make that case. As a strategy consultant, not an evaluator by training, I come to this with truly a beginner’s mind. Here a few things I’m learning about assessing network impact in collaboration with the network funders community of practice.

• Top of the list: assessing the impact of networks is really hard.
• People participate in networks for multiple reasons (and similarly, funders fund networks for multiple reasons). It’s hard to align around and clarify desired outcomes – and/or figure out how to assess progress towards multiple sets of outcomes.
• Network impact can be hard to see. It’s difficult to measure causality (or even simply track activity) in decentralized, complex systems with lots of players.
• Some of the most powerful network impact may be unexpected. How do you measure the impact of emergent, self-organized action?
• Finally: it can take a really long time to achieve measurable impact.

Added to the challenges is the fact that, according to evaluators I’ve spoken with, the tools for assessing emergent systems are lacking. (Social network analysis does seem to be promising in some cases, though it is resource-intensive). Kudos to the evaluators who are bravely taking on the challenge of measuring network impact!

Challenges aside, what can you measure? I really like the framework set out by Madeline Taylor and Pete Plastrik in Net Gains, and Bruce Hoppe and Claire Reinelt in “Social Network Analysis and the Evaluation of Leadership Networks” (both highly recommended reading). In both these thought pieces, the authors outline three levels of network impact to consider:

• Connectivity: what is the nature of relationships within the network? Is everyone connected who needs to be? What is the quality of these connections? Does the network effectively bridge differences? Is the network becoming more interconnected? What is the network’s reach?
• Overall network health: how healthy is the network along multiple dimensions (participation, network form, leadership, capacity, etc.). How have participants been impacted by the network?
• Field level outcomes: what progress is the network making on achieving its intended social impact (e.g. policy outcomes, innovative products)? How do you know?

The network funders community of practice has been working on this question: how do you make the case, and what principles to keep in mind when assessing the impact of networks? Here are few starting points:

• Be clear about 1) the network’s value proposition, 2) expectations for the network, 3) to whom is the network accountable, 4) the donor’s role in the network
• Pay attention to network history and context
• Gather data from diverse perspectives, including feedback from constituents outside the network
• Emphasize learning over near-term judgment, so that the purpose is not punitive
• Focus on meaningful contribution toward impact
• Integrate into an ongoing process of network learning and adaptation
• Build capacity to conduct self-evaluation

What are you learning about making the case for network impact? How do you know networks work?

Photo Credit

The climate change movement has been gaining momentum in recent months. We've felt it building at organizations like 350.org in preparation for the major UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen this December. We had a call with social media coordinator Joe Solomon of 350.org to get a sense of what it's like to be in the middle of it all, and his thoughts on how to effectively network for a cause. › Continue reading... ]]>

The climate change movement has been gaining momentum in recent months. We’ve felt it building at organizations like 350.org in preparation for the major UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen this December. We had a call with social media coordinator Joe Solomon of 350.org to get a sense of what it’s like to be in the middle of it all, and his thoughts on how to effectively network for a cause.

The person: Joe has roots in technology and social change, and figuring out web-connected community solutions for an array of causes. He was the Director of Social Actions’ Change the Web Challenge and joined 350.org to get closer to the point of impact. “The climate movement affects many of the issues of our time,” he said. “It’s also a matter of survival.” The desire to help the world came early for Joe: he can remember drawing pictures against rainforest logging in third grade.

The connection: He’s no stranger to WiserEarth, having helped us network with NetSquared for our first WiserTuesday Paris event!

The plan: At the time of the interview, 350.org was leading up to the International Day of Climate Action, and Joe mentioned excitedly: “Twitter and Facebook are on fire right now! It’s such an offline, collaborative movement that explodes onto the online scene. We’re really riding a wave, with at least two dozen active 350 organizers on Twitter – with accounts like @350Vermont, @350Peru, @350London — And so many new people are jumping on board, asking, ‘Where am I going to be on October 24?’”

The advice: Joe has been working in the social media arena for some time, and offers some tips on how to get impact:

• Highlight your partners’ efforts: “350 is a super collaborative campaign. We’re trying to build and demonstrate a movement, and like any open movement, it’s not about us — as much as it’s about a collaborative groundswell of organizations, organizers, rock climbers, messengers, bloggers, super models, photographers, you name it — all working to get us back to 350. We’re always trying to highlight our friends at Greenpeace, TckTckTck, Avaaz, Powershift, 1Sky, Oxfam, Transition Towns – and hundreds more, plus all the thousands of grassroots organizers who are the reason why we’ve collectively come this far…. How can your organization act more like a movement and shine the light on what others are doing to change the world with you?”
• Try open threads on Facebook: “As a way to support the conversations that were already happening, we started inviting organizers and supporters to connect around ‘open threads’ in Facebook. Literally, we would start an update with ‘Open Thread:’ and then share quick updates and a few questions. So far, we’ve had some very positive results.”
• Start or support a Twitter hashtag for your cause or sector. In the global climate movement headed towards Copenhagen, there’s #350ppm, #COP15, #FABTreaty, and others. What hashtag can help your cause area connect, share resources, and collaborate for more effective impact?
• Group people together using TweepML: This is a way to highlight a group of community members via a list that any Twitter user can follow all at once. 350 tries to employ this to connect organizers to each other.  Joe says, “There are also Twitter Lists, but what’s great about TweepML is community members can actually follow each other. The stats from the 350 Organizers list claim to have generated over 1,300 followers. Now we just gotta figure out a way to help the 1,077 350 badge wearers connect! Ideas welcome!”
• Don’t feed, inspire: In the days before the International Day of Climate Action, 350 turned off all feeds. They don’t pipe their blog into Twitter or Facebook, and purposely choose where to share that people will find useful and inspiring, and can connect around. The feeds are still off.
• Get face to face: “We’re way ahead of ourselves in mastering how to connect on Twitter, Facebook, and other online communities. We’ve discovered the most brilliant ways to build our lists. We’re all of us social media gurus. Now it’s time to invite our supporters outside, empower them as leaders, and together transform our communities for the changes we all seek. WiserTuesdays are an amazing step in this direction.”

The hope: Joe says, “In December (next month!) world leaders from every country on the planet are meeting in Copenhagen to craft a global climate treaty. What’s at stake at that meeting is massive — a treaty that’s in line with what science and justice demand could be key to turning the tide on global warming and getting our planet back on a sustainable path.

“The hope we can act on is that we keep the pressure on, through delivering 350 photos directly into the hands of our leaders, and other actions — December 12 looks like it’s gonna be big — to help world leaders see just how powerful and global this movement has become.”

The reward: “It’s incredible to watch all of us rise together, to be a part of this call to action around a scientific data point that’s above our organizations’ walls and shows how widespread and collaborative the climate and social justice movement really is,” Joe reflects. “Many thanks to WiserEarth for all your support, for being such a great resource, and for inspiring calls to action as strong and adorable as this one:

Top Photo Credit

Last Monday, WiserEarth hosted its first ever face to face gathering of our volunteer editors. Seven California-based editors plus a few staff met to discuss the role and future direction of editors. We didn't just talk, but engaged in a friendly game of four-square. How does your organization take volunteer moderators to the next level? › Continue reading... ]]>

Last Monday, WiserEarth hosted its first ever face-to-face gathering of our volunteer editors. Seven California-based editors plus a few staff met to discuss the role and future direction of editors. We didn’t just talk, but engaged in a friendly game of four-square. How does your organization take volunteer moderators to the next level?

The WiserEarth editors group is a group of active members (currently 42) who moderate content, support new members, and help people network. In order to become an editor you have to have been on the site for at least three months, use it heavily, and be somewhat knowledgeable about WiserEarth’s policies. In return, you gain some special content-moderating privileges and the active engagement of Bowo, WiserEarth’s Chief Editor.

For some of our editors it was the first time they had met face-to-face despite years of online collaboration. But in no time we were working away on the common goal of improving the editor role at WiserEarth. Some of the lessons learned from the gathering can be summarized as follows:

• Make tasks bite-sized: We live in hectic times, deadlines and discrete tasks are real motivators.
• Make sure responsibility goes hand-in-hand with training: If there is a certain level of expertise you want all your moderators to have, engage them with a set of fun (but brief) tutorials and be available for questions.
• Face time matters: In online communities, it isn’t always possible to meet face to face, particularly if you work with a global community as we do.  In this case, a phone call or video chat is advised. But if volunteers do live close by, invite them to stop by. In an hour, you can often find out who they are better than in several months of online contact.
• Focus on the people, and good work follows:  Your volunteers have their own reasons for wanting to donate time to your organization. If you figure out their passions and give them tasks which ignite those, you will have loyal helpers.
• Engage your volunteer moderators’ unique skills: Some will be wonderful at networking, others at building your content, still others at monitoring. Observe carefully, then guide them to the positions they are the strongest in.
• Have fun with them: Whether online or in person, volunteers return to sources of enjoyment. If you make some time for playing games, joking, and keeping it light, they’ll have a higher tolerance for getting down to business.

All in all, a very successful meetup! Do you have further ideas for activating your volunteers in higher positions of responsibility? Let us know!

Left to Right: Mike Kwan, Angus Parker, Bedy Yang, Roger Eaton, Peggy Duvette, Frank Patton, Deborah Phelan, Eric Olson, Wibowo Sulistio, Honore Louie, Timonie Hood, Kerry Vineberg

Photo Credit

We would like to encourage you to become involved with the International Day of Climate Action! The momentum is building for Copenhagen... › Continue reading... ]]>

We would like to encourage you to become involved with the International Day of Climate Action! The momentum is building for Copenhagen…

In our last climate change post, we gave you background and a list of actions you can take. Now here is a little more detail on one of them. This Saturday, October 24, 350.org, along with a groundswell of friends and allies, is calling on individuals and organizations across the world to take action against climate change.

They encourage incorporating the number 350 into your event, at an iconic place in your community, and then uploading a photo of your action to the 350.org website.

With your help, 350.org will deliver these global images to the media and world leaders. Let’s show how diverse, large and unified the climate change movement has become!

So this Saturday, be a part of it! See what your community is up to in the climate change movement, or start your very own transformative action!

Find an event near you

Related post: Blog Action Day – Climate Change 2009

Where would WiserEarth be without the hard work of its contributors? If you've added an event or an organization, a resource or a job, you are one of our valued contributors. Each small step we take adds up to a huge wave of sustainable knowledge and action. We'd like to take this opportunity to feature some of our most prolific volunteer contributors to date who continue to make WiserEarth the community it is today. Thanks for all that you do! › Continue reading... ]]>

Where would WiserEarth be without the hard work of its contributors? If you’ve added an event or an organization, a resource or a job, you are one of our valued contributors. Each small step we take adds up to a huge wave of sustainable knowledge and action. We’d like to take this opportunity to profile some of our most prolific contributors who make WiserEarth the community it is today. Thanks for all that you do!

Kathryn McCallum (kathrynmccallum)

Why she’s on WE: I work collaboratively on environmental campaigns and WiserEarth gives me incredible tools to communicate with my teams. Having the wiki pages cuts time as we share and work on documents. The instant chat brings us all in the same place without having to install different software. The file library feature helps us share documents without having to email them back and forth. The whole workspace ends up being a diary of each person’s contributions to the project.

I have yet to really take my contribution into the wider WiserEarth community. So far I have mainly used it as a tool to communicate with project teams. I work from home and my teams are spread all around Australia so it makes collaboration powerful. Because the climate crisis is so urgent, collaboration is more important than ever. I also have two small children, so WiserEarth means I can check the workspace, without needing to commute and leave my home.

What inspires her to contribute: The purpose of my work is threefold: to leverage digital networks for climate action; to explore ways of communicating that lead to action and engagement; and to find the tipping points toward a vibrant, safe climate future.

A few favorite contributions: I’ve used WiserEarth as a workspace (The Hero Generation). It’s a tool to get things done.

John Rainbird (jonrainbird)

Why he’s on WE: I expect the same reasons many others are  – to connect with other folk passionate about justice and protecting this beautiful planet, the learn and finally hopeful to help effect some useful change.

What inspires him to contribute: I enjoy sharing my ideas and thoughts and getting feedback from others on them – I find that there is great synergy when a few people bend their minds to a common issue and  new ideas emerge and occasional revelations that elevate your own understanding of the issue.

A few favorite contributions: I have learned a great deal from so many people, it’s hard to choose I’m afraid.  I do really enjoy the sharing of great quotes though – like the one Bowo posted recently: “War does not determine who is right, only who is left…” – Sylvie Schapira or “The difficulty lies not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones.” – John Maynard Keynes 

Juan Manuel Ledón Roig (ledon)

Why he’s on WE: I’m on WiserEarth because here I find a powerful way for creating meanings, sharing values and connecting the hearts of wonderful people, groups, organizations and communities of action… Based on the Truth that we are all one, I believe WiserEarth helps us to make this sense of Unity more visible, conscious and useful in order to build, all together, a better world.

What inspires him to contribute: What inspires me most to contribute is the possibility to create strong synergies of talent which help to turn “impossible dreams” into realities.

A few favorite contributions: EcoSITE (solution) and PAE Mexico (group)

Anthony Robinson (anthrob)

Why he’s on WE: I’m on WiserEarth primarily to use the space provided to our group (Commons Governance Work Group) both as a window for the research we’re doing to the WiserEarth community, and as a collaborate space for ourselves.

What inspires him to contribute: Wanting to share information and ideas with anyone inside or outside of our group.

A few favorite contributions: Bibliography, SIFCo Case Study (Slocan Integral Forestry Cooperative)

Photo Credit

In honor of Blog Action Day, we are sharing a few ideas about how to get involved in the Climate Change movement as the Copenhagen Conference nears. We will highlight a couple of unusual ways to contribute your energy to the cause and provide you the tools to seek out local opportunities. › Continue reading... ]]>

In honor of Blog Action Day, we are sharing a few ideas about how to get involved in the Climate Change movement as the Copenhagen Conference nears. We will highlight a couple of unusual ways to contribute your energy to the cause and provide you the tools to seek out local opportunities.

As you probably have heard, the world’s leaders are meeting in Copenhagen from Dec 7-15 for a critical conference, the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009. So here is a bit of background on previous proceedings and what’s on the table this year:

The conference is also known as COP15. This stands for the 15th Conference of the Parties to the 1992 international climate change treaty, The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (or UNFCCC). The now-famous Kyoto Protocol, begun in 1997, is actually a set of binding rules applied to this treaty. The treaty itself contains no emission limits, so these limits must be determined through such protocols.

COP15 is designed to address the impending end of the Kyoto Protocol’s timeline (2012) by applying the Bali Road Map. The Bali Road Map (adopted at COP13) aims to finalize a binding framework for emissions, and other steps to curb climate change beyond 2012.

There are three pre-Copenhagen negotiation meetings this year, in Bonn, Bangkok and Barcelona, the first two of which have already occurred. The key discussion points include:

• Targets for emission reduction for industrialized, newly industrializing and developed countries and their varying responsibilities,
• Reducing the impact from deforestation (REDD), and
• How to transfer existing “clean” technologies to the developing nations.

What do you think? How should these problems and others be addressed? Here are a couple of ways you can participate and have your voice heard:

Find a Climate Change-related organization near you by using WiserEarth. Just click on this link and add in your location for a list of local organizations. Then click the links to find the contact information and websites. Many local organizations are addressing Climate Change in compelling but not so obvious ways. For example, Native Energy sets up windmills on Native American lands to reduce the use of fossil fuels, and Chicago Wilderness is a network of volunteers that maintain remnants of prairie ecosystems that are a sink for climate change gases. Volunteer and be a part of the larger movement!

The UN-led Seal the Deal Campaign aims to galvanize political will and public support for reaching a comprehensive global climate agreement in Copenhagen in December. The petition will serve as a reminder that our leaders must negotiate a fair, balanced and effective agreement in Copenhagen, and that they must seal a deal to power green growth, protect our planet and build a more sustainable, prosperous global economy that will benefit all nations and people.

Register for the 350.org International Day of Climate Action October 24. In case you haven’t heard – 350 is the most important number in the world – it’s what scientists say is the safe upper limit (350 parts per million) for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Speak Out: Tell leaders what you want to protect at Planet Change. Our leaders must include natural solutions to climate change in their legislation and agreements – tell them what you want to protect.

Watch and help promote Current TV’s green-themed video journalism at: current.com/green Or you can take it to the next level and become a journalist: if you’ve got a climate change story, you can become a member and submit a “pod” or short nonfiction video through their Current Journalism program.

Since WiserEarth's vision is to support networking and collaboration among nonprofits and social change organizations, we knew we needed to walk the talk by joining an existing series of events. As a result, WiserTuesdays were launched as a collaboration between NetSquared and WiserEarth. They are based on NetTuesday events which take place in more than 50 cities around the world. Here is an update on our first meeting. › Continue reading... ]]>

Since WiserEarth’s vision is to support networking and collaboration among nonprofits and social change organizations, we knew we needed to walk the talk by joining an existing series of events. As a result, WiserTuesdays were launched as a collaboration between NetSquared and WiserEarth. They are based on NetTuesday events which take place in more than 50 cities around the world. Here is an update on our first meeting.

Taking the plunge

Thanks to Joe Solomon’s research and with help from the folk at NetSquared, WiserEarth excitedly put our first toe in the water as organizers of WiserTuesdays (NetTuesday events for ‘wiser’ folk). WiserTuesdays are about using web technology for social change. They are informal monthly gatherings for anyone working for or interested in environmental and social change (people working for or with nonprofits, consultants, associations, coalitions, social entrepreneurs, web experts, IT gurus, students, professors…)

First night in Paris

Our first WiserTuesday gathering saw 20 people coming together at La Ruche in Paris to exchange ideas and share stories around the subject of online community building.  Participants included everyone from people representing technology solutions such as SAP and CyberLocus to online and nonprofit communities such as Tinkuy, Babyloan and Nearbee. La Ruche is a collaborative workspace for social entrepreneurs in Paris which hosts WiserTuesdays monthly gatherings.

We decided to use the open space format to test out how this might work out. I was a bit reticent at first about using this unconferenced format as we only had a couple of hours during an evening to sort out our agenda and have our discussions.  However, everyone who came seemed happy to throw themselves in the deep end as agenda organizers by scribbling down ideas and posting them up on our empty gridboard.

Camilla Burg talks about the first WiserTuesday event

We ended up having seven sessions during two different time slots with each set of discussions lasting about 30 minutes (although our second round of discussions probably went on for nearer than 50 minutes!). I wish we could have had more summing up time, but you live and learn from your experiences n’est-ce pas!

Some of the questions and ideas we discussed

How communities are creating an alternative to public/private structures? – How to use collective intelligence to create CSR? – What is the relationship between real life impact and online community activity? – Collaborative work – Facilitating community activity – How to encourage community participation – Using information to communicate and engage public – Sharing best practices…

Our discussions around these topics are continuing on the wiki that we created on the WiserEarth site: WiserTuesdays @LaRuche. Please feel free to drop by and add your comments to the discussion forum there (in French or English) or take a look at the videos and photos we took of the evening.

Our next Paris WiserTuesday event is taking place on Tuesday 3rd November.  If you can make it,  you can RSVP here.  If you are interested in setting up your own WiserTuesday gathering, let me know (camilla [at] wiserearth.org).

Some questions that we are now asking ourselves for future events

• What is the definition of success for the WiserTuesday events?
• Can we create a common collaborative force behind these events?
• How do WiserTuesdays interconnect with other NetTuesday events taking place worldwide and other events organized by ‘wiser’ folk?
• How do we use social media to spread the word about this event and to launch similar events around the world?
• What is the ‘real life impact’ of WiserTuesday events?

Related posts: FaceTime with your community, A roundup of popular F2F gatherings

Building a vibrant online community is hard work. It's so easy these days to start online groups - for example, a few clicks and you can a working group on WiserEarth. So what do you do if you start to think your community-building effort is going nowhere fast? You have lots of options - so don't be antisocial and leave a 'zombie' group out there. › Continue reading... ]]>

Building a vibrant online community is hard work. It’s so easy these days to start online groups – for example, a few clicks and you can have a working group on WiserEarth. So what do you do if you start to think your community-building effort is going nowhere fast? You have lots of options – so don’t be antisocial and leave a ‘zombie’ group out there.

Failure is relative. As we’ve said before, it really helps to set goals and milestones early on, so you can measure your progress as you go along. Also, benchmark you expectations with other community managers to see if you’re being realistic. You may well find what you consider a failure is seen as a wild success by another. But also be honest. Don’t overestimate the interest people have in your issue, or forget that your prospective audience may be happily discussing your issues somewhere else, including at face-to-face meetings. So when you have come to the conclusion that you have a failed community on your hands, consider your options:

• Reinvest: Be patient. As Martin Reed says: “Too many people throw in the towel too early.” You can’t have the ‘if you build it they will come’ mentality. Strong communities take months and years to build, not days or weeks. Remember it takes time to build relationships, get people comfortable with the technology, and evangelize.
• Seek new investors: If you can’t put more effort into your community, look to see if anyone else is interested in the challenge. There may be an existing community member who is dying to take on a leadership roll. A change in leadership with new ideas may be what is needed.
• Merge: Look outside your community at the ‘competition’. Are there any community managers that would be interested in absorbing your membership base and content? Look for fit along culture, mission, technology, geography and demography.
• Close: In other words, shut down your group without finding a home for your members or your content. Of course, it’s the fastest thing to do, but you made an implicit promise with community members when they joined the group. Shouldn’t you honor it?
• Zombify: The least attractive option is to stay up online but without any formal acknowledgment that your community has ceased to exist.  In this case your group will lie zombie-like, waiting to grab unsuspecting people who think they have discovered a live community. In addition, you are also contributing to the ‘noise’ of the internet, making it harder for people to find what they are looking for.

WiserEarth is itself wrestling with the issue of public ‘zombie’ groups. Our current idea is to not list any groups in our directory that have less than five members or have been inactive for more than six months. What do you think of the idea?

Whatever you decide, be sure to engage your community transparently as you move along in this process. You may find community members feel a great deal of ownership and want to help out or at least be consulted. Depending on your situation, the ultimate decision on what to do may need to be made by your community. That is after you have investigated all the options and provided your recommendations.

Related resources: Is it time to give up on your online community? by Martin Reed, Why (most) online communities fail by Laurent Haug,  What we learned from Fashmatch by Jonathan Gheller, WiserEarth Group Description

Photo Credit